Birthday

Thursday went well. It was the only day this week that we did not have a test. After school we had some friends over for supper as a little birthday party for me. We had a wonderful time. As a meal I requested Salmon, green beans, Risotto, and garlic bread. It was great. Friday after school (test included) other friends invited us over for another celebration at their house, with Tacos. It was great. So far 31 feels about the same as 30. We have a little more homework than normal this weekend. I took the kids to the park this afternoon to let Angie get a head start on it. We are still waiting to hear from the real estate agent concerning our house. I just realized that we only have two weeks of school left. Things are going to get busy quick after that, especially if we do not have our house closed on. Attached is my birthday picture with the kids. They were real sweet. Lilia carried everything for me on the way home. Caleb had made me 6 birthday cards. Micah after he finished eating, laid his head on the table and sighed and then said, "Happy Birthday Dad." God bless, JASON

TCF

The week is passing well. We finished three tests already this week. The main test was today. The TCF (test de connaissance de la langue française) is a test that tests the french level of foreigners. We took the parts "grammaire", oral comprehension, and reading comprehension. There are two other parts that were optional oral and written expression. We opted not to take them. The test took about and hour and a half. It was difficult at times. The questions are organized so that they get harder the further you go. In three weeks we should have the results. They will be program down by section so that we will know what areas we are weaker in and which we are stronger in. I am hoping for a level B2. I will explain later exactly what that is. Thanks for the prayers . We are still waiting to hear if we have been approved for the house in Limoux. I got a call yesterday from the real estate agent saying he needed another paper. I wrote it quickly and got it signed by our missions treasurer and faxed it the next day. Hopefully we will be hearing from them soon. Attached picture is from Caleb's end of school program last week. He in the center. He did an excellent job. God bless, JASON

Mondays.

I spoke yesterday to one of our supporting churches before their morning worship. Pretty amazing technology now a days. We finished our homework last night, that's always a good accomplishment. After school we got a call that Lilia hit heads with another kid while playing tag, and after getting back in was complaining about not seeing some letters when she was reading. We picked her up and took her to a language school student who is a Pediatrician. He said she might have a mild concussion. She was a little nauseous and lethargic. She came home and rested and then got up and started playing. Mark (the pediatrician) came by and checked on her again a couple of hours later and she seemed to doing fine. He told us to wake her up a couple of times tonight and make sure she was okay. In other news, we have two tests this week, but we have a friend babysitting for us tomorrow, Angie and I are going to make a trip to the little Bible book store in Paris. I have never been and look forward to picking up a few things and mainly looking around. Angie and I have always enjoyed music and worship, I will attach a video that we have enjoyed several times the last few months (just as i am - David Phelps). Thanks for the prayers and God bless, JASON

Le jour de Saint Valentine.

We finished a busy week, due mainly to tests. There was a test Tuesday over concession and consequence. Something I had never thought of was that there are different French words translated as "however", "nevertheless", "in spite of", and "yet". They have the same significance but each can only be used in a certain grammatical order. Tuesday's test did not have a word bank, which was a first. So we had to remember all the different phrases by memory and make sentences with them, 10 different words to express cause, 6 for consequence, 3 for concession and 3 for another one that I can't remember at this moment. Thursday we had a mid semester test which took two days. Thursday morning we did the grammar part and Friday we did reading and oral. For Friday we had to answer questions over dialogues the teacher would play for us, and then we had to give a three minute speech about a subject with the teacher and then she would ask questions. We only had ten minutes to prepare. Other than tests, we received two packages from our church this week. This morning I did work on our taxes and got caught up on email. This evening, Angie and I are going to watch the movie "Fireproof" from the makers of "Facing the Giants". It arrived in one of the packages from our church. Attached picture is of the flowers I bought Angie this morning, and a picture of a picture taken when we left our wedding (still have birdseed attached to us). God bless, JASON

Angie has returned.

Angie is back and almost recovered. It is good to have her back and she had a wonderful time in Colorado, shopping and visiting. She got her drivers license, that was the main purpose of the trip. I must catch you up on a few Micah-isms. I was giving a bath the other day and said, "Why are your ears so dirty Micah?" He replied, "Because I eat chicken and play outside." And today while we were walking to school he had been quite for most of the walk when he suddenly said, "If I pulled the cats tail I would say sorry."
We took our final test of the semester today. It was difficult and I can not even guess what I made on it. Caleb turns 6 years old tomorrow. I have the urge to make him a lemon cake. Angie had a meeting with Lilia's teacher today. He was real impressed with her progress. Often she does better on vocabulary and spelling test than all the other french students. One of the new language school students child will be in her class starting Thursday. Caleb as well will have one of the their kids in his class. They are both very excited about it. We meet with Caleb's teacher Thursday, and I am really looking forward to finding out how he is doing. We can not get any information out of him. Tomorrow we will celebrate Calebs birthday, take the kids to the Library and get a replacement cell phone (ours has slowly deteriorated after it was washed). God bless, JASON

A sigh of relief.

We breathe a sigh of relief now. We finished our first semester finals today. Glad that it is over. After Friday we get off for two weeks. Tommorrow we have an appointment to have our visa's looked over (carte de sejour). They claim that we left some paperwork out. Angie and I found a couple of babysitters and will travel to the suburb south of us tommorrow. Pray that it all goes well. There are some students that moved here in August that have still not received their carte de sejour and they are leaving in June. That is the way with the French government they seem to take their time with things. It is okay with me. I just walked Lilia and her friend back to her friends house. They took turns saying different French words the whole way. They have an extensive vocabulary and they both have the accent "parfait". It will take a long time for me to acquire I imagine. Above are a couple of pictures of our kids getting caught. Lilia's trash can full of candy wrappers, and we were wondering how all the candy was disappearing. And Andrew getting into Momma's purse at a friends house. God bless, JASON