Moving on up...

Traumatic Experience....

2009-10-25T11:12:00.002-04:00

First off, I apologize to whoever is out there reading this, because I just realized it has been since the beginning of Sept. since I've written. Alot has happened. School has started in full force, the baby has gotten used to going to her caregiver (and loves her, and now drinks her bottles and eats her food, and takes her nap and is crawling and standing up in her crib and starting to wave hi and clap her hands...........and and and and and..........she's awesome.) My mom has since been for a month long visit and has returned back to her home in the US, the 'chagim' have come and gone, and today..............I put myself through a very TRAUMATIC EXPERIENCE...............

i got my hair cut.

It's been a very long time and my hair was down my back, but you'd never know it cuz 90 % of the time it was up and out of the way tied up in a scrunchie. But today I had an hour free and for ages I've had this burning desire to do something different, so today I went in and asked for a change.

i got it. BIG CHANGE...........

My naturally curly hair went from being all one length to being graduated in the back, short, bobby-ish, and longer in the front to 'make it interesting'.

I like it, I think. we'll see tomorrow.........

SO WHY THE TALK OF TRAUMA????

Well, let's just say it's not fun sitting in a chair in front of a mirror, full on like that..........it made me face even more so the fact that I have at LEAST 50 lbs. to lose........baby weight and before. My heart lept, skipped a beat, and not in a good way. Was that really me? It was very very strange........ I'm thinking it's a good thing that today was already the first day in eating carefully and watching my intake, but it still freaked me out and saddened me a little. I've come to the realization that I think I'm alot bigger than I think I am.......

so now I make lemonade from my lemons........and I'm off to turn it all around. Well, actually, I'm off to go pick up a crying baby who is just wakign from her nap, but you get the picture......

Yeah, yeah, yeah, okay..........

2009-09-03T15:41:00.003-04:00

So well, this is what I'm trying to practice----- saying............."YEAH, YEAH, YEAH, OKAY....."

I'm back at work Sun through Thurs, and Sivan goes to a little daycare in the home of a neighbor's mom. She has 2 other babies, little guys who are a year old, and one of them is her grandson, our neighbor's son. She has a helper so that she is not alone with them, at least I think she does. But that's not important.

You must know that I love this woman. She is warm, sweet, kind, caring, and like I said, the neighbor kids' grandma. She gives and gives, really. But she's kind of stressing me out a little and I'm learning that I need to just answer her with "Yeah, yeah, yeah, OKAY." and then everything will be just fine. Explantation:

Sivan is a breastfed baby. She's my everything, my baby, a part of me....she completes me as a mom and I treat her as such. If she is unhappy, I pick her up. Not necessarily immediately if I'm in the middle of something, but I do not believe in letting her cry it out. Believe me, she cries, but not for long. I nurse her on demand and usually don't notice how long or how often she does nurse, then sometimes when she finishes, we sit and chat or relax together either on the couch or in the bed. No rules, just right.

Well, this doesn't work so well for daycare. It's not been easy for her to be away from me, depending on this new woman for her everything..........for her cuddles and for her food. But she's doing ok. But the metapelet (the sitter) is very clear on the fact that she should get used to playing more on the floor and not being in my arms as much through out the day. Here we go......"yeah, yeah, yeah, OKAY." Sivan also isn't drinking from the bottle with her, so she has been feeding her the expressed breast milk with a spoon and keeps telling me that I need to be helping by practicing at home with the bottle--nursing one time, bottle the next, then nurse, then bottle........ "yeah, yeah, yeah, OKAY."

I know she loves my little girl and only wants the transition to be best for her, but she doesn't get it. When I picked her up today, she told me that she had eaten and had her milk and shouldn't need to nurse now. .....you guessed it.........."yeah, yeah, yeah, OKAY." When we got home, the first thing after turning on the a/c that we did was sit down on the couch together........and NURSE.........heartily, BOTH sides!!!

So yeah, I'm hearing the metapelet's words, I get where she's coming from, but it doesn't work for me and there's one thing I've learned with people in this country.....it's easier to agree with them to their face, but then do what works for you all the while repeating to them............

"YEAH, YEAH, YEAH, OKAY!!!"

Tired...........so tired..........

2009-08-20T03:01:00.001-04:00

ugh...........I'm sooo

****Found this post that I started to write on Aug. 20. What you see above is what I wrote after writing the title. I guess that says it all. Pretty amusing if you ask me! haha

Doing it ALL......and making sure it shows!

2009-08-11T11:54:00.004-04:00

So no, the title, "DOING IT ALL AND MAKE SURE IT SHOWS" is not something I'm very good at. In fact, i struggle daily with the fact that hubby feels like the house is always a mess, he's exhausted from putting in LONG days at work (it's 7pm now and he hasn't left the office), and due to his exhaustion and being over-worked and over-stressed, he makes me feel like he feels that I don't do squat, or at least not as much as he does in his day. I think it's an age-old problem, each spouse thinking they're doing more and resenting the other one for whatever it may be that they aren't able to do in the day.....if resent is truly the word, I'm not fully sure.

But how does one do it ALL??? About 2 months ago, we canceled our house cleaners who were coming once every 2 weeks. It was just getting too expensive. Instead, I ATTEMPT to clean different parts of the house each day, and for the most part, I do do something every day. For example, today I did TONS of laundry, and I vacuumed the living room carpet. I also cleaned the kitchen a bit, took the kids to camp, picked them up, and in between went to the pharmacy, the post office, and to the mall to return an outfit. Oh, and dinner is ready and waiting on the stove even though hubby hasn't left the office which is an hour away.

Last weekend, when the baby was having an especially fussy week which continued into the weekend (which was good cuz hubby was able to see her in rare form), hubby got fed up and "cleaned the house". Mind you, he gathered some piles of stuff from the dining room table, vacuumed, swept the floors, and did sponga (mopped), but honestly, he didn't do much more. AND, he had the audacity a few nights later to mention that when HE cleaned the house, it hadn't been cleaned in 3 weeks! (he got a dirty look and a slight setting straight with a not nice word for that one............especially since it was in front of his sister!)

So this week he asked if I thought maybe we should get the cleaners back once a month. I explained that it wouldn't really be worth it. Plus I explained, it's not that the house isn't clean.....it's just that it is clean in a rotation........and therefore doesn't truly feel clean. Which in essence, it isn't 100% clean cuz in essence, the day I'm cleaning the toilets, the dusting might be due for the following day and therefore the only thing that will feel clean that day is the toilets.

Anyway...........I'm getting over it. I made a chart of what needs to be done for each WEEK. I'm thinking if I hang it on the fridge and literally check off and date what has been done, then he can see it and at least know that certain parts of the house are clean that day. And one day, when we win the lottery I'll have the cleaners start to come twice a week.........it might help though if we ever bought the lottery tickets.

Balagan in so many ways........

2009-08-09T02:33:00.003-04:00

Luckily I see the light at the end of the tunnel, but I wanted to share today a list of How my life has been a "Balagan" lately... (a mess, topsy turvy, filled with craziness)

let me count the ways............. (or at least let me bullet them, I like bullets better)

My sister-in-law has been visiting in the country for about 3 1/2 weeks now with her 3 kids, staying most of the time at my in-laws 25-30 minutes away..........our kids had many sleepovers there, her kids here, we did some kid swapping some nights, and a couple of night all 4 of them stayed here to give the grandparents a break. OH, and for 2 nights, the grandparents, along with the uncle and his friend took all the kids on a 3 days tiyul........
Which brings me to the uncle............not the sister's husband, but my hubby and his sister's brother, and his partner are here visiting from San Fransisco....staying with us, and being pretty good house guests. They took a 4 night trip to Turkey, and are now taking another 3 or 4 night trip down south, so it's been broken up, but still....more company.
my middle guy had his SIXTH BIRTHDAY yesterday............still can't believe I have an 8 year old and a 6 year old. wow. We did the family thing and went to the beach for the afternoon/evening. I think the kids all had an amazing time.
my boys are starting a 3 week session of a local camp for Olim today..............can you see me doing the happy dance in my living room??? I'm looking forward to not having to entertain them each morning/day. Hopefully they enjoy it.
balagan, balagan..............oh yes, let's not forget I have a baby who is now FIVE MONTHS OLD!!! She is so amazing, so super sweet, and S.O. H.E.A.V.Y,,,,,,,,,and ugh, she's been teething. The drool drips down her chin, and she's constantly in search of the next victim whose finger she will not only put in her mouth, but SHE BITES!!! And did I mention the separation anxiety??? It's a fancy word for saying that she freaks out when other people except for me and hubby hold her. joy.
And since we're talking about the baby, we might as well mention the inevitable that plagues me daily...............going back to work and leaving her. It is the single most difficult, stressful, heartwrenching thing on my mind these days. I have to leave her. I know she'll be fine and I trust the woman who will watch her, but I've never had to leave a baby before. Teachers go back Aug. 24, 25, 26........then for good on Sept 1.
Which brings me to the bottle situation.............she is a breastfed baby. She nurses for her nourishment, but we started solids (or really just colorful liquids that used to be fruits and veggies) about a month ago. I wanted to be sure she would be ok with other stuff when not with me. She does fine, she has also gotten to the point where if she cannot nurse, she will drink from a bottle to satisfy her hunger. PROBLEM IS................I don't pump often enough. I need to get my butt in gear and just set up a time that EVERY DAY or EVERY NIGHT BEFORE BED I pump as much as I can in a half hour. That's my goal for the week, to get in with that..........
Speaking of goals for the week................the HOUSE IS A MESS!!!
aargh.............
balagan, balagan...............so yes, this is why I don't blog daily. I'm aiming for once a week so am doing ok. I've been sitting now for almost 15 min. and need to get up and clean for another 10 or 15, baby steps, baby steps................

oh, and as if this all wasn't enough for me to deal with, the city is telling us to BOIL OUR WATER for 10 minutes before drinking it today. Are you kidding me???

Hours........blessing or curse?

2009-08-01T14:21:00.002-04:00

As the beginning of the new school year comes closer, the topic of HOURS is on my mind. Here in Israel teachers are hired according to a certain number of hours that are available for each one, and different teachers actually work different amounts of hours. Full time is actually different based on whether or not you have young children......for example, full time is 24 hours for a mom of young children (under 9 I think, or is it 12?), anyway, where normal fulltime is closer to 26 or 29 hours.

UNFORTUNATELY, I am only going to have 18 hours at my school this coming year.......the way it stands now. I taught 24 hours last year, and now due to changes in numbers in the school, I'm going to be teaching 6 hours LESS. ugh....... I'm happy because on one hand that means there's a possibility of being with Sivan MORE than I had anticipated, but on the other hand, that means LESS MONEY...........ugh, ugh, and triple ugh.

I think I need to get on the ball to figure out a way to make up those hours....and to also figure out what it really means in regards to the numbers. I've thought about trying to make it up via private lessons, but that's so unreliable. And then I wonder what working less hours for Misrad Hachinuch (Dept of Ed) means in regards to my benefits---health, etc. ugh.

why why why??? As if it wasn't bad enough that teachers in Florida got paid low, what we get here is RIDICULOUS! embarrassing to say the least that I take home in a month a paycheck that is similar, and doesn't always even measure up to the paycheck that I used to take home in the US 8 years ago every 2 weeks. .................

I'll keep ya posted................

Hi.......it's me again!!!

2009-07-28T14:53:00.003-04:00

Hey there, so it's me again........

I've realized that for the most part I've been spending my days procrastinating......putting off the inevitable whatever that may be. I put off the laundry.......rather than starting a load first thing each morning, it takes me a few hours to finally get around to it. Then, once it's finished I put off taking it out and hanging it up, not to mention the fact that I'm usually putting off taking the DRY clothes off of the line and folding them.......then they sit in their piles until I get around to putting them all away..........

I play this game all day long........with dishes, laundry, dinner, going to the store, putting away the groceries, vacuuming, dusting, etc. etc. etc............

I guess it's okay though, cuz the one thing I don't put off (or at least I try not to), is my little gal. I can't get enough of her........I kiss her and hug her and squeeze her about a hundred times a day. I feel so complete, she is my world..........and yes, I'm going back to work in September, and yes I think about it every single day. I will need to leave her. I don't want to leave her, but I really must go back to work, I really like to work, and we need for me to work. But for now, I hug her and squeeze her and as the tear rolls down my face thinking about September, I'm glad that I'm putting this off for now..........even though September (really Aug 24 when teachers go back) is closer than I think. ugh.

Tap, tap, tap...is this thing on?

2009-07-27T04:04:00.004-04:00

*SWEEP-SWEEP-SWEEP*...........excuse me while I clean up the cobwebs and dirt around here.....it sure has been a while!!!

Four and a half months actually........but I think I have a good excuse, don't you? :) Sivan has been essentially my world as you can imagine, and I think in her entire life I have only left her a few times and for the longest time for an hour when I went to the grocery store a couple of weeks ago. Usually she is weith me ALL. THE. TIME. But that's ok, I'm still completely in awe of her....and of course so completely in love with her, her smile, her rolls, her DRESSES!!!

Sooo, before I post I must tell you that I owe this 'return to blogland' to the fact that Baila of "I'll Call Baila". In honor of her 2 year blogiversary, she wrote a post about her reorganization of her blog. She totally gave me a shout-out and I felt like a celebrity! haha But at the same time I was like, omg, I haven't even written in almost 5 months, so not cool of me. So here I am. Thanks Baila for the kick in the keester!

Anyway, there is so much going around in my head about what I could write about but I don't want to scare anyone away just as I've gotten your attention. So I think I'll leave you with some pictures of what has been filling my head, heart, and hands these days. And keep your eyes open, I think I'll be back again sooner rather than later........hugs to all.

ps. If you've read this , give me a shoutout, let me know I'm really not talking to myself!!!

Quick update............she's here!

2009-03-05T02:57:00.001-05:00

Quick then I MUST SLEEP...........

Sivan Leah was born on 3-3 at 1:10 am via csection. She and I are in the hospital still till Sat. She was born weighing 2.5 kilo, approx. 5.7 lbs. She's adorable...........pics eventually will follow!

Update..........

2009-02-27T23:21:00.002-05:00

So, oops, forgot to update...........and since it's 6:22 am on a Sat. and I've just been woken up, there's no time like the present, huh? Last week, Sun through Wed, I had my big guy (almost 8) home with us (mom and I) with a raging ear infection!!! It was so bad the eardrum actually burst, and he was draining fluid from his ear through Thurs. YUCK! He finally had no fever for 24 hours and was able to go back to school Thurs/Fri. Enter little guy (5 1/2).......he HATES to be left out!!! All week it KILLED him that his big brother got to stay home with me and grandma while he had to go to school! He complained and kvetched and finally, on Friday, his teacher called at like 9:45 saying he was complaining all morning of an earache and wasn't letting up. Hubby went to pick him up, and we all laughed that he just needed some TLC. Well, lo' and behold (who says that?), he's now presenting with a fever and still complaining of the earache when the Motrin runs out of his system.............FUN!!! Let's just hope his can clear up a bit easier than his big brothers and doesn't get that bad, as next week is FUN week in school gearing up for the holiday of PURIM!!! I just went online now and made him an appt. first thing Sun. morning with the Pediatrician.........better safe than sorry.

ANYWAY..............nuff about that.............it's baby update we all want, right??? Well, I go in on Sunday, which also happens to be my birthday, and I have an appt. in the Women's Center. They'll do the usual, monitor, check blood pressure, have me pee on the stick, check the amniotic fluid in an ultrasound, an then I'll sit down with the doctor on call. Unfortunately, the head honcho doc won't be there, but she has written everything in my file because she doesn't want me pushing my luck and going beyond Monday. She says if everything looks good on Sunday that I can get the referral from the doc on Sun. to go to the hospital for the induction. At that point, I'll have 24 hours to report to the hospital, and hubby and I plan to go on Monday morning. We are also aware that it is possible that the bp might be up, or the fluid might be down, and the oncall doc may make the call that he wants me to go that day to the hospital. In that case, I'll call hubby, he'll come home on the train, and we'll go an hour or so later rather than the next morning.

I'm hoping to be able to celebrate my birthday with the family Sun. night, and go in leisurely Mon morning. Also, I would love for this baby to be born on 3-3, Tuesday. If I get an induction started on Monday, it's more likely that she'll be born on tuesday. Why 3-3 you ask??? Well, my boys were born on April 14 (4-14 or 14.4 if you're Israeli) and August 8 (8-8), and I thought it would be cool if she follows suit. I also was just reminded last night that 3-3 this year coincides with the 7th of Adar in the Hebrew calendar, and that is my dad's Yartzheit, the anniversary of the date that he was buried, 14 years ago. Some may think that that's a bit spooky, but I just look at it as another 'connection'.

Anyway, that's my story..........thanks for listening. I'll be back after the little miss is born........most likely not till we get back from the hospital though, so don't worry yourselves! Have a wonderful rest of the weekend and a wonderful week...........I know I will!!!

The final countdown.........

2009-02-25T11:15:00.003-05:00

So.........yes, still here, still pregnant, still on bedrest...........FUN!

Today is day 34 of bedrest, tomorrow will mark 5 weeks of no work, no shopping, no socializing (except for the phone and computer), and waaaaaay too much tv!!!

I have an appt. in the morning. The doc will review my blood test from yesterday, I will be monitored to make sure baby is moving and has a good heartbeat, an ultrasound will be done (#3899.....it feels like I've had that many!), and oh, I get to have the blood pressure taken and I get to pee on a stick of course too!

Two possibilities are on the table:

Doc could review it all and send me tomorrow to be induced.
Doc could review it all and have me go home for the weekend then send me either Sunday (my birthday) or Monday to be induced.

Sooooooooo, we shall see........I'm thinking that I may not get back here to update until after the birth. Enjoy the latest bellyshot for the 3 of you who actually still read my blog! haha

Timing is everything...........

2009-02-07T00:36:00.002-05:00

So here I am on day 16 of bedrest..........I've stopped going out for my daily excursions, and am no longer dealing with my children. My father-in-law arrived last Sunday, back from an almost 3 month visit in the US. He was here on Monday, picked the boys up from school and hasn't stopped since! Actually, on Monday, hubby took the day off from work as we were supposed to go to a Brit Milah for friends' twin boys, but that wasn't in the cards.......

I had a doctor's appointment Monday morning, and yes, the blood pressure was up again. The doc was kind enough to let me go home with the promise that I would return in the afternoon after resting for a couple of hours, but that I should come prepared that he may send me to the hospital if my pressure was still up. So we cancelled the plans to go to the brit, and hubby and I went back to the doc.

Luckily, the pressure was down a bit and the doc figured out that I was better off having the nurses do my pressure manually. Then I got my serious talking to..........long story short, doc let me go home, but with stricter conditions.

I am no longer running around for my daily excursions of picking the boys up, bringing them here or there, etc. etc. I AM IN BED for the most part, or am on the couch with my feet up. My father-in-law picks the boys up from school, brings them where they need to go, brings them home, cooks, cleans, goes grocery shopping and........does laundry! Hubby gets home from work around 7/7:30ish, plays with the boys, sometimes does their shower (sometimes FIL does it), and one of the two of them does stories and puts them to bed. *whew!* exhausting just thinking about it, right?

Anyway..........so why the title about TIMING??? Well, first off, we had FIL come home a week early if you remember to help out. Then the day he came home, we really NEEDED him that much more. But there's more to address in regards to timing...........

Ya see, hubby needs to go to the states next week. Yes, you heard correctly, NEXT WEEK, as in, when his wife is on bedrest, being considered high risk, and is going to be 36, going on 37 weeks pregnant! Soooooo, we're calling in more troops..........my mom is changing her flight to come in on Sun or Mon, mother-in-law is going to be coming back on Tuesday, and well, I'm going to be keeping my legs CROSSED!!!

Bottom line, TIMING IS EVERYTHING........I'm planning to NOT go into labor and am banking on the fact that my boys came at 39.4 and 39 weeks, with one being induced. Sooooo, the likelyhood of this little gal coming early is slim to none.......right? I just have to lay low to make sure that the blood pressure doesn't go crazy and then warrant another induction.

Keep your fingers crossed with me and send me STAY IN BABY vibes!!!

Help is on the way.....

2009-01-31T23:26:00.002-05:00

So we asked my father-in-law (FIL) to come back a week early. They live here in Israel, but have been in the US helping and visiting with my hubby's sister. She's divorced (for a year now), and has 3 kids, her ex is a shmuck, and they (the 'laws) go there a couple of times a year for a few months at a time to visit and help out. This year's trip happened to be planned where he would come back next week and she (mother in law) is coming back 2 weeks later after teaching a course or something like that there.

Enter high blood pressure and house arrest......and a hubby that works till 7pm at least every night, and it's been a rough week. I've thought I could do more than I realized I can and there have been a couple of days where I've returned home with the boys, set them up to play on the computer, and gone to bed just to be horizontal for an hour. not cool.

So my FIL is coming back today, arriving soon, then after resting and unpacking a little, will come to visit this afternoon. The boys are finished around 4, then the little one has his taekwondo chug. Had to share a funny thing MIL said.........she's all worried about him doing too much cuz he's just amazing and loves all his grandkids and LIVES for being with them and for helping out anyone and everyone he can. So she tells me...............

"Just do me a favor, at least this week, make sure he drives home before it gets dark...."

haha Now, for those of you who live elsewhere, this may not seem to be too tall of a request. If it gets dark at 7, and he's been over since 4, then that's GREAT, and has been a BIG help. But, *ahem* hello, it gets dark here around 5:15/30! I'm not trying to be selfish and all, but if the man has come half way around the world a week early to help me out, I'm not having him shlepp to my house (25 minutes from his), only to turn around an hour later! He'll have barely said hello to the boys!

So yes, MIL and her suggestions get the response of "yeah, right, whatever" quite often around here!! haha

I'm just glad he's on the way............and no, I will NOT be taking advantage of him, but the boys will be so happy to have him around, and so will the grown-ups!

House Arrest!!! ugh......

2009-01-25T06:15:00.002-05:00

So last week I had my appt. with the nurses.........just to backtrack: In the US I used to go to my monthly appt. and they would weigh me, take my blood pressure, check my urine, then I would go into the doc to be measured and hear the heartbeat.

Here, of course, it's a different story! My doctor's office does not have a nursing staff like the docs in the US. Instead, I make my monthly appointments with the nurses in the health care building, and a few days later, I go to my monthly appointment with my doc who reviews my weight, bp, urine, etc. Also, my doc here doesn't have a working doppler machine to HEAR the heartbeat, so instead she does a quick ultrasound each month and we SEE the heartbeat! (in the US I was lucky with each pregnancy if I got more than ONE ultrasound the entire pregnancy!!! )

So..........back to the story at hand.... This past week, I went in to the appt. with the nurses. I try to sit in the waiting room for a good 10 minutes and breathe calmly before I go in to get my blood pressure (BP) taken. It's my own little ritual. My bp all along has been borderline, one time even high enough that I had to come back a few days later to get it retested. LAST WEEK, the nurse who took my bp was not pleased. He (yes, male nurse) took it twice, then had me sit and rest for 10 minutes before taking it again. Still high. Then he sent me across the hall to where I got to sit and rest in a nice comfy lazyboy chair with my feet up, and monitor on my belly listening to the baby's heartbeat. BP taken again after 20 minutes, still high, taken again 10 minutes later, STILL high. So they sent me for an ultrasound (told you, they LOVE those here), then sent me in to talk to the doctor on call.

Hubby arrived just about the time I went in to speak with the doctor. Bottom line, doctor wanted us to go to the hospital to get fully checked including a blood test which they couldn't do at now 7pm at night in the Health Center. We arranged for the kids to stay at the friend's house who had come to my rescue and picked them up earlier. We stopped at the house, picked up their stuff, brought it to them, had some dinner at their house, then made our way to the hospital.

At the hospital, they hooked me up to the heartbeat monitor, put an IV in my arm and gave me a big bag of fluids, and eventually (after again sitting in the comfy lazyboy), took my bp again. The bp was down, but not great. And, well....given my history (had the high bp at the end of the pregnancies with the boys too)..........they've told me not to work anymore!

So, I'm on house arrest! haha At the moment, it's just for this week, but I forsee the doc telling me that I need to continue this path. At least I HOPE THAT'S WHAT SHE SAYS.....

So now the agenda for today has been.........relax, drink some water, nap on the couch,pee, read some email, do some laundry, pee again, sew a button, drink more water, sit again on the couch, blog, drink some more water......

Keeping fingers crossed that I can keep this whole thing under control.........at least I might be blogging more since now there's lots more time to fill! :)

SO ANNOYING...........

2009-01-20T06:17:00.002-05:00

ugh.........so my youngest has a cough and needs a "Breathing treatment" as we call it......Inhilatzia in hebrew, and Inhalation treatment in English, unless there's another name for it. We have the machine, we've been down this road before, I even have some meds left over from his last treatment in September. Only problem is:

I CAN'T FIND THE MACHINE!!!

I found the box that it came in, found the meds left over, and am freaking out now cuz I HAVE NO IDEA where the stupid machine is. It was next to the couch for a while until I faintly remember moving it cuz really, that's no place for it. BUT WHERE DID I PUT IT???

waaahhhh!!! so annoying.........

So close, yet so far away.........

2009-01-17T02:38:00.002-05:00

So this past week marked my 32nd week of pregnancy and I am now "in the 33rd". WOW! It's getting closer and closer.........and I'm beginning to freak out a bit. Hubby was in the US last week for business, got home on Tuesday night and has been the WORST sleeper ever since. He either sleeps SO soundly he snores like a buffalo, or he tosses and turns cuz he can't sleep, then gets up, goes to the living room quietly, sometimes comes back, still can't sleep, and goes out again. Last night around 5 I woke up to go to the bathroom (for the hundredth time) and noticed he was gone again. So then I couldn't sleep. UGH. (by the way, why is the spell check telling me that couldn't is spelled wrong...........isn't is also spelled wrong! huh? annoying.........ever heard of contraction words?)

Anyway, speaking of contractions, no, not having any yet, but definitely starting to freak out about the actual LOGISTICS of going into labor. Last night it was the freak out of having my water break in the middle of teaching a class....fun! Then there is the everlasting fear of going into labor at rush hour on a day that hubby has driven to work and then has an hour drive home, only for us to then have to drive another hour in traffic to the hospital. The stress is too much for me. Ideally I'll go into labor in the MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT (I keep imagining this so as to put my intentions out into the universe that this will happen). I'll call my friend who lives 2 buildings over, hubby and I will head out to the hospital and she'll come sleep on my couch for the hour/half hour it will take my in-laws to come here and be with the boys. But then that brings me back to the freak out of what to do once we GET to the hospital.........IF I go with hubby to park the car (which I most likely won't), then it's at least a 10 minute walk through the mini-shopping mall adjacent to the hospital. On the other hand, hubby COULD drop me off at the entrance to the hospital and I'd have to go in on my own and he would show up about 20 minutes later after parking and going through the mall etc. on his own. Of course this is no big deal, but it still freaks me out a bit.

And still, I go back to the thoughts of going into labor during the day..........aargh! Too stressfull to go there right now.

One good thing, the principal interviewed an English teacher to take my place while I"m on maternity leave. She's not an English speaker, but she has 16 years experience in actually teaching English here in Israel, and she is currently doing another teacher's maternity leave in another school which will END on March 5..........I'm due one week later! So for this, I am grateful, I can breathe a little easier, cuz that was one of my freakouts.

Anyway, that's enough freaking out for one day......I'm not even going to go NEAR the thoughts about the "situation" over in our part of the world. We hope and pray that peace is one day possible.

And with that, I'm done. Have a good day, thanks for listening!

The Situation.........

2009-01-04T14:00:00.000-05:00

THE SITUATION...........at the school today each homeroom teacher sat and spoke with her class on their level of understanding about the situation. I hadn't talked to the boys until tonight about it at all. I'm more of the school of thought that i'd rather keep them young and innocent as long as possible---why muck their brains up with things they can't understand. But other parents talk, and other parents don't censor what their kids see on tv or hear from the radio. so the school levels the playing field a bit by talking to the classes asking them what they know, and providing more truthful information that they can digest at their level of understanding.

My older son is in 2nd grade. When I asked him if they talked about things that are going on in our country, he responded with a brief "yeah, but I didn't really understand..." He then proceeded to mention something about falling trees and people on whom they fell. After talking to him for a while I realized the 'trees' that he thought were falling were the KASAMs, but he didn't know the word, so he somehow made an association of falling trees. The teacher asked if there were kids who had family members in the army, we do not. I reminded him of a couple of good friends who are soldiers whom we have "adopted", and we talked about their role in all of this. My little one, who is in kindergarten, remembered our soldier friends and wanted to know HOW they are protecting our country. I spoke with him briefly about it as well, and made sure to reassure both of them that the rockets that are falling are not going to reach us (we hope).

I felt sad discussing this with them, but relieved to offer the hope, and proud that one of the things they were each concerned with, were the people who ARE living within range. We said a little prayer, and hugged each other goodnight. I can't help thinking about the moms of the soldiers who tonight are longing for day way back when when their babies were 5 and 7 and needed just one more hug.........it's not easy living here at times like these..........not that I'm scared or that I feel like I'm in any physical danger. It's the toll that it takes on the emotions......wishing that this is as intense that my emotions need to get, and praying tonight especially for the safety and success of our boys....................amen.

Starting the last third............

2008-12-20T13:45:00.002-05:00

THE THIRD TRIMESTER has begun...........I'm feeling bigger, beginning to waddle, and well, if you ask my hubby, COMPLAIN is my middle name! It's fun being (finally) noticeably pregnant, but I'm T I R E D absolutely all of the time!

Not sure if it's all been fun and games............one student raised her hand ever-so-politely and thought she'd do me a favor the other day as she told me that one of the boys in the class announced my arrival by telling the class........."The fat one is coming!" nice, huh?

So I looked at him, took a deep breath and decided to go for it.......so I replied.........

"What? You've never seen a pregnant woman before???"

And the kid..........along with his 36 other classmates was like, "REALLY? WHAT? NO WAY!!" I mean really, they had NO CLUE!!! I mean, some of them had noticed that I was getting bigger, but they truly just thought I was getting fat! So, the cat is out of the bag in that class. It will be interesting to see if any of them talk and if I start to get questions in the other classes. I have no problem with them knowing, I just don't want any panic with the parents, ya know?

And with that....................HAPPY CHANUKAH!!!

Turkey Day.............

2008-11-27T03:55:00.002-05:00

So yes, it's Thanksgiving Day! And yes, I'm living in Israel, but why should that stop me? My mom is here visiting from the states and we are having 2 other families over this afternoon to give thanks with us! haha

So how different is it to prepare a Thanksgiving dinner in Israel vs. in America???

Well first off, if I remember correctly, at this time of the year when you walk into any American supermarket, you will find a special end of the aisle display of anything and everything that you might need to prepare your special dishes.............Cans of green beans, cans of cream of mushroom soup, Cans of the dried fried onions, bags of stuffing, stuffing mix, cans of cranberry sauce, cans of sweet potatoes, and on and on and on...........

Here, you walk into the grocery store/supermarket and you will start to see signs not of Thanksgiving fixin's, but instead signs that Chanukah is coming!! So, where did I begin the preparations??? Well, the first thing I did was ORDER THE TURKEY..........yes, ORDER it. Israelis don't cook and therefore don't buy WHOLE TURKEYS and the butcher in the 'super', so I had to order it. I picked it up this morning, feathers and all! Not ALL of the feathers, but enough that I stood at my kitchen counter just now plucking. ugh...........I didn't get them all, but I gave up with the justification that most people don't eat the skin as much these days anyway! haha

So let's see, what else did I buy? Fresh green beans, and a soup mix for the (non dairy) cream of mushroom soup, I DID find fried crispy onions, but they're not breaded like those ones from the Old Country. I bought FRESH sweet potatoes, some pineapples (in a can), and my mom brought the mini KRAFT marshmallows!!! (Israeli marshmallows suck!) My mom is making stuffing from scratch, and a friend is making pumpkin pies and mashed potatoes! haha, it's a STARCH FEST!!!

Right now I'm sitting with my feet up......today I'm 25 weeks pregnant (almost 6 months), and I'm tired. My little one woke me up at 5:30 today--he had wet the bed. ugh. Hubby took the boys with him last night to pick up something from the supermarket, and bought him a bottle of juice..........he drank the whole thing before bed! ugh

Anyway, I'm being beckoned to help in the kitchen................Happy Turkey Day to all those of you who celebrate or used to celebrate.

My heart goes out..........

2008-11-17T10:46:00.003-05:00

No mother or father should ever have to bury a child. It's just wrong, it's just not natural. Yet in the next day or so, a friend of mine will be burying her 16 year old son. I'm sick over it. His sister is flying back home from Israel tomorrow morning, a month earlier than planned, but rushing of course to be with the family as soon as possible. I can't stop thinking about them.

R. was a good guy. He wasn't an easy kid, wasn't into formal learning, or being told what to do, but he was a good soul. He used to dog-sit our dog, and would let him sleep with him in his bed. When we had to put the dog down, R. (then 13), sent a formal condolence card.......from the bottom of his heart. He was really sad. I hope Fonzie is waiting for him when he gets where he's going.....he deserves a good fuzzy hug.

I'm at a loss for words. My thoughts are spinning and I feel so sad for the family. Life sometimes is just not fair.........especially when death comes too early.

Please keep the T. family in your thoughts and prayers.........they'll need it.

What's in a name???

2008-11-12T14:00:00.002-05:00

Sooooooooooooo............wow, in my 6th month already, feeling the baby kicking, heartburn is a daily occurrence, and today I felt like I was already beginning to waddle! ugh. And there's still so much further to go. So close, yet so far away!

Anyway, we've briefly begun to speak about names. My grandmother passed away last year, so I'd like at least the middle name after her. I think we have settled on a middle name. The first name is a bit trickier...........I have a few ideas in mind, but I have a dilemma. I thought I'd ask the few of you who actually might be reading this to give me your thoughts....

So first off, fyi, no, I'm not telling you the name(s) I have in mind, it's not my thing. I don't like to tell people even once we've settled on a name...........not even my mom gets to know before baby is born! But here's my problem............the name I have in mind has a specific meaning, but has nothing to do with the time of year that the baby will be born, I just LIKE the name.

So, what do you think? Let me give you some examples of what I'm thinking of................. name in italics and meaning in parentheses.........

--Is it bad to name my kid Aviv (Spring) if he's born in December?
--What about naming a baby Stav (Fall) if she's born in May?
--And is it crazy to name someone Sivan, Nissan, or May (all names of hebrew months) if they are not actually born in THAT specific month?
--Is it necessary to only use names that are specific to certain holidays IF the child is born on or near that holiday???? ie: Esther (as in Queen of Purim); Judah (as in the Maccabees from the Chanukah story); Ilan (a tree--Tu'B'shevat); etc. etc.

There are more, but I'll spare you the baby babble......... oh, and I MAY or MAY NOT have included the name I'm thinking of here. Not important, I just want to know what the protocol is......

Looking forward to your thoughts............

Abracadabra............

2008-11-10T07:13:00.002-05:00

So my 7 (and a half!) year old is in a Magic Chug (after school activity). He came home today with this BIG BOX in which he had a deck of cards and one other little trick. This prompted the little one to go get the box of magic tricks that I think the big one had gotten for his birthday or something. Only at 5 he doesn't seem to GET that tricks don't just happen........

He picked up this mini plastic urn, opened it and showed me the green ball inside.

Then he said, "ABRACADABRA, THAT IT WILL GO TO MY POCKET!"

Then he looked in his pocket, and his other pocket, and could NOT find the ball............it was still of course inside the little plastic contraption...............

"AWWW MAN!!" he said, disappointed that the MAGIC didn't happen! hahaa too cute!

It's a constant battle..............ugh

2008-11-09T12:06:00.004-05:00

UGH, so yes, my kids are picky eaters..............we know this, we hate this, we try to resolve it, but I am constantly up against a wall.

Tonight, I had made shnitzel for the boys (ages 5 and 7). The younger one especially usually loves shnitzel and begs to have it every night. It's an easy thing to make for them too, seeing that I gave up making fresh shnitzel a while ago when they started refusing it, I now buy the frozen stuff, throw in the toaster and 10 minutes later, voila!

So tonight the little guy took one look at the shnitzel and started to cry that he didn't want shnitzel....he wanted plain spaghetti with red sauce. I had not made spaghetti, and I told him that he could have spaghetti TOMORROW after school, but tonight his choices were shnitzel or rice/beans (magadra), or tofu stirfry...... he moved his tantrum to the floor.

And just then hubby came home from work, and he cried L O U D E R !!! I calmly explained again what his options were and he continued to cry. I told him we were going to go take his shower then would come back and see if he changed his mind. He was still crying, didn't want to hear any of it, until.................yes, do you see this one coming..............hubby offers him an apple or a yogurt. The crying stopped, the tears stopped, and

YES< I WANT A YOGURT! he says, and I silently lost it.

I got up in protest, gave my own bowl of rice a bit of a harsh placement on the counter and huffed out of the room. HE JUST DOESN'T GET IT!!! How the Heck does he think these kids are EVER going to get it if 3 minutes after I put my foot down he's always going to be right behind me offering a better choice? Doesn't he get that not only will they think next time that NO does not mean NO, but that he has TOTALLY AND COMPLETELY undermined my credibility with them. Once again................I'm the bad guy who makes them cry and he's the good guy who rescues them.

It's a constant battle...........and for two people who are usually so in sync as people say, I'm so sick of his feeling guilty that he works so much.......get over it already and stop SPOILING THEM!

ok, thanks for listening to the vent.........

The HOT technician................

2008-10-30T09:29:00.003-04:00

Ok, in layman's terms, if you read a post title like this one, you may get visions of a beautiful specimen of a man, fit, trim, tanned and charming........entering your home, asking you what the problem is and telling you he has arrived to assist you.

WELL THINK AGAIN! The only reason I'm using the word HOT here is because the cable/telephone company is called HOT and this balding, grey, rotund technician with an attitude is the one who has graced my presence this afternoon.

He arrived minutes before three, because of course I was home since one, and they told me he would be here between 1 and 3. As he walked in, I began to say, "The problem we're having is..." Then he cut me off..........."I know what the problem is, just show me where the modem for the telephone and internet is."

OOOOO kay.......he MUST know more than me I thought, so I showed him. He began to fiddle with the wires, and I left him downstairs to do his thing. He came up about 20 minutes or so later and asked where the phone was. He picked it up off the couch, turned it on, and listened for the dial tone. "Here..." he said to me as he handed me the phone, "it's fixed."

"Wait," I said, "that wasn't the problem to begin with! We've always had a dial tone, and if you had let me explain when you walked in here, you would know that the problem is this....." and I called the house phone with the cell, it rang ONCE on both ends, then stopped. He gave a look of frustration, then had to go BACK up to the car (now for the second time, and we live 2 floors down.........poor guy, he's sporting a gut as big as mine!) for another bag of tools.

When he returned, he made me come downstairs with him, goes BACK over to the modem, unscrews something and screws some other technician's phone in it's place and had me call the house again. RING once, RING twice, RING three times............ he looked at me like, well?

So I started in on him again, "IF YOU WOULD HAVE LET ME EXPLAIN WHEN YOU WALKED IN HERE, WE ARE NOT RECEIVING CALLS, IT RINGS ONCE ON EACH SIDE THEN NOTHING. MY HUSBAND SPOKE WITH THE TELEPHONE COMPANY TECH AT LENGTH AND THEY SAID THAT IT SOUNDED LIKE A PROBLEM WITH THE SOCKET WHERE THE PHONE IS PLUGGED IN...." in israel, the sockets are not something you get in the hardware store for your phones like in the US, the telephone company installs it.

so back upstairs we went.

I showed him the socket in question, and STILL he wanted to know about something else...something to do with a place where all the wires come together.........huh?.........I showed him what I thought he might be talking about and I preached again saying that it seems like the problem is just with this one socket that maybe he should check it..........this one, here, just behind, but not fully blocked by the couch.

"Okay, move the couch and I'll check it." he tells me!

WTF??

"I'm pregnant, I'm not moving the couch, you'll have to move it." I tell him, proud of my new assertive Israeli attitude. So he moves the couch the 6 inches away from the wall (okay, maybe a little more than that, remember, he's not a small guy). And he proceeds to work as I sat and watched. He worked for 10 minutes and it still wasn't fixed and he said something about the plug downstairs that is blocked by the shelves in the playroom and we would need for someone to move the shelves.

"BUT THE PROBLEM IS NOT DOWN THERE, WHEN WE CALLED DOWN THERE, IT WORKED FINE, RIGHT? I'M TELLING YOU, IT'S THE SOCKET....WE MIGHT EVEN NEED A NEW ONE." I said, losing patience............I mean really, don't mess with a pregnant lady busta!!!

So he agreed, worked a bit more and voila! Would you look at that, after all that, he switched the socket, fiddled a bit more and FINALLY FINALLY FINALLY we have a normal ringing phone!

I must say, I'm proud of myself for speaking up, but what a pain in the ass............I've got an appt. in an hour to get my blood pressure taken and all the monthly check-up stuff........I think I"m going to go do some deep breathing for a bit to calm myself down! haha

by the way....................PREGNANCY UPDATE: doing well, 21 weeks today, and FINALLY FINALLY FINALLY people are starting to notice. Appt. this evening for some insight on some blood tests we took, but not placing too much emphasis on the severity of the results. Thinking positive and would LOVE LOVE LOVE positive vibes in return.................

Cautiously moving forward.........tfu tfu tfu

2008-10-01T11:42:00.003-04:00

So yes, moving forward...........it's that time of year again.....to move ahead, to look forward and to start all over again with a clean slate! Shana Tova, Happy New Year, wishing you all a Happy, and healthy one filled with just the right amount of challenges to keep you smiling but on your toes! :)

As for me, I'm doing well (tfu tfu tfu). Had an ultrasound a week ago where (again tfu tfu tfu), the doctor had nothing but good stuff to report. Baby is growing well, has all the necessary parts and organs, bones are looking good, facial structure, brain, bladder, kidneys and so on and so on. It was amazing to hear the report and to get a sneak peek behind the scenes.

Something new for me.............with the previous 2 pregnancies with my boys, we did not know what we were having. We asked to keep it a secret, even though the ultrasound techs always said they knew. We were surprised right up to the end, and I even made sure while in labor when they did an u/s to check (one of them, don't remember which), I was screaming........"don't tell me the sex!!!" haha

But with this one, we decided we wanted to know! Already, since announcing I'm pregnant, people have added in their comments: "So, do you think this one's a girl?" "Trying for your girl, huh?" "Wouldn't it be great if this one is a girl?" AARGH!!!! I figured that if I wasn't going to find out, I would surely go crazy before the birth with all of the questions!!! On the one hand, if I found out it's a boy, I could shut them up before the questions start, and if on the other hand it's a girl, then they could just rephrase! I think psychologically I just NEEDED to know!!!

So yes, if you're wondering, i'm stalling! haha Are you wondering if I found out??? Well, I did, and well........................DRUMROLL PLEASE................................

Let's just say, when I told my boys what we're having, I bought them each a big bottle of PINK STRAWBERRY MILK and told them they're going to have to get used to having some PINK around the house!!!! :) So yes, it's a GIRL!

At least, that's what the doctor says............so why am I so cautious??? The doctor (not u/s tech, DOCTOR) said that she didn't see boy parts, and that it was a girl. It's just so unbelievable to me!!! I've been given a gift that I'm not used to getting, and it's just so surreal! I'm scared, I've heard stories about ultrasounds that were wrong, people who thought they were having a girl, bought everything, decorated the room, and bam! penis! So yes, I'm cautious. Then again, this is Israel, I've already had more ultrasounds than I can count, so i'm sure I'll have more. There WILL be more opportunities to see HER, to be reassured that SHE is a SHE.

For now, I am just relying on faith, living with my gift, and visualizing every moment what it's going to be like to have a little girl with my boys' face on her! haha It truly is a dream come true!

Never thought I'd call myself shy........

2008-09-22T08:22:00.002-04:00

But I think that's what I've been.........would you believe I am in my 16th week, and I haven't spread the word around the school yet? It's bizarre to me. I've never in my life considered myself SHY! But that's what I feel, a shyness about telling people. There are no superstitions attached, no real reasons, other than it's too much attention to call to myself to just come out with it.

I told 2 people today though! And I must admit, it was liberating! One teacher who is quite quiet herself told me that it looked like I was losing weight.......I laughed and said, the opposite! I then said I'm gaining up front here...and pointed to my growing belly.......would you believe she didn't get it!! I then just came out and told her I was pregnant. It was a strange feeling, to be working side by side these people day in and day out, and to suddenly say, "oh by the way...." But like I said, it felt good.

Then just now i had to arrange to be able to leave early on Wednesday........I have what I think is going to be the BIG ultrasound (we MAY be able to find out what this little thing is growing inside of me..........and if possibly I'll be able to FINALLY one day put my braiding talents to good use!). So anyway, I had to arrange to leave early and it works out that that day my last hour is a half class that I split with the class' homeroom teacher. Soooooo, not that you guys REALLY care about these details, but I told her why I needed to leave, wrote it in an email.

So I feel good, like I've OUTED myself! hee hee. I can finally breathe at school, let the belly out, and dress more pregnant! silly..........but sometimes feelings are.........

Random thoughts..........

2008-09-07T13:21:00.002-04:00

>> and I quote my 5 year old: "But Emah, if I take even one more bite of food I'm going to have a belly ache. It's not me, it's my body.........." 30 seconds later......"Can I still have ice cream??"

haha

>>BRUCHIM HABAIM (welcome) to our friends P & E and their 2 little guys who are arriving tomorrow morning on the NBN flight!!! I wish I could skip work and meet them at the airport, but it just isn't feasible.

>>still am not "LOOKING PREGNANT" ......ugh. It's annoying. I'm mostly looking a little fluffier. I think in hindsight when coworkers find out I am they'll say that it makes sense that I was porking up! haha , but for now, people don't know. I'm not one to announce, and the people I have told are actually really good at keeping it a secret even though I didn't ask them too! pretty funny.

>>and that's that. I A M T I R E D !!! hubby is having friends over to watch some football games (American football), and I am retiring to my room................g'nite!!

Drumroll Please........

2008-08-27T16:05:00.002-04:00

So ages ago I mentioned something about having a secret....sorry, no link to post, "B'emet, Ain li koach!" (translation: Really, I don't have the energy to...).

Anyway, for the 3 of you who read this blog (oh, and my newest readers Therapydoc and Goodgirl), so for the 5 of you (that is if the 2 newbies ever came back). Anyway..........where was I???

OH yes, my secret! haha...........Well, let's see, how do I put this..........something is in the oven and I'm not cooking; I got knocked but didn't get hurt; and then there's some British saying that has something to do with duff, but that just reminds me of Homer Simpson's favorite beer, Duff! haha

So yeah, I'm preggers!!! 12 weeks now, feeling good, thank g-d, have seen the little peanut a few times, have seen the heart beating, the arms waving, and well, I"m just so darn grateful!

Anyway........I've thank goodness been feeling ok. I had some morning sickness here and there, but didn't throw up at all. I had one really really close call, where an aunt had put on some RETCHED perfume. I smelled it and decided to stay away from her that night. Problem is, she hugged another aunt who arrived, then that aunt hugged me.............and UGH! I had to run to the bathroom, eyes teared up, dry heaves, etc. it was AWFUL!!! I tried washing my face, my neck, my hands, didn't work. That night, when back at my mom's heart, I even stuck my head under the sink!!! yuck.

Other than that, I've been okay. I've told my principal, asst. principal, and 2 friends at work. I'm not one to announce to all....they'll figure it out soon enough.

Anyway, time to hit the sack..........I'm soooo tired! I'm not working tomorrow, which is good, but there is tons of housework to do. I'm looking for a cleaner, but haven't been able to find one. bummer. Keep your fingers crossed for me!

Back soon.........

A thought from ages ago....

2008-08-24T03:47:00.005-04:00

So in May or June of LAST year, 2007, we went with another family on a fabulous trip to a resort in Turkey. This is a rite of passage for Israelis, and having been here almost a year at that point, we felt it was time.

Along with a whole plane load of Israelis, we boarded the airplane for the 2 or 3 hour ride to Turkey. Once there, we were all distributed into our various buses that would take us to the pre-arranged hotels. Our bus was filled with about a dozen and a half of us, excited and ready to go! Only first the driver thought he would let us sweat it out a bit first. And sweat, I must say, ended up being the theme of the weekend! But the driver had water for sale!!!.........but only for Turkish money, which none of us had! whatever.

Anyway, we finally arrived at our beautiful hotel, at the same time that another bus of some other nationality (Germans maybe if my memory serves me right). Instead of having us all line up and dealing with us one by one in order, they collected all of the passports and then had to organize them, and then began to call names........but not to check us in..........to give us a check in form.........then you returned it...........then waited more...........then they organized some more...........then they finally began calling names one by one to check us all in. WHEW! It was exhausting!

Once we finally arrived in our room, we were pleasantly surprised...we had asked for a family room, and were given a room that was more like a mini townhouse.........our room was on the entrance floor, then there were steps going down into another room for the kids. Unfortunately, our friends, who asked for the same type of room, did not get it. I felt guilty for a second, but they managed.

The hotel was fabulous..........the water slides in addition to the pools were the highlight, and the kids had a BLAST! There was also a cool gameroom, and a mini bowling alley! We were thrilled.
EXCEPT..............(you knew there had to be an except, right?)

There was no air conditioning in the Dining Room OR the hallways OR common areas of the hotel! Picture getting all showered after a day at the pool, and primping up for dinner (ok, so I don't primp that much, but others do!), and walking out of your room only to be hit by scorching heat! ugh. Then, you walk into the Dining Room thinking you'll get your reprieve, but noooooo, instead, you feel like you are on the menu, being cooked right along with the chicken! ugh. It was awful!

I think one of the only areas that were air conditioned was the lobby! Oh, and the little shops each had their own a/c units.....to lure us in I suppose! Well, it worked, and we spent quite a bit of time wandering in and out of the shops just to get a break.

In one shop, i got more than just a break from the heat, I got a good laugh as well. It was the everything shop........you know the kind, where they sell everything from gum to cigarettes, to condoms to barbie dolls. Or, in this case, FULAH DOLLS! Have you ever seen these things? I was so amused by the selection of Fulah Dolls.........complete with Berka for your daytime wear, and for the time when your Fulah doll is feeling a bit more daring...............a sleeveless evening gown and high heels!!! I was cracking up. I tried to get a picture, but unfortunately my camera phone was acting up. BUT, DON'T FRET...........YOU'RE IN LUCK............it just so happens that I found a pic online. So here my friends, I give you......................Fulah! haha enjoy! And oh, make sure that when you book YOUR trip to Turkey that you check on the status of the a/c in the Dining Room of your hotel, it makes all the difference! :)

Home at last.....

2008-08-22T19:53:00.003-04:00

....but still not sleeping through the night! ugh.

So yes, it's 3am here and for the third night in a row (or did I sleep last night? I truly can't remember). Anyway, I'm up. ugh. I'm falling asleep at like 10 dead to the world then at 1:30ish I get up to pee and can't fall back asleep. Not fun.

Anyway..........being HOME..........yes, it feels good. Yes, there is SOOO much to do; hubby started on a rampage of cleaning, organizing, and purging. Then I came in with 6 more suitcases of crapola to add to the mix! ugh. But I've been productive.........cleaned out my closet, replaced the old stuff with new stuff (yay!), and even threw out (for donation) tons of my stuff and the boys' stuff too! I went through the playroom, packed up bags of toys that are either off the playlist, or had broken pieces, or were just stupid in my opinion! haha I made room for new toys, and did some dusting while I was at it.

So i should be tired, right? How is it that sleeping 3 hours was enough for my body to wake up and be like, "ok, i'm done!" aargh.

Anyway, not much else to report. OH, quick comment, no I didn't go to the International JBlogger's conference. It was the night we returned home. Plus, as I told Aliyah06, I have this wierd thing about the fact that my real life peeps don't know I blog. I have people I met through blogging, and I have 2 friends who by a fluke "found" this blog, and that's ok, but I don't advertise it, or even talk about it to others who have mentioned stuff about blogging to me. It's wierd. I told her maybe next year I'll revisit the idea. I was flattered to hear though that my blog made it on the slideshow! And I was grateful to Ill call Baila who gave me a shoutout and noticed I wasn't there.

okee dokee..........time to call it quits for the night. send me some good sleeping vibes please! I'll be back soon. Teacher's return to work on Monday, then the kids start up again the following Monday. All very exciting...but exhausting and time consuming!

Preparing for Re-entry........

2008-08-18T19:44:00.003-04:00

So yeah, that's what the space shuttle says when it is preparing to return to Earth after time spent in space. And well, yeah, that's kind of how I feel.

Tomorrow we are set to fly home to Israel. We have been visiting in Florida for almost a month now and I'm tired. Tired of the shopping, tired of the fake smiles, tired of the people with whom I really don't connect anymore, and tired of not being HOME. I miss my hubby, my dog, my friends, my bed....I miss speaking hebrew, going to the pool, and having shabbat dinners with family and friends who feel like family. I miss my kids running in a park and I miss the dry weather. I miss my kids being busy and not being addicted to TV and the computer cuz it's too hot to play outside. again, I miss HOME.

It's hard, we've had a wonderful time, a fabulous trip, some great visits with friends and family, and my mom and her boyfriend have been great hosts. But I'm done. My mom is starting to get on my nerves where I can't shake it, and as I sit here typing I hear my kids talking in the other room where one is crying that he misses his Abbah.

So yes, we are all preparing for re-entry, preparing to get back into our lives, and hoping that it lives up to the expectations of being HOME.........cuz I've missed it, and I hope it's missed me.

The broad is Abroad......

2008-08-08T08:10:00.003-04:00

haha.........so yes, the broad (that's me) has been abroad, and I'm still abroad. We left about a week after my last post to come to the Old Country to visit the family friends and of course, Target. We've got another week and a half or so left of our trip, and all is going well.

I've shopped till I dropped, eaten till I popped, and confirmed that I am glad I don't live here anymore. I'm bored when watching tv....the commercials drive me insane! Everything here is so BIG and the cars are so SHINY, and well, it just doesn't feel like 'home' anymore. It's all the place I used to live. I miss Israel, I miss speaking hebrew, and I hate that my children are so into the buying and buying and things and things. It hurt me terribly when my 7 year old told me he'd rather live here because it's easier to buy things and that there's more for kids to buy. He's also soooooo much more addicted to TV. I had muted the tv to talk to them for a minute this morning........"wait emah, it's my favorite commercial!" he said when I muted it.......of all things, the Cocoa Puffs commercial. ugh.

Anyway.........hubby is in Texas this week on business and will be flying in tonight to visit us for the weekend. The kids don't know, and yes they are going to pee in their pajamas when they wake up and see him tomorrow morning! I'm going to try to get it on camera!

And that's that. OH, and my little one is 5 years old today! He made sure to measure himself next to his brother and sure enough he has grown! haha He's still as grouchy as ever, so I better go get some breakfast going for them. Their favorite........frozen waffles toasted with fruit and a bit of syrup on top! mmm.....to be a kid again!

So there's my story, thanks for missing me if you did..........I'll be back before you know it with a final update and the start of the school year upon our return to Israel. For now, this will have to do..........good enough for ya Baka? :)

Keeping Secrets.........

2008-07-15T02:02:00.002-04:00

It's always so strange to me when I am supposed to be keeping a secret. It's hard enough having something on your mind that someone else is not supposed to know, but it seems like DAVKA (like murphy's law or in spite, or just because) this is when people ask questions that would give away the secret if answered truthfully. So then you need to tell more 'stories' or lies to get around answering the truth, and the secret grows. I don't understand why we need to keep secrets, why it's ok for one person (me) to know something, but it's not ok for someone else to know.

But for now, a secret is a secret, and I've given my word. But thanks for letting me vent a bit about it cuz as you can tell it's not an easy one to keep!

Have a good day!

...........I'm going to hand in my driver's license form so that they can give me another form so that I can call an instructor to have a lesson so he can schedule a test..........Isn't red tape fun?

So UNmotivated........

2008-07-13T04:19:00.002-04:00

UGH.......I'm sick just thinking about the fact that I'm SITTING ON MY A$$ on the couch when there are a thousand things I should be doing......

the kitchen is a mess..........dishes need to be taken out of the dishwasher and put away, and the dirty ones in the sink need to be put in the dishwasher. So difficult! Counters need to be cleaned, and I need to do a clean-out of the fridge too. AARGH...
Laundry............NEVER-ENDING and so damn annoying! There are clean/dry clothes on the line, some in laundry baskets already folded, and they just need to all be put away! And please, let's not start on the dirty clothes that have yet to be washed........ick....
hmmm....what else am I procrastinating?? Ahhh, my driver's license......I was supposed to take care of it before being here a full year. Didn't do it. We are here now for 2 years and I know I'm going to be royally screwed when I go down and deal with it, but I have no choice and in the long run, it may not even end up being that big of a deal. (keeping fingers crossed). on my list to do this week.
GROCERIES.........yup, amazingly enough, we need more food in this house. how does that always happen?

All of this stuff to do and YES< i'm still sitting on the couch in my gym clothes from this morning. I've been home now for 2 hours just watching tv and playing on the computer. LAME!!!

OK, going to get up and go shower and get dressed. Maybe that will help. Send me your motivational vibes, I need them sooooooooooo much!!!

Keeping Busy in the Summertime.....

2008-07-09T06:54:00.002-04:00

Whew! I am tired! It's only 2pm and I haven't done much of anything today, but I'm tired and oh so busy! haha

ahhhh..........the joyous sounds of a teacher on summer break!

This morning, I dropped the kids of at their summer camps, stopped off at the Health Building to take care of something, and was home by 8:20. I've been going to the gym each morning at that time but decided to pass today so I could come home and clean....

I vacuumed the carpet and prepped the floors for sponga, did a couple of loads of wash, did the dishes, and of course utilized the couch for a bit here and there and in between! We wouldn't want it to get lonely now would we?

Had to rush out of the house at 12:45 to go pick up the kids.....home by 1:15, with a friend and minus a boy. Love the families we can do swaps with........I leave a kid, take a kid! Not as awesome as taking 2 kids to 2 families and leaving them both, but I felt I should be with kids at least some point during the day!

The 'laws are due to return this afternoon. They come in around 4:15ish or so. Thought about hopping on the train and popping over to meet them, but it's just so hot.....plus the kids don't even know they're coming back early. They're not supposed to come till next week or so.

And that's that..........I'm off now to go switch some more loads of laundry. The towels are looking dry and a load just finished in the wash that needs to be hung up.

Hope you're having an uneventful relaxing summer too!!

ANNIVERSARIES..........

2008-07-05T02:14:00.002-04:00

So yes, that's in plural................

18 years ago from last Thursday, on July 3, 1990, hubby and I met.....we were in college, and met at a place called Joe's Deli in Gainesville, FL. We went to see the public firework display that night, went together with friends afterwards to sit and talk and eat at a pub, spent the next day together at a lake swimming, and the rest is history!

10 years ago today.............hubby and I got married! We were married in a synagogue in Ft. Lauderdale, FL that is now a church! We had an incredible wedding, and the two of us (and everyone there) just had SO MUCH FUN! We had found an Israeli band in the area and they were amazing. They kept us all dancing and dancing......my feet were swollen the next day for sure as we boarded our plane for our honeymoon to Greece, Turkey, Israel, Germany, and of course Amsterdam! haha

2 years ago today.............we boarded yet another plane, only this time as a family with 2 boys in tow...and made ALIYAH! yup, we have been living here for 2 years. In that time we have made an amazing amount of friends, gotten jobs, the boys have learned to speak hebrew fluently, I've improved mine, we've bought a house, moved to a new area, made more new friends, etc. etc. etc.

~~~Here's to the Anniversaries of our lives..........it's so much fun to celebrate good things!!!~~~

Ugh.........CALGON, TAKE ME AWAY!!!

2008-06-09T17:11:00.003-04:00

I must preface this all by telling you that my hubby is in the US for 2 weeks. He left this past Thursday night, and will be back a week from this coming thurs. I've been trying to keep the boys busy during the holiday weekend, but it hasn't been easy. We spent Fri. and Sat at the pool, but not since then........

Ya see, my big guy hasn't been feeling well.......it's nothing serious, but he's had some fever on and off since Sat. It seems to be his typical way of getting sick...lethargic, tired, fever. Sat we had been at the pool and he seemed fine, but when we got home I realized it. Sun. we relaxed all day, went to the friends' for dinner (don't tell them)...he was feeling better and we needed to get out of the house. Had fever when we got home, and again was up at 5 am with the headache. Today again, we took it easy, did go to friends' for brunch (again, don't tell---I'm awful, taking a sick kid everywhere!). then we relaxed more, and then went to a movie and a fancy dinner at Burger King. The fever was actually down when we got home, but at 11 he got up and the fever was up.

He took some tylenol (reluctantly) and went back to bed. About 10 minutes later, he came up to me saying he was FREEZING. He laid down on top of me, I covered him with a blanket and was rubbing his back. I asked if anything else hurt, he said no. A min. or so later I told him I was going to take him down to his room and he suddenly said his throat and stomach DID hurt.

Then he made a funny face, then a funny sound, and.......

(do you see where this is going?).......................

.....
.........
.............
.............
.............
............
........
..........YUP.............HE PUKED HIS GUTS OUT ALL OVER ME!!! (STOP laughing!!!)

So yes, we got ourselves cleaned up, he stood in a warm shower for a good 10 minutes while my little guy helped get pj's for his big brother (why should he stay asleep and miss the fun?), and now at midnight, they are both back in bed (and hopefully for good).

Thank goodness there is no school tomorrow. so much for his Water Day at the tzaharon kaytana day (1 day camp for holidays at his after care). poor guy. Poor me. Glad hubby is having fun without us........grrr....

ok, thanks for listening. keep your fingers crossed that tomorrow this will all be over......

LOTS to do and think about today....

2008-05-26T23:35:00.003-04:00

So I've got a substitute teacher working for me today. as I've got a long list of worries and such to deal with today..............

doctor's appt. for my older son at 8am that sparked the day off (thank you!)
need to go to the office of MAS HACHNASA....anybody out there who lives here knows that's not fun...it's the TAX offices. You see, when I worked for 3 months last year teaching English speakers I had to open up a file with them. So, stupidly I assumed that the file would close when I started working for Misrad Hachinuch (the school board), but it didn't. And they keep sending me all sorts of mail telling me (I think) that they want money. So off I go to deal with it.
My mom is having surgery today. She has Crohn's disease and needs to have her intestines resectioned or something like that. It's hard not being there.
Maybe if there's time I'll go and apply to start the process of getting my driver's license? ugh. pit in my stomach.
hearing test for younger son in the afternoon.

ugh, I think it's just the intensity of each thing that gets me. KEEPING POSITIVE, KEEPING POSITIVE.................

UPDATE: it's already 3:30 pm and believe it or not, I survived. But if you must know, yes, I cried in the tax office. I was so overwhelmed by the paperwork and the woman downstairs gave me a form I couldn't fill out and when I asked for help she told me it wasn't her job and sent me upstairs to the 3rd floor. I didn't know exactly where, just knew 3rd floor. So I went in the first open door I saw, a nice man sent me across the hall where I went in another open door, explained my story and was told to sit down. She was nice and all, but when she looked up my info on the computer and I told her I only worked in that job 3 months as an "Independent", and I'm not doing that anymore, she said, "But you are independent" and I'm not sure why that should be offensive, but it made me cry!!!! There was another desk in the same office and 2 other women who work there. They were all so nice, and I played the dumb OLAH card (new immigrant). I just freak out when I have big long documents and things in Hebrew that I cannot understand.

Soooooooo.............she sent me first down the hall to change my address. She had the same computer in front of her and the address change lady didn't even ask for any identification or anything special, so whatever. it's changed, most importantly. THEN......she sent me to the 4th floor where I was to tell them that I needed to cancel something (I had to write it down so I would know exactly what to say). I made it up there, walked into another open office door and the man smiled when I misprounounced the word! So he sent me down the hall and I was passed off to a religious man who looked like he really didn't want to be bothered (nothing to do with him being religious, just setting the stage).

Soooooooooooo................Itzik was da' bomb!!! (not the best thing to say in this country, huh?) Anyway, he was so helpful, made some calls for me, made it so I don't owe any money, and even helped me write a letter to another lady on the 3rd floor asking if I can be excused from filling out a form in which one needs to declare their house and possessions! :) wierd. So I brought that form back down to Itzik's friend on the 3rd floor and I saw the woman who made me cry when I was leaving. "Hey, why are you back here? Is everything ok? Did you go upstairs? Did you get the address changed? Can I do anything else for you?" she was so sweet!

And that my friends, was an experience! And no, I didn't make it to Talpiot to turn in the form to get my driver's license. ugh, I need to go call a sub now for Thursday, we're going camping and my sub cancelled on me.

never a dull moment.

underWHERE?

2008-05-21T07:54:00.002-04:00

So, are you ready for a laugh? I finally made it back into the gym this past week for the first time in about 6 months ! (no, that's not the whole reason for laughing, although it definitely qualifies!). Anyway...I took all of my school books out of my school backpack and put them into a different tote to try something different for a few days and to see if it would work using my school backpack for my gym bag.

Well, 2 days later, and the tote was a miserable thing to carry, just too heavy and uncomfortable to carry with all of the things I have. So...I switched the books back into the backpack and found a different bag to use as a gym bag.

so what's so funny? you ask....

Well........fast forward to today, 2 or 3 days of being back with my school books in my backpack and in the middle of a class I'm reaching around in my bag to find a pen or something............and I feel something soft. A tissue? My kalmar? (pencil case), my scarf left over from the winter?

NOPE...........it was my UNDERWEAR left over from when I took that bag to the gym! ugh. What a nut I am........luckily I didn't pull it out before I realized what it was! AARGH.......

I think I'll add new school backpack to my list of things to buy this summer in the US. For now, I need to be more careful where I drop my drawers! :) hee hee

What will his mother say???

2008-05-19T15:00:00.005-04:00

So, the few of you who read this blog on a regular basis know that I often tell stories about how my boys manage to get themselves into sticky situations (yes, sometimes stickier and stinKier than others, but NO this is not a poop story, well not really, keep reading...).

So as you may or may not remember, I am an English teacher at the same school where my son attends First Grade, Kitah Aleph. He's a sweet, kind boy, loved by all, not just because he'
s my son, but because he's really a good kid (and yes I am biased.)

Anyway, I was sitting in the Teacher's Room today (aka Teacher's Lounge), and it just so happens I was talking to my son's teacher. I was telling her a story about one of his friends who, let's just say, doesn't always make the best choices. Unfortunately, my son tends to be hurt by this 'friend' who at the drop of a hat decides he is BROGES with him (not friends). So, yes, there we sat. She's not a big talker, and I think she often is cautious to keep her distance from me so as not to cross the parent/teacher line even though I am a teacher in the school. It's fine though.

So anyway, in walks another of the first grade teachers bringing a child to find his teacher......the one I was talking to. And can you guess who the child was??? YUP, my little man............with a look of panic on his face, and HANDCUFFS on his wrists! I think my initial reaction was to think that it was some sort of a joke, and I yelled out, "WHAT WILL YOU TELL HIS MOTHER??" Well, many of the teachers in the room laughed, cuz they knew that he is my son, but the poor gal who brought him in did not. She gave me a look as if to shut me up, then I jumped up and said, "I'm his mother!" I don't think she believed me!!!

So yes, long story short, this "friend" had brought the cuffs to school and was showing my son how he could put them on and take them off without the key. Then he wanted to put them on my son......my son tells me that he did not want the kid to put them on him, but the kid did it anyway. So, another teacher and I broke the cuffs in pieces in order to break my son out of them. I gave my son a big hug, the teacher promised him a candy and some hand cream back in the classroom, and he went back out to the playground to play.

At the end of the day I saw the "friend," and his first response when he saw me was, "Susie, I didn't mean it, I didn't mean it!" Whatever. I gave him a mini speech about how it was very dangerous, yadda yadda yadda.

Later this evening, I got a call from his mother........she called to apologize, and proceeded to tell me how her son came home and didn't tell her what happened. Instead he just told her that they broke........but then the teacher called her. The teacher had explained to her what had happened, so the kid told his mom that my son had WANTED to put the cuffs on, even though the story I heard is the opposite. I told her this and she lightheartedly told me that she didn't think that the cuffs would be a problem........

huh?

So then she made some sort of comment about how we probably could have just opened them with a safety pin or something. It was then that I explained to her that first off, the cuffs were tight on his hands and second that the kid had already been stuck in them for a good 10 minutes or so and we were under a bit of pressure to get him out. It hurt him and he was scared. So we broke them off of him. I also told her about her son's reaction when he saw me and how he was all guilty and saying he didn't mean it etc, and her reaction..........."Oh, how cute!"

WTF??

So then I got strong...........and told her that I had already talked to my son about how when someone wants him to do something that he doesn't want to do that he needs to stand his ground.....no means no and all that. Then I said, "I think you need to talk to your son about how when someone doesn't want to do something and they tell him no that NO means NO and that he should not try to make other kids do things they don't want to do. " And with that, as if sent by someone upstairs, my younger son ran up to me (we were standing outside of a store) and started screaming......................

"EMAH, I NEED TO MAKE A DOODIE!!!"

and I was saved from having the conversation go any further. hahaha

2008-05-11T09:33:00.002-04:00

...........there's a mom of a little girl in my son's class who is starting to show. We were together with another few moms at a play place 6 weeks ago (before my miscarr.) and I overheard her telling the other mom that she was expecting. They didn't know I was.

it's hard to see her.

luckily the FOUR prego teachers at my school have all given birth, as has the prego neighbor, but still it's the little reminders........

but I know I have what to look forward to........and before I know it, but still. I don't think hubby gets it either. frustrating.

Back into the swing of things......

2008-05-02T02:50:00.004-04:00

Wanted to first off thank you all for your good wishes and thoughts. I'm doing well, have recovered well, and am moving on. Don't get me wrong, I still think about the what-ifs now and again but I know that what-ifs in life don't get us anywhere, so I'm quite practical in that thinking.

Today we have a big celebration taking place..........my big guy is having his SEVENTH birthday party! aargh. HOW did that happen? My sweet sweet soul who was only just yesterday ONE year old and wearing his first pair of real shoes as we walked in the park together. I'll never forget that day, hubby had some studying to do, so me and the little guy went to the store together. I knew we had to stay out of the house a bit so we took our time. Got the new shoes (the cute white Stride Rite ones that were a bit like a high top to support his ankles).......and then I decided to take him for a WALK. His face lit up as we walked on the sidewalk in the park. He was so proud and so happy to be free! I remember regretting that I had forgotten my camera, but instead I made a point to tell myself that this is a memory that really didn't need a camera, and I was right!

So we've got a juggler guy coming to teach the kids how to juggle with these big batons, how to spin plates on sticks and more! Then he'll do a show. I think he is coming with a friend, but I didn't clarify that. We'll see. I hope so, but if not, it's ok. They're only charging me like 300 shekels, so it's beyond reasonable!

I made the cake...........funny how in the US we always used to buy the cakes, and people tried to always outdo each other with the cool cakes that they ordered from Publix or in our case, often Sam's club. Here though, I make the cakes, and I think the kids appreciate it that much more. My little one will be turning FIVE when we are visiting in Florida this summer. I asked him if he would rather we just order his cake......... "No Emah, I want you to make my cake in Gramma's kitchen!" So I will make his cake.

Anyway, I'm off to go hang laundry, do dishes, put away clean laundry, and finally, to search for the charger for the video camera. G-d forbid we keep anything where we could find it in this house, right? AARGH.

yup, I'm definitely back into the swing of things..........

Spring is time for renewal....

2008-04-18T09:55:00.002-04:00

As we are about to start the holiday of Pesach (Passover), it reminds me of the whole thought of renewal, symbolic of spring, and starting over etc. etc. Well, for those of you who may have been wondering why I haven't written in a while, there is a reason. In the beginning weeks of my waning blogging in the last couple of months, it was for a good reason. I was in the beginning stages of pregnancy.....exhausted, excited, and thinking of nothing but. I couldn't blog about it cuz we weren't telling yet. Just WE (hubby and I) knew. We had planned on telling close family after the first doctor's visit, and then the world after Pesach, which would be almost the end of first trimester.

Unfortunately (you see where this is going, don't you?), I lost it in the 7th week. The day before my first doc's visit, something just wasn't right. She confirmed that it was shakey, but it wasn't gone. Within an hour of the visit however, I knew too well what we had feared. I was devastated, cried for a good part of the next day or two, and just tried to rest as much as I could. The doc confirmed what I knew the next evening, and sent me home to wait it out.

And here I am a week later. All of the preg. symptoms are gone, but of course the hormones still rise and fall and catch me when I least expect it. I try to look at it rationally, and I know there is a positive side to see.........at least it was early being one of the main thoughts. And the other is that yes, we can still try again, and we will, with a renewed sense of being, with a clear head, and with an appreciation for how extremely precious and wonderful creating life can be.

On that note, Chag Pesach sameach to you all, Happy Passover.......B'shana habaa b'Yerushalayim! Next year in Jerusalem!!!

And while we're on the subject...........

2008-04-01T12:47:00.002-04:00

Sorry to keep on the subject, but I need help. Or really, my dog needs help. There might be a support group in the world for this, but it's doubtful. We're feeling very alone.

Hi, I'm Emah, OUR DOG EATS POOP.

There, I said it. I feel better, especially since I can hear you all in unison saying, "Hi Emah, Welcome, thanks for sharing."

But seriously, we are thrilled that she is finally pooping more outside which means we have less poop to wrap up and carry to the garbage, but ugh, it's just soooooooooooo gross.

I actually put toothpaste in her mouth the other day cuz it was so unbearable.

Any suggestions on how to stop this? please?????????

A NOT so lovely afternoon at the park...and a new way to RECYCLE plastic bags...

2008-03-27T11:36:00.002-04:00

Hi friends (all 3 of you...) Sorry I haven't written in a while. With Purim, and just well, the craziness of life going on, I haven't had the head to sit and write anything. And haven't had the inspiration........until now. I wanted to tell you about my afternoon.........

So, I had this wonderful plan to pick the boys up after school, to bring the dog with us, and to go to a park. It's a gorgeous day! Anyway, I always forget to take my boys' bathroom schedules into account when I make plans like these. I mainly figured that I'll bring them for an hour of fun, and then they would come with me to the grocery store to "help". I even wrote up a LIST for each of them, Aviv's just words, and ilan's has words and pictures.

Well, needless to say, we are back at home. Here's what happened...........We were innocently playing at a park the boys call the "Exercise Park" cuz it was designed essentially for grown-ups....there are different equipment that are essentially exercise machines. There are big stickers on each piece of equipement that say ONLY OVER AGE 14, but really, 90% of the people I see there are children.

So there we were, playing happily. I even got my fat a$$ on one of the psuedo bikes and was pedaling up a mini sweat for about 2 minutes. (YES< I am THAT out of shape). Suddenly my big guy, who is almost 7 tells me that he has to poop! My initial reaction is to look for wipes so that he can go in the bushes (yes, we've done this numerous times), but I didn't have any wipes with me, not even a used tissue. So I told them we needed to go straight home. We live 2 minutes from the park and could have been ok. "No, no, no, I'll hold it in, I'm ok!" he tells me. And since this is a kid who doesn't usually hold it in, I figured it mustn't be that bad.

Until 3 minutes later, "Emah! I think I need to go again!"

Me: That's it boys, let's go. This is ridiculous!
A: no, I don't want to leave, I'm ok. I'm NOT leaving.
Me: Ok, 2 more minutes. (stupid, stupid me)

And no, we didn't last 2 more minutes until he was screaming again,

A: EMAH.......I'm going, help! (and no, not going as in leaving the park...)
Me: I'm comiing, go over to the bushes..........

So he runs over to the bushes, which were on the other side of a cement bench. He stands up on the bench, pulls down his pants, hangs his rear end over the bushes, and proceeds to give them a feeding of a lifetime!!! I'm freaking out by this point trying not to laugh, cry, or scream!

I run over to him to assess the damage.......and it's not good. The explosion had started before the pants came down, and thus the evidence had travelled down the leg and all over the crocs (yes, thank goodness he was wearing crocs today!)

I stood there in shock for a minute truly unsure of what to do. I helped him out of his pants thinking maybe something was spared.........but no. Then, my brilliant child, who had just shat his poor little guts out in public on a bush, had a wonderful idea............

A: Emah, maybe if you have a plastic bag we can cut holes in it for my legs and pull it up like pants!

ARE YOU LAUGHING YET??? You're thinking, no she didn't???

Well my friends, YES she did..........I happened to have a few extra plastic bags with me because as I said, we brought the dog with us, so I wrapped the poopie clothes up in one bag, and then fashioned the cutest little sumo wrestler type plastic bag underwear for my son! We laughed together for a bit, until he decided it was hurting his feelings and I had to stop. But it's ok if you laugh............so yes, we walked all the way back to the car (a good half block), and drove home in his plastic bag pants!

And yes, straight into the shower he went! I scrubbed him from head to toe, scrubbed me from finger tip to elbow, and yes, I still smell it! I'm just waiting for hubby to come home and for the boys to go to bed so that I can laugh out loud again where it won't hurt his feelings!

sad...

2008-03-07T03:13:00.003-05:00

My heart goes out to the families and parents of the victims of last nights terrorist attack. Nothing more to say....you can read more about it here: www.haaretz.com

a Pity Party turned FUN...

2008-02-29T12:28:00.002-05:00

So yes, I started out having a PITY PARTY......hubby and his dad took the boys overnight up north to Mt. Hermon, Israel's "hot spot" for skiing, sledding, and seeing SNOW! I had the option to join them, to be a part of it all, but I declined. I chose instead to hang out at home alone with the pup, and to just take it easy. I just wasn't into going away.

Strange you might say, since tomorrow is my birthday. Yup, 37 years ago, I came into this world. And yup, I'm spending it alone. Well, at least I've got CREMBO to hang with, right? hee hee

Anyway , this morning was hard for me. The "boys" all left around 8am and I was really upset by it. I always have a hard time with goodbyes, even if it is only for 2 days!

But I've had a nice day so far. Here's what I've done...................

I hung around in my pj's till noon!
I took a nap at 9:30 am!
I went shopping--bought some things at the pharmacy that I needed (including a one time HairMoisturizing Pack), AND I got a new shirt with the gift certificate that the 'laws gave me for my b-day, and I got some munchies for the evening.....
YES, dream munchies for the evening........2 words for you: BEN & JERRY!!! I was happy to find the lowfat chocolate brownie frozen yogurt, and yes, it is amazingly DELISH!!
I took a jacuzzi bath.......and shaved my legs!
I gave myself a PEDICURE and painted my toenails RED!
I did the moisturizing HAIR PACK on my hair.....
I started a new book.
I did some reorganizing in the kids' rooms and playroom......I had bought some new bins while out shopping and when I got home I put them all to good use!
I lined the fence that we share with the neighbors because CREMBO the puppy keeps trying to go over there to visit the little neighbor girl who (annoyingly) sits at the fence and calls the dog! (grrr.....and that's not crembo growling, it's me!). And yes, Crembo went under the fence the other day to "visit" them, and I had to go through their house and down to their garden to go get her.

GEEESH................isn't that ENOUGH???? AND, it's not even 8pm! Tomorrow my plans are to grade some papers, watch a movie (hmmm, maybe I'll go watch one now--after Biggest Loser that is!). Tomorrow I need to do some laundry and get some cleaning done, but AT MY PACE! OH, and I plan to sleep as late as possible!! AND.i AM GOING OUT WITH FRIENDS AFTER SHABBAT.

***I'M SO GLAD I WROTE THIS, IT MADE ME REALIZE HOW NICE OF A DAY I'VE HAD AND MADE MESS PATHETIC FOR SPENDING MY BIRTHDAY ALONE!!!

Kicking myself and keeping fingers crossed....

2008-02-28T08:16:00.003-05:00

So hubby's American passport is expired or expiring. At this point I don't remember. He needs a new one, that's all I know, as we are all travelling this summer to the U.S. He's going at a different time than we are, going in June while we are still in school, so that he can attend his brother's graduation with his Master's Degree.

ANYWAY.....I was organizing the renewal for him, printed out the forms, filled them out, reminded him a thousand times to get the pictures done, and then took it to the post office to mail off.

Here's where I think I messed up..............

I put in a personal check from our bank in the U.S., made out to the U.S. Embassy in Tel Aviv. Unfortunately I think I was supposed to purchase a bank check instead. UGH. I'm even afraid to look it up on the embassy's website to know if I did it wrong or not. I know that they received the documents, we'll just see now if they send back the check and ask for a bankcheque instead.

ugh, KEEPING FINGERS CROSSED.........

UPDATE: not that anyone cares, but I got an email from the embassy and they will be returning EVERYTHING. ugh. the jerks. The least they could do was hold it all and tell me to just send the proper payment. Instead they are returning it, and I have to pay the postage again to send the passport, the forms and the check, instead of JUST one bank check in an envelope. jerks.

13 years yesterday....

2008-02-08T13:55:00.000-05:00

So yesterday, February 7th, marked 13 years since my dad passed away. It affects me differently each year, and I really thought I was handling it well this year. I had been feeling sick all week with congestion etc. Yesterday was already better--I taught without a pack of tissues in hand!

But today it hit me. I was overcome with an exhaustion that I just couldn't explain. I didn't get it, truly didn't make the connection.

In the afternoon, the in-laws came over to see the kids and to have dinner with us. I had half of the dinner cooked already and my mother-in-law encouraged me to go lay down. I finally did....and of course turned on the TV. Before falling asleep there was some reality show of sorts on and the family on there was singing the song my Daddy used to sing to me...........

"You are My Sunshine"....... it warmed my heart, and I got it. I felt like it was a message, a hug sent to me from afar. One of my most favorite memories of my dad is how he used to give me "Piggie-back" rides to bed, flop me on my bed, then lay down next to me and sing to me/with me. And can you guess what Daddy sang? yup, "You are My Sunshine". Every time I hear it, it's a message, that hug from afar.

So anyway, I fell asleep, had a nice nap. When I woke up I started flipping channels again. Nobody in the house was looking for me, so I didn't go looking for them! Anyway, on one of the channel listings the movie was listed as "Forever Friends." It looked like a familiar movie, so I stopped to check it out. I couldn't for the life of me think of a movie that I knew called Forever Friends. It was with Bette Midler, and her character's name was Cee-cee..... ring a bell anyone?

And shortly after I started watching, would you believe that Cee-cee (Bette) and the other 2 characters (Hillary and her daughter Victoria) started to sing..........yup, you guessed it................ "You are My Sunshine"!!! I was hooked, and at that point resolved myself to staying in the bedroom by myself for the evening, or at least till my movie was over.

I had a good cry, definitely needed, and then of course, the last song of the movie..........

"DID YOU EVER KNOW THAT YOU'RE MY HERO!?" .........I danced with my dad to that one at my brother's wedding!

So there you have it ladies and gentlemen...........it was a therapeutic evening, a spiritual evening in its own way, and I just wanted to share with you........

ps. Do you know which movie I saw???

Works for me Wednesday...

2008-02-06T08:28:00.000-05:00

I've decided to join in on the fun over at Rocks in my Dryer with her WORKS FOR ME WEDNESDAY posts. The idea is that you post something that "works for you" and then you link back to her blog post, and then your link is posted on her blog as well.

This week there is a special theme for WFMW.........online shopping. Sooooo, I wanted to share my online shopping experiences and favorites.

Living so far away from much of our family, we are often late and sending last minute gifts. Seeing that there are no Walmarts or Targets in this country, it's not always easy to find that perfect gift and get it to the post office. I have found that it is much easier to search the net and to "chick chock" as we say (like the 'in a snap' expression), have it sent off for me. Here are a few of my favorite online shopping sites:

www.personalizationmall.com ---I had personalized stickers and a stamper sent to my neice last year. very cute and reasonably priced.

www.giftcertificates.com ----I've had a few gift certificates sent to my nephews for their birthdays. It takes the guess out of what to get for kids who have it all, and it allows them to pick something special for themselves.

www.logosportswear.com -----this is the coolest (at least I thought so)........I had a Tshirt made for my brother for his 40th birthday. It was fashioned as a college tshirt, with his last name as the name of the university. it was cute, also fun to put a personal touch to it.

*My favorite thing about sending personalized gifts from an online shop is that it enables me to send something that doesn't feel so generic. HOPEFULLY the recipients realize that a little more thought and time goes into it, and they appreciate the effort. I think they do. :)

WORKS FOR ME!!! What works for you??? Post it and then link back to Rocks in my Dryer! join the fun!

We love CREMBO!!!

2008-02-02T02:34:00.000-05:00

We have a new member of our family.........we adopted CREMBO* yesterday!!! She is as you can see, an adorable light brown puppy, a mixed breed of some sort, with the cutest disposition!

We named her CREMBO because we needed something that our boys wouldn't grow out of, and wouldn't think is too girly. And, she as you can see is brown, but has a white chest, hence the brown on the outside, white on the inside like a CREMBO! (see below for explanation of a Crembo)

We adopted her from people who had adopted her through the SOS adoption agency in Israel. I think he said he drove about 2 or 3 hours to another town to go pick her up. She was one of a litter of like 10 puppies who were found and being adopted out. So why didn't he keep her? Well, he and his wife have 3 kids, one of whom is a 4 or 5 month old baby. It was too much for them. So he put an ad up and here we are........with our new love! (who by the way was being called 'muffin' with this other family).

Anyway............here she is..........she's as cute as a button and really a good dog. Last night, we had shabbat dinner here, the 4 of us and the in-laws. She played and played with the kids before dinner. Then, when the people sat down for dinner, she went into the adjoining living room and lay down on the floor, cuddled up to a blanket, keeping us in eye sight, but not whining or bothering at all! I was most impressed.

And last night, we brought her bed into our room. She came up onto our bed for a bit with us, and when we turned off the light and put her down on the floor, she went into her little bed and went to sleep! SO CUTE!

Ok, so enjoy the pictures and wish me luck, I KNOW this isn't going to be easy...........she already had a big pooper accident on the freshly cleaned carpet. ugh. I'll keep ya posted........

*For those of you who live in Israel or have ever lived in Israel, or live with an Israeli (you get the point), then you know what a Crembo is................for those of you who don't, it's a delicious chocolate covered marshmallowy fluff conconction on top of a little cookie. It's been compared to Mallowmars in the US, but since I grew up in the south, I don't really know what that is. But I know crembos........and I love them, and my hubby loves them, and especially, my boys love them!

Feeling helpless......

2008-01-27T07:24:00.000-05:00

So my older son was home all last week sick with a virus of some sort. His temperature kept going up. It would go down with a dose of tylenol or advil (I actually use the generic brands, and yes, still am stocked from various trips when my mom has brought us more). Anyway...........the fever would go down for a few hours then just as I was feeling like he was doing better, it would spike again. Yesterday, (shabbat), he was doing great, and didn't have any medicine all day. He felt a bit off around 11am, but it didn't go up too high. By the afternoon, he was doing great and they were getting so antsy to get out. Soooooo, we took them to the bowling alley. We wanted to take them to see a movie, thinking it's less active, but the boys didn't want anything to do with the movies.

So bowling it was. (Or, as pronounced in hebrew.....bauwling). Anyway....he was fine, came home and was fine, went to bed, was fine, was fine when I checked on him at 11pm and was fine when he woke up this am.

So I brought him to school. He was so excited and felt sooo good with the welcome that he got! Kids were so excited to see him and he felt amazing! It was so nice as a mom to see.

I decided not to have him stay in aftercare, and I (to the dismay of my principal), skipped out on the staff meeting and opted to take him home to rest. I checked his temp when we got home, and it was normal. Sooooooo, he was doing fine, did his homework, ate some lunch, and suddenly said, "I can't eat any more because I'M FREEZING!" I covered him up with a blanket on the couch and took the temp again.............and now it's about 99.7-100 I don't know for sure because I use an ear thermometer, and everything I read says that they aren't EXACT. What I DO know for sure is that it's still brewing..................AARGH!

I know it's nothing major, but it's so frustrating. The poor guy just wants to feel normal again! Ok, thanks for listening...........I won't even go into explaining what's up with my little one. I'll leave that for another days' post.

Hope you and yours are doing well............

DO NOT PASS GO, DO NOT COLLECT $200....

2008-01-25T05:40:00.000-05:00

DO NOT PASS GO, DO NOT COLLECT $200.... BUT DO VOTE................Hi! Monopoly is launching a new Here & Now World Edition and is inviting everyone around the world to vote for the greatest cities around the globe. The 22 cities with the highest worldwide votes will make it onto one global Monopoly board. Please vote for Jerusalem!!! I think it would make a great statement to the world if Jerusalem made it on to the world edition of Monopoly, and an even GREATER statement if it didn't!!! If you're a blogger, please copy and paste and post on your blog.............let's get the word out!!!

Jerusalem is #27 in the running...............tell all of your friends and family to go and vote and vote often.

REMEMBER, you can keep voting every day!

The 20 pre-selected cities with the highest worldwide votes on February 29 2008 will make it onto the board. Plus, you will have from March 1 to March 9 2008 to vote on the most nominated Wildcard cities. Only the top two will make it on the board!

Vote!

Rising to the occasion......

2008-01-24T03:41:00.001-05:00

I'M MAKING MY FIRST CHALLAH!! I've participated in challah braiding, and tasted challot all over the world........but have never ever ever, until today, made my OWN challah from scratch. I'm not sure what sparked my interest in doing so. Maybe it was going to friends' for shabbat last weekend and tasting her homemade challah, and maybe it was sitting home with a sick kid for the past 3 days procrastinating the cleaning and laundry? Whatever it was, that's what I've been up to.

10am...Right now, the dough is rising, and I think I got it right. The recipe from my friend said to add a couple of splashes of Vanilla Soy milk, which I did not have, and subsequently forgot to add the splashes of the rice milk that I thought I could substitute for the soy. Other than that, I am keeping my fingers crossed.

I do have a bit of a schedule conflict, seeing that we need to leave the house at 11:30ish to make it to an 11:45 doctor's appointment, and logistically am supposed to be kneading the dough again by 12:15ish. Sooooo, we'll see. My friend told me it should be ok, will just need to be knocked down again or something like that. So again, keeping my fingers crossed.

Update: 2pm Hmmmm, just thought, I should take some pictures to document this a bit. ugh, can't find the camera. I think hubby took it last Fri. to the gan when Ilan was Abbah Shabbat. Oh well, you'll have to believe me. I'll be back with another update when they all come out of the oven. Right now there are 2 little braided challot (each boy made his own), one medium braided challah, and one cool snailed up challah that I think we are all going to have to taste this evening once it's cooled. Waiting on the counter in my loaf pan is a cool braided loaf that is going to be awesome for some FRENCH TOAST!!! yay........

oh, and did I mention I'm quite proud of myself? Going to go take a peek at the little buggers. bye!

The (nice) Know-it-all

2008-01-21T12:29:00.000-05:00

WE had a playdate yesterday. I say WE, because it wasn't just one child who came to play on his own, but the little boy (my youngest' friend from Gan, just turned 4), his 2 older brothers (a year older than my oldest, but friendly with him), and the baby sister (2 1/2), and MOM.

side note: "Magia li" (I deserve it), because a few weeks ago, they invited my younger son over for a playdate, and when I brought him, he didn't want to stay alone. Sooooo, my older son got out of the car and the 3 of us hung out at their place all afternoon. AND it was a long afternoon/evening, as the kids played and played. So, it was my turn.

She called and asked if we were free (they all invite themselves over in this country, such a trip!). I said yes and invited them all over. I knew I had to payback........don't do the crime if you can't do the time............

Anyway.........overall, the afternoon at our house also went well. The kids played nicely, had a grand old time, and didn't bug us too much. This is when I know it's a successful date--when I don't have to be reminded that the kids are actually here! (sounds awful I know)

But wait, I'm getting to the good part..............the MOM is one of those who does not know the meaning of clutter, dust, dirt, or grime. Her house is spotless, organized, and runs smoothly. She runs an aftercare program from her home, and as part of the 'business' has a cleaning person come every day. But that aside, she is an organizer and a clean freak! OH, and she has an idea for how EVERYTHING could be and should be done.

Among the compliments on our house, and the nice things that she said, here are a few of her "SUGGESTIONS" OR COMMENTS that I was ready to %#$@^^................

When she commented on how nice it was to have the table in the kitchen and I told her we were planning eventually to do a built in, she said, "Oh, I wouldn't do that, take it from me..." I never got the real reason, but OK?
When I gave her the tour of the house, which of course, included the little guy's room and his "slide bed" she was concerned about our use of space...."I would have put the closets on that wall so that the bed could be over here...." again, thanks, but OK? the closets are too tall because of the a/c unit way up there on THAT wall.
When I showed her the big guy's room with the bunk beds that we brought with us from the US, she proceeded to tell me of her ideal bunk with the bottom bed off to the side so that the beds would be in an L shape....
Back upstairs, dinner time......she had brought an uncooked "Pashteda"....kind of like a quiche, no crust. Anyway, we had popped it into the oven when they first arrived, and it was ready. Before she had called and asked if it would be ok if she brought it and cooked it here, I had already put the pasta on. ...............So, as the kids sat down, they were offered pashteda and pasta (with cheese to sprinkle on top). Anyway, I KNEW my kids wouldn't touch the pashteda anyway, but she kept going on about how at her house when she serves JUST pashteda, that her kids eat 2 helpings of it, but because of the pasta, they didn't want it. whatever.
Oh, and speaking of pasta........."Did you already put oil and salt on it?" me: "No, I just forgot, sometimes I put some oil in the water while it's cooking, but I think if I just pour some more hot water over it it will be fine"..........her: "Oh. OK."

And most of the evening went on like that, but in a nice way. She didn't feel any animosity, or realize that I was offended by her constant suggestions, and she EVEN didn't get the hint when I suggested she should make a business out of organizing people! ha! In other words, let someone ASK for help and pay you for it, cuz it's not appreciated otherwise!

Anyway.....gotta run.......

Olim benefits......

2008-01-17T06:24:00.000-05:00

Soooooooo, just a quickie here to share some good fortune. Well actually, it was a mistake that has been corrected, and is thus NOW a good fortune. As you know, we are "OLIM", new immigrants. My hubby grew up here, but because I didn't, we are considered a family of olim, and have thus received many benefits. In our first 7 months here, we had rent subsidy, we got a break with something to do with the mortgage of our home, and now.............something new and unexpected.

Our little guy is in Gan (preschool) at the "Trom chova" level. He's 4. The gan cost to city residents is almost the equivalent of $200 a month. We had heard about the olim discount, and I had given all of my paperwork to the city upon registration, but thought when it didn't appear in our bills that our first year was up and so was our discount.

Lo' and behold, I saw an email mentioning that olim who arrived after 2005 need to make sure to register for their discount for next year.

"WHAT,??? for NEXT year? Should I be getting it THIS year???" I asked. I wasn't sure, and was surprised to see that maybe we should.

Well, today, hubby went in to the city office and explained with all of our paperwork that we think we should have gotten the discount...................which is 90% mind you, meaning, we pay ONLY 10%!!! And would you believe it, they agreed and proceeded to ADD UP the amount of money that THEY owed US!!! It came to about 3500 NIS, a bit shy of a thousand dollars!!! They couldn't give us back the cash, but they DID apply it to the gan fees (at 90% discount) for the rest of the year, and they applied it to our Arnona, municipal tax, for the next 5 months or so!!! very very cool.................

Where was Noah with some tips on living with rising waters????

2008-01-11T00:22:00.000-05:00

What a strange title for a post, right?

Well.......it all started like this........I'm a teacher, right? Well, I was teaching one of my third grade classes when I heard over the loudspeaker of the whole school: "EmahS to the office" (of course they don't call me EmahS and they don't speak in English, but you get the point).

I ran to the class nextdoor and got the teacher to cover for me as I ran to the office in a panic. I had forgotten my cell phone at home and was worried that there was something wrong with my little guy at his preschool. On the way into the office I saw the assistant from my older son's class standing there and I freaked that something happened to him. But thank g-d they were both fine, and it was an emergency call for me from a neighbor.

We have this little lady who lives upstairs. I think she's like 90 years old or something, but she remembered when I told her that I work at the local school. She apparently heard water outside of her window and when she looked down onto our patio, she saw that it was GUSHING like a fire hydrant. She called to tell me that she thought we had a flood in our house. I ran home immediately to a complete nightmare.

Before I even got to the front door, I was sloshing in about an inch of water. As I opened the door, afraid that the fish tank had broken somehow, I realized it was much worse. Water was GUSHING out of one of the walls, and was filling the house. It was a good 2 inches high in places, and was flowing down the stairs. It took me a while to get a hold of my hubby, he was in some important meeting or something, so I also called some friends who live 2 buildings over and luckily they were home. They came immediately and helped me with damage control. We called the city when we realized that even though we turned off all of the water to the whole building, and it still wasn't stopping.

LONG STORY SHORT.........a pipe underneath the ground at the street/sidewalk/parking space area burst, the water gushed through the appropriate drain pipes to the patio, but also took a detour into our home through the wall that backs to the mountain essentially.

We pushed water out for a good 4 or 5 hours, then for another 4 or 5 hours, we dried, swept, and then mopped to clean. not cool at all, we're exhausted, but at least now our floors are clean, and honestly, the damage wasn't too grave. We're just worried that something like this COULD happen again, scary.

One good thing in this.........we were really warmed by friends. The couple I mentioned helped for hours, and even offered to take the kids, to have them or us sleep over, etc. etc. But we were ok and decided not to take them up on that. Then, hubby ran into the husband this morning at the hardware store and he invited us to dinner tonight. Such good people. Another friend, another teacher who works with me, brought over lunch for hubby and I during it all yesterday, and offered her hubby to help if we need assistance with anything. And yet another friend offered to come and help clean, fold laundry, etc. Good good people.

Anyway............my sitting break is over and I need to go put groceries away, hang more towels to dry from the wash, put more in the wash, and so on and so forth. All in a week's work, right? ugh.

Shabbat Shalom!

IT'S FESTIVUS FOR THE REST OF US.....

2007-12-23T12:31:00.000-05:00

Happy Festivus to those of you who celebrate the holiday of the pole.......

...and I don't think they had Pole Dancers in mind. But I digress.......

One thing that was funny a few weeks ago just before Chanukah was when Aviv brought home a page of math problems with some decorative clipart on it. I checked his work as I always do, and noticed that the clipart, which was meant to be chanukah clipart wasn't. Instead, I noticed that it was instead a cute little KWANZAA candleabra!!!

hee hee To the naked eye, especially when one is photocopying something, it might be quite easy to be mistaken.....especially if you have no idea even what Kwanzaa is.

But I must say, I had a good laugh!

Happy Festivus, Hairy Biscuits (this one learned from a dear redneck friend of ours), and a peaceful Kwanzaa to you all..........

Been a while.......sorry!

2007-12-19T09:55:00.000-05:00

HELLO dedicated readers.......wanted to take a moment to apologize for well sort of disappearing on you. I just got to a point where I was feeling like I was treading water and my head kept slipping under. I've recently gotten that under control and am doing ok.

On another note, I went for the beloved annual female doctor checkup. I've lived here for just about a year and a half and hadn't been. Just kept putting it off, cuz let's be honest here, it's not the most exciting thing to do, nor is it the most desired place to be.

Well, I caved, and finally went. I'm thrilled to report that I like my new doctor, and I was able to speak to her in English with ease. All issues of integration into Israeli society aside, I speak to doctors and ALL medical professionals in English. I don't want to risk any sort of misunderstanding when it comes to my health or the health of my kids. "Kacha ze." (that's how it is). And luckily, this doc was totally ok with it.

Anyway......I was, and obviously still am, cracking up about the differences in an American doctor's office vs. this Israeli doctor's office. Back in the US, I would have to make an appointment a good 3 months in advance--here I made the appt. on a Sunday for that Friday. Back in the US, you'd enter the waiting room and tap gently on the GLASS WINDOW that separated you from the ever-so-powerful receptionist/secretary/insurance specialist--here I walked in and was surprised to see the receptionist/secretary's DESK WAS IN THE MIDDLE OF THE WAITING ROOM!!! She wasn't hiding from me, and she actually said hello to me before I said hello to her! And would you believe it, I only sat there for like 5 minutes before the doctor was ready for me!!! UNHEARD of in the US.

Let me add here that in the US I always had to wait for at least a half hour until it was my turn. But "my turn" didn't mean that I was going to see the doctor at that moment. "My turn" meant that the nurse came to get me, I was weighed, blood pressure taken (which I must tell you after waiting for a half hour or more was sometimes high!), temperature taken (but I'm not sick...), and THEN....I would be taken into a room. It was at this point that I would get undressed and put on the lovely paper half gown and yup, you guessed it, WAIT AGAIN..... The doctor would come in sometimes 5 or 10 minutes later, accompanied by a nurse who would just watch to make sure there was no funny business I guess, and chick-chock, 5 minutes later the checkup would be complete.

----FOR THAT, I paid about a thousand DOLLARS a month for insurance!!!!

But here, in Israel, the experience was quite a bit different.........as I told you, the doctor herself came to get me about 5 minutes after I arrived. I sat down with her at the desk in her office, and she took my medical history (did I mention how in the US I was always having to fill out papers in the waiting room? They sure did update their records a lot.) So anyway, back to the Rofah (doctor in hebrew)............she took my medical history and typed it directly into the computer. Took her all of 3 minutes or so. Then she brought me over to the exam table part of her office (separated by a curtain). She left me there in privacy, I undressed, got up on the table, and voila, she was back. No naked waiting like in the US where i used to have to wait in those stupid gowns for what felt like forever as I read the pamphlets and posters that described all of the different birth control available!!! Instead, we got down to business, and in minutes, she was done, I was dressed and sitting back again at her desk!!! We had a mini follow up conversation and by the time i got out the door, I realized that the TOTAL VISIT was a whopping 20 minutes!!! Talk about impressive. !!!

Even more impressive is the fact that we pay less than 200 shekel a month for our "super gold" coverage---that's 50 dollars when the dollar is up! A bit better than our previous THOUSAND DOLLAR insurance bill, huh? I think I might stick around a while..........

2007-12-04T08:23:00.000-05:00

TIDBITS.........

2007-12-01T13:22:00.000-05:00

LEFT, LEFT, LEFT-RIGHT-LEFT! We marched today.............or really walked...........but for some reason they call it a march. We went as a family and the boys did great...5 km (about 3 and a half miles). At the 4th kilometer, there were ice-cream vendors, and all sorts of kids activities that were included in our entry fee. The kids had a blast, we had a blast, and it was all around a great day!

MISIYBAT CHANUKAH.........Ilan had his Chanukah party/show the other night. It is amazing how the Israeli ganim go all out and the kids are just amazing! He was singing before the show even started, it was so cute. The music teacher was doing some instrumental background music at one point as the gannenet was getting all of the kids sitting down.........and there was my son singing his little heart out! It was tooo cute, and I was soooo proud. He's come a long way and it felt good to reassure one of the other moms that the hebrew will come with time. They've only been here for 3 months.

KEEPING FINGERS CROSSED.............the house should be sold in the next week or so (g-d willing as is said around here). Keeping fingers crossed that we should get the papers this week so that we can keep our appointment with the American Embassy.

ok, ugh, papers to grade..........no striking for the Elementary schools. Can you believe that the Middle and High School students in this country haven't been in school since last June!?! And WHEW! am I thankful that I went with my gut and took the job in the Elementary school! What a close call that was.

g'nite!

Mr. Nobody

2007-11-27T07:30:00.000-05:00

I'm not sure where I went wrong with him, but Mr. Nobody has gone astray. He used to be the one we had to save an extra seat for, the one who sat in the backseat between the two kids, and the one who came along on trips to the park and fun places. But somewhere we must have betrayed him, because now,

"Mr. Nobody is from the BAD PEOPLE." (as per Ilan, 4 years old)

Mr. Nobody threw a toy across the room the other day, and he makes a mess out of all of the toys when the children are playing gently, kindly, and orderly.

Ilan says that "Mr. Nobody makes bad choices because he comes from the land of the bad."

As long as he's not telling me anything of the following I guess it's not much of a big deal to worry about, right? Cuz really, I'd worry IF HE SAID:

But emah, Mr. Nobody is MAKING me light the neighbor's cat on fire!
But emah, Mr. Nobody is inside my head and won't shut up!
But emah, Mr. Nobody wants to hurt you!
And emah, Mr. Nobody ______________(you fill in the blank!)

So really, I guess an occasional spilled drink, thrown toy, or mess made by Mr. Nobody just adds a bit of spice to our life. And makes me thankful that I have a normal 4 year old with an active imagination!

But do tell, (time here for class participation....).............when should one worry??? fill in the blank above! :)

Good for a laugh...

2007-11-25T12:01:00.000-05:00

Last week some time my 4 year old was doing SOMETHING that he should not have been doing. It's been long enough and it was INsignificant enough that I truly don't remember what it was. But I remember the scenario just after I raised my voice at him to stop.

Crying, he left the room.

Crying still, he returned to the room but this time in hubby's arms (remember my penis envy post? Forgot to add preferential treatment by the rugrats). Hubby was concerned. He had no idea of what had happened and had no clue that this cute little cutie could possibly have done anything wrong.

Hubby: "Sus, I think he doesn't feel well. "

me: "I don't think so, he's just upset about what just happened..."

Hubby: "No really, he doesn't seem right."

me: (giving in....too easily I might add), "Ilan, does something hurt you?"

Ilan: "YES!!!" (crying here a bit harder and I might add, FAKER)

me: "Ilan, tell emah, what hurts you??"

ILan: "MY FEELINGS!!! It's cuz you yelled at me!"

..........nuff said!

Giving Thanks.........

2007-11-23T02:57:00.000-05:00

So tonight we are getting together with 2 other families to celebrate Thanksgiving.

...today is Friday.

It's funny, kind of like in America when for Yom Haatzmaut the hebrew schools and JCCs celebrate Israel's Independance day on any convenient Sunday in the month of May! Or like how we used to have Chanukah parties with our Hadassah group the week before Chanukah!

just something that made me laugh.

Anyway, I guess I better get busy peeling my sweet potatoes and getting ready to make both the sweet potato casserole and the string bean casserole! FINGERS CROSSED.....

AND HAPPY BELATED TURKEY DAY TO YOU ALL!!!

Penis Envy........???

2007-11-13T12:57:00.000-05:00

So YES, I admit it, I think I have penis envy. It's self diagnosed, so I could be wrong, but let me tell you, I don't think I'm alone. I've been thinking about this and it deserves a post of it's own.

WHY? you ask, might I envy a penis? Well no, it's not that I wish I had one, but man, the benefits that seem to come to those who do.............

If I had a penis............ (no, not to be sung to the "Fiddler on the Roof" tune, sorry)

I could wake up in the mornings and not worry about whether the kids are up and getting ready for school.
I could demand privacy in the bathroom.....and I would get it too!
I could leave the dishes in the sink because I would work longer hours.
I could sit and chat with the children during breakfast instead of rushing to get their sandwiches made.
I could get dressed in peace, on my own, without tip-toeing around the bedroom at the un-g-dly hour of 6:30 am!
I could talk with grown-ups through out the day instead of children (even if some of the grown-ups often act worse than children!)
I could eat lunch at a different eating establishment every day (ugh, I'd be twice my size then, so wait, let's scratch that one).
Someone else would do the grocery shopping cuz I would get home to late to do it.
Someone else would (ahem pretend to) clean the house.
And someone else would make sure my laundry was clean (well, most of the time).
the kids would come running to me every evening thrilled to see me, wanting to play with me for the 15 minutes they have before being sent off to bed.
I could come home early if a meeting was cancelled and put my feet up and read a book (oh wait, I did that the other day when I had a free hour, so scratch this one).
If i had a penis, dinner would be made for me most nights........even if it sometimes didn't look fit for a mental institution! (hee, don't tell that I admit this!)
and if I had the penis, I would eat if I wanted to, and I'd never bother to do the dishes.....cuz I'd be too tired.

So yes, I have penis envy for all of the above reasons. But when I think about it though, there's so much more to it.

Cuz really, if I had a penis,

I'd have to travel at least 45 minutes to work instead of 3.
I'd have to deal with jerks and idiots who think they're better than me and who think they know it all. (oh wait, I teach 4th graders, I already do this. But he has to deal with my 4th graders all grown up with the attitudes that never changed. yuck)
I'd have to make deadlines, interview new people, fire old people, and organize my department in a productive manner.
I'd miss karate, judo, and playdates with friends.
I'd miss pick up time from school or tzaharon (aftercare), and doing homework in the afternoons.
I'd miss afternoon temper tantrums (oh wait, this one should go into the positive list)
I'd miss the stories and tales about who did what in school and gan.
and I'd have to come home most days, traveling again for almost an hour, to only see my kids for at most a half hour. And I'd be too tired to really enjoy them.
I'd spend time with my wife as I fell asleep while we watched tv together.
And I'd go to bed just to have to start it all over again tomorrow.

So ask me again, do I have penis envy? I don't think I really do. In fact, I feel sorry for my hubby. I hate that I complain about the dishes and the cleaning that he doesn't help out with. but I get it. There's just not much left of him at the end of the day.

And hopefully, this too shall pass.......

Relieved to report..........

2007-11-12T13:49:00.000-05:00

Got a message from my friend today. He has been napping lots and has not had a chance to be on the computer much. But he says he is hanging in and was glad to hear from me. Thanks for all of your thoughts, and thanks to the few of you who commented. I imagine that this will be a long haul for him, and it can't hurt to have people around the world putting in a good 'word' for him!

Update....

2007-11-12T10:37:00.000-05:00

so I wish I had an update. I keep checking his facebook page to see if he's written anything, but his last correspondence was on the 8th of November. I assume he's quite tired, as he started an intensive 5 day Chemo treatment on the 7th. I remember when my dad had chemo back in '95. He went in hours from being awake (but on a respirator/ventillator or whatever it's called), to being completely asleep and not able to do much more than blink his eyes (or really flutter them as they were closed). It's sad, cuz this is how I picture my old friend. Who, as I mentioned, is only 36 years old. I'll post an update as soon as I hear one. I hope it's a good one.

Time for prayers....

2007-11-07T07:58:00.000-05:00

Those of you who have read the mumbo jumbo that I rattle off now and again know that I'm not very religious, not very big on prayer. It's not that I don't believe in the power of prayer, but it's just not part of my everyday routine.

But every now and again there comes a time when I hear of somebody who really needs the prayers of as many people as possible.

My friend DD is one of those people. I've known him since we were kids at summer camp. He was always the nicest guy. We weren't that close, as we weren't in the same groups, but I knew him. And later, in college, we hung out. We even took a Geology class together, I think it was Geologyy...."Rocks for Jocks" they called it. Anyway, one night I remember staying up with DD all night drinking coffee (which I didn't really like) so that we could study for an exam. It was so much fun.

Anyway, many years, and many life experiences later, and I just found out that DD, 36 years old, has been diagnosed with Cancer of the Spleen. He has started a 5 day treatment round of aggressive chemotherapy to try and beat the odds. I'm sick over thinking about it.

There's nothing more to say, but please, if you're a prayer or even anyone who believes mildly in the power of prayer, now's the time to give it your all. I thank you, DD thanks you, and so do all of his family and friends.

Reawwy Cute!!

2007-11-01T13:59:00.000-04:00

little guy: "Abbah, Abbah, wook! I can jump reawwy reawwy faw!!!"

hubby: "Look! I can jump reaLLy reaLLy faR?" modeled hubby with emphasized speech.

little guy: "No! I tawk wike dis cuz I'm from anoder wand!"

hubby and I: "HUH???"

again, little guy: "No! I tawk wike dis cuz I'm from anoder wand! You know, ANOTHER COUNTRY!!!"

hee hee!!!

Talk about using aliyah as an exuse!!!

Targil Bitachon

2007-10-29T14:54:00.000-04:00

Ok, so in America we used to have Fire Drills. I used to wonder if it really was a true sense of practice of the real thing if we all expected it. So then I wondered if the administration really did keep it a secret from everyone but us "special" people. Maybe I knew because I taught Special Education preschoolers at the time and it wouldn't be a good thing at all if we were let's say in the middle of changing a diaper and the fire drill happened. Anyway, sorry for getting off the subject before I even got on it!

So today in our school we had a Targil Bitachon, a Security Exercise. This was our second one, or at least I should say MY second one. It's times like these that I really feel like the foreigner. The first time a few weeks ago I was with one of the third grade classes and I must say I was pretty clueless.

It all started ok. The kids were all hyped up and anxious about it. They kept asking me what time it was even though there was a big clock on the wall. We were told the exercise would be at 9:30. At about 9:27 they were done, couldn't focus anymore and I felt like we needed to prepare. Not a good idea. The excitement escalated as they began to chat, and wow, when a group of 28 third graders begin to chat and carry on together, the noise can be deafening. So they lined up so noisily the teacher next door had to tell me that we weren't supposed to leave yet. I shushed them profusely and closed the door to keep them in. They seep out so easily.

And then the announcement came on the loud speaker. At least I think it did. My class was making so much noise I didn't hear it. So, I grabbed the class list and began to lead my hoard of buffaloes to the library. HUH??? The library????? Yes, the library. It is one of 3 (I think) safe rooms in the school. The doors and windows can be sealed off, and the walls are so thick and strong that they are supposed to withstand lord knows what.

But, um, I was a bit shocked to find that it wasn't just my class of third graders going into the library. It wasn't even just all 3 of the third grade classes (which is about 78 children total). In fact, it was that and a whole lot more. I think that at least 2 of the fourth grade classes were there (that's another 55 or so). There were older kids that I didn't recognize (at least one fith grade class, maybe it was a sixth--another 28 kids), and there were younger kids there too, a class of first graders (add another 27). So let's stop and calculate: 78+55+28+27= 188. One Hundred and Eighty Eight children, add to that the at least 7 classroom teachers, a few miscellaneous staff members, a few 6th grade helpers, and we're up to at least 200 people. wow. I'm overwhelmed just thinking about it.

And today was no different, only instead of having to be responsible for 28 little heathens, I was in with my Special needs boys at the time of the exercise. This meant that I only had to SHARE responsibility of 8 little guys!!! And I say share because they have a classroom aide who is with them all of the time.

So anyway, where was I ??? yes, so what did I want to share with you guys???? Oh yes, the main reason for this post..............I stood there in that safe room, with the noise blaring, the kids laughing and playing clapping games, reading, talking, and just well, did I mention making noise? So I stood there, and I looked around and I began to get teary eyed as my thoughts took over............

*what if.......what if we were like the schools in Sderot?
*what if we were like the schools or families in Haifa who spent so much time in their shelters?
*what if sometime someday like some people say............what if we go to war again?
*and the last what if..........what if we one day have to come into that shelter FOR REAL?????

The first time we did the drill my son's first grade class was in there with us. It was reassuring for both of us to see each other there. But today, his class went to the art room instead and he wasn't with me. I didn't like thinking that he wouldn't be close to me if g-d forbid something happened. Then I thought about my little one, in the gan 3 blocks away from our school. The mother in me feels the need to protect, to safeguard, to watch my guys. But I know I can't be there all the time, logically I know this. But emotionally, *whew!* it's a rough one to digest.

I just hope I'll never have to experience any of the what ifs............I hope that noone does.

oh the trouble with public blogging.......

2007-10-07T13:27:00.000-04:00

Now would be a good time to sit and vent the frustrations going on in my mind, in my life. But I'm afraid, so very afraid to post here, cuz this blogger thing is way too public. Thanks for your patience in waiting until I have something less offensive to report (even if not offensive to you the regular readers).

Hope all is well........

excuses, excuses.......

2007-10-05T04:22:00.000-04:00

I'm queen of excuses............and wanted to let you know why I haven't blogged this week. Mom is visiting from the Old Country. She came in last Sat. and we have been busy either going places or entertaining friends or family for sukkot. Today we are off "EXPLORING" (the kids have declared they don't like to HIKE), then we'll pick up some ready made food for shabbat.

Ok, gotta get a cuppa Joe before they shove me out the door! Hope all is well with all of you........

headache

2007-09-29T03:14:00.000-04:00

ugh, headache. been up since little guy woke me up at 6:30 am. thanks dude.

had a gathering yesterday for friends from our old town.................4 families plus us, that's 12 grown-ups, and 15 kids!!! whew, I'm tired.

My mom is coming in today, this afternoon around 3:30. Luckily though, hubby is going to take the boys out this morning around 11ish for a few hours, so I'll get a bit of a break. Then he'll get a break when we go to get mom from the airport. Unfortunately for him, we live closer to the airport these days, AND since it's Saturday there won't be traffic.

anyway, head still pounding. already took 4 ibuprofren, help!!!

oh, and little guy seems to be brewing some sort of stye in his eye. Tried to put warm compress on it, he wasn't having it. let's hope he doesn't get sick.

RRRRRRRRRoll your RRRRResh!!!

2007-09-23T14:05:00.000-04:00

As you know, I am soooo proud of my boys and the Hebrew that they have learned in the past year. "They" say (whoever they is) that kids are like sponges and that they learn so quickly, and I must say, 'they' were right! We got here last July, school started Sept., and by December, the kids were proudly parading in their ganim singing their little hearts out. We were so sick of "Banu choshech...." we used to run when they started to even hum the tune. They've started to incorporate many more Hebrew words into their English. "Matay is Grandma coming?" ,(matay is the hebrew word for when). OH, and their English sentence structure occasionally mimicks hebrew. My big one recently was getting up to go throw something away, "I'm already back!" he told me as he was getting up. Which..........if you translate it directly into hebrew, is correct. But in English, we say of course, "I'll be right back!"

I don't remember when they started correcting my hebrew, but that has started too. "Emah, it's not 'cottage cheese', it's KOHT-edge" the little one has told me many times. I've also been advised by my 6 year old that I don't say my RRRESHs properly. And when hubby told him that I was going to read his story last night (he picked one in hebrew), my son replied, "OH, Emah has learned more now?" gee thanks.

It's amazing though how the kids have acclimated and truly taken on the Israeli accent in their speech, and that ugh, it is starting to mesh into their English. Here are a few examples, mostly from my 4 year old: (author's note: when you see multiple rrrrrrs in a word, read them with an Israeli accent if possible........not as a bunch of R's but instead as a rolled RRRESH)

my favorite dinosaur is the T-rrrrrex
don't worry Emah, I'm brrrrrave!
Abbah, read me the drrrrragon story

and on and on...............

So what's a parent to do??? I mean really, is it healthy to constantly be correcting the kids' speech? I hope so, cuz I give reminders all day, every day. I refuse to think it's hopeless. But I must say with the little one, it is truly COMICAL!!! At 4, he has started to understand fully the differences between speaking "B'anglit" (in English) and "B'ivrit" (in Hebrew). He can correct himself when prompted IF THE DESIRE IS THERE! And lately, he has started to turn it into a joke. Hubby was correcting one of his rrrrrrrrresh-es this evening and reminding him that if he is speaking in English, that he needs to say English words the way they are meant to be said. So, the little one being the clown that he is took this as an opportunity for a laugh and began making up his own words...................

---what's the fire breathing animal in the story? a drrrrrragon
---what's the color of a fire engine? Drrrrrred!
---it's time to go to bed.......... but I'm not Drrrrrrrrr-ired
---ok, give me a kiss goodnight.............. ok, I'll give you a Drrrrrrriss!!!

Such a cutie!!! Or should I say a Drrrrrrrrrrrrutie??? :)

Babbling as usual..........

2007-09-22T07:18:00.000-04:00

So it turns out that a great friend of mine from the Old Country called Friday to tell me that she and her hubby and their 2 adorable boys are going to be making aliyah at the end of next summer!!! I am very happy for them and wanted to wish them well HERE ON THE BLOG because as it also turns out, she said she has (like I did when we decided finally to make aliyah) been reading tons of stuff on the net about aliyah, and came across my blog! She had no idea at first that it was me, but realized very quickly that it is! So, let's all congratulate P&E on their upcoming aliyah!!! :D We're thrilled for you guys.

Anyway.......fasting.....ugh, wasn't easy. I actually woke up Sat. morning with a throbbing headache. And would you believe, I was dreaming about food and drinking in the wee hours of the morning before finally succumbing to the life of the living. Amazing how simply skipping that night time snacking and eating (dreadfully) early can make such a difference. (For those of you elsewhere, the fast started here at 5:18 pm!)

Anyway.........we made it to the "Bet Kneset" (synagogue) in the middle of the torah service Sat am, and were there for about 2 hours. Hubby and I were inside most of the time, and the kids did what kids do here in Israel on Yom Kippur..........played outside in the streets!!! Friday night they both rode their bikes to the BK and the little one spent the evening riding all around the building while the big one spent the evening racing with the big kids up and down the main road. Since there are absolutely NO CARS on the roads for Yom Kippur, kids around the country seize the roads. It's a trip. Aviv actually said last night was "the best night of his life!" too cute.

So this brings us to Saturday, back at the bet kneset, kids getting antsy cuz really they were tired and I didn't bring them a proper lunch. The crackers and water weren't cutting it. So I was sitting out in the hallway with them waiting for hubby to come out and be ready to go. They were sharing the crackers with a friend's son and were just sitting and chatting with the little boy. At which point, the kid says boastfully, "we're having 15 people over at our house tonight for supper!" ...........um, okay?...............Now, allow me to rewind a bit at this point if you don't mind............this is the same friend whom I called last week and asked if she would like to come to OUR house for the same evening to break the fast. "Sorry, we have plans, we are having the Smiths (not their real name) over to thank them for all they've done in welcoming us." Sooooooooooooo, back to the present, isn't it nice to find out that they are having 15 people over, not JUST the Smiths, and well, they have not invited us. This gal KNOWS that we don't have alot of friends here, and I did mention to her later in the week that we had even asked another family to come over to break the fast and they were also busy. So I was feeling bad.

Anyway, I know this all sounds juvenile, and really, I'm not expecting everyone to feel the need to include me always. I think I'm well, just having 'growing pains' of being in a new place. I mean, especially since we didn't come here first thing as NEW IMMIGRANTS fresh off the boat, there has been no welcoming committee to welcome us. People who are new new to Israel and to this town on the other hand, have had invites for shabbat dinners, holiday lunches, and offers to help them acclimate from all over. I'm embarrassed to say that yes I'm jealous, and yes I feel left out and am sad because it's not easy just automatically finding one's niche without that welcome.

Anyway......................babbling babbling babbling............doesn't help to be pms'ing right now either. Thanks for listening......and oh, despite my bitching.........hubby and I had a very nice evening hanging out on our mirpeset together. Then, we hung the sheets to turn our Pergola into our SUKKAH, and then, in the dark, cleaned up the garden a bit. ................all things we could NOT have done if we had been invited to someone's house for a Break the Fast gathering. Oh, and I was also able to check my notebook and write up a few lesson plans to prepare myself for the week. Which, I might add, is another shortie! yay, we like short weeks.......helps the voice situation. Still not used to talking so much all day long and have been getting hoarse by the end of the full weeks.

ok...............so that's it for now. Hugs to all for a Happy New Year.............let's start this one off properly. Hubby is watching POSEIDON on tv, kind of bizarre for the time of year when we've all just proclaimed that now our fate for the year has been written and sealed. I hope that this world this year will know nothing but good things........

L'shana Tova u'metuka!!!

2007-09-12T03:50:00.000-04:00

Wishing you and yours a Happy, Healthy, and Sweet New Year!!!

I used to send out New Year's cards with pictures of my son (at the time I had only one), and before him I sent out cards hand signed and a personal message included to each recipient.

ugh. Starting to ask myself why I feel sometimes like I can't get it all together to do stuff like that anymore. Instead I'm going to turn that question around and claim that this year I am going to TRY to be more on top of connections. My "Moshav family"....with whom I lived back in 1989 for a month when I was here on the YJ Year Course after high school program...........I haven't been in touch with them in AGES! And they live near Sderot and I feel awful for not calling often and for not inviting them to come for a visit, or for going to visit them. ugh. So I am going to call them now and I am telling myself that I will invite them to come for a shabbat lunch in the near future. Maybe while my mom is here......

oh, yes, didn't I tell you? Mom is coming on the 29th! She will be with us for a week, then on Monday she's going down to the Dead Sea for a conference for the Parents of North American Immigrants or Israelis, I forget what the I stands for. We'll meet her there that Friday night, she's booked us a room!, then she'll come back with us Sat. and will be here for a few more days till Tuesday. Not a bad visit. Broken up, enough time to do stuff while we're off for sukkot, and not too much time sitting around the house with nothing to do. (keeping fingers crossed)

ok, done babbling. I need to go clean the kitchen, the floors, and change the sheets on the beds. Oh, and the washing machine is beeping at me too, so I need to take the dry stuff off the lines and hang the wet stuff, and then fold and put away the dry stuff. ugh. Isn't it nice having a day off? ***cough, cough, BS, cough cough!!!***

And back to the real reason I started this post......................WISHING YOU ALL A SHANA TOVA!!! Thanks for stopping by, for reading, and for commenting. Hugs all around, me

the school~gan updates............

2007-09-04T17:42:00.001-04:00

So my big guy seems so little at the school. He gets dressed each morning in his school labeled t-shirt that he calls his "Kitah Aleph Shirt", and he swims in it. I should have bought the size smaller, but I didn't want them to shrink to be small on him. Oh well.

Anyway, I stopped on the way in this morning to say hi to someone, and he didn't wait for me, he was a man on a mission........I followed him into his class 2 minutes later just to say goodbye. At the school wide recess/break time, I was outside talking to my fellow English teacher when I naturally glanced off in the direction of his class. The first graders have their own playgrounds that they share with the onsite Kindergarten, and rarely, the first graders are allowed to play out in the main school area with the "bigger" kids. Today was one of those days, and I found my dear son wandering outside of his classroom. He was alone, poor guy, so I went over to see if he was ok and to say hi. He was quite excited, but not to see me. He was excited because he was allowed to play in front and loved that responsibility. When I asked why he was alone, he said it was because he didn't want to play with the other kids yet. He's in this mode of getting to know the kids one at a time to decide who he wants to be friends with......interesting. At least that's what he's portraying to us. I'm not fully sure if he is integrating into the social mix of the classroom (not easy being one of the new kids), and this of course is my biggest fear. I want him to fit in, to be happy, to have friends. The learning part will take care of itself. He's smart, I know that, he'll learn. But if a kid doesn't start off his school years with confidence, feeling like school is a good fun place...a kind of mini community for him, then he could have troubles that stay with him for a long time.

what? I'm going overboard? I'm paranoid? It's what? Yes, I know, only the 3rd day of school.....so ok, I'll lay off.........I know, I know, he'll be fine. HE IS fine, and I need to trust what I know, that he is a well rounded likeable kid who WILL make friends at his own pace......and he IS and WILL BE happy.

So why do I worry so much?

The little one, on the other hand, is slowly becoming the king of the gan. We went to his friend's house to play this afternoon. And he has told me of another friend and a girlfriend too. He told me also of a little girl named DIVA (hee hee, think he's pronouncing this one wrong!) who only speaks "B'anglit" (english). I asked if he talked to her b'anglit, and he said no because she does things she's not supposed to. Poor little Diva, apparently they can't get her off of the puppet stage........hee hee She's born to be a STAR I guess!

And me........last but not least...........WHEW! I'm exhausted!!! I have been teaching 5 hours straight every day, ok, so it was just yesterday and today, but damn, my feet hurt! My head hurts from talking and thinking in Hebrew so much, and my throat hurts from trying to shut the little buggers up!!! Israeli kids sure are talkative, and I'm working it, doing my best to figure out how to get them and keep them quiet. I'm learning that the busier I keep them, the quieter they'll be. The only problem is that our curriculum, teaching English in 3rd grade especially is an ORAL and AURAL (listening) approach. There is limited writing......and so much speaking, so much time spent listening to me blabber on........ugh. But they're cute. And I feel like a celebrity walking down the hall........."Hi Susie!" "Susie, gud murning!" "hello english teachr!" ..........hee hee. It's fun. And today getting into the car outside of my building, 2 of my students walked by. I like this, it gives me that sense of community that I seem to be longing for for my son.

L'at, l'at..........slowly slowly...........

misc. mumbling..........

2007-09-01T15:04:00.000-04:00

Just some rambling and babbling coming your way.....................

...........So yes, we start school tomorrow. WE as in little one to GAN (preK), big one to kitah aleph (first grade), and me to the wolves. Yes, I'm being thrown to the wolves. I'm going to be teaching 3rd and 4th graders, English of course, cuz in this country I ain't worth nothin' more. hee hee. Just joking. But in reality, yes, teaching English is quite the easy path for a teacher who speaks english to follow.
......let's see, what else can I tell you? Spent the day at the pool with some friends. Had a nice time, got some sun.
.....oh, we got a new dining room set that sparked a whole change in decorum in our home. Ya see, we bought the thing about 2 weeks ago, we were in a shopping area nearby, saw the store, walked in, and bought what we THOUGHT would be a similar color to our china cabinet that we had in the dining room area. Well, lo' and behold, it wasn't. But it sort of worked out ok, because the 2 bookshelves that I bought last week for the living room weren't really the right color for the living room, but instead, they were more like the color of the new dining room set. Sooooooooo...........since the china cabinet is closer to the color of the Entertainment center, it is now a display piece in the living room, and the book shelves are now bookshelves and more in the dining room. I think it works, that's the scary thing.
........hmmmm......what else? oh, I have gone back to a bit closer to my natural color. I have had highlights for the past year (expensive ones at that), that well, hubby didn't love, and to be honest, I never felt comfortable with them either. So, I had started to "let them grow out". It was making me even more insane because now they started half way down my head, so I had to do something about it. And now I'm back to DARK brown. It's a bit too dark IMO, but it'll lighten up and get more natural as time goes on. The good thing is that it has covered my grey hairs, so that's a plus. Just something else to get used to.

...............and that's all the rambling for today. hey, just realized cori was supposed to visit us this past weekend. What happened to you girl? Did you get sent to find terrorists in Gaza already??? hee hee drop me a line.........

and to the rest of you.............Shavua Tov, have a good week!

Like a little kid............

2007-08-26T14:23:00.001-04:00

AARGH............tomorrow is my first day of school!!!! I feel like a little kid......I'm nervous, worrying about walking in there not knowing anyone, and hoping that I can make friends and that people will like me. I hope I can stand up to the expectations that the principal and the other teachers and of course the PARENTS (*gulp*) have for me. I want to be the success that I have been in the past in my mother tongue, and I want to have the confidence that I once had in my abilities as a teacher.

..........not too tall of an order, is it??? Just sending these thoughts and intentions up to the "powers that be," and to all of my guardian angels that I know are watching over me from wherever that "up there" is.

Your positive vibes and good thoughts couldn't hurt either.........thanks in advance!!!

Get out your tissues.............

2007-08-26T07:53:00.000-04:00

But only because you're going to laugh so hard you may cry...............here's another story sent by Great Aunt Anne.......my husband's 88 year old great aunt who surfs the net. This one had me truly truly Laughing Out Loud!!! Enjoy............

For all animal lovers & mothers ... this one's for you!

If you have raised kids, and gone through the pet syndrome, including toilet flush burials for dead goldfish, the story below will have you laughing out loud!

Here's what happened:

Just after dinner one night, my son came up to tell me there was "something wrong" with one of the two lizards he holds prisoner in his room.

"He's just lying there looking sick," he told me. "I'm serious, Dad. Can you help?"

I put my best lizard-healer expression on my face and followed him into his bedroom. One of the little lizards was indeed lying on his back, looking stressed. I immediately knew what to do.

"Honey," I called, "come look at the lizard!" "Oh, my gosh!" my wife exclaimed. "She's having babies." "What?" my son demanded. "But their names are Bert and Ernie, Mom!"

I was equally outraged.

"Hey, how can that be? I thought we said we didn't want them to reproduce," I said accusingly to my wife.

"Well, what do you want me to do, post a sign in their cage?" she inquired (I think she actually said this sarcastically!).

"No, but you were supposed to get two boys!" I reminded her, (in my most loving, calm, sweet voice, while gritting my teeth).

"Yeah, Bert and Ernie!" my son agreed.

"Well, it's just a little hard to tell on some guys, you know," she informed me (Again with the sarcasm!). By now the rest of the family had gathered to see what was going on. I shrugged, deciding to make the best of it. "Kids, this is going to be a wondrous experience," I announced. "We're about to witness the miracle of birth."

"Oh, gross!" they shrieked.

"Well, isn't THAT just great? What are we going to do with a litter of tiny little lizard babies?" my wife wanted to know.

We peered at the patient. After much struggling, what looked like a tiny foot would appear briefly, vanishing a scant second later. "We don't appear to be making much progress," I noted.

"It's breech," my wife whispered, horrified.

"Do something, Dad!" my son urged.

"Okay, okay." Squeamishly, I reached in and grabbed the foot when it next appeared, giving it a gentle tug. It disappeared. I tried several more times with the same results.

"Should I call 911?" my eldest daughter wanted to know. "Maybe they could talk us through the trauma." (You see a pattern here with the females in my house?)

"Let's get Ernie to the vet," I said grimly. We drove to the vet with my son holding the cage in his lap "Breathe, Ernie, breathe," he urged.

"I don't think lizards do Lamaze," his mother noted to him. (Women can be so cruel to their own young. I mean what she does to me is one thing, but this boy is of her womb, for God's sake.).

The vet took Ernie back to the examining room and peered at the little animal through a magnifying glass.

"What do you think, Doc, a C-section?" I suggested scientifically.

"Oh, very interesting," he murmured. "Mr. and Mrs. Cameron, may I speak to you privately for a moment?"

I gulped, nodding for my son to step outside. "Is Ernie going to be okay?" my wife asked. "Oh, perfectly," the vet assured us. "This lizard is not in labor. In fact, that isn't EVER going to happen . . . Ernie is a boy. You see, Ernie is a young male. And occasionally, as they come into maturity, like most male species, they um . . . um . . . masturbate. Just the way he did, lying on his back." He blushed, glancing at my wife.

We were silent, absorbing this. "So, Ernie's just . . just . . excited," my wife offered. "Exactly," the vet replied, relieved that we understood. More silence. Then my vicious, cruel wife started to giggle. And giggle. And then even laugh loudly.

"What's so funny?" I demanded, knowing, but not believing that the woman I married would commit the upcoming affront to my flawless manliness.

Tears were now running down her face. "It's just . .that . . I'm picturing you pulling on its . . . its . . . teeny little ." She gasped for more air to bellow in laughter once more.

"That's enough," I warned. We thanked the vet and hurriedly bundled the lizard and our son back into the car. He was glad everything was going to be okay.

"I know Ernie's really thankful for what you did, Dad," he told me. "Oh, you have NO idea," my wife agreed, collapsing with laughter.

Two lizards: $140.

One cage: $50.

Trip to the vet: $30.

Memory of your husband pulling on a lizard's winkie: Priceless!

Moral of the story: Pay attention in biology class. Lizards lay eggs.

Am I worthy???

2007-08-20T15:41:00.000-04:00

OMG, so tomorrow is a big day...............bec, and phish and the kids are coming for a visit (ugh, I hope emily the dog isn't coming too, I didn't make that one clear).

ANYWAY...........I know bec is such a neatfreak, so I better get dusting, vacuming, and polishing the floors!!! aargh! I hope I'm worthy of still being her friend after our first F2F!!! tre' cool!

I'll post some pics if she lets me, well really only if some good ones come out. We'll see if I'm having a good hair day or not!

ok, time to hit the sack. sweet dreams everyone.

aargh........i'm typing in only lowercase letters...........what's happening to me???

Pay it Forward...

2007-08-19T00:47:00.000-04:00

..........I got this from our 88 year old Great Aunt who surfs the net daily and gets a kick out of figuring out the technology at her age. She sent this as a thank you and with a request to PAY IT FORWARD. It's a story I had not seen before. Enjoy!

One day a man saw an old lady, stranded on the side of the road, but even in the dim light of day, he could see she needed help. So he pulled up in front of her Mercedes and got out. His Pontiac was still sputtering when he approached her.

Even with the smile on his face, she was worried. No one had stopped to help for the last hour or so. Was he going to hurt her? He didn't look safe; he looked poor and hungry.

He could see that she was frightened, standing out there in the cold. He knew how she felt. It was those chills which only fear can put in you.

He said, "I'm here to help you, ma'am. Why don't you wait in the car where it's warm? By the way, my name is Bryan Anderson."

Well, all she had was a flat tire, but for an old lady, that was bad enough. Bryan crawled under the car looking for a place to put the jack, skinning his knuckles a time or two. Soon he was able to change the tire. But he had to get dirty and his hands hurt.

As he was tightening up the lug nuts, she rolled down the window and began to talk to him. She told him that she was from St. Louis and was only just passing through. She couldn't thank him enough for coming to her aid.

Bryan just smiled as he closed her trunk. The lady asked how much she owed him. Any amount would have been all right with her. She already imagined all the awful things that could have happened had he not stopped. Bryan never thought twice about being paid. This was not a job to him. This was helping someone in need, and God knows there were plenty, who had given him a hand in the past. He had lived his whole life that way, and it never occurred to him to act any other way.

He told her that if she really wanted to pay him back, the next time she saw someone who needed help, she could give that person the assistance they needed, and Bryan added, "And think of me."

He waited until she started her car and drove off. It had been a cold and depressing day, but he felt good as he headed for home, disappearing into the twilight.

A few miles down the road the lady saw a small cafe. She went in to grab a bite to eat, and take the chill off before she made the last leg of her trip home. It was a dingy looking restaurant. Outside were two old gas pumps. The whole scene was unfamiliar to her. The waitress came over and brought a clean towel to wipe her wet hair. She had a sweet smile, one that even being on her feet for the whole day couldn't erase. The lady noticed the waitress was nearly eight months pregnant, but she never let the strain and aches change her attitude. The old lady wondered how someone who had so little could be so giving to a stranger. Then she remembered Bryan.

After the lady finished her meal, she paid with a hundred dollar bill. The waitress quickly went to get change for her hundred dollar bill, but the old lady had slipped right out the door. She was gone by the time the waitress came back. The waitress wondered where the lady could be. Then she noticed something written on the napkin.

There were tears in her eyes when she read what the lady wrote: "You don't owe me anything. I have been there too. Somebody once helped me out, the way I'm helping you. If you really want to pay me back, here is what you do: Do not let this chain of love end with you."

Under the napkin were four more $100 bills.

Well, there were tables to clear, sugar bowls to fill, and people to serve, but the waitress made it through another day. That night when she got home from work and climbed into bed, she was thinking about the money and what the lady had written. How could the lady have known how much she and her husband needed it? With the baby due next month, it was going to be hard....

She knew how worried her husband was, and as he lay sleeping next to her, she gave him a soft kiss and whispered soft and low, "Everything's going to be all right. I love you, Bryan Anderson."

There is an old saying "What goes around comes around." Today, I sent you this story and I'm asking you to pass it on... Let this light shine.

Don't delete it, don't return it. Simply, pass this on to a friend.

errrr.........

2007-08-15T14:03:00.000-04:00

........please excuse me, I'm having a moment where the other adult in my home is just irking me..........please tell me that I'm not the only wife in the world who hears it when things are cluttered and not clean, but never gets a "wow honey, looks like you did some cleaning!" when I've spent the day sweeping, mopping, dusting, and cleaning. I'm so ready to go back to work so that I can have a legitimate excuse to also be tired at the end of the day. Who am I kidding though? My job will still be looked at as a piece of cake cuz it's not as high pressured and go-go-go all day till 7pm like his is. AARGH!!!!!

..............ok, thank you for listening. We'll be back to our regularly scheduled programming tomorrow. Have a good night.......................

.....home again, home again, jiggety jig.....

2007-08-13T08:00:00.000-04:00

So as if it wasn't enough buying a home and moving after being in this country for just a year, we decided to take a vacation "israeli style" in Turkey. We got a good deal on "Daka90", and spent 3 nights in a fabulous resort outside of Antalya, Turkey. There were swimming pools as far as the eye could see, water slides for the kids (and adults), and the food and drink were all included.

Unfortunately...............the air condition wasn't. ugh. Just going into the dining room and picking up a plate to start the buffet caused one to sweat profusely. no joke. "So why didn't you just go into the main part of the hotel or the lobby?", you ask........Well........get this, the lobby and the hallways also were boiling and had mega humidity factors going on! it was awful. "So why didn't you just go into your room and put it on freezing?" you ask.................Well............yup, the room too was lacking. But really, the lack of heat in the rest of the hotel made the room feel great, but in reality, it wasn't much to write home about either. ugh.

OH WAIT.....one more funny thing to tell you.....we thought about maybe on the second night getting a hotel babysitter to come and sit in the room while the kids slept. After all, we had a "Family room" which meant that the kids were downstairs in their own little suite, and our bedroom was upstairs with the bathroom. so we looked on the lobby information screen that told you all of the awesome things about the hotel that they failed to tell us on checkin, and there was the babysitter info.............

"Want someone to watch your child while you have a night to yourselves??? Babysitters are available, call from your hotel room, dial 666"

Ummmmmmm............helloooo??? Am I paranoid, maybe a tad bit. But c'mon, I'm not exaggerating, and was not about to call 666 to find a babysitter for my kids!!! In the words of Scooby Do: "Ri, ron't rink ro!!"

So anyway............here we are, back at the house, back being cooped up here. Today besides the construction workers who are working on the extra room and hallway out that we've been building, I've had the screen guys here installing screens, the Tami4 guy here bringing us a water source, the electrician here finishing up his work switching the house to a Phase 3 to be able to handle all of the strain we as a family put on the system, and hmmm, was anyone else here today? My brain is so filled with the dust from the shiputzim (rennovations), that I can't think straight. (hey, that's my story, and I'm sticking to it!)

So there. School starts in almost 2 weeks, I know nothing. I guess I should call the other teacher who teaches English at the school where I'll be teaching, but I'm still feeling lazy. I need to go to the grocery store but again, am bound to the house. The workers will leave soon, but ugh, the thought of going to the grocery store with the boys in tow is SOOOO not appealing.

ok, thanks for reading. always fun venting even if I have no idea if anyone is going to read it or not. Have a good week!

We're In......

2007-08-04T09:35:00.000-04:00

Well, we're in the new home and if I must say so myself, (which I guess I must cuz well this is MY blog), it's AMAZING!!!!

More another time........tired today......

Taking a break......aka......procrastinating!!!

2007-07-30T07:32:00.000-04:00

AARGH.......how is it that 5 days ago I THOUGHT I was 95% finished with the packing, and then proceeded to get insulted when hubby told me it was more like 85%??????

Well today (to you, my loyal 3 readers only), I stand corrected. (We'd never let hubby know he was right, now would we???) I keep going and going like the f'ing Energizer bunny (not to be confused with the Playboy bunny, not in the least!)......and yet still, there IS SO MUCH MORE TO DO!!!!

So yes, we are moving tomorrow. That is, in less than 24 hours, actually in approximately 17 hours the moving men should arrive. I've got about 12 bottles of water chillin' in the fridge, along with 6 1.5 liter bottles of soda, and that's that.

Today our washer/dryer gets picked up. We had to sell it cuz in the new place, the hookup is under the kitchen counter, and ours is a one piece stacker. No biggie, we bought it, used it for a year, bugged the hell out of crazy neighbor lady down below, and now we're even selling it for more than we paid for it!!! Kudos for buying in the motherland and shipping here, huh? So essentially, a year later I get a whole new set for nada! And, the peeps who are buying our stacker are getting a discount compared to what they would pay if they purchased it brand new here, and it's only a year old. (hmmm....maybe I should have asked them if they have a crazy neighbor lady down below?? oh well)

So I've got the israeli version of MTV on my tv right now to have some working music going on, and to keep me from watching the lovely daytime tv options. I've seen that awful cheerleader movie about 3 times now, and never from the beginning. Oh, and Mystic Pizza is on, great 80's flick. aargh.......keep me away.

Ok, gotta run.............next time you hear from me I'll be reporting to you from the new pad!!! Which by the way, is being CLEANED in every nook n' cranny today, and sprayed for bugs, and floors polished too!!! A shit load of money, but sooooooooooo worth it so that I can move into a CLEAN CLEAN home!!!!

oh, and some shout outs:

*Mazal Tov to Bec, Adam, and little a&e on their ALIYAH!!! They arrive tomorrow morning and I wanted to meet the plane but movers coming. ugh.
*B'hatzlacha to Cori......she's getting drafted!!! Something she's wanted to do, read up on her blog! You go girl!
*and B'hatzlacha to Baka...........keeping fingers crossed on that big sale for you.........may the good luck transfer to me!!!

(ok, so maybe I have a total of 5 or 6 readers on a good day!, cuz there's 3 right there!)

HAVE A GREAT REST OF THE MONTH PEOPLE!!!

Sweltering Hot is an understatement.....

2007-07-26T10:29:00.000-04:00

UGH................so I have this little weather pop-up thing at the bottom of my computer screen that tells me the temperature in Jerusalem. ......

IT NOW SAYS 100 DEGREES FAHRENHEIT!!!!! (hmmm, didn't know it was spelled with the 'H' before the R??? what's up with that, spellcheck???)

Anyway............I feel like a kid outside of the candy store...............the a/c guy is installing the air condition units in our new home tonight and tomorrow..........and we're stuck here for 5 more nights in the heat! I think I am going to take the 'laws up on their offer to sleep over at their place tonight in the guest room with the boys on mattresses on the floor. At least I'll be able to cool down. I think I've just been overheated for days................

So yes, mere days before we move. It's not easy, seeing as we've made so many close friends here in our town. It IS only 25 minutes away, but still, feels far away when we've been 3 minutes away. These are friends though that will keep, and that's a good feeling.

ok............I'm losing any train of thought. Going to go pour myself a big glass of ice water. ugh.

I need to sage ME

2007-07-22T12:21:00.000-04:00

So my mother in law has been invited (by me) and is thrilled to agree, to coming to our new place before we move in and burn SAGE throughout, cleansing the home of any of the old and stuffy energy from the previous owners. I'm feeling like I personally need to be saged.

Got a letter back from RDB (see post below) after I wrote and thanked her for her support etc. I know it's not PC but I'm going to copy and paste her email to me here, leaving out any revealing info of course. It's just too poisonous to not share. Please note, the underlined and bolds are hers, the italics are mine to show that it's verbal discourse (more like verbal diarrhea!) Remember also that I accepted VERBALLY the job at School X, and less than a week later called her and told her I did not want to take it. It did not go farther than that on my part. So where she is getting that I am LEAVING them, is just sick bullshit. sick sick sick. See below:

Dear Ms Emah,

Please be advised that I have not understood you nor do I support this move. The move will go ahead because there is a position available at School A, at a time of a shortage in teachers. However, your decision to leave School X has harmed that school, and was in no way taken with my consent or approval.

RDB

Crisis Averted, resolved, etc............

2007-07-22T03:40:00.000-04:00

WHEW! Now that that's resolved, I can take a deep breath and tell you all about it...............

So you see, I went on an interview at School X. Got offered a job, not 100% in my specialty area, but close to home, and a friend works there, so I VERBALLY ACCEPTED.

Later that week I went in to the School A with my son to visit where he will be in First Grade. The first grade Team Leader gave my name to the principal, who already had it on her desk from the Regional Director Bitch(we'll call her RDB).

Long story short, I was called in for an interview at School A; loved it, they loved me, wanted to hire me. I explained situation before I went in with School X, but decided since they are two totally different age groups, that it shouldn't be a problem for me to say no thank you to X and then work at A.

Well....................RDB had something else in mind!!! She needed a teacher for X and wanted me cuz I am a native speaker. She told me I should proceed with X and when she finds another teacher for X that she will allow me to pull and go to A. I didn't like that, told her so, and then screened my calls from X for 3 weeks.

This past week, I decided enough is enough, wrote a letter (in hebrew, pat me on the back) to the principal of X thanking her for the opportunity but explaining that I was much more comfortable working with younger children and that I at this time am revoking my acceptance.
I cc'ed RDB.

Well, RDB emailed me that she was "astonished" that I would give up this job where I was so needed, blah blah blah. I wrote to her and explained AGAIN my position, and then let it be.

Just spoke with principal of A................she got a phone call (probably with tail between legs) from RDB last Thursday morning and I will be working at SCHOOL A!!!!

happy dance!!!

as if life wasn't exciting enough.......

2007-07-21T13:58:00.000-04:00

I misunderstood what I had read about when I needed to get an Israeli Driver's License.

I read that my foreign license could be transferred into an Israeli one up to 3 years after aliyah, and I thought that that meant that I didn't have to get the Israeli one till then.

I just found out that I was wrong. For some stupid reason, my foreign license is only valid for me to drive on up to being here a year, and that since July 6, i have been driving here illegally.

not good.

Called a friend's brother-in-law this evening. He is a driving instructor. Hoping to hear from him tomorrow to get this moving. Both boys in gan and kaytana this week, so if by some miracle I can take care of this, that would be great. ugh.

bits and pieces.....

2007-07-21T01:15:00.000-04:00

So, bits and pieces of our lives are settling in here and there.

We are now owners of TWO homes in TWO different countries! Not quite what we expected, but hoping that my mom can move the house in Florida as soon as possible! She got an offer this week (a way low one), and we're hoping to pump it up a bit.
Our new home here is shaping up as well. Hubby has been great at organizing the working crew, checking in on them, and making decisions about what to do next. Luckily, the kitchen is FABULOUS to begin with, so that doesn't need to be touched. But downstairs, there were 4 bedrooms. We have taken the wall that is to the hallway of one of the bedrooms and broken it down to open up that room. That will be the playroom! We wanted to have the playroom open to increase the probability that the boys will go down there to play on their own! We're also having the entire house painted, and are having a small bathroom (we used to call it a "Powder Room" back in the old country) installed upstairs. Right now, upstairs is the living room/dining room/kitchen, and the master bedroom. BUT......there is also a bonus room...........let me explain in another bullet.......
You see, our home is in a building, on the bottom floor. Each of the residents in the building have a storage room downstairs behind our apartment. OUR storage room was backed up to the hallway of our home. The previous owners had opened a doorway to this storage room and used it as an in house storage room. We are taking it a step further. We have opened up a window to the hallway, and will be using this room as an office. We are also putting up walls and putting in the powder room bathroom here, just a toilet and a small sink. AND, we have found that we can open a walkway and a door way that lead directly out to the coolest mirpeset (patio) with a beautiful wooden pergola above it! Tre' cool.
The bureaucracy garbage is still going on....I am being patient but soon will be calling in the big guns of Protectzia........in this country it can be all about who you know. It is all about a job for me and I have been practically sick with stress over it all. not good.
Luckily, hubby's job is doing well......the big wigs are starting to see what he's made of and they are upping his responsibilities etc. With that good comes the extra stress and time, but it's better than feeling like nobody values you, right?

AARGH!!! WHY CAN'T LIFE BE SIMPLE????

Still not resolved...

2007-07-14T15:38:00.000-04:00

So my issues with the aforementioned but not specified bureaucracy are still all up in the air. I've got offers from a few different people to contact "higher ups", but at the same time am getting advice to NOT do that but to instead wait it out a bit more. I just don't like it. I've been put in a position where I am being forced to be deceptive, and it's not my nature. I just want to go stand outside on the mirpeset and scream!!! AAAAARGH!!!

Outa the mouth of babes......

2007-07-07T14:17:00.000-04:00

ok, just had to share this one...................

This was a conversation that I had tonight with ilan (who by the way, now claims to be 4 since he had his gan party, even though he was born on August 8, but who wants to argue with a 3, *ahem* 4 year old???)...........

ilan: Emah, I love Abbah more than you.

me: ilan, that's not nice to say. You can say that you love Abbah "Differently" than you love me, but we don't say that we love each other more. Just like I don't say I love Aviv more than you, right? I love you both, right?

ilan: ok. I love you and abbah differently. I love abbah with different hair.

me: ???? Huh?????

ilan: I don't want abbah to have just a little hair, I want him to have hair like me.

abbah: I used to have hair like yours ilan, but I lost it as I got older.

ilan: Yeah, you lost it on your body!!!!!!!!!!

hahahahahahahahah

Hard to believe......

2007-07-05T14:00:00.001-04:00

Today is July 5...............exactly 9 years ago, my hubby and I were married at the wedding to beat all weddings! We had the ceremony and the party in the Conservative Syn. where we were both teaching Hebrew school at the time. The band was an Israeli band whom we found by asking around at the local falafel restaurant, and they were FABULOUS! Walking down the aisle for the ceremony, hubby walked to "Yerushalayim shel Zahav" and I walked to "Al kol Aileh". If you know the songs, then you 'get it.' Anyway, the band played an incredible mixture of cool dance songs and amazing Israeli songs......those who were there danced and danced and said that they hadn't had that much fun at a wedding since their own! The caterer was having a fit, cuz every time he'd finally get us all seated for example to eat our salad, the band would start up another song and up we'd pop to dance again!!! My feet were swollen for 3 days! hee hee So bottom line, it's hard to believe that it's been 9 years since we're married, and actually 16 years that we've known each other!

But that's not all that today is...........hubby has a Great Aunt who turned 80 on the day of our Wedding, and as they say in the deep south, (must be read in a southern accent too) "Bless her heart," she's still alive and hanging in there! She still drives (heck, she's a young driver for S.Florida), and lives alone, and goes to the Senior center to play bridge, etc. So shout outs today for Great Aunt Anne (who calls herself Double Great to the kids), who turns 89 today........

And wait, that's not all today is......................exactly one year ago today, we boarded the ElAl plane that changed our lives! We made aliyah exactly one year ago............and wow, we're still here, still happy, and *gulp!* soon to be homeowners in this country!!! pretty cool.

So there, I did it, finally after all of my stressed out crazy posts the past month, I've managed to focus today's post on the happy, things to be proud of things in life! Raise your glass to me,

L'CHAIM!!!!

Bureaucracy at its Best........

2007-07-04T04:51:00.000-04:00

ok, so something is going on in my life but I don't think it's appropriate to put it out here on the net. It's a classic case of politics and bureaucracy and it's driving me insane. We're talking stomach turning, stress inducing, muscle spasm in neck, shakey feeling reactions. Not sure if I'm experiencing what might not otherwise have been experienced in America, but it's not a good feeling dealing with it here in Israel. I hate feeling like my future is at other people's mercy, and the whole "trust me it will all work out, we hope" thing is just too much to handle.

Thanks for the positive vibes that i know you will send my way to help ensure that this will turn out how I want it to turn out.

Light at the end of the tunnel.........

2007-07-02T00:55:00.000-04:00

Albeit dim, it's a light! So a week and a half after little guy's surgery and he's eating again, thank g-d!!! He literally did not eat for a week!!! He drank tons of Rice Milk, Juice and Water, but that's it! He is finally sleeping again through the night too. That was the hardest, he'd be all obnoxious during the day then wouldn't sleep longer than an hour at a time, pure torture. So now, things are looking up, looking brighter, and all is great, right? UGH.........well not quite. He has turned into this monster of a kid who expects the world to bend over backwards for him, and will cry and cry and cry and cry if he doesn't get his way. Yesterday his tantrum lasted at least an hour and a half. He started crying when we picked up his brother to bring him to tutoring, he didn't want to get out of the car; then he cried the whole way there, then cried after we picked up big brother, tand all the way to the tutoring....he took a break for 5 minutes while I brought aviv upstairs, then he waited until we got to the grocery store to resume.........and he cried all throughout the store, cuz at first he didn't want to get out of the car, then he wanted me to carry him. I don't think so! You should have seen the looks I was getting!!!

Anyway.........today, Monday, he is doing much better, and had a fun filled day at gan and fun afternoon with his cousins.

ok.........so bec and adam have sent off their lift.......or at least the movers are there today in the thrills picking up their life and getting it all set to move to Israel. Sending a shoutout hug, as it's quite surreal standing in your empty home after the lift has been picked up......ugh.

OH, and one more thing..........one of my friends today told me that she's started a blog.......funny thing is, none of my real life friends know that I blog, only friends whom I have met through blogging and are now real life friends, but none of the friends that I know from real life know, does that make sense? So I tried to search out her blog, but couldn't find it. It would be cool if we found each other's blogs and didn't realize we were reading each other's blogs. hee hee, so if you think this is you.......... drop me a note! :) hee hee

Ugh.

2007-06-26T23:24:00.000-04:00

Wednesday morning, 6:24 am; I'm awake because I have a meeting with the principal at a school where I've already had a job interview with the English Coordinators, they want me, and want me to meet the principal for final approval. 8am I need to be there. It takes 25 minutes with no traffic, driving fast.

So why the ugh? Bottom line, it's day 6 after the operation, and little man was up last night every hour on the hour. WE saw 11pm, midnight, 1, 2 , then 3:09 (maybe he hit snooze?)

AARGH!!!!

I cannot stand to see him in pain. I cannot stand his crying. I cannot stand that he's waking me up and I cannot comfort him.............I'm just losing it.

Thank goodness we go to the ENT this afternoon so maybe she can provide some clarity. I don't like this beast who is living in my house, and I want my kid back!

thanks for listening......

Torture, pure torture!

2007-06-23T13:50:00.000-04:00

So the surgery went well, 3 hours later he was up and out of his bed and dancing in the hallway of the Pediatric Surgery ward. The nurses were in awe. He was eating popsicles, and just being the life of the party. This was Thursday night.

Friday he was a bit depressed in the morning, wanting Abba (his dad) and missing his brother and just plain wanting to get out of the hospital. We finally convinced him that if he didn't drink and eat at least ice cream that he wasn't going to be allowed to go home. He made sure to drink a big huge sip in front of the doctor, and we were discharged by 3pm. That was Friday.

Today he was in good spirits and woke up ready to play. He ate a bit or two of yogurt, and that's it. I tried with all sorts of cooked soft fruits, but he wanted pancakes or popcorn. We took him to the movies and to the arcade to get his mind off of it all, and he drank quite a bit throughout the day. He had us buy 2 different ice creams, but didn't like either of them, so essentially ate nothing all day. That was Saturday.

I don't know how I'm supposed to survive another full week of this. The ENT told us 10 days of soft, cold foods and drink. He's starving and he keeps telling me "YOU won't let me eat anything!" It breaks my heart.

It's torture, pure torture.......

What a day.......

2007-06-20T10:59:00.000-04:00

Wow, what a day..................what we assumed (and you know what they say about why you shouldn't assume.......cuz it makes an ASS out of U and ME!!) was going to be an hour or two "Pre-Op" appointment ended up being an ALL DAY AFFAIR!!! We got to the hospital at 8:30am, waited for almost an hour and when we finally met with the doctor, he told us that we had 5 stations to go to throughout the day......essentially meeting nurses and doctors who would each evaluate my little guy to determine if he is able to undergo the surgery tomorrow to have his tonsils and adenoids removed. AARGH......

So yes, he's good to go, and at 7pm (note to self: don't forget, don't forget, don't forget) I need to call the Pediatric Surgery nurses station to get his official time for the operation. aargh. oh wait, did I say that?

Anyway...........that's that.

OH WAIT, something strange.........not sure how, but one of my kids touched the laptop this morning and SOMEHOW turned the screed SIDEWAYS. Does ANYONE have any idea how to fix this??? It is very strange. We tried turning it off and back on, but it didn't work. Any help would be appreciated.

ok, gotta go. exhaustion is beyond what I am experiencing.

2 down, 2 to go....

2007-06-19T12:15:00.000-04:00

Ok, so 2 job interviews, 2 job offers............what's a girl to do??? Unfortunately, I'm not jumping at either of them. hmmmm.......need to think about them.

Going in the am for Pre-op visit, hoping to still be able to make the Thurs. am interview, as THAT school is around the corner from the new place, AND one of the girls I know from my teacher course works there, so that would be cool to have a friend already on staff. But it is High School, and they all look at my resume and say, "But you have no experience in HS....."

bite me.

sorry, did I say that? I know, this blog has always been so G rated, hope I didn't offend anyone. This would be a good time to do one of those scratch lines through the word, but I don't know how to do that. So, consider it scratched through, but left in for effect. :)

Ouch, headache. Hubby just came home. Kids want to come out of the tub, hubby is on cell phone, being a bit rude if I might add, but I'm not jumping up and greeting him at the door with a scotch in hand either, so I guess we're even.

ok, thanks for listening..............I'll post more as it comes to me............