Baptism Day

Last week, Jessica was baptized and confirmed. It was a beautiful day for the Marcano family. We had friends and family come from Houston, Louisiana, and Dallas for the event. I survived feeding a couple of dozen people at my home afterwards before everyone headed home. Jessica reports that it was the "best day ever!"

Walla Walla Sweets

Hey everyone!  WE will be at the reunion this year.  Yeah!  If anyone would like some walla walla sweet onions, let me know and I will bring them with us.  they are $10 for a 25lb bag of the large ones and $15 for a 25 lb bag of the jumbo ones!!!!  These are THE BEST onions ever! My kids will even eat just the onion when we grill it.  Anyway, let me know asap and I will bring the mto the reunion~

Blessings

Wes has been looking for a different job for over a year. He has turned in countless applications/resumes with no response except a few post cards saying they appreciate the interest but have filled the position and will keep his information on file for 6 months. Every night he spent numerous hours on the computer looking at job openings and would ask me if he should apply for this or that job. My response was frequently the same, "Go for it, the worst thing they could do is not call you." So, since the most recent paycut he has had even more time to spend looking for a job. He has talked to people at Job Service as well as getting help with his resume at the LDS Employment center. He casually would talk to members of the credit union about their jobs, how they liked them... and if they had any openings. Last week he had a phone interview with a company he was referred to by a credit union member. He had a follow up interview on Wednesday and they told him to expect to hear back from them by the end of next week since the CEO was out of the office this week. On that same day he got a phone call for an interview with the local school district for the following day. He explained to them that he would love to come to an interview but his time constraint would be doing so during his lunch break and he works on the other side of town. They said no problem we can do it in that time. He was about 5 minutes late getting back to work from that interview and thankfully no one said anything about his tardiness. They have told him in the past that if he was ever late it could be reason for termination. This morning he got a phone call from the school district. They left a message to call them back a long with the office phone number and a cell phone number. Being optimistic we both felt this had to be good news due to the fact that I have gotten phone messages telling me they have chosen someone else. Wes came home for lunch to pick up some papers he forgot this morning. He called the district back while standing in the driveway and I was able to watch him literally jump for joy when they offered and he accepted a position to work in the district office. We have been praying for guidance for so long and are truly grateful that the interview were this week and he was able to leave the credit union during his lunch break. Normally he is not allowed to leave the building in case they get busy and need him to cut his break short.

Family Reunion 2010

Hey guys it's that time of year again! Mark your calendars for July 23-25. Thanks to Merilee and Harold who have been so gracious to offer the use of their farm house again this year. Here's a run down of things we have planned:

FOOD SCHEDULE

FRIDAY

Lunch- on your own

Dinner- Merilee and Harold Waters Family

SATURDAY

Breakfast- Kim's & Randy's Families

Lunch- Kevin's Family

Dinner- Lanett and Our Family

Dessert Bar- Everybody bring a dessert to share

SUNDAY

Breakfast- Grandma and Grandpa and Garrin's Family

* All paper products and silverware and drinks will be provided by the our family.*

ACTIVITIES

Floating the Canal, Volleyball, relay races, 4 wheeling (for those who want to bring them),

fishing, slip'n'slide, relay races, *family pictures, humanitarian project, and tons of visiting

*Ashley is going to take Family Pictures for us on Saturday, one Big Ellis Family Group Picture and Individual Family pictures. She has a shirt color assigned for each family. You don't have to wear a solid colored shirt, just as long as your color is in it. ( I hope that makes sense ) The Cost will be $10 for the Individual Families and no charge for the Big Ellis Family Group Picture.

SATURDAY NIGHT ACTIVITIES

FAMILY AUCTION

This year instead of family dues we are going to have an Auction. Were keeping it pretty low cost but any extra made will get passed to Lanett for next year's reunion. For the Auction item it can be anything (i.e. homemade foods and crafts, acts of services, anything you want to give away). You also need to put a starting bid on your item, to make sure that whatever money you put in to it you get out of it.

CAMPFIRE PROGRAM

We will be having a Campfire program Saturday Night after the auction. Each main family will need to have one Pioneer story to share. (i.e. Randy's family-one story)

I hope to see all of you there!!! If you have any questions e-mail me at sears_horses@yahoo.com

Cauliflower Pizza???

A friend of mine just posted a link to this recipe on Facebook. It sounds like it could be delicious. I'm thinking of making the breadstick recipe later this week or even trying the pizza. I thought it would be good topped with some grilled veggies - peppers, onions.....garlic....

Anyway - thought I'd pass it along since they looked like semi-healthy recipes. I think you could even try adding egg beaters instead of egg, and using the part skim mozerella cheese. And if you did make it into pizza you'd want to be careful how much more cheese you added to it - to keep the fat content down enough. I'll let you know if I end up trying it. My friend who made it said that it was pretty good and she couldn't even taste the cauliflower. She said she hates cauliflower and the pizza was still pretty good.

http://denver.yourhub.com/Longmont/Blogs/Archive/Blog~435499.aspx

Wild Idea

Ok fam! Aunt Tammy has this idea that she got from her daughter in law, Kori, this past month. We don't always post on the Ellis sight, me especially, but if all of us try just a little harder this year, we could publish a book for Grandpa and Grandma Ellis for Christmas this year! Actually, I think Stef has something in mind and we could do the book for next year! I am starting it with my own blog but Kori's turned out so awesome, I thought this would be good for Grandpa and Grandma. Let me know what all of you think.

Chalice, glad to hear things are looking up. I was wondering about you with your family's jobs and being Relief Society president. Stef thanks for your updates and it was sooooooo fun to run into Shawnee last Saturday! I loved it!



A thought for all of us today--
When God makes a promise to you, He has every intention of fulfilling it.

New Moms and update

Wow...we seem to have a whole bunch of new moms! Bonnie and Natalie both had their babies this last week within a few hours of each other....let's see Bonnie's is Paige Margo, and Natalie's is Reagan....not sure if I spelled any of them right. I hear that Aspen had her baby this morning and named her Taylor. That's Girls 3 Boys 0. congrats to the new moms!

We have been keeping busy around here! I don't write often because I feel like there isn't anything newsworthy---but that really isn't the intention of our blog..it's to keep in touch!! So...let's see...an update on US...even if it IS boring...some of you haven't seen us in awhile and it may be new news to you . lol. !!! Garrin is hard at work at the shop which is going really well. We hired our first employee 4 months ago and that's been going well. He's been really busy except last week for some reason. I've been working at my job.....not loving it lately...but it's getting better. Still doing the books for the shop and trying to keep up with the kids.

Shawnee made the Ballroom dance team for next year and will be a senior! She's so excited! She is having her performance from Ballroom class next weekend. She has been so so so busy and has been really stressed about school this year. She'll be taking 2 classes in packets this summer to free up some time next year so it won't be so stressful. Kaylee will also be doing a couple of packets to free up her schedule. We hardly see Shawnee between early morning Ballroom class, school, work, Youth Conference committee, YCL for Camp, Laurel president...and the occasional friend or two. Kaylee just finished up track---running the 400 and the 4x400 relay. She did great. She loves all the drama classes (like her cousin chalice) and we just went to her drama performance of scenes from Shakepeare. She's a go-er too. Jaycee just did Hope of America..which was made up of 5th graders from schools all over the area. We met at BYU at the Marriott center and they made up an American flag with their shirt colors and sang patriotic songs. It was cool. She is growing up fast. Devin is home and has been going to UVU for the past year. He is relieved that school is over for now and is starting full time work tomorrow. He continues to date Kiera and is also always on the go.

So that is us in a nutshell. Not exciting...but at least you know what we're up to these days. One of these days I'll have something exciting to share. (i hope) If not---you'll just keep getting these boring updates. lol Anyone else have updates? Boring or not!

Back to work I go. . .

So as most of you know, our family has been recovering from unemployment this past year. When Jhonny decided to become a teacher, I knew things would be tough financially. I felt like this was a good decision for him anyway. It has been a good year for him. I've been working as much as possible as a substitute and homebound teacher which has been good, but not without it's sacrifices.
It's been a year since I've had health insurance and Jhonny's insurance was not really useful either. So the more I prayed about our situation, the more I felt like the only option was for me to go back to work for real. I have already been gone almost full time anyway - but not really being compensated for my time the way I could be.
So I tried interviewing last year in some places, but the situation was never right. Last week I had two really good interviews. One was for a fourth grade teaching position here in town. I felt really good about it. And I would have been happy even though I couldn't understand why I would have been so impressed to go get my masters in counseling if I was just to return to the classroom anyway. But, I felt good about it.
Before the school could get back to me with a decision, I got another call. Round Rock High School's lead counselor called and asked if I'd accepted a job yet. I told her not exactly, but that one was on it's way. She pleaded with me to wait until at least they could interveiw me on Friday. I said, "Okay," knowing that the process from the school here would take longer to get back to me than that. Then by the tone in her voice, I knew I needed to make a decision before the interview if an offer would come and for some reason I felt that it would.
Wow- what a difficult choice to make! Be here close to home and in my daughter's school or travel an hour to and from work and do what I love in a much higher paying district. I started to see some things that I hadn't considered before. If my daughter goes to the elementary down the street, that would be 2 hours of lone time with her each day. The Round Rock hospital is down the street from the school. I don't really know how that would play a part later, but it could be important. This may be the window of opportunity for my children to go to a school district where opportunities are available to them that are not available here in Rockdale - something I have been frustrated about.
Then my nanny said she had felt impressed that by next fall she needed to get an apartment of her own and move out to Round Rock. The thing holding me back was time away from my baby, Gavin. Lily will be attending preschool with her dad next year so I wasn't worried about her. Then the thought came to me that if I were to put him in a day care where my Nanny could get a job, she might be able to afford an apartment of her own and I would know my son was in good hands closer to where I was working. Hmm. It could work and she got excited about the idea.
So, I decided that if I were offered the job, I had better take it or I might not get another opportunity like this.
The interview went AWESOME. I got along really well with the lead counselor. We went throught he same graduate program - cohort with Sam Houston State Univ. with Dr. Judy Neslon - my mentor and professor. She asked if I knew her. I said, "Not only do I know her, worked with and I have a letter of recommendation from her in your hands." She was sold.
The principal was great too. Just the kind of administrator I could work for. They said I could expect to hear from him next week. 30 minutes after the interview, I got a call offering me the job.
I held off for an hour so I could call Jhonny and check in with him. Of course he said,"yes."
When I got home, I checked into things a little more only to discover I had been off on the pay scale and I would actually get 4000 more than I thought. I also discovered that the insurance is probably the cheapest and best in the state for educators. Wow!
I feel so blessed. It has been a long year pinching pennies and trying to stay healthy. I'm feeling relief more than anything and grateful. This job feels like a miracle right now.

VISITOR

IT was really fun to see aunty Steph and uncle Garrin and the kids came to visit us....mom and dad happen to come and see us at the same day.....lol

Conference Weekend

Harold and Merilee hosted such a big group of us and bedded us, too! It was fun as we were able to see Kevin and Sylvia's family, too. We thought of pictures a little late, but took these few on Sunday. It was awesome to listen to conference together with each other and discuss and share testimonies. We love each of you and your example. Let's follow the prophet.

Some Ellis Siblings

It started as a simple thing. Randy visiting Garrin.....and then it grew. HOW FUN! Our impromptu dinner turned into 18 people having dinner at Chuck a Rama. It was great to be able to visit with family...it's been awhile!



Garrin, Randy, Lanett, and Kim


Shelly, Kim, and Tammy. Randy, Lanett, Barry, and Garrin. Sydney and Samantha are hidden at the end of the table.


Jaycee and Dawson with a table to themselves


The "teens" Coby, Shawnee, Hayden, Kaylee, Logan (Stefanie's nephew), and Devin

The three Ellis boys

We all got together for Christmas at Derrick's house and it was fun to put the three newest Ellis grandsons together. Berny Lance Marquez is on the left, Jared Alexander Green is in the middle, and Tristan Ellis is on the right. Aren't they cute!!!

The Green Boys

I thought you all might like to see some pictures of our newest addition. We are having a lot of fun with Jared. He is a very good baby. His big brothers love him to pieces, sometimes a little too much.

Email from Coby...2-8-10

Well hello everyone.


I have to say this week has be the best week ever while on my mission. there is a lot that has gone on. me and elder hessing found 10 new investigators. just from this week. and we got to go and teach them all about the restoration of the church. and wow. they are so interested and willing to listen to us. the first one was AVA. and she had five and then her sister was there with her two kids. and ava she has a set of twins and they are six and they even sat in on the lesson and talked to us and answered our questions and all of that and they all were so cool. and then after the lesson they feed us too. wow we are really hoping that we are going to be able to get them baptized. so we have another appointment with them towmorrow. and hopefully it will just as well as the first time. and then there is another girl named stephine. and she is in high school and we have another appoinmtent with her and her boy freind too. and she was really into the lesson too and they both really liked it. and so we are really going to work with her too. and then there is also Emily. she is another one. she married a return missionary and ya. so we taught her last tuesday. and we set a baptismal date for march 14th. so we are hopeing that she will want to keep that. :) and we know she will deffinantly be baptized. cuz her in laws are way active in the church. sister giles the mom is the relief socitey president and then anna sister Giles daughter is a counsler. so ya with emily she is really wanting to learn more. it is so great. :) :) we are way way excited. and so ya this week has been good. i just have to tell all of you that the church is so true. I cant believe how true it is. and the fact that i get to share that with people i just love it. I love the ward here. they are way way nice. :) and also the guy that writes the music and plays the piano for Donny and Marie Osmond is in our wards bishopric. we meet with him and his family last night. and they are all way way nice and sweet. all the people in the ward are way nice. and sweet. I love the people. but i do have to say the time is going be way way way way oh ya did i mention WAY to fast. :( i mean seriously. but thats okay. :) we have also been working with the 15 names form the ward of LA members and in working with them i have seen a 180 degree turn around. it is so cool. the gospel truley does bless the lives of people. i mean it really does. :) and i am glad to hear that missionary work is going on back home. :) ya I also have to tell you all the power of prayer and scripture study. i have decided that 3 hours a day is not enough time for studying. :( i wish i had more but it is okay. i just ablsoulty love my mission. and i am glad to be here. Well i hope all is going well with you all. i LOVE ALL OF YOU!

until next week.

LOVE, Elder Ellis.

Prayers are appreciated

Well, so here's the news. It's a boy! But our sweet little one has a lot of problems. So much so that they don't expect him to live very long after birth, if he makes it through the birth. I am hesitant to share this news so soon, because I don't want to make any of you sad. However, as stated in the title we would appreciate your prayers. We are very greatful to still be pregnant, and resovled that the Lord's will, will be done. It's just sad for us. not for him, he will gain a body and be able to go back to his Heavenly Father. We just hope to be able to have a few precious moments with him before that happens. We love you and thank you all for your love and support. Our ward will probably want to do a special fast for us at some time. For those who might like to join us in that, I'll try to post when it will be. Love the Stangers.

The 19-20 somethings

I thought this was a fun picture of the cousins that were at Coby's Farewell that are 19-20. Let's see---we have Coby, Devin, Brennan, and Tary and Mindy



Just the boys...............

Farewell

Just reminding everyone of Coby's farewell this Sunday. We'd love to have you come and have Thanksgiving Dinner with all of us. We miss seeing everyone with the family getting so large, but please know we love you and your families. Hope all of the kids had fun tricker treating and all is well. Our meeting starts at 1:00 PM and the church is just down the street from our home.

Check out my photography Blog

I got my photography blog up and going.  If you want to check it out, here is the link.
Ashley Mullen Photography

OOPS

Okay family! I was in a hurry and put the post on Ashley's post "THIS IS AWESOME". One way to get you to read them! Ha!

MISSION CALL

Coby after much trial and tribulation has decided to serve his mission! He said he was tired of the adversary being on his tail and he wanted to put a stop to it. It came and Mom was the first to get it, Coby came home, but had to wait to skpe Chase so they could watch. He is going to California San Fernando Valley Spanish. He is way excited. As I commented on the last post, I thought for his farewell on NOVEMBER 8 @ 1:00 PM we could serve Cafe Rio Pork Pulled Salad. (Spanish meal, you know!), but Coby said after he thought about it overnight, he would like a BIG THANKSGIVING DINNER with the family. Okay, that's what we will have then. Everyone is invited and if you could just RSVP us so we can know how many to expect and any sleeping accommodations we can do. Coby is getting his endowments out tomorrow and Grandpa and Grandma are driving up from Henry's Lake. We will also be taking some family names on my side we were able to find on the New Family Search site. What a blessing it is to have this new program to check for corrections and make sure family members have not been skipped over! Coby will be doing the baptizing for 11 more we found yesterday morning. This is truly a blessing. Love you all and if those family members reading this will pass this info onto those who don't read this. We love you and hope things are going well (or as good as can be) for everyone. Love, Kim and Tammy