Only Healthcare is Cheap

I will start out with saying that Tabitha finally seems to be on the mend. She made it through the day without running a fever and seems to have gotten her appetite back. She still has a lingering cough but should at least be able to go back to school tomorrow. We have no idea how she goes about making up her work but fortunately the tutor comes tomorrow evening so if she brings home a pile of work, Edith will be able to help her out.
As time goes one, we have discovered that only healthcare is cheap in this country. Everything else costs money and costs quite a bit. Especially when you compare the dollar to the Euro. Today, a friend of mine took me to the public library to get cards for the kids and I. It cost me 20 Euros a year to get an adult card! And that was only to check out 5 books at a time. If you want the privilege of checking out DVD's, etc., the cost is 60 Euros! I have never heard of paying for a library card before! Although we didn't have time to explore the library today, the librarian did mention something about their books in English! Hurray! Yesterday, we received a package in the mail that Josh's mom had sent to us via Eddie Bauer. Because of taxes on imports, we had to pay almost 60 dollars just to take possession of the package! Yikes! Live and learn I guess, no more Eddie Bauer for us. We did however, get Calvin's hospital bill in the mail. For the total cost of his ER visit and his EEG, the bill was only 55 Euros!
Today was a gorgeous, gorgeous day!! It was about 60 degrees all day and the sun never stopped shining. The kids didn't have school at all today so we all enjoyed the weather during Max's soccer practice and then headed home where the boys played outside almost all day long. They really love our big yard with lots of trees and bushes. Max claims that we have the best hide and go seek yard around. Taba and Max enjoyed a stroll to the boulangerie for our daily baguette. The city has flowers planted in all the planters all over town and they are really starting to look pretty and colorful. Hopefully I can soon plant some flowers in my flower boxes on the front of our house.