The Ball is Rolling...

*Inspired by Kayla to start including paint pictures in my posts*

I have my first OFFICIAL interview with Baylor Grad School today!!!  My graduate school process has been very different from Tyler's and there has always been this timeline of uncertainty that I can't seem to grasp...I'm not uncertain anymore.  For the past couple of weeks I've known that I could hear from Baylor tomorrow, or a month from tomorrow.  Now that I've heard, I have my phone interview (round 1) today at 4:00...so if you happen to check the blog between now and then...send up a little word to the big man for me!  I'm so excited that the ball is finally rolling...let's hope it rolls in my direction!

Catching Up

So what's happened in the last...oh yeah...two months...again!!!  Well, a lot has happened! 

A while back, Kelsey and Kayla came to visit us in Arkadelphia!  They had a special reason for coming to visit, besides the fact that they wanted to see their most beautiful sister and drink in her wisdom of life.  You see, once upon a time we went to Chicago to celebrate the "Year of the Kayla" and during our trip we went to a little place called Second City.  It was awesome!!!  Second City is a comedy club where a lot of SNL people and other comedians have gotten their start: Stephen Colbert, Tina Fey, Steve Carell, and more!  Earlier this year Tyler discovered that Second City was touring and would be in Little Rock in October...so you know my sisters rearranged their schedules so we could all be together to celebrate Second City in Little Rock.  We had such a good time...shout out sistas...love you Kelsey and Kayla!

Also, Thanksgiving happened!  Also, Project 365 did NOT happen...boo...I can barely keep up with this stupid blog...what made me think I could take a picture every day for a year?  So, I will resort to posting pictures with posts, and maybe occasionally I'll post some extras to the Flikr page.  Don't get your hopes up though. 

Don't be discouraged...I'm going to continue to write this post and at the end I'll add all the pictures.  I hate trying to move the pictures around in the post and then they end up wanting to right align and then left align and all I really want is for them to stay centered.  So pictures at the end (captioned of course) and text now!

Over Thanksgiving break, my lovely parents got us tickets for the fam to go see The Nutcracker ballet!  We used to see it when we were kids every year around Christmas, and it was fun to get to go again.  We also got to experience it in the new Dallas Winspear Opera House...those people wear some fancy pants (except for the girl there who was wearing skin colored leggins and looked like she was wearing NO pants!).  Of course, when we got home there was talk of who could be the best ballerina, and after several attempts at spinning on one foot, jumping in the air, and me falling backwards into the wall...we decided that none of us would really make a good ballerina.  We'll stick to playing games, drawing paint pictures, and...what other talents do we have...I guess that's all.

Another Thanksgiving happening was our Dinner Partay with the friends.  We're all married and grown up now, so we decided to have a nice dinner altogether including paper bag vests and pilgrim hats so that half of us could dress up as Indians and the other half could dress up as Pilgrims.  We used our given talent (as mentioned above) to play games and had so much fun being together and...yes...prank calling old friends.  It's so fun to be an adult!

Tyler and I weren't home in Arkadelphia for very long before we headed back to Dallas to run in our very first Half Marathon!!!  I was so nervous the morning of the race...4 times I went to the bathroom...and I hadn't had really anything to drink!  I got rid of the nerves though, and Tyler and I survived...we even ran the entire race.  So now we have a lovely 13.1 sticker (courtesy of Becca Woodall) on our car "Blitzen," who by the way is dressed for the holidays!  That's right...REINDEER CAR!!!  Tyler is really embarassed to drive our reindeer car, but I assure him that we are spreading holiday cheer.  In fact when we were walking into church the other morning I heard a small child yell "OH MY GOSH!!! LOOK AT THAT CAR...IT'S A REINDEER!!!" That's right...we are so cool (even though Tyler is seriously trying to convince me that it is really uncool). 

Other news...oh yeah...TYLER GOT ACCEPTED TO BAYLOR!  So in our steps to graduate school this is where we stand:

Take the GRE - check
Apply - check
Get Accepted (Tyler) - check
Interview for a GA position (Tyler) - check
Round 1 phone interviews (Erin) -
Round 2 face-to-face interviews (Erin) -
Get Accepted (Erin) -
Find a place to live (both) -

So we have a little ways to go before the Ellis family fully commits to graduate school.  The annoying thing is that I could hear about any one of those last checks tomorrow, or by March!  So we're still crossing our fingers about that!  Cross yours too!!!

I can't remember what else has happened since the last time I wrote about our life...so I'll leave it at that.  Now for picture time!!!

 Sisters at the taco stand before Second City...we were running like the taco...I was falling like the taco?

Here's the fancy pants chandelier at the Winspear Opera House!  It turned into a Christmas tree!

 I asked Tyler to take a picture with me...this happened.

I asked again...this happened!

 Here's the family...and then I wanted one of me and Tyler:

 Picture #1 - "What are you doing Tyler?"  

Picture #2 - "Yeah, I'm trying to hide the camera case."  

Picture #3 - "Tyler, where are you going? Mom, Dad, really?!"

Picture #4 - "Tyler get down...Dad, you're hillarious."

Picture #5 - "Success!!!"

 After our Half Marathon!!!  Those are some Arkansas friends that we convinced to run with us!

Well, thanks for reading...and...

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

Back Home

After a long, beautiful, exhausting, fabulous, fun-filled, lovely weekend, we're home from Lindsey and Lee's wedding.  We had such a great time meeting up with lots of friends and family as we celebrated the marriage of our last little bestie!  Mr. and Mrs. Dykes are finally married and it was a gorgeous wedding.  Since Michelle (Lindsey's mom) was never without a camera, I tended to neglect mine, but I did manage to snap a few shots.  Until other pictures are posted on facebook (that I will then steal and post here) this is all I'm able to leave you with.

 

All the bridesmaids at the rehearsal.

(Nikki, Lynley, Haley, Lindsey, me, and Erin)

And, a weekend in Fayetteville wouldn't be complete without a trip to Daisies and Olives!  I don't know how, but we always tend to get carried away...I don't think anyone walked out empty-handed.

Daisies and Olives October 2011

(Nikki, Shawn, Lynley, Jordan, Danielle, me, Mom, Kelsey, Brad, Tyler, and Tate)

Our first trip to Daisies and Olives September 2010...maybe a little more ridiculous than the second time

(Lynley, Lindsey, me, and Nikki)

Without a reason to go back to Fayetteville, I think we need to make a pact to come back in the Fall every year and bring a U-Haul keep the tradition going.  Can't wait for Daisies and Olives 2012!

There's a lot more that happened this weekend, including karaoke at You Know? Uno!  But, until I get some more pictures, it will have to wait for another day (not month...I promise!!!)

8 Mile Club!

So, about 6-8 months ago (can't remember exactly) Tyler and I decided for some reason that it would be cool to sign up for a half marathon run...so we did.  On December 4, 2011, we'll participate in the White Rock Half Marathon!  I never would have believed it, but Tyler was determined to do more, be better at, to start exercising, so we paid the fee and started training for our very own 13.1. 

Yesterday, Tyler and I finished our first 8 mile run!  It's crazy to think that just a few weeks ago we were so proud of a 4 mile run.  The conditions couldn't have been better either!  The weather was great, the sun was shining (the tank was clean...can anyone name that movie?!) and we finished just before dinner.  Usually these are not the circumstances under which we run.  There are some cons to training in Arkadelphia:

Exhibit A:



There are hills...EVERYWHERE! 

Hills SUCK!

You can't run in Arkadelphia without running up or down a hill...it's...impossible.

Exhibit B:

The roads, sidewalks, and trails are not extremely well kept.  This means there are bumps and potholes, and cracks always in the sidewalk...if there is a sidewalk...sometimes there isn't one, and we have to run on the shoulder of the road.

Exhibit C:

We usually end up running when it's dark.  If we run, we usually do it after Tyler gets home from work, and that means 5:30-6:00 usually.  At that point it's dinner time, and then we have to wait for our food to settle before running.  That means we don't start running until 7:00ish...and it's dark. 

Exhibit D:

There aren't a lot of street lights.  Add to this fact that it's night, on a poorly paved road/sidewalk, and we're running up and down hills...it's no good!

So thankfully, everything was on our side for this past run...maybe that's why we were able to run the full 8 miles.  It may have also had something to do with the fact that our last 1/2 mile was on campus during a pep rally and the band was playing "Eye of the Tiger" as we were crossing our designated finish line.  I couldn't help myself, you know I pumped my arms in the air..."It's the eye of the tiger, it's the thrill of the fight.  Rising up to the challenge of our rival.  And the last known survivor stalks his prey in the night. And he's watching us all with the eye of the tiger."

"The Worst"

There's this saying...in my family...that my sisters and I say..."_________'s the WORST!!!"  Well, ladies and gentlemen just the ladies that follow my blog, "blogging's the worst (at least lately it has been)!"  I haven't blogged in over 2 months...for crying out loud, my last post was about our summer vacation!  So what justification do I have?

•  "I haven't had time...my part-time job has been crazy for the past 2 months and all those (15) hours in the office are killing me.  I've had so much to do, and just haven't found a spare moment to log on (not to facebook, or pinterest...just to my blog) and update you all on what's going on.  Please give me a break, my extremely important job of picking movies to watch on campus, designing t-shirts, counting homecoming ballots, and popping popcorn has had me up to my ankles in work!"

Okay...so it's not work

• "Nothing has been going on.  I know I said work was crazy, but actually there is nothing to do.  I don't want to bore all (12) of you with how mundane our life has been lately.  I go to work, I eat lunch, I come home, I cook, clean, fix all the drama in the dorm, and then I've got to catch up on my TV shows:  Modern Family, Raising Hope, The Middle, New Girl, Survivor, Community, The Office, 30 Rock (I miss you...come back soon!), Parks and Recreation, Saturday Night Live, Dexter, plus...Rangers, Cardinals, Cowboys...whew!  There's more going on in the lives of my television friends than in my life."

Okay...that's not true either (well the TV list is...I know, it's pathetic)

So, I clearly don't have any justification for why I haven't been blogging, but, like that weird dinosaur movie that I'm pretty sure only a few people watched...We're BACK!!! (well, I'm back...Tyler could probably care less).  So I promise, I will give good updates on all of the things that have been going on with us.  Here's a list of what you can look forward to:

1. Learned to sew
2. Neighbors had a BABY GIRL!
3. Half-Marathon Training
4. Homecoming
5. Lindsey's Getting Married (and already had her Bachelorette Pary and Wedding Shower)
6. Substitute teaching...I don't know why
7. Officially completed our (both of us) applications to BAYLOR GRADUATE SCHOOL!!!
8. Sisters Weekend Visit
9. Second City in Little Rock
10. And maybe even more...

Thanks for sticking with me during my writer's block blogging negligence.  Hopefully now, blogging will be "THE BEST!"

2nd Annual Ellis-Kerr Vacation

It's been a month since, but here's the post anyways:

This summer, Tyler and I vacationed for the second time with our friends Kolby and Emily.  If any of you readers are also followers of their blog, you already know that last year we decided to go on an "adventure" vacation, so this year we chose to go on a "relaxing" vacation.  Beach it is! 

We had such a fun time, even though we ran into a little bit of rain.  One of the best parts of the vacation was the all-inclusive part!  It was very normal for us to get an appetizer, soup, salad, entree, and dessert...each!  Between the food, the water slide, the beach, dominoes, cards, the "club" club (ordering a club sandwich to split every night), and the killer spray paint artist in the lobby...we couldn't have asked for a more relaxing (and with all the spray paint, a more intoxicating) vacation. 

Now, I have to take a moment to brag on Emily.  At the steakhouse restaurant, there was a mechanical bull riding contest, and Emily did Texas proud!  She stayed on for 9 more seconds than the second place rider.  I would show the video, but last time I shared vacation videos of Emily...let's just say I didn't have consent before posting them. 

So, next year we're thinking of another "adventure" vacation...any suggestions?  Thanks Kolby and Emily, for a great time...we hope the tradition continues.

The In-Between

Since Tyler and I were out of town for a couple of weeks (even though we weren't in Allen for that whole time) we did have some time in between family reunion and our trip to Cancun, Mexico.  It was fun to spend time with Zac and Kathy and they were gracious enough to host us for the few days we needed a bed before our flight.  Other than running errands, a little shopping, and lots of catching up, we spent one evening at the new Top Golf in Allen. If you haven't been...you should go.  It's super fun, and not as expensive as you would think.

 Let's just say...there may be a new hobby in the Ellis household.

Next stop...CANCUN, MEXICO

Family Reunion

With the summer coming to an end, these next few posts are a recap of what's happened this past month!  Updates on vacations, visits, and a handful of the daily Ellis life.

At the very end of June, Tyler and I made the all too familiar drive to Allen to start our two week vacation/family visit.  Our first order of business: re-pack our luggage.  We had to pack for two weeks, but we were also packing for two separate vacations...it was a mess.  3 suitcases and 3 carry-on bags later, we were ready to hit the road with the fam and head to San Antonio for our family reunion.

So lucky we were able to fit in one car for the drive down!  Made for some pretty fun car games.  On our way down to SA, we made a small detour to float the Comal River. 

We had a great time at the family reunion.  Quizzing each other on different family member names, eating on the River Walk, family group pictures, sitting out by the pool, Sea World, and of course, family reunion karaoke!

Dinner on the River Walk

Sea Lion show at Sea World...and they said Sea World was a kid's theme park!

We rode that...the roller coaster.

Beluga Whale

SHAMU!!!

Success at Sea World

Oh yeah...that's dad singing "Ring of Fire" with his big bro.  We all sang karaoke that night...even the newbies Tyler and Aaron.  Definitely a family reunion tradition that will continue.

Good times at the family reunion...Family Reunion 2014 - St. Louis here we come!

Project 365

Well...Danielle has inspired me to start my very own Project 365...so on day 1 of our third year of marriage, we started this probably annoying definitely awesome adventure!  Here it goes...enjoy!

No Kneed Bread

Thank you Pinterest for this recipe (and for keeping me occupied for hours):

3 cups flour
1.5 cups water
1 3/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp dry active yeast
Mix above in a large bowl and let rise for 12-20 hours.

Turn out onto floured surface, fold over a few times. Let rest 15 minutes.

Place back in an oiled bowl in roughly a ball shape, seam side down. Alternatively, place the dough between two floured cotton towels (don’t use terry cloth unless you want a dough disaster).  Let rise another 2 hours

30 minutes before the rise is over, preheat oven to 450º and place a 5-8 quart cast iron pot, with lid, in the oven while it heats. Take the hot pot out (be careful!), sprinkle the bottom with cornmeal and place dough ball in seam side up.

Bake for 30 minutes with the lid on.  Remove lid and bake for an additional 10-20 to brown.

So good...our go-to bread recipe now.

While looking through pictures for upcoming posts...I found this...and all I have to say is: 

"I love my family...especially my sisters...even though we're weird...they're totes the best!"

Strawberry Pickin'

A few weeks ago, Becca, Bailey, and I went strawberry picking.  We live about 20 miles from a great orchard that lets you pick strawberries, peaches, blackberries, and blueberries when they are in season..and they are CHEAP.

Even though it was CRAZY hot, we braved the heat and each came home with over 5 pounds of strawberries for about $5...I couldn't believe it. 

Becca picking.

Me and Bailey picking.

Here we are with our loot.

Thanks for the idea Becca...and thanks for driving.

So what did I do with all the strawberries?  Well, after eating some, and freezing some, I decided to make homemade jam.  One of my summer goals is to home make 5 different foods that I would normally buy in the store.  So, I've already made bread (recipe and pictures to come), homemade butter, so duh...strawberry jam was a must.  It was awesome...too bad I forgot to take pictures of the finished product. 

Wedding Bells Were 'Ringler'ing!

Congratulations to Mr. and Mrs. Brad Ringler.  One more wedding down...and what a beautiful wedding it was: this is bound to be a mostly picture post...but let's face it, that's what you want anyways.

Brad and Nikki tied the knot at beautiful Mount Sequoyah in Fayetteville.  After weeks of praying for no rain, the day (though it started with some drizzlies) was perfect.  The rain made everything so green and fresh.  You couldn't have asked for a prettier day.

Here's the bride and her maids at the rehearsal.

And here's the whole gang...minus Shawn, he was busy kicking butt for the Great Lakes Loons.

The morning of the wedding was full of buying (gorgeous) flowers, filling vases, setting up tables, and lots and lots of praying for no rain.  This is a picture of all of the girls at the bridal lunch.  Tea sandwiches, salad, champagne lemonade (and tea) and some very addicting brownies.  

After the lunch it was time to head to the ceremony spot and start getting ready.  After all the pictures were taken, all that was left to do was walk down the aisle.  Then, Nikki's dad came into the room we were waiting in and said the worst thing a bride wants to hear ten minutes before walking down the aisle: "Nikki, we've got a serious problem."  Trying to keep Nikki as calm as possible, her dad lifted his leg and showed us his shoes...one of them with a barely hanging on sole.  Thankfully, Mr. Thomas and Tyler wear the same size shoes, so after a quick call, Mr. Thomas was in brown shoes and Tyler was in Mr. Thomas's black shoes.

With everyone ready to go...we headed down the aisle for one of the most beautiful ceremonies I've been to.  Then, it was off to the reception to PAR-TAY.

 

Everything was perfect...the food, the decorations, the music, and especially the cake.

 

Lots of dancing, and some extremely sore feet later...we said goodbye to the newlyweds and congratulated each other for another wedding well done.  Here's Tyler and Kathy dancing the "Mother/Son" dance and for the first time, Zac and I dancing the "Father/Daughter" dance.

These other pictures are from the James Taylor concert earlier that week.  Tyler, Jeremy, Kathy, Zac and I met up at Fair Park on Wednesday night for some JT.  Can't wait for him to be close again...he's the best.

Such a wonderful week/weekend.  Can't wait to meet at Mount Sequoyah again in October for Lindsey and Lee's wedding.  So happy for you, Nikki and Brad, you two deserve each other.  Tyler and I will be waiting for our invitation to come see you this summer.  YAY.