Round Two

One of the most popular toys of her age group.

Never too young to start.

Everyone watches Caleb play a game.

Alseep in the carseat.

Tuesday night we had a good time with our guests.  We stayed talking until almost midnight.  Tuesday we started round two of sickness for the year.  Arianna and Caleb were sick on Tuesday.  Angie picked it up on Wednesday, and Lilia got it Friday.  It was not too bad, just a little fever and stuffiness.  We did cancel the Bible study on Thursday night.  Thursday, I took Arianna and the boys on a walk to McDonalds to play on the playplace and just get out of the house  some.  Arianna did not sleep good on Thursday and Friday night.  Thursday night she woke up every two hours.  Which makes not only a tired little girl, but tired parents as well.  At least the weather has been nice, warming up to about 60 degrees every day.  I enjoyed basketball practice on Wed. and Friday night.  We have a new player who just moved here from Paris.  I hope to have the chance to invite him over.  Things went well at the market Friday morning, there were not as many people as I expected with the warmer temperatures. I did get to speak to a few regulars and share a cup of coffee.  Let me take the time to say that the coffee you buy from the cafés is great.  If I could make it like that at home, I might drink coffee regularly.  The last time I made some coffee at home I couldn't even finish one cup, it just didn't taste as good.  Maybe I am spoiled by the good stuff.   We also got some good news about our cell phone, actually it was bad news.  They called on Wednesday and said our phone was back from the repair place (to catch you up, Angie had dropped it in the snow a couple of weeks ago and it wouldn't charge).  Angie went to pick it up on Saturday to find out that they couldn't fix it because their were signs of water damage.  Here I was that evening and on Sunday, thinking what to do because we couldn't get a replacement with our current provider until July.  Sunday night, I said to myself that maybe it will work. (Round 2) After saying a quick prayer, I plugged it in and it charged.  How exciting!  Praise God!  I hope that it will keep working at least until we leave for the states.   Services went good in Sunday.  We had a good talk with my parents as well.  Looking forward to seeing our families this summer.  The kids started school back today, so our routine will settle back in hopefully. God bless, JASON

Ready to go outside?

Two Fridays a week.

Wednesday has arrived, which means no school and a chance to catch up on all other things. We were talking with other students after school finished Tuesday about how it feels like we have two Fridays a week. Lilia is doing fine. She showed no more symptoms or signs of having any troubles. Last night we had a babysitter and Angie and I went to Paris. We planned on visiting the Bible book store, but found out it was closed when we got there. We did some window shopping which was fun. We ate at McDonalds (which was great!) and did a little shopping at Cora. Today we get homework finished up for us and the kids and housework. I would like to get a summary done of a study of Job I did recently. I will include below a poem that we were assigned to write in class on the subject of "Le Chant des Villes". I thought of our small town of Henderson and Limoux as I was writing it. God bless, JASON

Comment ça va, le chant des villes?
Est-ce que c'est doux comme la musique classique?
Ou plus chaotique que la musique électronique?
Chaque ville a-t-elle une unique pièce musicale?
Comment on trouve la partition locale?
Est-ce qu'on demande aux habitants?
Ou est-ce qu'il faut qu'on y vive depuis longtemps?
C'est le lieu qui est le concertiste?
Ou plutôt les gens qui jouent le rôle-titre?
Qui choisit les instruments?
Qui fournit cette ambiance?
Pourrait-elle être changée?
Dès-que les notes ont été créées?

Joyeux Anniversaire

Today is my birthday. I am now 30 years old. I have started to approach "the hill". To celebrate Angie and I went to a local mall, without the kids. Awesome. We browsed around for a while, Angie took me out to eat at McDonalds. The mall was huge, three stories about 190 stores. It took a 30 minute bus ride to get there but it was worth it. We drove through a part of town that had several gypsies' trailers. Later we had my birthday party, for the cake we had eclaires. Very good. We let the kids stay up and watch part of "Horton hears a Who". I was working on homework, but the parts I saw and the laughter I heard, it seems to be a pretty good movie. Just finished watching a soccer match. I enjoy watching soccer. The games are different than most sports games. They are usually low scoring, but the game is like a soap opera. It has it's ups and downs and personality. That is why people like it even though there are not that many scores. As americains I think we tend to looke forward to the scores and miss a lot of the game. If there are any other soccer fans out there reading this, here is a link you would enjoy
http://youtube.com/watch?v=31qv2oMPqls it is the Italian Soccer team practice. Anyway, I think I had better say goodnight to another birthday. Rumor has it that there may be a birthday party for me in our class tommorrow. God bless,

Caleb sees France.

We took the kids to the Eiffel Tower yesterday. Caleb kept saying that he was finally going to be able to see France. It took a lot of explaining to get him to see that we are in France now. We left at about 8:20 to walk to the train station (RER). We purchased out tickets and then had to come back to the house for a restroom break. Paris has few public restrooms. We caught the train about 9:20, met Virginie and T.J. her son at 9:30 and arrived at the tower by about 9:50. The kids loved it. There was a pretty long line so Angie and I didn't want to wait, but Lilia really wanted to go up and so we got in line. Last time we were at the Tower, it had just rained and the line was not long at all. This time after standing there a few seconds, someone came and moved the last part of the line to a new elevator that had opened up. What a blessing! We made it to the elevator and waited a little bit, then someone announced that there was a problem with this elevator and to follow her. We ended up going to the front on the line that we had started in. We went to the second level and enjoyed the view. I held Micah and took him to the rail and said, "Micah isn't that pretty!" He shouted, "Look at that!" He was pointing to a heart that someone had drawn on the railing. We enjoyed the Tower for a while. Afterwards we were going to go to Sacre Cœur, but the kids were already tired, so we decided we would take them to McDonalds instead. I enjoyed McDonalds, it was the first time I had gone out to eat in two months, since arriving here in France. Big Mac value meal for 6 euros, about $9. Tasted good though. We made it back home about 3 pm. We had a good time and the kids really enjoyed it. I will attach some pictures. JASON