Jonah and Rob,
Thanks for being in touch. But, apparently my excerpts aren't working in this theme (Thesis 1.8.2) and are working in the default 2011 theme.
I just updated to the newest PRO version of the plug-in and it seems to be putting a template within a template when I have Thesis activated. I am not really sure why? If you could provide any sort of insight that would be awesome.
Thanks,
Carter