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Today, June 17, 2008, marks the last day of updates on this site.
You can always come here and read archived entries from November 22, 2004 to June 17, 2008.

Thanks for keeping up with The Debtor Blog. See you on the other site!
Peace,
Andrew

Rested and Fed

'Worked until 4 this morning. Sliding on a Lunesta eye mask I slipped into bed, Coldplay's "High Speed" playing softly. The song and my consciousness faded in harmony with each other. Who knew that the sunlight of most other mornings had been curtailing a few extra hours of slumber? The sum of those apparently collapsed into one serious sleep in, seeing as I woke at 3 PM. Rested extremely well I am now. But it looks like the bioclock is shot, and in the opposite direction of Togo.

The days prior to Africa I plan on gradually shifting my sleep pattern to that of Togo's time zone (6 hours ahead, I think) so to avoid post-flight jet lag. The lag will be much less drastic BEFORE the day of the June 30 departure (Check out my Togo blog for updated details on the trip).

Now my family and I sit on the back porch enjoying supper in the lovely weather. The wind is soft, subtle and seldom. The sunlight sneaks through open patches of the woods in our backyard. Maire Brennan lilts quietly from my laptop helping to further complete the feeling of a splendid evening. A splendid evening indeed.

Eating breakfast at 4:30 in the afternoon makes a 7:30 PM supper a bit interesting. But aside from not being hungry enough to eat, it's quite a wonderful time out here.

It's been a good Sabbath. Very well rested. Very well fed.
I praise the LORD for all of His many blessings!

Shalom Alacheim.

Classic

(Image: Aaron setting the GPS for Lake Decatur to show me how it works... By the way, it's instructions didn't give the best way there, not nearly the best. Heh.)

It's becoming so classic, waking up this morning, to find that it's barely even still morning. It occurs to me again how long gone are my young boyhood days, those mornings when "sleeping in late" meant 7 AM, perhaps even 8 (gasp!). But crud this 11:30 junk!

I've always wanted to stay a boy in a few aspects--retaining a wild imagination, a love for good stories, delighting in simple things like cannonball dives in the pool, and definitely the ability to wake early and grasp every moment of daylight possible. It's so classic.



Losing ground on the waking up one threatens further ground lost in coming years. But then again, as a young boy I never worked long hours in the ER. And otherwise, the other things still look good.

I still get carried away in hypotheticals and impossibles as I occasionally daydream. 'Still turning my ears toward the sound of someone about to reminisce or spin a masterful tale. And yes, doing cannonballs still thrills me, same as stirring chocolate into the milk, losing track of time with my best friends, reading the backs of cereal boxes, napping in the hammock to the jocose sound of vivaciously chirping birds, riding my bike down that steep hill while pretending to be a F-16 fighter pilot in a dogfight, strumming so recklessly loud on my guitar that more than one string breaks while I'm yet to be fazed, eating the outsides of baby carrots but leaving the core for last, and feeling that first rush of wind on my face as we pull the boat out and pass beyond the No-Wake buoys. That's still all so classic.



So today, as unclassic as it may have begun, looks to still be pretty classic after all.

Laura and I plan on running the 7 or 8 some miles from our house to the docks, where Dad and Ryguy will be loading the boat into Lake Decatur's waters. This run is quite opposite from the IHOP sis date I took her on last summer, in terms of health, which is a good deal. But hopefully we'll be able to converse without too much strain amidst the sympathetic responses of our bodies' nervous systems as we run.
"Hey..." (forced inhale) "...what's the..." (forced inhale) "...LORD been teaching..." (forced inhale) (forced exhale) (forced inhale) "...you lately?"
Yes, the suspense of every sentence might seem cool for about three minutes, then we'll begin wishing we'd opted for fresh, warm pancakes smothered in Land-0-Lakes and Mrs. Butterworths. But we'll survive, and say it was so worth it at the end.
Again, classic.


Out on the lake we'll be taking the Riverside youth group out, along with Mark's boat. Mark and Kelli have a house on the lake. It serves as hang-out central for those waiting their turn on the water. Like the corner soda shop of the lake (yes, I just recently watched "Pleasantville" and yes, I found it to be quite an intriguing commentary on the last century of our country in terms of societal shifts, political progressions, and an overall evolution of values...and yes, the alliteration counts when the second letters are both "V's."....umm...anyway...so boating)

Atop the water surface on a wakeboard has got to be one of my favorite places. If only that could be enjoyed by more than one person at a time without it being awkward or dangerous. Sadly, very few of our friends have worked at it long enough to get up on the wakeboard. Overcoming that, the hardest part, gives way to one of the best feelings in the world, methinks. It's so classic--Yelling "Yes," hearing the boat revving, feeling the rope tauten then tighten. Then the muscles tense up, the board top leans boatward, plantarflexion at the ankles, and suddenly the body rises smoothly from the water to the air. A slight turn of the hips and that favorite place is found yet once again.




So this must be something of what it feels like to be a food or restaurant reviewer, 'cause all these details have my mouth watering for the...well... the water, in the wakeboarding sense. (Note: You'd rather thirst to death than voluntarily ingest the smallest portion of Decatur's lake water. Unfortunately one must deal with the reality of a huge, accidental gulp upon occasional faceplants--NOT a favorite place. But just a classic).


Weather looks great for all day. Lots of people will get to enjoy it on the lake. We're swinging over to the Kneezel's after boating. Miss Rita will graciously cut my hair while I'm there. Ry and I will likely challenge each other to yet another round of pool, maybe ping-pong, foosball, and even some air hockey. He'll probably school my socks off.
But hey, it's all good, 'cause it's so classic.

2 years!

Happy 2nd year anniversary to my brother Aaron and his wife Annie!

"Wow, You Know the Jimmy Johns Delivery Guy?"

(Image: Bastian....Nick's right there in the middle under the chance rainbow)

Like many times in the ER, the night shift nurses order out for supper. Last night when "the Jimmy Johns delivery guy" was none other than my friend and soccer teammate from high school, Nick, it took us a quick moment to realize who the other was. One of us in blue scrubs and white tennis shoes, the other in a JJ hat and T-shirt while sporting a sizable nose ring. Both of us with the same surprised faces.

He sounded tired. It didn't seem like a just-a-long-day tired but rather a been-a-long-few-years weary. Perhaps that's not so, but he HAS been touring and doing the band thing for quite a while. From what I recall, he's drummed for Customer Service, Greenwood, Slingshot 57, and most recently Bastian. Only Greenwood--also high school friends--still tours regularly. Back in the day we in The MUH played down in Pana with the Bastian guys, and we did a Warrensburg Battle of the Bands with Customer Service among others. I proudly purchased EPs from each of those guys after those shows. Man, those were fun times.

Now Nick delivers Freaky Fast Subs as a seeming band-aid effect before the next thing. He mentioned having set up a studio at his place, and gave me the last CD Bastian put out (StayQuiet) and his cell number and offered for me to come and check the studio out, perhaps jam a bit, sometime. It'd definitely be worth stopping by, hopefully before leaving for Togo. He might have some good ideas for and possibly time to help with the Second Nature project, if he's up for something new and different. Plus, I'd love to catch up with that guy more, seeing what all life has been like for him in the last four years.

Wow, four years.

The nurses later commented, one saying "Wow, you know the Jimmy Johns Delivery Guy?"

Apparently.

Go figure that, with all the band touring, it'd be the JJ gig that'd make knowing Nick so cool to them.

A5 Splash, a Resurrected Song, and a Triple CD Release Quandry

It's a goofy feeling, being hopelessly awake at 2 AM. Normal people hit REM at least couple hours ago. Listening to "Finest Worksong" is the closest I'm coming to that right now. But that's the plight when every day feels like a game of Battleship--"Am I going into work tonight?" Another destroyer hit, or a resounding splash?

Tonight, hear the splash.

Deal is, because I couldn't get on the current schedule (in spite of calling over a month in advance), the house supervisor has my name on the board as the first person to call if they need another ER tech (aka Patient Care Tech, aka my job title).

The last five nights I've been called in at various times, helping lighten the load during crazy times and leaving once the mad rush slows again. This means wacky work hours, thus wacky sleep hours. Thus it's me, one leg slung over the recliner I'm perched in, amused at how loud the clock on the wall sounds when nothing else is happening.

Not being one to ever get bored, I've been using this time to catch up on some correspondence (SGA Band in particular), talk with Rissa for a good while, and now blog a bit before bed.


I spent a majority of today more intensely studying the Isaiah 45 passage where God says "I am God, there is no other," several times, and repeated reminds us He is in control as the Powerful-Potter, the Sky-Stretcher, the Mountain-Mover. Way back during my first humble recording sessions with Zach, I wrote and recorded a tune for the "Operation: Rescue the Captured" project simply called "There Is No Other." Though loosely based on this Scripture, the lyrics had more stream of consciousness productivity, and the song never rose from its own ashes.

Until today.

This morning, it occurred to me the similarity of discussion between Isaiah and the opening pages of Tozer's classic and one of my favorites, "The Knowledge of The Holy" (the entire book is here in electronic form). Thoughts on man's affinity for wandering and idolatry, and prayers for my own confession as well as seeking forgiveness for the Church whole, all these wrapped my mind tightly enough to finally dare another penning of "There Is No Other."

I call it "resurrecting" a song, because it's taking the old carcass of a song long dead to the original hopes for public presentation and reviving it like old car restorers or house flippers do. It's kind of my unwritten rule that if a song doesn't make it after the second try, then it's gone. But that all depends on how many years of dust it's been wearing. Some tunes are recent enough to lay beside the crash cart for several more AED shocks even after a couple dozen reworkings. Perhaps everyone's songwriting beast has a different nature. Well, that's the one for mine.

Like every new song, I played the resurrected "There Is No Other" through about 5 or 6 times in succession, then sought out a device to record a rough version. Usually it's the nearest thing that I use, meaning my cell phone or Zen Micro. Zen's unreliable and dying, cell's memory is full (a couple songs on Voice Memo there already), so I scrounged up this here laptop and the computer mic, set them atop the piano, and got to work.

After that tune, it made sense to re-record rough versions of each of the songs off of the new project for which I've been writing, this gift to the Church. The project has been dubbed "Second Nature: A Soundtrack for Worshiping Well" and will consist of 11 songs (unless I write more) specifically designed to be sung as a Church body, but also inclusive to everywhere else where believers may happen to exist. The idea stems from this longheld realization of mine that true worship consists of so much more than words and songs, but every aspect of our lifestyles. So these songs are, as can be noted in the secondary title, a soundtrack for the worship-full lifestyle.

In no particular order, the songs included are:
-Floored
-There Is No Other
-We Will Not Be Shaken
-Mountains Fall
-Second Nature
-You Are Not Your Own
-Familiar Place
-Is It This Time?
-Empty Hands (You Are Holy, LORD)
-Morning Fog (Instrumental Interlude)
-New Me

Several titles look familiar? Though not all full resurrected, I have taken a few from previous albums and worked with them a little in places so that a collective can sing them meaningfully.

Playing through all of these songs as I rough-recorded them today ignited the longing to start tracking for real, setting up clicks, laying down scratches and bed tracks, and on and on. But I've already decided it--no official recording this summer. It was a hard call, since I've managed to put out at least one recording project every calender year since middle school I think (Actually, I'm pretty sure "Operation" began that tally). Mehopes to carve enough time this fall to work on it, however. What we're looking at is a simplistic CD, one that pays huge attention to lyrical content and melodic qualities, and much less on super-high production expectations and major full band work.

What you'll probably hear on this record will sound more like a natural sitdown on an average day, with an acoustic or piano taking forefront instrumental duties, a semi-serious string arrangement giving a healthy handful of nods with the cello, and a couple drops of percussion wrapped in flavorful tinges of accessory electric guitar. . . Well, the sound will be more simplistic than that description anyway. More info on this project as this feuilleton comes along. (In the meantime, you should check out Jeremy Casella's latest release, "Recovery" which has a great mixture of folk singer-songwriter meets orchestra meets electronica. Very inspiring.)


So those of you who remember are probably wondering about "Anticipation," "Simple Subtle Sweet" and "Möbiustrip"--three full albums that have yet to see the light of day, or shall I say, the darkness of your CD players. Well, I'm having some trouble knowing what to do with them, actually, in light of minimal time for playing shows and lack of capital for album releasing due to my Togo trip this summer. I'm considering a few options:

*Option 1: Release them all digitally on The Podcast. (But this means a pain-in-the-neck for anyone who wants a physical CD...They have to locate the files from the download area of their computer and settle with MP3's versions instead of WAV's like my other CDs carry.

*Option 2: Raise money via donations for them to go to CDBaby ($60 per album), again digitally, but with the eternal availability on the iTunes Store (as opposed to limited availability on The Podcast--note: "More Than Just This Sky" forfeited half its tracks when newer podcast singles were posted)
*Option 3: Raise even more money via donations for them to be manufactured into actual physical CDs (either professionally---at about $500 for #200 CD's---or domestically, where smaller batches of #30 CDs can be made at about $2 or $3 a CD, but this is much more time intensive. One other bonus here is the availability of album art, which all but "Mobiustrip" currently have.

Post your comments or email me at debtormusic@yahoo.com and let me know your thoughts.
Be aware that these are albums from the summers of 2004, 2005, and 2006 (roughly, because I've never released them, and occasionally still tweak them here and there as needed). The songwriting and production quality match my level of skill at those times, which, though for the most part are quite decent, may seem like a decline in comparison to the dEbToR EPs out there ("Dives and Climbs," "Sand and Sentiments," "Convalescence")

Or perhaps, seeing three albums and three options, I'll go with one album per option. Hmm...


That's gonna do it for tonight...errr...this morning. Perhaps at enough little plastic missiles of tiredness will be enough to sink the patrol boat we're gonna call "Sleep."

Worthifying the Late Nights

A week's worth of sunrises have come and gone since last writing.
The drastic difference of pace during this last week compared so many weeks prior has provided much needed rest.

Those fives days were used to :

-unpack leisurely
-cook pancakes a few times
-watch "Last of the Mohicans"
-more closely study passages in Psalms, Isaiah, Romans, and Galations
-write a couple new songs for a future project. This project will be a gift to the Church.
-catching up with my family and hometown friends
-running and biking...and oh, how I have missed the latter!
-poker night with the guys
-Filipino supper with some the Barbers (in the middle of a Tornado warning!)
-graduation parties
-working on my budget from the last semester and looking ahead for next school year
-finishing touches on the plans for Togo
-piecemealing my way through the CASPA. Hopefully Morgan and I can have a CASPA party ("CASPArty!!) very soon to work through some of that stuff.

Despite this list looking pretty massive, I've had a very restful week.


Then, the weekend. A co-worker called to ask me to cover her shift so she could be with her brother, a Marine, on his last day home. Of course I agreed. Then just as I was heading out the door the phone rang again. The charge nurse was asking if I'd come in a few hours later and work the later shift instead (my co-worker's shift was apparently going to be covered partially, but I'd need to step in for the last couple hours, and the charge figured I'd just as soon stay for an entire 8 hours). "Sure, okay," I said, even having decided not to work until the first week of June.

That shift on Saturday stretched out to be nearly 11 hours, but it was worth it, since I was able to help load a patient onto the Airevac helicopter at the end of it.

Last night, just after Casey's graduation party, I worked again. And again, went overtime by a few hours. The worthifying factor this time was assisting with a patient who had a considerable amount of bleeding in his brain. He was dead-weight basically as a security guard and I placed him in the wheelchair from the car.

There's not a lot I can say beyond that, due to patient confidentiality, but I did get to watch an intubation (and on someone who wasn't already dead...fellow Basic classmates will appreciate this more than most).
So this experience made it worth the extra time, though I was quite tired getting home early this morning.

From here on, the work schedule seems to be mostly on a call-in basis, which will probably mean working nights in the ER essentially. At least this way my afternoons will be free to spend time with family and friends, and to talk someone special in Colorado. Even though hopes were to work days and not nights, it's work, and will be helping in the most needed timespace for my friends/co-workers/bosses in the ER. Perhaps they'll let me come back in about three years and work as a PA down there with them! I might be up for that.

So that's the scoop regarding my summer thus far. Hopefully you all are having great days, continually worshiping the Savior well in everything you are doing.

Grace and peace.

First of the Last

Apparently Indians have their own way of sitting. I was about to write "So I'm sitting Indian style" and then realized that no other people groups seem to have a sitting style to their name. Why is this?
Anyway...

So I'm sitting Indian style on the guest room bed...at home in Illinois! "In Rainbows," Radiohead's latest album, plays on as the soundtrack for this blog post ("Weird Fishes" sounds a lot like the title, the electric providing a strange underwater feel).

The cadaver class ended well. The A- was better than I'd expected. I'm praising the LORD for giving me a good-working mind, among SO many more blessings!


Arrived home late Friday night, just minutes ahead of Aaron and Annie, who both actually had the weekend off to visit! All our family enjoyed the classic waffle breakfast, much thanks to Dad, Mom, Heather and Laura.

After a time of relaxing and catching up, we took the boat out for this summer's debut. The new four-blade propeller worked marvelously! My core body temperature must've dropped a whole ten degrees in that icy water, though! Wakeboarding just isn't quite as fun when joints won't bend as fast as usual. I was a rusted tinman out there. Oh, but lovely to be with the fam and on the water. The sun poked out its head (I guess that's all the sun is, now that I think about it....where's its torso anyway?) more as the day went on.

We closed up the day watching Prince Caspian (sadly, a disappointment if you're like me in wanting movies to only compliment books and not exercise voracious creative license). But aside from the alterations, Lewis' imagination and masterful storytelling shines through wonderfully enough to worthify (my new word....think "justify" with more impact...."valuify" might work as well) at least one watch of the flick.

Of course the movie outing concluded with a visit to Dairy Queen (would've been Culvers, had they not closed just as we pulled up. Bummers for them. Yay for us, since we got to "live a little.")


Sunday, like usual, provided lots of catching up with folks from Riverside. Sure, you say the same basic things a bunch of times over to the point where you're saying it in your sleep for the next week, but what a blessing to have so many, many people who genuinely care about me and are interesting in how God's been working in my life in recent months. So good!

One of our friends from church, Haley, had her graduation party after the evening service (the music for which I lead.....so nice to do that again for my home church family!). 'Got to catch up with Pastor Jayje (former youth pastor), Mark (firefighter...and fellow EMT-B), Morgan's grandpa (good conversation!), and several of the older women from Riverside who've watched me grow up since 5 years old....Wow--16 years ago!

Lindy, Haley's aunt, was also there. She and Aaron were in the same grade, and she's now finishing up PA school at Midwestern in Chicago (one of the places I'm looking into). Conversing with her about getting into PA school really encouraged me.

You see, since junior year in high school I've been doing all my own research looking into PA schools and how to get in, what the profession is about, etc. It's actually allowed for me to help out other pre-PA students who find themselves overwhelmed trying to figure out what's going on. (Cedarville doesn't really have anyone on the faculty who's up on current PA school requirements and things of that nature....They should have been paying me a stipend for helping out with that! Oh well.)

So I'm more encouraged about my lack of a 4.0 GPA and only average GRE scores. Experience in clinical hours, at St. M's, EMT-B and volunteering at the firehouse, the Togo trip this July, the cadaver class, and a bunch of other things are gonna help beef up my application.

Ultimately the LORD has everything in His control, and He's shown and is continually showing His hand in so many ways. PA school will happen if He so wills. . . I'm just doing my part as best I can, being a faithful steward of my time and energy and abilities.


Well, Charissa is en route to Colorado even as I type. 'Been thinking about and praying for her all day (like most days this summer, no doubt). We got the opportunity to talk for a little while last night as she packed, and she got to "meet" Ryguy, Dr. Randy, and Miss Rita, since we were over at their place for Memorial Day (oh, the cheeseburgers and brats we especially tasteful!).

Thus begins the first days of my last true summer.

Bless the LORD, everyone.

Sunshinangles for Watergunnish, Musculatured Knees

With my feet atop a stack of Rubbermade totes, I'm sitting on a classic metal folding chair eying a cobweb clinging to a corner of the front porch just outside the window. (Cobweb...hmm...is that the generic term for abandoned spiderwebs? So it's a spiderweb as long as a spider's there, but the moment it leaves, ah, "cobweb." Nah, there's got to be something more going on there.)

"Why does it cling?" you wonder? Glad ya asked. And I respond as such: "Well, why do you think? Because it's windy out there, silly." But then I smile understandingly.

Don't tell spiders this (because they try so hard to make them invisible...bless their little hearts), but the way their webs catch sunlight is so pretty! (Note the photo above)

The angle of sunshine at 6 today is the best. The colors stand out so brilliantly in everything outside--the green of the trees' leaves, the azure of the cloudless sky, the deep brown of the rich Midwestern soil. Yes, that angle works best. Let's call it the "Sunshinangle." I'm gonna guesstimate it's something like 35 or 40 degrees from horizon. So if you find yourself forgetting what to pray for, pray that everyday, no matter the weather, the sun will shine down at the Sunshinangle so everyone can see the vivid colors of life.

Then again, it takes the cloudy, dark days to really appreciate the days of perfectly angled sunshine.
Still, pray for 'em if you like. Just appreciate every day for simply being another day, and let the sun do its thing.


Yesterday was our last day of actual dissection work. No one will miss the smell, though we all might miss the incredible opportunity of such a wonderful learning resource in regards to understanding human anatomy, particularly musculature. ("Musculature" is a funny word. It shall be my favorite word for the day. There's bound to be funnier, cooler words to use, but since the day's more on its way out than in, I think settling for "musculature" is honorable.)

Today we each did our presentations on our individual dissections. Mine was the knee. Very fascinating, especially since our donor had a total knee replacement. It worked out as a great opportunity to compare and contrast between the true knee and the artificial one. God's version is, of course, much more effective, and fascinating, and preferable.

If I ever require a total knee, though, I'd like a special version that includes a couple squirt gun nozzles. Then I could wear one of those Supersoaker backpacks underneath my shirt, and walk around spraying people. But only lightly. Then they'd look around and wonder what that was. They'd think, "Man, it felt like it came from that guy's direction, but he's just walking around looking cool." Well, maybe not looking all that cool, but I'd be fighting back a huge smile, which can sometimes look like those guys who try to look cool in movies and photos by not ever smiling when you think they should be. . . But I'd rather just have my own two knees, thank you.

Okay, back to studying. But keep a lookout for the Sunshinangle tomorrow...and Supersoaker knee caps!

Oil change, Funfett-ay, and Mother's Day

(Image: guys from Autozone hoo-rah-ing about..... I don't know.)

(Now Playing: "Say" by John Mayer)

Good morning, all! Hopefully wherever you are right now is as pretty weather as it is here in southwest Ohio. Though I will say that it's deceptively warm looking, because temperature-wise we're still talking hoodie and jeans weather (ha! The spell check doesn't like the word "hoodie"--those spell check programmer guys have some catching up to do). But I'm not complaining (about the weather, not really about the spell check thing).

("In the colors" by Ben Harper)

Yesterday my friend Mara asked if I knew how to do an oil change. Alas, I do not, but am certainly hoping to learn. So tomorrow morning Travis will show me how to do it, but the learning actually began yesterday: He told me what supplies were needed. So yesterday afternoon Charissa and I went out to Xenia for a Fram filter (PH3614) and 4 qts. of Valvolene 10-W-30. You can imagine how out of element we were, wandering through the aisles of Autozone. But we found the right stuff.

("Younger Than Today" by Ben Harper)

After some Krogering, and getting gas (known as "Cringing"), we went back to Oasis where we made supper as well as two cakes--Funfetti and Red Velvet. The Funfetti cake is for Jimmy V., Caleb's roommate who's leaving this week. Red Velvet (one of my fav's!) was for the guys in my house, because it's cruel to use the oven at someone's house and not make anything for the people living there. All of us guys were a fan of that idea. After unloading a bunch of shingle packs for Travis, we returned to the splendidness. Some of the guys, and Charissa herself, hadn't ever had Red Velvet before, so I was glad they could experience the wonderment that it is. Cream cheese icing is truly the key. So good!

("Put It On Me" by Ben Harper)

I hope Mother's Day was fantastic for you all, especially the moms reading this. I left a voicemail on my friend Ryan's phone. He and his wife, Heather (my former babysitter and piano teacher), adopted a little girl recently. Her name is Kiara Joy. It's a wonderful story. I also called Mom and left her a voicemail as well. Later that night she called back and we talked for an hour and a half. I'm so grateful to the LORD for her, and for Dad. They have so much good advice and wisdom, and the older I get the more I'm learning to appreciate that they do, and want to soak it all up.

("Against All Odds" by Phil Collins)

I also got to talk with Ruth that day. Rissa was gone all weekend living homeless in Springfield (part of a learning experience for her class "Urban Ministry"), so she was at a Mara's apartment cleaning up from that while I did homework in my car. Then I remembered something cool--"I have another mom I get to call on Mother's Day!" It was really special to also wish my birthmother Happy Mother's Day. We caught up about life and thoughts on it and things we enjoy about it. Afterward, Rissa remarked on how amazing it is to have two moms to celebrate, especially when we know so many people who may not even have one for whatever reasons--prison, addictions, distance, or death.

I praise the LORD for mothers, any and all.

("Love is the Protest" by Jars of Clay....Their greatest hits record is out!)

Well, 'tis time to shower up and head out to campus for class. Thanks for your time in reading. I always appreciating hearing from you guys about how you enjoy getting on here and seeing what I'm up to.

("She is the Rising Sun" by Ben Shive....His first ever solo record, "The Ill-Tempered Klavier" is available to be pre-ordered...I did, and you should, too. Ben is the guy who plays piano, and a dozen other instruments, for Andrew Peterson.)

The LORD bless you and guide you through another week.
Worship well!