Vacation in full swing.

The vacation has been good so far. Monday Angie got the shopping done. We have managed well to stay in our budget. Tuesday we had the visiting pastor and his family over. We had a real good time with them. Their kids and ours played together all afternoon. Angie left this morning to get our friends from Massy. I had planned on going, but this morning she decided she would like to so she and Lilia have left and will return tomorrow. Attached pictures are Lilia and Caleb reading their Bibles before we left for church (for Caleb's sake they chose French). God bless, JASON

Father/Son hike II

Voici - the pcitures from our hike Saturday. It was cool seeing the fall colors coming through. Got some good pictures looking over Limoux on this hike as well..

Week End Beginning

Saturday I worked on getting the garage cleaned up. We hauled off a load of cardboard to be recycled. It still needs some arranging. I also vacuumed out the car. Caleb, Micah, and I went on a walk for a few hours and got some good pictures of Limoux that I will post later. Services went good Sunday, we had a visiting preacher who did a good job. I spoke with my parents for a while last night on skype. It has been nice having internet again. The next couple of days will be spent straightening up and getting reports done. Congratulations to my older sister who just found out they are expecting a boy, which I accurately guessed. Pictured is a rainbow we caught last week. God bless, JASON

Swimming translation

I forgot to mention what happened while during Lilia and Calebs swimming class. There was a scheduled power outage at the house so we all went to the pool as a family to watch Lilia and Caleb's swimming class. I noticed in Caleb's class that one boy was not doing what everyone else was. I then saw Caleb say something to the teacher, swim over to the boy and talk with him, then I saw the boy join the rest of the group. Afterwards Caleb explained what happened. The new boy did not understand what to do because he spoke English. So Caleb ask if he could explain it, he swam over to the boy and explained what to do. I was proud of him. Caleb's teacher asked to speak with me today. She was just wanting to make sure that Caleb was doing okay with his homework. She wanted to make sure that he had some French interaction over the holidays. She was a little worried about him having trouble with the French in the future. I think that she is not used to having an English kid in the class. He seems to be doing just fine. He did mention that sometimes he doesn't not understand everything the teacher says. Lilia said neither does she or even the French kids in her class. Today was the start of a week and a half of from school. We plan next week to go back to Massy and get some good friends of ours and bring them down for the weekend. We are looking forward to visiting with them and I am sure they need a break from language school as well.  God bless, JASON

Fall

The weekend has gone well. We are enjoying the fall weather, cool at night pretty during the day. Most of the early part of this week was getting the internet completed and getting caught up on emails. Saturday, I planted some flower bulbs in the garden. I finished reading two books this week as well. One dealing with answers for Muslims, the other was dealing with atheism. They were both in English, which is how I got them read so fast. I forgot to mention that we took Lilia and Caleb to the doctor last week for a check-up that they had to have for the swimming program. We found out that one of Caleb's legs is longer than the other and that Lilia could have scoliosis, abnormal curvature of the spine. Nothing serious, but we will probably take Lilia for x-rays just to make sure. Tomorrow I am leading the prayer meeting again and am looking forward to it. The kids have been cute and funny the last few meals. The stories are too long to include and without context it wouldn't be the same. So, just trust me, they are funny. God bless, Jason

We got connections.

Finally we are connected to the internet. I called this morning to see what the hold-up was and they said it should be up and going by Monday. This afternoon I went and visited with a couple who help in an English speaking church that meets in a town about twenty minutes from here twice a month. I volunteered to be available to fill in if needed. They were a really nice couple and oddly enough a man was there working on there internet (same company as ours). On the way back to get the kids, I called Angie (who had a friend over) and found out that internet company called and we were online. After getting home and setting up a few things, here we are. YES! I will wait until tommorrow to get the internet phone and TV hooked up. I am anxious to see how everything will work with this slower speed. Tonight is family night so we will work on it tommorrow. We turned our heat on last night. It seems fall has arrived. Last night it go down to 35. Pictured is one of our house plants that bloomed recently. God bless, JASON

Father Son hike Pictures (Randonnée)

Caleb and Micah and I went on a hike together last week. Here are some pictures. This one of the boys in a tree we found.

As you can see we found a really nice trail. We didn't know that it was there. But it was well marked and easy to walk. One day we will have to find the start of it.

There is a good picture of the town of Magrie. You can see the church in the center of town on the right side. Our house is just a little left of center, the third from the top.

Here are the boys who successfully hiked the mountain. We ended up being gone a lot longer than we planned because we found the trail. But the boys loved every minute.

Internet search.

Friday was an interesting day. I picked up Lilia's desk without problems and then we went over to check on the internet. They found out the order had never been placed for the equipment. Thankfully they had one in stock. I took it home and started setting things up. It would not work, so I called the help desk waited on hold for 10 minutes to find out that our line had never been activated for the DSL. Evidently that order never was placed either. I was transferred to the person to help get it set back up who immediately offered me the “English number” to call. I hung up and tried the number to find it didn't exist. Nice move. I had to call back and wait on hold for 15 more minutes and explain everything again. The final person was very helpful and we should working in 4 or 5 days. She reminded me that at least we have two months free. Sunday services went real well. The pastor has been bringing a series on Peter. We enjoyed some good fellowship after. The key seems to be letting the kids color in another room, leaving us open to talk. Monday we did our weekly grocery shopping, involving three different grocery stores. It has been a rainy Monday but we at least got to see a good looking rainbow. I didn't get those pictures loaded, but as a replacement, Escargo, that I made for supper a few days back. Oddly enough, I was the only one who at any. God bless, JASON

Stormy Weather

A storm came through last night right at the kids bedtime. Micah was a little worried and it took a while before he went to sleep. I brought the lesson at the church in Carcassonne before the prayer time yesterday. I enjoyed it, I hope that everyone understood what was said. They laughed when they were supposed to, so that is a good sign. It helped me to see just how long it would take to prepare a short message in French. The answer - a long time. Wednesday I took the boys for a hike. I will attach those pictures later. Attached picture is of our cactus garden and of the sun rise a few mornings ago. We are still waiting for out interent connection. I will stop by there today and see if there is a problem. Lilia's table arrived that we have been waiting for over a month, so I will pick that up as well. I stopped by the Library this morning to see what was required to get the kids library cards. I also stopped by an "association", club, that has information and activities for people trying to learn French of other languages and people who are new to town. Lilia and Caleb have been loving their swimming classes on Wednesday. Also this week I have averaged 4.1 liters/100 km or 57.359 miles to the US gallong. That has to be a record. Looking forward to a good weekend. God bless, JASON

Today is Monday.

"Today is Monday". That was the phrase that Caleb got to teach his class in English this morning. His teacher has been helping him teach the English classes a little. He seems to really enjoy it. I asked him if he knew all the days of the week in English and he did not, neither did Micah, so we will spend the next few car rides practicing the days of the week in English. We had a good weekend. Saturday, Angie and I worked on the yard all day. We transfered some cactus (aloe vera) and cleaned out the flower bed to get ready for some flowers. The new cactus garden looks really nice. I will try and get a picture of it posted next time. Sunday services went well. Being the first of the month we treated ourselves to Dominos Pizza. We saw it a few weeks back and it was great to get to enjoy some finally. Sunday afternoon I got some good studying done, spent almost and hour looking into one Hebrew word. Afterwards I was even able to get a small nap with Andrew. Hopefully this is the week that our internet will arrive. God bless, JASON

Revenge of the mouse.

Wednesday I took the kids swimming and they had a great time. It was a lot of fun watching them. The swimming pool here in town is really nice, they even have a small pool for toddlers with water slides and fountains. Thursday was an interesting day. Angie was finally feeling back to normal and while enjoying the view outside, thanked God for all the nature around us, she did not know what would happen in a couple of hours. I dropped the kids off at school and came home and got to my reading. After a little while I hear Angie walk into the room and give a little shreek and then look for whatever is close that gets her off the floor, in this case a small stool. Sure enough there was a mouse in the house. My thought was just to by some traps from the store, but she insisted that the mouse had to go now. So we commenced to chasing the mouse out from behind furniture towards the door. While the chase was on he happened to run into an empty cereal box beside the trash can and I had him. It was then that I had the wonderful idea of showing him to the kids, so he was transfered to a bucket to await the childrens return at lunch. I brought them home and they were excited. Andrew quickly tired of watching a mouse sit in a bucket so he started shaking the bucket for a little more action. I called them to lunch. Andrew finished quickly and went right back outside to shake the bucket. So I decided it was best to let the mouse go. My idea (and Caleb's) was to give him to the nieghbor's cat, but Angie said to let him loose in the field next to our house. So me and the kids walked him down there and released him. He took of running, circled back, ran past me and right into a wasps nest that was built into a wash out (pictured). Chaos. I calmly instructed the kids to "RUN!". Lilia was stung first as she stood there screaming and starting at the wasp on her arm. (Angie heard the scream at this point and thought the mouse must have run over her foot). Finally the kids get the idea and start heading back to the house all crying. Angie catches on that something big is happening and exits the house to meet the children. Micah still had wasps on his clothes. Lilia and Andrew were stung once and Micah, twice. Angie put salt on the wounds, which I was not sure was a good idea, she was trying to draw the stinger out. I made the good'ol vinager and baking soda mix that helped so many times in my youth. It seemed to go better with the kids. Caleb and me were spared the stinging but suddenly Caleb starts crying saying he was bit and he did happen to have a mosquito bite on his neck. Suddenly I notice a wasp on Micah's head and slap it. That got him all upset again as his little brain was trying to figure out why Dad had hit him. It was a pretty stressful moment for all the kids. Lilia cried the loudest and longest. We put a movie on the calm them down and get them to rest. Lilia and Caleb calmed down enough to go back to school, but Micah stayed home. At least we discovered that they are not allergic. I think Andrew must have shook the bucket a little too much and the mouse wanted revenge. I went back later and took the picture. No worries though, I have purchased the bug spray and will be rid of them soon, we will have our revenge. As I am typing this Angie is reading the newspaper and found a section advertising prostitutes. That is a shock. Can't wait to see what God has instore for today, I have told Angie to be more careful about thanking him for the nature all around us. God bless, JASON