How I became the Mrs.

My fifth and youngest child is now in preschool.  I should start a blog. I have more time now, right?

Regardless, I thought it appropriate to start this on my 34^th birthday (exhale).  This is a milestone. ½ of my life has been devoted to one thing.  That is, my life as Mrs. Jared Ellis. Which definitively began on my 17^th birthday.  Don’t roll your eyes at how ridiculously young that is!  Because with most things I do, I commit and get to work. And having 5 children, one thing I’ve observed is, you can’t judge, some individuals are just born with conviction!  So lets begin the story:

October 4^th 1994.  Waiting for me at the end of my day were 3 things, a dozen red roses and two letters.

Roses: Birthday wishes from Jason. Good on paper. My mom liked him a lot and everyone knows nothing comes of the boy your mom would hand pick! He was in our ward and adorably sweet, extremely generous, creative and an all around stellar guy. We had gone on a couple group dates. He was at the time working out of state. He had a personality to make any girl happy.  He was fun and sincere.  But I didn’t feel that connection and I didn’t allow myself to get serious with anyone for the hope of . . .

Letter #1: Karl.  My body still betrays me when I think of Karl, very annoying how it does that after all this time.  But in my defense, those stupid nerve receptors have a long memory and they first made those connections with Karl. So they get all fired up when my thoughts turn to him.  We all have our Karl.  Our relationship was that typical high school love song, where you’re best friends but one is madly in love with the other and you’re not mature enough to just be honest, so nothing happens and there is regret. You go through it in your head for years after thinking things could have been different but come to the same conclusion that things have worked out for the best and that was the plan all along . . . Our story is a novel and I’m trying to stay on the Mrs. JARED ELLIS theme here, lets get back! Karl was in New York, serving a mission. I faithfully wrote him and it felt like his letters were so sparse that it was seriously the highlight of my month. It changed that day.   Karl didn’t remember my birthday it was his standard update.

Letter #2:  Jared knew what he wanted which was so refreshing and I have to give the man credit; he’s a strategist! Lets backtrack: Jared was a missionary who served in our ward for several months. He’ll say we met at a dinner appointment when in actuality I set that up. The first time I laid eyes on Jared was a Sunday morning. He was sitting on the stand at church looking over the congregation. Tall, athletic build-no brainier! He would be perfect for my older sister, Michelle. Michelle was home from college for the summer and had no interest in church. She needed incentive and to me, Jared was it.  I promptly told Michelle about this new elder. Oh it worked, and not only was she at church the next Sunday but she was a regular that summer.  With Michelle’s insistence we had the missionaries over for dinner. After that Jared and his companion were regulars at our house. I was oblivious of Jared’s attraction to me, like I said, strategist! So when Jared was transferred at the end of the summer I knew it wasn’t the last I’d see of him, Michelle got every guy she wanted. But then I turned 17 and opened a colorfully decorated envelope with no return address. Upon discovering whom it was from, I knew instantaneously, the way all truths hit your conscious. Actually, my exact thought was, “Oh no! I’m going to marry Elder Ellis.”  And the rest is history.

He really was a sharp young man. How could I resist?!