What happens on a Saturday with no UT football?

I am really bored ha! And why didnt anyone tell me that washing your baseboards was fun? Oh yea because it is probably the least fun thing to do ever :) Oh when I do not have an excuse to watch UT football on Saturdays and am at home and have been gone for several weekends in a row in turns into cleaning the house saturday for me... oh how glorious ha! JR cleaned out the garage and I attempted to clean the inside from top to bottom. Since the baseboards took me almost the whole morning there was not much time for that much more. Man I am pretty sure that was the 1st time they have every been cleaned ha... and yes that is sad to admit. You better believe I will not have another Saturday with nothing planned again hahah. We made up for it by hanging out with the Graham's tonight. We always have fun with our good buddies :)

September 27, 1998

September 27, 1998 was the day that JR and I officially started our journey together. 9 YEARS AGO! I was 15 and a sophomore in high school and he was 16 and a junior. As you can tell in the picture we have not changed to to much physically, except of course the hair :) However for us to think back to then, man how times have changed in our relationship. Back then we were just two kids who didnt have a clue what God had in store for us at all ha! Our relationship truly has been through a lot in these 9 years and I am thankful for the many twists and turns it has taken along the way. We broke up a couple of times in high school (over stupid little things) and then again my junior year of college for 9 months. I can truly say that it was during those times that God grew each of us individually so that we could be where we are today. We have learned a lot about each other in these 9 years, but oh how much more there is to learn :) It is very interesting now to have 2 different anniversaries (one dating and one married) and of course they are only 4 days apart so it isnt that big of deal ha. We will from now on count the wedding day as our real anniversary but dont think I am giving up those other 8 years ha!!! High school sweethearts, I am so glad we made it despite all the odds against us :)

Is that a watermelon?

This is my sweet friend Emily Stiles... isnt she the cutest? I have not seen pregnant Emily until I saw this picture and when I saw it I immediately thought... my goodness that looks like a watermelon under her shirt ha! I am really jealous of all of these cute expecting moms out there who dont even look pregnant except for the baby bump. I will go ahead and warn everyone out there that when my day comes it is going to be a lot more than just a watermelon.. I am thinking more along the lines of a whale haha :) Emily you look terrific and I cannot wait to see pictures of your sweet baby girl Ella! Emily and her husband Nick will be expecting her arrival on December 8th... and I am sure her Aunt Natalie will be counting down every day until then ha! Love you guys :)

Youth Group Reunion

Sunday we had Homecoming at Rockwood United Methodist church. This is the church that JR and I went to and where we met in high school. We had a great time seeing old friends that we normally do not get to see on a regular basis, and reminiscing on our past times in the youth group together. My Mimi and Potts were the leaders of this group and it was a special time to have all of us back together in the youth room. I am so glad I got to see you guys!The crew with Mimi and Potts

Me and my MimsterDarby and IBrett and his fiancee hillary
Brooke and her fiance Ted

More orange!

Another great game day spent with Jessie V and Phil. We had a blast! :)

Whitestone

Whitestone was beautiful and a great time for us to spend time together. A minister and his wife built this place as a place to get away and enjoy the beauty of God.. and that is truly what we did. Well along with eating wedding cake and sharing anniversary presents :) I made JR a book of pictures and memories of our first year together (a new tradition of the Isham family, kind of like a yearbook funny enough ha) and he got me a message at the resort... which was AMAZING! Thank you sweetie!

One misfortunate after another

Friday we had our hopes set to get on the road early so that we could enjoy the day at Whitestone. We got up at 6:30am and were packed and ready hoping to leave at 7:00am. JR went outside to feed the dogs and realized that they were stuck together again (yes it is what you are thinking). So what should have taken 2 minutes took more like 20. We finally get in the car and the cooler dumps over, putting the ice all over the back seat. Get that cleaned and get about 15 minutes down the road and all of a sudden I hear this awful noise... yea pretty sure it was a flat tire. JR says, "No big deal we have a spare, so let me change it." He gets out of the car and then next thing I know he says he has got the tool stuck on the 1st lugnut... therefore cannot get off the other 3. So we call Jay who works with him and isnt too far away and he brings his tool and it is too big. That meant we had to call AAA and wait on them to get there... which took 1 1/2 hours. Finally it was fixed and we headed to the repair shop to buy 2 new tires (which of course took more time). While in the repair shop I had to go the bathroom. I had my phone with me and set it on the sink. I am sure you guessed something would happen to it and it did. When AAA called back to confirm it vibrated into the sink where I was washing my hands.. AKA it went dead immediately! We finally get in the car and head out of town at 11:30 (4 1/2 late). So we finally get to Whitestone that night just in time for dinner... whew what a relief. Oh but the fun did not stop there haha! I will not bore you with too many other details however I have to share the war wound that was given to me by myself that was just the icing on the cake after all of the weekend fun :)

So Jessica and I put T's on our faces for the game on Saturday. When I got home that night I decided to get it off before I went to bed. Now keep in mind that I have worn these things a 100 times and therefore have gotten them off my face with ease 100 times before. Yea so evidently this time I rubbed too hard and rubbed off the first few layers of skin on my cheek. It is really not that bad but just makes me laugh and say, "really are you kiddin me?"

After all of this JR and I did have a good weekend and are just laughing about it. Sometimes I wander if this weekend will be a curse for us forever haha, since the past 2 have been rather interesting. But through it all we still are loving each other and at the end of the day laughing about the mis fortunates so that is all that matters right? :)

Celebrating the anniversary

This weekend JR and I will be traveling to Whitestone Inn to celebrate our anniversary. This is the same place we stayed on our wedding night and it is SO beautiful there. We are leaving tomorrow morning to that we can spend the whole day there getting some much needed relaxation :) Saturday we will be headed to the UT game of course and then on Sunday we have a Homecoming Reunion at our home church so we will be seeing lots of old faces which is always fun! Hope you guys have a great weekend. I cant wait to celebrate with that sweet hubby of mine :)

Our one year in review...

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This weekend JR and I will be celebrating our ONE YEAR anniversary! Thinking back on our first year together brings a tear to my eye, especially seeing all of the pictures that each have a story! It is so amazing what all has happened to us in our first year together and seeing all of these pictures is definitely a reminder of how good God has been to us. This year has been both challenging and exciting and through it all God has grown us and our marriage. I am thankful for the challenges as they have made our marriage grow along the way. I am also so grateful for the amazing man God has given me to be a partner with me along the way. For this past year I am very thankful :)

I hope come up with 15 things I have learned throughout the year. These things I will forever remember about our first year of marriage ha!

In no particular order:
- How important it is to keep God in the middle of everything. You must let Him in EVERY part of your life in order to be truly blessed.
- How God will use your husband to challenge you to grow in Him
-How amazing it is to have a family of friends who make us feel right at home here in NC
-How fun date nights are even when you are married :)
-How important it is to create family traditions
-How the goodness of your job is not always measured by the work necessarily but instead by the amazing people you work with!
-How important it is to continue celebrating with your family in birthdays and holidays, even when there is a long road in between
-How much I love taking pictures to document our journey along the way :)
-How the 1st few months of marriage are really hard in transitioning, and some one forgot to tell me that! ha
-How important it is for you to grab your husband and know that it is you + God + him --> against everything else in the world.
-How important the church family is to your walk with God
-How important girl's nights/weekends are :) I miss my girl time for sure but JR has been wonderful and knows that it is important for me to have that time.
-How you can truly (and not just say so to be saying so) love each other more and more each day!
-How far away, yet becoming closer and closer the 6 1/2 hour drive can be
-How wonderful it is to have a partner in life, aka our new Team Isham! JR is always there supporting me and loving me even when I do not deserve it. I love you so much sweetie!

Congratulations to the Todd's

Jay and Christina Todd are very dear friends of JR and I. We attend the same church, Jay and JR work together and Christina is mentoring me. They have two precious little girls, Maisy and Lily and just found out today that baby #3 is a BOY! We are so excited for them because Jay definitely wanted a boy this time :) It will be interesting to see who this one looks like since Maisy is a Christina Jr. and Lily is Jay Jr. haha!

Exciting news in the Isham Household...

Just before Thanksgiving we will be expecting......

New Puppies!!! Haha of course not me expecting sillies :) This weekend we woke up on Saturday to find Major and Maddie doing what any two dogs do when one is in heat...
We really wanted to give Maddie a rest this go around and were not expecting her to go in heat until October, but she surprised us and therefore we will be welcoming more puppies into our home. God definitely has better plans than us though because we soon realized that they will be Christmas puppies!!! They will be born the week of Thanksgiving and ready to sell the week of Christmas!!! So that means if you know of anyone who needs the cutest present in the world, just send them this picture.

Enjoying the beautiful weather this weekend

This weekend we had some beautiful Fall weather here in Wake Forest. Saturday morning I spent outside cheering on for the flag football games with the girls. We had a great time watching all the SEBTS men enjoy the best sport there is :)


Then on Sunday afternoon, we had a church cookout. We have recently started going to Union View Baptist church in Franklinton and we love it. Our Sunday school group got together to enjoy some fellowship and what a better day to be outside! The kids enjoyed tee-ball, and the adult kids played football and horse shoes. There are a ton of little ones in our group so you can only guess where I was.... playing with the babies :)

Can we say exhausted?

I have always thought about doing this but never really had the time. Well last night my body made me make the time haha! This last month I have done nothing but go, go, go and my body hates me for it I think :) Last night after work I went home to lay down for a brief power nap so that I could get ready to clean my house that looks like a cyclone went through it. I laid down at 5:34pm and can you guess when I woke up? 11:28pm only to use the bathroom, put on my pj's and go right back to bed until 7:15am this morning. That is a total of 14 hours of sleep!!!! Needless to say I feel rejuvenated now and am ready to finish off this great week.

This week at work has been Sandy Creek Revival week. We have had 3 excellent preachers come in and speak at chapel and also had a Youth Night on Tuesday where about 200 teenagers from our community came. 12 received Christ of the first time that night... to God be the Glory!

This weekend I am so glad to say that we will NOT be traveling. It will be a catch-up weekend for JR and I, since we have fallen behind. Oh and of course there will be a nice long break Saturday at 3:30 to watch TN and FL duke it out. Yea not really sure if I want to run my mouth about it before the game or not because honestly since we dont have a defense, I am pretty sure it will be difficult for us to win. Nevertheless, I will have my orange on, shaker in hand, and will be singing Rocky Top on gameday... a true fan never stops doing that :)

Happy Birthday Tyler!

Today my little bro is 21! I am so incredibly proud of him and how he has become a young man over the years. He is a senior at UT and studying engineering, he is very handsome, and best of all he has a heart of gold :) He and I have been through a lot these last 21 years and even though we were not the best of friends in early childhood, I still loved those days. Here we are posing for a Christmas shot, I am 5 and he is 1 1/2.

A lot has changed since those days. Despite how much it looks like we like each other in this picture, we really didnt haha. I was a bratty big sister and he was a whinny little brother, definitely not a good combo :)
These last four years, he has definitely grabbed ahold of this big heart of mine and now we are the best of friends. I love how he still looks up to me as his big sis and will call me daily about anything. I love you bro... you are the best brother a sister could ever ask for! I look forward to many more great memories with you. Today we celebrate you and the wonderful man that you are. I love you!

Celebrating 21 with the bro

We celebrated Tyler's birthday on Sunday with a day at the lake. Yes Tyler you should switch those around, you are 21 not 12 :) He is a little excited can you tell?!?

All of the siblings

Crystal and Katie joined us for some fun on the jet skis too :)

It's great to be a TN vol!

This weekend we had a great time back in Tennessee witnessing the first TN victory of the season at home. We had our very first tailgating experience which made it a very eventful day. I will have to say that i had no idea how hard those things are to do. Luckily my husband is wonderful and I had so help getting things ready.. it definitely took a team effort. My mom, Sue and Mamaw Ann helped me with food prep and getting things together beforehand and then i had Katie, Crystal and Tiffany there to help me make it happen on Saturday. What was supposed to be a Phi Mu Alumni tailgate turned into an Isham friends reunion so it was great! We got to see so many college friends... it definitely felt like we were back home while in the Big Orange country :)

Our season tickets also proved to be great ones... and of course we won 39-19 so it was a great day to be a TN vol!!!

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UT has called in backup

All of you UT fans out there have no fear for tomorrow.... I am suited up and ready to help out our defense. Ok of course I am being ridiculous and this picture is crazy too but hey I would if they would let me ha! Lord knows they needed it last weekend :)

JR and I are headed back into town today after work. We are having a Phi Mu alumni tailgate before the game and expect to see many of old college friends so we are very excited! It is also Tyler's birthday celebration.. the big 21. Another fun-filled weekend in Tennessee...

I will be wearing my orange and be proud on Saturday.. finally putting to use the season tickets we have been waiting to use forever!!! GO VOLS!

What does a man have to do to study?

This post is mainly for Phillip because he was the wonderful brother who gave JR this light however I thought it was so hilarious driving home Monday night to look over and see my sweetie doing his very best to study even in the dark :) He is such a hard working student and hates to get behind, therefore with the traveling we do he has to do his reading on the road sometimes. This is his newest invention and way to get the job done. I love it!

Happy Birthday Papaw Vic

Sunday we also got to have birthday dinner for Mr. Vic, aka Papaw hah. Gosh I love me some Outback :)

birthday boy and granny reba

Robin and Bryant

JR, me and Phil

soon to be mom and dad, Leann and JC

Holding up his new t-shirt I made him!