None of a Kind Family

Advent Calender

2011-12-12T21:42:00.001-05:00

December 12th: "Tattoo yourselves!"
Mam had some pads of temporary Christmas tattoos, so we put some on!

Love The Bards/Rebekah (the very behind blogger.)

Advent Calender

2011-12-12T21:39:00.000-05:00

December 11th: "Read Matthew's Gospel birth of Christ."

No pictures again, its hard to get everyone to pay attention to taking pictures anyways.

Love The Bards/Rebekah

Advent Calender

2011-12-12T21:37:00.000-05:00

December 10th: "Attend the Chapel Christmas musical."

Esther sings in the choir at our church the Chapel. So she sang in the choir in the musical. It was great!

Unfortunately, I forgot the camera at home so we have no pictures of her singing. Sorry!

Love The Bards/ Rebekah

Advent Calender

2011-12-12T21:17:00.001-05:00

December 9th: "Make gingerbread houses!"
This was a very fun one!

Esther working on the foundations of her house.

My (Rebekah) house.

Esther's house. Isn't it great?!

And her little bird made of Mike N Ikes and toothpicks. So cute!

Hunter's house. He spent most of his time making a sodium chloride ion with toothpicks and gumdrops; a skill he learned in his chemistry class.

This is mama. In a onesie. Yes, this was a hand-me-down from a friend. It was for Esther.

Love The Bards/Rebekah

Advent Calender

2011-12-08T21:02:00.000-05:00

December 8th: "Keep your toes warm!"

Cute socks!!

Love The Bards/Rebekah

Advent Calender

2011-12-08T20:59:00.000-05:00

December 7th: "Attend library program."

Unfortunately, I have a class 6 to 9pm on Wednesdays, so I could not go to the library program. So no pictures for this day sadly. But Esther did tell me about it and it seems like they had a lot of fun. She made crafts and listened to stories.

Love, The Bards/Rebekah

Advent Calender

2011-12-07T14:34:00.000-05:00

December 6th: "Make homemade hot cocoa and watch Rudolf" This was a fun one! All of us got to sit around in our living room with the Christmas tree lit and watch this holiday classic, with hot cocoa in our hands.

Hunter (left) Esther (middle) Lydia (right) all making paninis before the movie.

Rudolf the Red-Nosed Reindeer!

Love, The Bard/Rebekah

Advent Calender

2011-12-07T14:17:00.000-05:00

December 5th: "Toys for Tots."

Esther (8) and her little animals toys.

Hunter received a puzzle, Lydia (17) received a set of speakers for her ipod. I, Rebekah, received a flash light.

Love, The Bards/Rebekah

Advent Calender

2011-12-04T19:24:00.000-05:00

December 4th: "Do-nut you love Christmas?"

Wow. She's crazy.

Love.

The Bards

Advent Calender

2011-12-04T19:17:00.000-05:00

I think I am going to blog a new post every other day since I cannot seem to be able to do it everyday.
December 3rd: "Some sweets for the sweets."

JELLY BEANS!

Love,

The Bards

Advent Calender

2011-12-02T21:27:00.000-05:00

December Second: The calender says, "Attend 'Light Up the Bluff.'" So we did!

Left to right: Papa, Ester and Hunter.

Esther and Hunter in the ring of trees for their pretend boxing match! (This happens all too often in not pretend.)

Hope you enjoyed, stay tune for the following days if Advent!

Love, The Bard/Rebekah

Advent Calender

2011-12-02T16:37:00.001-05:00

December First (It was yesterday, I am a little late.) Mama and Ester made an Advent calender. Each day has a card behind it of what we are supposed to do that day.

The first day, December 1st, 2011, said, "Keep your breath fresh." And inside the bag, there were boxes of Tic Tacs.

Rebekah (me) and Ester (8) enjoying some fresh breath Tic Tacs.

The second day, which is today (December 2nd, 2011) says, "Attend 'Light up the Bluff.'" Light up the Bluff is an annual downtown parade type thing in downtown St. Joseph. There are tons of Christmas lights and everything is so festive! Hopefully, I will be able to snap a few pictures there.

With some luck, I will be able to blog everyday of Advent.

Thanks for reading,

The Bards/Rebekah

Video

2011-11-25T11:19:00.000-05:00

I think that Lydia (17) did a great job with the video of the Tough Mudder. Enjoy:

Hope you all like it,

The Bards

Sunday, November 22. Tough Mudder A.K.A death

2011-11-22T20:58:00.000-05:00

So this past Sunday, mama and I (Rebekah) were signed up to participate in the Tough Mudder obstacle race. The Friday before it, mama got sick and thought she wasn't going to be able to do it. But she started to feel better and didn't miss out on the freezing cold 12 mile run. This course was about 3 hours away from our house, so in order to get to our race wave on time (which started at 9am) we had to leave the house at about 4:15am.

Hunter (14) watching a movie.

This is after we got our numbers put on our foreheads. The sign where you got marks said this: "This is compulsory, we don't care if you have court on Monday."

Hunter and me.

Mama and me right before the start.

Mama (in bright blue) completing the first obstacle "Kiss of Mud."

Yes, we did have to crawl in those tunnels, swim to the next tunnel and crawl out.

I have lots of mud in my mouth.

Before we started, the man who was announcing things and telling us how to be safe out of the course, made us take the Tough Mudder oath. "Camaraderie before my personal time."

Nutrition and water were offered on the course. Good thing too, cause I needed it!

Papa was able to snap this picture really quick of us at a hydration/nutrition station.

Cold water! My face probably already told you that.

Okay, you can't see it in this picture, but to the right there is a giant skateboard ramp thing. It was covered in water and mud. The only way to get up it is to sprint up it as far as you could and reach for the outstretched arms of other Mudders. (without teamwork, this obstacle was nearly impossible.) Mama wasn't able to complete this one, she just walked around it. But I, with the help of some big, strong men, was able to summit this "Everest."

So, all in all, this was a good race. Very cold, but I know for me, it was very rewarding.

I must tell you how God continually amazes me. And this is one of those times where I just thought to myself, "This was totally a God thing." When mama and I were standing near to starting line, we were warming up (doing some push ups and jogging in place.) And three young guys (20-30 years old) came up to us and asked us our names and where we were from and questions like that. When I told them that we were from St Joseph, MI, he said to me, "Oh cool, I grew up there too! I went to Lakeshore High School." (that high school is very close to our house.) Then he asked if we were involved with any churches in the area or if we were involved with Young Life (which is an outreach program that many young Christians are involved in.) And mama and I happened to know some people in Young Life and the man told us how he is a leader there. I thought of all the people at the Tough Mudder, why would we meet these Christians (in an obviously very secular place.) It was just amazing to me what God can do and does in our lives. It was encouraging to me and mama as well.

I hope you enjoyed the pictures; Lydia should be getting some of the video footage up online soon. Thanks for reading,

The Bards

Halloween 2011!

2011-10-31T20:33:00.000-04:00

As always, I would like to apologize for the lack of posts. We are all very busy. But anyways, here are some photos of today, Halloween! (unfortunatly I was unable to snap a few photos of Lydia and her friend Liz, but they dressed up. Liz was a skier and Lydia was some guitarist for some band that I have no idea what is is)

Hunter (14)

Esther (8, left) is a kangaroo and Emma (Esther's friend, right) is a princess.

Left to right. Rebekah (me) Esther, Emma and Emma's friend (I have already forgotten her name)

Maggie is a pretty territorial and protective dog. She didn't care for the waves of small children approaching our doorstep yelling "Trick or Treat!" She was all out of sorts and appalled that we didn't ask her permission to let these 'invaders' into our house.

Again, Elliot (left) and Maggie standing watch for any 'bad guys dressed up as ghost or skeletons.'

Well, that's all for now, hope you enjoy the pictures!

The Bards/Rebekah

Tri of the Creek

2011-09-29T11:46:00.000-04:00

So here are a few pictures of us doing the Tri of the Creek triathlon last Sunday. Hunter completed the whole sprint triathlon, which is 500meter swim, 11mile bike and then 5k run. Mama did the long tri, which is 1000meter swim, 22mile bike and a 10k run. Papa and I did the long tri as a team. I did the 1000m swim and then he did the 22mile bike and I finished it up with the 10k run. So anyways, here are a few pictures (sorry I couldn't really get any of us actually swimming, biking or running.)

Early morning start!

Papa the Driver

Tired!

It was SO cold and rainy, so we got out our raincoats and power bars

Esther did a good job waiting in the cold for all of us to finish. Here she is reading her American Girl Doll book, Kit.

So overall the tri went pretty well (sorry for the quality of the pictures)

Love,

The Bards

Rocky Mountain High

2011-08-07T22:30:00.000-04:00

Hey everyone,

I just wanted to show you some pictures from the camp that I went to last week. It is called Rocky Mountain High and is located in Spring Canyon, Colorado. My grandparents on my mother's side, being the wonderful and generous people that they are, offered to pay to send me to this camp. Mama went to this camp when she was 22 and thought that it would be something that I would enjoy; she was right!

This is our group, minus our two girl guides. We took this right before we went rock climbing and repelling. It was very fun.

This river was at our base camp. The water was so cold! 35 degrees in fact

The Rocky Mountains.

This is me and Rick, our devo leader. How weird is it that we got to have a snowball fight in August???

The week I went to RMH was their internationals weeks. So we had one guy (Osamu, on the left) from Japan and another guy (Choe, on the right) from South Korea) It was such a blessing to have them go with us. I learned so many new things about other cultures and how they view God. I also got to learn a little Japanese too.

On the day that we peaked Mount Yale (14,197 ft) we woke at 4am and hiked the 2.5 miles up in the freezing cold. But the view was absolutely breath-taking. I felt so small and weak in comparison to the mighty mountains that God created. The fresh air and the sound of the wind made me so joyful and I could feel that the presence of the Lord of the universe, was among us.

Still climbing up the peak.

These are called boulder fields. The path disappears and you just have to climb up these giant boulders and created your own path to the summit.

The early hours.

Some of us were very strange haha. This is Austin, a rising junior at The Naval Academy in Maryland. He is awesome.

Me and Osamu. He is going to school at the National Defense Academy of Japan.

Me and our guide, Kristine. She is going to be a nurse, like me.

It rained every night. But the sun did come out every morning to warm us up.

Rick (left) me, Osamu and Choe (right) all hiking together. Good times.

Dear Grandma and Grandpa,

I thank you so much for the money that you gave in order for me to go here. I had a wonderful time and grew tremendously in my faith and I learned so much about God's character and what He has done for me. I even got to see mama's name (Sara Anderson, not Bard haha) on a plack in the main RMH hall. I that you again for your generosity. Love,

Beckah

2011-08-07T17:41:00.000-04:00

I think that I begin every post on this blog with an apology of not posting for so long. So, I am very sorry for not posting since winter time.

The summer has been going by so quickly! Its already august; it seems summer is just beginning, but sadly, it is almost over.

Esther (8) and Hunter (13, but soon to be 14) have been spending much of their summer at the Yacht Club pool not far from our house. Their hair is turning blond and their skin is tanner every day. They have fun fighting, swimming and splashing the adults. But here they are by the pool side, enjoying the toasty weather we have been having (average is probably 80 degrees.)

Hunter (left) Anya (Esther's friend, middle) and Ester (right)

Esther playing with a water gun.

Anya (left) and Esther (right) they are BFFs haha

Sam came back from Tennessee for the summer, but sadly she is leaving in about two weeks. She has been working a lot this summer. She works at Caribou Coffee Shop and babysits Anya and Esther quite a bit.

Lydia just left for Summit Ministry camp this morning. It is a christian worldviews camp in Wisconsin (it is also held elsewhere.) Lydia works at a pastry shop near our house as well, called Bit of Swiss. She also just got her driver's license. She has spent quite a bit of her time this summer practicing on her new guitar, she's really good.

Mama cleans the house, takes care of the dogs, works out, drives people everywhere, works as a nurse, feeds us and cooks our meals...and much more. She is amazing.

Papa has done a lot of biking. He and I are doing the Steelhead Triathlon this weekend (1.2 mile swim, bike 56 miles and run 13.) We are doing it as a team; I am the swimmer and he is the biker and a man someone papa knows is the runner.

Well that's the Bard family for now,

Rebekah

Commenting...

2011-01-18T17:00:00.000-05:00

You can leave comments on pictures or post if you would like to. Just scroll to the bottom of each post and there will be a little link that looks like this 0 comments. Just click that link and you will pull up a page that says, Do you want to leave a comment? (or something like that) and you can just leave your comment that way. You will need to use an anonymous if you do not have a google account. But if you do, just sign in and leave your comment :)

Thanks,

Beckah

Cross Country Skiing

2011-01-09T18:53:00.000-05:00

Today, Sam and I and my mom went cross country skiing at this place in our county called
Love Creek." It was amazing. We got almost a foot in the past few days and since Sam is home, we figured we would ski for the last time before she goes home. God made the snow, the trees and all the little animals scurrying about, all so beautiful and when I was out there (I don't know about Sam or my mom) but I could just feel His presence and it was so joyful.

Sam is home from college (still.) Sorry about the quality of the picture; I am not a good photographer.

Snow!

2011-01-08T13:15:00.000-05:00

Saint Joseph, MI, home of the world's most unpredictable weather. One day it will be warm and sunny and the next, a hail storm with snow and ice. Anyways, today is one of the snow/ice/freezingness days. Magnolia, our lab/border collie mutt, simply loves the snow. She buries her face in it until she has reached all the way to the frozen ground and once she emerges, her face is covered with snow and her appetite for smelling absolutely everything, is somewhat satisfied. She is crazy :)
(Esther also enjoys the snow and then a hot cup of coco afterwards)

This morning, Esther and I (Rebekah) played out in the snow and made a mini snowman (because the snow is not good for packing.) Unfortunately, I took pictures on my phone and I am unable to upload them to our computer. We had lots of fun (even through all the torture of Hunter hurling snowballs.)

Wow its been so long

2010-12-24T14:37:00.000-05:00

I am so sorry we have not written in a very long time. As I always say, school, family and just plain junk makes us so busy. Well, it is almost Christmas now! Our family like to make gingerbread houses, especially Sam (19.) So Lydia (16,) me (Rebekah, 18) and Esther bougt lots of candy and icing and proceeded to make gingerbread houses. However, we used grahm crackers for the houses (I am saying this from experience, real gingerbread houses are really hard to make, especially with a 7 year old.) Here they are :)

Woo and me (sorry about the quality, I had sticky hands)

Weird faces!

Me and Lyd :)

All she does with her house is put as much candy on it as she can so she can eat it later...but it does look pretty nice for a house with ten tons of candy on it :)

Okay Esther cheated by using a gingerbread house kit, thats why hers is bigger than ours haha. She had a lot of fun doing this :)

CANDY! :)

Well, I hope everyone is having a great holiday season! Merry Christmas everyone!
Love, Rebekah (The Bards)

New Orleans

2010-10-01T19:43:00.000-04:00

         I (Beckah) am sorry that I have not written is a very long time. College is a lot of work, give me a break haha.
        As some of you may know, Sara, John and Lydia will be leaving for New Orleans on the morning of October 2nd, 2010. They are going with a mission group with our church, The Chapel. They should be doing some more cleaning up of the 2005 hurricane Katrina. If you, whoever may be reading this, could pray for safety and that God's will will be done there. As it is everywhere, people in New Orleans need to gospel of Jesus Christ. Lydia, Sara and John will be bringing that, along with their other talents and gifts. I hope they have a wonderful.
          While they are there, I am here. With Esther and Hunter. I think I will get a small taste of what being a mom will be like. Some of the days I have to take Hunter to my classes at LMC (Lake Michigan College) where I am attending. Here are a few pictures of the day before they leave:

Sorry about the picture quality. Our camera is a little bit finicky.

Esther is really getting big. She is going to be tall and muscular when she grows up. She is cutting up some potatoes. We cooked dinner and cleaned the kitchen, all while listening to some good music. I'm not gonna lie, Lydia and I started to have a dance party when both my mom and dad were gone haha.
Sara and Lydia will be posting about their adventures in New Orleans, so stay tuned :)
Beckie

Graduation Party

2010-07-01T20:10:00.000-04:00

For my graduation, I had a party, which turned out pretty well. It was on June 27th, noon to four. It rained the first hour or so, but then it cleared up and was very nice out :) We had badminton, basketball and yummy food :) We had Jimmy Johns (a local sandwich shop) and chips, drinks and cake. Now, everyone by now is, I'm sure, sick of regular graduation cake that everyone has. So, I decided to have a cake made of rice crispy treats (all made with different cereals, like fruit loops, captain crunch and chocolate fruity pebbles) So, I thought it was a good cake :)
Anyways, here are some of the pictures that we took :

Me and my best friend, Lauren. Yeah, she's pretty cool :)

These are some of my good friends.

This is after that party (I was tired of wearing the dress) From the left: Esther (my loving little sister) Catherine (Lydia's friend, and mine too) Sarah (also Lydia's and my friend) Lydia (my other sister) and then me on the end.

This is Saniago. He is the (adopted) child of one of the men who went with my mom and I to Bosnia. He is adoarble!

More people.

This is me and Ben's mom and sister. Mrs. Mccombs is such a nice lady! So is Sam, the girl to the right in the Tinker Bell shirt. I love them all and I am so happy they came down here just for my grad party.

This is Emilie and I. She has been a good friend and ~~a rather strict~~ swim coach haha. She proposed to me and I was already dressed for the wedding haha. We have fun...

Here is me, my mom and my dad. I want to thank them so much for the party and the little gift they gave me afterward (an awesome laptop!) Thanks again!
Love
Beckah

Julia Nunes!

2010-05-14T15:26:00.000-04:00

I think it's all going to fall through!! I'm going to drive with Sam to a Julia Nunes concert in Ann Arbor (a city about 2 hours away from my house) I'm so excited because Ben and his friend Evan will be joining Sam and I. Oh I cannot wait! It's on June 7th, in case you cared.
Here she is: (by the way, she is not very well known, but she is young...she's only like 21)

Julia Nunes...

2010-05-08T16:51:00.000-04:00

On June 7th, Julia Nunes is touring in Ann Arbor, a city around three hours from my house. Ahhhh!! I really want to go see her perform. She is an 'unknown' guitarist and singer. I hope to attend her concert in June with Ben and Sam. I made her a hat at the request of Ben :) Here it is:

There are seven As like you said Ben :)

Prom...

2010-05-04T21:28:00.002-04:00

I drove up to Grand Rapids (a city about and hour and fifteen minutes away from my house) to Ben's house to go to his prom with him. Ben is seventeen years old. He is a very cool guy and I enjoy every minute I have had with him. He is a Christian, which is the most wonderful character of his. Anyways...here are some pictures of the prom...(by the way, I had a ton of fun and would do it again in a heart beat)

This is Danielle and I. Danielle is a good friend of mine. She came over to my house in the morning before I left for Ben's house. She curled my hair and did a great job of it I think.

This is Troy, my other friend from camp. I must say that his is one of my favorite people in the world! He is so silly!

This is Troy and his girlfriend, Rebaka. I had the privilege of meeting her. She is a really cool person too! They match! :)

This is Ben. I think they took this before I came out of the house. Don't ask me what he is doing, cause I have no answer for you. :))

This was yesterday...

2010-04-26T15:52:00.000-04:00

Is this not the messiest kitchen ever?!? But don't worry, I cleaned it all up. It was spotless, thanks to Hunter and I by the time Mom, Sam and Lydia returned home. Cleanliness makes me happy :)

Alright, a little story comes with this here picture. Three days before my mom came home from the trip to Tennessee, I noticed lots of water pooling at the bottom edge of the refrigerator. I dried it up and ten minutes later, there appeared an even bigger puddle of water. I dried that up and proceeded to see what the problem was. I opened up the freezer and beheld a disgusting sight! Every item that was previously frozen, was thawed out and melting rapidly. Blaghh! There was blood everywhere from the good twenty pounds of meat that we stored in it. I called my mom and she told me to move all the meat to the outside fridge. Yes, I had to touch all the melting meat and other unknown substances. Thankfully, Esther was willing to help me in the promise of playing the Wii. Oh boy! Well, in the end, the refrigerator was broken and would cost more to repair than it was worth. So, we bought a new one and this is a picture of it. Look how clean it is! Yay! (I think it was worth touching the meat for a new refrigerator. Might I add that it is stainless steal?)

2010-04-24T16:52:00.001-04:00

Well, Sara, Sam and Lydia went to Tennessee for a few days (from Wednesday to Sunday) I have to 'be the mom' this week. Examples of mom duties: cooking, cleaning, and driving everyone everywhere! I enjoyed the cooking. As you can see, Esther and Hunter got it good this weekend.
The first night I went to the grocery and got all the ingredients for bruchetta and fettuccine alfredo. Yummy!

It turned out rather well.

We ate quite a lot!

The second night I made a concoction of leeks, carrots, onions, garlic, salt, broth, and assorted beans. It was quite good, if I may say so myself. Esther and I were pretending to be cooks and she did well peeling the carrots and eating the unfinished product. Silly girl!

Esther took this picture of me...can you tell??

I forgot to take a picture of the finished soup...sorry
Well there you have it...being a mom is hard!

Starting again...

2010-03-30T16:19:00.000-04:00

I'm sorry that we have not been posting lately. I have been busy with lots of things, like school, sports and work.

Well, here is some of the things that I have been working on since the last time I have posted:

Wrap Up

2009-11-22T17:08:00.001-05:00

Well it's time to wrap this part of the blog up. I really don't want to and know there is a difficult week ahead in trying to adjust to regular life. I want to thank all of you who kept up with us and especially those of you who posted. That really kept us motivated to keep it up.
    I am SO thankful to The Chapel, the Chapel prayer team, the Trowbridges, the Couches, all of you guys who sponsored us financially, my family esp..my mother-in-law who came and stayed with the kids and my wonderful teammates...including Rebekah that made this trip possible. Also a big thank you to John who held the fort down on the home front. IT was a life changing experience. I can't wait to go back. I already have some ideas for our next trip! My dear husband has to listen to "hair-brained idea," number 2358 for our return visit. How does a girls soccer ( or football as they call it) camp sound?
    God works in mighty ways and this trip was no exception. If I have one word or theme that describes my heart at this point, it would be humbled. God really humbled me ( I needed it) even before we left, He was working on me in this area. I was humbled by how much love the Trowbridges ( Kristie oozes love for others) and Couches showed us, humbled by the Bosnian local believers and the situations they have in their lives, humbled by the graciousness of my teammates, and most of all humbled by the fact that God is still in the business of forgiving and calling sinners to himself. It's a FREE gift. Isn't that amazing?
As I learned this week, Bosnians are very relational. They value friendships. I have been weak in this area and I plan to change that. Without relationships I can't effectively witness to others. It's time for a change and I am excited about that. Thanks guys...love, Sara

2009-11-18T16:12:00.001-05:00

This a tunnel that was about 800 meters in length that allowed food, weapons, medications etc.. to pass from one area of town to another.

Military Bomb Thingy blasted into the cement outside of the tunnel.

Not for those with claustrophobia. They had built a track/cart system for ease of travel. In the video it usually had several inches of water to wade through.

House Church...

2009-11-18T15:51:00.004-05:00

Today started with a walk up to where the Serbian Army camped out. Due to the possibility of undetonated landmines our interpreter discouraged us from walking out there. She didn't have to tell me twice!

The closest white building was a school that the army camped out in.

Bill, Tim and Marima praying while overlooking the city. This was an incredible time of prayer for us. We prayed for the body of Christ to be strengthened here.

House church worship time

Marima's mother who is living with them.

More worship time. John, they sang.. Jesus we enthrone you, We proclaim you our king, Standing here in the midst of us, we raise you up on our praise. I recognized it even in Bosnian! I have not heard that since we were in Kazakstan.

It is still amazing to me every day to see this city that was consumed in war for so long.

"It is of the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not.

They are new every morning; Great is Thy faithfulness. The Lord is my portion saith my soul therefore, I will hope in Him. Lamentations 3:22-24.

An attempt to let you hear the call to prayer.

2009-11-18T15:48:00.000-05:00

Okay, here is some of the terrain and the house here...

2009-11-15T15:12:00.001-05:00

More pictures from today, we went to a Roman Bridge. Larry guessed it was about made in the 5th century.

We also ate at Alam and Alma's house. They prepared a wonderful meal, it was so good. We also had a great time chatting and choking on water (a little joke)

Alam and Alma, the wonderful hosts of our lunch.

The mountains off the edge of the roman bridge.

This was such a beautiful place, just another reminder that we have an awesome Creator. He has allowed us the build things and also tak to Him in prayer. I am so happy for that. Thank you God.

Rebekah

Prayer Request

2009-11-14T15:09:00.000-05:00

If you have been reading this blog, I am asking you to pray for John's mom...Marilyn Scola. While she was taking care of my family, she came down with Shingles. She headed back to Florida today so hopefully being in a less stressful environment will be helpful. I ask you to pray for her comfort and healing. Thank you, The Bard Family

2009-11-14T14:12:00.001-05:00

In the afternoon today, we got to visit a friend of the Trowbridges. I got to play 'go fish' with the girls, and work on my pathetic Bosnian. It was great!

Sorry about the red eye.

"Go Fish!"

Me, trying to figure out all the Bosnian, I actually think I did okay, they understood me a little...

They were really fascinated when I shuffled because I can bridge the cards...they liked it and ask me to do it over again...

I really feel like God is working in this city...He love the people here and does not want anyone to perish but everyone to come to eternal life.

Thanks again for reading and your prayers...

Rebekah

2009-11-13T16:57:00.001-05:00

Sorry we haven't posted for a little time. I find it hard to take pictures when we are praying, and I don't like looking like a complete tourist...haha

This is a Sarajevo Rose, a place where someone has died, being hit with a bomb or piece of shrapnel.

Bosnian chocolate is good.

Here is Mr. Trowbridge, playing the guitar for the Friday night worship and fellowship time. It was wonderful!

This is actually part of a public playground built after the war.

This is a Muslim orphanage, they take them in a teach them all about their religion. I prayed hard for this one, it hit me hard how much and easy kids are influenced.

This is Marima (on the left) and Mr. Jewell (on the right)

Well, that's about all for now. We will probably take more tomorrow of everyone, less scenery...Thanks for reading and your prayers! We really feel them!

Rebekah

Wednesday...I think

2009-11-11T12:10:00.000-05:00

Not sure what day it is, but we didn't get any interesting pictures today, so I will send a quick note of what we did. We started this am prayer walking around the evangelism center neighborhood. The afternoon was spent with spackling walls and preparing to paint tomorrow. These are 100 year old walls put up by during communism, so you can guess the quality that we are working with. We had several trips to "Lowes" to get the correct spackle.
    Last night Rebekah and I were able to visit a family that the Trowbridges have befriended. They have absolutely nothing. 8 people living in an area about the size of 2 bedrooms. The mother of most (there were also grandchildren) said she was content to be with her children and have enough to eat. When she feels down she thinks about other families that don't have any food. It was a humbling evening.
   The people here dress up for everything. The women wear high heels, boots, dresses, makeup etc.. everywhere. We look completely inappropriate in our comfy American clothes. I feel like I am wearing purple spandex with Jane Fonda leggings.... that is how far behind in fashion I feel. They are close to Paris therefore, their styles will be our styles next year I guess. So..Ladies...the inside scoop on fashion is ....BOOTS. They where high heeled, flat.. every kinds (except Uggs). They wear them with skirts, pants, tucked into pants... They are the fashion statement. ALso, no bright colors.. Only blacks, browns, greys..very muted tones. Enough with the superficial stuff...
   God is working in our hearts and I will share some more later about the impression God is putting on my heart......Sara

Here is Rebekah, riding a motorcycle!!!

2009-11-09T15:42:00.001-05:00

Oh this was so much fun! It was wonderful riding through the streets at night, with the lights and the people everywhere...thanks Mr. Trowbridge!

Pastor Phil...

2009-11-09T15:39:00.001-05:00

Pastor Phil, do you remember this man?? His name is Alam. He and his wife went to the Word of Life bible school in Budapest, Hungary (2004 to 2006)...and when we said that our pastor was Phil Bubar, he said in a surprised voice, "THE Phil Bubar?!? Wow!" Haha, he remembers you as a great teacher...He also said you may not recognize him because he has gained a lot of weight since then...

2009-11-09T15:18:00.000-05:00

Today was our 1st day of prayer walking. This is a neighborhood where many of the houses were bombed during the war. I believe our translator told us that the city was under siege for 3 years.

Many houses have been rebuilt, but many still have evidence of mortar and shrapnel damage/

Rocket launcher evidence in a parking lot

This is one of the American family who is leaving the country due to some health issues. We prayed outside of their home today and ask you all to join us in prayer for them.

For Mrs. Lahrman

This building was shelled terribly, it was on one of the front lines.

After lunch we started our work project at the center used for evangelism. We removed old paint (I mean 100year old paint!) and sanded today. Spackling and painting to follow

Here is Rebekah and Larry (a local family who helps work in the center)

Here is our dedicated leader having a coffee break while we are sanding! Actually, I am just kidding, This man has a heart of gold and his love for people comes out in his prayers. They are always filled with scripture (which he has memorized) and he can hardly finish a prayer without great emotion.

Here we are at the end of our work day. Tim with another cup of coffee! Anyway, Al Swearingin, Tim has been able to keep from bothering the local women unlike you in Romania. He told me you would get the joke.

More pictures...

2009-11-08T16:18:00.001-05:00

Here is the Mosque...

Downtown Sarajevo...

This is Cevapi, it's kind of like a Bosnian hamburger, only slightly different.

Here is the NATO Chapel we went to this morning...

A bombed out house wall...

One of the front line hillsides...

A long staircase, leading up to a house...imagine walking up that everyday, they buy their food just for one day, so I guess they get a lot of walking in, in a day.

This place had been bombed out in the war in 1991, it was sad to see. They have no money to fix the the building that were hit so badly in the front line.

Pieces of shrapnel were stuck everywhere. Mom and I climbed one of the many mountains sides that were used as bases to shoot down at the city. I can only imagine how terribly horrifying the sound of a shell exploding anywhere near you. Oh, it's just terrifying to me.

One of the many roads leading out of the city, out of the bowl of mountains...

(sorry, our camera is not the best in the world, haha) This is a tunnel out of the city...

In the background, you can kind of see a little hill, covered with white spikes. This is a Muslin cemetery, which we did not have time to see today, but we will hopefully while we are here.

Isn't that little, orange hippie van amazing? I want one!

Posted by: The immature, teenager Rebekah haha

This city is beautiful! I love it here! And God is working on this city, which makes it 929387984623746723 times better, time one bazzilion, haha

Stray cats everywhere, and dogs, which is a little more intimidating. We had a larger stray dog come up to me and mom, oh, she was scared...haha

"The city 'in' a hill" Sarajevo is inside of a kind of bowl of mountains, it's beautiful!

Getting down was almost harder than going up the mountain side, very steep and slippery! I can't imagine what it will be like in winter, people drive, tiny stick shifts up that mountain ya know!

The beggars were awful to see, alot of them had very small babies. Oh, I felt terrible for them.

The birthday man! Happy birthday Mr. Wilkinson!! Here Mrs. Wilkinson, Taylor, Nathan, Julie and Santie...make something nice for him when he comes bach, it was his birthday ya know, haha

Posted by: Again, the immature Rebekah...

Welcome to Bosnia!

2009-11-07T14:22:00.000-05:00

Us in the airport, in Munich.

Hi everyone, we arrived safely in Bosnia, this morning, or well, at 3am Michigan time...haha, mom and I are enjoying seeing the city and all the wonderful things here...I am eager to see how God will work in our first real day tomorrow...He will do great things! We have met one of the translators, Alam, he's awesome...yes, that's all I have to say...Thanks for reading! (Oh, we have wifi all the time at our house here, so we will be able to update daily, I hope...haha)
Beckie, and Mom

Here is our first slideshow...

2009-10-28T21:50:00.002-04:00

Here is our first prayerwalk around St. Joseph, a city who needs prayer...we went to all these places and prayed for them individually...it was a wonderful experience and I am looking forward to see what God is going to do with us on the trip...thanks for reading!
Beckie (and Mom)

More Pictures in Autumn...

2009-10-26T11:12:00.002-04:00

Here are some more pictures that I took in our backyard...I can't believe we will be leaving in 12 days!!! It's just amazing how fast time can go!

There you are...thanks for reading and looking at these pictures...haha, bye!

Beckie

Knitting!

2009-10-23T19:51:00.002-04:00

I'm still knitting the prayer shawls for the ladies in Bosnia...two weeks!! Wow, to be honest, I'm a little nervous...just a little though, because I know that God will provide for our needs and work through us...haha, thank you God for being there for me to give those horrible butterflies too...anyway, I'll be finished with my two, but Mama may need some help finishing the other two (she a bit sloower than I, haha) Thanks for reading!
Beckie

More Information about the trip....

2009-10-18T17:13:00.005-04:00

Okay, we had the great opportunity of meeting part of a team that just recently went to our trip location
with a Church in Indiana (Liberty Church) We had a wonderful time, talking around a table of lovely food, prepared by none other than, Irma Jewel...thank you!! This team told us many things about the culture in, their religion, proper manners and even a little language lesson...we had such a wonderful time with them and I hope that we have this good a time, doing God's work in ...we will, I know it!! Thanks for reading and supporting us with prayer and in many other ways...
Beckie and my mom I guess (she doesn't really know how to do this blog thing...haha)

It's Autumn, and we're ready for Bosnia!

2009-10-10T12:40:00.005-04:00

I found a really cute toad...I took pictures of him, but he didnt really like that too much, he kept running away...

We have this really tall grass in our front yard, and when Autumn comes, it turns this really pretty color yellow...

Got some more yarn...Mom and I are going to knit prayer shawls for the four ladies that we will be working with in Bosnia. I know I haven't finished my sweater that I said I would, but some things are more 'urgent'....like these, haha...I promise I will finish it after I get done with these prayer shawls...

Beckie

Makin marshmallows!

2009-09-29T16:04:00.000-04:00

Here is me and Estherwoo, makin the marshins.....Esther used to call marshmellow, marshins when she was little, so now I call them that too, haha...we made a mess, then clean evrything and watched Wall-e, with our lovely homemade marshmellows...

Yeah, thats us...sorry the pictures are terrible...it's hard to take pictures with really sticky hands, ya know...haha, thats all for now...

Beckie, and Esther

Sunflowers!

2009-09-23T16:19:00.001-04:00

Isn't it huge??

*Rebekah* We have a giant sunflower in our back yard and I took some pictures of it...here you are:

For Bosnia...

2009-09-23T10:28:00.001-04:00

I'm just seeing how the labeling thingy works...I'm going to have everything that we post about the Bosnia trip, under one label, so you don't have to sift through knitting, painting and whatever else might be here...haha

Painting for the first time...

2009-09-22T18:00:00.003-04:00

*Beckie here* I've never really painted before so I decided to give it a try...here's the outcome:
Now, the reason she has that cream mark on her face? Yes, I dropped my brush and it rolled all the way down her face...getting black paint everywhere! Sad sad...

Drying the back of my sweater...

2009-09-21T13:57:00.005-04:00

The drying process...I did it just like Jessica, the most wonderful knitter, told me...thank you!

While I knit...

2009-09-20T22:33:00.005-04:00

Finally I got one picture! I figured out how to upload pictures from a camera whose memory stick doesn't go into our computer, yes!! Here is me while I'm knitting, I'll take some better ones tomorrow of my unfinished work...thanks!
Beckie

2009-09-20T21:53:00.005-04:00

*Rebekah speaking* I got the back of my sweater done! Took me long enough...haha! And, thanks to the wonderful, Jessica Mills, I know now to wash each part before I assembly the entire sweater...thank you Jessica! I wish I could show pictures, but unfortunately, our camera is still broken...sad sad...
Once we get a new one, or whatever we end up doing, I'll put up pictures of projects and different things...including my unfinished sweater...thanks again for reading!
Beckie

2009-09-17T16:56:00.004-04:00

Here we go, http://stitchywitch.wordpress.com/2007/02/ This lady is amazing at knitting, I can't fathom ever becoming as good as her...I am copying the design on the bottom of this page, the blue one, for the sweater that I'm still working on...it's coming along well, wish I had pictures of it...sorry

2009-09-16T17:15:00.003-04:00

No pictures for a while...our camera broke...*sad faces* Well, as soon as we get some kind of picture device, we will update...my project (Rebekah speaking) is coming along well, the back is almost half way done. I started on the design that will be around the whole sweater, so I hope it will turn out well...thanks for reading...

Posted by: Rebekah

Making socks!

2009-09-14T11:48:00.006-04:00

Here are a pair of socks, that Rebekah decided to add a little flavor to...pink and ruffly, oh dear, what to do with that girl...
Sara

Hello everyone, this is Rebekah. Im working on a project, knitting (completing) a sweater... here is the bottom of the back, this will be a challenge because i rarely finish big projects, i mean the ones that take me more than two days...haha...I will be posting as time goes on and I will see if I am really cut out to be a knitter...

Check it out...

2009-07-19T20:56:00.003-04:00

You can now post comments. Click on "comments" under the post and leave a message. I have to review then 1st and then they will appear on the blog. Sara

2009-02-18T14:45:00.003-05:00

Okay so we made it through a week without starving to death. We did use a lot of our pantry items though, so I can't really say we only ate $65 worth of groceries. Here's a list of what I can remember we ate for dinners:
Creamed Spinach on pasta
Chicken salad sandwiches with sweet potato fries
Vegetarian stir fry
Crock pot beef (from the freezer)
A nice meat and veggie marinara sauce with pasta
A lot of the food seems to go for lunches. John and Hunter take their lunches and I always try to have fruits and veggies in those. The produce seems to go there. I figure when Hunter grows up he will confess to me that he threw half of his lunch away! We went through 2 small jars of p-nut butter as well.
I got better deals this week and have about $3 left. Here is what I got and this is what I plan:

Tonight I made beef enchiladas with some of the ground beef I cooked from last week. There is still some left over so it will be put on pizza friday pm.
Broccoli soup... Broccoli was on sale $1 per bunch and I have a little left from last week. Cheese still left from last week
Waffles with sausages (on sale $2) and fruit salad
Brisket ( 40% off!) with yukon gold potatoes
That is all I have planned out at the moment
I was actually able to do some stocking up with the cereal (5 for $10 and you got a free gallon of milk with that) and 3 p-nut butters for $5 (for most families that would be for stocking up, but not this one)
All in all, I think we will do pretty well this week. Not too unhealthy. We'll check back when we can..PS if you have time, check out the 20/20 program on Appalachia. I just did a google seach with 20/20 Appalachia and was able to watch it in small segments. It was an absolute shock to me to see how poor those people are. It has a portion talking about the condition of their teeth. Seems they all drink a lot of Mountain Dew and it has just rotted their teeth out. Very sad situation.

Experiment

2009-02-11T12:04:00.003-05:00

Hello Everyone,
It has been a while since we posted, but we have decided to try and experiment. We have calculated that a family of 7 making $30,000 per year would get approximately $65 worth of food stamps per week. We are trying to live on $65 per week for the next 3 weeks. One of our goals besides seeing how difficult it would be to live on this amount is to see if it is possible to eat somewhat healthy while on a restricted budget. I personally don't see how you could eat very healthy, but we will see. Rebekah thinks we are going to starve to death. We will see how much we save and donate the money to a local food pantry. We usually spend about $125-$140 per week and it just dawned on me that $65 is half what we normally spend. We will try to post our menu and some pictures of what we eat and how we look after losing 20 lbs each! See you tomorrow with a sketch of our menu using the items above at 3 different grocery stores. The above picture came to $62.67. It sure doesn't look like much food.

Halloween

2008-10-31T07:12:00.002-04:00

Izzie the Bee

Dolphin girl was asked if she was a; Shark, whale and Manatee....
I thought she looked like a Dolphin. Party at school today.

Homeschoolers Gone Bad

2008-10-31T07:07:00.002-04:00

UPDATE

2008-10-27T17:51:00.006-04:00

Lydia swimming breaststroke......good form!!!
Elliot says hello!!
Place your hands and feet! Esther at the swim meet.
Rebekah swimming backstroke....
Halloween is coming!!! Get those pumpkins clean!!
Beginning of bike trip
All dressed up!!
Excited!! When Sara, Sam and Lydia went on the bike trip,
Rebekah went crazy with the hair spray!!
Bike trip, Sam and Lydia (left to right)
Finished!!!

Finally, I am updating. My keyboard is broken so, excuse the missing and misplaced capital letters. We had a great time in Florida and was so thankful I was able to come. I would not have missed those memories for anything. Here are some photos of our goings on around here. Love, us

Science Fair

2008-02-12T07:27:00.000-05:00

We had our homeschool Science Fair Friday and here are a few pictures from it. Rebekah was eating when I took the photos, hence she is in not in them. Obviously, I need some work with the camera. Hopefully, this blog will improve my picture taking. Anyway, back to the Science fair. Everybody worked hard. Sam won 1st place in the Physics section. She had really done a good job, with a lot of research and creativity. She experimented with the Q-drum, which is a simple device that allows people in countries with few water sources to carry their water with less work. Lydia also did a great experiment with water pollution and plants. There were a lot of contestants in her class, so she didn't place. Hunter did work with catapults and we both learned a lot. That's all for now. Love, The Bards Ps sorry about the sideways picture, I could not figure out how to change it.

February 1st

2008-02-01T16:34:00.000-05:00

Day in a life of a snow day..... Sleeping girls and sleeping dogs. We had about 10 inches of snow last pm. It is beautiful, but in February, we have had enough.

Sleeping baby and big dog.

Izzie heading out to synchronized swimming.

Izzie Pochohantas.

What else did we have to do?
Poor Izzie, she must suffer for our boredom and inability to amuse ourselves.

Snow!!!

2008-01-25T20:54:00.000-05:00

It snowed for three days here! Me and Hunter went to the woods and took some pictures.

Mini

2008-01-24T14:16:00.000-05:00

Dear Friends,
On a sad note, yesterday, we had to put Mini to sleep. Her heart just gave out after 13 1/2 years. She woke up very short of breath and uncomfortable, so the decision was not difficult. John and I were with her and it was painful for us. She was a great dog and we enjoyed having her so much. Here are a few photos of her.

Jib Jab

2008-01-22T17:26:00.000-05:00

We made this hilarious video on JibJab.com. Here it is.

Don't send a lame Holiday eCard. Try JibJab Sendables!

So funny!

If it doesn't show up on the first try, try refreshing the page.

New baby!

2008-01-06T13:05:00.001-05:00

We have ourselves a new baby! She's a whippet puppy, just like our other two dogs, and we have, after one whole week of calling her "little girl" and "baby," have decided to name her IZZY!
Some pictures!

So cute!

Oh so very cute!

Night night!

No pictures today...Sorry

2007-12-07T11:46:00.000-05:00

Dear everybody,
Sorry, No pictures today because Sam and Lydia have the camera inChicago. They all went on an overnight shopping trip and I am sure they will have a great time. Unfortunately, Rebekah came down with fever, headache, etc... yesterday, so she could not go. I feel so bad for her. Hunter, Esther and I are headed out to see the play, "A Christmas Carol." This local theater does a great job of productions, so this should be good. I have been working on getting my housecleaning, chores, and cooking on a schedule with the help of flylady.net Friday is cooking for next week, blog updating and full kitchen clean. The kitchen is still waiting to be cleaned! I cooked some soup, baked potatoes, meat for a casserole and some brownies. I did this last week and it made things run much smoother. Of course around here, the food disappeared faster than I had hoped. Susie, says it is like a swarm of locusts when food comes in. Speaking of Susie, it is her birthday today. We made her a banner, brownies and played the Beatles version of "Birthday," for her. She has really cut down on her consumption of sweets and really wasn't interested in the brownie. I doubt it will go to waste though! Off we go. I hope you all have a great week. The Bards

Clean Slate

2007-12-02T07:52:00.001-05:00

Hello everyone!
I'm so sorry that I haven't posted in so long! Starting school has been extremely busy, as usual. To make up for it... I will post at least once a week. That's my Dec. 2nd 2007 resolution. Yay! Here are a few photos of Lydia after I ~~captured her and held her for ransom~~ made her up to look like Marilyn Monroe.

Corny little smile

Purdy ain't she?

A pensive blond? An oxymoron!

In the ZONE...

Playing with sepia

All it took was a $3 wig from Jo-anns, and lots and lots o' makeup.

These two black and white ones are my favorite!

Here is a video I made of the pictures.

That's all for now!
Sam

An attempt at blog update

2007-12-02T07:50:00.001-05:00

Good morning,
We have an icy one here in SW Michigan, but it is now 40 degrees and it will all be slush soon. I am going to attempt to update later with some photos and I am just checking to see if this works today.

Meet the Family

2007-08-29T19:26:00.003-04:00

The Head, John

The Mother, Sara Sam(16)

Rebekah(15)

Lydia(13)

Hunter(9)

Esther(4)

MEET THE ANIMALS:

Mini(13)

Elliot(3)

Gieco(3)

Tabatha(2)Bob(1) the lizard and Fred(unknown)the Frog

The Beach

2007-08-28T15:57:00.001-04:00

First Post!!!!

2007-08-27T14:59:00.000-04:00

This is our very first post!