Birthday Boy

You'd think that starting a new job would be enough excitement for one week, but we cheeky Gwynnes don't settle with only one exciting event a week. In addition to starting a new job, my husband turned 24 this week (more accurately, today). He spent most of his day working hard, but we made sure to celebrate tonight with dinner at Chili's and Quantum Solace at the cinema, thanks to a gift from our friends Matt and Leah--and their boys, Nate and Ben.

I'm so grateful for such an amazing husband. He is extremely understanding and patient with me, even when I'm being irrationally emotional (yes, it happens). He's great with kids, and it's clear that God is using him to reach out to the kids of our church and the surrounding area. He shares my love for Target, and he's gracious enough to let me window shop at the mall without complaining.

I could go on and on about how great my now-24-year-old husband is, but it's getting late, and I need to join him for our nightly tradition of devotions and reading before bedtime. For now, I'll leave you with a pic of my hubby from tonight, when we creatively celebrated by eating a Little Debbie Christmas brownie in honor of his special day.

Happy Birthday, David Thomas!

Party Time!

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Hired!

I have officially entered the American workforce.  No longer am I a man of leisure.

On Monday, the kind people at the USCIS legalised me for work.  The culmination of a multitude of paperwork and three months of waiting resulted in a snazzy looking, but poorly named, 'Employment Authorisation Card'.  

The card features such exciting details as a very long immigration number, my date of birth, my photograph and my fingerprint.  We all know that fingerprints are the first thing any prospective employer will want to see.

On Friday, the even kinder people at Evangel Church in Hanover Park, IL hired me as their new children's pastor.  Staff photos, a Thanksgiving dinner and two church services followed shortly thereafter.  Erin and I are both exceptionally excited about this new adventure.  The highlight of my weekend was the children laying hands and praying for us in this new role.  We're looking forward to getting to know them all much better over the coming months and years.

Tomorrow will be my first day in the office as a staff member.  Photos will follow soon.

The Digital Transition

A Quick Hello

We've gone more than halfway through November without an update. Eek! I promise a more thorough update will be coming, complete with pictures. Since you last heard from us, we've dressed as pirates for our church's Fall Fest, gone bowling with the guys (well, Dave has), voted in the General Election (well, I did), attended another book group to discuss this book, and finished up the fall term of our small group with a games night, so there's plenty to talk about.

Taco Bell Bell Bell

Never let it be said that I have forgotten my Scottish roots.  I may be in foreign lands, but I'm as stingy as ever.

This week, taking advantage of a special deal at Taco Bell, the Gwynne family kicked into savings mode and crafted a ingenius plan to save money.  Taco Bell restaurants were giving away free tacos - one per customer - on Tuesday.  Nice, right?  Well, not really.  Given that most customers will buy additional items (i.e more tacos or soda) Taco Bell actually probably turned a good profit, if not broke even, on their kind gesture.

The Gwynne family, however, are not most customers.  Armed with cans of soda (which were also free, given that they were left over from Fall Festival at church), we planned to travel to not one, not two but three Taco Bells.  At each location, we would receive our free taco then move on to the next location to make up the three tacos that would normally constitute a meal at Taco Bell.

Well, we didn't make it to the third Taco Bell due to time constraints, but we certainly saved some money.

Dinner for two = $1.92

Busy, Busy!

The lack of posts certainly can't be attributed to a boring, dull life in the Gwynne family. Our activities have picked up in the last month or so, and we're having a blast with the opportunities that God has given us to serve in our church, make new friends, and hang out with the old ones.

We've only been attending our new church for less than two months, but we feel it's our home already. We have a great small group that we host on Saturday nights, and after only two meetings, we can tell it's becoming a place where people can take off their masks and share what's on their hearts. I've begun working with the four- to six-year-olds on Sunday mornings and am having a grand old time dancing with them during worship, teaching them about Jesus, and, of course, playing with Playdoh and coloring with them. Dave and I are grateful that God led us to this church so quickly (it was the first church we visited on our search).

Since I usually include pictures with my posts, here are some of us enjoying the beautiful fall weather.

Dave admiring the fall foliage

We went for a picnic yesterday.

I love walking through the leaves.