Today, I am reminded again how much the devil is out to get us. Just a little over a year ago, it seemed liked everyone my age was getting married. It was just after college and for those who had been in relationships, a perfect time to get married. Thousands of dollars went into planning this special day. Everything had to be perfect down to the last flower pedal. The day of, the brides got up early, were probably pampered by everyone, had some kind of a brunch, and slipped into the gown that they had dreamed of their whole lives. …Soon she would be Mrs. (Insert name here.)

Months later, (or even on the honeymoon) some were probably struck with the grim reality that they were stuck with this person FOREVER!!!! For some, I’m sure this is a wonderful euphoric feeling. For others, not so much.

Now speaking from a more personal standpoint, marriage is not for sissys. It sometimes takes every ounce in me not to want to say, “forget it, I’m done.” Isaiah and I had a rocky start. Adjusting to married life was not the bowl of cherries that I thought it would be at times. It was more like a bowl full of something else. There were times when I didn’t know if we would make it. Honestly, there were times when I didn’t want to make it. But then I remembered my vowels. I remembered 1 Corinthians 13, more importantly the verse that talks about love keeping no record of wrong. Isaiah and I thought that we should get some help in sorting out some of our differences and expectations of marriage. A year and some change later, we have come a LONG way from the starting line. Satan tried every angle to get into our marriage, and succeeded on many occasions. I know that he will continue to try to pry his way in over and over again. I believe now, we are better equipped to handle this intrusion.

All of  this is spurred from a realization that Isaiah and I have been making over the past several months. Seven, yes I said SEVEN, couples that we know, who have been married about the same length of time that we have, are no longer married. This is just how many I can think of right now, there are probably more. This number is staggering to me! Satan is the boogie man and he is lurking in the shadows to try to tear apart what God has brought together for his glory!

So far, school is going quite well. I’ve made A’s on quizzes so far and things are looking up. I have a favor to ask you though…If you can answer this question, I will make you cookies or brownies or whatever you like.

“Do the less than and greater than relations possess a symmetric property similar to the symmetric property of equality?  Defend your answer.” So I know that the answer is “no,” but I’m not really sure why. My math teacher said it’s really a simple answer, but I don’t know it. If you can help me answer this, I’ll get bonus points on my test on Wednesday!

In other news, I got a job. I will be working at a daycare in the infant class. I’m not really sure why they call it a class though. When thinking of the word “class,” I think of being studious at a desk with a pencil…not spit up, bottles, and diapers. Nonetheless, this is where I will be and I am quite happy about it!

The Addy Awards are this weekend. For those of you non graphic designers/advertisers, the Addy’s are like the Grammys of advertising. I am proud to say that Isaiah’s first year in the “biz” he has won gold on one of his projects! We already know this because his company is the one hosting the event. You should go to the website and check it out! http://www.addychoicecuts.com/index3.php It’s called the Butcher Shop because many good ideas get butchered by clients who think that they know better and bosses who have no background in design or advertising. All that said, it should be a great event! Everyone congratulate Isaiah on his accomplishment on pulling off this event and his Addy Award!

Oh, and don’t forget about my math question!

2010 has been a year a change already. The first week of January, I was voluntarily terminated (I know, I’m retarded). It was a huge leap of faith. See, Isaiah and I had been planning a trip to California to see his family and some friends for quite some time. Between the original planning and January, I decided that I wanted to go back to school. It was taking forever for all my transcript (from all six colleges that I had attended) to get to the college and there was Christmas break in the mix. Basically, it gets really complicated so I’ll spare you all the details. Long story short, I quit my job before I knew if I had gotten accepted to school because of the timing of our vacation.

The vacation was wonderful! We stayed with some friends of the Sames, Paul and Diane Millar. They live in Sonoma, CA in a beautiful house with a nice pool, hot tub, and a vineyard in the front yard. Paul told us all about the process the vines and making wine. Isaiah got to try out trimming back some of the vines. We also got to drink some of the wine from the front yard. Paul found a guy on craigslist that was looking for grapes. They worked out a trade; Paul would give him the grapes for a few cases of the wine. We got to spend some time in San Francisco on several different occasions. Isaiah had most of the pictures still on his computer, so I don’t have many to show you right now. Maybe later. We took a walk on the beach, walked the Golden Gate bridge and drove down Lombard Street, (you know the really curvy, windy, one?) and we were shown around the city by a local, which was really fun!

The day before we came home, Isaiah and I went back to San Fran to spend some time by ourselves. We accidentally walked to China town. Our intention was to take the bus, but we couldn’t find the bus stop. We were on a mission to find some dim sum, so we walked…2 miles. The dim sum was well worth the walk! The rest of the day, Isaiah’s iphone saved our feet. Thank you google maps app, which gives you walking directions, bus directions, and driving directions! I left a ton of stuff out, like our trip to Yosemite, and the wineries, but I’ll have to save those for another post! More beautiful pictures to come!

Oh yeah, I got accepted into the master’s program at Montevallo University in Elementary Education and I started last week!

This will be a Thanksgiving of many firsts. Today, I had the honor of buying my first Turkey. I was not a natural at this task, as I had to call my big sister for some pointers and ask for directions in Costco as to where these rather larger festive birds were to be found. But, now I am happy to say that I can check this task off of my “I’m a grown-up now” list. The next thing that will be checked off is hosting Thanksgiving at my house. If not for my sister, I would be in freak out mode trying to get ready for this occasion. My sister, brother-in-law and nephew will be arriving on Tuesday to get the ball rolling on food preparation. My dad, step-mom and her two grown children will be coming in on Wednesday night from Colorado. Lucky for them, they just have to show up. I don’t think sweet potato casserole would travel well in the cargo hold of a 737.  Despite the stress of being the hostess, I am very exciting to be spending this holiday weekend with my familiy…and there is a little pride involved with having everyone here. (Except Mom and Bill, I will miss you dearly and look forward to spending Christmas with you soon!) So, I’ll let you know how everything goes! I have faith that everything will be just fine…and if there is a little bump or two, no worries.  Happy Thanksgiving to all!

So apparently, I’m the worst blogger in the history of blogging. So what’s happened since my last post? Well, three seasons have come and gone and a few other things have happened. I will not bore my one reader with useless news over the last 8 months. So I will give you the highlights, with mostly pictures.

We started out summer with a few birthdays. I threw a luau party for Isaiah and we grilled out with some friends and had some yummy cocktails.

Just a few weeks later we celebrated my birthday. Mom and Bill came down to Birmingham and we went to Oak Mt. State Park for a hike and a picnic. For dinner that night we went to Stix for sushi.

For our summer vacation, we went out to Longmont, Colorado. The weather was perfect and the price was right. We were blessed enough to get buddy passes for our flights and we stayed at my dad’s house most nights. We used his house as home base and took day trips around the area.  We did an overnight over Trail Ridge Road, that was pretty amazing. I believe its the highest pass in the U.S.? Maybe I made that up. We spent a day in Longmont and went to my favorite place, the cheese store. We also went to Boulder and went skydiving one day.  Toward the end of our stay, Dad took us on a hike up to a snow melt lake. It was a beautiful and eventful hike. The goal was to end up, above the tree line, at a crystal clear blue lake filled by snow melt. I think it was somewhere around a 6 mile hike, not bad right? Well, throw a thunderstorm will hail and the whole nine yards in the mix. It made things a little more interesting.  Up at 11 thousand feet in the middle of a storm is not the safest place to be. We obviosly all made it out alive and are here to tell the story.

The last bit of news is really not news at all, just a few pictures of some recent home improvements. We got some new window treatments, an entertainment center, and we are trying to pick out a paint color for the stairs. We have finally picked one of the 6 colors that you see. You’ll have to invite yourself over to see what we went with!  I’m not making any promises but I will try to post again within the next year or so. : )

We are almost exactly one month away from move in day!  Praise God, everything went well with the inspection and the seller is going to fix the things that we requested!  The repairs are relatively minor which is good. The house should not be falling down any time soon.  Isaiah and I have been pouring over paint colors trying to find the perfect shade. Who knew there were 99 different shades of yellow?! We have about a week between closing and when we have to be out of our apartment. During this time, we are going to try to do as much painting as possible while there’s no furniture in the house. Hopefully we’ll be able to get everything done!  We are VERY excited about moving into our new home. I have added a few pictures to give you a little idea of what we will soon call HOME!

On to other news:  We’re pregnant! Ok, just kidding, that was mean. Sorry. 

This year, Isaiah and I indulged in the $220 million industry of Valentines Day. We made a weekend out of it. Friday night we went to see “He’s Just Not That Into You” and went to the Cheesecake factory for dinner, I picked the movie. Saturday, we were homebodies all day, lounging in our PJs and cooking a fantastic steak dinner at home. Then, Isaiah surprised me with tickets to the symphony! It was amazing! The orchestra played timeless love songs accompanied by an amazing vocalist who sounded just like Sinatra! It was a perfect evening. On Sunday, I asked Isaiah to leave the house for a few hours to prepare my Valentines surprise. I arranged a scavenger hunt around our apartment with some treasures to enjoy. I think Isaiah enjoyed himself and I had fun preparing!

Isaiah and I are approaching our 2 month mark (10 days away!).  At times, our marriage has been blissfully wonderful; holding hands, snuggling close, little kisses and “I love yous.” But then it seems that things can turn on a dime! Why is this? How does this garbage end up in our paradise? Well over the past few days i have been on a journey of self discovery and i have come to the realization that i have worm infested fruit. My fruits of forgiveness, contentment, and caring (and pride but its not a fruit) are skewed. For so long things have been all about me. Since our marriage I have let my pride get the better of me far too often. Last night, I read the familiar story of Joseph and the coat of many colors. He was so full of himself, that his own brothers wanted to first kill him, but then ended up selling him into slavery. “God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble.” -James 4:6 

My sister  once told me, “You don’t know how selfish you are until you get married. But then you really don’t know how selfish you are until you have a baby.” Really? I”m going to become MORE selfish than I already am? Is that actually possible? Although a few weeks late, Isaiah and I have made a new years resolution (its really more like a resolution for the rest of our lives together though, so i guess its OK that it is 2  weeks late), we have finally identified our own faults and we think we know what we need to do to avoid them taking over our marriage. Please pray for us and encourage with Godly counsel that we may bring pleasure and glory to God through each other and our lives on this earth.

 

As the holidays approach Isaiah and I realize how blessed we truly are. We have wonderful families, a nice roof over our heads, at least one job, and the unfailing love of our Savior. Our wedding was perfect! Everyone and everything showed up on time (Dad was a little late for the pictures but I’ll let it slide this one time), the pictures were amazing (http://imelyphoto.com search for Brittany and Isaiah under “events”) and a good time was had by all! Following our wedding we went on a Princess Cruise to the Eastern Caribbean. We had a great time! The first couple of nights the seas were pretty rough, but then things (our stomachs being one) settled down and the rest of the trip was smooth sailing. A few of our interesting destinations were the islands of St. Martin, St. Thomas, and Grand Turk. While in St. Martin we rented a cab for the day and explored the island. Our cab driver took us all over this Dutch/French Island. One of our stops along the way was a nude beach! Why do old people like to be the most naked?! Our next island was filled with day swimming with sea lions. This was pretty fascinating. They played soccer with us, kissed us on the cheek and jumped over our heads. The jumping was pretty scary. Sea lions are not the most elegant jumpers, they’re no Flipper. At Grand Turk we went snorkeling and swimming with sting rays. We got to pet and feed the stingrays. We were in the open ocean probably 10 sting rays came up to us for feeding. It was pretty amazing. We had a wonderful time on our honeymoon and no one went hungry in the least. One night after dinner, we were presented with the dessert menu and literally could not make up our minds. So…we ordered 4…and finished every single one of them! Best night of dinner by far!

                One to more recent news….

I still have no job. I am still fervently looking and have gotten a few small bites, but still nothing. I am trying to stay positive and remember that my life is in God’s hands. We are very thankful that Isaiah has a great job that keeps food on our table.

We are spending Christmas at Steph, Mike and Elliot’s house. Dad, Janet, and Katie will also be there and we are SO excited to spend time with them this Christmas!

So, I have finally taken the plunge. I frequently ready other people’s blog but never thought of having one myself. I guess I think my life is “blog worthy” now. My wonderful fiance’ (I’ll only have to use that word for 4 more days!) got me an awesome video camera for my wedding gift! I had been talking about them for a while and almost bought myself one of those cheap, flip cameras…he picked up on this and surprised me tonight with my very own Sony HD video camera!

I’m leaving town tomorrow to get married, so I should really be packing and getting everything ready for the big plunge into married life!