Sunday, March 21st

Charlotte was violent and angry in her sleep last night.

A "probably" tire and a lot of prayer later, we arrived safely in Aix just in time for chuch. We caravanned with Teal's car. He was behind us in the toll line and got stuck because some guy had gotten out of his car and was arguing with the toll booth worker. Oh France, you are a constant source of intriging people.

Dom went literally from driving the van to preaching the sermon. He definitely got a gift. He reminds me of PT sometimes. Tomato is exaused. Straight to bed after church.

Saturday, March 20th

Charlotte was extremely snuggly and rather talkative in her sleep last night.

The Musee du Desert is incredible. It follows the history of Protestantism in France, starting with Luther and Calvin and through the persecution of the Hugonots. There are 2x3 inch Bibles that they would hide in their clothing. There's a tiny space cut out of the rock in a cupbord where priest could hide if the house was searched. Everything for the churches had to be hidden. Barrels transformed into pulpits, communion goblets that screwed apart and formed candelsticks. I am so privilidged to live now, where we can leave the doors to the curch open right in the center of town and sing praise songs.

Lunch was delicious. Sooooo much food. I'm going to explode. For less than 9 euros, it a 5 course meal: omlette, olives and sausage slices, bread and pate, salade, and then steak. I ordered my steak rare. And French rare is RARE. Everyone thought I was a bit nuts, but it was very good.

After lunch, Tomato went with Dom, Teal and David in the white van to see if some place could fix the flat or get us a new tire. But nothing is open Saturday afternoon in a small town in France. We did find a mechanic, but he said the tire would probably make it back to Aix. Probably. Good enough, right?

Both Megan and Nathalie make killer vin chaud. Castles are so cold! Amanda, Marianne and I played Apples to Apples with the little girls while the rest either watched the rugby match or played sardines in the castle.

Friday, March, 19th

The white van made it! Way to go Kerri! The van shakes so hard when it idles, you'd think the engin was going to fly right out of the hood. Thankfully Kelsey discovered that if she puts her foot on a certain spot in the front seat it mostly stops. That's not disconcerting in the least.

Castle, spires and all. This place is gorgous. Something like 15 rooms. Monsieur de Cassennove lets ICCP use this place for free. He has 2 little room for himself, but other than that, we have run of the entire place. It's not a retreat center, it's his familty home. There are generations of portraits on the wall in the main dining room. The stone fireplaces are 400 years old and some of the chairs in the sitting room are from the 1970's and evrything else inbetween. I feel as though I could spend a month just soaking up the history here. It even has a secret passageway between the top towers. The far tower has a library with everything you could imagine. All the classics, Bibles, books on the history of the church and a huge stack of French plays. Again, if I had a week just to sit and read.

Our room, The Laughing Tomatos (Charlotte, Amanda and I) looks out over the whole valley. Amanda has the "floor bed" and Charlotte and I are sharing the "jello bed".

I arrived with the first group and prepared dinner with Amanda, Megan and Nathalie. Not many people came in the first group, so it was very relaxing just cooking and exploring the castle. With the 2nd group, I think we have 43 people here. Plus Monsieur de Cassannove, of course. He is so funny. He lets several groups stay during the year and the group before us was English. They had left some kind of dessert in the freezer. He pulled it out and asked us to eat it. Then went off on a little rant on how horrible it was that the English always mixed their sweets and savories.

Thursday, March 18th

Amanda's birthday! Had lovely tea and cake at Charlotte's in the garden. Getting ready for the Cevenne's retreat.

Wenesday, March 17th

Happy Saint Patrick's Day! I'm really missing The Breakfast Club (+ Kyle). Enjoy the Irish boys, I'm with you in spirit!

Pushed through the huge crowd to the back of O'Shannon's but had missed the text from Isaac so when we finally made it, no one was there. So instead we sat in Parc Jordain and looked at the stars. Tried to watch Boondock chez moi but internet hicupped 30 minutes in. :(

Tuesday, March 16th

Got the grocery shopping done. I'm getting rather attached to that little store.

Monday, March 15th

Got the letter from OFII finally. I have to go to Marseille on April 28th to get a physical for my carte de sejour. Which will then be processed. Who knows, maybe by the time I get back to the states, I'll have all this paperwork complete. Good thing that when I'm back in Helena this summer, I'll have a slip of paper that says I can be in France.

Something about heaters dosen't like me. Maybe it's just dorm heaters. Hmm. Oh well, at least it eventually came back on.

Castle retreat is this weekend. Hooray!

Mid march already. I can't believe it.

Em's letter about her spring break was just amazing.

I love that girl. I can't wait to see what God has planned for her.

Mondays are my favorite days and honestly, it's because of Life Group at the Carroll's.