It's A Chad Life 2011

Monday, November 19, 2007

Flude family entertainment!!

I think this weird behavior comes from the father's side of the family!!!! HEE HEE

jlf

To the Medievale City & Conflans 11-03-07

Pay, GG, Lid, Tawn and I took a walk up to the conflans. It is a steep walk but fun. Lots of neat stuff to see. You can see some fall colors tucked into the pics. Did you notice how small the doors are. Most of them are this way. Must of been really short French people living in this city when it was built.

janice

ps. no child was hurt during the picture taking process, and NO I really didn't let Gracey drink that water coming out of that pipe!!

Thursday, November 15, 2007

"Speederman!"

"Speederman". That's how the French say "Spiderman". The letter "i" in French is pronounced "ee" as in "teeth". Turns out that french kids are pretty big fans of the Spiderman movies. And, this past week, the third installment of the series hit the video outlets here. Ethan is also a big fan of Spiderman. When he found out that it was available for rent he asked if we would rent it. So, last Saturday, he and I walked to the video store. It is pretty much like what we have in the States except it is generally smaller, not as well stocked, and displays adult videos (along with their x-rated covers) in plain view. (Note: We did not go into the area where the adult videos were so please no comments about my "bad" parenting!)

Unfortunately for Ethan there were no Spiderman videos to be had. He was quite sad. On the way back home he was pretty quiet until finally he said, "Dad, why doesn't anyone give back the movie?" That brought a smile to my face especially considering the sorta sad-anger I could hear in his voice.

A few minutes later he asked me where we were going. I said, "We're going home, Bub" to which he responded, "Why are we going home?". Apparently life at home isn't worth living unless Spiderman is there!!!

The French aren't the only ones who speak with an accent. The other day in school the teacher asked Gracey to say some particular words in English. Words like "bunkbed", "DVD", etc. After she got done the teacher said, "You have a weird accent!"

Maybe when we get done here we all will have a weird accent. I feel like I'm floating between 2 competing languages and instead of using both of them I more often then not end up using "Franglais" which does nobody any good.

Hope you all have a great day.

sf

Monday, November 12, 2007

Oh Zut!

Bonjour mes amis, ça va? Nous sommes d'accord ici en Albertville. Mon epouse et moi mangent des cookies de chocolat chip. (For you english speakers: Hi, my friends, how are you? We are o.k. here in Albertville. My wife and I are eating some chocolate chip cookies.)

The title of this post, "Oh zut!", means "Oh shoot" or "Rats" or something similar. I chose said title because I realized just the other day that it has been over 2 months since I had a milkshake. Quitting cold turkey isn't my idea of a good time but it can't be helped. Even as much as I (and the kids) like milkshakes we weren't gonna spend over 50 Euros (that's about $70 - $75) on a blender. Especially when we can't take it with us to Chad.

Ever wonder why everything in France is so expensive? One reason: there is a 19.8% tax on everything. Think gas is expensive in the states? Here it is about 1.40 Euros per liter. That's about $1.96 per liter. That converts out to just under $8.00 per gallon. I won't even tell you what milk costs. Oh zut!

Have a great day.

sf

Friday, November 9, 2007

Remembering Mt. Vernon

Today while eating lunch at school Gracey, Keturah, and I found ourselves seated with 2 other students (and the school's cook and her daughter). We were all having a nice converstation (ok, it was just us 'english speakers' that were having a nice conversation) when somehow we got on the subject of "Bloody Wednesday".

What's "Bloody Wednesday"? Actually, to be correct, you'd have to ask, "What was Bloody Wednesday?" Bloody Wednesday was the euphemistic name that Russ Sleipness gave to the weekly Wednesday night dinner and youth group at New Life Church. Why did we call it "Bloody Wednesday"? If I told you that over the course of the years we had children break various bones (an arm, and an ankle), receive cuts to various body parts including some that required stitches, and damaged tendons and pulled muscles it probably wouldn't surprise you that it came to be known as "Bloody Wednesday".

Strange as it might seem, when the girls and I talked today about our experiences on those memorable Wednesdays there were nothing but smiles, laughs, and giddy recollections of all the "fun" times they had. (Hey, remember line tag?)

Following lunch, we returned home and somebody promptly started to sing, "Give me gas in my
Ford keep me truckin' for the Lord, give me gas in my Ford I pray....." Sure brought back another wave of fond memories as I pictured in my mind Pastor Keith playing his guitar and singing (yes, singing.... a noteworthy occurance to be sure). Can anybody complete this song... "Oh you can't get heaven, oh you can't get to heaven, in a rocking chair, in a rocking chair, oh you can't get to heaven...."?

Then, when I consider that since we've been here we've not darkened the door of a church yet(something about our large family not quite fitting in to any of the few small store-front churches in Albertville) it made me long even more for the good ol' days at New Life Church. Even though our lives are different now, we still have our memories of those days and I know we are all very glad for the ministry we received from Pastor Keith. (Yo, Keith, I love you bro.)

Someday when I have more time I'll have to tell you all about my run as the leader of the high school boys group. Thanks mostly to Patrick and Eric I've got some great first-hand memories (and a few second-hand ones as well).

Hope you have had a great week. Enjoy the weekend.

sf