Two Months and Counting

Thought I'd add a little blog here in commemoration of our first 2 months in Albertville.

We arrived on the 30th of August, after an at times stressful series of flights, tired and longing to sleep. During the last 60 days our time here has been nothing short of interesting. Janice and I were talking the other night about our first 2 months and I remarked to her that our time here kind of reminds me of my time in college. I can remember being told on more than one occasion to really enjoy college because I'd look back on those days and think, "Boy, what a great time that was". Well, I used to think those people were nuts. After all, what fun is there in doing homework, commuting to and from school, sitting in lectures, and completing assignments? (Oh, there was one fun time I can think of. It has to do with a Husky football game my sophomore year... but I can't really tell it on this blog! Too bad.) Well, as I have gotten older I have tended to appreciate more my time in school. And, I must say that I even look back on my college years with some fondness - and, yes, I even can say that I did have my share of fun. My point for telling Janice, and you all, this is simply to say that I firmly believe that once we get past France and get settled in Chad we will look back on our time here as time of fun and new experiences. All is not lost in the midst of difficult circumstances. Attitude is everything. So, we press on, and enjoy ourselves whenever, and as much as, we can.

As I search my mind for the highlights thus far I think first of all the great people we've met. It is so encouraging to meet other people (some married, some single, some with kids, some without kids) who all have been touched by the Holy Spirit in the same way we have and want to go to a foreign country and do whatever He asks us to do. I also think of the neat sights and sounds we've experienced and all of the different food we've tried.

Yesterday, Gracey and I took a couple and their 18 month old daughter to the Grenoble airport. It was an 160+ mile round trip. I had originally told Ben (the husband/father) that I'd be glad to take them if he would make sure that he knew how to get there. He assured me he would. But, after talking to him on Monday the hairs on the back of my neck started to tingle (Yes, I have Spidey senses!) so I put together a map of my own. (Anybody who knows me knows that I'm directionally challenged. I can read a map quite well but I couldn't tell you which way is north to save my life.) About 5 minutes into our journey I became VERY thankful that I had drawn a map. Ben's "directions" - if you can call them that - would've been great for a US city (they were the turn left at such and such road and turn right at this and that road and proceed for 14 miles, etc.) but in a french context these directions were inadequate for a number of reasons. First, there's isn't a straight road in france and cities are not laid out on grids. So, if you get off course in a french city it can take hours (yes, hours, based upon some stories we've heard) to find your way back to the proper street. And, second, french roads are literally renamed about every 1/2 mile or so. So, while you might turn left on Rue de Jean Moulin chances are it'll quickly turn into another road within just a few minutes. Pretty soon you have no idea what road you are on or where you are going. Anyway, with the map we were ok. And, because their flight took off well after dark, Gracey and I had to come home in the dark. There were only 1 or 2 moments of anxiety on the way back and thankfully we were home before 9:30 PM.

Such is life here in France. Most things to this point feel like were doing them in the dark. Sometimes we have a map. Sometimes we don't. And, just like the illumination of the car's headlights only reach out so far so does the clarity to our daily path. Often times it's all we can to do just take the next step not knowing fulling where we'll end up.

I was reading Psalm 105 recently. In this Psalm King David gives a great summary of the first covenant God made with the Abraham and how it affected the Jews. In one section, verses 16 through 22, this is what it says,

"When he summoned a famine on the land and broke all supply of bread, he had sent a man ahead of them, Joseph, who was sold as a slave. His feet were hurt with fetters; his neck was put in a collar of iron; until what he had said came to pass, the word of the LORD tested him. The king sent and released him; the ruler of the peoples set him free; he made him lord of his house and ruler of all his possessions, to bind his princes at his pleasure and to teach his elders wisdom."

You might be wondering why I found these verses to be so good? Well, it's because they show how the Lord can take a "bad" thing - Joseph's captivity - and turn it into a "good" thing - deliverance for His people. The word says that the LORD "tested" Joseph. The Hebrew word translated as "tested" means to refine or purge. We all know that refining makes something unpure pure and that if something is purged it is cleaned. But, the thing that is so important to remember about refining and purging is that neither of them can be accomplished with pain and suffering. Nothing can be improved without blood, sweat, and tears. Perhaps the Lord was trying to tell me that our time here is more than just a time of language acquision. Maybe, just maybe, He's purging me and my family of many of the things that will get in the way of His work once we get to Chad. If that's the case, then I want to be refined in the fires of the Master Metallurgist.

Have a great day.

sf

a short one

This is Megan and me rite now she is at my maison-house.

We went to the bakery and the bakery here is soo good!!!!!!!!

There is one about 2 minutes away on are bikes and like 7 minutes away walking.

Guess what? There is this kid here named raphael and he is Dutch and he has the cutest brother named August and he's the cutest... this is him .

his brother rapheal got stung in the eye today while playing in the fort.

well got to go love you and missssssss youuuuuuuuuuuuu

love gg

BREAK!!!!!!

Hey yall,

Its moi gg,

Ca va??

Well I'm soooooooooooo excited because we went on break today yaaa hooo! We have a 14 day break I'm soooo excited I don't have to go to school! I'm the happiest about that because there are punks there who are soooooooo annoying??? and they think they are soooo majorly cool but they are NOT and there is this one kid who pulls on mine and Megan's clothes and so we hit him but he usually pulls on Megan's clothes so I get to do all the hitting :) but it's not like we are punching him. We are smashing our elbows in to his arms.

But we are soooo tempted to hit him right in the face!

The thing I do like about school is that we get to learn French. I like that part because it's fun to learn another language.

It's starting to get cold outside and when we walk to school it's still dark out. Most of the time me and Megan walk home from school by ourselves but we all usually walk there together.

Well I'm gonna go play outside.

Love you all and miss you like crazy,

love gg*

A Quickie

Just finished my last exam before our break. Now we all have the next 2 weeks off or so. What a blessing!

Ethan finally got his wish at school. He came home yesterday with a bag full of candy. I asked him where he got it and he said, "At school, there was a birthday!" He was so happy because he complains on occasion that "school is no fun because they don't feed us or give us any snacks".

It looks like everyone is pretty much over their various sicknesses. About the only visible reminder is the snotty nose that Esther currently has. She doesn't seem to mind the snot dribbling down into her mouth, though. Yum, yum!

Janice and I told the kids that while we're on break we want them to do 60 minutes per day of "studying" and review. Holy cow! By the sounds of the wailing and gnashing of teeth you'd think we asked them to make bricks without straw. At one point Alex even exclaimed, "Why are you forcing us to learn your way. We don't need that. I can learn French without spending that much time!"

We all seem to be able to do reasonably well with our reading and writing of French. But, where we really struggle (and this goes for just about every student here, especially those with families) is with both speaking it and understanding it when we hear it..... There's just not enough hours in the day for us to spend the time necessary to practice the oral part of our learning and be with our kids. But, we are all making progress. Slowly.

Thanks to Ma and Pa Corwin for the package yesterday. It was like Christmas again. I came downstairs to the roar of the kids yelling and screaming as they opened the box. They especially like all of the "real" American candy.

Hope you all have a great Saturday. One thing I know I'll be doing later tonight is listening to the Husky Football game over the internet. And, thanks to ROC, we can even watch college football live ESPN360 on the computer. Payton and I have done that quite a few times over the last several weeks. (You'd be surprised how many men have paid the $300 or so to get the NFL All Access -or whatever it is called - so that they can watch their favorite NFL team each Sunday.)

Love and miss you all.

sf

Thursday Afternoon Musings

This week we are finishing up the first several weeks of school. Beginning Monday we will have a 10 day break. Based upon the faces of the students (and teachers) we can all use the break!

Many of the students and their families will be going on mini-vacations. Some people are going to Italy. Others are going to Germany while others are gonna take in a few sites around France itself. Today in my class the teacher was having us practice our French by asking us what we are going to do while on break. Her specific question was "Qu'est-ce que vous pouvez faire en vacances?" (No, I didn't write it down from memory!). Loosely translated it means, "What are you able to do on vacation?" When it was my turn I said, "Nous pouvons faire du camping" which means "We will be camping." Of course we aren't going camping. In fact, we won't be doing much of anything "extra". Instead, we're just sticking around home and hanging out. (After I said we'd be camping she - my teacher - said, "You'll need a really big tent!". Everyone laughed. Little does she know that we do have such a tent. It'll hold 12 people and currently resides deep in the bowels of our storage unit back in Fergus.)

Besides relaxing and resting, one very nice thing about the break will be that some friends are letting us use their car. They will have family in town and need to rent a bigger vehicle. So, they told us we can have their car and this is great because we can use it to go shopping (several times for sure). - You know, lots of folks here ride bicycles... everywhere. But, I have no clue how they can possibly go grocery shopping. The kids and I will go several days in a row, riding the "community" bikes here at school, with our backpacks. The ride is not long (less than 5 minutes) and flat but it does get old especially now that the wheather is getting colder - but not like Fergus Falls! PTL!

Hope you all have a great day. We miss you!

sf

I needed to blog

Hello eveyone!

Today in france hasn't been very long yet cuz its 10:08 here right now but oh well.

Last night I hade a dream and there was a tornado and a flood and we couldn't run away from the tornado cuz the flood was coming from that direction and I couldn't run away from the flood where I was supose to go but my mom said run north or south and every one ran north so I fallowed. soo thats a weird dream.

I'm going to put pictures on now oui i am

these pictures are at the same lake.

I Will check something now just a sec........testing.......testing...well that didn't change anything.....

..testing....testing.testing....ok I'm done.....

well im leaveing this site soo we can watch loony tunes and cuz I'm bored soooooooooo

I miss you all and love you all gu-bye t-rah

Pictures and Info

Hi Everyone,

Janice ici! (that's the word "here") Just keeping you all up to date with what's up for the twins and Lid and me. I have left my class and the girls and I are getting a tutor. This gal is 25 and fresh out of college and works part time at the local college and came here looking to see if there was anyone who needed a tutor!! UM, yeah, there are 4 of us who could use a tutor! So, at 35 euro's an hour we will use her 5 hours a week. Then, Steven's parents sent us the Rosetta Stone CD's and last week we down loaded the program, "Before You Know It". So, we will be using all 3 of these to learn French at home.

Steven has finally begun to be challenged in class. They are learning things that he did not learned in High School. He is doing tres bien (that is "very good") and does really well at studying too! It's soo much work, memory and practice. At times it seems like too much, ya know, impossible, but this school has been here for 40 years and they are very good at teaching people to speak French.

The other students that have been here for 6 months say it took about 5-6 months to really grasp all the vocab and verbs and put it into speaking form. It will be a long 6 months, but because the children are learning it too, at the same time, it will also be fun!

Well, *fun* is a dangerous word right now, since fun wouldn't be a word anyone would use at this point to describe language learning, but I'm just gonna say it so if we hear it enough times maybe we can find some fun in there somewhere!!

Keep praying for all 11 of us. As we learn our French we are teaching Esther too.

I'm attaching a few pics.

*Esther of course, being Esther with her great smile.

*Emma with her rose bush throns (she never has trouble keeping busy outdoors!!)

*Gracey with her two babies.

*Payton on the shore at the lake we went to last week.

*The view at the lake reminded me of Lake Wenatchee.

love,

jlf

Here's another video for your viewing pleasure. I am sure you all are just as surprised as me to see Gracey holding Tawnee and Esther. Ordinarily, she doesn't want to have anything to do with her brothers or sisters. Ha!

The weather is getting cold here. No snow or rain yet. In fact, I think it's only rained 2 or 3 times since we've arrived.

sf

Fun at Chez Flude

Here is a video of some fun around the Flude house the other day.

Since this was taken Payton actually got his hair cut. Janice did it. Ordinarily that would be a dangerous propistion, but in this case it worked out well. She did a great job.

sf

La Dee Da...

Ok I'm bored so i figured i might as well post a blog since i havent yet. And since i like to post pictures i figured i do that and provide a comtetary for each picture. So enjoy.

This is my friend Libby. One night me and her were bored and so we were messing around with my camera and we were taking "evil" pictures. This is the first of many.

This is my evil face. I dont think its that good but Libby thinks its creepy.

Libby looks absolutly freaky!!!
Here is some pics of me and libs and me and some sibs and some random pics.

Ok well I'll do more later.

Alex

Videos

Here are a bunch of video's of the kids and the house. They are not the greatest video's especially of the ones where I'm walking around on the outside and inside of the house...bumpy and blurry. Sorry about that. Payton doesn't have his own talking video cause he was being a stinker...so I just have one of him where he is trying to get me to stop video tapping him! I got him and he got me. It was all fun. Auntie April asked me to do this so if any of you have special requests just ask away and we will try to fulfill your desires as best we can. I will post one video per blog since they come out best that way. Probably won't get them all tonight since it's 1:52 am here on Sunday morning...so look again tomorrow for more.





happy day,

love,

jlf

P.S. - Janice didn't realize that the videos she took were for the most part too big to download. So, I've put one on that isn't too big and she'll take some new videos tomorrow.

A Day Away

Janice and several of the kids went on a field trip with the other students yesterday. The school took 2 buses full of people to the mountains where they visited an old abbey that is almost 1000 years old.

I stayed home with the 3 youngest (plus Emma who wasn't feeling well). We didn't do much except play around and watch a few videos. After nap time (for Esther and Tawnee... and ok, I took one too) we made cookies. The cookies taste good but don't look anything like "normal" chocolate chip cookies. Janice says it is because the brown sugar found here in France isn't quite the brown sugar we all know and love.

The kids received some letters in the mail today and yesterday. Thanks, Derouins! (It was like Christmas with all of the hooping and hollering when they opened them.)

Here are a few pictures from yesterday's trip. Enjoy.

You'll notice the picture of Alex reading. There must be at least 4 or 5 similar pictures of her doing that. (She started and read that book while on the trip.... And, I wouldn't be surprised if she talked to each and every person too.)

sf

An Evening in Annecy

Hi everyone!

Janice and I went on a date last night with some new friends. They own a car so we took about a 45 minute drive and went to a town called Annecy. What a great time we had. We stopped at a few store along the way that carry "international" food. We were actually able to get the kids a few treats like Dr. Pepper and Oreos. Wahoo!

Here are a few pictures from our trip. I hope you enjoy them.

We walked around in the town for about 60 minutes. Annecy is known as "Little Venice" and I can see why. There are many man-made canals that remind one of Venice. Apparently in the summer there is quite a lot of activity on said canals and the lake into which they feed.

Speaking of the lake, it is quite large. I'm guessing it would take upwards of an hour to drive completely around it. But, unlike in the States, the shoreline developement was modest with most of the homes on the opposite side of the road from the shoreline.

We eventually made it to a Mexican restaurant. The owner spent his high school years in Connecticut but is originally from Guatemala. His wife is from New Zealand. It was great to have some spicey food and to actually get portions that didn't leave us hungry. Janice had a vegetarian taco like meal. I shared a chicken and shrimp fajita with one of our companions. Yummy.

The picture below is of an old prison. I imagine it wasn't quite so picturesque when it was actively used. Today it is just a touriste trap. I suppose it was quite effective considering it is surrounded by water.

sf

Today in Albertville.

Hello everyone! This is Keturah!

Today in Albertville...umm lets see.....aaahhh yes me,Liddy,Emma and the chunk'a'dunk (Esther),all stayed home(like always)and practikly did apsulotly nothing we just did our chores and did what our mom and dad told us to and then we were all practicly coach potatos..I finish the firts harry potter and I'm really bored right now this very second.

Ill just add pictures for some resin:

Im reading the second one there.

heres another one of me doing nothing and one of the chunk'a'dunk reading some book.

yay that one is weird......our neighbor sam just wakked bye so I waved at him...I just felt like saying that.

ohhh welll we're pritty bored here and we all miss all of you guys!:(

Oh the Chunk'a'dunk say hi!

well bye

Bathroom Anyone?

The next time you are in France and you are out in public and you feel the urge you might want to think twice before you use a public "restroom". We took this little picture while out on a promenande a few weeks ago.

I'm sure all the ladies who read this blog might just as well opt for a bush instead of this little gem!

sf

Vary sick house hold.

Hello everyone! this is keturah

Yesterday me, Liddy and Emma all got new pjs like these:

We all will put more pictures on when we download the rest thay are verrrrrry compufy and verrrrrrry soft thay make you sweat but ohhh well there fun to play in...gg says i have to share mine with her since she picked it out for me:) oh well.....I'am still sick but now Liddy has the worst part of the sickness! Earlyer she could bearly talk....now she can talk a little bit better.

I have a photo of her laying there today here it is:

she looks wers then she is but she is pritty bad she has most of the fever, but I think I still got some of it.

I have a secret for all of you that you can tell anyone about.........-I K-E-T-U-R-A-H-S-F-L-U-D-E- am reading h-h-harry p-p-p-p-p-p.......HARRY POTTER!

There I said it and I wont say it again!

well bye-keturah

Our Home

Not much going on here today. We just hung out at home. Played a few games, took a few pictures. And, Janice cut my hair. Wahoo!

Janice was talking with her mom tonight and realized that we don't have any pictures of our accomodations here in Albertville. So, I'm gonna include a few of them. This house is known as "The Adams Family House" because of its quirky nature.

We actually feel quite blessed to have it. Most every other family lives either in the school's dorm or in a small appartment. Either way, their accomodations are quite cramped by our American standards.

Here hoping you all have a great week.

sf

Keturah's first blog:)

Hello everyone!

As you know this is Keturah and this is my first blog ever in my life!

So if its not very good don't blame me, OK?

Everyone here has been sick for several days (when me, Emma, Liddy, Payton and Tawnee had just got better from what we thought was the flu.....but there was no barfing only Tawnee did...we all got sick again, and I started bolth sicknesses...I think) :) I have a fever...but I don't know my temperature I have a cough and a sore throat.. it hurts massively when I swallow!

We have some freinds here who like to play settlers of cattan..... here's a picture of some playing with Payton. Thank you all for looking at this blog-Keturah.

Sweet 16

Today was Alex's 16th birthday. She spent a good part of it playing "football Americain" with the men and boys of the school here. She took great pride in knowing that she was the only girl there. She even hauled in a pass and sprinted down the sideline for a touchdown and did so after outrunning one of the students.

Janice and I are so proud of her. She's really taken well to her school and has made several friends. (No surprise there.)

Here's a short video of the kids singing her happing birthday this evening. We made her a chocolate cake and the kids dug up some gifts for her. Liddy gave her a card that said "Happy Birthday Alex". That was it. No "I love you" or anything. Liddy thought it was quite funny. Some of the other kids gave her rocks from the yard. Alex took all of this in great stride. (Notice what Emma does while singing. Nice!)

Hope you all are enjoying your weekend.

sf

Emma's First Blog Entry

Good morning star shine the earth says''Hello!!''

hello people of the good world how are you? i have a cold in my eye and a bad cough,and my

throt hurts when i swollow..........so ya. Its realy booring here with out the derouins and the

corwins.Learning french is kinda hard and it makes me frustrated and i get mad!!!!.

love ya all and miss ya all

-ray ray
p.s. ray ray is emmas nick name.

Our day in Chambery

Janice and I spent the better part of yesterday in Chambery with several couples from the school. We travelled there to see a radiologist and a doctor as part of the process to get our long-stay visas. Apparently the French are concerned about TB so we all had to get chest x-rays. There was no foolin' around with these doctors. Go in to the room, take all of your clothes off from the waist up, stand in the correct spot, and hold your breath. Bam! picture's taken and you're done. The whole process took less than 2 minutes. They processed about 15 of us in about 60 minutes.

Then, we hand carried our x-rays across town to a doctor who asked us a bunch of questions. After filling out some paperwork he handed each person 2 sheets of paper and said something like, "You can now get your long-stay visas. One copy is for you. One is for the Mayor's office." He never even looked at the x-rays!

I have included a couple of photos of our trip. One thing we all noticed was how dirty Chambery appeared. We felt lucky to be living in Albertville after this trip.

I took this picture while we were driving home. It is along the freeway. You'll notice that the flagger is mechanical. "He" waives his arm up and down to draw the attention of the drivers. At high speed these dummies look pretty realistic.

We were having a hard time finding our way back to the freeway until we saw the sign for the Albertville McDonalds (hiding behind the traffic signal luminaire). Once we saw that we knew we were home-free. (Somebody in the car commented that they must've done that for dumb Americans. Ha!)

sf

Clean plate part 2

I just couldn't let the ginger and lemon grass go to waste!! It was worth it...the dinner was soo yummy!

in defense,
janice :)

Talk about a clean plate!

Last Tuesday night Janice and I went to dinner. We hadn't had a date for about a week and a half so we decided to take a couple of hours away from the kids to be alone and enjoy a good meal. It has been a little difficult finding a good meal here in Albertville. The food is just similar enough to temp us but just different enough to not be quite what we had hoped for. So, with that in mind we tried a Chinese restaurant called "Hong Kong". We liked the menu (they served Thai food!) so we decided to get a few spicey things (and it was good to finally have something spicey. Apparently the French have spent quite a bit of time in the mid-west??). The dinner was good - but not as good as my date - and it was so good in fact that Janice decided that it would be a good idea to lick her plate clean. Yes, that's right, she eye balled her plate for several seconds all the while stealing glances at the people in the restaurant (wouldn't want to be seen licking the plate now whould she?). Anyway, she finally decided to go for it only to see the owner of the resaurant turn a corner and stare right at her. Caught in the act!!! We sure had a good laugh over that one.

Here's hoping all of your eating experiences are as memorable as the one I just described.

Talk to you later.

sf

Lover Boy

*HI,

well right now its's 9:23pm and we are listening to adventures in odyssey and getting ready for bed.

i asked tawnee how she liked france she said she liked it but she misses gramma and papa :)

we are all kinda sick right now.... gg

Ethan learns to ride a bike!

Gracey took this video. She worked with Ethan for about 5 minutes and he learned to ride this bike.

sf

Gracey on the bars

Had some time today so I put this video of Gracey doing her spinning bar routine on the blog. Hope you enjoy it. If I tried this I would throw up!

sf

I just downloaded some photos from Payton's camera to the blog.




I

I think this is the first time I've ever seen a real suit of armor for sale. It's 30% off!

sf