We had a new, older couple, move in below us at the Key Inn. She doesn't like the kids going up and down the stairs and has gotten mad at them several times. On Friday, I was going down the stairs and she got mad at us. We were literally just walking down the stairs, so I didn't back down and defended us. It will be very nice to have our own place out in Kehlen. I feel like I'm constantly telling Ashton to be quiet.
On Saturday, we decided to forego our football game with the missionaries and head to Paris. We got up at 5:30 and were on the road by 6:30. Paris is about 3-3:30 hours away. We needed diesel fuel and my plan was to stop in Luxembourg, but it didn't work out. So we saw a place in France to pullover and get Gas. It was an Auchan gas station, which is like a Smith's grocery store and gas station.
We were filling up about 7:00 am and the lady at the gas station spoke no english. I knew to be careful about what type of fuel to put in the car, so I asked her several times which one was diesel. My choices were SP95, SP 98 or Gazole. The SP95 handles were green and the Gazole yellow. I went with Green meant diesel and Gazole meant gasoline. Turns out that was a big, costly mistake. We knew within a minute that we were toast. I was pretty ticked at myself and beat myself up the rest of the day...
I walked to a NorAuto which is like Checker Auto Parts. They were helpful but said that could not take the gas. I bought a siphon from them and 3, 20L empty cans for the gas. We pushed the car about a 1/4 mile to the filling station and proceeded to siphon the tank. The tank was waaaaay down in the middle of the car, so that didn't work. NorAuto put two tubes together, but it wouldn't go down far enough. In the process I broke off that little door inside the gas tank. At that point, I threw up my hands and called Hertz.
About an hour later, a nice French guy in a big yellow tow truck pulled up and took us about 20 minutes away to his shop. He had a pump that he connected to the fuel line and sucked out all of the gas. It literally took 4 hours for him to take the gas out, clear out the fuel system and put new diesel in. Due to the weekend extra charges, it cost 500 euros. I'm really hoping that American Express will cover that as I rented the car with my AMEX card. It looks like they will, but I'm skeptical until the underwriters approve the claim. Spencer is pretty excited that I screwed up and tells everyone that his Dad is an idiot. Kim is relieved that I made the mistake instead of her!
The only positive development was that we learned how to conjugate most "er" verbs in the present and past tense while waiting. It was a long time to wait, with lots of tears from Ashton and bored, anxious kids. Not the kind of adventure that we were seeking that day, but an adventure none the less.
The kids went at 6:00 with a bunch of the kids from the ward to McDonalds and to a movie theater to see the Secret Life of Walter Mitty. Emilee will blog about it, but I guess it was REALLY nice. Between dinner and the movie it cost about 20 bucks a piece, which was about 1/2 of our budget for eating out during a month. But it was good for them to spend some time with some other good kids!
We spent the evening at the Gilstraps and had some amazing chocolate. If you come to visit, save up some money for this chocolate. Imagine the soup nazi and giro dreams of sushi for chocolate. Pierre Marcolini is really, really good.
http://www.marcolini.be/
http://www.chocolate-revolution.com/marcolini.php
Today we decided to not attend the English Sunday School class and attend the French gospel essentials class with the new members and missionaries. We didn't understand much, but we understood more than the previous week and it is going to be really helpful to get 3 full hours of real gospel French each week.
We also had the great opportunity to attend the baptism of Gilson. He is a 22-23 year old that speaks Portuguese and French. The missionaries found him on the bus and he prepared himself to get baptized. We played soccer with him last week. It is awesome to have the ability to speak to people in Portuguese. It is really fun to use my mission language again for something useful! The baptism was directly after church. We had a short meeting and then drove 20 minutes to a really, really nice swimming pool south of the city. If you can believe it, the entire pool was made of metal. It was an infinity pool that was super nice and warm. I think it was the first time my kids got the opportunity to see someone get baptized that wasn't 8 years old.
We actually took a nap today and rested after a crazy week. Next Saturday, the boys have a Saturday Priesthood trip to Strasbourg France. We are hoping to get in some football (soccer) and then leave at noon. I'll make sure to learn how to spell Diesel in German and French before heading out! We also hope to see the cool clock in the Cathedral there...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strasbourg
For those who have so graciously agreed to help some with donating to Ahmed, here's a picture of him with our family at Gilson's baptism.
Click here to see all the pictures for this week!
Au revoir!
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