Horse riding in Limoux

Micah was not sacred to walk right up to the horse, must
be his Texas roots.

Caleb's turn.

We had a beautiful view looking over Limoux.

I took this picture a few weeks ago, when the snow had recently
started falling.  (this blogger does not suggest or support the use of a
cell phone to take pictures while driving in the snow)

The boys in the huddle with their teammates at their last game.

We had another good week.  The weather was lovely and we have had a lot of good contact with people.  I took the kids on Wednesday and on Saturday to see some horses.  Our friend, Philippe, teaches horseback riding and leads trail rides as well.  He is in the process of expanding.  We enjoyed hanging out with him and several of the kids got to ride.  We had a wonderful visit.  Micah missed out on most of it because he had a birthday party to go to, but he did get to come pet them some before we left.  This will be a little busier at lunch time for us.  Andrew will start a special time with the teacher (and a few other students) helping him work on his French.  He does well fo his age, but confuses the masuline and feminine of some words and mixes up some phrases.  Otherwise the week passed without incident.  On Wednesday I had a repair day for the kids bikes and scooters.  The boys are hard on them and they needed some maitenance.  We were able to ride bikes to the boys basketball practice.  Wednesdays (my "day off") usually end up being my busiest day of the week.  Angie got to visit with the neighbors for a couple of hours on Wednesday, and she took a few walks with the neighbor throughout last week.  Bible study was good on Thursday with four who came.  We are still going through the gospel of John.  I had some good contacts at the market on Friday morning, even with  some English people.  Services went good on Sunday in Carcassonne, we had lunch with the church and I stayed for their yearly business meeting.  We were unable to catch the services at our sending church because of internet connection problems.  Looking forward to this week.  I am finishing up travel plans for this summer and looking forward to spending time with friends and family in the States.    God bless, JASON

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?

From Batman to Basketball

 We had a good week.  Pictured above is Andrew's face painting from the birthday party on Saturday.  He was invited to a friends house for her birthday and they had a good time.  Angie stayed for the party to help out and was able to meet some of the parents as well.  It took a lot of work to get the paint off afterwards.

I was finally able to get our address changed on the car registration form.  The week before I had made two trips to Carcassonne to try and get it changed but it didn't work out both times. The first time their computers were down, the second they had closed early.  I made it on Wednesday and when I sat down in the waiting room, I was greeted by a "Bonjour, Jason" it was a man from Limoux that I have had contact with on several occassions, so we were able to spend our time waiting, talking.  I also met someone who attends the church in Carcassonne who had just bought a car.  I got it all done and it was free as well.  Thursday night we had a record attendance at the bible study (including Angie and I).  Friday morning it was cold and rainy.  To the right you see Arianna bundled up and sleeping after Angie took her to meet Lilia walking home from school.  There were not a lot of people at the market, I did hand out one Arabic New Testament.  Friday I also got my guitar fixed.  Lilia and Caleb had knocked it over and broke off one of the tuning knobs.

 Caleb has been asking for a hair cut, but we have not found time, Angie straightened it for him and this is how he looks.

 We had some British friends over for Lunch and they gave us some flowers they have grown and bloomed quickly.  The boys would wake up every morning and run to measure them to see how much they had grown.  They have a sweet smell and are called Jacinthe (french spelling).  Angie said that I had bought her some just like them several years ago. 

 Here is the newest member of the family, a dishwasher.  She is four years old and I purchased her Saturday.  We got a good deal and if she lasts us for six months it will be worth it.  The last time we had a dishwasher we only had two kids, so it has been a while. 

 Friday night we had a basketball game.  Pictured below I am the number 6 waiting to go for a rebound as our coach shoots a freethrow.  We lost the game by four points, but it went well and everyone had a good time.  During the game, which Caleb and Lilia attended with me, Lilia walked over to the bench and said that Micah had fallen on his head and Angie had called 15 (911 in the States), he did not show any signs of a concussion, but had a big knot on the back of his head.  I woke him up a couple of times during the night to make sure he was okay.  It was funny because normally when I wakes up during the night he appears completely out of it and says the strangest thing.   this time it was no different.  I woke him up and told him to go to the restroom, which he did, I then asked him a few question to see if he was coherent.  I just got what seemed like random yes and no's.  Just before I put him back in bed, out of the blue he quoted a few lines of a french poem that Caleb had memorized a couple of years ago, "Quatre-vingts moutons, autant de poisson, un peu de pain, et j'ai toujours faim".  I took that as a sign that he was good.   

 Below picture is from our game before on Saturday, I am pictured on the bottom right making a shot.  The boys had a basketball tournament Sunday after church. Lilia was sick to her stomach so after church Angie got a ride home with Lilia and Arianna.  So just us boys had a good time together.  Micah and Caleb won both of the games they played, 3 - 0 and 6 - 4. 

Last Saturday the weather was nice and we even cleaned up the back yard some.  This Saturday is our Thanksgiving meal that we finally got rescheduled.  We are looking forward to it, please pray that it goes well.  God  bless, JASON

Cold Market morning

I like how Angie is holding two bottles. 

Lilia's and Peter's card house at the youth meeting.

Micah finds an interesting way to clean the underside of the table.

Arianna tries on Andrew's coat.

We had a good week last week.  Things were busy but we accomplished a lot.  Bible Study went well Thursday evening, we had one new visitor.  The lesson went well and a lot of good comments were made.  The market Friday morning went real well.  I spoke with a man from Sweden who has lived in Limoux for 10 years, a man from Israel who had been to our Bible study once but we had not seen since, two of me fellow basketballers stopped by, a young lady wanting a Bible and to know about churches available in the area, and I visited with a few regulars.  It was cold but worth it.  Saturday we met a neighbor boy who came to play with our boys. I was able to speak briefly to his mother. Angie and Lilia went to the youth meeting in Carcassonne on Saturday as well. They had a good time. Saturday evening I was able to make my second basketball game of the year.  We lost the game by a few points because of a poor second half.  I did not play much, but did manage to score 6 point, block two shots, and get a couple of assists and rebounds.  Not too bad for an old man.  Services went well Sunday.  I lead the services which I enjoyed.  I had fun with the kids lessons which I will post on my French blog.  Sunday afternoon Lilia had two school friends come over to work on a project.  We were able to meet both of the parents and spoke for a while with them.  One of Lilia's best friends this year is a girl who was adopted from Thailand several years ago.  Lilia and her get along real well being that they are both third culture kids.  This week I need to make a trip to carcassonne to change our address for our car registration.  I made this same trip twice last week.  The first time, their computers were giving them problems, and we I went again Friday afternoon I discovered that they close at three.  It might get done this week, baring computer problems and early closures.  I was able to start the process of getting Arianna's name changed on her French birth certificate.  They made a mistake and put one "n".  We will see how much of a complicated process that is.  It was -4 degrees celsius this morning when I dropped the kids off and went to fill up on gas.  The exchange rate is getting better, however the price of gas (diesel) has jumped up to 1.40 euros a liter.  They makes it $6.76 a gallon to save you some time on the math.  Makes me thankful that we are in town now.  Enjoy the pics and God bless, JASON

Starting out the New Year

After seeing some super hero movies, here are the boys with a
hammer, sword, and shield.  The have them all painted now.

Arianna has gotten to where she loves wearing
everybodies shoes, sometimes she has trouble
getting them on, but she seems to walk well in
them no matter how big they are. 

The kids got right back into the swing of things with school.  Lilia has moved up into a higher level swimming class, so she is there everynight of the week, though she didn't go Tuesday might because she had homework.  Wednesday, the Irish lady we know, made us and Irish Stew.  She had seen a recipe in one of our cookbooks and explained that it was not right.  What she made us was excellent and we really enjoyed it.  The kids started basketball practice on Wednesday, as did I.  I think they took to it better that I did, because I was sore for a few days following.  I think I had a little too much Turkey, or maybe it was the Irish stew.  At basketball practice I found out that one of my teammates, had lost a baby last week, the baby passed away one hour after birth.  We sent him a card and are praying for him and his wife.  Thursday night bible study went well.  We had three present an picked back up into the study on John after a break from the holiday's.  This past weekend, we met a lady at the church in Carcassonne, who was really happy to meet us.  She has been living in Limoux for a year and had been praying to meet some Christians who live there as well.  You could tell how pleased she was at the church in Carcassonne after meeting us.  She plans on attending the Bible Study thursday night even called me Sunday night so that we could learn a little more about each other.  I also spoke to a lady at church who has a son who plays basketball in Bordeaux, we are having a bastketball outreach planned for the spring of next year.  I was hoping to have a contact with a basketball player in Bordeaux, because I know the pastor of a church in Bordeaux and was hoping to have a basketball match there.  This will be a busy week.  Saturday I have a basketball match, and Angie and Lilia will be going to the youth meeting in Carcassonne.  Sunday, I will be leading the services in Carcassonne as well. The church in Carcassonne is meeting in a new place in order to have a little more space.  Outgrowing your meeting place is a good problem to have, one that I hope we will have recently.  Angie has had a headache off and on the last couple of days, she is now off of caffeine to see if that helps.  God bless, JASON

A shot at Basketball

Keeping Arianna happy during the three hour
tournement.

Micah shoots the ball straight up into the arms of the girl in
front of him.

Dropping Lilia off to catch the school bus.

Caleb scores, see Micah's reaction.

Driving home along the Canal du Midi.

We have had a good week.  A lot of the preparations have begun for the move in less than two weeks.  What the focus has been on this week seems to be basketball.  The Friday night that I blogged last, the team asked me to pray for their game on Sunday.  I said that of course I would, and they won. Their first win of the season, and second win in two years.  Of course they could just as easily loose the next match, but at least it was an attempt to share an important aspect of my faith.  An interesting side note, last Sunday was also a muslim holiday celebrating the sacrifice of Abraham.  The practices with the group went good this week and I will be playing with them this next Saturday night.  Caleb and Micah had a basketball tournement today.  We drove over after church and spent the afternoon at the tournement. Normally I would be hesitant to go to such an event on a Sunday, but that is the only day that many events are held, and I was an opportunity to meet two sets of parents and get to know the coach a little better.  The boys played well and won the first game 4-2 and the second 14-8.  Unlike many of the other teams they only had four players, so no subs.  Caleb scored twice in the second game. Micah did good as well, he was among the youngest in their age group, so he was dwarfed, but it didn't bother him at all, he ran all over and cheered when one of his teammates scored, and laughed when he shot the ball once and it went straight up (picture attached). In other news, the Bible study went well.  I missed the market this week, because it was changed to Thursday since Friday was veterans day in France.  I also worked on translating a skit for the Christmas dinner outreach with the church in Carcassonne.  It was a great time and I am looking forward to it this year and helping out with the kids program. We will also invite some people we know who live in Carcassonne.  We showed the house to a couple this week, actually two, we had a suprise visit from a couple on Saturday morning.  I had a good talk with them while Angie had the kids do a quick straighten up, turns out that they were both from a protestant background, and they seemed interested in the house.  Enjoy the attached pics from our cell phone.  God bless, JASON

Summer Shopping

At the last youth meeting in Carcassonne, they had a
picture scavenger hunt, I am not sure why but this was
one of the pictures they took.



Andrew with the soccer ball he got for his birthday.

 We had a good weekend.  Services went well Sunday at Carcassonne, there was a first time visitor. We enjoyed a meal after services and a nice Sunday afternoon here at the house, including listening to our home church services in Texas.  Monday the kids started the real vacation.  It was warm, so we let them go swimming in our little pool.  Angie went shopping in Carcassonne, one of the members of the church there wanted to buy each of our kids an outfit.  What a blessing!  July is a month of sales in France and you can find some good deals.  Tuesday, the girls went grocery shopping, (and Angie bought a purse for 70% off) and I managed to finish preparing my lesson for next week.  I played basketball with the guys Tuesday as well. It was 90 degrees, 27 % humidity, and no shade on the basketball court. Somehow I still managed to play for two hours. It was good exercise, but it took a while to recuperate afterwards. Caleb and I got home to find out that Angie had grilled because it was warm in the house.  Today we started working on a video for a church in the states.  Their Vacation Bible School is going to be taking an offering for us and we are making a short video for them.  It is going to be fun to put together, I hope to have it finished by Thursday or Friday.  We are about to leave and visit some friends on Carcassonne and also run a few errands.  We have a new cell phone that we are trying to get used to and we want to use the older one in place of our old prepay phone.  Tomorrow I will have my language session, I will be filming on location in a couple of areas, and also preparing for the Bible Study.  I hope that you are enjoying your summer as well.  God bless, JASON

Birthday comes around.

Arianna enjoyed Andrew playing with his birthday bubbles.

Thursday night the Bible Study was good.  Friday morning there was a threat of rain so I did not go to the market.  We did have a friend over for lunch.  Friday night we had a good basketball practice.  It has gotten warmer and I think everyone was soaking wet by the end, so we didn't mind that it was raining outside afterwards.  Saturday was my birthday, now 33 years old.  We attended the 14th aniversary celebration of the church in Carcassonne.  I really enjoyed the services.  They gave a history of the Baptist Church of Carcassonne and had the President of the Bible Institute at Brussells, Belgium as a speaker.  Afterwards we had a picnic lunch at the park as a family.  The rest of the day was spent just relaxing and having fun with the kids.  We played some games and went for a walk.  Angie got us some McDonalds for supper, which was a nice treat for the whole family.  Sunday services went well.  We ate lunch at church afterwards.  We enjoyed the fellowship.  For supper this evening, I guess I had a little birthday leftover, I enjoyed my favorite meal, hot dogs.  Lilia attended a dance recital with some friends and we let the boys stay up a little late.  They have no school tommorrow because it is a holiday, Pentecost.  I plan on staying up and watching game six of the NBA finals.  I am hoping that Dallas can win their first title.  Looking forward to a good week, have some important porjects to get done this week.  God bless, JASON

La vie en "roses"

She is as pretty as a flower.

We have had a good week.  The weather has been wonderful all week long.  It has been dry however, about two weeks since it last rained, and this is usually the wetter time of year.  Several people were out with traveling and so we ended up not having anyone for the Bible study.  We did have a Sunday School lesson for the kids instead.  Angie taught and I kept the nursery.  The market went well Friday morning.  It started off a little slow.  Nobody came the first hour, one person stopped by the second, but there were several more that came the third hour.  Friday night, we had basketball practice outside because the gym was being used, Angie took the kids to the park during my practice.  Today we did quite a bit of yard work, weeding and mowing.  I did find the opportunity to take a bike ride with Caleb and take some pictures.  One of our neighbors stop by and gave us some cherries from their garden.  She mentioned that roses are one thing that grows exceptionnally well here, as you can see in the pictures.  Another neighbor stopped by this week gave us a lot of clothes from her daughter.  Lilia was excited about that.  Currently Angie has taken Lilia to a youth meeting in Carcassonne.  I am excited that Angie is getting this opportunity. They needed to have at least one women there so Angie volunteered.  She always does a great job with people of all ages, being a natural "people person".  The grand event this evening is the Monster Truck show that has come to town.  The kids are excited, they even claim to have the largest monster truck in the world.  I'm sure the boys and Lilia will enjoy it.  I will make sure and include some pictures.  Enjoy you weekend.  God bless, Jason

Da Da

These are some pictures of the Carnaval from Sunday.  Tuesday evening's Basketball practice went well.  I am trying to put in more effort and do the best I can.  As it says in Ecclesiastes 9:10 "Work hard at whatever you do."  It paid off because our team won the scrimmage.  Wednesday Caleb took an all day trip into the mountains for his Wednesday sporting event.  Micah and Lilia did their swimming lessons.  Lilia is progressing well and her instructor has asked her to stay at it and join in the competition next year.  I don't know what she wants to do.  She seems to enjoy it.  Arianna was saying "Da da" all day yesterday.  It was music to my ears.  In the afternoon, Andrew, Micah, and I got our haircut.  Micah attended a birthday party at McDonalds.  I had a good talk with my parents last night. Andrew had slight fever yesterday as well, and as a result is home from school today.  Looking forward to my language session with Eric this afternoon and the Bible Study tonight.  God bless, JASON

Feeding and fighting

We found the earthwoom before school.

It is Saturday morning and our friends should be arriving in a couple of hours.  Le me take this chance to give you an update of the last few days.  Thursday during recess at school another girl came up and pinched Lilia's shoulder real hard, leaving marks that were still there three hours later.  This particular girl has always caused problems. Lilia wants so much to be friends with everyone that she still hangs out with her.  I went and had a talk with Lilia's teacher, who immediately told Lilia that she should have come and told her.  They talked to the girl and I hope that it resolves that issue.  We also started Arianna on some solid food this week.  I fed her the first time while Angie was shopping and she seemed to really enjoy it.  Angie fed her some more rice cereal last night and she ate it all up.  Arianna has still been generally fussy a lot.  She wants to be held a lot and even then she may not be happy.  Sometimes she gets in a playful mood.  I have attached a cute video of her trying to attack my shoulder.  It rained hard Thursday evening.  We had one come for the Bible study, some regulars were out because the electricity went out at their house.  It was looking like rain Friday morning so I didn't go to the market.  I ended up getting my Sunday School lesson ready and helping Angie set up for our friends.  At Basketball practice last night, we played a scrimmage, full court, for over an hour.  It was good excercise to say the least.  God bless, JASON

Games

Last week went well. Having our paperwork done and

 turned in was a relief.  While there were freezing temperatures and snow in the states, we enjoyed warmer temperatures.  The Bible study went well last week, three were present and we continued our series of studies on the Sermon on the Mount (currently in Matthew 7).  Friday we had a nice family night with the kids.  We had bought a marble obastacle course, where you build up these . . . perhaps a picture would be better than words.  Friday morning, I had a great time at the market.  It was warmer and there were a lot of people out.  Several people stopped by the stand and I passed out a bible, some tracts, and a gospel of John.  I also spoke with a few people who had stopped by before.  Saturday night we had a basketball match.  We lost and I only played about 20 minutes of the whole game, but I did score four points and had three rebounds.  It was at least another chance to hang out with team-mates and get to know

I was proud of my parking job.

 them better.  Sunday services in Carcassonne, went good, Angie stayed home with Arianna and Andrew.  Angie is still trying to get over a cough.  The other kids and I stayed for the meal afterwards and enjoyed visiting.  Sunday night, Angie and I both stayed up to watch the superbowl.  The team I was hoping would win did.  It was nice that Angie stayed up, it was much funner laughing at what the commentators said together.  I think there were only four commercial breaks.  I have a new language helper coming tomorrow, so I am going to get an early start on my lesson.  God bless, JASON

Coffee and Basketball

Arianna reaches out for mommy.

Arianna loves holding and chewing on her blanket.

The kids about to open a package from the grandparents.

Waking Arianna up in the morning.

Let me think about the last time I have blogged and what has happened since then.  We had a good Bible Study Thursday evening, two were present.  Friday morning I met a man at the market I have spoken with several times.  He even came to church with us one time.  I have not seen him during the Christmas break even though I tried to contact him several times. It was good to see him, we took a break and had coffee together and a good conversation.  Friday night we had basketball practice leading to our game on Saturday night.  This was the first and only game I will play in this season, because the rest was on Sunday morning.  The game was good.  We lost by thirty points, but our team was only started two years ago and the majority are new this year, like myself.  I had two rebounds and 8 points.  Coffee and basketball have proven to be good ways to build relationships.  Sunday morning services were good.  We planned on having a restful afternoon because we didn't get back home after the game until almost midnight, but we received a phone call from saying that there was a get-together the community center for the new year.  We enjoyed last years so we packed up the family and drove down the hill.  We had a good time, we were able to meet a family from town and exchange contact information.  The was one funny part for the evening where Caleb got dragged up front to dance with this lady.  He resisted and it was clear he didn't want to be there. All the rest of the family had a good laugh at his expense then Micah ran up to join in the dance.  Monday which is my day off, we shopped and I also scheduled an appointment to get Arianna's birth certificate, social securiy number, and passport.  We will have to drive three hours to Marseille to accomplish all this.  After I made the appointment on the phone, I couldn't help but tell Angie, "Angie, they spoke English!"  Wasn't really expecting that.  Today, we took Arianna for her 4 month appointment.  We will eat lunch with some friends.  After school our kids are having some classmates come over, followed by basketball practice.  God bless, JASON