Micah's birthday



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Arianna asleep in my arms.

This weekend has passed well.  Saturday we did the last minute shopping for his birthday.  We found a good used bike that I'm sure will be the highlight of his birthday.  Sunday services went well at Carcassonne.  I taught the older kids sunday school class.  I thought it went well, and Lilia confirms, so I guess that means they at least understood me.  Angie stayed at home and rested, she is a little sore and had a small fever Saturday, she might be getting un infection.  I had planned to take it easy on Sunday afternoon and take a break, have a birthday party for Micah.  There was a knock at the door.  The family of our neighbors was moving the rest of their items out of the house (the neighbor who was arrested).  They asked if we knew the landlords number and if we wanted the aquarium because they didn't have room to transport it.  We went to take a look at it because we had talked recently about getting the kids an aquarium, because they had wanted pets.  When we arrived we found that the aquarium was huge.  And it had fish in it still.  I am shocked, they mentioned that the pump alone cost 600 euros.  It took several hours for me and the kids to empty and clean and transport it to our house.  I do not know how big it is, but we filled up two bathtubs with the water and still had several inches left.  They also gave us some patio chairs.  The afternoon got hectic, with getting the fishes moved, having the birthday party and then supper.  It all was fun and exciting for Micah. 

Here are a couple of his quotes from yesterday.  Micah commented on his red and brown icing cake with one tall candle, "It's a mixture of blood and chocolate and the eiffel tower!" That just sums up a young boys dreams. Then during supper, out of nowhere he says, "All you need to win a fight is a rope. . . and lasers coming out of your eyes." And one more, Friday on the way home for school, I had to get on to Micah for not behaving in the car, so I told home he could not talk until we got home.  Suprisingly he made it, at the table, I was telling Angie about it when Micah says, "Oh yeah, well I was talking in my head, ah hah."  I don't know where he comes up with this stuff.  Today will be just as busy.  I'm getting caught up on paperwork and will get the house cleaned up.  Angie will get a birthday cake made for Micah's class to share this afternoon.  The kids get out of school at 5 and go to their doctors checkup right afterwards, just a physical for their swimming class.  At 6 there is a parent/teachers meeting at the kids school, and at 6:15 is Caleb's swimming time.  I am not sure yet how we are going to juggle all that, but I'm sure it will go by fast.  I am still really enjoying life in France, sure there are still those difficult cultural moments.  But it has been a wonderful experience and God has blessed.  I am thankful for God calling me here and I pray that I can be a blessing to all those that I meet. So I will close with a different ending to this blog.  Go bless!  - Jason

Courtesy

My birthday went well. Lilia got a call from a friend inviting her to go swimming Friday evening. After she looked at tme with the big puppy dog eyes, I let her go. She had a wonderful time. Saturday I put together my Barbeque grill and even cooked some saucisses de Toulouse (Toulouse sausages)(pictured). They were excellent. We decided to purchase a gas grill in case the power goes off we will be able to cook and in winter we will have gas for heat. Saturday night Lilia realized that she had forgot a homework assignent, so we called her friend that she had went swimming with and her mother volunteered to copy the assignement and bring it over for us as a matter of courtesy because she knew Angie is expecting. We had a good visit with her mother for about an hour and we praise God for the opportunity to make this contact. Sunday services went well. In the afternoon I visited in the services of the other church in Limoux. They are an Assembly of God church that has been here for 27 years. They have about 50 membors and a nice meeting place. I was glad for the opportunity to meet the pastor, and as a common courtesy, to let him know that I was here. Monday morning we made our weekly shopping trip, and in the afternoon Angie went to her doctors appointment. Angie's blood pressure was still a little high and so the Doctor requested her return for more blood tests and for a extended blood pressure test. Tuesday, I took the car to the dealership to get the washer fluid pump replaced, while Angie got her blood tested. We met up and went to see an end of school dance presentation that Caleb's class and several others classes put on. Tuesday afternoon and evening I worked on the lesson for Thursday night and Angie went to the Bible Study in Carcassonne. Currently Angie is taking the kids to their swimming lesson, and the end of school party that will follow. Hopefully she will be able to make some contacts with people. I am preparing material now for my language session and soon I need to go work on lunch. It has rained the past four days and so I have not been able to use my grill again. I think it is supposed to clear up tomorrow. God bless, JASON

French Doctors Visit

Angie and I had our visit with the Doctor to move along our Visa process. We had to leave the house at 6:45 so we arranged for a friend to watch our kids and walk them to school when it was time. That meant we had to get up about 5:30 to get everyone ready. We left, walked 10 minutes to the train station. Caught the train for 40 minutes. Got on a bus for 12 minutes (most packed bus I had been on). When then walked one more block to the office. There was a line extending out the door. After we sat inside we waited for about thirty minutes where almost everyone in the waiting room was falling asleep, including Andrew. They then called a group of about 10 inside to the doctors office. We were last of the 10 but we went first once inside. It was pretty standard stuff. They took height, weight, blood pressure, chest x-ray, past medical histroy and such. After we got inside it probably was over in 20 mintues. Then we made the trip back home and got back around 10:30. After lunch we had a good little nap. We will prepare things today for our vacation. This "vacation" is actually a good step in our language acquisition. It is good to get out of your friendly and known environment to a new one that also brings about needs to communicate in french. Friday I will pick up our rental car, I need to start brushing up on my car vocabulary. God bless, JASON

"I stuck the pencil in his ear because the music didn't stop."

Such was Micah's explanation as to why he tried putting a pencil into Andrew's ear. I'm still trying to figure out the logic on that. We had to make a couple of Doctor visits this week. Lilia had fallen down while skating a couple of weeks ago and had been complaining about her hip popping and hurting ever since. We scheduled an appointment with the Doctor tuesday. Had X-rays at the hospital Wednesday and went back to the doctor who prescribed two prescriptions, said it wasn't serious and told her to stay off of it for 4 days. One nice thing about france in the health care system. Dr.'s visit - 22 euros. Two x-rays - 46 Euros, Two prescriptions 9 Euros. And everyplace asks if we want the paperwork to send to the government who might refund us some based on our income. I couldn't accept it even if we would have received it. It was cheap enough already. It was also neat that Angie and Lilia only had to wait ten minutes at the hospital to get the x-rays, even without an appointment. The Doctors appoitment was 6:30 a night. It worked out well. Also this week, we had our first real storm, hail started falling. I like storms and so I was enjoying every minute of it. We had a good week at language school and I feel like I am picking up a little more. Language learning comes in stages with plateaus. It is not a continual process, you have periods where you feel like you are learning nothing and then suddenly everything makes sense and then the process repeats. I think my plateaus are close together. Also attached is a picture of Andrew by the window. The hail woke him up. God bless, JASON