The Wise Man Built His House Upon the Rock

Do you remember the kids’ song about the wise man who built his house upon the rock? Well, they sing that song in France, too, but they add a verse. It translates something like this, “Friend, have your house built upon the rock… The wind will come and the rain will fall, but the house will resist.” Well, here is Claire’s version. (She sings this in French.) “Friend, build your house upon the fool… Friend, build your house upon the fool…”

Ramblings

Anniversary

Today is our 10-year anniversary!! Yeah! And, to celebrate the decade we have been married, we started our final exams for this trimester. Yeah! It was so romantic... We sat next to each other and took a test. Can you believe it has been 10 years??!!


Claire Stuff

I was singing a song to Claire the other day, and I could not think of all of the words. So, I sang,
"Doo, Doo, Doo, Do, DO." Claire said, "Can you sing, 'I don't know the rest of the words?'"

Claire said, "How you doin'?"

Claire asked for dessert. I told her we had to eat dinner first. She said, "But we ate just yesterday."


Other Stuff

It snowed here in the mountains in June! BUT, now it is getting hot. Weather is such an interesting thing in any language.





Let us know how you are! We're off to study!!

Cannes

Ahh, springtime in France!

I (Tiffany) just wanted to upload a few pics from the Cannes Film Festival (in Cannes, France). I was able to go with Mentanna to this year's festival. The short film we produced in Austin was shown in the Short Film Corner portion of the festival.

The few days we spent there were wonderful and overwhelming. That is a place for real film people! We were able to attend a premiere of a new film starring Juliette Binoche. We also saw Jude Law and Norah Jones walk the red carpet.

I'm sure I will post more on this subject later. Enjoy the pics, and please leave a comment!

Daniel and Claire were able to be there one day. If you look closely, you can see them on the merry-go-round!

Survey

I am taking a poll. Everyone keeps asking us what people in America think about the French elections. That's a little hard to answer since we are here. So, I am asking you! Please comment!

Do you think about the French elections at all?

Have the elections been on the news? in the papers?

Had you ever heard of Sarkozy BEFORE Sunday, May 6th?

Did you ever hear of Royal, the lady running against Sarkozy?

What do you think of the outcome of the elections? (Sarkozy won with 53% of the vote.)



Thanks for your input!

Illustration

We were sitting in church on Sunday, and the pastor was giving his message in French. AND, guess what!? We understood it!!

I had never heard this illustration before…

There was a man who was very sick. The doctor gave him 6 more months to live. One of his friends came to talk to him; his friend told him about this wonderful medicine that would cure his disease. This friend said that 10 years earlier, he had actually suffered from the same disease. He took this medicine, and it worked!! The man did not want to listen to his friend. He knew that the end was coming, and he had come to accept that fact.

A little while later, another friend came to the man. He said that 5 years earlier, he had suffered from the same fatal disease. The man’s friend told him about the wonderful medication that had saved his life. However, the man did not want to listen to his friend.

One of the man’s friends went out and bought the medicine. His friend went to the man’s house and set the medicine on the table in front of the man. His friend told him to take the medicine. He said that the man simply had to take the medicine and he would be cured! The man got very angry. He picked up the medicine and threw it against the wall.

The man is no longer going to die because of his disease. He is going to die because he refused to take the medicine.

Festival of ONE Ballon

If you read our last update, you know that we recently went to a balloon festival, and there was ONE balloon. We thought our school director said (in French) that the balloons would be there from the morning until the evening. He actually said that the balloons would be there IN the morning and IN the evening. Oh, well! We went up in a balloon (only about 50 meters, but it was fun)!

Throw Pillows

Some of our friends mentioned the fact that we have not updated our blog in a while. Well, obviously this is true. Honestly, there is just not a lot to say about language school. We are really enjoying school, we are learning a lot, and we are able to communicate in French much better now. (I have even started using pronouns!)

This past month has been fun. For the first time ever we picked out a sofa (okay, it’s a futon) and a chair. We were able to pick out our own throw pillows. That was very exciting for us. You would think that at our age we would have picked out many home items, but this was a first for us!

It is funny how happy little things make us. My throw pillows make me happy.

Where we Are... Where we are Going...

Happy Valentine's Day, everyone!

We just wanted to share some pictures with you.

We are studying French in Albertville. They had the Olympics here in 1992.

Here is a picture of the little vineyard across the street from our apartment. There are too many clouds in these pictures to see much of the mountains, but they are there and they are tall!

This was taken out our front window:

This was taken out our back window:

This is near the "Old Port" in Marseille. If you look closely you can see the Chateau d'If (or Chateau beef as Claire calls it). Lord willing, we will be in Marseille by next year!

Here are some pretty boats at the "Old Port" in Marseille:

Grandparents are Grandparents...

It is incredible how no matter where you are grandparents are the same. We have several “experienced” people living in our apartment building. The other day we met one of them for the first time, and Claire just looked at her and said “Bonjour” and the lady just melted. The old French lady could not resist touching Claire’s cheek and saying how sweet Claire was. This opened up a long conversation between Tiffany and our neighbor. (Daniel was there but his part was not that long). Our neighbor could not stop smiling at Claire who was fidgeting and ready to go. On another day we met our neighbor that lives across the hall and he is about 84 years old. When Claire said “Bonjour” to him he melted as well. As we were leaving Claire asked if that was someone else’s “Papa” (Claire’s Great-Granddad.) We said yes he was.
This little story is to, one, talk about Claire but to also remind us that we are all the same no matter where we go. Grandparents are Grandparents all over the world. And a 2-year- old’s smile can always melt the heart of any Grandparent no matter what the nationality.

Getting Here...

Okay... so this story is from a few weeks ago, but it contains a big praise!

Well we have made it to France. God has already been good to us during our travels. We went to the airport about four hours early to check-in our 11 bags of luggage. Yes that is what I said 11 bags. It may seem like a lot but try to imagine your whole life for a year in 11 bags. They fill up very quickly! The board only pays for 4 extra bags and we had five. We had resigned ourselves to pay for the extra bag even though we were not happy about it. Well, we got to the airport (four hours early) and checked in. Even though our bags were a bit over the weight limit the lady let them though. Then after all the bags had been weighed and tagged she said, You have five extra bags but I will only charge you for four of them. Man was that a relief, Daniel tried to hold his excitement in and just say thank you, it was difficult.

Our precious Claire enjoyed the plane ride so much she did not sleep for the whole nine hour flight. Actually, you know how kids since when you are almost to your destination so they choose that moment to fall asleep. That is what Claire did. We were about 2 and 1/2 hours from Germany and she decided to fall asleep. They turned the lights on at 2 hours and began to serve breakfast. OH the joys of toddlerdom.

Four Seasons?

We have been traveling again. We were able to spend time with Daniel's family during the Thanksgiving week.

While returning to Fort Worth, we made a stop in East Texas. I had to take a picture of what I think was a FALL day!

See, Deanna, we have trees that change colors, too!

Then, much to our surprise, we experienced something else. Today, while we were baking "monkey bread" with Claire, and watching "Cars", another season arrived in Fort Worth. I think it is called WINTER.

This is our front yard. In the background you can see the church that is allowing us to stay in their mission house.

I hope that everyone is doing well and staying warm. Let us hear from you.

Sorry

We need to apologize to everyone (especially Shelley, Jeremy, Patti, Rachel, Sarah...).

We have arrived in Fort Worth. We have been here for a little more than a week. Actually, we went to Houston for a few days to turn in our visa applications.

So, here is our apology. We are sorry. Please forgive us. Please get together with us.

We'll be posting more soon!

I haven't posted in a while for a couple of reasons. I guess the first reason is that when people don't comment, I think no one is reading. Then, I think of all the posts I read without ever leaving a comment... The second reason is that I feel pressured to say something clever every time I post.

That being said, I just wanted to say that we were at the UT game this last week. (For Deanna, UT in this case is THE University of TEXAS.) Wow! What a game! We won 56-3, but it was still great to be there with my family and friends.

Here's a pic of our little cheerleader...

Here We Go Again...

We are leaving tonight to go pick up Grandma! We will then head out to South Carolina for Commissioning! Yeah! As of September 13th, we should be officially hired/appointed/commissioned by the International Mission Board.

Please pray for us as we drive halfway across the country with our 2-year old. Please also pray for us as we take another major step toward a career in France!

We love you! If you are located east of Texas somewhere along I-20 or if you live near SC, let us know!!!

Women's Lib

There is a quote from the movie The Rookie that goes something like this:
“I’m a Texas woman. I don’t need a man…”

I suppose a sort of independence and you-can-do-whatever-the boys-can-do attitude is taught to Texas women from birth. My little girl plays with cars and boats as much as she plays with dolls. Here, women governors are not abnormal, and a girl can have a Harley if she wants one. But, deep down, there are those times when all of the self-reliance and feminism just conveniently disappear, and we can be “damsels” for the moment.

It was (still is) over 100 degrees today. I was on a busy highway. Claire and I had just left a birthday party. (Happy Birthday, Tessa!) Our tire exploded! Praise God, we did not lose control of the car; we simply pulled over to the shoulder while I was thinking, “I think we have a flat tire.”

I couldn’t get the hubcap off. The part of the jack that gives you leverage and makes things easier was missing. The tire was smoking. The road was busy.

Self-Determination flew away as my knight pulled up in the big white air conditioner repair van.

“You need help?”
My thoughts: “No, I can do it.”
My response: “yes.”

It made me feel a little better that the big, strong air-conditioner repairman had to stand (and jump a little) on the tire iron to get the bolts to budge. I probably could not have moved them.

"I Love You" in French

If you haven't heard, it looks as if we are going back to France!

I'm sure I will be writing a lot on the subject between now and the end of December, but I wanted to share a short little story.

We are trying to teach Claire some basic French words and phrases. Yes, she is only two, but she can handle it! She is quite the talker--probably because she practices all the time. She even talks in her sleep!

We were practicing, and I asked her, "Claire, do you know how to say, 'I love you' in French?"
She answered, "Yes!"
"You do? Can you say, 'I love you' in French?"
The response--"I lav you in Fench!"

This continued with "Hello in Fench", "Goodbye in Fench", etc., etc.!

I think it really started to hit me that we are going to be starting over again when Claire started saying, "I go Fance!" She even said, "I go Fance now." I guess the transistion time isn't easy even if you're two!

Please continue to pray for us!

Here is a picture of us from my family reunion last weekend.

Here We Are...

We have tried several times to make a new blog! Here it is! We will try to update often--as soon as we figure out this new site.