Never Say Never

You may remember how excited I was to get FOX, an additional PBS station, and all the new digital channels when we bought our digital converter box last September. I was still happy with it after the storms last fall knocked out CBS for good. I was happy with it when ABC's signal would get delayed, and we'd have to endure multiple breaks in the action when we watched the evening news. The little black box on our entertainment center allowed me to watch (most of) my shows with a crystal-clear picture, something I certainly didn't have with the good ol' antenna. I didn't need the fancy channels like MTV, HGTV, or TLC. After all, I could watch most shows online (like The Hills) if I was desperate for the cable TV.

You see, I was fully embracing the simple-life approach to TV. Why pay a small fortune for a bunch of reruns or old movies on cable when you can enjoy plenty of good TV for free? And, really, why would I want to spend a lot of time in front of the tube when I could spend it hanging out with Dave or reading a good book?

Then there was the DVR. I heard about plenty of people who loaded up their DVRs with more shows than they could ever watch. I determined I never wanted to become a slave to a DVR. My avoidance of the electronic device was my personal anti-extravagant-technology statement.

But then I was invited to a friend's house to watch a DVR-recorded episode of 24 that we had missed due to a dinner out. It was nice to watch it 2 hours after it had aired and to fast-forward through the commercials. During the latest American Idol season, I had to wait until the next morning to find out who had gotten kicked off because I was at church when the elimination episode aired.

I became proud of the "old-fashioned" TV life I was leading, telling myself that the "sacrifices" I was making made me a better person. I would never get cable or DVR.

What's the saying? Never say never? I'm now laughing at the irony of my situation as Dave and I enjoy the benefits of cable and DVR. You see, when we were reviewing our budget and looking around for better options for the Internet, we heard many good things about the pricing and quality of AT&T U-verse. For only a bit more than what we were paying for just the Internet, we could get Internet and TV. How could we say no?

The first night we had it (Thursday), we stayed up until midnight watching TV. Last night, I was up until 1 a.m. exploring the different channels we now have. We've already recorded Man vs. Wild, The Soup, and Don't Tell the Bride, and we've set the DVR to record the weekly program from North Point Church in Atlanta so we can watch it on Sunday afternoon. I'd say we've already put our new TV options to good use.

Of course, all this TV fun will only be around until we have children. You see, I have always told myself that I will never allow my children to watch TV, and why would I pay for so many channels when we'll never watch it? ;-)

Memorial Day

In the tradition of posting updates a few days after holidays and/or events have happened, here is an update about what we did with our Memorial Day weekend. Sadly, I don't have pictures of our Saturday activities, but I'll tell you that we attended our first "Baby's 1st Birthday" party for a little boy from church. I don't care how many times I've watched a 1-year-old dig into a cake; it's hilarious every time.

On Sunday, we went to a Kane County Cougars game with our friend Julie V. It was a great game, and they even won! (I'd been on a losing streak with the Cougars.) The exciting parts of the game included the Zooperstars and the fireworks display that kept dropping bits of ash on the crowd. There's nothing like an added element of danger when watching fireworks.

Dave is now a baseball convert. Hooray!

Me and Julie V.

One of the Zooperstars

On Monday, Dave and I decided to have a day free of any social engagements. It ended up being one of the most relaxing days we've had in a looooong time. We slept in until 10 (this never happens), then went out for lunch, got our car cleaned, picked up a few petunias to plant, and spent some time at Game Works and Jamba Juice. It was a typical Memorial Day for Chicagoland--cold and rainy--but we had a fabulous holiday.

Dave playing the bowling game at Game Works

Me taking a shot at bowling with my hands

The perfect summer drink

I May Be a Bit Obsessed

I'm listening to Lady Antebellum's CD (the one I bought around 4 this afternoon) for the second time today. This doesn't include making Dave listen to "I Run to You" one more time before we headed out for our evening walk. Would you say I'm obsessed? (I won't even get started on how often I looked up the group on Last.fm this week and listened to their songs over and over again, or how I checked out their music videos on YouTube most evenings.)

Okay, maybe I am obsessed. But trust me, Lady Antebellum is good enough to listen to over and over and over again. I don't know how I missed this country group, but this late-bloomer has finally caught up, and boy am I glad I did! Their sound has a modern feel, but they're still undeniably country, with powerful lyrics and catchy melodies.

To give you a taste of my new favorite group, here's a video for "I Run to You." This song has been perfect for me to listen to this week as I've hit a few bumps in the road. Circumstances may hurt and people may disappoint, but I can always run to Dave (after God, of course!) for a hug and encouragement. May it always be that way.

It's Spring!

We've had a long, frigid winter in Chicagoland. We were dealing with snow only a few weeks ago! After months of staying outside only long enough to run from my car into the nearest building, I'd forgotten how much Dave and I love to visit one of our local parks. This particular park is the best. It has great jogging (or walking, in our case) trails, a few lakes, a couple of playgrounds, and baseball fields that almost always have a game going on whenever we stop by.

On a recent Friday night, Dave and I took advantage of the sunny, warm evening and made our first visit of the year to our park.

I love these digging contraptions! Apparently, Dave does, too.

Dave contemplating life as he gazes down the stream

Can you tell we work with kids?

The happy couple

Happy Easter!

This is coming a couple of days late, but as my sixth-grade Sunday school teacher would say, "Happy Resurrection Day!" This year, I've been reminded of just how important this holiday is for us as Christians. Christmas, also a good holiday, celebrates the birth of the One we worship, but most of the other religions on this planet have days they can celebrate the birth of their respective gods. Christianity is the only religion that can celebrate the death and resurrection of the One who came to save us. It is because of this key event in history that we can have eternal life. Hallelujah! He is risen!

The Gwynne family had quite the eventful Easter weekend. In addition to remembering the death of Christ and celebrating His resurrection, we hosted my college roommate Steph for the extended weekend. Below are a few pics from the last few days.

Steph (top left), Julie C., me, and Julie V. at Lincoln Park Zoo

Last year, Dave, Julie V., and I discovered a cute crepe restaurant in Lincoln Park. We made sure to stop there for some sweet treats when we went to the city.

Our first Easter together

This One's for You, Dad

For those not in the know, one of my favorite lines as a small child was, "Where's the beef?" Ah, yes, commercialism was already working its magic on me.

A Really Big Easter Egg Hunt

I was uploading pics the other night and realized that we haven't taken any since before I left for my missions trip at the beginning of March. Crazy! Yesterday was a busy day, and we were more concerned about making sure all our volunteers were where they should be than we were about taking pictures, so sadly, there is nothing to pictorially document our day. I will have to do my best to describe it with words.

Every year, our church hosts two outreach events. We have Fall Festival in October and our Really Big Easter Egg Hunt near Easter. Dave and I were already attending our church when we had Fall Festival, but since we weren't on staff yet, the Easter Egg Hunt was our first major event with the church as a part of the behind-the-scenes crew.

The craziness began the week I was away, so I was unaware of the time commitment involved in this event. For the last two weeks, however, I jokingly referred to myself as an Easter Egg Hunt widow. Dave spent many evenings at church working on this event. Even when we were together, his mind was in Easter Egg Hunt-mode. After running around buying prizes on Saturday, we were able to spend our first evening at home together in a long time. It was nice, but we couldn't relax too much since this event was the next day.

Set-up for the event begins as soon as the 11 o'clock service ends, and it is the craziest thing you've ever seen. Suddenly, our church's foyer is home to two inflatables and candy vendors, and our gym/worship center is turned into a carnival full of games, more inflatables, and food vendors. Tons of people fill every square inch of the building, and full (controlled) chaos ensues. It is quite an amazing sight.

Because Dave was officially the one in charge of the event, he was busy making sure everything was running smoothly with the help of the other staff members. I was assigned different tasks as the needs arose until I went to my egg-exchange post and then to my Scrambled Eggs game. In the midst of it all, we had (I think) three Easter egg hunts for the different age groups. We finished up the event with door prizes, and then the crowds of people left, and all that was left in the gym were the leftover games, deflated inflatables, and discarded candy wrappers. It was then our job to pick up all the trash, take down all the signs, and put away all the games. Last night, our team was finished in less than two hours. The church was put back together, and our tired bunch of staff members and some volunteers headed for home, ready to relax after a fun, fulfilling day.

The event requires hundreds of hours of work, but it is so worth it! One of my favorite parts about the event was seeing all the community kids there. Sure, I'm excited that the church kids were there, but I consider it a success when I see more kids I don't know than kids I see every week in church. It's then that I know we're doing a good job reaching out to the community.