EllingFamily:TogetherWeThrive

In Oct. 2011 we moved back to Franklin county to the town of Latimer, Iowa. I grew up on a family farm outside of Latimer and we couldn't pass up the opportunity to move back closer to both Karla Mae and I's family along with the cheaper housing prices in the area. Good schools, nice people, small town life are all the benefits of moving back but one disappointment is the lack of web services and websites businesses, municipalities and organizations use in the area.

I have also started a new website for the show cattle and breeding cattle industry called http://showsteersforsale.com. Below is a little bit about what the site offers.

My mother-in-law Janell Ayres runs QuiltKeepsake.com. I designed the website and I think she makes great, custom quilt items so I thought I would share a little bit about it on our family website.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Quilt Keepsake creates custom memory quilts for individuals, events and other occasions that are special to you.

After almost 2 years of work and delays I finally have launched http://EducationSub.com a comprehensive online platform for substitute teaching. At its core EducationSubs.com is an online system that helps school districts find and schedule substitute teachers.

I was fortunate enough to have a question that I submitted to MSNBC be chosen for the LivesStrong Presidential Cancer Forum in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. My question involves the Bankruptcy Bill that is well intentioned by highly flawed in my opinion in how it can effect those that might have to file for bankruptcy because of a major health issues. I talk more about the bankruptcy bill a the following link

http://www.austinelling.us/testicular_cancer/bankruptcy_bill.html

Below is an excerpt of reader comments taken from the online USA Today article entitled " 'Livestrong' army enlists presidential candidates". I am the person entitle 'aelling' and felt compelled to voice my knowledge of testicular cancer once individuals started posting outright lies and untruths regarding the causes of testicular cancer. Start at the bottom of the article and read from bottom to top to get the correct chronology of the argument.

On August 9 I was called by the Lance Armstrong Foundation to see if I would be willing to go to the Iowa Straw Poll in Ames and help promote the LivesStrong Presidential Cancer Forums to be held in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. I enjoy cancer patient advocacy so my wife and I agreed to help get the LiveStrong bus get setup for a day of promotion at the republican event. The LiveStrong is actually an converted school bus that Lance Armstrong converted for the annual bike ride across Iowa called RAGBRAI that he uses to promote the LAF and spread the cancer advocacy mission.

For some reason, they yet to have determined, when a man gets diagnosed with testicular cancer they also usually have a greater incidence of high cholesterol, unfortunately, I am one of those men. As I posted a few years ago I had a total cholesterol of 285 before I started using Crestor to lower my bad cholesterol. Crestor, fortunately, worked to lower my bad cholesterol (LDL) and my total cholesterol now sits around 128 but Crestor did not have any real affect on my HDL that continued to hover around 16.

Well I made it! Three years down and and two to go until I am considered cured of my cancer. I know this is a cliche but I cannot believe how fast the time has gone over the past three years, time really does fly. All my latest blood work and CT scans have all come back clean and look good. There has been absolutely no change in any of my CT scans which is great and my tumor markers are nonexistent. Since I have been on testosterone now for over two years my mood, achiness and sweating have all stabilized and I feel like myself and not a mind in a fog, sweaty, grouch which is a great thing.

Partly due to my cancer experience and philosophy to "sieze the day", I have decided to start a web design company. Elling Technologies found at http://www.ellingtechnologies.com is an extension of my professional career as webmaster for the Iowa Department of Education. For now I'll doing this on a project by project basis since as we all know health insurance for cancer survivors is mighty expensive if you are not part of a group plan. Elling Technologies is geared toward nonprofit, educational and small business enterprises.