Beginning a New Class

We have gotten our first week of the conversation course finished. Honestly, I'm not sure what I expected. It is very challenging. Our classes are much smaller in number and David and I are no longer in the same class, so we are "on our own". We've been married nearly twenty years, so we draw a lot of strength and confidence just from being near each other. Since July 2008 we have worked together all day, every day, and being apart even for a few hours a day is strange. It takes a lot of mental work to hear something in French, translate it in your head to English, think of an English response, then translate to French and speak it. In some ways I am improving: I am getting braver about trying to speak and trying to use new things I have learned. The downside of that is that I make a lot of mistakes. I know this is the best way to learn, but it is also the best way to embarrass yourself. So I am making a ton of mistakes and embarrassing myself repeatedly, but it's a good thing! lol. We are not allowed to speak English even during the breaks, so sometimes our breaks are really quiet. Sometimes we start out talking but then we reach a point where we don't know how to say the next thought we have so we just sort of stop talking and stare at each other.
Today we visited a church in Sawyerville. It is an English church that has just begun having a service in French three weeks ago. We were there to encourage our friends Grace and Orest as they presented their ministry in French for the first time. After the French church service, we went to the French Sunday School class, followed by the English church service and a potluck lunch. Last week we went out for dinner and a walk downtown with Orest and Grace to celebrate the end of a week of exams. We also took the kids to a favorite park of ours called Johnville Bog and Forest Park. Here are some photos from last week.

I've got sunshine!

Marcia at One Little Pink Rose has honored and humbled me with a blog award. Thank you, Marcia! I'm the one who should be honoring you! Since I can't give Marcia an award she has already received, please check out her blog. It is well worth your time.


The Sunshine Award is traditionally passed on to blogger's who inspire others and show positivity and creativity, so, in that spirit, I chose my nominees from blogs that I visit regularly and are very informative and inspiring to me.
The rules for accepting the award are:

This is what I've done and the nominees should do the same if they choose to:

1) Put the logo within my blog or on my post

2) Pass the award onto 10 fellow bloggers

3) Link the nominees within my post

4) Let the nominees know they have received this award by commenting on their blog

5) Share the love and link to the person whom you received this award from.
Unfortunately, I don't do a large amount of blog reading, so I don't have ten nominees. Here are my nominees, in no particular order. Please visit their blogs and feel free to encourage them with a comment.
1. Grace and Orest @ Desert Talk
2. Joy @ The Stay-At-Home Missionary
3. Michelle @ She Looketh Well
4. Jules @ On Eagles' Wings
5. Sharon @ I'm A Keeper...And A Teacher
6. Beloved Mama @ Beloved Mama
7. TJ @ TJ's Musing