Hamsters and Hedgehogs

The kids enjoying the slip-n-slide some friends gave us.

Lily the hamster.

Andrew wanted a pineapple cake.

Lilia got our all her petshops.

Me, playing chess with Caleb.

The hedgehog,

Caleb is right in the middle.

Micah, on the front row looking through his hands.

Well I have done it again.  It has been over a week since I have last blogged.  I suppose that is not as bad as some (you know who you are).  Tuesday we had a friend spend the afternoon with us.  Last week the kids were out of school from Wednesday through the weekend.  Thursday was the national holiday of Ascension (celebrating the ascension of Jesus into heaven). We had a good break, however it did rain everyday.  It fact it has rained for the last 8 days.  Because of the holiday, no one came to the Bible study and we did not have the teen Bible study on Saturday.   We have had a few moments of sunshine.  We are babysitting a hamster names Lily, for some friends while they were on vacation. Sunday I led the service at Carcassonne, meaning I was responsible for leading the singing, announcements and prayer requests, scripture reading and meditation, and childrens devotion.  I enjoyed it and think that I communicated well enough to be understood.  I stayed up a couple of nights to watch the NBA finals.  I am hoping that Dallas will win.  Lilia brought a cold home from school last week and it is making its way around the family.  Arianna was down with it for a few days.  Lilia has not been able to shake it and I think it has turned into the flu.  Angie stayed home with Caleb and Lilia Sunday because they were coughing all night.  Lilia had a fever monday night but begged to be able to go to school on Tuesday because her class was getting to tour the Junior High (called College in France).  We let her go and in the afternoon she wanted to go because their school was putting on the end-of-the-year music program.  We let he go again, but soon got a call from the school saying she needed to go home.  She had a fever and came home and took a three hour nap.  I mentioned to Angie that I think that is the longest nap she has taken since the age of about two weeks.  She never has been a sleeper.  Yesterday afternoon we also had a visit from some friends who used to live here, but now serve for a non-profit organization as water engineers in Congo. Coming home yesterday after getting the kids, Angie found a hedgehog on the road wandering around.  She caught it and brought it home.  Hedgehogs are welcomed animals around here because they eat many insects that harm garden plants.  We let him go in our garden.  Andrew's birthday was Sunday, we celebrated on Sunday and Saturday with our family.  He is now 5 years old.  I will let the attached pictures sum up the rest of the activities.  Arianna has been doing good after getting over her cold. She loves to play on the floor and watch her brothers play.  Her favorite toys are the remote controls and paper towels.  God bless, JASON

Crystal

I am glad that last week has passed.  It ended well.  The Bible Study was good.  The market on Friday morning went well.  They had closed downtown because they were setting up stuff for Christmas, and so I put my stand up in another place.  I ended up next to an young man who was selling crystals.  We had a nice time talking.  He has traveled all over and then, after two angels talked to him, he built a temple in a town near Limoux.  He sells crystals and gives seminars about how to use them and the special powers that they hold.  Needless to say, it was an interesting visit.  Other than that, I met a former missionary that was interested in the Bible Study and also handed out a few Bible Verse Calenders as well.  It was cold but worth the time.    I also met someone online, who had seen my Youtube videos and wanted me to help with his translation of a song.  I did what I could and got that back to him. 

Friday night, Caleb had a friend from school come over.  This was the first time Caleb had a friend over. They had a really great time.  I went to choir practice in Carcassonne, came back and picked up Caleb and his friend, and we dropped his friend off before going to basketball practice.  My ankle is continuing to get better.  I try to take it easy while I play though.  Saturday we had Caleb's birthday party.  His birthday is the 17th, but last Saturday was the best time we could find for his party.  We had a wonderful time.  We finally bought him a top, Beyblade, that he had been begging for these past months.  They were sold out at the store, but we found a good deal online.  Sunday passed well.  After church we rested since everyone had been up late the nights before.  We listened to the services of our home church on Skype that evening.  Today I have been catching up on emails, correcting past lessons, working on future lessons, and even found a few minutes to watch the highlights of a few NFL games.  I saw on the news recently that a teenager armed with swords had taken kindergarten kids hostage, and their teacher, at a school in eastern France.  Thankfully it has ended with no one getting hurt.  The Christmas song I have picked for this blog I heard recently and it brought back a lot of good memories.  I was listen to Christian Christmas Radio online.  You can check it out at http://www.klove.com/ , on the home page click the red box that says Klove Christmas Radio.  There you have it, 24 hr christmas music.  God bless, JASON 

Encouraged

So it really has been a busy couple of days. Seriously. Wednesday I had a good session with my language partner. I had him explain a song to me. I have attached the song below. I like the song and music, but even thougth I knew the meaning to all the words, I could not get the meaning of the song. He explained it to me well.
Then Wednesday night, there was a little excitement. Storms had moved in and we heard some noises like there was a loose shutter beating against the house. Then we heard glass break and loud voices. We looked out the window and found that the neighbors double pane glass door was broken out. We turned off all the lights and listened quietly by the window to try and see what was going on. While there, Angie wanted to move closer to the window. She lost her balance kicking a metal trash can, leaned against the wall and turned the light on. It was hilarious.
Thursday, Caleb had no school because his teacher was on strike. We dropped the other kids off at school. Came back to the house and made invitations for a nieghborhood party (fête des voisins). The party will be Saturday at 6:30. We passed them out to all the neighbors except one that did not have a mailbox, picked up the kids for lunch. On the way back for lunch we stopped by and dropped off the last invitation, Angie had a good converstation with the lady. It was the same lady who stopped by last week asking about the cats. They talked for a while. Turns out that last night a young man stopped by her house with cuts on his arm saying that there were some crazy guys at our neighbors. He was the victim of the broken glass evidently. She said we should talk to our home owner because he is a police man and would know what to do in instances like those. She gave us several jars of jelly that she had made and invited us over sometime. She said she would have loved to come to the party, but this is her first weekend off in a while and so she is going to make a trip to Spain with her husband. Angie was really encouraged to have this contact. After lunch we dropped the kids off at school, made hair cut apointments for me and Caleb. Then we stopped by an association that has scheduled French language conversations. We then went back and got our hair cut. Then returned home. We received phone calls from the home owner and from a neighbor. The neighbor had called to say that she would not be able to come to the party because she jsut lost her husband. Then another neighbor stopped, who has been working on the garage enclosure, he said he and his wife would love to come. Then the plumber stopped by and said he would be there in the morning to fix the problem. We had supper and then bible study. There were 5 who came for bible study. We studied encouragement from Hebrews 12. It went well, the praise, study, and prayer time was great. I am praying that God will bless the party Saturday. It has already given us some contacts and we at least know that one couple will come. I am already encouraged.
Today Caleb is sick and staying home. We are trying to get things ready for tomorrow and looking forward to family night tonight. Attached is the video that I spoke of previously. The song is On s'attache by Christophe Maé (see on youtube). It was a number one hit in France a couple of years ago. God bless, JASON

Labor Day

I found out watching the news that Labor day was started around 1887 in the US. There was a three day labor strike that Day. The next year the day was passed to France where there was a big strike on that same day. However in the US it had changed to September when there was an end to a strike that had lasted all summer. All that to say Labor Day in France is May 1st. Which means we had the day off. We had a good time and I was able to get a lot of other "labor" done. I finished my monthly report and got it sent out. I also prepared some more prayer cards for printing. I had received a couple of promotional emails from the company I use for printing (4over4.com). I really needed some updated prayer cards, the others were over 2 years old and outdated. I was able to get an order of 5,000 for under $200 including shipping. I was also able to take the kids to the language school to play for a little bit. The weather has finally warmed up to spring again. Micah gave me a good little saying the other day. I am going to have to start putting all of his sayings in a book. He said, "Daddy, you know if you are not racing against someone, you are racing against yourself." I thought that was very philosophical. Then at the language school he was wanting a toy that Andrew had. Just to see what his response would be I asked, "What if you just got and hit him and take it away?" To which he replied, "No, then he won't want it". ??? Interesting. I was also able to help someone through my youtube account. A man found my French praise songs and wrote me for the lyrics. A friend of his from Haiti had passed away and this man was going to do the funeral, he also asked me for the version of It is Well in French. I sent him the lyrics for that as well. He thanked me for being able to minister to others, some who are unsaved. I was glad to be able to minister in this way. Also Angie is feeling better, not yet 100% but close. God bless, JASON

Fly by.

This week has been flying by. Wednesday we had a wonderful visit from several friends. We met them for lunch in Paris and had a wonderful visit and even was able to show them around to several sites, the Eiffel Tower, the Arce de Triomphe, Notre Dame, and the Louvre. It was a really good visit, many thanks to our babysitter who watched the kids at home for us. After we got the kids to bed we worked on our semester end oral test. We did it this morning. It went well I think. We had to give a list of headlines like a news report and explain one of them in detail. After lunch I lead the music in Chapel, I had a wonderful time teaching the students a new song. This evening the weather was really nice so we let the kids play at the playground after school. We had several good conversations with other French parents. Angie took Lilia and Caleb for their end of semester meeting with the teacher. They both are doing well. They mentioned that Caleb needs to work as hard on the subjects that he dislikes as he does on the subjects that he likes. That is probably true for us all. Angie had a diner at the school this evening that a Swiss student prepared. (I will have to get her to describe it later) Me and boys had a good time at home with out pizza and "boy time" which includes of course, wrestling and tickles. Time got away from us and it was already 8:15 by the time the pizza was finished cooking. The kids are all to bed now and I will do a little paper work and homework and then off to bed. Goodnight and God bless, JASON

Our children.

Just a little information about our kids. This picture taken before school one day this week.

Lilia is doing very good. She has been picking up french a lot faster in the last few weeks. She has also been taking piano lessons from one of the other language school students. She is very talented. This week she was making up her own song on the piano, with both hands playing different notes and tempos. I am impressed.

Caleb is also learning quickly. He enjoys sharing what he has learned each day. He is very musical as well. He can already sing about 20 songs and chants in french. Yesterday at lunch he taught me a round that we sang at the same time. He is still very popular at school with all the other students. He is sensitive. We watched a movie with the kids the other day and during a sad part he said, "This makes my heart sad".

Micah seems to be doing well. Fully potty trained (Yeah!) He likes school, I am not sure about his level of speaking. He doesn't talk a lot at school. He likes to play by himself even at home. He does know several songs and words, but he doesn't usually speak it to me. The teacher said that he was very calm and daydreams some.

Andrew likes his school. He is learning a few more english words. He told me yesterday that he wanted to "sit down". His sin nature is also kicking in good. He stomps his leg at times when he is upset. He is real cute when he is sleepy and laughs a lot.

One other note, I did add some videos of Angie and I singing some French Christians songs on youtube and Godtube. Just copy and paste the links below into your address bar, and click 'view more by same . . ' to view some more of them.
http://www.godtube.com/view_video.php?viewkey=581ccf2e167e543c3cbc&page=9&viewtype=&category=mr

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=olZSWwVW5R0
Enjoy and check back as we learn more ourselves we hope to post them. God bless, JASON

An interesting meal.

We had a meal with a lot of laughs yesterday. We had gathered for supper while we ate frozen pizza. It started with Micah who did something funny, I don't remember what. Next Caleb was talking loudly, telling a story. Angie was trying to tell him to lower his voice because he was talking too loud (something we have to do frequently in France). Instead of getting quieter he put his hand over his mouth and continued telling the story. Next Angie was talking about one of our friends who has a bady due in two weeks, which would have been three weeks last week. She said, "She is one week closer to having her baby in two weeks." That didn't make much sense. Soon thereafter, Lilia said, "Guess what in England they call french fries - chips." That was funny because she had already told us that several times. After the laughter I decided we needed to have a prayer and return to our eating. I called on Caleb to pray and he started his prayer, "Bonjour-là", which is like saying, "hello there". We all started laughing again, and Andrew started holding up his hands and saying, "Stop". We don't know where he got that from.

We are out of school for vacation next week. One day we plan on taking the kids to Paris to see a couple of the sights that they have really been looking forward to.  JASON

Lilia in Paris

Last week Lilia's class went on a field trip into Paris to see a music program at another school there. She said the music was ok and lunch was really good but when they went back to the music program several of the kids fell asleep. Lilia got to see the Eiffel Tower as they passed in the bus, as well as the Arc de Triomph. She was excited about that part. She said that the ride into Paris took a long time because she was sitting next to a French girl who only wanted to look out the windows and count cars. The ride back was much faster because she was sitting next to Amy, her friend from England. ANGIE