About

Meet The Ellingtons

Welcome to our home!  I’m Tammy Ellington, a lifestyle blogger, sharing our mindful approach to simple, organized living.

 

Who am I?

After being a stay at home mom for the last 13 years I think this may be a trick question.

I’m many things, but nothing that sounds professional…

or sophisticated…

or like I get paid…

 

What Others May See Me As:

• A cook
• A maid
• A taxi driver
• A part time drill sergeant
• A part time referee
• A finder of lost things
• A dog whisperer
• A painter of old things
• The wife of “The Stewart Ellington” — You’ll have to google him to find out more.  This is my blog after all.

 

How I See Myself:

• Wife of Stewart (And no, I don’t run.  Never have.  Never will.  But thanks for asking.)
• Mother of Grey (12 years old) and Reid (10 years old)
• Short order cook.  Seriously, our kitchen is not a restaurant!!!
• Laundry genie.  How else do those clothes magically get put away?
• Taxi driver.  Within a 5 mile radius…we live in the ‘burbs after all.
• Part time drill sergeant with full time potential.
• Part time referee.  When the boys are at school I’m off duty, right? So it is part time.
• A finder of lost things.  Glasses, lunch boxes, homework, school projects, phones, chargers.
• A dog whisperer.  Lucy may or may not be training me.  Stay tuned to see who’s training who.
• A painter of old things.  Old is relative by the way.

 

 

What I Love:

• Lifting heavy weights…don’t let my size fool ya!
• Training my border collie Lucy
• Yoga pants
• Coffee
• Wine
• Healthy food… it makes me feel better than junk food.
• Going for a walk
• Horses
• Being out in the country away from it all! See my post on Sweetbriar Farm.
• Painting until I hate it…there’s a time in every project where it becomes a love/hate battle.

 

What Inspires Me Most:

• Seeing people do nice things because it’s the right thing to be doing.
• The older generation.  When I was a RN I loved taking care of the elderly patients.  They had some great stories to tell and I enjoyed listening to them.

 

My Background:

• Grew up on horse farm in Ball Ground, Georgia
• Was a “career student” according to my parents
• Bachelor of Science in Biology with a minor in Chemistry
• Bachelor of Science in Nursing–RN
• Worked on the Open Heart Surgical Team as my first job after nursing school
• Worked in ICU, CCU, MICU, and the GI lab before retiring to be a stay at home mom
• In August 2015, I started my first job since becoming a mom.  I worked for my coaches Bret Contreras and Kellie Davis.
• In December 2015, Stew and I celebrated 18 years together–that’s a mighty long time!

 

 

The Traditional “About Me”:

 

We live in Knoxville, Tennessee with our two boys, a border collie, a corn snake, and a bearded dragon.

 

 

In 2012, we did a complete remodel of our “forever home” and nothing went untouched.  We gutted bathrooms and the kitchen, tore down walls, and widened doorways to bring our 1978 Victorian-style home up to date.  We absolutely loved our home and never thought we would move.  Then traffic increased in our cut-through neighborhood and on top of that, there weren’t any kids in the neighborhood for our boys to play with. Have you ever tried setting up playdates in the ‘burbs?  Let me tell you, all of these kids have a full after school calendar!  What happened to just playing outside when you’re 6 and 8 years old?

In 2014, we sold our house in ONE DAY and on top of that it was a cold, rainy Saturday in January.  Don’t let anyone tell you that houses won’t sell in January.  They will!  And soon I’ll be sharing with you the things we did to make our house sell quickly.

We have now moved onto our second home renovation and we’re taking all the things we learned during the first time around and applying them this time.  For starters, we’re taking the renovation slowly!  I never want to live in a house which is being renovated from top to bottom.  That was not a fun year for us and I don’t want to repeat that mistake again.  Ever.  Again.

I hope you will join us as we tackle big and little projects amidst trying to live a normal, active live.  Thanks for dropping by and be sure to subscribe so you don’t miss anything!