Music - Part 1

So one thing that I absolutely LOVE is music.  I don't care if I'm listening, playing or singing, I love music.  It comes in all sorts of forms and I love all of them - except screaming music. [it makes my voice hurt].  I started taking piano lessons when I was in the first grade, but I was "playing" the piano before that.  I have been singing since forever.  I did children musicals in church growing up as well as musical theater in high school and almost everything in between.  When I was younger some friends of mine and I thought we would start out own band - Point of Grace Jr (to mimic the real band point of grace).  I am always listening to music - the car, pandora, my ipod, it all works.  I've gone over the 40 hours pf listening pandora allows 4 different times and when that happens I just listen to my itunes.  I could spend tons of money buying music because simply love it.  I like to listen to music that other people don't listen to as much.  Music that isn't played on the local "pop" radio.  Some of my current favorite artists are:

• Adele
• Florence & the machines
• The Avett Brothers
• Mumford & Sons
• Grace Potter & the Nocturnals
• Regina Spektor

While I know some of these people are pretty famous and a lot of people listen to them, they aren't as popular as Justin Beiber, Pink, Rhianna, Bruno Mars, ect.  While I listen to their music too, if I had to choose, I would listen to music solely by the people listed above.  I guess my "favorite" type to music is what I call chill - acoustic guitar, piano, mainly singing and not the techno change my voice stuff.  

Today I found out that two of the bands listed above are coming to Charlotte in April to have a concert together - Grace Potter & The Avett brothers.  I want to buy my tickets right now.  I really want to go see them so hopefully that will happen.

Anywho, this is just a random post about my love of music.  I have a second one coming soon about why I think music is so important in our culture and how my religion & love of Christ has helped my love of music.

have a great weekend!
MB

Things that made me happy the past couple of days

Here is a list of things that made me happy today:

Skyping with LINSEY! she has been in costa rica for over a week and I miss hearing her voice & seeing her face.  we usually tried to talk on the phone every other week or so and her being in costa rica we are going to have to skype often.

the best ice cream in the world (in my opinion... minus my dad's homemade) : dove chocolate with raspberry
You open it up and there is a thick layer of dark dove chocolate ganache and underneath is vanilla ice cream with raspberry swirls and dove chocolate chunks. oh my goodness delicious. I would show you an actual picture of mine, but it's all gone after a three days....

another thing that makes me happy is that crayola makes DRY ERASE BOARD CRAYONS! these things are AWESOME! they are literally crayons that you can write on dry erase boards with. and coming from someone who uses them a lot (especially for organic & physics hw) these things are amazing and make doing homework more exciting. They have the same texture are a regular crayon could on a regular sheet of paper. awesome invention.

I signed my lease for my apartment next year on Friday! I will be living with sam noel and caitlin again, and I can't wait. We all get along really well, not just as friends, but living together, which do not always come hand in hand. we're living at a place not far from campus so I'm really excited not to be living in a dorm room again :)

Anyways, here a just a few of the many things that have made me happy the past couple of days.
Everybody have a great Tuesday!
mb

It's okay to be sad & bumps

So this past Sunday, my mom and I drove to Wilmington to go to a bridal show with my sister and my sister-in-law.  My dad was supposed to go with us so he could hang out with my brothers while the girls were doing wedding stuff, but he was really sick so he couldn't go.  I wish he would have been able to, but it was nice to spend some alone time just me and my mom on the road.  Since I'm at school we don't get to hang out just the two of us as often. 


My mom is one of my favorite people - she is a Godly woman and a great Christian influence and she loves me & my siblings no matter what.  Pretty amazing if you ask me.  She is also very smart and funny and encourages me all the time.  I could write and entire blog post about her (i think i will - one about every member of my family maybe.... family friday? we'll see)

Anyways, my mom and I are driving down to Wilmington, and we already had an adventure under out belt just from leaving church. (a lady parked behind me and I was in a driveway so I had to drive in the grass and over a curb in order to leave).  For those of you who don't know, to get to Wilmington from Garner you get on Highway 40 and drive until you're there.  40 turns into college road in wilmington and the exit for my brother's house is the last exit, 420.  So as I'm going down 40 my mom and I are talking and I see two huge orange caution signs that say BUMP

So what do my mom and I do?  Well we brace ourselves for a bump (we're thinking speed bump) because you're not exactly going really slow on 40 and I also tried to slow down a little.  Let me tell you - it was no bump.  It was like going 1/2 an inch higher on newly paved road.  If I would not have seen the signs I wouldn't have even noticed that we went over a "bump".  Sure enough, a few miles down the road there are two more signs saying "bump" letting us know of the bump ahead and it was just going down the 1/2 an inch back to the old not newly paved road.  This thought came to my mind and I asked my mom - how much do you think those signs cost?  How much does it cost to put those signs in those locations?  It probably costs a lot more than we think it would, and our lovely tax dollars pay for it.  I think it's a  huge waste of money.  While caution and warning signs like this are needed at some times, these 4 signs that I saw were not.

Still driving to Wilmington my mom and I start talking about emotions & the bible.  Sometimes society tells us it's not okay to be sad or cry.  A lot of times this is told to young boys who need to be "men" or even girls when they are over dramatic.  While I do not like to cry in public, I think it is A OKAY to cry and be sad for a little while.  We are only human - if we were happy all the time we wouldn't appreciate it.  We have to be sad to understand how wonderful it is to be happy.  Jesus was sad.  In the bible there are plenty of stories of him being happy and even some of him being angry, but most people probably have to think a little bit of a story where Jesus was sad. The story of Lazarus's death, John 11, is a good place to find it.  John 11:35 is the shortest verse in the bible - "Jesus wept".  My mom and I want to add to all the bibles "Jesus wept because he was sad".  See?  Jesus was sad too!  He wasn't a robot - he had feelings too, he just never sinned.

I will update my blog again (hopefully this week) with pictures from the Wedding Show that we went to while we were in Wilmington. 

Everybody have a great week!
mb

encouragement

just a little encouragement from me to you!

But baby it's cold outside

Let me tell you two things I am very thankful for - all my classes being canceled today and going to school where the weather that I currently have outside my warm toasty dorm room is not normal.  I couldn't imagine going to a school where snow, ice and cold is an everyday thing.  I'll admit it - I complain a lot when it's cold outside.  I know what people say, you can always put on more clothes if you're cold but you can only take off so much when you're hot.  I don't care - I hate cold weather.  I love one big snow, but we had one already this winter right after Christmas.  Now I'm ready for the cold to go away.  However, since it is not up to me, I guess I will just have to deal with it :)

Here are some pictures of the ice that is outside of my dorm - no, we didn't get snow this time, just crazy ice (which is worse in my opinion, but better for canceling classes)

on a very positive note, look what I got in the mail today!

it's my sister's save the date card for her wedding!  while she probably sent this in November of last year, I rarely check my mail here at school so it was a nice surprise today!  Only 102 days until her wedding!

have a great day!
MB

Passion 2011

Oh goodness.  So I know I said that I would write about passion yesterday, but honestly, I had too many thoughts going around in my head to put any down on paper or the internet version of paper.  In reality, I still have a ton swirling around up there, but I want to put some down about Passion so I can start to share my experience and maybe writing all this down will put some clarity to the thoughts.

First off, Passion was jam packed full of people (22,000 college students + volunteers + others who helped run the whole thing) as well as awesome music and speakers.  While I want to tell all of you how amazing the speakers were one by one, that will be another blog.  The names of people I heard speak aren't important - what's important is what I learned and what God revealed to me while I was there.

A picture of Philips arena to show some of the people - Philips held 16,000 and the overflow of 6,000 was in Georgia World Conference Center that was across the street

 

 

The first night at Passion we were asked "What do you expect to get out of Passion?"  Let me tell you - the answer I gave was completely different from the one I received by the end.  Actually, I did get the answer I thought I would because I was renewed in my faith, I did see God do some awesome things, but as God usually does, He gave me way more than I thought.  Over the entire weekend one word kept going through my head on repeat - Go. Now, I have heard this word before.  I've gone on mission trips, here and abroad, and I loved every minute of it, but I never thought I would hear God say go as many times as he did this weekend.  It seemed like there was a theme in some of the sermons was on missions and giving and I feel like I can't exactly describe to you what I'm trying to say.  Basically, I feel that God is calling me to do missions work - whether that means short term or long term, I'm not sure yet.  There are many opportunities for myself as a college student to go.  I could do spring break trips or trips over the summer or even some trips for semester or 2 years, but I'm not sure right now.

I saw this sign at the Go Center which I felt like what literally a sign from God - more about the Go Center in another post

Let me tell you, I'm kinda scared.  I want to tell God wherever you tell me to go I'll go, but do you realize what that could mean?  It could mean leaving the comfortable steady life I have to go to a third world country to do things that are hard and it may be uncomfortable.  It could mean going on to physical therapy school and getting a job where I have the potential to make a lot of money to going to have a job where I make very little money and no real financial security.  These, however, are tiny details in God's mind.  For I know that He has a great and awesome plan for my life and I'm praying that He sends me wherever He wants me to go.  It could mean me finishing PT school and using that degree to help children in South Africa or it could mean me just getting my undergrad degree and going to help in Europe.  All I know is that it is all in God's hands.


I'm praying every day that He will lead me in the direction He wants me to go and that my eyes will be open to what He wants to show me.  A great fear of mine is that I will miss out on an amazing opportunity because I was too scared or I didn't want to go where He wanted me to go.  The only security I need is in Him - He is all I will ever need or want.  The theme of Passion this year was Do Something Now which is what I'm hoping to do.

Please just pray for me that I will see God's will for my life and go without hesitation or doubt - for I know that He has something planned for my life far greater than I could ever imagine.

I will update more about Passion - the speakers and the Go center, but for now, this is what is on my heart.

Love,
MB

"For I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future"

Jeremiah 29:11

Resolutions for the New Year

Okay, so I may be a few days late but here are my resolutions for this year:

 

No More Soda - I've done it before, so I'm sure I can do it again.  Soda is so bad for you and I don't need it!

Spend some time every day in God's word - whether it's 5 minutes or 45, reading part of it daily.  Also, my hope is to do this in the morning before I go to class so I can start off my day right.

Go to the gym at least 3 days a week - this one will probably be the hardest for me.  I love going tot he gym when I do, but it's hard to find motivation to go.  Usually I'm tired or it's cold so I don't feel like going.  I'm going to try my hardest to change this and make it a good habit.

So these are my three main resolutions.  While there are some monthly goals I will have, these are the three that I want to last all year long.  Pray for me and my ability to keep these goals!  

Love,

MB

Passion 2011: part 1

Okay so I just got home a little while ago from Passion and it was so wonderful and I don't have the words to describe it... but I'm going to try!  However, I am very tired tonight from this amazing weekend I had worshiping God and figuring out some things in my life, so I will do my first passion blog tomorrow.  (yes, I said first.  I'm probably going to need 3 or 4 to talk about everything that I want to)

I hope everyone had a great new years!

I will also post my new year resolutions on a post as well ( hopefully tomorrow)

goodnight!
mb