Encouragement

I have never been very good about reading my Bible every day.  Sometimes I will feel motivated and will go a few weeks reading almost every day, and I always love those times that I spend with God.  But then something distracts me and I stop reading the Bible, and I have trouble motivating myself to pick it up again.  Why is it that I can spend hours looking at nothing on the internet or reading a fictional novel, but find it hard to read the Word of God?

A couple of weeks ago I heard about a Bible app that had reading plans.  Having a devotional of some sort usually helps me read and understand the Word better, so I decided to check it out.  It's fantastic!  It's free, and you can read online or on your iPhone, iPad, Android, Blackberry....  you get the idea.  Go to www.youversion.com if you're interested.  They have tons of different versions of the Bible that you can choose from.  There are also a lot of different reading plans.  I have decided to start reading the Canonical plan today (which will take me through the Bible from beginning to end in one year).

If anyone wants to join me in this, that would be great!  I've never read the Bible all the way through, and I'm sure that having friends do it with me will be great encouragement.  I can always use some accountability.  :)

Spring Break - The Fun Parts

Travis had to go on tour with the brass quintet during the middle of March.  Being alone for a week and a half every month isn't my favorite thing in the world, but (lucky for me) his tour fell right during my brothers' spring break.  They flew out to visit me and we had a really great time!  (For the most part...  hahaha)  We had 3 full days to do things in the area.

On the first full day we stayed near my house.  We slept in, then ate lunch on the waterfront in downtown Suisun City.  We then drove the 5 minute trip to the Jelly Belly factory.

There's nothing quite like seeing John Wayne in
jelly beans...

                   
                  

After the Jelly Belly tour we decided to go back to the waterfront and walk around.  It was a beautiful day and we had a great time!  I LOVE it out there.  It's my new favorite place to walk.









The second full day was supposed to be the highlight of their trip...  Unfortunately (as I'm sure most of you know thanks to facebook), the day didn't quite turn out how I'd hoped.  We woke up at the crack of dawn, drove to San Francisco, took Dramamine, and boarded this lovely boat:

This little boat then proceeded to carry us out toward and onto the Pacific Ocean.  To be honest, the first almost 2 hours were very fun and exciting.  The Dramamine was working, the scenery was beautiful, and we even saw a couple of dolphins in the distance.  We got to sail under the Golden Gate bridge and watch huge waves crash into distant cliffs.

                             

Then the waves started to get bigger, the wind started to get colder, and the Dramamine stopped doing any of us any good.  I will spare you the details.  Just know that for the remaining 4 hours of our whale watching trip,  no one saw a whale, none of us had even a tiny dry spot on our clothes, and no one wanted to be on that stupid little boat.  I think it's scarred me for life.  I have always wanted to go on a Caribbean cruise, but not anymore.  I never want to be on a boat in the ocean ever again.  (I am aware that the Caribbean isn't an ocean, but you get the point.)  Even though my phone was forever ruined, my camera somehow managed to survive the adventure and I didn't lose any of my pictures.

Day 3 had been left fairly open (lucky us), so we went BACK to San Francisco to actually do some sight-seeing.  It was Ryan's first trip to SF and I felt that we needed to let him see something other than the side of a boat.  

We did a lot of walking and a lot of eating!  Good times were had by all.  :)  I had a great time with my brothers and was SO sad to see them leave the next day.  I hope that they can come visit me again soon!

If you want to see more pictures from our SF Spring Break, I'll be putting all of them up on facebook in the near future.  Yay!  

Instrumentally Challenged

So last night I finally got to go to one of Travis' concerts!  It was great and he was amazing!  :)  I have a funny story from the experience, so I thought I'd share it with you.

The auditorium was fairly crowded, so I ended up sitting down with no open seat buffer zone.  The older man to my left was chatty, and when I sat down the conversation began...

Before the concert started.
Man:  So are you with the band?
Me:  Yes, my husband plays the euphonium in the band.
Man:  The euphoriun?
Me:  you-phone-ee-um
Man:  Oh, euphonium.  What's a euphonium?
Me:  It's like a little tuba.  He'll be sitting in the back row.
Man:  I used to know a couple of people who played...  the bassoon?
Me:  Oh, the long, skinny instrument that's tall?
Man:  No, no, it's big like this. (man proceeds to demonstrate how it looks to play this big instrument)
Me:  Oh, I think you mean a tuba.
Man:  A tuba?  Well, they both played it, but then she retired so they could have kids.  I think it's a bassoon, though...

During intermission, right before the second half started.
Man:  So is that your husband there?  (points in Travis' direction)
Me:  Yes, that's him sitting between the trombones and tubas.
Man:  So he switches instruments, right?
Me:  No, he just plays euphonium.
Man:  No, I think I saw him switch instruments.
(Band members begin sitting on stage to start the second half.)
Man:  See?  There's two tubas, he switched instruments.
Me:  No, there are two tubas and he's sitting next to them with the smaller instrument.
Man:  Oh...  He switched seats.

:)  I thought it was so funny...  Maybe you had to be there?