The Internship

As I'm sure you've probably noticed by now, I've been a horrible blogger since I started my internship. I just have one thing to say. This internship has been incredible for me. The company I'm working for is beyond excellent, the people I work with are all so nice and fun to be around, I've learned so much and I'm so appreciative of having this whole experience.

I've also been pretty busy. Last weekend, Sean and I got back from a much needed week-long road trip to the Oregon coast with my family. We stayed in a fantastic condo right on the ocean, ate delicious food and got some good rest. Here are a few of photos from the trip:

This is me wearing some rad ammonite earrings while walking on the beach with the hub.

Famous Carr family pose, pointing in directions. Such weirdos ;)

#seaselfie with the hubs. We like walking on the beach.

Sunset. Maybe you can see two blobs on the beach, that's Sean and I.

Close-up of the hand-made ammonite earrings. #prehistoricjewelry

This is the handsome hub-cap totally lovin' crab fishing with my dad. 

The sis and I building a rad sandcastle. Meanwhile, Sean was in a fight with the ocean. It was a draw.

The view from our first night's balcony. The Hood River.

Also, Abby Graduated High School!! Congrats-o!

So I would say it was a success! 

Other than that, Sean and I have been going to Bountiful a lot and, for father's day weekend, we went up to my Grandpa's and went to the Ogden Art Festival. Such talent! And for father's day, we went up to B-town and made dinner, cleaned the kitchen, and then went out for treats in SLC. We went to Harmon's and got dessert treats and cheeses. Newest Fave Cheese: Wisconsin Butterkase. If you ever get the chance, best cheese. 

AND! We finally have a moving day! I've posted before about our difficult living situations, and we finally have plans to move in with my parents at the end of August so we can save money to buy a house! I know living at home will be a struggle sometimes, but thus is life and if it will get us ahead, that's great. And I completely appreciate my parent's generosity in letting us stay with them. 

Today is a kind of gloomy-weather day. Something I've been wanting for kind of a while. When it's gorgeous outside, I get restless and we end up spending too much money doing something. Days like this, we usually go grocery shopping or just stay inside and relax. 

Anyway, I'm gonna go nap or watch a movie. Thanks for not giving up on me as a blogger. 

love, Ellen

Autumn Times

I've been a horrible blogger... neglectful, lazy... bums. I've really been wanting to take a picture of our apartment because it's actually super cute but I feel weird about it every time I'm outside because idk. We have a lovely maple tree in our front yard (however, come spring, I'll be wanting to smash it with all the axes because of its dropping of incredible annoying whatevers) that is currently dropping cute leaves all over, which I have been collecting for my Thanksgiving decor project.

I would run outside right now and do it but... it's raining and cold and I'd rather just stay here on my couch and type.

Last night, our church had a trunk or treat night and Sean and I dressed up as the Donner Party. Hilarious, right? Well, we ended up winning the costume competition and ended up running out of candy fairly early. I'd say it was a good night.

The only thing I'm not having a great time with is that Halloween hasn't even happened yet! I was so hoping tomorrow was Friday because my mom, sister, and I are taking a little girls' weekend away and I am way excited. I think I'll even be okay not sleeping next to Sean that night because I'll just be happy it's not Halloween and we're just relaxing and being hilarious because it's always a party with those two.

Oh, Sean's home and guess who took a picture of outside! Best husband.

See? Isn't it super cute and quaint? It is.

Time for dinner.
love, Ellen

May 29: Soundtrack

okay... so I've been gone for a while (according to the every day blog thing) but I'm back. So today I gotta find 5 songs that "speak to me". What about songs that I just love? Or that have been stuck in my head lately? Let's go with that. Also, excuse the vids... none are gonna be that great.

Here we go:

#1:Broken Heart by Motion City Soundtrack - Lately, this song is the one that I bust a move to. It just gets me excited and in a dance-y mood.

#2: Synesthesia by Andrew Mcmahon - It's such a good song and I LOVE that it's called synesthesia because it means to be able to see colors and shapes when you hear things and that's included in the lyrics! I love how smart it is.

#3: Diane Young by Vampire Weekend - I love the beat and the sound of this song on their newest album Modern Vampires of the City (which is a pretty great album in it's entirety). It's just so easy to listen to and fun. I recommend it.

#4: Elegy for Elsabet by The Weakerthans - I love this song. It's so good to listen to on a rainy day. If you're not gonna listen to all of it, which I understand, at least listen from 4:30 because they use a whirly tube and it's SO good. So well done.

#5: Lions by I Can Make A Mess Like Nobody's Business - This is just a beautiful song in itself. I can't wait for I Can Make A Mess to come out with their next album to come out on June 11, 2013.

ENJOY! Also, HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MY LIL SISTER ABBY YESTERDAY! 17 years old is too old. Go back to being 13. I can handle that. (jk, obvs. love ya, abzzz)

okay. Have a good last 3 days of May!
love, Ellen

May 18: Childhood

I feel bad for posting this so late but it's been quite a day. Sean and I took a box of junk to the DI and then got a bunch of records for cheap and then ate breakfast at The Park Cafe in SLC. Seriously, guys. If you are ever in the mood for breakfast foods and you're in the SLC area, go there. Everything is so delicious and quick and it's worth the wait. It's just across the street from the Tracy Aviary so you can make a day of it. Then we went to Sean's brother Jeremiah and his girlfriend Kayla's house and ate tons of junk food and watched Star Wars and just hung out. So much fun.

Anyway... Today's topic is on a story from my childhood. How about the time I kicked my sister in the mouth and her teeth fell out.

One day, Abby and I were at our neighbor's house playing games. A common game we would play with these particular neighbors was gymnastics. We set aside an area to practice our hand-stands and marked it off with barbies. Everyone was supposed to stand behind the barbie while the person in front of them did a handstand.

I stood in line right in front of Abby and, eventually, it was my turn to hand-stand. I stepped forward and did the lunge and went for it. As my back foot went up, my heel whacked Abby right in the mouth. I came back down and turned around and noticed that Abby had stepped in front of the barbie (or so my innocent mind believed... as far as I know, I might not have been far enough past the barbie). With eyes welling up with tears, Abby put her hand up to her mouth and caught 2 baby-sized teeth as they fell out as a result of the kick. I grabbed Abby around her shoulders and walked her home where my mom could calm her down and teach her the wonders of the tooth fairy.

And that wasn't even the first time I had ever whacked Abby in the face... there was another time where I ran into her with a gate we would swing on and caused her to need to get her forehead glued.
Oh, my life as the older sibling. I'm sure other older siblings have similar experiences right? Probably. And here is my public apology to Abby: I am sorry for all the times I whacked you in the face.

love, Ellen

aww... isn't she pretty? also, her birthday is at the end of this month! 

It Abby Birthday!

Since she made fun of me for doing birthday posts, it's some days late. probably more than some. also, i'm lazy and it's blah blah excuse. i know, i know.

Happy Birthday Squish-ter! You're pretty rad and i really hope you like Clueless. and that super awesome tassel-y ball. Sean and I still don't understand how you managed to break the loop and one of the tassels in 15 minutes when we had been playing with it all day and managed to not do any damage... but whatever.

i was looking through my box of memories and stuff and i have a lot a lot of letters from you and i read some of them and they were great. I hope you're having a super killer time at EFY this week and will have the best summer of ever this year.

Love, Ellen.

and a goofy picture just to top it all off.

now back to our regular scheduled programming. summer is... great. i'm really having a hard time with work and enjoying it because it's just.. annoying and there's nothing to do. and next week i'm picking up about 10 extra hours. which will definitely help with the money problems.. awesome.

Sean and I are going to go see Jay Mohr this weekend at Wiseguys. Should be fun, i think.
I feel like wearing a summery dress today but it's only 59 degrees. i'll probably wear it tomorrow.
okay, i'm gonna go shower and get ready.
Hope your week is fabulous!
Love, (for realz this time) Ellen

I've got flour on my keyboard...

true story. remember how Sean and I like making fun desserts sometimes? yeah, we were making cream cheese brownies on tuesday and i accidentally stirred the flour in vigorously and got some on my keyboard. it's fine.. i'll just wipe it off with a cotton swab sometime when i'm not lounging on my bed.

I seriously need to start doing more interesting things in the mornings besides watching hulu and playing words with friends... I wish i had some motivation or interesting things to do. I could always start exercising or doing art or writing something... I don't know. If you have any really good ideas, lemme know. Either that or i'll just try the drawing scene again. To be honest, that will probably happen.

Oh, so last weekend, Sean and I, in our spontaneous nature, up-and-went to Moab for the day. We did weird things like hiking and being outside. we were all exercise-y and whatnot. It was great. Sean took a lot of neat-o pictures and i climbed a really high mountain thing and it was scary. It was just really cool.

Also, I'm hoping this post shoots me to over 3000 views. awesome.

I've noticed a lot lately about how insanely annoying all drivers are. There's this crazy switch-over traffic light deal over by UVU and i am too afraid to use it. so i take a better way now that Geneva's open. Seriously, though. It's horrifying. And then, last night at dinner with my family, we were talking about it and then how Walmart will start carrying airbags and abby (her crazy witty self.. darn/bless her...) said 'I can't wait until the airbag blowout sale!' and i was all aaauugghhhh.... okay. that's funny..
and then after dinner, we went to Macy's and I bought new chuck taylor's! they're purple and were on sale for 22 dollars something. blim blam. I'm so excited to wear them to work. And then we stopped by Ross on our way home and Sean bought a new pair of PF Flyers.

Here's Mine

Here's His
(Photo courtesy of Sean's instagram)

We're so cool. Also, there's this neat-o spedito new picture-editing website called picmonkey.com and i really like it. it has some instagram-y features and it also lets you do things like texturize and awesome. it's cool. that's where i edited the photo of my shoes. because my camera is crappy and it was all i could do to fix it.

I think that's all for now. keep an eye out for a birthday post to my 'sis'. i only say that because a couple days ago she texted Sean and said 'This is Abby, Ellen's sis..' something something and we both laughed. oh, sis. 

okay, have a fab weekend. 

love, E

Cran-juice

one of the only things i've been drinking this week. cran-juice and chai tea. and water.
i have a doctor's appointment tomorrow morn. i'll be waking up nice and earrrrrrrrrrrly. it's fine. i'll be able to handle it. i'm going down to bountiful for the day and going out to lunch so it'll be good. hopefully all is well in the bod-business. it should be.

holy moly!! I'm watching Parenthood and it's so so good. NOOOOOOOOOO! Julia and Joel the baby and Crosby and Jasmine and Sarah and her breakup and the Luncheonette... oh my. i just. i just love it.
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH. okay. that's all.. this wedding is so so cute!!!

uhm. oh, check this out: http://www.thatonegirlwhoiscoolerthenyouthink.blogspot.com/
that's my lil' sister. She's got a blog and stuff! go abby. go follow her and stuff. she's great. and as witty as ever. She'll tell you how it is and it might be harsh but it'll be so funny. And it'll stick with you forever. Like one time, Sean and I were at their house but we stopped by the temple to see a near-by cemetery and there was a dear at the cemetery and we told my parents and abby we'd seen it and she cracked some joke and we still say it often. maybe a little too often.. anyway.

I'm still ecstatic often. Sean is just the best. better than the best. impossible words. so so great.

eugh, i shouldn't have bought that large candy, chicken bowl, chips, ice water, chai latte, and that halfa cran-juice from earlier. it's fine. i'll just save some for later. drink my chai in french class.

oh, i just want to dance dance dance dance. That's my plan for tonight. Go over to Sean's and somehow play lots of music and and just dance. sounds like lots of fun. or we could just do anything and it would be fun. but i've got to go to bed early! okay. also, i  need to go to class soon... okay. s'later.

~ellen.

"I build the ramps"

a post devoted to my dear dad.

He's a guy.
The only guy I ever lived with.
The only guy i see every day.
The only guy I have the pleasure of sharing a bathroom with.
The only guy who drives our mini van, once for 8 hours in one day.
The only guy who comes into my room at night while i'm blogging or something just to have me look up a song or youtube video he thinks i'd like.
The only guy who once shouted at me for sneezing in the dark (funny story... hah. once, he was running down the stairs and i was just around the corner coming out of the bathroom and i sneezed and he didn't know i was there so he started shouting and freaking out about it cuz i accidentally scared him. hah).
The only guy who would buy me staking cups as a gag gift.
The only guy who, one year for christmas, had my sister and I buy each other CD's and then change out the covers with a copy of something we know the other'd be disappointed in recieving.
The only guy who will fix my car or my computer without anything more than me just mentioning it.
The only guy who pays for my dinner, my ticket, and my popcorn every time.
The only guy who tells me never to be afraid to ask for something.
The only guy who doesn't give a second thought to helping out a neighbor, even if it means sacrificing his whole saturday, possibly more, fixing their bikes or their computers or anything else when he could be "relaxing his eyes" or searching for music he remembers or doing a project he's been meaning to do for maybe months.
The only guy who goes on trek with 40 pound speakers and then runs down a mountain like a maniacal loon to give dirty teenagers letters from their parents.
The only guy who will listen to my boy problems and not flinch.
The only guy who will listen to my friend problems and back me up every time.
The only guy who will buy bongo drums just to have bongo drums. same with most anything he finds at the DI that has the possibility of being used slash actually working.
The only guy who lives with two teenage girls and a wife who might be equally "quirky".
The only guy who would say "I'd want a hamster if it could hip-hop" because of a commercial.
The only guy who takes out our cat litter every week because no one else will do it.
The only guy who comes home from a long day at work and still does the dishes before going to bed.
The only guy who could really handle the incredible task of being ward clerk, stake clerk in charge of AV stuff, guy who helps outside techs fix stuff at work, neighborhood bike guy, DI frequenter, cat-lover, and most importantly... drum roll... mine and Abby's magnificent Dad.
"[Dad], That's number 1!" (hot rod rip-off quote. oh, yeah.)
HAPPY FATHERS DAY!
I love you!
Love, Ellen.