Minnesota? Nice.

Hi, everyone! Guess where I am. Minnesota! Sean is in the shower and I thought I'd just post a little bit about what's going on. So far this trip all we've really done is gone through old pictures, played video games at Sean's friend Bloom's house, had dinner with our friends Marcus & Whitney, and gone to a graduation party. Woo fun!

But now the real fun stuff starts. Today, we're going up to the Twin Cities (Minneapolis/St. Paul, for those of you who are wondering) and shopping the Mall of America! And we're probably going to see the aquarium in the mall and maybe I'll get a new outfit. Woohoo! Sometime after we go to the mall, we'll drop our stuff off at my brother-in-law, Damien's house where we're going to sleep tonight. Tomorrow, we're going to bum around the cities and then go to a Twin's game! awwwww yeah. I can't wait for the delicious stadium food and game! Apparently, we have really great views of the city skyline from our seats. We're going to the game with Marcus, Whitney, and 5th wheel Bloom. I'll take some pictures or something for you.

Our last leg of the trip will be a family reunion on Sean's mom's side where we're going to be camping (with beds and showers... but it'll be in the wilderness!) and then we're on our way home.

Let me know if you know of anything fun to do in the cities tomorrow so we don't just end up sitting on the couch all day. It probably won't happen, but it might.

love, Ellen

May 14: 10 Things

10 Things... that make me HAPPY!

1. Sean. He's the number 1 thing in my life that makes me the happiest. He makes me laugh, he cooks for me, he taught me how to play catch, he watches my dumb shows with me. He just makes me incredibly happy every day.
2. My family. I love my family and every time I hang out with them, they make me laugh and we have a great time. Also, they send cute cat pictures that make me happy too.
3. Sun. I love looking out my windows in the morning and see the sun peaking through the trees and brightening my day.
4. Driving with the windows down and the music up. I love the wind blowing through my hair and rocking out to my jamzz. 
5. A clean house. I feel like I can only truly relax once the dishes are done and put away, the bed is made, the laundry is put away, etc. 
6. Showers. There comes a point every day where I feel so incredibly gross that I need to take a shower, even if I took a night one. Showers take care of my body and my brain. 
7. New things. I love having a new shirt to wear or new shampoo to use or new food to eat or new gadgets to show off. 
8. My friends. When I'm bored and they're not busy, I love hanging out with my friends. 
9. Organizing. I know, I'm crazy. I love taking everything out of the closet and rearranging it to make it fit best and getting rid of unnecessary junk that we keep around. It makes me happy.
10. Dancing. I love getting my wiggles out and letting my worries go free through my fingers and toes.  

I hope you can be happy today too!
love, ellen

So much NEWS.

I was in walmart this morning to get toilet paper and milk for my mac and cheese. Turns out walmart in the morning is great. Another thing, there was one of those little video things at the end of an aisle and it was that dunkin' donuts commercial where the girl's name is Ellen and everytime it shouted "Ellen!" i got so confused. okay.

Anyway, that has nothing to do with the fun things that happened this weekend. So Sean and I left home last Wednesday night and drove for about 20 hours to get to MN for his best friend Marcus's wedding. We got there Thursday night and went to bed at about 8:30 and didn't wake up until 7 the next morning. then on Friday, we went and got our marriage license and then went to get Sean's haircut and tested out my wedding hair (SO great) and then we went and gave invites to the old Barnes and Noble Sean used to work at and then to lunch and bought me some wedding shoes.

THEN we went to the wedding rehearsal where i met all of Sean's friends. I was nervous, of course, but turns out they were cool. I kinda wish I had some more time to meet them, but i will in 17 days (!) at my own wedding. Rehearsal dinner was yummy and it was great. then we went home and relaxed.

The next day, we visited some more people and gave them invites and then got ready and went to the real wedding (actually pictures, then lunch, then the wedding). Then I put most of the boutonnieres on the groomsmen and groom and father-of-the-bride. So you know, i'm cool & stuff. The ceremony was really sweet and special. Then dinner was good and dancing was awesome. I can't wait to do it all again in a couple weeks! but then it will be ME in the pretty dress with the handsome husband. Speaking of handsome:

After dancing and saying some sad goodbyes to Sean's friend, we went home for the night and the next morning we packed up the car with things he wanted to take and then we stopped to say hi to his Aunt and then hit the road. for 18 hours. and we got home at 3 in the morn.

sleep happened and then i went to class and work and then i check my phone to see a picture of a KITTEN. Guys, i have a cussin' adorable kitten named Erma Barbara Gerd. she has the funniest walk and the cutest little meow. all she does is explore and take cute naps. which is okay.

Yup, that's our li'l snuggler. also, photos are courtesy of Sean's iphone. i'm still working on upgrading...
okay, well I think that's all. i'm gonna go cuddle with Erma and eat and shower and all normal stuff i do.
love, 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

February 1.

apparently, this picture thing is from twitter. so here's my hashtag-view today or whatever. (truth be told, i do tweet. but it's great. the picture isn't magnificent, but does it look like i care?

look! it's my blinds and some houses across the street. and cars. and a tree.
and yeah.

some news from today:
welcome to my anonymous followers! you don't know how happy you make me, honestly.
maybe i should've posted a picture of my sweet new nail-duds. their cream and black lacey pattern. like how i want my future wedding in the future. I did them with my bffs Jamie and Jayme! we're so cool. also we went to walmart and i've got lunches! now i won't be so hungry at work all the time! hah.
oh, and there may be some exciting news coming sometime this week. keep an eye out.

now to watch Doctor who and go to bed. i've just got to finish up an episode i had already started. well.. i'm re-watching then end. but that's fine.
love
~ellen~

Catch up and mustard?

yes, please. just kidding. it's a word play.

but no srsly. this is kinda just gonna be a catching up post. duh.
This has been a manic insanic week full of oddities and whatever. classes happened and i made some friends in my French class and work is a good time. but this weekend is probably what i want to focus on..

okay. so Friday i went to institute and that was good and will hopefully help me with my resolution i forgot to post on my resolutions post about being more spiritual. then i changed and went to work for a long time. then i came home and then went to dinner with my ward friends Bethany, Marcus, and Marcus's roommate Jason to cafe paesan. it was yummy.. i had a thai salad and i ate most of it!

Then Saturday, me and Jayme went and bought a bunch of party stuff and that night i had a batman half birthday party! basically i just wanted cake and to watch batman. and that's what i got! it was actually a lot a lot of fun. i met a bunch of people. Like this new guy in my ward and one of Jamie's (not to be confused with Jayme) friends Ethan and Annie's friend (who might be in our ward?) named BJ.

then sunday was normal except i found out that Chelsea Hightower's little brother just moved into our ward and she was at church with us except i missed like 2/3 of church for a fellowship meeting... eeks. But yeah! and uhm oh yeah there was this cute guy at ward prayer who i'm hoping is actually in our ward and not just a visitor... that'd be super sad. for me.

yesterday was MLKJr. day. So no classes or work. So i woke up and got ready and then went to Zupa's and Target with the aforementioned Ethan guy. it was good.. i bought a sweet new slap bracelet watch and some veg and ranch.. then we came back to my apartment and chatted for a while and then he left and i went to Walmart with Erin and her roomies and bought some muffins and pepperoni and a glade plug-in and some batteries and some other stuff.

then we went to Victoria's Secret and Bath and Body Works. and i bought some stuff and then chilled at Erin's until i had to go to FHE. so i drove home and put my stuff away real fast and then went to FHE. Which was our bishop talking about his art career and how it is tied into the church and it was super impressive. sometimes i think i can art but then i see things like his and i'm like... not an art. but this is my latest attempt!:

It's not the most amazing but i think it's good. and yes.. it's the Doctor again. you know me... but i'm working on something that Emily Mensing photographed. and it's not the Doctor! i will hopefully be able to finish it soon.. but i can't promise anything.

anyway.. time to get ready for work!
Have a superfab day, all!
~Ellen

Chuck E. Cheese's...

Where a medium-size group of adults can be better than kids at games, win 720 something tickets, and pay ridiculous prices for mediocre pizza.

but no srsly. it was hilarious. here's a pic of me and chuck:

it was cussin' hilarious. it was my amigo cody's 1/2 birthday and we went to chuck e. cheese's and played hilarous games and i won like 117 tickets on that one where you have to push the button when the light is in the space. and marcus won a mill on simpson's game. like 200. All together, we got like 720 something tickets out of 130 tokens.

oh. i forgot to mention this has been the most crammed, eventful, crazy week of my life. seriously. i can't even remember monday... or tuesday. i do remember my english teacher saying "your rough drafts are due on thursday" and me being all "there goes my week..." and then also oh yeah! jenny stayed at my house last sunday night. wednesday.. oh! i got friday and next tuesday off of work and chilled during my lunch break with Alex and looked at wedding-y stuff. thursday... i did a bunch of homework and cleaned my room... maybe? then just in these last 2 days i've been over-the-edge.

Friday: went to classes, put my check in the bank, went to H&M with Jenny and bought some really rad clothes then went to cheesecake factory. decided Jenny's NUTS. insane. and then came back, changed, went to walmart for a  minute, went to chuck e. cheese's, won stuff and ate pizza and cake, went to the bowling alley, left because of the ridiculous wait (p.s. it was snowing), went to sarah's played reverse-human-jenga [where one person sits in the middle and you go around the circle adding dvd cases to a pile on top of the person's head] and ate stuff and then played words-with-friends on smartyfones. then i came home and slept.

Saturday: woke up at like 10:30 from a nutzo dream about me marrying a guy named steven (and i don't know a steven) in the temple without being endowed and then trying to find him so i could spray him with shaving cream, cleaned my apartment for like 3 hours, showered and changed real fast and went to Cindy's baptism (she is ADORABLE and i am SO happy for her. So much.), grabbed left-over food from work, ran home saw Mommy, Abby and Tanya there! YAY!, changed, chatted, erchap and hannah came and then jenny and shopped for jewelry for a while and chilled and ate the left-over foods, they left and then jenny and i went to thanksgiving dinner, ate super yummy foods and danced a little and chatted and then went to Jaimie's house and played the picture game (sentence, picture, sentence, picture) and then whatif... and then Stack-n-Laugh [same as reverse-human-jenga but with the added fun of "would you rather" to make it harder to sit still] and then 2 more rounds of picture game, came home, cleaned up from party and chatted with flatmates, put away clothes washed from earlier. BED

which is what i'm doing now. i just wanted to give ya'lls the low-down. I hope your thanksgiving is full of the most wonderful things!
Love, Ellen