My First Day of French School

Today I started classes with my French Tutor. It was very difficult, but I learned a lot too. The teacher, Suzanne, is a very friendly, patient lady. We bought a voice recorder, so I was able to record my class. I think I'll have to listen to it a hundred times to learn everything I was taught today. She gave me lots of homework to study and things to memorize. It's a little mind boggling right now, but I'm so glad to be on my way to learn French! Beth took a picture of me with her camera on my way to school. Patrick and the children were so sweet and waved from the window as I drove away. When I got back the kids were on the porch waiting for me and there was this sign on the door. While I was gone Patrick did some studying himself, then made flashcards for the kids to learn their French as well. He also had a hot lunch, beautifully set table, and fresh flowers waiting for me. My family is so sweet! Next Friday is my Oral Test. We'll see how I do!

Mint Chocolate PIe

A few people have asked for this recipe, so here it is! Hope you enjoy it!

Mint Chocolate Pie

This is actually easy to double and make two pies, since a couple of the ingredients are half only
Also, this could easily be low-fat/low sugar if you buy the right ingredients

Mix:
1 1/2 cups milk &
1 small pkg vanilla pudding
put in fridge 15 mins to firm up

then mix:
1/2 brick of cream cheese (4 oz.) &
1/2 can sweetened condensed milk &
10 drops green food coloring &
1 tsp mint extract
mix until creamy
then add pudding mixture,
After combined well, gently fold in 1/2 carton of cool-whip
Then, put in oreo pie crust. Put in freezer until firm (about 2 hours) You really don't want this pie rock hard, so it's your preference whether to freeze or refridgerate.
before serving, melt semi-sweet chocolate chips and drizzle over top.

Thursday Nights

We have decided to start making our Thursday nights our "Family Fun Night". We think this might be the best night since most of the other nights are filled with things! So, tonight we are having Double Cheeseburgers and French Fries! MMMM! (The kids will probably just make theirs double hamburgers) (Isn't it sort of bad that all of our "fun times" revolve around food! :) We've also decided to make Thursday nights our dessert night. We're trying to cut back on our grocery bill and it will help our health too to just have dessert once a week. So, tonight I'm making my Mint Chocolate Pie. Also, J E & B have been working on writing a new play. So, they are performing it for us tonight!
I can't wait for tonight!!

Big Sister Beth

Silas's First Food

Patrick has been dying to feed Silas for a while now, so when we went grocery shopping he bought some Rice Cereal. First he prayed with him. It was so sweet. Silas doesn't know you're supposed to close your eyes yet! Like my other 3 he mostly just spit it out. After a few bites, though, he was really licking his lips and wanting more.

I can't believe my little man is growing up so much. He still has is blue eyes. Some days they look a little bit more gray. We'll see if they stay!

Food Budget

Food is a little more expensive here in Quebec. I've set my food budget, planned my menu for the week and went shopping. We stayed within our budget! Yay! Now, we'll see if the food lasts us for the week! I'll have to do a little more work than usual, like shredding all of my cheese and bagging it and trying to do a little more "from scratch". I love to cook, so that's no problem. Last nights brownies turned out great! We'll be making those again. I don't think people buy food for the whole week here, or maybe they don't eat as much as we do. We were the only ones with a full cart!

Happy Birthday to Me!

This years birthday is a little different than normal. For one, Patrick isn't here (not until tonight.) The second thing is that we're in a new place. My children are so sweet to make it special. While we were at Walmart the other day they said they had some things to get too. They bought these decorations and are hoping they say "Happy Birthday" They made me gifts last night. Beth made the necklace, Josh the bracelet, Brenna the earrings. Aren't they gorgeous! They did such a good job and I was so surprised.

They didn't know how to tie balloons (I guess we need to work on that) and they wanted to surprise me and decorate so they tied the balloons with hairbows. How cute.

They made beautiful cards that they really worked hard on. I'm so proud of them. They've really made my day special. Thanks, guys!

Which look for today?

Quick Tour of our Canadian Home

Tour of JEBS rooms in Canada

Our Canadian Home

We've made it! These are a few pictures of our new home. We're a little surprised that Spring is barely here. There are no leaves on most of the trees, but the flowers are starting to bloom! We've been wearing jackets and using the heat at night. Our landlord has been very kind. He bought bunk beds for the girls!...I'll post indoor pictures as soon as I can get a little more settled inside. So, here's the outside. It seems most people use a clothesline here. Patrick's been doing laundry, so he's getting the hang of it. Now that he's gone I'll have to try it. It's not like Mam-maws, it's higher up. You have to pull it toward you...I don't really know how to explain this part. Anyway...we're using a clothesline!
This is the back of the house. The landlord and another renter have the 2 apartments upstairs. We use the back entrance all the time. There's a mudroom you enter first, then the kitchen.

This is the front of the house.

The kids have already started to make a fort. They are loving the yard. They can play on all four sides!! There are tulips blooming on one side of the house and daffodils on the other.

Last night the Landlords daughter wanted to come over and play. She's about 12 or 13 and she's excited to practice her English. She brought her friend that only speaks French. I think J, E, and B will have no problem learning their French. They had such a wonderful time and were so excited to make some new friends. Our neighborhood seems very family oriented. There are children all outside riding bikes. The kids played frisbee, baseball, and soccer. Then, they came in and had a bath and hot chocolate. They were a little cold! Things are going well so far, just trying to get settled. I'll post more pictures soon!

Quick Stop in Plattsburgh

We made a quick stop in Plattsburgh, NY before crossing the border to Canada. We love going to Plattsburgh. It brings back so many memories because it's where we lived when we first got married. It was good to be in services at Bible Baptist Church and Patrick preached Sunday night. It's always so encouraging to visit with our friends Tom and Laura Green and their family. Laura has started doing parties as Pipsqueak the Clown a couple of years ago and is loving it! Her oldes 3 children are also involved and enjoying making extra money. They're starting to try something new in a couple of weeks...Princess Parties! They have so many excellent ideas. One of them is to dress up all the party goers as Princess's and then take their pictures. This is Brenna's picture and I love it! She had so much fun dressing up.

Lacey and Tommy do several "acts". This one was hilarious! I wish you could have seen it. We really enjoyed our time with the Greens and look forward for times together with them while we live in the North.

Of Course, we had to visit the remains of Plattsburgh Air Force Base where Patrick used to be stationed. His dorm room is still painted Orange and Blue!

And the Winner is...

It's a tie!
Joshua-45
Beth-53
Brenna-53.

We loved all three places, but it looks like the Hibachi Grill and Hamburger Places were our favorite. Beth and Brenna split the prize money.
Thanks Mom and Dad, we had a great time. Everyday we looked forward to where we would eat that night. We'll never look at eating out the same way again! At lunch the other day we were all rating the food, atmospere, and service, and it wasn't even the contest!
Tomorrow it's off to Canada for us! Please pray as we cross the border

Brenna's Pick

For Brenna's pick in our restaurant game, she picked FudRuckers in Albany, New York. We had never been here before and we loved it! We loved how you could put your own toppings on your burgers. Since it was a little cheaper than the other 2 places we were able to get shakes! MMMM. She picked an excellent spot.

Elisabeth's Pick

Today was Beth's turn in our Dinner Game. ( If you don't know what I'm talking about...go back a couple days in my blog to the post titled "Three Dinners of Fun") She's pretty smart. She was trying very hard to find somewhere everyone would like. She was trying to score high in all 3 areas. So....she picked A1 Japanese Hibachi Grill in Allentown, Pennsylvania. I think she'll rank pretty high in atmosphere! :) Our food was good. Our chef was wonderful and even lit an onion volcano. It was cool and the kids had a lot of fun. When Mom and Dad gave us the money for this game they thought for sure the kids would pick cheaper places so they could have leftover money for ice cream. So far, Josh and Beth have met their budget up to the last penny!

We can't wait to see what Brenna picks tomorrow night. She's already talking about finding a Diner with good Burgers. Maybe we can get some shakes! A Chocolate Malt sounds really good right now!