Not a creature was stirring not even a mouse.....

YEAH RIGHT! We all know how this Christmas story begins, but this holiday season it does not stand true in my house. We have been over taken by a little creature I'd like to call Ratatouille. It all started a few weeks ago when I was packing lunch for work and opened a kitchen cabinet door and saw an unexpected pair of big brown eyes looking back at me from the top of a Cheese Its box. Startled, I screamed a blood curdling scream, JUMPED, and ran out of the room! I desperately needed to finish getting ready for work but couldn't get myself down from the chair i was squatting on in the living room. I called my hubby in a panic only to have him laugh hysterically, then I called my mom, our next door neighbor, who came over with a hand full of mouse traps.

She set a few of the traps for me and as we were both peering into the cabinet she saw the mouse, we both screamed, jumped, and ran out of the room! Needless to say I DO NOT like mice. No matter how many Disney movies or Christmas stories they may be in, they are not my idea of a furry little friend.

And on top of it all this little pest has been stealing and hiding our dogs food! We have found it in the most random place! In towels stacking on a shelf, a vase filled to the brim, and oddest of all, our printer! Daniel had to take the whole thing apart because he would hear the rattling but couldn't see the dog food! Needless to say I have had it up to here (hand gesture to my head height) with this little booger! First I was scared, now, I'm flat out pissed! I told Daniel not to be surprised if he sees me chase it down with a broom or a butcher knife!

Beautiful Chaos

Beautiful Chaos is the only way I can think of explaining my life at this moment. With much prayer and contemplation Daniel and I both realized that even though we wanted to go through with the move to Atlanta neither of us have actually heard a definite yes from God. So we decide we would continue to live in the mountains until God opened doors for us to leave when he had planned. Since we would be staying we desperately needed to find a bigger place to live. We were quickly running out of room in the little house we were in and had no additional space for entertaining or guest.

My parents know a couple who owns a rental house next door to theirs and the current tenants were being evicted for not paying rent for a YEAR! It is a 3 bedroom, 2 bath rancher with a detached apartment. My dad did a little bargaining with the landlords and they lowered rent $150 a month for us! He told them we couldn't pay as much as they were asking but we did promise to pay once a month! The house needed a little fixing up and since Daniel works on houses for a living we came up with a deal to fix up the house in exchange for getting our first months rent free! We were going to rent the apartment out to my foster sister who was wanting to move out but with her current job being seasonal it put a little damper on the financial side of things. In the end we were able to rent it out to Daniel's best friend Caleb, a former marine, who is in school part time and working for my dad part time. Renting the apartment out helps us out and at the same time it was able to get Caleb out of his parents house.

We started working on the house mid October so that we could be moved in by oct 31st. The house was built in the 60s and wasn't insulated, so our first project was to insulate the house. We cut out 3 rows of holes between each stud on the outer wall of every room and used Blow-in insulation. Needless to say we had NO CLUE what a task this would be in the end! The only way to imagine the amount of dust this created in our house is to envision your house being put inside a snow globe full of dusk and shake it really really hard! It was EVERYWHERE! You couldn't come inside the house without a mask on. It was sticking to the guys facial hair, eyebrows, ears, everything! We all looked like we had aged about 50 years by the time it was all done. We were sweeping and vacuuming up dusk for days. And filling the holes was another huge task in and of itself. We patched and sanded for another few days and were finally done! We paint the inside of the house from top to bottom, literally, ceiling to baseboards! Daniel tiled 2 bathroom floors and one of the bathrooms showers. We fixed plumbing problems and muddy well water problems.

We have been moved in for about a month now and besides minor details we're having to take care of we love it! Our old house could have fit as a whole in this house's kitchen! It is so spacious and has tons of windows! I will hopefully be able to post some before and after pictures soon!

A lot of stress has come with this remodeling project and Daniel and I are both incredibly exhausted! My poor husband has been sick for about a week also and is just pitiful. Thankfully we've had the time this Thanksgiving weekend to just last around and relax.

Sorry it has taken me so long to post a new blog, but hopefully with explaining the current madness of my life you will cut me some slack!

Rambling at its finest!

Daniel and I have been married almost 2 months and time hasn't slowed down one bit. My head is still spinning and I can barely keep up with what day it is, let alone all of the things that have to be done on those certain days, by a certain time that i can't actually seem to keep up with. I just got used to writing May on everything and here we are a week into June! How did this happen?! Since I've been so bad about blogging lately this may be a random one.....

May 21st my neice and nephew celebrated their 1st birthday! They had a "pool" party and a major sugar high the following Saturday!

As far as work goes I have been permanently at the in-store branch closest to our home since May! I'm not driving all over town, never knowing what branch I'm going to be at the next day. This has been a huge blessing! It means I am generally home before 7:30 every night, but sadly we still don't get to sit down and eat dinner before 8:30ish unless it's leftovers :-( It has rained so much lately I hardly even remember what the sun looks or feels like, and I am in desperate need of some refreshing sunshine! All the rain we've had lately makes me long for a mid afternoon nap, usually during my lunch break, but alas if I did that I would probably not wake back up!

I am hoping in one of the upcoming weekends to get all dressed back up in my wedding dress and have my mom take some more pictures of Daniel and I, this time in Cades Cove! We have been wanting to do this since the wedding but haven't had the time. My mom took some beautiful pictures of my sister in law in her wedding dress there several years ago when her and my brother got married and I have been wanting the same done ever since! Hopefully we'll find the time soon!

Besides running around like a chicken with my head cut off I have been able to do a little crafting/refurbishing in my spare time. My mom and dad have had this old cabinet for years. It's always been moved from room to room and served many different purposes and I DESPERATELY needed its help in my little storage-less kitchen/dinning room! It was lugged up to my house one day and I began sanding it down to the bare wood. I sanded, and I sanded, and I sanded some more! Come to find out that's not green paint on the outside but green stain which had soaked into every pore of the wood! It took me forever to begin to see the light of day (or the natural wood) on this puppy! But finally I was able to paint, position, and fill this little cabinet which now is one of my favorite pieces of furniture in our house! I have filled the cabinet with baking necessities and some of my dessert dishes! And the finished results.....



Forgive me for how utterly random this blog has been but it has felt so good to get some of this out! I haven't done much writing lately but I think this little jaunt down memory lane may help! I've got too much information crammed in this little brain of mine so I need to write it down and make room for more!

Introducing Mr. & Mrs. Dobson!

I cannot believe how long it has taken me to update you all on the wedding! I don't have all my pictures back or tons of time to blog, but I thought I'd give you a sneak peak at what a gorgeous day we were blessed with for our wedding! We have been married 25 days which has passed by in a flash! Life has slowed down quite drastically but still has a ways to go. Most everything went according to plan for our Big Day and we were incredibly blessed with amazing weather! We went to Long Beach, CA for our honeymoon and got to stay on my Uncle and Aunts 71 ft yatch!
Talk about getting pampered! The weather was amazing and we caught up on some much needed sleep. I don't think we made it 20 minutes into any movie we turned on before falling asleep, I guess that can be expected from the swishing and swaying of the waves.

Under construction....

I am in the process of making a new and improved blog for the new and improved MRS. Dobson! :-) hopefully i'll be done soon!

Ten days and counting!

Daniel and I are ten days away from our wedding and we couldn't be more excited! The last few months have been incredibly busy and we've got stress up to our eyeballs! I never imagined how much goes into planning a wedding, not to mention all the other ducks you have to get in a row! Marriage license, rings, name change, insurance, premarital counseling, bridal showers, and so on! I think we have been moving non stop since 2009 arrived, and it seems to quickly be passing us by. It just seemed like the other day we were getting engaged and had almost 200 days to go. But finally the blessed day is within reach! Our family and friends have been so supportive and I know that they are just as ready for this day to get here and be done with! My mom said she's even taking a vacation when this is all over with! I can hardly even recall what has happened over the last few months that i should blog about, but maybe it will come to me one day and I will update you all then! I'm hoping to post some pictures soon of wedding projects I have been working on, not to mention the several pieces of furniture I have painted or am in the process of painting! We are slowly moving Daniel's things into my house, which is quickly beginning to seem much smaller than it did weeks ago...and it wasn't big to begin with! (refer back to my oldest posts where you will find a picture of the house...) We know we won't be here long, and that is a good thing, because the ceiling is barely tall enough that daniel doesn't hit his head on it and the walls are closing in ever so quickly as we carry more and more boxes in. Continue to pray for us as it is now crunch time and we are finishing up all the little details!

Love you all!
Future Mrs. Dobson :)

Life on auto pilot

It has been nine months since I moved back to Sevierville for the second time around. Once again I feel like my life has fallen back into the same humdrum routine. I work, eat, and sleep, and go to church on Sundays. Daniel and I are searching for a new church home and have found one that we like but it seems like lately either one thing or another has one or both of us out of town or for some reason we are running late, yet again. I rarely get the chance to hang out with friends, my time is crammed full of things that have to be done for the wedding or places I have to go or people I have to see in a limited amount of time. I feel like I have been running at full speed and this load won't be lightening up anytime soon. We are 2 1/2 months from our wedding and constantly on the move. I am in desperate need of a vacation, so our honeymoon won't get here soon enough!

This past weekend I was able to go to Atlanta to visit our friends Leonce and Breanna and their adorable little girl Eden. These are the friends that Daniel and I will be helping with a church plant in the near future. As I rounded a turn on the interstate and saw the skyline that extended for miles I was overcome with excitement. In a few months this big city will become our home, currently it is a road map of endless twist and turns and just like our lives I don't know what's around the next bend. I was overwhelmed with emotions most of the weekend. The realization that our lives are about to take a drastic turn from the norm.

I have no idea what to expect once we move, but I know for a fact that it will be an adventure. As I got to hear more of what Leonce's vision is for this church plant I felt honored that he wants Daniel and I to be a part of it. As I soaked in the bathtub Sunday morning before church the tears began to flow. They were full of sadness that I had to leave that afternoon, anxiousness about when we actually will be able to move, and disbelief that I will be involved in something that will truly change people's lives.

Leonce asked me at one point what i thought about being a minster's wife, and I told him it certainly is never the path I thought my life would lead. I am more than up for the challenge and I look forward to every minute of it though. I think back on how many pastor's wives and young adult leader's wives have changed my life and to think that now my life is now going to take that same or a very similar path. It amazes me to think back on where I used to be and see how far I have come in these past few years, even these past few months, and in some cases days.

As we were singing at church I became overwhelmed with this feeling of my life being on auto pilot. I became very saddened as I realized how greatly not being in church weekly and surrounded by Godly friends has taken a toll on my spirit. I have always struggled with being consistent with my quiet time and getting that weekly and bi-weekly pick me up has always helped. I am fervently praying now that over the next few weeks and months God will spark that fire back up inside of me. I know there is alot I have to learn about being a wife, partner, companion, lover, and friend to this wonderful man I am marrying. Please pray along with me that I will continually learn how to be submissive and respectful of my (future) husband. Little by little I am learning how to let my independence go and rely on Daniel who God has chosen to walk through life with me and lead me even when I don't want to follow.