Work Update

So I started my new job this week at church and I LOVE IT! Starting a new job's always a little scary: you don't know anyone, you don't know what to expect, will you like it, will you boss be nice, will your co-worker's like you, etc... Well, I had those same apprehensions, but I don't think I needed to. I knew what my job responsibilites were, just have to learn how to do somethings. I actually already know the people in my office, a great bunch of guys, plus I know other people in the main office. And my boss is one of the coolest guys around, plus an awesome friend to my husband and I! I've never felt more welcome in a job before. I've been told by so many different people that they're glad I'm there. I've only heard that maybe from two people before at work, so it's really nice and reassuring. And I'm really glad to be there with them! plus I get home the same time as Scott, so we actually get to hang out together at night. An almost foreign concept to us.

My first day was quite eventful. My favorite part of the day though was when I was sitting at my desk working when Rodrigo comes walking in belting out Christmas carols. AWESOME!

My second day was fun too! Favorite part was when Adam & Rob were looking for a Target, but Leslie misheard them and asked what they needed from Target. Haha.

Today I went on a hunt for fake snow, just one of the random tasks Adam gave me. Do you have this much fun at work?

Blessed Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving was wonderful! I love the holidays because I get to spend time with the people I love! Scott played percussion in the Thanksgiving service, then we headed to San Diego to eat with my mom's side of the family. My cousin Mark did ALL the cooking and his friend Ryan did all the decorating! It was pretty tasty and everything looked great! I really like going to my Uncle Ernie & Aunt Doris' house. I don't get to see them very often, but luckily I've seen them twice this year!

My aunts, uncles and some cousins also came down, even my beautiful cousin Roda. She's still recovering from open heart surgery but she's doing really well, she's amazing! She's so caring and loving with all the kids in our family. She doesn't have any of her own, but she's helped raise all of us. She moved to California from Chicago with her mom to help take care of me when I was just a baby! She even changed the stinkiest of my diapers! That's love! I hope I can be like that with the future generations of kids in my family! Our family's so blessed by her, I hope that we can do enough to show our love for her and take care of her too!

After dinner we headed back up to Riverside to Adam & Jess' home for dessert! The rest of the Ellises were there too! Check out Tyler's hair, it's longer than mine! Leslie made pies and they were great! They always are! One of my favorite parts of the night was when Adam and I snuck into Agatha's room and paparrazi-ed her and Mackenzie. She had him wrapped up like a mummy. It was pretty hilarious! She's got quite the imagination! I love being around their Adam and Jess' girls! They're awesome! Gwyneth with her cute faces and noises and Aggie with her outgoing personality, intelligence and imagination! They're just so fun! Here's a slideshow with more Thanksgiving Day pictures! Thanks for a great day everyone!

Scott and I are going to the Festival of Lights tonight! I'm pretty excited!

Baking day!

Today I'm baking four pumpkin pies for Thanksgiving (one to take to my uncle's, one for my daddy, one for my hubby and one for my buddy Zackary since he missed the pie on Sunday night.) I bake pumpkin pie at least three times a year (Thanksgiving, Christmas and Dad's birthday) so this usually isn't a difficult task. Althought lately I haven't done such a great job. Last time I forgot the eggs, the time before that I forgot the sugar. Not good! So today, I made sure to lay out all the ingredients and put them in the order on the recipe so I don't forget anything. As I go to open the cans of pumpkin mix my can opener fails me. So I run down to the store and get a new one. This one doesn't work either! What do I do? Use a bottle opener...you do what you gotta do when baking for the ones you love! I'll be they don't have to deal with this at Marie Callender's!

Friends Thanksgiving went so well!

Friends Thanksgiving went pretty well! My turkey tasted pretty good! I think I might even brave the turkey kitchen again next year, just with a little less herb rub, or a bigger turkey. Is there an easy way to carve a turkey because we sure didn't have a clue what we were doing. It became a bit easier though when once we realized the turkey was upside down. Ooops...

Thanks for all the great food, and even greater company everyone! I really look forward to next year's! Check out the slideshow for the pictures! I forgot to take a picture of my beautiful turkey though.
(Notice Zackary peeking through my arm as he sits on the floor with a sick tummy. Haha!)

Quick Before Sinking (11.15.07 @ Java Bliss)

The guys were awesome last night! The entire show was fantastic, even with the few flubs in there. They did "I've Just Seen Her Face" without even rehearsing it first and it was great! My dad really liked Adam's orginals, but how could you not? They're just too talented! I feel so blessed to know these guys and to have the opportunity to just listen to the great music that happens when they get together. Sorry the pictures kind of suck, new camera, poor flash. I'll do better next time! (And yes, it kind of bugs me that they aren't all the same size. But I'll be late for work if I fix 'em.)
Here's a couple shots of Quick Before Sinking performing: from lef to right: Dave on electric, Adam on acoustic and vocals, Scott on drums and Mark on bass. (I can't believe he still doesn't have a blog!)






















Dave's awesome pink paisley guitar! It takes a very secure man with amazing guitar skills to pull of that fine instrument!















Three out of four of the band wives and a band daughter (Adrianne-Mark's wife, Jess-Adam's wife, Gwyneth-one of Adam's daughters and Me-the drummer's gal). Has it occured to anyone that the guys of QBS all have daughters? Kind of a neat coincidence!








Elissa's girls (Abby, Ella & Sophie) thought Wayne was a playground. The picture of Elissa and I was too dark to post. :[










Scott's mom, Leslie came by for a while to listen to her awesome son play a few songs.












My mom and dad both came to the show too! I thought that was pretty awesome!





























I just liked the lid on Scott's root beer.

A great day!

Yesterday was a really great day! I woke up, ran some errands, picked up more decorations for Friends Thanksgiving (a TON of flowers and candles at Michael's for 80% off!)

I came home to a message from Adam, called him back, left him a message and when he called me back he had a great question for me. "Would you like a job?" Of course! This is something that's been in the works for a couple weeks now and I've just been praying about it. I'm so excited that it worked out for both of us! I'll be his new assistant in the Celebrative Arts department at church. This could not have happened at a better time! Thanks Adam! I just hope I can do as good of a job as his previous assistants. :]

Things were really getting tough at with my current job. It's very hard to keep Colassians 3:23 (look it up) in mind sometimes. Although I'll miss some of the people I work with and the photography, I won't miss the job that much. People I can stay in touch with, that's not a problem. And now I'll have time to get out and do the kind of photography I love.

The new job is really what I've been looking for. I'm really excited to be involved in this ministry, to be working with some awesome people, and most importantly, serving God in a more productive fashion (if that makes sense.) I'll also get to spend more time with my husband at night! That's a huge bonus! I might even be able to find time to go to school a bit. :]

Scott came home from work to our apartment smelling of spaghetti and he had a huge bouquet of flowers for me. Just to say congratulations! Isn't he the sweetest? And the dinner I had made was pretty tasty too! All in all, yesterday was a pretty great day!

South Park'd, Hiccups and Work

Here's where you can South Park yourself, have fun Dave!

My case of hiccups lasted 38 minutes. That's nothing to worry about, the world record is 68 years!

I've decided, along with Micah, to keep from illegitimate complaining. This is really hard for me, because I like to talk about my day, especially if it was a bad day, but I don't want it to feel like I'm complaining about it, but I think it comes across that way. Sometimes I have days at work that are tough to get through. (I'm a photographer for a portrait company, I work in the church directories division, and no, I don't work for the company that did the Grove's.) I do my job well, and I take great pride in that. I'm one of the best photographers in my territory. And I always try to make sure my customers are happy with their portrait even if it means reshooting their photos, if we have time. It makes me sad when people don't like their portrait because I know that feeling. (I'm not very fond of how our directory picture turned out.)
Sometimes I photograph families that are just unappreciative of the hard work I've put in to create a great portrait of them. It's especially difficult when they want to include their pets (I'm allergic to dogs.)
Last night I had a group of 10: Mom, Dad, 15 year old daughter, 10 year old son, 7 year old son, 2 German shepherds, 1 Himalayan cat, and 2 parakeets.
I did a REALLY fantastic job with them! Their portraits were gorgeous and they had a million to choose from. All the family, especially the mom, could do was pick out what they thought was wrong with them. "He didn't smile enough, my hair's messed up, that smile's fake, he head's too shiny, you can't see the dogs eyes, I just don't like that pose, her feathers look funny, I look fat, and the list goes on."
I understand that sometimes people have a difference of opinion but to stand there and insult every photo, it's really hard to take sometimes. It gets to the point where I want to say, "Just pick one for the directory and go home." The mom asked if we could reshoot them, I said it's not possible tonight (we had a few waiting,) but she could schedule another appointment. She said they didn't have time to do that, so she had to just pick one. She chose the one she looked best in, despite the fact that no one else liked that one.
I don't want this to be taken as complaining. I really do enjoy my job, most of the time. I try to be patient and treat people as if it were Jesus I photographed, but some people really test that. I'm thankful that I'm a believer because some people I work with aren't. After working with difficult, not-so-great Christian families, I understand why it's hard to understand God's love His people. It makes me kind of sad to know that families like that are holding people back from opening their heart to Jesus.

Long, much needed update!

I'M MARRIED! Scott and I got married on August 17th, most people that read this were probably there. My dad made me cry right before we got out the door to walk down the aisle, then he had me cracking up as we walked down the aisle. Scott looked so handsome! The guys looked great, especially Riley making faces at me during the ceremony. Our flowergirls and ring bearers behaved and did their jobs perfectly, or at least for four year olds it was perfect. My girls looked beautiful and somehow put up with the craziness that I was that day. Almost all of our family were able to be there too! Dan was an amazing officiating pastor! His message was funny and beautiful and everyone loved the part where he said, "The Ellises finally get a daughter!" (Scott's family has four boys.) The reception was so much fun! Adam, Rodrigo, Mark and my husband played "All You Need Is Love" and made my father-daughter dance the single greatest moment I've ever had with my daddy. And then when they played "I Want to Hold Your Hand" and "Hey Jude" I got to dance with my mom, aunt and my girls and some of my best friends. Citrus Swing Orchestra was amazing, and adding Scott's mom to sing with them made it even better! I still can't believe how many people were there. Like Scott said at the reception, we originally wanted about 100 people there, but the list kept growing, but they were all people we love and love us and should be there! It's amazing to see how many people love and support you, and feel their happiness for you. It was the perfect day and the greatest day of my life! I married my best friend!

The honeymoon was amazing! Disneyland was so much fun! The baseball game was fun, even though the Angels lost to the Yankees. Cirque du Soleil's LOVE was even more amazing the second time! (Their contract's been renewed for 10 more years, so hopefully Adam'll get to see it!) We had a blast!

Living together is a new experience! It's nice to know he'll be there when I get home from work and I get to see him everyday! There's little things that you have to get used to, like sharing the bed and splitting up the chores, but it's all a learning experience. It's like playing house, but you're not playing! :]

Going back to work sucked. It's been really slow, I haven't been working the full amount that I should be working because there just isn't enough work to go around. On top of all that, I really just don't enjoy my job. The people I work with are nice, but I feel like I don't fit in sometimes. I've been looking around for something else, but can't really find anything interesting. I wish I had a job with normal hours, where I'd go to the same place everyday and I could know what to expect. I'd love a job in an office with friendly people, just working as someone's assistant, helping them and organizing stuff and working with art somehow. I think I'd be great at that because I'm organized, self-motivated and it doesn't involve SALES.

Lately I've really missed school. I'm not going this semester because I don't have time because my work schedule's funky and I didn't want to be overly stressed. I feel behind because most of my friends are finished with college or they'll be finished this year. When you go through 4 majors before deciding on art history you're bound to be behind. I know it's ok because I've done other things that my friends haven't and I know I'll finish eventually. I just hope it's sooner rather than later. But for that to happen, I have to find a different job. :[

On a completely unrelated note, Across the Universe opens nationwide tomorrow! I AM SOOOOO EXCITED! Also, if you're free tonight, you should come check out Scott's band, Quick Before Sinking (Adam and Mark, two of the guys that played at the wedding, Scott and this other guy, Dave, who makes Les Paul look like an ameteur.) They'll be playing some great music from 7pm-9pm at Java Bliss in Riverside. I'm reall excited about this too! Hope to see you there!