Happy Birthday, Eleni!

Hope you're enjoying your vacation and the Florida sunshine, Eleni! Think of us over here in the -10C temperature again today! But the wind is not nearly as bad as yesterday so it was tolerable outside.

We would like to thank all of you who emailed, commented, CALLED or just sent up an extra prayer for us. We are doing better today and the frustration blog helped a lot. What I have said all along is just tell us what will happen, not what you think could possibly happen if all the moons and stars line up, and then we will deal with it! So now we're planning on being here until early next week – and if we get out earlier, BONUS! Alex checked at the passport office today and called to say it wasn't in and the lady is saying "Monday" but he's going there again tomorrow to check. So it sounds like I don't have to go which is fine with me – I just tag along anyway. So if it's Monday, it's Monday… and then we know how better to plan. That's what we want-- communication.

We all were up a little after 7am again today – then we just watched some DVDs for awhile and then played "hide and seek" – both with Brian or Genya hiding and then hiding the stuffed bear. Genya didn't quite get the idea of hiding the bear tho and kept putting it in the same spots! We decided to try out a new café for lunch – yes, our standard boredom buster! We went to the "Lunch House" which, despite its English name, didn't have an English menu BUT it did have pictures by everything! So we were able to see what we wanted to order! This wasn't a bargain meal but was good and good sized portions. I had a bowl of cauliflower soup, Genya had spaghetti with meat & tomato sauce and Brian had a sausage plate with French Fries. Brian's sausage order came with 4 good sized sausages – he ate three and Genya ate one AFTER he had eaten his spaghetti all up! He ate a lot but hadn't had too much during the day until then. This doesn't get our total recommendation tho as it was very smoky in there. Everything we saw looked good and nice sized… we're just used to our 100ruble business lunch! LOL

We had to go to the supermarket to pick up some staples but took the LONG way there – all the way up to the next set of lights to cross Karl Marx which happened to be by the military display. I had mentioned that we hadn't found public parks? Apparently climbing on this old military equipment is something the young boys do! There was another little guy there probably a few years older than Genya. Genya enjoyed climbing on the equipment and pretending to be a military man. We then went to the grocery store to find some breakfast, lunch and dinner items. I got some hot dogs with cheese for Genya to try tomorrow! I picked up some chicken so we'll have a few meals of that and got more eggs and butter to Brian and I have some breakfast or lunch choices! Pickles, yogurt, milk and some other items out the list.. Oh yeah, more laundry detergent as I had gotten a small box when we thought we'd be leaving soon. Now that we'll need to do some more loads I just purchased the bigger bag and those behind me can reap the benefits! And only buy the "Fairy" dish washing soap – Tami, it is holding the suds like you said! LOL

Then, since Genya had been a good boy all afternoon, we stopped at the park across the street for awhile. The ice slide has lost its appeal – there is no ice on the slide (just wood) and he only went about 10-feet on the ice. Said he didn't like it and gave me the sled. But then went to the other equipment and climbed on that a long time. I will have to wash those snowpants one more time before leaving and probably the jacket also – it's dirty on the streets!

I stopped across the street at the market to get the bread and juice (no sense carrying it from the market when it's the same price across the street!) – and got us some ice cream bars for a late afternoon treat. We had walked enough today! Now we're just checking out the DVDs we purchased today. To answer your question, Dawn, there are no video rental places here so we've been buying ones we can find that play in English and/or Russian. We had brought a few along also but burned through most of them in the first month here. We did get "zooked" today on a few of them – one says to be in Russian and English and actually is in Russian and Ukrainian! And Toy Story 2 has no sound, in English or Russian – but I can get it to play silently but with English subtitles! Now if we had paid a lot for these I'd be upset, but since all 7 DVDs were under $30 we won't worry about it! The ones we got that play in English we'll be happy with!

Dinner tonight was Auto Parts Chicken again (or as Genya calls it, soup) as it's easy and we all like it. Then we watched Toy Story 1 (in English) with Genya after his bath and then The Black Dahlia (in English w/Russian subtitles) after he went to bed.

I was reading a book today and this verse was referenced…timely! Acts 17:26b – "and he determined the times set for them and the exact places that they should live." (taking this time as us "living" here)