middle of the week project (and yes food is included)

So Mike is out of town this week and I decided to take it upon myself to paint our bedroom. When we bought the house, I wanted to paint every room. Needless to say, I didn’t get quite that far (I did however paint all the trim in the whole house). By the time I got to our bedroom, I had no more inspiration. So, this week while Mike was gone sounded like the perfect time to start.

Last night I was able to tackle all the cutting in of the primer. We’re going from a medium tone brown to a light yellow. Our room has minimal light, so the lighter the color (I’m hoping) the better.

Here’s the before and after for today. Please excuse the mess!

  

Then after that was completed, I decided to make Spanish Rice and chicken. Yummie!! And after that I really had a craving for chocolate ice cream. We’ve been making our own ice cream lately (THANKS B/B AND KELLY) so I only had vanilla… but I remembered a favorite trick of mine. Put one scoop of hot chocolate mix in your ice cream!! and BAM! Chocolate ice cream!! (please stir before consumption).

Truly a delight!

busy weekend

There has been quite a lot happening at the Dotson household (tennessee edition) recently. We have been doing car projects, shopping, going to a wedding, going to Rebec’s birthday dinner, suffering through the most amazing Andes Mint Cheesecake ever, going to church and youth group, doing the Amazing Race, playing ultimate frisbee and finally to top it off, community groups in the evening. (and this was all this weekend!)

Here are a few pictures

While we didn’t take any pictures at our friends wedding, I borrowed this one off facebook! They are a super awesome couple that we’ve come to know and love! (the guys wore All Star shoes! super fun!)

Congratulations Tim and Jill!!

When we got home, we tried to take some family pictures.

 

Avi decided  that she was way more interested in eating the grass than taking a picture, so this is the best family shot we could get!

Amazing Race is an activity the new senior high students do each year where they split into teams and race around town doing different fun activities. First, we played Book of the Bible Scrabble. Then (as documented below) our second stop was at the park to do some stretches and follow the leader blindfolded.

Our third stop was our service project where we have 30 minutes to work hard! Our host had us moving entire trees in his back yard but the brownies at the end and the smile on his face made it worth it for sure!

Our forth stop was corn hole and last was our random act of kindness. The students were given 10$ total and had to figure out a random act of kindness to do with the money. Our kids decided to buy a bag of Boy Scout popcorn and give it to a lady that they didn’t know at a nearby retirement facility! (we won for most creative!) And the lady was sooo excited! We finished in 3rd place overall but the kids had a blast for sure!

…to Texas and back…

Sooo…. we bought a car. Correction. We bought a car two weeks ago from a dealer in Texas. It was exactly what we were looking for and at the right price. We decided to have them ship it up to us to save a flight and the long drive. Well… after lots of pointing fingers, two weeks lapsed time and no straight answers from the dealer or the shipping company… we decided for Mike to go get it himself. This decision was made this past Friday at 2pm in the afternoon. So we purchased a ticket for Mike to fly down on the 6:30pm flight (that same day) and drive the car back.

He made it safely (no worries) and the car actually did exist. He drove and drove and drove all through the night (took about an hour nap along the way) and arrive back at our house in TN before lunch on Saturday!!! What a driving machine!

So here she is… our new addition to the family. 2004 Audi A4. The silver stud! (ok not sure if the name will stick but its the best I can do before 9am!

 

Mike has already completed a few projects on her (slight “repair” to the truck latch, which now works like a dram) (slight “repair” to the drivers door handle… not sure what he did but its perfect now! he’s not sure either… haha). We’re both dusting off our manual driving skills but she shifts like a dream so its making it a lot easier for sure!

On Saturday, Avi also had a play date with my friend Julia’s labradoodle Charlie. Here are a few of the cute one.

And a beautiful picture of our little girl.

Girls Night In

Here are a few pictures of what I was up to this weekend. The youth leaders planned a high school girls  “Girls Night In” and we got together and played games, did a photo booth, acted silly, had a short lesson, played more games, launched our “sisters” program, and ate wonderful lava cakes. Here are a few pictures of the wonderful girls I work with.

this years girls (most of them) having fun and being silly!

even crazier

last years girls looking crazy and cute =) miss yall!

We had a really great time!  We even had a What Not to Wear … leaders edition. Here are a few of the funniest =)

What Not to Wear… (1) to a job interview; (2) to a funeral; (3) to the prom

and two of my favorites… What Not to Wear… (1) in the city (but you can get away with it at Dollywood for sure!!) (2) on your honeymoon (she had footie jams on and acne cream and even a retainer!!) haha

travels to michigan

Thanks for you sweet comments on my last blog… it must have been a full moon or something because the men around here were crazy for a few days…

but now that things have settled down, here’s what we were up to this past weekend

Avi wanted to make sure she was coming with us to Michigan for our Annual Labor Day fun with Cedarville Friends. She did come with us, don’t worry, and even got to stay on the farm with Adam! She was sooo tired when she got home =) Thanks Adam and Dog!

  the boys were crazy on the tubes … you can see the white caps on the water in some of the pictures

we got some gas at the dock (it was freezing!! hardly made it to 60 degs on Saturday and the winds were insane)

 

we decided to go putt putting instead and it was super fun! best course ever with sand traps and green traps (you can tell I play golf right?!)

all in all it was a super fun weekend!

then on the way home the car cross over 200,000 miles!!!

Here’s a link to the rest of the pictures from the weekend.