Everything in Between.

My goodness.

It's good to be back.

Because I'm all out of words, 

and pictures have been demanded, 

Here is a long blog post about 

. . . 

Everything 

and 

Nothing in Particular.

The pictures will not be in order, 

and I will ramble.

Just a warning before plunging in.

I am so excited to see family again next week.

And if you've never tried thumbprint drawing, 

You just should.

                                      

And seeing these two wonderful people 

get married.

Oh, the endless possibilities when father is slumberizing.

"If I'm honest I have to tell you I still read fairy tales

and I like them best of all."

Oh, you know those exercise movies on airplane screens

 that everyone knows no one is really supposed to do?

Our brothers didn't quite get that memo.

When asked 

"In what year did (Enter famous basketball player's name)

make the most goals  hoops "

you probably don't want to guess what Monica and I did.

^^

Caption this picture and comment your entries.

It would amuse me greatly.

Taxis in London are the best ever.

 Listen to"Still, my Soul be Still" by Keith and Krystin Getty.

I'm pretty sure they really actually like each other . . .

(Can you see this without singing

"London Bridge is falling down . . . " ?)

Israel is . . . Israel, and will be forever more until the end of time.

They are pretty cool people. 

And they match.

When Israel gives you a flower, you smile.

But when Israel gives you a red flower from on top of ancient ruins in Israel 

by throwing them down to you,

smiling is minor.

That blur is Michael taken by the Chlo

 in a spontaneous photoshoot by the two of them.

Fake smiles?

What are you even talking about?

(Monica, currently am sipping the tea you got me in Europe as I type.

Well, maybe not as I type, cause I'm not super good at multi tasking,

but you get the idea.)

Children at heart who take

 every opportunity to climb onto tables,

or responsible adults who do whatever it takes to fix a lightbulb?

You choose.

                                    

Caption this picture yourself. 

Ah, Memories . . .

Double rainbow in the backyard this evening.

I almost went searching for leprechauns and a pot of gold;

it was that close.

 ~ Psalm 46 ~

 Signing off,
C. Celise. B.

Monday.

“Imagine yourself as a living house. God comes in to rebuild that house. At first, perhaps, you can understand what He is doing. He is getting the drains right and stopping the leaks in the roof and so on; you knew that those jobs needed doing and so you are not surprised. But presently He starts knocking the house about in a way that hurts abominably and does not seem to make any sense. What on earth is He up to? The explanation is that He is building quite a different house from the one you thought of - throwing out a new wing here, putting on an extra floor there, running up towers, making courtyards. You thought you were being made into a decent little cottage: but He is building a palace. He intends to come and live in it Himself.” 
― C.S. Lewis


more to come from our trip to the land of Israel ...

Family Blog.

Follow our families' Israel blog here:
m-bark17.blogspot.com

A Whole New World.

(WARNING: incredibly short and condensed and confusing. Go on with caution.)
(taken partly from a journal entry.)

My dear little diary (blog), 
I'm sorry to not have written in here before;
I had been imagining all sorts of leisure time to blog and journal and stuff ...
HA!
(forgive me that one resentful eye-opened cackle.)

Maybe I should start at the start and try to fill you in.
The day we left we had to keep telling ourselves:

GUYS. We are on a flight to LONDON.
GUYS. I can't believe we're on a flight to LONDON.
GUYS. We're not really on a flight to LONDON, are we?
GUYS. We're on a flight to LONDON.

I have no clue how many times we said that, and are still saying that about Israel.
On the flight, we made a friend or two: Kammy the Steward and Miriam the adorable Arab baby.
Did I mention that we were on British Airlines?
 Did I mention that on British Airlines, EVERYONE speaks in a British accent???
 (unless they are french. French is awesome too.)
Kammy was the epitome of British sarcastic wit.
He basically poked fun at Monica and I the whole flight, told me and mom that we were 'naughty guhls' for being too late in putting off the cellphone and on the seatbelt, and nonchallantly gave us an extra muffin during the flight, and then stood by our row and talked to dad and mom about our "group" and pointed out that Monica and I are the "mischevious ones" from our two families and that the boys are perfectly well-behaved (HA!), and told us where he lived and that this was his last flight for a while, as he was going home to be with his boys.
(it's sounds better with a British accent.)
Miriam was an adorably friendly little baby that we were allowed to hold for a couple minutes on the flight.
(monica and I never slept a wink that whole long 7-8 hour flight.)
ANYway, when we got off the flight, we frantically scrambled around the airport looking out for children dressed in blue.
(those t-shirts basically gave us VIP passes and made us feel like celebrities.)
We stood in line to LEAVE for over 2 hours.
Then, we were out to find our rentals.
(It was frigid. I never really imagined London as being frigid, but it was. boy, was it ever.but, it was gloomy. I was so glad it was gloomy.)
We shrieked every time a red double-decker bus passed by.
It was a teeny bit scary; the fathers driving on the wrong side of the road while excessively tired, but we made it out alive.
We pulled beside the road for about 45 minutes trying to decide where to go:
Downtown London.
Let's just say Monica and I were in the same vehicle, and you should have seen those Megabytes fly by. :)
It was incredible; actually BEING all those places that i've only read about or heard about.
I really can't say what it was like, because I just can't describe it. (and i'm tired.)
We drove around for a couple of hours being marvelous tourists, and then us girls were dropped off at Buckingham Palace.
About 2 minutes after we were dropped off (the flag was flying, which means the Queen was there, right?), it began to rain so we ran to the nearest shelter:
The Buckingham Palace Gate.
(I still can't believe that the BUCKINGHAM Palace Gate was sheltering us from a RAINSTORM in LONDON.)
We were then rescued and crammed into the rental van. Shmooshed. Piled. Shoved.
and spent the rest of the day being true true tourists.
There's a long story about father's van getting lost in the streets of London and making it back in time to let everyone get really uncomfortable and squirmy and pray.
But, all's well that ends well; and they ran in (you could practically hear chariots of fire playing in the background) and everyone sighed happy sighs and we made our flight to ISRAEL.
I slept. The whole flight.
When we landed everyone clapped for some reason. It was awesome.
When we got off the flight, we felt like absolute rubbish.
 (that's a british term for trash. i'll use it to the end of my days.) 
It was horribly awful.
Israel, though, is beautiful. In a lonesome, harsh, sharp kind of beauty.
(I must say that not knowing what anyone is saying around you is a teeny bit disconcerting.)
I really must get to bed, and i'm sorry that this is so horribly condensed and practical, but you really don't want the whole story.
It's too long for now, anyway.
Israel is incredible.
Sitting beside the sea of Galilee, the Ceaserean Harbor, Synaguoges, the Mediterranean, reading the Bible and seeing and hearing the stories come to life right before your eyes, and our guide unearthing so many different angles and facts from the Bible; it's all so much to take in.
It's going to be an incredible 2 and a half weeks.

                    read telephone booths, and red double-decker busses.

                 A picture i snapped while trying to get the buildings. I was NOT people-watching, honest.

                                       The Buckingham Palace. *pinches self*

                                             Monica and I with Big Ben in the background.
                                             (I still haven't exactly figured out what it is.)

                                   London Bridge. ( ... is falling down ...)

                                            Hannuch the adorable. ( i believe this was his 5th pair of sunglasses.)

                                                 Us by the meditteranean sea.

                                                The whole family.

                                                        the Chlo in Israel.


                         brought to you basically unedited and uncut and tired by Christy.

                                (we'll probably be doing all of our blogging on our familie's blog.)

The Last Flurry.

Our day is filled with sewing, 

 packing,

and Cheese nips.

HERE WE COME!

“A passport, as I'm sure you know, is a document that one shows to government officials whenever one reaches a border between two countries, so that the official can learn who you are, where you were born, and how you look when photographed unflatteringly.” 
― Lemony Snicket

- CcB.