Things are going well here. It was finally sunny. I wiöö post pictures up in a bit. It is absolutely beautiful. Engelberg is at 1000 meters. We have snow on al of the mountains surrounding the valley. Its incredible. Today I woke up in time to get Alex and Richard ready for school. They were gone by 8:00. So i took a two hour nap. Then I went grocery shopping and picked up the things for lunch. I made french toast for the guys. Which they totally loved. Tomorrow I am making chili. They have a recipe here, but mom you wouldnt mind sending me yours would you? I dont think we have the same tomoto sauces or beans, but i can improvise. Learning how to cook should be a good time. It gives me something to do in the morning.Both of the boys left for afternoon classes by 1, which meant I had free time to shower and do as i liked. Christina and I went to get my residence permit, which took all of 5 minutes, and then i was free for a few hours. I stopped by everyshop in town and realiyed how expensive life is in a resort town. The cheapest articles of clothing I could find were around 50 francs. I really wanted a jacket or a coat or hat or shoulder bag. Those are the things im looking for most, but in browsing I found something that i may end up buying around christmas. They have an incredible bag that looks like a suitcase, except it has shoulder straps. Its a tad smaller than mine, but it would be wonderful for any future travelling. it has wheels and everything. I am going to debate and check my finances later. Then i will decide. I came home and then CHristina showed me the library. It has some books in English which should be great. After that I got online and posted those pictures as well as chatted with some friends. Alex came home from school at five. We were going to go get bread, but when i told himto put on a sweater he through a temper tandtrum. It took a good hlf an hour for me to settle him down. I am learning that he is a little pistol. I think he is not used to a strong authority figure, which i will be. He kept saying "nien" to me whenever i asked a question. Either that or he would make fun of me in German. It really wasnt pretty. Finally he behaved and we went into town to buy some bread. We reconciled when i raced him into town and won. On the way back from the bakery he learned that i am a bit more athletic than he thought. He had a scooter and wanted to race me back. I had taken a short cut going down hill, so we went the same way up hill. I won that race too. He was greatly surprised... so was I.Tonight Christina had meetings in luzern, which is an hour train ride away. So i made their dinner and we all ate just fine, well until Alex starteed throwing something. I told him t stop, he didnt. I took the thing away, or i should say I was in the process of reaching for it, and he swung hitting his cup of juice spilling it on the ground. Then when i asked him to clean it up, he said no once more. He threw a fit again. Richard kindly cleaned up most of the dishes and put them in the dishwasher while i helped/ supervised Alex clean up the juice on the floor. When trying to get him to clean up i ended up doing the counting thing, because he was ridiculous. Since his bed time is around 8:30, and it was 7:30 i told him he needed to take it easy and read. He then went downstairs as i finished cleaning and put on hsi shoes. I asked him where he was going. He told me the library. (the library is right next door) I tried to avoid the argument by saying it was closed. (christina hold told me the hours, and that time wasnt one of them) It trns out the the libary was open. So after that ordeal he began to go, I told him he had to feed his cats first, to which he protested.Then he really threw a fit. He ran outside, but i got him into his room. Then when i checked in like 5 minutes, i found him crawling out his window. I went around and asked where he was going. He then really went off and made quite an ugly face. He has an incredibly strong will. I asked him to please come inside, and not once did I lose my temper with him. I asked him why he was mad at me. I simply had been asking him to do what I had told him. He ran around the house and started kicking the fence as he went. I really felt sorry for him. I dont udnerstand why he is so violent. I guess he is trying to assert his own will or something, but i simply thought he needed to feed his cats. All i asked him to do was feed them. Finally he came inside. I think because he was cold. He went into his room and slammed the door. I sat outside of it watching teh windows to make sure that he didnt cimb out one. Then he started throwing things in the room. So i went in and picked up the stool and said. "Now i have to sit in here to make sure you dont throw anything. He ran out of the room into the kitchen. So i followed. We sat in there for a while, then he started messing with things. I stood in front of the door and said he could leave when he fed the cats. He layed there. Then he finally ended up taking the cat food and filling a cup full. He then stood straight up and put his arm parallel to the floor then turned the cup downward so that all of the food hit the cat dish, and splattered out onto the floor. Of course I told him he had to clean it up, and he responded by kicking the litter box. Which threw litter all over the floor. "You can clean that up as well" was my appropriate response. He layed down on the bench behind the table and started making noises. Then he got angry and pushed the table out of the way. Since the table was messed up, i said, "And now you need to put that back" Eventually he relized that i wasnt going to let him leave until he finished all of those chores. He angrily put the table back and he picked up most of the litter, but didnt touch the cat food. Mainly because the two cats had come in and ate it all. I wasnt really too mad that he spilled, only that he spilled intentionally.Yesterday wasnt the best day for Richard, as he doesnt listen to his mother, but thus far he has listened to me. He laughed at Alex while alex was being punished, which i promptly stopped. LAter tonight while he was on the computer researching black holes, i asked him to not laugh at his brother. I said that as a 14 year old i expected him to set an example. I said that he undermines my authority when he does that. Then i explained what the word undermine meant. He got it and said it was just a reaction he understood that it was bad and will try to stop. He really is respectful and i think it will be fun hanging out with him. He kept showing me photos of black holes and i got him to explain to me what he had learned about them. Since he spent 2 hours researching i think he liked doing it. Hopefully showing him respect and interest in what he does will make it easier for me.At dinner tonight he asked me to "Say to me my failures in English" To which i said, "Well then, a better way to ask that question would be. "Ryan can you tell me when i make mistakes and correct them" He repeated and i gave a mini english lesson on the difference between say and tell. I also explained mistakes and failures. He practiced them a few times and later said, "Opps i made a mistake" Ok really he said schieza instead of opps, but i dont think thats the correct spelling. Alex finally went to bed at 9, and Richard was in his room by 9:30. He reads until ten. Christina got back about 10 and so i came downstaris and check email, and started writing this. I think i will post pictures, write some more personal messages or emails and then hit the hay. So that was my day in Engelberg. I think with my guitar here and the books that I have as well as some others should keep me busy for a while.