Elenore

Since arriving at the seminary, I have quickly developed a hobby that I love... BABYSITTING! Last night I babysat sweet Elenore who is one year old. She is a very very smart girl who is already bilingual in French and English. We had a great time going for a walk around the neighborhood, where she loved to wave at everyone we passed and pointed out "dogs" as we passed as well as "balls" that the other children were playing with. She was so content the entire time and did not cry for her parents once. Now this is a record for me, especially since I was her 1st babysitter :) We had a great night and I look forward to babysitting her again. JR loves for me to babysit because he knows that it helps with the "mommy" bug inside of me that gets bigger every single day. Oh the joys of children :)

Strawberry swirl cake

I am by NO means a professional baker, but I LOVE to try :) Here is a cake I made for our special visitors this weekend. (and of course for myself too since Strawberry is my absolute favorite!!!) I was so happy to find this EASY recipe in a Kraft Foods magazine. If you have never seen all the Kraft has to offer you should definitely check them out. www.kraftfoods.com

Ingredients:

1 package of white cake mix

1 package of Jello Strawberry Gelatin

2/3 cup sour cream

2/3 cup powdered sugar

24 ounces of Cool Whip, thawed

1 container of strawberries- sliced

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 350. Grease 2 (8 inch) cake pans. Prepare cake batter as directed on package. Pour half of the batter in a bowl. Add dry gelatin mix; stir until well blended
2. Spoon half of the white batter and half of the pink batter side by side in the pans
3. Swirl batters together lightly (this will give a marble look). Bake 30 minutes and then cool 30 minutes in pans. Remove to wire racks and let cool completely.
4. Mix sour cream and powdered sugar in a medium bowl until well blended. Gently stir in whipped cream.
5. Place one of the cake layers on serving plate; spread top with whipped topping and top with strawberry slices.

Top with the remaining cake layer and spread remaining whipped topping over entire cake. Finish it off with strawberries on top. Refrigerate until served

Neyland Stadium

In just 5 months, one week and 4 days I will be back at the most wonderful place on earth..... Neyland Stadium!!! I am so happy to say that JR and I now have season tickets.. yahoo! We joined the young alumni program so it was very feasible for us to "donate" and receive our tickets. We do not know yet where our seats will be BUT we do know they are lower level. And in all honesty, no seat is a bad one for me down there :) For those who didn't know we are HUGE Vols fans so this is a big deal for us. It is also really cool to think that we will now have these in our family and can one day take our kids. I remember my Poppa and Nanny (great- grandparents) having season tickets when I was growing up and they never missed a game. You can bet that I will be that old lady in orange still yelling at the refs hahaha! I definitely miss the college days of being on campus for every single game and just the atmosphere of it all. I went to every home game all 4 years and also as many of the away games as I could. I was there when we recorded the record seating against Florida in 2004.. Gator Haters for sure! I also watched the Bulldogs go down in GA as well as went to the SEC Championship game in '04. I cannot wait until September 1st when I can say, "It's football time in Tennessee!"


Number one Vol fan,
Lindsey

Mom, Mimi and Rachel

This weekend my mom, Mimi and sister Rachel will be coming for a visit. I am so incredibly excited that they will finally get to see our new home and city that we live in! These 3 women are so important to me and I miss them so much so I have been looking forward to this for a long time. This will be the first time I have hosted them in my very own home.. so that is a bit nerve racking for sure haha. Of course I want my house to be spotless for them to stay in, want to cook some great masterpieces for them and show them a fun time while they are here. I am not really sure what about their visit makes me so anxious haha, after all they are people who know me best anyways :) I plan to take them around campus to meet all of my wonderful new friends here, take them shopping to all of the great malls we have so close to here, and who knows what else. We are celebrating my birthday late while they are here... so that means to Red Lobster we will go for sure. (Red Lobster was my favorite place to go when I was a little girl, I just loved their popcorn shrimp. Now that I am grown they have never really thought that I could have a different "favorite" restaurant and so this is our place of tradition to go. I do love Red Lobster still so I never complain, but I just think it is funny.) They will also get to see our new puppies while they are here. My mom is an expert breeder (not really but she has done it many of times) and so I told her I really wanted her here during that process. Of course she came through... she is always there when I need her. Mimi is just along for the ride but has been wanting to come since JR and I got married. She is so funny, right before we got married she said, "I know, I will just ride back to NC with you and JR after you get back to from your honeymoon and stay with you for a couple of weeks. I am sure you will need help getting settled in." I of course cracked up immediately and she also laughed knowing that she was totally kidding. But all of that to say that she has REALLY wanted to come and visit since we moved in July. Then good old Rachel, well it is her spring break and what better way to spend that then with the sister that she loves so much (and that is no joke haha). :)

Binkley Chapel

These are some pictures of our chapel here on campus. As you can tell it is very beautiful and the central part of campus. We have chapel services Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday each week. For those of you who dont know, this is a big part of my job. My boss, Dr. Moseley is in charge of scheduling the speakers that come in every year. Once they have been scheduled he hands them over to me and I plan out the rest of the detials of their trip. Our office is also in charge of the student's chapel attendance and therefore means the girl they hit with any questions regarding Chapel. There is much more to this wonderful job but I just thought I would give everyone a little insight to my life here in Wake Forest :)

Day at the Park

A typical Isham family outing is as follows. Get together a picnic, grab the baseball gloves and balls, take the blanket and head to the park. We are so fortunate to have one directly behind out house so this means it is always nice to be able to take the dogs with us. Major and Maddie love chasing the softballs and love even more getting out of that fence haha. JR and I enjoy it to because it is so relaxing and a way to be outdoors. Today was a beautiful day here in NC and we will definitely be making more trips to the park in the near future!

6 months... I cant believe it

It was 6 months ago that JR and I were walking back down the aisle as husband and wife. I really cannot believe it has already been that long and then again it really does seem like we have always been married haha :) We have learned a lot as a married couple already. I now realize though that we will continue to learn every single day no matter how long we have been married! We have had fun learning about each other through the process. It has been interesting learning how to live with one another and there have definitely been a lot of laughs along the way. "Sweetie, what in the world are you doing?" haha. The biggest thing that God has been trying to teach me right now is humility. I dont know if this is true for other women who have became a wife recently, but I am just too darn selfish haha. I am okay with admitting that now but it really makes me disappointed about myself. Yesterday in chapel our chapel speaker spoke on this specific topic and I left there saying, "Alright God, I hear you. I know you are wanting me to become humble and realize that my life is not about myself but only about You. The same is also true for my marriage, it is not about what I need or what I can gain, but instead living for my husband and taking joy in honoring and supporting him." I honestly think that society tells us so many times that it is about me, me, me and it is really hard to stay away from that. Almost all of the challenges JR and I have faced in our marriage have dealt with this situation. At times I found myself not wanting to serve him the way I should as a wife and just being completely STUBBORN. God is so good though and every single time He has brought me straight back to the truth that I am to love JR more than I love myself. And more importantly take joy in loving and taking care of him all along the way. JR is being very patient with me and I am so thankful but I hate this terrible sin that is within me. If you are a bride I hope that you will go home to your groom today and tell him that you love him, how thankful you are for him and find a way to serve him. No serving is not only cooking and cleaning (which is the world's view on wives) but respecting him, spending time with him and letting him know you care by doing the small things. If you are a bride to be... Please hear my valuable lesson that it has taken me 6 months to learn :) I promise your life and your marriage will be so much happier if you let go of your pride and find happiness in serving. Oh these are the days of my life hahha.. welcome in.

Craftiness

So i completely love making things.. most of you know this I am sure. For some reason to me it is so much more special to have something hand-made than just going to buy something random. It all started when I got my sewing machine for Christmas (Thanks Reba!) I also have some super crafty friends here at the seminary who have inspired me as well. Here are a few things I have done lately: Personalized burp clothes, picture boards, towell cake for a wedding shower, personalized note cards, and a keepsake book. I am also very excited about soon getting my very own monogramming machine... watch out once that happens everyone! You will be seeing lots of monogrammed things :) This is my little hobby and I thoroughly enjoy being as crafty as I can. If you have any fun things that you have made recently please feel free to share. I love getting new ideas!!!

Dad's birthday

We celebrated 46 wonderful years of my dad's life this past weekend. Sue prepared a wonderful meal of ribs, steaks and such and we had a great time of fellowship and celebration. All of the children were there along with ChrisAnn (Tyler's girlfriend), JD and Missy (our adopted sisters), and DeeDee and Poppy. As you will notice in the picture of Dad and the kids, this is officially the first year that Mason (the yougest brother) is officially the tallest!! Watch out Dad he is soon to catch you too :)

Missy's shower

This weekend we had Missy's shower at my mom's house. We had a great time getting to meet both Clint's mom and grandmother, as well as Missy's friends and their mothers from college. There was lots of pink as you can tell, so it was super girlie just for Mish. She got 5 place settings of her china, a coffee maker, all of her bathroom stuff and even some kitchen things. Mish is a part of our family and has been for a long time and so we were very thankful to be able to host this shower for her. Only 2 more months and she will be a Davis :)

Upcoming Weddings!

Oh how glorious is another summer of weddings! (And I am in no way being sarcastic either haha) I am so excited about this upcoming May when they all begin. Missy Bond will be getting married May 12th, followed by Amy Alexander on June 2nd, Abbye McMillin June 30th, Jen Gray on July 20th and Jenn Wade August 18th! How thankful I am that I have an excuse to come home this many times to see all of my friends :) There is no doubt that they will all be beautiful and I am so honored to play bridesmaid, program attendant, Assistant Coordinator and friend.

Weddings, weddings and more weddings...

As I was posting pictures from our wedding yesterday,because of many requests, I started to realize all of the wonderful weddings in the past 2 years of my life! Now I would never complain that there have been

so many, because i love them SO, but when i think about them all I think wow, my summers have been overloaded with them :) I have been bridesmaid, book attendant, maid of honor, "best woman", extra helper, scripture reader and guest and you would think that I just cant get enough. So much so that I plan to be in or attend at least 4 more this year!!! Nine times a bridesmaid!!!Such beautiful brides and wonderful friends, why in the world would i miss it? Most girls who have been the bride are very much over weddings once theirs takes place. Not this bride! I love everything about them and cant get enough. I am so lucky to be able to still use my craftiness and planning skills to continue to help my friends. These are some pics of me and the brides (and groom, my cousin Alan, where I truly was the "best woman!").