Hi there friends,
Some of you may have already heard my good, good news, but I am engaged!
I would love for you all to meet him, and I sure that most of you eventually will, although I don't know exactly when (especially for those of you who are living abroad). He came home with me for Thanksgiving to meet my family and some of my friends; however since we were only in Augusta for 3 days, it was impossible to meet everyone. I will be in Augusta for Christmas, but he will be spending Christmas here in North Carolina with his family. Oh well, in the meantime, I will tell you all a little bit about him and our relationship.
Brook is 34 and is originally from Pennsylvania. He moved to Durham, NC after college. His older sister had settled in ths area and he had a job opportunity here at a computer software company, so to Durham he came and stayed. He grew up in a family that had some church affiliation, but no really strong ties. About two years ago, his best friend was going through a difficult time and the two of them decided to try out some churches together. After visiting Brook's sister's church and one or two other's they both found a church home and both committed their lives to Christ. From then on, Brook has continued to grow and change and reprioritize his life. He is an amazing, generous, kind, thoughtful, gentle, humble person, and I love him.
He and I have been seeing each other for nearly five months, which is a relatively short period of time. For the first two months we were just getting to know each other and I didn't really know how I felt about him beyond just knowing that he seemed like a nice guy. During month three things began to be more serious and intentional. I invited him home with me for Thanksgiving. We began seeing each other more frequently. He visited my church with me a couple of times. By month four I think we were both pretty sure that this was it
On December 6th he pulled out a ring and asked me to spend the rest of my life with him. I was suprised. I knew that the proposal was coming, but didn't know it was coming so soon! Of course I said yes. And that is about that.
We are planning for a wedding in October of 2009, more details will be provided in the future. Rodger Otero will be officiating the ceremony. Rodger and Angela will be doing premarital counseling with us once a month up until we get married, and Greenleaf Vineyard Church will be our church after we tie the knot.
Miss you all and hope your lives are going well! Please write and let me know how things are going with you!
Dottie Lee
Friday, December 19, 2008
Monday, November 10, 2008
A Great Time of Year
Fall in North Carolina is just beautiful. After a year of living here, I have decided that fall is my favorite season here. The colorful leaves just make driving to work and walking all my little doggies just an absolute pleasure.
Saturday I went for a scenic motorcycle ride with a friend of mine. It was my very first motorcycle ride. We drove out and about in some more rural areas with a lot of pastoral scenes to take in. It was really nice. I wish I had pictures to share, but riding a motorcycle and taking pictures at the same time is probably a bad idea. But I did see one crazy thing that I just had to share with you all. We were driving around somewhere in north Durham County. There were cow pastures galore. We saw all the typical animals you might see in such a setting. You know like cows, horses, sheep, goats, chickens, and even a donkey or two. However, there was one field that had three zebras just grazing away. So that was quite the unexpected suprise.
Sorry for two months of no posts. Life has been hectic and until very recently, I have not had a computer at my home. But thanks to my friend Philip, I now have my very own computer. YAY! THANKS PHILIP! So, hopefully, I will find the time to post a little more now.
Saturday I went for a scenic motorcycle ride with a friend of mine. It was my very first motorcycle ride. We drove out and about in some more rural areas with a lot of pastoral scenes to take in. It was really nice. I wish I had pictures to share, but riding a motorcycle and taking pictures at the same time is probably a bad idea. But I did see one crazy thing that I just had to share with you all. We were driving around somewhere in north Durham County. There were cow pastures galore. We saw all the typical animals you might see in such a setting. You know like cows, horses, sheep, goats, chickens, and even a donkey or two. However, there was one field that had three zebras just grazing away. So that was quite the unexpected suprise.
Sorry for two months of no posts. Life has been hectic and until very recently, I have not had a computer at my home. But thanks to my friend Philip, I now have my very own computer. YAY! THANKS PHILIP! So, hopefully, I will find the time to post a little more now.
Thursday, September 04, 2008
Mountains and Milestones
Mountains. . .
It's official, this whole working three jobs thing is killing me. 76 hours of work per week lately and I am dying. Don't get me wrong, it's not that I don't love my job as worship leader, like my job as a pet sitter, and sufficiently tolerate my job as a legal assistant. Also, I wouldn't say that any of my jobs are exactly high-stress jobs. It is just too much. I have next to no time for myself and I constantly feel like there are things I want to do as a worship leader that I just don't have the time and energy to do at the end of the day. I even find myself allowing things to happen in my life that I don't want and I know are no good for me, just simply because I am too tired to fight these things. . . does that make any sense?
Anyhow, I have no solutions yet, just needed to vent. Of course there are the obvious answers. . . don't work so much, cut back hours, learn how to say no once in awhile, and even quit the pet sitting job. But that opens a new can of problems. . . money. Sigh. This feels like a never-ending battle.
________________________________________
Milestones. . .
This Sunday Greenleaf is officially one year old! My one year mark of being in North Carolina is not until October, but Greenleaf had its first official meeting this time one year ago. It is an amazing accomplishment and I am so pleased that I got to be a part of this. Read Rodger's blog. I ditto his sentiments.
In our first year we have seen several people from many different backgrounds and walks of life come to be a part of this little family. We are blessed to have each other. I would feel so lost if it weren't for my church family. The older I get, the more I realize how much people need community. We encourage each other, correct each other, and point each other to God's love. It is a beautiful thing.
It's official, this whole working three jobs thing is killing me. 76 hours of work per week lately and I am dying. Don't get me wrong, it's not that I don't love my job as worship leader, like my job as a pet sitter, and sufficiently tolerate my job as a legal assistant. Also, I wouldn't say that any of my jobs are exactly high-stress jobs. It is just too much. I have next to no time for myself and I constantly feel like there are things I want to do as a worship leader that I just don't have the time and energy to do at the end of the day. I even find myself allowing things to happen in my life that I don't want and I know are no good for me, just simply because I am too tired to fight these things. . . does that make any sense?
Anyhow, I have no solutions yet, just needed to vent. Of course there are the obvious answers. . . don't work so much, cut back hours, learn how to say no once in awhile, and even quit the pet sitting job. But that opens a new can of problems. . . money. Sigh. This feels like a never-ending battle.
________________________________________
Milestones. . .
This Sunday Greenleaf is officially one year old! My one year mark of being in North Carolina is not until October, but Greenleaf had its first official meeting this time one year ago. It is an amazing accomplishment and I am so pleased that I got to be a part of this. Read Rodger's blog. I ditto his sentiments.
In our first year we have seen several people from many different backgrounds and walks of life come to be a part of this little family. We are blessed to have each other. I would feel so lost if it weren't for my church family. The older I get, the more I realize how much people need community. We encourage each other, correct each other, and point each other to God's love. It is a beautiful thing.
Tuesday, August 12, 2008
Craigslist is good for almost everything, but . . .
. . . buying a car on craigslist just seems too scary to me. Perhaps I am paranoid, but the people that emailed me back about my interest in the car they advertised have all seemed completely skeezy. Sigh. As if the car dealership people seem any less skeezy. But I don't know what a good alternative is. Double sigh.
Anyhow, I am coming home to Augusta this week. I leave tomorrow after work and will stay till Sunday. I am looking forward to it. Seeing family and old friends. Good stuff. I am praying my good old Honda survives the trip :)
Anyhow, I am coming home to Augusta this week. I leave tomorrow after work and will stay till Sunday. I am looking forward to it. Seeing family and old friends. Good stuff. I am praying my good old Honda survives the trip :)
Wednesday, August 06, 2008
In the Market for a Car
I am hunting for a car (of course on Craigslist). I just emailed a guy named Michael Bolton about a car he advertised on Craigslist. It made me giggle.
Sunday, August 03, 2008
No wonder I am exaughsted. . .
I finally sat down to calculate it out. I have been working 70 hour work weeks for the last six weeks. So that explains why I have turned into an old lady who goes to bed at 10 PM on Friday and Saturday nights. I am tired and I feel that I have earned it.
In other news, my roommate moved in about a week ago. She is great. We get along really well, as I knew we would. The poor girl is already freaking out about the work load and she is just one week into her Phd program. So she will probably be a hermit who has very little time for fun, but hopefully every now and again we will get to do some fun stuff together. At any rate, it is just nice to have someone to split the bills and someone to come home and share funny stories with.
Yesterday, I got to go to a baby shower for one of my college roommates. Normally, I don't really like baby showers, but I have to say that this one wasn't so bad. There was only one baby game and that was a word puzzle. I won of course because I do word puzzles almost every night before I go to bed to help me fall asleep. So I won a bag of chocolate (nice chocolate at that!). You can't beat that with a stick. After the game and the presents, Shannon (the mother-to-be) got to ask any questions on motherhood that she had and glean advice from all the experienced mothers in the room (which of course didn't include me). This portion of the party was both interesting and disgusting. It reminded me of how glad I am that I myself am not pregnant and not about to go through all of this weirdness. The shower was about an hour drive for me (in Wakeforest), so to make the trip a little more worthwhile I stayed after the shower for a bit to spend some time with my old roomie. I helped her with some set up for the baby's nursery and we had some good girl talk. Again, you can't beat that with a stick. All in all, I had a really great time.
I will have some time off of work in mid August and I will be going home. So for all you Augustans, I hope to see you while I am there. I'll be around from the evening of August 13th through the afternoon of August 17th.
In other news, my roommate moved in about a week ago. She is great. We get along really well, as I knew we would. The poor girl is already freaking out about the work load and she is just one week into her Phd program. So she will probably be a hermit who has very little time for fun, but hopefully every now and again we will get to do some fun stuff together. At any rate, it is just nice to have someone to split the bills and someone to come home and share funny stories with.
Yesterday, I got to go to a baby shower for one of my college roommates. Normally, I don't really like baby showers, but I have to say that this one wasn't so bad. There was only one baby game and that was a word puzzle. I won of course because I do word puzzles almost every night before I go to bed to help me fall asleep. So I won a bag of chocolate (nice chocolate at that!). You can't beat that with a stick. After the game and the presents, Shannon (the mother-to-be) got to ask any questions on motherhood that she had and glean advice from all the experienced mothers in the room (which of course didn't include me). This portion of the party was both interesting and disgusting. It reminded me of how glad I am that I myself am not pregnant and not about to go through all of this weirdness. The shower was about an hour drive for me (in Wakeforest), so to make the trip a little more worthwhile I stayed after the shower for a bit to spend some time with my old roomie. I helped her with some set up for the baby's nursery and we had some good girl talk. Again, you can't beat that with a stick. All in all, I had a really great time.
I will have some time off of work in mid August and I will be going home. So for all you Augustans, I hope to see you while I am there. I'll be around from the evening of August 13th through the afternoon of August 17th.
Wednesday, July 16, 2008
The Conference
I just got back from the annual South East Regional Vineyard Worhip Leader's Conference. Wow. Just so much to process. I had a really good time of getting new ideas and refocusing and being inspired just by being around all these other artsy-fartsy creative types. I feel rejuvenated as a worship leader and as a church leader and as a Christian and as a human being in general (that's alot isn't it!).
So now I am left to the task of taking all this energy and momentum I got this weekend and putting into work in a practical and sustainable way. I am in the process of writing down all my action points. I may write a post more about this later, we'll see.
_________________
In other news, the pet sitting mania is starting to die down. I am grateful for this and also a little apprehensive. On one hand, my life has seemed to be spiraling out of control over the last month with all the busyness. There was about a week or two there where I was house sitting for five different people all at the same time. This on top of a full-time job and church responsibilities was just insane, literally more than I could possibly do. Thankfully, Rodger and Angela have picked up the slack for me on some of the church work this month, which helped me maintain some form of sanity. So all this to say that, time wise, I am glad to be down to two pet sitting jobs for the next two weeks and after that, I am down to my one regular dog walk during my lunch breaks.
But I must say that the extra income from all this work has been good. Really good. I am thrilled that I am actually able to save money and not just scrape by! So with pet sitting going down now that the summer vacation season is coming closer to an end, I do have my concerns about what this will mean financially, but c'est la vie. I will figure it out.
_____________________
The new roommate comes in about a week and a half!
Now that I am a not soooo busy with pet sitting. I am working on all the final touches of making my apartment roommate friendly and finding the last few furnishings for her room. The main things left to do are:
1. Find a dresser for her room.
2. Assemble the etagere (sp?) for the bathroom. It is a fairly small bathroom and we girls need all the useable bathroom space we can get!
3. Figure out a good shelf arrangement for the kitchen. There sould be plenty of space in the kitchen for the two of us, I just need to rearrange all my junk to give her some space.
4. Rearrange the living room (again). I recently acquired an entertainment center (for free!), so now I just need to figure out how to make my furniture all work together.
5. Get all my junk out of the closets in the extra room and find new "homes" for it all. There should be plenty of space for everything. I just need to work it all out.
So these are my jobs for this Saturday, primarily. I may find some time to get some of these things accomplished in the evening when I get home from work, but usually I am not capable of much mental activity at the end of the work day. So trying to follow the instructions to assemble my etagere is just completely out of the question until Saturday rolls around.
So now I am left to the task of taking all this energy and momentum I got this weekend and putting into work in a practical and sustainable way. I am in the process of writing down all my action points. I may write a post more about this later, we'll see.
_________________
In other news, the pet sitting mania is starting to die down. I am grateful for this and also a little apprehensive. On one hand, my life has seemed to be spiraling out of control over the last month with all the busyness. There was about a week or two there where I was house sitting for five different people all at the same time. This on top of a full-time job and church responsibilities was just insane, literally more than I could possibly do. Thankfully, Rodger and Angela have picked up the slack for me on some of the church work this month, which helped me maintain some form of sanity. So all this to say that, time wise, I am glad to be down to two pet sitting jobs for the next two weeks and after that, I am down to my one regular dog walk during my lunch breaks.
But I must say that the extra income from all this work has been good. Really good. I am thrilled that I am actually able to save money and not just scrape by! So with pet sitting going down now that the summer vacation season is coming closer to an end, I do have my concerns about what this will mean financially, but c'est la vie. I will figure it out.
_____________________
The new roommate comes in about a week and a half!
Now that I am a not soooo busy with pet sitting. I am working on all the final touches of making my apartment roommate friendly and finding the last few furnishings for her room. The main things left to do are:
1. Find a dresser for her room.
2. Assemble the etagere (sp?) for the bathroom. It is a fairly small bathroom and we girls need all the useable bathroom space we can get!
3. Figure out a good shelf arrangement for the kitchen. There sould be plenty of space in the kitchen for the two of us, I just need to rearrange all my junk to give her some space.
4. Rearrange the living room (again). I recently acquired an entertainment center (for free!), so now I just need to figure out how to make my furniture all work together.
5. Get all my junk out of the closets in the extra room and find new "homes" for it all. There should be plenty of space for everything. I just need to work it all out.
So these are my jobs for this Saturday, primarily. I may find some time to get some of these things accomplished in the evening when I get home from work, but usually I am not capable of much mental activity at the end of the work day. So trying to follow the instructions to assemble my etagere is just completely out of the question until Saturday rolls around.
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