Christmas

Merry Christmas!

We're having a great time with Kelli and Scott.  We're playing games, watching movies, shopping, seeing friends, making goodies, and generally having, well, a great time!  We've talked with Kurt several times by phone, wishing that he was here with us.  But we're so thankful for the jobs that the Lord has provided him.

I pray that this Christmas you will discover or rediscover the amazing miracle of the Word becoming flesh, of the King of Kings becoming a baby, of the Savior coming to us, the people He loves and wants to save.  I pray that the celebration of His birth leads to your own lifelong journey of seeking Him, of loving Him, of worshiping Him, of living for Him!  Jesus is born!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!!

Hanging with Friends in Bulgaria

We spent last weekend in Bulgaria.  We had gone for some meetings, and those went well, but the best part was hanging out with friends there!  We were able to stay with our friends the Haglunds.  What a precious family!  We had such a great time.

Jeffrey and Karl

Josiah helped me get to new levels on Angry Birds!  Thanks, Joe!

Sweeties, sweeties, sweeties!  Loved being with Kesed and Kara!

My sweet friend, Glenda.  I'm so thankful for her!!

We also got to visit with Scot and Robin, friends for many years.  It was so great to catch up with them!  I'm sad that I didn't have my camera with me to take pictures!  :(

And we met new friends as well, Steven and Stacie.  It was amazing - as we were getting to know each other, we realized that we had friends in common!  She grew up in Marble Falls and went to the same camp that I grew up going to!  It is such a small world!  That happens so often with people we meet on this side of the pond.  Heaven will be so fun!! 

On our way back home, we stopped in Nis and went to church there.  It was so fun to see friends that we haven't seen in years.  And it was great to worship with our brothers and sisters there.  We went on that afternoon to Paracin to church with our friends there.  Again, great to worship with brothers and sisters there!!!  God is so good!  We came home tired, but full of JOY!

Losing My Locative

Serbian nouns have seven cases:  Nominative, Genative, Dative, Accusative, Locative, Instrumental and Vocative.  This means that the noun has a different ending depending on the case it is in, or how it is used in the sentence.  We learned all of this ten years ago, but it continues to be a struggle at times.  Especially when I am tired.  And that's when Karl tells me that I've lost my locative. 

Locative is the case that shows, like it's name says, location.  Like, "in the park" or "on the table."  Nouns in the locative case have their own unique ending.  But when I am tired, I completely mess up that case!  I cannot get it right at all! 

We had friends over Monday evening, and I was quite tired after a long day.  Our conversations were almost all in Serbian (despite the fact that it was English Club!), and I kept butchering the locative case.  Ugh!  Thankfully, my friends have great patience with me.  And they laughed when Karl told them that when I'm tired, I just lose the locative.

Maybe I'll find it again when the sun comes out more.  Until then, I press on, locative or not!

Thanksgiving Celebrations!

Food, food, food, fellowship and fun!!  That was our Thanksgiving week!  And, yes, it was almost an entire week of cooking, eating, laughing, and giving thanks!!!

We had 17 of our friends join us on Thanksgiving for a huge feast.  It was a blast!  Lots of food, lots of laughter, and lots of fun!  Two guys even brought their guitars, and we sang all sorts of songs!  So thankful for all of our friends!

 

Then we headed north to be with our colleagues.  We all brought our leftovers from Thursday celebrations, and we still ended up bringing home leftovers!  We had a great time - food, fun and fellowship!  We also laughed over a silly sci-fi show about giant sharks and crocodiles!  Awesome!  We also played games like Apples to Apples, Pit and Settlers.  Great Thanksgiving!

The giant crocodile!!  Oh no!!!

Then, on Sunday morning, the ladies all woke up early and headed to Budapest for an overnight shopping trip!  The malls, Tesco, Ikea, Auchan, Decathlon, KFC, Mexican food,....lots of laughter, stories, shopping, fun, fun, fun!!! 

We saw this doggie when we stopped at a gas station.  Love the sweater!  :)

Lots of purchases!

The first question was: Will it all fit?  The second question was: What will the customs officer at the border think?  Thankfully, we breezed through customs!!!  Thank you, Lord!

This Thanksgiving left me with many, many more things to thank the Lord for!  He is so good!  We are so thankful for our Serbian family and friends!  We got to talk with all of the kids as they spent Thanksgiving where they were, and, while we missed them terribly, we are so thankful that they are exactly where God wants them to be!  We look forward to having Kelli and Scott here for Christmas!  More to give thanks for! 

Dessert Day!

In preparation for Thanksgiving, I've split up the menu, cooking different things over three days instead of trying to do it all on Thursday.  Today was Dessert Day!  The kitchen sure has smelled good today!  I made a cherry pie, a pumpkin pie, mini apple pies (24), carrot cake and chocolate chip cookies.  The cake and cookies might not be very traditional for some, but Karl doesn't eat pie, so I made those for him. 

Here are some pictures (try not to drool too much on your keyboard! :) ):

Cherry Pie

Mini Apple Pies

Pumpkin Pie

Carrot Cake (with yummy Cream Cheese Icing!!)

Chocolate Chip Cookies

"We've got a very big problem."

Those are not the words you want to hear.  Karl called me on Thursday about noon and spoke those words.  Here's the story:  Karl had been out at camp on Wednesday to visit some neighbors and check some things.  He turned on the water pump (outside) so he'd have water in the house.  Unfortunately, he forgot to turn it off before he left.  When he went back on Thursday, he found that a faucet in the kitchen had broken and was spraying water all over the room and ceiling and flooding the entire house!  He got the water turned off, then called me.  There was about an inch of water on the floors.  Everything was soaked.  He doesn't know how long the water had been spraying.  So, he began pulling everything outside and mopping up what he could.  Unfortunately, there was no electricity (for some reason, there isn't electricity during the day out there - only at night!), so he couldn't use the wet vac or anything else.

This is the faucet that broke and caused all the problems.  Karl has now fixed it.

There was so much water spraying that it popped some of the tiles off the wall.  The cement and brick behind the tiles are completely soaked.

The kitchen was soaked - top to bottom!

The water was spraying all the way across the kitchen and up on the ceiling!  It took all of the paint off

The bunkbeds were sitting in about 1" of water, so all of the legs are wet.  We had to put them up on blocks to dry out.

I got on a bus and headed out there to help.  By the time I got there, he had most of the stuff outside so it could dry out.  We had to move the bunkbeds to remove the linoleum (which was not glued to the floor).  Those bunkbeds are very heavy!  The linoleum isn't light either!  Especially when sopping wet!!  We had to put the bunkeds up on blocks so the legs could dry out - they were soaking wet.  Karl also had to remove all of the kitchen cabinets and take them out to dry.  They are very heavy when full of water!!  Thankfully, he had the dolly to help move them.  I helped and we got everything out and the bunkbeds up.  Finally, the electricity came on, so Karl got electric heaters to help dry out the concrete and wood parquet floors and walls.  He plugged one in in the room where I was mopping, and after a minute or two, I smelled smoke.  I looked up and the outlet where he had NOT plugged the heater in was smoking!  He quickly unplugged the heater, saying that those two outlets were connected.  Ugh - the last thing we needed was a fire! 

We were also in a hurry since Thursday evening is English Club at our house!  We rushed home, making it just in time.  We made delicious Mini Apple Pies (in muffin pans) and had a lot of fun.  There were some new people, and we really enjoyed the time together. 

After English Club, we went back out to camp to make sure everything was ok, and that the house had not burned down!  Thank the Lord, everything was fine.  We came back home and fell into bed, absolutely exhausted.  Karl went back out on Friday, happy about how things were beginning to dry out.  It's tough when temps are freezing or below at night and no electricity during the day, though!  So, Karl bought a wood burning fireplace (cast iron).  We went out there on Saturday and got it set up and going.  Hopefully, this will not only help get everything dried out, but will be enjoyed there for years to come.  We're thankful! 

The fireplace is so wonderful!  Karl would love to have one in our home!  :)

Well, the saga is not over yet.  Karl is back out there today checking on everything, and he discovered that the plaster ceiling fell down in one of the rooms.  Not fun.  But, in everything we give thanks!  Please pray for Karl and 3 volunteers who will be working this week at the camp.  Pray as they make repairs and for safety for all of them. 

Vesna

This is my precious sister in Christ, Vesna.  I know it's not a very good picture, but you can still see her sweet smile.  She attended our small group in 2009.  She has been sick for quite some time, but her health is really declining now.  She has stomach cancer, and it has metastasized.  I've had the blessing of going to visit her several times, and she continues to smile and praise the Lord, despite pain and suffering.

She lives in an apartment on the 4th floor (no elevator), but right next door to her daughter, son-in-law and darling grandson.  She has so much joy spending each day with her family.  She daily reads her Bible, Christian books and listens to Christian music.  She has peace and joy.

Please pray for Vesna.  Pray for her health, for her family and for each person that she touches with her smile, her testimony and her love for Christ.  

Happy 21st Birthday, Kurt!

Kurt turns 21 today.  Seems like yesterday our little Tiger was born!  Now he's a man!  We're so proud of you, Kurt!

Look!  Kurt was already doing the 3 finger sign for Serbia!!  :)

Look at that face.  So Kurt!

This is one of my favorite pictures - I love the look on Kurt's face: "I don't think so, Grandma!"  :)

Such a cute pic of Kurt and cousin Emily!

High school graduation

So thankful that you are our eldest son!  We love you, Kurt!!  Happy 21st Birthday!!!!

Visit to see Scott!

We had so much fun visiting Scott at his dorm!  Friday night, they invited a girls' dorm to come over and carve pumpkins with them.  Scott's group, all video game enthusiasts, carved the symbol for the game Half-Life 2 (for those who know Greek letters, it's a lambda). 

Look at that handsome 16-year-old!

Got that Bannert tongue that helps any job!

Dad overseeing the carving.

 

Saturday we slept in, had breakfast together, waited for Scott to finish his chores, and then we went to Freiberg (a town nearby) and went to Ikea.  It's the simple things.  Then we went back to the dorm and just had a relaxing day.  I cooked King Ranch Casserole for the dorm for dinner - Scott's request.  We watched "Wall-E" together and just talked.  It was a great low-key day.

Scott with the requested King Ranch Casserole!  It disappeared very quickly!

Scott asked for a Serbian flag for his birthday.  We had a US flag at home and took that, too.  He really likes having both flags - both of his homes - represented.

Sunday the dorm had house church, so we joined in that.  We had a relaxing lunch, then took a short nap while Scott "did some homework."  :)  That evening, the wrestling coaches from the school came to the dorm to show a video and to do some recruiting for the wrestling team!  Looks like Scott may go out for wrestling!  :)

Monday morning came too soon, and it was time for us to leave and for Scott to go back to school.  We are so thankful that we had the opportunity to visit him and see how happy and content he is at BFA.  That gives us joy!