Kittys in the kitchen

The boys playing in their new "kingdom" - the
back yard.

Discovered that this is Arianna's guilty look - the "I found the
coffee cream that was left on the table and helped myself to it
as well as using some to paint the floor, aren't you proud of
me" look. 

What a beautiful day we are having today.  It is about 80 degrees outside with clear sunny skies.  Last weekend went well.  We had a good time at our friends house on Saturday and had a good conversation as well.  Lilia was sick and stayed home.  She still wasn't feeling good on Sunday, so only Caleb, Micah and I went to Barcelona.  We had a great time there.  The services went well.  We had a wonderful Mexican food lunch, complete with Tamales.  On the way home we ran into heavy rain and hail that slowed traffic down, as well as traffic as everyone was returning from the four day weekend.  It took four and a half hours instead of the normal three.  The rain continued on monday and tuesday, along with moments of high winds.  Our house is somewhat sheltered where we are now, so we did not notice it, but there were gusts of up to 70mph in some places.  I worked all day monday on some computer problems which I still have not resolved.  I did finally finish my web site, http://chevalcatharelimoux.fr , and it is in English as well.  Translating the French to English was more difficult than I expected, because of the horse vocabulary.  I knew what certain things meant in French, but did not know the English equivalent.  I'm sure there are still some things that do not make much sense.  If you find something, let me know.  Bible study went well last night.  The market was well attended this morning, I had a man stop by who was interested in the Bible study.  We talked for a little while and he said he would like to come to it.  This weekend we are celebrating the anniversary of the church in Carcassonne, there will be a picnic lunch after services on Sunday.  Some people have asked, and the answer is "no", we have not begun packing for the states yet.  We still have several weeks to go and many other things to work on.  Tomorrow I need to paint our bathroom and the back hallway, to name a couple.  We will have some cherries ripe shortly, if the birds do not eat them all.  Sunday morning, the stray cat the we have half-adopted had her kittens in our sun room.  We let them stay in the kitchen for a few days, but they are back outside now.  I have to admit that they are cute and she is a good mother. Caleb has already started worrying about who will take care of them while we are gone.  I assured him that she was doing fine before we arrived and will do okay while we are gone.  Have a good weekend.  God bless, JASON

This past week in pictures

We have had a good week.  I will try to let the pictures tell the story.  Below, Lilia had a school swimming competition this past Wednesday, and it was in Limoux, so the whole family went.  She did well, competiting in three different races, and winning 2nd, 3rd, and 4th. 

 The boys had their final basketball tournament on Sunday afternoon.  Their team has grown some with some new additions, so they did not play as well, but at least got to rest some.  Micah made his first basket, and Caleb made one as well.  The picture below shows Micah passing the ball to Caleb.

 We have found some time to clean up around the house.  Monday and Tuesday I spent some time on getting the house prepared for our absence and the possibility of others staying in our house while we are gone this summer.  I had to repair some holes, and replace the caulk around sinks and bathtubs.  I hope to be able to paint the bathroom, and a small back closet in the morning.  I also worked in the back yard.  We have some the seeds  I planted already coming up.  Arianna, below, is actually kissing one of the roses that bloomed.  Roses do really well here.  You do not have to trim them back and they will be filled with roses. 

 We have not had the Bible Study this week, because Thursday was a day off.  Lilia invited two friends over to spend the night, and we played Monopoly with the boys.  I do try and keep contact with everyone by phone.  Arianna came up and snuggled to me while I was on the phone, and I think it was Caleb that took this picture. 

 I do not remember sharing about taking a trip to Rennes-le-chateau.  Seems like it was last Saturday that we went to the village of Fa for a garage sale and on the way back decided to stop by and visit the village Rennes-le-chateau and see the fortification on top of the hill.

 We enjoyed the brief visit, especially since the kids got in free.  The boys enjoyed wandering all over.

 We had another wonderful view from the top and the weather was just lovely.  It has been cool and sunny most of the week.  It started raining last night and continued today, so I was unable to go to the market.  I have been able to get a lot of work done on the website.  You can check it out at http://chevalcatharelimoux.fr . 

Andrew was invited to a birthday party at McDonalds on Wednesday as well.  Tommorrow we are invited to spend the afternoon with some friends, pray for this opportunity.  Sunday I will be preaching at the church in Barcelona.  Hope that you enjoy your weekend as well, and that Sunday morning finds you praising the Lord with fellow believers as well.  God bless, JASON

Long distance

Andrew and I running for 6 minutes.

Micah and I running for 12 minutes.

Caleb running and me, trying to stay caught up.

I forgot to mention in the last blog about last Saturday morning.  Last saturday we participated in "Le crosse de mille enfants".  A long distance race involving thousands of kids from local schools.  There were over 5 000 present this year.  This year I ran with our three boys who were participating.  I ran 6 minutes with Andrew, 12 minutes with Micah, and 15 with Caleb.  At the end I was pretty tired out but had a lot of fun running with the boys.  We also had the opportunity to visit with the other parents who attended.  Things are still going well.  I have made a lot of progress on the website that I am working on.  But I still have a few bugs to work out.  I hope to have the home page up tonight. We had three present for the bible study.  The market went well this morning.  The weather was lovely and there were a lot of people out.  Looking forward to a busy weekend.  God bless, JASON

Elections

Lilia gets a hug.

One of the pictures I will be using for the website.

Well another week has gone by already.  May always seem to pass quickly in France because there are a lot of holidays.  Last Tuesday was a holiday and today is a holiday as well.  Angie has been enjoying the garage sale (vide grenier) season.  I don't think she has missed one yet.  She has found some good deals, especially on summer clothes for the kids, which we will definitely be needing in the states.  We had one couple for Bible study last week and we had a good visit with them.  The elections took place over the weekend and Francois Holland has won.  This means that France will have a socialist party President for the first time since 1995.  We will have to see if the excitement is shared in a few years.  I have finished the official demand for the basketball team to come, June of next year.  I have been looking forward to this for a while now.  It will be hard to wait another year, but it does take some time to plan and for the people going to raise their funds.  My father should soon have his Doctorate thesis finished.  I'm looking forward to reading it.  Sunday we listened to the last sermon on the series, the Song of Songs.  This summer looks like it will be busy.  I'm looking forward to feeling the Texas heat, it has been a while.  I'm getting prepared to post some pages up for the website.  I'll post the link when I finally get it going. I think it is time for supper.  I grilled a little last night and we had a guest eat with us.  I looking  forward to some leftovers.  God bless, JASON