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Happy Thanksgiving!

And let the Christmas music begin…!!

Dan, Bailey and I spent Thanksgiving Day with some extended Bruton family (Mom’s aunt and cousins to be exact) in a suburb of Dallas.  It was a great meal and a good time to catch up with the folks we lived with for the month of July.  There’s a new baby in the family, which always makes for a good time, and there were as many desserts as one could ever want in one sitting.  We discovered though, that while we were told not to bring anything but ourselves, we did have roles to fulfill…  Dan as the “resident holy man” (quoting Jodie) blessed the food and the afternoon, while I played for my supper on a beautiful baby grand piano.  It was a rough task, let me tell you!! 

Anyway, here are a few pictures from the day.  We both have the day off, but Dan is preparing for his Greek placement exam next Friday.  He could have two classes removed from his schedule!!

      

 

    

Family fun

As Dan said, I spent last weekend up in Kansas for Grandma & Grandpa Thengvall’s 65th wedding anniversary celebration.  We had quite the crowd, and I’m sure it made for great jokes at the hotel desk having so many Thengvall’s around.  6 of 7 kids, 7 of 16 grandkids, and 9 of 14 great-grandkids showed up for a great weekend. We ate, talked, shopped, talked while we ate, and ate some more! 

The dinner on Saturday evening was in a beautiful little home that has become a gift shop and cafe.  The upstairs was literally packed with Christmas decorations - even the bathtub had a rack of things for sale.  We had a wonderful dinner, a time of singing Grandma & Grandpa’s favorite hymns (during which I cried terribly) and a trivia game with all sorts of questions from the growing up years (during which we all laughed a lot!)  Apparently, once when Grandpa was candidating for a new pastorate, he was asked how many children he had.  He answered, “one and a half dozen.”  Think about it….

All in all, it was a fantastic time.  I told Dan it was probably good that he wasn’t there, as I was completely spoiled by my uncles and Grandpa.  I didn’t pay for a single meal or need for a ride anywhere, and left with multiple invitations back to Kansas.  Thank you for your love and generosity!!  It was so good to see everyone.  God be with you ’til we meet again.

      

                  

                                            

                                                            

Big Words

I’ve been learning a lot of big words since I came to Seminary.  After all, why use a 2 syllable word when you can use one with 5?  Here’s my favorite so far:

Home Alone, and other stuff

I’ve got the house to myself this weekend- Sarah has flown to Kansas City to celebrate her grandparents’ 65th wedding anniversary.  (Which is amazing to me.  Congrats on this milestone!)

It’s been a busy week with Sarah changing her schedule a bit for both the trip and additional responsibilities at DBU as accompanist for a senior recial Thursday night.  It was great to hear some good music.  I’ve been settling in to my new schedule, balancing classes and responsbilities at the church.  Thursday I went to Prestonwood Baptist to check out some new music coming out for churches in 2009.  This church is one of the largest in the nation, with some 26,000 people attending on a weekly basis.  What suprised me about the church is that not two blocks away from this mammoth place, there’s another church, with several thousand members as well!  Dallas certainly likes its megachurches.  For Sarah and I, PBC is a good size - around 500 on a Sunday morning is close to what I grew up with.   It all depends on your perspective, though - I’d imagine 500 is a large church for some people.

So anyway, I’ll be entertaining myself this weekend. I’ll probably scour youtube for some stupidly funny videos - if you know of any good ones let me know. This one made me laugh…

Obama Win Causes Obsessive Supporters To Realize How Empty Their Lives Are

New Job, New Car, New President

Over the past five months, I’ve been in contact with a church near Dallas, seeing if I might come on staff with them as a pastor of worship and music. Last week we finished the process and the congregation of Plano Bible Chapel voted, and I got the job! I started to settle into my office today. Sarah and I are looking forward to getting to know our new church family and ministering alongside them.

Because of the distance to the church and Sarah’s multiple jobs, we took the plunge and bought a new car. I really liked not needing a car in China. Too much hassle, too much money. Anyway, we’re now driving around a bright red Ford focus. It’s a fun car – I’ll take a picture and put it up here.

I’m watching the polls close right now, and it’s looking like Senator Obama is soon to be President Obama. I can’t get Bailey to care about it, though; when I told him, he just kept on working on his bone. I don’t know. Maybe he has the right idea. We voted early this morning and enjoyed our free coffees from Starbuck’s. I loved the idea of free coffee, though apparently giving something to people who voted is too much like a bribe and is therefore illegal. So Starbuck’s decided to give a tall coffee to anyone who asked. (What about the “I voted” stickers? Aren’t those bribes? I didn’t get one, by the way. I’m disappointed.)

UPDATE: I jut watched the reaction at an African-American church in Atlanta - Martin Luther King Jr.’s former church.  I can’t imagine what they are feeling what now.  Good for them.  Regardless of one’s views, such an amazing milestone has been reached tonight.