The Ellis Family Down Home Page

Love, Marriage and Parenthood in Montgomery, Alabama

 

Hi, we're the Ellis family from Montgomery, Alabama! Come meet us and learn a little about our interests!

We are: Joseph (35 y.), Melanie (32 y.), Sean (8 y.) and Erin (5). Since Melanie is the one doing all the work, "I" on this site always means Melanie.

About us:

We live in a modest little home pretty much right in the middle of Montgomery.

Here are some family pictures!
August 1996
October5, 1998 - Home from the hospital 2 days after Erin's birth
January 15, 1999 - The whole family
January 15, 1999 - Sean and Erin together
January 15, 1999 - Erin
January 15, 1999 - Erin
January 15, 1999 - Erin
January 15, 1999 - Sean
January 15, 1999 - Sean

 Joseph: Joseph was born Oct. 30, 1968 to John W. and Akemi Ellis II right here in Montgomery. He has one big brother, John III. His parents still live in the house he grew up in out in Coosada, a few mile north of here. Joseph is a "PK" a preacher's kid. His father no longer preaches at a church congregation, but is very active in local prison ministry. After high school, Joseph decided to attend Auburn University at Montgomery where he received a bachelor's degree in Liberal Arts. After a few years of "finding himself" career-wise, he now works for ALFA Insurance here in Montgomery. He works in Computer Operations, also known as Data Processing. Joseph's interests are: reading, watching how-to shows on PBS like This Old House and New Yankee Workshop, playing around with MIDI files on the computer, and constantly scheming how to build a better "franken-puter". As far as reading goes, Joseph mostly likes science fiction and fantasy, although I have been able to turn him on to some of the mystery writers.  He has also been interested for a number of years in the SCA, the Society for Creative Anachronism, a group that recreates Medieval times. Although his schedule no longer permits active participation, he still is interested in Medieval things.

Melanie: I was born in Clayton Co., Georgia on Nov. 8, 1971. My parents are Harold and Ruth Lee. I lived in Georgia until I was 13, at which time my mom and I moved to Alabama to be close to her family, as she and my dad had divorced. I attended Springville High School and graduated with an Advanced Degree. After high school, I attended the University of Alabama at Birmingham for 5 quarters, but quit when I could not decide what career I wanted and felt like I was wasting my time there without any good goals. At that point, I was lucky enought to stumble upon a good job near Mt. Olive, which is where my mom and I were living then. I did go back to college for a couple of more classes, but never went any further than that. When I was younger, I had all kinds of dreams about what I would be when I grew up, (nurse, teacher, research scientist, band director - I probably wanted to be everything in the book!) but eventually my dream of being a wife and stay-at-home mom won out over my desire for a worldly career. Then Joseph and I got married, and my dream came true. I'm not June Cleaver, but I do cook (click here for some of my favorite recipes) and clean and all that jazz. And of course, I take care of our children. Some people think that staying home is boring, but Sean and Erin are a full-time job all by themselves. And now I have a stay-at-home job, too! I can't say the name of the company, but I am a distributor for the world's leading direct-market supplier of quality, photo-safe scrapbooks and scrapbooking supplies. I teach classes on how to preserve your photos in a safe, meaningful and creative way. Besides playing with my children, my interests are: reading, crafts, and keeping up with fellow parents via attachment parenting e-mail lists. I also like to read science fiction and fantasy, and those mysteries I mentioned. And I love music, especially musicals, both screen and Broadway.

 Sean: Sean's too young to have hobbies, but he also enjoys books and he absolutely adores music. Sean loves to play computer programs, his newest being Captain Kangaroo's Life's First Lessons. And, surprise! He's reading already. A couple months before he turned 3, we found out that he recognized a few words, and now at 3 1/2 years, he has a tremendous reading vocabulary! We're so proud we could just about bust!

Erin: Erin (Erin Kathleen, by the way) is 6 months old and while she's been drooling and chewing for 3 1/2 months now, still no sign of teeth. Right now her only interests are people and singing and bouncing and chew toys. She's thriving nicely on Mama's milk.

 

Life Together

Joseph and I had actually known each other all of our lives, but hadn't seen each other from about 1987 until October 1992. After a few months of exchanging letters and phone calls, we decided to pursure a relationship and we got engaged in December of 1993. Joseph and I were married on February 25, 1995 in a simple family-only ceremony held at my grandmother's home in Birmingham, Alabama. Being of somewhat meager means, we skipped the expense of a honeymoon and just went to our home to begin life as a couple. We're fairly plain folks, not party animals by any means, so we mostly entertain ourselves by going to the malls or various shops and just window shopping. We also attend Southeast church of Christ, which is luckily only two doors down from our house. We haven't grown tired of each other yet ;-) so we just enjoy being together in whatever circumstances arise. There is a good bit to do here in Montgomery, we just can't always afford it. And then, along came something that really occupied our time: parenthood!

 

Parenthood

Parenting has turned out to be exactly the challenge that every experienced parent told us it would be - and exactly the joy they told us about, too! Going into the parenting experience, I admit that I was a bit over-confident. But Sean showed me what for pretty quickly! He didn't eat like the books say, he didn't sleep like the books say, he wasn't a quiet, placid baby like you see on TV...in short, while adorable and wonderful, he was not what we expected at all! In fact, when he was 9 months old, I finally found out the term: High-Need Child. This doesn't mean there's anything wrong with him, it's not like ADD/ADHD, instead it merely means a child whose temperament is a bit more "revved up" than the average child. High-need children are also commonly referred to as "spirited" or "challenging" in various books and articles. But I'm glad that Sean was such a challenging baby, as his needs introduced me to the wonderful world of Attachment Parenting. After raising Sean, I truly feel confident with a reason about parenting...well, most of the time! Now, we are currently exploring the sometimes murky waters of juggling two children, which, as all other things parenting-related, is a challenge and a joy all wrapped up in one. Sometimes it's hard to give them both the attention that we want to give them, but they love each other anyway.

Check out my Parenting Humor Page for a few funnies that will make you smile - and help you get through those rough days when the kids are making you want to pull out your hair!

So, that's us in a nutshell - just your average, basic American family of 4 plus a pet. No white picket fence, though!

Be sure to check out some sites that we like ~