I learned how to do my first load of European laundry & hopefully we found a detergent that Mad won't be allergic to. We'll see when she wears the clean clothes for the first time. Speaking of. . .I need to go hang all our laundry out to start the drying process.
Patrick just took off to pick up the one person who attends their Bible study. Up to now, Natasha has used public trans to get here. And what should be about a 20 minute car trip turns into a 2-hour trip full of transfers, stops, etc. This new car shuttle service will be a nice ministry to offer her on a regular basis.
The kids have already used up their daily Wii allotment, so are now doing things like wrestling & acting like wild banshees--I'm sure in preparation for calming down for Bible study. Later we will do the cake celebration part of Mad's b-day a day early since on her actual day tomorrow we will be going into Moscow to eat supper & go to the circus in honor of her special day. The phone number I've given any of you to contact is a cell phone so you should be able to talk to Mad on her day if you choose to cuz we'll have the cell phone. We'll probably make a whole day of it since going to Moscow can always include plenty of new touristy sights that Patrick & Christy want us to fit in on our extended visit with them. I can't believe we're already 1/3 of the way done.
Bible Study was on a few verses from James & it's so nice for church to be informal & more relational than the "traditional" service. I enjoyed it & even the kids get to be included in this (though they think their dad is too long-winded!). Madeleine stayed in for the prayer time while the others left to play in their room. We took Natasha home in the car afterwards & drove a few blocks to a local lake where many people spend their Sunday afternoons. It was too cold for me to get into the water, but many were wearing barely anything & were in the lake water. It was too dirty for me, too--many broken bottles, trash, fishing gear, etc. all over, so you have to be pretty brave to get wet. The kids really wanted us to rent a boat to row, but there were none available. They had fun, once again, using their imaginations & creating their own world with all the running they could do here. They even named the big hill: Megethan.
We stopped for eggs & fresh veggies on the way home so Patrick could make us custom omelettes made to order. Yum! We ate those while our chocolate lava b-day cake baked. Because I forgot to push start on the timer, we overcooked the cakes to the point that the lava didn't flow. Shucks! They weren'b burnt by any means, but if you overbake lava cake, it doesn't ooze as we call it. We lit candles & sang the appropriate song & Madeleine was thrilled. Then we kicked the kids outside--the went willingly, actually, & started the movie "Bourne Supremacy," which much of it takes place in Moscow--some of the places I've seen since getting here. The kids had the walkie talkies to let us know of anything happening, but the biggest news was that Ethan may have made a couple new friends & Madeleine says they seemed nice so that's a plus. We'll see if they show up again on another day when they're outside. When they went outside, 
Patrick told them to come back in at 10; that's still so funny for me to hear since the darkness comes so much later here. They tried to beg their way into staying out longer, but we've all seen what people do here even in broad daylight, so we insisted on 10 with darkness setting in soon after.Madeleine's been reading a book out loud to everyone each night at bedtime, so they came in for that ritual & we turned lights out 30 minutes later. The girls fell asleep quickly but Ethan has been having major allergy issues & was up sneezing & emptying his head cavity of crud, so I don't know how long he was up with his parents taking care of that cuz once my lights went out, I was gone quickly, too.
'Til tomorrow.
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