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Week #7 - cracked fingers and all

I missed last week (#6) because sometimes life happens a bit too fast.  So here is a quick summary - on top of his chipped bone Chris has bronchitis (so he tells me) and was sick last week.  There is a stereotype of men being sick and I feel like it was based on Chris.  Enough said about that ... Ilya hurt his finger at school and I assumed it was just a bruise except it kept hurting and kept being warm to the touch so we ended up going to ER and it turns out he cracked it and had to wear a plastic protector which made it nearly impossible for him to write.  It made our life fairly miserable last week because he is somewhat a perfectionist and he does get a grade on his handwriting.  Of course, lets not forget Fasching - Anton had 4 parties to get to!  Andrei and Ilya had parties at their schools and neither one was at all excited about it.

We have a lovely library in our town.  It's really close to our house (ok, everything in our town is really close to us), I pay 15 euros for a family card and we can take out a lot of books, I don't remember how many but we've never an issue and we take between 10 and 15 each time.  The library has audio books, videos and WII games along with books except we can't play WII games because we have an American system which is not compatible with the European games.  The library does offer a selection of English titles for both kids and adults.  However, there are some things that also drive me crazy (probably because I am a spoiled American :)  The videos have to be returned within 7 days, books within 3 weeks.  There is no drop off box for the books so even if I don't want to go to the library, I have to find the time when it's open to drop the books off.  It opens at 10 and closes at 6 during the weekday, 10 to 1 on Saturday and closed on Sunday.  Not exactly super user friendly to be honest, and I don't even work.  Second problem that I have had with them is the lack of recommendations.  Every so often I see "reading lists" in both Russian and English and find them pretty helpful.  There are so many books available out there that sometimes it's a bit overwhelming as to what the kids should read.  Anyway, I went to ask the librarian about books that are recommended for the 3rd grades and her suggestion was a room that holds all the books for kids between 6 and 9 years old.  Thanks lady - I can read where the books are located, I am just at a loss as to which books to get!  I have very vague idea about German authors, classics, and popular children's literature.  As of now we agreed that we get the books we get but the boys don't have to finish reading them if they don't like something.  Not ideal but I would rather encourage them to read than keep pushing and turn them off from reading altogether.

The winter was back for exactly one day yesterday and I got some nice pictures.  The library is in background.

P.S.  German doctor at ER asked me about Super Bowl and which teams were playing - I am so not the right person for that question.  The store had this to help people celebrate Super Bowl, I guess ...



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