Summer Craziness

This summer has been crazy and has absolutely flown by. I really can't believe August is already half gone. Summer 2011 has been a good one, but a busy one!

After kicking off our summer with the Urban Plunge trip and a fun day trip to Seattle, we jumped right into more summer activities. At the end of June Tyler and I both volunteered at VBS. He was in charge of recreation and I was blessed to be a VBS teacher. I came down with a wicked flu 2 days before VBS which left me feeling pretty fatigued throughout the entire week, but it was still fun to be a part of an AWESOME VBS!

Here is a cute picture of Tyler and Gigi, his little girlfriend from VBS. She was very attached to him the entire week.
The week prior to VBS I interviewed for a teaching job at Moses Lake Christian Academy. The following week I was offered a 2nd grade teaching position! I am very excited about this new opportunity. Tyler and I talked a lot about whether I would work part time or full time here in Moses Lake. With Tyler being in full time ministry, I really want to support him and be available for different activities. I taught 3 days a week in Riverside and absolutely loved my schedule, Moses Lake definitely does not have as many part-time teaching opportunities (they are actually pretty hard to come by). We put our decision in God's hands and He made it very obvious that I was to be a full time 2nd grade teacher at the academy. School hasn't even started yet and I am already feeling the pull between my job and Tyler's ministry. I am already finding myself having to tell people no and having to have good boundaries so I do not take on too much. Tyler is so super supportive of my new job and understands that I won't always be able to be at every event or go on every trip. It's hard because I want to do everything and I hate telling people no (I must admit that I am not very good at this, but I am working on it), but this is a perfect time for me to trust in God to help me find balance. I have worked very very hard to finish my Masters Degree and now it's time to put it to good use!:)

On July 17th Tyler and I celebrated 2 wonderful years of marriage. I am so lucky to be married to my best friend. He challenges me to be a better woman and follower of Christ. It was fun to spend some time on our anniversary reflecting over our last two years as husband and wife. We have been abundantly blessed and can't wait to see what this next year holds for us. We are going into our 3rd year of marriage knowing that we must find balance between our very important commitments to ministry and teaching and our very important relationship as husband and wife. That may present some challenges, but as long as we put God at the center of our marriage I believe He will guide us and help us find that balance. We celebrated on the 17th with dinner out, a walk by the lake, and ice cream. We had to leave the next morning for a youth trip to Portland, but we knew that we would celebrate even more on our trip to Florida at the end of July.

My sweet hubby and I before dinner out on our anniversary:)

As I mentioned above, we took off on July 18th for 5 days of Youth Quake in Portland with our junior highers! It was a great week of serving, learning, and of course some fun! We had a great time getting to know our students even better (trips definitely make you bond quickly!).

Me with some of our students helping clear a trail as part of a service project. Let me just tell you, I have never had poison oak before, but I got the nastiest case of it during this project. It's been almost a month and it's still healing!

The day after we got home from Youth Quake we headed out to 3-6th grade camp at Camp Wooten (which is about 3 hours away). I woke up the day we were leaving with a fever, terrible ear pain, and a sore throat. I had actually had a sore throat and ears the whole time we were in Portland (the summer has just not been kind to me: first the flu, then poison oak, and then this!) and it progressively got worse. I was in denial and hoping it was just allergies. I went up to camp but had to come home just a few hours later. It was awful. I got into the doctor a couple days later and found I had a double ear infection. No fun at all. I was bummed I had to miss out on camp, but with how sick I was it was much better for me to be at home. I missed Tyler terribly the next 4 days and just wished he was home to take care of me! I was thrilled when he finally came home.:)

Three days after Ty returned home from Camp Wooten, we left for Florida! I won't bore you with too many details, but we had an AMAZING time! Disney World was wonderful! I want to go back already! I am such a Disney girl! We had a spectacular vacation and got to truly celebrate our anniversary and my completion of my Masters! We lounged by the pool, spent time with Mickey and Minnie, ate out at yummy restaurants, had ice cream every single night, slept in, stayed up late, laughed, and just enjoyed being together. We weren't quite ready to come home, but kept telling ourselves that the sooner we were home, the sooner we could start planning our next vacation! :) I will post more pictures of our trip in a separate blog, but here are 2 fun ones!

Celebrating with Mickey and Minnie:)

Just this week we experienced our first Grant County Fair! We had a great time. I think my favorite part was the funnel cake! It was our first small town fair and another reminder of just how different Moses Lake is from So-Cal. I love the sense of community here and the slower pace of life. Businesses actually shut down during fair week...it's a big deal (and so foreign to Tyler and I!). I wish I had some pictures of our night at the fair, but did I mention our camera died in the middle of our vacation.:( Time to buy a new one I guess!

We are entering the Fall with excitement and anticipation. Youth group will be starting back up in about 3 weeks. Tyler is planning some awesome events for the fall. School starts for me in just a week and a half. I will be living out my calling to teach....so blessed. The holidays are just a few months away and we are planning trips to see both of our families. Life is full and busy, but good.:)

4th of July 2011

We had a blessed 4th of July! We spent the afternoon and evening with some friends from church. We BBQ'd at our apartment, played Apples to Apples, had yummy dessert, and then went down to the park to watch the fireworks! Here are some pics of our fun!


Our friend Liz waiting for fireworks!
Ruth and Tyler!

Jeff and Amy!


Patriotic flowers make everything a little more spirited...even if they are only carnations;)

The counter waiting for food:)
Our festive table:)

Seattle

Back in June our dear friends Emelia and Emily were in Seattle for a visit with friends. We of course had to go see them! Tyler and Emelia were especially close friends during college. I like hearing their hilarious stories from their Simpson Days. Emelia has an amazing heart and she is loved by us Ellises! Emily holds a special place in our hearts too! She was the missions coordinator when Ty and I were at Simpson. Emily is so genuine and is passionate about missions and social justice. Tyler and I have actually been able to meet up with her 2 times in the past couple of years so we feel blessed!
I had been itching to visit Seattle for the 1st time and let me tell you, I LOVED it! We were only there for about 7 hours, so I can't wait to go back and see more of the beautiful city!



I loved the market!

Tyler is trying to hide his excitement;)
It was fun to visit the random shops at the market! Emelia thought this would be a good pick for our friend Josh!

Urban Plunge 2011

It's so not acceptable that I haven't blogged in almost a month! I am going to catch up starting NOW!

Back in June we took our first youth trip with a small group of our junior highers. We spent the weekend serving in Spokane! This serving weekend has traditionally been called "Urban Plunge." It was awesome to watch our students serve and work hard. We also got to take them on a neighborhood exegesis where they spent time reflecting on neighborhoods and living conditions different from their own. It was a great weekend and we have great students!

Team pic! In the back row on the far left is Liz. Liz is in Moses Lake for the summer completing an internship with the children's/junior high ministry and we were blessed to have her as another leader on the trip!

Derek doing yard work:)

Cute Tori:)I adore these boys! Such hard workers!

Ty and Alex taking some time out for a little fun!

Sam working hard!!

No youth trip is complete without a game of Ninja!

I think my most favorite part of the weekend was hearing the students give their testimonies in front of each other. I was definitely in tears. It was awesome to hear what God has done AND is doing in their lives. Us leaders shared our testimonies too and I think it was good for the kids to know more about each of us. Many of the students were very nervous about sharing and they weren't alone. Sharing my testimony always makes me nervous. I felt sick to my stomach before sharing with them. It's always hard for me to be vulnerable, especially when it comes to sharing about my health issues and the challenge they present in my life sometimes. However, they are a huge part of my testimony. God has been so faithful and deserves praise for what He has brought me through and the strength He continues to give me. Even though some things make me feel vulnerable and are very personal, Tyler and I both felt like I should share some of these hard things with the students. I think it's good for the students to see that their leaders can be vulnerable and to hear about what God has brought us through. It was a blessed time with our students.:)

Tyler and I continue to be radically blessed by our new church and the students we get to work with!

Tyler Turns 25!

On June 4th Tyler turned 25! A quarter century!


So handsome on his birthday:)

We had a great day celebrating. We slept in, I made him a big breakfast of french toast, turkey bacon, and eggs, we lounged around the house, went to dinner at Red Lobster in Tri-Cities, and ended our night with Frozen Yogurt at a great shop we found in Tri-Cities a few weeks back (we're hooked!). The night before Tyler's birthday we had friends over for dinner and shared his birthday cake with them. We knew the 2 of us couldn't and shouldn't eat a whole cake ourselves so I made it a day early so they could help us eat it (I still ended up throwing 1/3rd of it away after a few days!). I made the famous Ellis chocolate cherry cake...so yummy.

Our wonderful day briefly turned not so wonderful when we walked out to our car as we were leaving for dinner and discovered our car had been keyed. Not only was it keyed, but our hood was keyed with profanity. I was shocked. We live in a good area and it just proves that it can happen anywhere. I really can't believe how badly some people behave. Err. Anyways, we tried to not let it get us down and ruin our evening. We filed a police report the next day and are in the process of getting it fixed (our whole hood has to be re-painted). Thankfully, a father of 2 of our students does auto body work and is doing the work for us. We trust him completely and know he will make it all better. Life never gets boring around here!;)

Girls Party and 100th Post!

This is my 100th post! Woo hoo! I can't believe I have written 100 of these things. When I decided to start a blog last year I was determined to stay consistent with it and I am happy to say I have.:) Blogging is like my journal. I get to write about about the blessings and challenges in my life. I really wish I could get more of my friends to blog!

A couple weeks ago I hosted a junior high girls pajama and movie night at our apartment. Tyler was in Missouri for C&MA general council and I knew I would need to find things to fill up my time while he was away. I saw it as a perfect opportunity to spend quality time with our darling junior high girls. Wednesday nights and Sunday mornings are so busy that I don't always get a chance to connect with all the girls, so it was great to have them over and get to know them better. :)

Here is the counter BEFORE the girls arrived with all their candy! Each girl was supposed to bring a favorite candy to share. Oh my goodness....the entire kitchen was overtaken with candy! We also had pizza and cheesy bread. What's better than lots of estrogen and lots of junk food?;)
I chose 3 of my favorite movie candies to share (It was hard to narrow it down to 3!). Due to my blood sugar issues, we don't have candy around a lot, so it was a special treat:)


Peanut butter M&M's
Starbursts (By the way, Starburst came out with an ALL PINK bag of candy! I love it because the "pinks" are my favorite!)
Sour Patch Kids:)
The girls ended the night with a game of Truth or Dare. Nothing says junior high like a good game of Truth or Dare!:)

Where Has 2011 Gone?!

I can't believe June 1st is tomorrow! Where has 2011 gone? This year is flying by. I realized this morning that we have lived in Moses Lake for 3 months already. Crazy.

As the summer swiftly approaches, Tyler and I are gearing up for a crazy busy summer of youth ministry. We have a short mission trip to Spokane, a week of service projects at George Fox university in Portland 5 days of VBS, and a camp all within the next two months. We also have a few pool parties and other activities planned for our youth throughout the summer. It's going to be busy! Although it's going to be jam-packed, we are excited about our first Washington summer!

Tyler just got back from the C&MA general council in Kansas City. He had a great time and enjoyed some Kansas City BBQ! He also got to eat at Chipotle and Chick Fil-A twice! Yes, I was and still am a jealous wife!;) He got to see old Simpson friends as well as friends from The Grove, so it was a refreshing week for him.:) Tyler is continuing to get settled into his new job and is loving it. He feels very blessed to be working with an incredible group of people at Moses Lake Alliance Church.

Over the past few months I have been feeling incredibly fatigued. I knew something wasn't right so I contacted my specialist in Redding and let her know what was going on. After some blood work, it was discovered that my thyroid is actually functioning too slowly. There's the answer to my fatigue! I have struggled with a lazy thyroid in the past (it's a pretty common effect of the syndrome I have) and have been on medicine for the past few years, however over the last couple months it's decided to slow down more. My doctor upped my dosage of thyroid medicine and also had me start on a high dosage of vitamin D as well since Vitamin D deficiency often occurs with a slow thyroid. I am thankful I have an answer and will hopefully start feeling better in the next couple of months. I get frustrated when I am not feeling 100%. I just have to be patient, take good care of myself, and get plenty of rest.

I have been blessed to be able to stay home and not work since we moved to Moses Lake. I know God knew exactly what I would need after moving. It would have been pretty stressful to make such a big life change, finish up my Masters, and find and start a new job all at the same time. I have been enjoying the stay at home wifey gig, and it's been wonderful to focus on supporting Tyler in his new ministry role. I am so thankful that I will be able to be at every summer event this upcoming summer. I am praying I get a teaching job for the Fall. I have a couple leads, so we'll see what happens.:) It feels wonderful to have my Masters done and to now look towards the future. I know God has a plan for me, and I am anxious to see where He leads me.

On July 17th Tyler and I will celebrate 2 years of marriage. I can't believe how fast these past 2 years have flown by. In some ways it feels like we just got married last week, but in other ways it feels like we have always been married. I love spending my life with Tyler and I am looking forward to celebrating our anniversary! Our actual anniversary falls in between two youth trips, so we will celebrate on our actual anniversary with a date night, but just a couple weeks later we will celebrate our anniversary and my completion of my Masters program with a trip to Orlando! We get to go to Disney World!! I can hardly contain myself! We are both very excited! The Disney World tickets are a gift from my parents for finishing my Masters. My parents found out we were thinking about going to Orlando and figured a perfect graduation gift would be Disney World tickets...yeah, they were right!:) We are actually blessed big time because we have free plane tickets to Orlando too! Over the past 2 years, Tyler and I have both flown enough to earn free plane tickets. We knew we were going to save them for our anniversary vacation this year and I am happy we did! We have booked a beautiful resort hotel in Orlando and are counting down the days until we are lounging by the pool and hanging out with Mickey Mouse. :)

God is good and we are blessed. We miss our family and friends terribly, but have never been more thankful for Facebook, Blogging, Email, and Skype. Technology is an amazing thing and helps up keep in touch with our friends and family no matter how many miles stand between us.:)