Happy Birthday, Grams!

Psalm 23
The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.
He makes me lie down in green pastures, He leads be beside still waters.
He restores my soul...
Surely goodness and mercy will follow me all the days of my life
And I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.


In reality, Grams will probably not see this post, but I wanted to share with you all that she is turning 91 today! Grams is Travis's grandmother (on his dad's side), and as a lot of you probably know, she had a stroke at the end of August. It has been a long and difficult road for her and for our family. But, her progress has been amazing and is truly an answer to prayer.

Grams is living at a wonderful assisted living now that is a 2 minute drive from Travis's parents. Before her stroke, Grams lived alone in her own house, walked a couple of miles each morning, and had a pretty impressive garden, all at age 90. This has definitely not been an easy transition for her. But with the AMAZING care and support of the Wussow family, she gets better and better every day. Travis and I are so blessed to even play a very, very small part in helping and encouraging her in recovery. We look forward to every day that we get to spend with her. We love you Grams!

Obama-mania

Obama boasts a 62% approval rating in Texas. That's pretty good considering 23% of us are convinced he is a Muslim.

I've been tagged?

I've been tagged by Leah Gibson. I would like to make it known that I will not make a practice of participating in blog games, but I didn't want to dis Leah who made such a great effort to type out that Keller quote.

This is the tag game.

[1] Grab the nearest book.
[2] Open to page 56.
[3] Find the 5th sentence.
[4] Post the text of the next 2-5 sentences and these rules.
[5] Tag 5 peeps!

And this is the funny part. I technically did this while I was at work (the book-opening part), and the closest book was a manual on water rates. Totally boring. And page 56 was a giant table with numbers, no sentences. Joke's on me.

Do I still get to pass the game on? I feel like I have been disqualified by my own nerdiness.

Now that is what I call Christian music

I got Travis the Welcome Wagon album, Welcome to the Welcome Wagon, for Christmas, and it is amazing. It is great if you are like me and you would prefer to listen to music about Jesus but you would also prefer that your music isn't totally lame. The group is a married couple, and he is a presbyterian minister in Brooklyn, NY. And, it is produced by Sufjan Stevens. If you like Sufjan, and you like Jesus, you will like this.

I have posted the lyrics to my favorite song on the album, Up on a Mountain.

Up on a mountain
Our Lord is alone
Without a family, friends, or a home
He cries, "Oo, oo, oo, will you stay with me?"
He cries, "Oh, oh, oh, will you wait with me?"

Up on a mountain
Our Lord is afraid
Carrying all the mistakes we have made
And He knew
It's a long way down
Do you know
It's a long way down?

Up in the heavens
Our Lord prays for you
He sends His spirit to carry us through
So it's true
That you're not alone
Do you know
He came all the way down?
So it's true
That you're not alone
Do you know
He came all the way down?

Reflections on no TV: Part 2

Another unanticipated casualty from this time of not having a TV - the presidential inauguration. Ordinarily, you would have had to pry me away from my couch with a large crow bar on inauguration day. The same nerd factor that creates the Olympic obsession also creates the need (note: not want) to soak up every second coverage of all historic events. And what a historic event, indeed.

Also note: Travis did not demand a boycott of this television event.

P.S. Not that I was able to watch, but did anyone else think that the Inaguration Neigborhood Ball was a little bit too much like an MTV special? I get what they were trying to accomplish, but it was still strange.