When I’m up in front preaching or leading worship, I sometimes find it hard to look at my husband, Jesse. That’s because I’m afraid he’ll make one of these gestures to the left, and well, I might start to giggle. Jesse makes me laugh a lot. In fact, I’ve been told that I’m a lot funnier (which isn’t saying a lot) when Jesse is around. Jesse is an illustrator. You can see his work at www.jessegraber.com. When he isn’t drawing, you will find him playing one of his many instruments: fiddle, banjo, ukulele, musical saw, guitar, mandolin, etc.(People also tell me that I sing and play guitar better with Jesse by my side.)  Jesse makes a great pastor’s wife.  However, I do need to be careful because I have been known to refer to Jesse in my sermons when I meant to refer to Jesus. I guess Jesse was related to Jesus right? It’s something involving a shoot and a stump. Jesse is good for me in that he has convinced me more than once to put down my theological books and read fiction instead, at least from time to time. If it wasn’t for Jesse, I probably wouldn’t have ever read Dune (500 pages +) or Sandman by Neil Gaiman.   

I love our cats Pepper and Helo

Best of all, Jesse has convinced me that cats aren’t all that bad, and that,actually, they can be sort of the best thing ever, so long as you aren’t allergic to them. Someone once told me that they would never own a cat because they are “too mysterious.” Helo and Pepper aren’t exactly mysterious, but they are strange. They kind of do what they want to do except if they are scratching our new furniture. One thing I do need to warn you about is that Helo (grey and white)did come with me on a pastoral care visit once—without me knowing, of course. Ask me about it if you are curious. It’s a pretty funny story. Afterwards, he (Helo, that is) didn’t make eye contact with me for two weeks.