Dislikes cheaters, liars, people who smack their gum, know-it-alls, animal abusers, the scent of vanilla, lawyers, hotels, dishonesty, wasting time, spiders, snakes, insanely short skirts, stiletto heels.
★ is obsessed with pizza, even though it's extremely unhealthy. it's the easiest way into her good graces. ★ is a massive music junkie. her current favorites mostly entail country artists. ★ is addicted to coffee and will not talk to anyone until she's had at least one cup. ★ loves the sound of rain, especially during spring. she'll open the windows and just listen to the downpours. ★ fell in love with nursing after countless hours in and out of physician's offices as a teen. ★ suffers from heterochromia iridum, a lack of melanin in one eye, and chronic iritis. her brown eye was operated on the summer after she turned nineteen to correct the blurriness that would eventually lead to blindness. ★ still feels slightly uncomfortable whenever attention is called to her eyes. she worries the problem will someday come back. ★ is obsessed with accents and loves to try and copy them, though she often fails miserably. ★ graduated from unlv in 2006 with a bachelor's in nursing. she received her master's two years later. ★ no longer has contact with her father and as such, very little contact remains with her mother. ★ got engaged on june 5, 2013. later married on june 23.
From the moment she was born, Ellis Hope was a handful. While she didn't always cry when she wanted attention, she did like to be held. All the time. At first Abby worried that her daughter was being spoiled. Every time she walked into a room, the tiny pink bundle was nestled against someone's chest. As the infant reached her first birthday, Ellis quickly wrapped her brothers around her tiny little fingers.
Ellis' need for constant attention wanned as she grew older. Because Abby was splitting her time between four children, the only daughter found ways to amuse herself. She was often found playing in her room, pretending to tip-toe everywhere. Her loud and obnoxious cries had turned into a soft voice and hesitant hand, something that made her first years of school nearly excrutiating. Because of her tiny frame and long head of brown hair, Ellis was picked on often. Appearing a little more "exotic" than her brothers, the taunts turned vicious as she neared the end of elementary school. She'd managed to gain a few friends along the way, but sports really helped the young girl grow a tougher skin.
While most girls around her were learning about boys or how to accessorize the latest fashion, Ellis was out getting dirty and hurt. She'd found a love for dancing and soccer. She excelled in the sport and quickly realized she could exert all her anger and frustration out on the game. Everything was left on the field. Abby started to worry that maybe her young daughter was a little more aggressive than she was supposed to be.
As Ellis matured and grew into a teenager, Abby started to notice something off about her daughter. She complained almost constantly of headaches, her vision blurring in and out at the most random times. Logan, who had started distancing himself more and more from the family, thought the girl was wanting attention. As the youngest, she was given the most freedom and spoiled due to being the only girl. When she was taken to see a doctor, nothing abnormal could be found. She might need glasses; one physician claimed. Another declared her eyes perfectly fine and scolded her for wasting everyone's time. After that, she kept her mouth shut and endured silently. She no longer went and told her mother about the excrutiating headaches or that she couldn't attend practice because her right eye kept going out of focus. Somehow, she finished school and continued playing soccer. At the age of seventeen, she made a very drastic and life-altering decision. She wanted to see what the rest of the world had to offer. Spending eighteen years in the same place, while something that grounded her in many ways, gave her a nomadic itch that she just had to scratch. She wanted to attend college somewhere other than Texas, where everything centered around football.
Wanting a complete change of scenery, Ellis put in an application to the University of Nevada in Las Vegas. Her application was processed, approved, and an acceptance letter was sent out. All she had to do now was find adequate housing, get everything settled with her financial aide, and get her stuff shipped to Nevada. She refused to accept any kind of help from her parents, not after years of just having money thrown at her whenever she had a problem.
Life as a college student in Nevada was challenging. People often asked her to repeat things twice because of her accent, which sounded even more out of place among her peers. It also didn't help that she knew absolutely no one in the area. By the time Ellis was gearing up for her second year of college, she was hitting her stride. The summer started out normal, nothing out of the ordinary. Her headaches were still a common occurance, but she was chalking them up to stress. The doctors in Longview had claimed nothing out of the ordinary, though her right eye was losing focus for longer periods of time now. During an annual eye exam and physical, it was determined that there really was something wrong with Ellis' eyes. Or more specifically; her right eye. Finally armed with a diagnosis, Ellis had a very difficult decision on her hands. If she let the problems persist, the blurriness would intensify until she found herself permantly blind. Surgery was scheduled quickly and by the end of summer, Ellis was sporting an eyepatch over her right eye. The headaches were gone and once she took the patch off, she once again had full use of both eyes. There was no longer anymore inflamation on the iris, though it had left a lasting effect. Now, instead of two eyes the same color; she now sported one green eye, and one brown.
Putting the surgery behind her, Ellis struggled through her second year of college to catch back up. She opted to stay away from sports for a year, not wanting to damage her eyes or risk complications from her recent surgery. But it was tough to sit and watch a game that helped calm her down. She found other ways to cope, other physical activities that would help ebb the excess energies and keep her out of trouble. Toward the end of her first four years at UNLV, Ellis met and fell for a fellow student. He was everything she thought she wanted in a man. He was bright, witty, and could make her laugh. He was easy on the eyes and seemed endeared by the things that made her different. The relationship lasted three months before serious problems began to arise. It started with small details, things hardly worth a fight. Ellis' group of friends slowly started to dwindle. When asked what was going on, they would just shrug and cite her relationship as the cause. She was always with her boyfriend and they were tired of waiting for her to ask permission to do things. Ellis let it go, blind to the truth in what they were saying. She didn't see it as asking for permission, but asking if he was okay with her plans for the day.
Ellis tried to break things off right after graduation. She wanted to continue on with school, hoping to have the choice of being either an RN or a nurse practitioner. He wanted her to leave school with him and become his doting little wife. When she laughed in his face, he slapped her. Walking away from the entire relationship, Ellis vowed to be a little more selective about the men she dated. No way was she going to let anyone stand in the way of what she wanted. The next two years of her life flew by and soon, she was going through the process of getting her nursing liscence in the state of Nevada. It was frustrating, ardous, and fraught with tears. Her parents hated that she wasn't coming back to Texas after graduation, but she had built up a life for herself. She was able to stand on her own and not be seen as a spoiled little rich girl from old money. Ellis had fallen in love with Las Vegas and didn't want to walk away from it. Abby was supportive of her daughter, though disappointed in her baby girl being so far away. Logan was the polar opposite and decided that if she didn't come home, they would no longer help her. When she declared they had yet to do so, it was revealed that Abby had convinced Logan to cover the costs of her schooling. Upset by her parents decision, she forced herself to put it behind her and focus on getting a job. After several interviews and countless resumes printed out, Ellis began working at University Medical Center.
Abby worried for her daughter's love life when Ellis' crazy schedule began to consume most of her time. Her social life was active, just not in the way a twenty-seven year old woman's should be. Ellis took it all in stride, choosing instead to focus on her family and friends. One friend, in particular, her neighbor and his young daughter. In the years since becoming a fulfledged nurse and resident of Las Vegas, life has settled into a pretty happy little routine for Ellis. She loves her job and life, finding the loneliness that likes to creep in a little easier to bear when surrounded by those she loves. Though the more time she spends at her neighbor's house, the more she realizes that she never really included something in her plan that she desperately wants; someone to call her mom.
