Some wonderful news! As of today Eric and I are officially DEBT FREE!

Because of the move to California and the constant driving to and from states for Eric's basketball camps and finding a place to live Eric and I had built up about a $750 deficit to his credit card and had a $1600 loan to pay off. Now I know there are some people who think that's not a lot of money or think that I have nothing to be excited about but you kind of have to understand the kind of person I am.

Being in debt is the scariest thing to me. Growing up I was always surrounded by money problems. My parents just always made it a point to teach me that I should never ask for money because there wasn't extra cash lying around, and when I did ask for money (especially my father, I love him very much!) I would get a long lecture on how money was tight and I was asking a very big thing. And so I made sure to hardly ever ask for money, I just didn't want to go through the trouble! So I learned to live without. But with that I also became deathly afraid of owing people money, I didn't like owing people something that I didn't know I could pay back. I hated the feeling! I once borrowed $200 from my friend Kira so I could drive to California to visit Eric (many thanks to that wonderful lady) and I was working at Applebee's and I was only get $175 each paycheck (I wasn't working very often) and so it took me a while to pay her back and in that time I had no money myself! Hated it! I never wanted to borrow money from anyone again after that. So during the summer that me and Eric were first married I was only making $200 a week from my nanny job, which trying to find a home in California and then trying to live off the rest caused me an insane amount of stress. I started getting chest pains I was so stressed! So when Eric started having to drive back and forth for basketball camps I became even more stressed because of the amount of times he had to use the credit card for travel and food. So we ended up with the debt on our credit card, and no means to pay it off anytime soon, which was a huge negative in our lives. Then when we finally found a place to live we had to take out a loan for about $1600 to move in so it added more money that we owed to people. I was slowly slipping into madness...just kidding, but it really overly worried me. How were we going to pay the bank back?? How were we going to pay back the credit card??

So we moved to California and the Lord answered our prayers and provided me with an incredible job that allowed Eric and I to pay our bills and live comfortably, and little by little we were knocking off the amount to our credit card. But it still wasn't enough for me, I wanted that deficit gone! But then something wonderful came in the mail. A check from CBU (Eric's college) for $2500. It was a pell grant  that we had applied for MONTHS before. So we paid off our $1600 worth of debt and we were able to pay other bills and buy supplies that we needed for the apartment. I was ecstatic! Then just a week ago we got the second check for the school for $2875 and we were able to pay off our credit card! Also our car has been having some troubles and so we'll be able to fix that as well!

VOILA! DEBT FREE!!

I couldn't be any more happy with life than I am right now! I am very proud of Eric and I for becoming as money savvy as we are. I'm pretty impressed with myself as well. I am always on top of billing due dates. have never forgotten to set money aside for anything, and I've become pretty good at budgeting things! I mean I'm not the best there ever was but I think I'm doing pretty well. :) I know there will come a day when Eric and I will have to take out others loan to pay for school for me or to put money down for a house or a second car, but right now I'm just going to soak in the feeling of freedom!

Well there's an update. Life is good! :)

So, mine and Eric's life basically revolves around basketball. It's been that way from the start. Everything has to be done around Eric's basketball schedule. Wedding planning was a pain just because of basketball. For the past two Valentine's Days we've had basketball games as the main event. Now don't get me wrong I love watching Eric's games. Basketball has actually become one of my favorite sports! But still...a girl needs a little attention you know? Now Eric is sweet and does all he can to make me feel special. I am very easy to please, just get me some flowers and write a sweet note and I am good to go, but I can't wait till I get to spend more than a couple of hours with my hubby on the day of love. But basketball comes first right now, which I'm not always happy about, but that's life right now. Still Valentine's day was wonderful, I got candy and flowers and CBU slammed BYU-Hawaii so Eric was extremely happy. Best V-day yet. :)

So when Eric and I moved to California I got a job as a caretaker. I work at an assisted living facility that includes three houses with six people in each house. Most of them are women but we do have three men. These men and women live at these houses for various reasons but most of them just need constant 24 hour care and we provide that. Anyways I adore my job. I love the people, I love the ladies I work with, and I love serving the men and women who live in the homes.They are incredibly sweet people and I can feel the spirit when I'm around them. Anyways there is a woman named Lavon who is on hospice and nearing the end of her life. This makes me extremely sad because she is an incredible human being with a great love for the Lord and I have gotten to know her quite well in the past couple months. One night I was working at the house where this woman lives and I was helping the residents into bed. Most of the girls I work with know that I'm married and so another caretaker was asking me questions about marriage because she was deciding whether or not the guy she was dating was "the one". Suddenly I hear a quiet scratching voice call my name. I walk over to Lavon and she takes my hand and asks "Are you married?". I told her yes, and then she asked me "Did you marry your best friend?", and I told her I did. She then started to tell me about her young life and how her and her husband started their lives together.

Lavon was 16 and a junior in high school when she found out that she was pregnant with her boyfriend's child. Her parents took her out of school and she never got the chance to graduate. Her boyfriend was 18 at the time and barely had graduated and decided to do what he thought was right and marry her. She said that they had a wonderful life together and had four beautiful girls. She said that her life turned out so much better than she expected and thought she deserved. She was very lucky to find a good man. But then she said, "But my husband wasn't my best friend." She continued to talk about how all they knew how to be was man and wife, and though that was good and she felt that she had a good life she wished that they could have been more than that. They didn't have the opportunity to grow together and learn how to work with one another before they were thrown into adulthood. She loved him and he loved her, but she wished that they had more together, more depth with the love they shared. "We were kids" she said, "We had no idea what we were doing and we didn't know quite yet how to work things out together." She then kissed my hand and told me she was so happy for me that I had found a man who could be my best friend as well as my husband, that I had someone to share burdens with me. Lavon is a wonderful woman, and she reminded me how lucky I was that I chose someone that I could grow with and who helped make life easier.

The reason why this whole thing came to mind was that yesterday a girl I work with was talking to me about a new guy that she was dating that she was crazy about! She is the same age as me (19) and this guy is 26. She asked me if I thought that was weird that they were seven years apart. I immediately assured her that shouldn't even be an issue! My brother was 26 when he married his wife, and she was 19, and they're awesome. Age is just a number, a 21 year-old man can act like a 14 year-old and an 18 year-old girl can act like she's 25. I'm know that people around me thought it was odd that 22 year-old Eric wanted to date 17 year-old me. But Eric didn't see the age because it didn't matter! We were on the same page! The only people who are really bothered by the age of their partner are more preoccupied what other people think.

She then started talking about how happy she was, but that she understood that this was kind of the honeymoon phase where you are just so dazzled with the other person, she then asked me when it changed for Eric and I and how we dealt with it. I couldn't really pinpoint a time where Eric and I started delving deeper into the relationship but I did know the answer to how we dealt with it and how we continue to deal with it. We grow together. Eric and I are not the same people we were when we first started dating. The thing about me and Eric is that we are very similar. We both have tempers, we bother are passionate about what we believe in, and we both are quite stubborn. Honestly I do not think anyone could handle me as well as Eric does! At the beginning of our relationship after the initial "oh my gosh you're perfect" phase we started really learning things about each other, about things we believed in. The number one cause of fights between Eric and I was politics. POLITICS. Isn't that ridiculous!? We just believed in different things because we were raised differently and we would get so heated about some things. When I think back on those arguments I just laugh because we were both being so immature. But now Eric and I can talk about those things in a calm manner and when we disagree, we discuss it, understand one another's side and we almost mold our opinions together to something we can both agree on. My coworker asked me how we got that way. I told her that it took time. Development like that does not happen overnight, and it can't be one sided,. Eric and I had to grow up, but we also had to grow together. We both had to understand and learn that even though we disagreed with one another we had to have the mind set that that was ok! It's ok to think differently than someone else. Heavenly Father gave us free will so that we can think the way we want to think.

It amazes me that Eric and I can now have discussions without our tempers boiling over because we grew together. But that took time, and a lot of maturing. I am very grateful that we dated for as long as we did before we got married, we needed that time to learn about each other. I know it made marriage a lot easier to transition into. I already knew so much about my husband. The only thing I didn't know was that Eric leaves food on the counter and wet towels on the floor. But I'm not perfect either. :) We're still growing, but I'm glad we're growing together, I think that's a very important part of a successful marriage. :)

Welcome darlings to my thoughts. As is the custom of newlywed Mormon wives I have decided to start my own blog. Joking.:) But it does seem that way! LDS ladies are very on top of the blogging lifestyle. :) I love reading peoples blogs. I guess they're just interesting, seeing into the life of someone in a diary like way. So I thought why not. It's for my benefit and others may enjoy it as well. :)

Who I Am

Born Ellen Shaver Schilt in Albany, GA. June 21st, 1995.
Moved to Mesa, AZ. July 1997.
Attended Red Mountain High School 2010-2013.
Wonderful mother. Incredible father. Sweet step-mom. Five siblings. Two nephews.

Eric & Ellen

So it's no secret that I'm totally crazy about my husband. He really is my best friend, and I love talking about how we met. :)

So we can start with 17 year-old Ellen. During my senior year I started attending singles ward with my friend Tyesha. My friends were mainly non-members and I knew that once we graduated from high school they would go off to enjoy college and I knew that I wanted to start on the path towards the Temple (better late then never!). I was living with my Dad at the time and I didn't really enjoy attending his ward because the young women were very off putting and I felt extremely isolated. So my friend Tyesha invited me to go to singles ward. I wasn't suppose to go, being in high school and under aged but I didn't really care, even though I knew other people did, but basically my whole attitude was "I do what I want." Typical teenager I guess. :)

So then being in singles ward I started dating return missionaries. I never liked having boyfriend's in high school just because I wasn't in that state of mind. Plus I knew that if I dated a Mormon boy he would go off on his mission which I know would be heartbreaking for me when he would leave and I just wasn't sure if I was the kind of girl who could wait for someone. I know a lot of women who do wait for their missionaries and I am amazed by them and in a way envy them because they are so sure of their missionary that they have the will power and the patience to wait, and they have incredible marriages in my opinion. :) I also knew that if I dated a non-member it wouldn't last because I knew I wanted to marry in the Temple and I never wanted someone to get baptized just to marry me, and I know that there could have been the chance that they would love the church but 17 year-old Ellen never thought of that! :)

Anyways fast forward a couple months after I first started attending YSA ward and after my second RM and I broke up Tyesha invited me to a bonfire where I met Eric and his group of friends "The Sexy Six". Hilarious, I know. I ended up actually dating one of Eric's friends but after a month or two I didn't see marriage at the end of the tunnel. We were still friends and hung out, and that's when I started getting closer to Eric. He was cute, funny and tall and wasn't afraid to be himself. Confidence is a very attractive thing in a man, I think every lady can agree! Anyways one night Tyesha (Tyesha is always around I've noticed!), Eric, his friend and I were hanging out and I asked Eric to scratch my back. So this was basically the first time Eric really touched me except for hugs and...I felt lots of shivers and butterflies which was...well just wonderful! Two days later he invited me over to play Call of Duty at his house and that's where he first kissed me. BOOM and just like that we were dating. Our relationship started with a kiss. We kept ourselves a secret at first because he didn't want to hurt his friend which I understood. He asked me to be his girlfriend on May 5, 2013 on top of the abandoned overpass over the Red Mountain freeway. Keeping the relationship to ourselves was fun. We would sneak away to be alone, he would hold my hand in the car, and wink at me from across the room. I loved it, but after a month it lost its glimmer. I wanted everyone to know that Eric Hunt was mine I was his! Plus I was really falling for this guy. Finally on June 5th, Eric, his friend Holden and I and my friend Niki were hanging out at Holden's house. Eric and I were being friendly, still being secret and just laughing and being us. After Niki and I left Holden said to Eric, "Dude, I think Ellen likes you! You should kiss her!" Funny because we'd already been kissing for month, but it finally gave Eric the support from a friend that he needed to go after what made him happy. So he kissed me!;) And we started publicly dating. His friend found out, obviously, and was upset for awhile but eventually got over it, starting dating someone new, and Eric and him were best friends again. Funny thing is that his friends new girlfriend became one of my best friends!

So after a wonderful summer of dating and getting to know one another Eric was getting ready to leave to play basketball at California Baptist University...and I was a wreck! At this point I knew I was head over heels in love with this guy and the day he left he took half of my heart with him. I have never cried so much then the day Eric left. Whenever people tried to talk to me I cried because I just couldn't hold it in. I was such a baby. I went over to his house before he left and helped him finish his packing which actually made me feel better. After he drove away I just went home and laid in my bed. But then I got a call from Eric and we just talked his whole 5 hour drive to CA which was much needed. He settled in, and started school and I just started distracting myself with friends. Then my mom offered to give me her employee info at US Airways so I could fly to visit Eric. How lucky is that. :) And so we continued dating. I would fly to visit him as much as I could, went to everyone of his games, and started getting to know his family. I knew I wanted to marry Eric, I knew he was the one for me, and luckily he he fell in love with me too. :)





So on the night of December 26th, Eric and I drove up to the overpass where he first asked me to be his girlfriend. It had become the place where we would go to be alone so I didn't expect him to get down on one knee and ask me to be his best friend for time and all eternity. When he asked me to marry him I didn't even say yes, I just nodded while I cried hysterically. I was so excited! I was going to be a wife! His wife! So while Eric was in California I planned every thing, not by myself of course, I had a lot of help! Not only did I fall in love with Eric I fell in love with his family. My in-laws are my best friends. I adore my extended siblings and my mother and father-in-law. They are incredible people and I just couldn't believe how blessed I was with the amazing family I was marrying into. As the day of the wedding approached I was at a high level stress but that was to be expected. The only thing that really made me sad was that I was doing all the planning because Eric was at school and preoccupied with basketball. He helped as much as he could but I still wanted him to be a bigger part of it. But hey! That's life and as we got closer and closer to being man and wife, I stopped caring. All I wanted was to be together, that's what was important. :)


May 2nd, 2014. FINALLY! Eric and I were sealed in the Mesa, Arizona Temple. It was extremely surreal and it was the most beautiful thing. Being surrounded by the people you love while you are sealed to your eternal companion is something that I want everyone to experience. After a year of dating I was finally Mrs. Hunt, and it was a welcome change. The day went by so smoothly thanks to my mother-in-law. Eric and I ended up taking a three hour nap between the sealing and the reception. It was awesome. And so I began my wife life. Eric and I spent a wonderful summer enjoying each other before we began our adventure in California. We also started our family with our puppy Skyler Mae, a beautiful German Husky with blue eyes, who's loving and talks back. We love her dearly. :)

August 16th we made the drive with our belongings to Riverside, California where we had a small apartment waiting for us to make into a home right down the street from CBU. Being married to a college athlete is a lot of fun. I love cheering on my hubby and having him wink at me from the court. Is it funny that he still gives me butterflies? :) It's difficult at times because to his coaches I come second to basketball but that's just the way it is, and I'll only have to put up with it for a couple more months. I'm lucky that I have a husband that always makes me feel like I'm the most important thing in the world.



Well that's life right now. You're welcome for the history lesson. I know I enjoyed reminiscing . :)