So, I'm sitting in the living room of my in-laws surrounded by the most beautiful, antique furnishings with faint sounds of my wife practicing the intricate lines of Mozart, Mendelssohn, and Mahler in her childhood bedroom, reflecting upon the state of things as they are right now and upon how run-on sentences make for bad grammar. First things first...I cannot believe I've been married for only about 5 months. I know at first that probably sounds bad, as if the last 5 months have been long and grueling. Quite the contrary. I say 'only' because it feels like I've always been married to my wife. It didn't take long once we were married for it to be hard to imagine ever not being married to her. And I say that thankfully!
We find ourselves on the way to St. Louis for the 2nd and 3rd rounds of a violin audition for the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra. Two weeks ago, we were in St. Louis for the first round which followed weeks and weeks of practicing and preparation. She's been working so diligently. It makes me wonder if I've ever worked at anything in my life even half as much as she's worked towards audition preparations. Please pray for her...especially Tuesday.
So, I started a new hobby...home-roasting coffee. I posted an album on facebook if you haven't seen the pictures yet. It's the perfect hobby for me. There's so many variations of beans and blends as well as variables in the roasting process to keep me going for years. Home-roasted coffee is so fresh. You should find a local roaster that doesn't sell beans after their a week old. Lots of the stuff you buy in the stores is months old.
I'm really looking forward to going to Jamaica this summer with the crew. It's been a couple years since going last.
Well...that's about it. The Chicago Bulls put up a good fight against the Celtics and the Cubs are being the Cubs.
Peace out.

So long, Bachelorhood, it's been a wild ride,
But I go now to Kentucky to make my best friend my bride...

Confession time--This will be the 3rd Presidential Election since I have been given the right to vote. This will be the 1st time I will actually exercise that right. Yes, I suffer from voter apathy, but I want so badly to care more about politics and government. It's just when I think about it, I start worrying, and well, that's bad, too. I'm just not sure where to start, I guess. I have some questions stemming from some frustrations. I just don't know what I should do, but I realize I need to do something. Can you help me?

1. I get lots of email-forwards from Christians with politically charged messages. Does being a Christian automatically make me Republican?
2. And in these emails, hearsay, half-truths & quotes deliberately taken out of context are used to slander candidates & deceive voters. As a Christian, in how much of this should I be participating?
3. Obviously, I'm against abortion, homosexual marriages, etc, but I also see lots of proactive peace in the teachings of Christ--not so much war, you know. I agree strongly with parts of many platforms, but not one necessarily over the others. I find myself on both sides of the vote at times...is there an in between? What do you do when you want to make a decision, but can't decide?

Enough of the serious stuff...here's what's been going on!

Got a new apartment. I thought I'd decorate, so when Emily moves in in December it'll all be ready. She thinks I'm doing a great job ;-)


There's 3 new babies in my life! There's Elijah Vernor that belongs to Todd and Roxanne & Annaliese Elizabeth Joiner that belongs to Adam and Heather. Notice how Adam doesn't have a link to a pleo page...yep, he's a loser;) This is my precious niece, Haylee Louise Gillins. A couple weeks ago, I went up to IN to hold her for a while, and establish my presence of "Guncle Kevin" in her life. The Gillins Gang is growing. We've three nieces and gaining an Emily soon.


My church family is growing, too. Our preacher said months ago right after we appointed elders for the first time at our congregation, that it's been his experience that when this takes place, it seems like the church starts really growing. And that it has! We've been having more and more people from the neighborhood coming in resulting in saved souls. We've needed a giant shoehorn a couple times to slide people into pews on Sunday mornings. God is good and causing the growth.

Some sad news...the bestest best dog that ever lived, Kelly Jo Gillins, had to be put down a week ago. It breaks my heart still. We picked her out of a litter 15 years ago. She's now buried in the pet cemetary in our woods next to the bestest best cat, Tinker, that ever lived. Kelly is buried with 2 hot dog buns...her favorite treat.


Last, but by no means, the least, Emily and I are over the halfway mark in our engagement, and just when I think it's impossible to be more thankful to God for her, He shows me another reason why she's the bestest best soul buddy Tailor-made for this dude. God is so good & Life is so Good.

So, one day this girl named Emily walked through Kevin's front door. Kevin was suspicious. Obviously Someone was playing a trick on him. How could he be so attracted to a string player? By unwritten musical law, brass players and string players march to different drummers. But the overriding Force at play was greater than any of man's musical laws...so Kevin gave in and asked the afore mentioned Emily out for a romantic, lunch-break burrito at Chipotle's followed by donuts & coffee at none other than the original Krispy Kreme. He soon fell head over heals for her, but before she could completely fall in love with him, he had to pass a couple daunting tasks. He first had to grow a repulsive beard, and see if she could still look past the furry dead creature on his face into his eyes. The Zoolander facial expression and undocumented Elvis impersonation proved to be extra credit on this quiz.

The second task was to match 79 of her unmatchable socks...success.

The tasks, despite being both mentally and physically draining, proved only to further knit together their spirits. As time went on and the soul-buddiness strengthened between them, Kevin found himself thinking a lot about a question he wanted to ask her. So, he prayed and prayed, and waited and waited, and his answer came from the prophetic Sharpie of a Chipotle's burrito preparer...

Kevin kept praying and waiting, something he'd never really done before, and God began making things work. Kevin found himself sneeking off to jewelry stores on lunch breaks and planning the details for a night to remember.
It started off with a birthday pizza party at Elizabeth's pizza planned by Emily for Kevin's birthday. Little did she know at dinner, he had something round and sparkly wrapped up in a Jimmy John's napkin tucked in his pocket. The box was just too bulky and not easily concealed. Jimmy John's came through again for him.

They later went for a walk in Old Salem where they often found themselves walking and talking. The moon was bright and their favorite tree that grows mightily in the center of a cemetery was mighty that evening. His heart was beating so hard the throbbing vein in his forehead was causing her to suspect something was happening. So, gracefully he wobbily dropped to a knee, reached for the ring in the napkin...and you can probably imagine what happened next...She gave him the best birthday present he could ever ask for. He asked if she would spend the rest of her life with him, and she said "Yes, I will." Praise God!!!



Life is so good. God is so good. I am so blessed and ever so appreciative to God and to my bride to be Emily. The lesson, I guess, to those who have not yet found a soul buddy, keep praying and waiting, trusting and Hebrews 13:2-ing "Do not forget to entertain strangers, for by so doing some people have entertained angels without knowing it." An angel walked in my front door, and now I'm marrying her...

Well, it's Friday afternoon, on a 70degree day in January. The birds were really singing outside my shop window today, making me eagerly anticipate springtime, and well, it just felt like a good time to update. I see lots of shirts that say, "Life is good," and that it is. It was this time last year that I had quit my job and decided to go to medical school, and now, well, things didn't work out in anyway that I had planned...and I'm so thankful to God. This year, I've resolved to make less plans. I'm planning to love God, love my families, love my friends, love my enemies, love not knowing how this year will play out, and love Emily. I felt that keeping a theme would help me remember. Some of these, no doubt, will be more difficult than others, but I'm pretty confident that if I work really hard on the first one, the rest will definitely work out. If you get a chance, go say hello to my brother and sis-in-law, Kurt & Patty. Well, thought I'd just make a quick update. The front porch is calling me and my guitar...signing out, Kev