Wedding Video
Our wedding video is now online! Check it out! Be sure to watch all of the “parts” to the video from ceremony through reception!
Wedding Vows Posted
Be sure to check out the Wedding Vows. You can find them in the “Wedding” menu at the top.
Rehearsal Dinner Photos
Our wonderful rehearsal dinner, prepared by my dad’s brothers and sisters, was held at the Starkville Church of Christ on Lee Blvd on June 19, 2009. The food and decorations were delicious and beautiful and we had a great time.
Check out the photos here!
Wedding Photos are Here!
Go to: http://www.ryanandellen.net/photo-gallery/ to find a large selection of the photos from our wedding! Enjoy!
July 1, 2009
Our Cabin
I don’t wanna go home! I have thoroughly enjoyed my honeymoon and really don’t want to leave! But, all good things must come to an end and the food would only last another day or so anyway!
We began the day by fixing breakfast. Ryan looked out the window to find that the potatoes that we had forgotten on the grill last night had been enjoyed by someone else overnight. Whatever it was that ate our potatoes left a small piece behind with the foil, clearing away all of our two potatoes! We were very sad! Oh well! No loaded potatoes for lunch today!
As Ryan was loading the car, our neighbor said, “Ya’ll have been good neighbors.” Ryan replied, “We’re actually on our honeymoon.” The man said, “ha – we’ve been calling you the honeymooners since you got here!” I guess we stood out!
We got everything packed up and ready to go to be checked out by 11am. We checked out then went back into the park for one last round of disc golf. We were so tired that we were a sight – we could hardly throw straight! Ryan had one throw go through the trees and almost into the road and I had one land probably 60+ feet high in a tree and stick in the branches! Thankfully, the wind blew it down and I just climbed down the hill to get it. We had fun through the game, nonetheless, and were hungry when we finished.
We ate sandwiches that I had packed for lunch before driving home. What a wonderful honeymoon!
It was happy-sad to get home and begin unpacking. I guess real life must kick in tomorrow when Ryan goes to work. Thankfully, I only have to work on Friday of this week.
June 30, 2009
Time is flying by too fast. I don’t want to go home tomorrow!
Today was an exciting day. We set an alarm so that we would be sure to get up a little earlier than yesterday to get out on the trails. We enjoyed a breakfast of leftover cinnamon rolls, sausage, grits, and fruit before heading to play another round of disc golf and hike the Outcroppings trail. We decided to play the disc golf course at the opposite end of the park from the one we played yesterday. We both agreed that this course is the slightly easier one of the two. Disc golf in the
mountainous regions is great fun! We really enjoyed hiking through the woods, over rocks, and through the trees (except for when our Frisbees went too far off course!). After finishing the game, we hiked the outcroppings trail. This trail seemed to divide into one trail after the next. We never were quite sure whether we were on the main trail or an off shoot, which would normally take us back to another part of the main trail. We enjoyed the journey very much, though, ending back where we began.
When we were finished with the trail, we headed back to the cabin to eat lunch and rest. We were so tired. We enjoyed a late lunch of leftover hot dogs, chips, and fruit before watching another movie on the laptop.
After a few more adventures, we cranked up the charcoal grill to grill chicken breasts for dinner. I had marinated them for several hours and seasoned them before sending them out with Ryan to grill them. We cooked the chicken, skewered vegetables, and potatoes to go with
heated breadsticks. When dinner was ready, the potatoes were NOT! So, we decided to let them keep cooking while we ate. We decided to save them for lunch tomorrow.
We finished dinner with some s’mores. Ryan couldn’t remember if/when he had ever had s’mores before, so I dutifully showed him how to make them. We cooked them over the charcoal grill and they tasted SO GOOD!
June 29, 2009
This morning at about 7am I woke up and set the homemade cinnamon rolls I had prepared out to let them rise. I then climbed back in bed and went to sleep. I rolled over awhile later to look at my watch and gasped to Ryan, “Guess what time it is” – he said, “about 10?” I replied, “it’s 11 a.m.!” Neither of us could remember the last time we slept in that late!
We got up, placed the cinnamon rolls in the oven, and fixed a breakfast of sausage, grits, peaches, and cinnamon rolls. It was DELICIOUS!
Since “breakfast” was at about 11:30am, we really didn’t have “lunch.” As soon as we finished eating, we left to play disc golf. We stopped by the cabin that we were going to tour yesterday as we walked down the road to the disc golf course (it was about 2-3 miles from our cabin). We had a great time playing a round of disc golf then headed back to the cabin. We figured out that we probably walked about 7-8 miles through the woods and on the road today.
We got back to the cabin about 5pm, took a nice hot shower, and got a snack of cheese, grapes, Pringles, and homemade oatmeal cookies with a cup of coffee to take on the porch. We swung on the porch swing while enjoying our snack and the beautiful weather.
To assert that we are in the 21st century, we watched a movie on my laptop that Ryan had brought at the cabin after the big hike and game.
After the movie, we enjoyed a supper of hot dogs and chips, finished with leftover wedding cake.
June 28, 2009
Driving to Tishomingo with the Car Packed FULL!
Today, we left for our honeymoon. After spending most of the morning packing, we left Aiken Village at about 11am, headed north. We stopped by Ryan’s parents’ house on the way to drop off Mr. Jim’s father’s day present. About noon, we were leaving West Point, headed for Tishomingo.
We got to Tupelo and Ryan graciously stopped by Belk with me to make some wedding gift exchanges. The Belk in Columbus has been out of green and yellow Fiesta dishes so we made some exchanges to totally complete my Fiesta dinnerware place settings and pick up a couple of much-needed items.
We're Here!
We arrived at Tishomingo State Park at about 3:30pm after taking only 1 wrong turn which was secondary to the Google map directions
telling us to go right when we should have gone left! We checked in and received our key for cabin number 4.
When we got to the cabin we unloaded the car, unpacked the ice chest, and just savored the first few moments of our honeymoon. We then decided to take some time to hike up to the old CCC cabin and pond down the road. We started off down the
road and used our map-reading skills to determine that we could take a trail to the cabin instead of the road. So, we took off down the trail, headed toward what we thought was the cabin. After hiking, stopping for many photos, and seeing the sights, we came upon a clearing. It was then that we realized that we took the wrong
direction down the trail which took us to the very opposite end of the park than where we were headed! Oh well – we really didn’t care because we enjoyed the journey as much as the destination! J We walked across the huge swinging bridge and then headed back to our cabin.
After running into innumerable spider webs along the trail, nothing felt better than a good hot shower at the cabin. After showering, we began to fix dinner, which consisted of hamburgers, French fries, and grilled peaches for dessert. Ryan got the grill going while I made the burgers and sliced the potatoes into fries. We ate on the
The Swinging Bridge
screened-in porch outside our cabin and no dinner has tasted better! We had fully-loaded burgers (mayo, mustard, ketchup, pickles, onions, tomatoes, lettuce, cheese, buns, and burgers), delicious fries, and then placed the peaches seasoned with butter, cinnamon, and sugar on the grill until tender.
After cleaning up from dinner, we went out on the screened-in porch to the swing, where Ryan read the Bible aloud and I fell asleep, rocking in his lap.
June 22-27, 2009
By the time Ryan and I had gone out about 3 times, we quickly found out that time is NOT on our side. We get nervous because we have realized that time just passes faster when we are together. This week has proven the same as always! Ryan has been taking chemistry 1 through EMCC this month and had his final on Friday. Each day, we squeezed studying, working, time together, and cleaning up into our day. We rejoiced as he took his final exam and had fun studying together.
Romantic Dinner that Ryan Prepared
For dinners, we have enjoyed leftover wedding food for many meals. On Tuesday, Ryan had dinner on the table when I got home from work. He had set the table beautifully, complete with candles and delicious food! I’ve also fixed us fajitas, chicken, and pizza on Friday night to celebrate Ryan finishing his class!
Besides having pizza on Friday night to celebrate, we also went to the midnight showing of Up at the 3-D theater. It was such a cute movie and well made. We had fun!
Merry Christmas from the Wallaces!
Dear Friends & Family,
Merry Christmas! Ryan and have had a wonderful year in 2009 and cannot believe that we have now been married for more than 6 months! The Lord has truly blessed us this past year.
We spent most of the first half of 2009 planning the biggest day of our lives – our wedding! The wedding, on June 20th, 2009, was absolutely wonderful and everything we could dream of. We were joined by many of our closest friends on a beautiful morning as we celebrated our marriage. When we left my parents’ home that afternoon, I was overwhelmed with how blessed we truly are! God has blessed us with friends! Thank you so much to each of you who were there to make our wedding day so special.
Ryan spent the week after our wedding studying for a final exam in chemistry as I began to fix up our home (Aiken Village apartment 24-C). We honeymooned the next weekend at a cabin at Tishomingo State Park. It was a beautiful weekend and such a nice break from studying and work.
This fall, Ryan began his first semester at Mississippi State and did great! Being out of school for several years made it a challenge to go back but he truly applied himself and had a successful semester! Classes ended the first of December and he has enjoyed doing website design for the Mississippi Home Educators Association as well as George Johnson, a friend realtor in Baton Rouge, LA. He has also kept up my Cooking with Ellen website over the holidays. God blessed him with web jobs from the day of his final exam up to the day he starts back school for the spring, which will be Wednesday, January 6th, 2010.
I (Ellen) have stayed busy since the wedding fixing up our little home (I almost have all the pictures hung that I want on the walls!) and working. I worked part time at a nursing home in Louisville for awhile but have now taken a full time job from home as a Diabetes Educator for Information and Quality Healthcare. I am the Golden Triangle Regional Project Leader and do diabetes training classes for Medicare recipients with diabetes. Though I haven’t started doing classes yet, I am already loving my job. The flexibility and great work environment have been so beneficial to me since the beginning of November. I was so blessed to find such a wonderful job opportunity!
Looking forward to 2010 … We have been making a few mental and written lists of goals, “to-do’s”, and things we’d like to do this next year. One is that we have used our Christmas money and received as gifts all the items needed to go tent camping. The first warm weekend of 2010, I hope to be out and about exploring God’s country in our new tent! We cannot wait for our Eureka Tetragon tent to come in and plan to thoroughly use it during our free time! We also have set forth plans for Bible studies and have bought a stack of Christian books for ourselves for Christmas about marriage and Bible study.
We pray that each of you that reads this had a very Merry Christmas and a wonderful 2010. God has been so faithful and blessed us so much. We pray that He does the same for each of you. Please stay in touch and feel free to come visit! We live on campus in married student housing at Mississippi State and love how close we are to everything in town.
With love,
Ellen & Ryan
thewallaces@ryanandellen.net
3 John 2 – “Beloved, I pray that in all respects you may prosper and be in good health, just as your soul prospers.”