Entries Tagged 'Tammy' ↓

Today Ben was able to ride his bike to school!  He was so excited to see his bike yesterday that I promised him that he could ride to school today.  So he rode while Talia and I walked.  It was good because it meant that our walk was much shorter because he rides pretty quickly and after we drop Talia off, we speed to gan.  Talia didn’t cry today and said her day was okay.  I think she just doesn’t want to talk about it when she gets home and so she says it’s okay.  Ben came out of school with a big smile, as usual.

After i dropped them off at school today I took Keren to the tipat chalav which, thankfully, was open today!  I got it right!  So I gave them her records and Ben’s records and I am made an appointment to go back so they could examine Keren.   We then went to Cheerfully Changed, the change store in Modiin where I had to give the guy dollars and he transferred it into our bank here into Shekels and also did some other transactions.  It took me a while to find it even though Eric had shown me where it was more than once.  Luckily I have friends in Modiin who I called and then got me there.

When we came home it was time for a nap (for Keren, not me) and time to do some more unpacking.  I got about 2 kitchen boxes done before Savta came to help me some more.  Thank G-d for Savtas!  While we were unpacking the gas guy came to hook up my gas line.  So now I can cook!  It’s a little primative b/c there is a plug for the starter but no outlet under the counter.  So in order to put the gas on I have to light a match and hold it to the gas.  I am hoping I can show it to the contractor when he comes this week and he can do something about it.  Otherwise, I am glad that we have a good lighter from Cosco.

I was still having problems fitting all of my stuff into all the cabinets.  I called Robin, a friend on the yishuv because she told me she had extra cabinets that she bought from her old house and went over there after I picked up Ben, since she lives accross the street from gan.  She had something that I could use so I left Ben there for a playdate and came home to unpack some more and then her husband Freddie came over with the yishuv’s handyman and they brought in the shelves and the handyman even added some nails to it b/c it was sort of falling apart a little.  So once I had more room I was able to almost fully finish unpacking the kitchen.  I hope the rest of the house doesn’t take me this long to unpack!

I didn’t do the packing, the movers did, and I am finding the funniest things that were packed.  I found a small piece of granite that was under my sink in America from when we did the counters in granite.  I found pieces that belong to my dishwasher that I guess Eric will have to bring back and give to the renters.  I found other things that I can’t think of right now but those were the two that were the silliest!

Talia came home and she went up to her room to “unpack.”  She doesn’t want any help with it.  Her room is a mess now with stuff all over it!!

Later in the day we went to friends for dinner who live in Modiin.  It was nice!  The kids were kind of bouncing off the walls so it was hard to talk to my friend but it was nice getting together and nice not to have to make dinner.  Tomorrow night Robin (mentioned above) is making us dinner.  Yay!

I desperately have to do laundry but I am so scared to use the new washer.  I am afraid that I am going to have a flood here and Eric isn’t here to help me.  They guy who installed it tested it out but I am still nervous.  You hear all these horror stories from the women here that all kinds of things go wrong when the husbands are in America and I am waiting for something to go wrong and I am convinced this will be the thing.  I think maybe I’ll try it tomorrow if Savta comes back in the day.  I don’t want to do it at night.

Oh, crazy story…  While we were outside this afternoon at some point there was smoke coming from the valley below.  So Freddie was here delivering the shelves and he said it was one of the many demonstrations b/c of the wall that’s being built there.  Then we saw that there was tear gas being shot at the demonstrators from the Israeli base that is to the left of us above the hills!!  You could actually see it being shot at them. It was really crazy.  The wind was blowing and the tear gas was reaching us and we had to go inside.  Talia was complaining that her eyes were burning (she was outside planting another peach pit in the ground, convinces it’s going to grow into a peach tree) and Savta was yelling at her to get inside.  I quickly ran upstairs and got the video camera and ran outside and took videos b/c I knew Eric wouldn’t want to have missed it.

So that was the BIG excitement for the day.

For some reason my kitchen table is MIA.  It is making my grandmother CRAZY that we can’t find it.  She wants to get the big folding table and chairs out and back to my neighbor and get my table in but it’s nowhere to be seen.  I think it’s just not labled on the box and it’s hiding in a box of coats or something but she’s convinced it’s not here at all.  Where could it have gone?  It’s really quite amusing to see her running around looking for it.  No matter how many times I tell her we’ll get to it and it doens’t matter, she keeps looking for it.  It’s like looking for a needle in a haystack.  There are SO many boxes!

I know there was more and there was some funny stuff too but I can’t remember the rest.

Most beautiful sunset tonight.  The sky was pink and it was clear so I could see Tel Aviv from my mirpeset…

I am sooooo tired!!!  What a day.  I do not recommend doing this to anyone!!  I guess it’s no different than moving anywhere but for some reason today was NUTS!!

So it started at 8am.  That’s when 2 friends came to help me.  The truck showed up around 9 and they unloaded until 12.  From 12-1 they opened up the beds and set them up and opened the packing on the couches.  My grandmother was here to help also.  She was good.  She held he baby and put her to sleep and helped with stuff like that.  Then, when they all left, she helped with the unpacking.  We did some of the kitchen boxes and I set up the kids’ beds so they had somewhere to sleep for the night. 

I was all excited that I was getting my fridge and my washer and dryer b/c I’ve had no washer and dryer and the fridge that I have is tiny.  Well, my friends who came over informed me that I was not allowed to so much as plug the fridge in b/c it would void the warranty.  I was going to have to wait WEEKS until someone would come out and do it for me.  So I e-mailed Eric and he called them right away and the woman said they were very busy and would try to squeeze us in this week.  Two minutes later, before Eric could even e-mail me with the news of this, she called me and told me someone would be here within half an hour.  He came and he was amazing!  Our fridge, although it fits in the kitchen and is now plugged in, didn’t fit in the designated area.  So it’s kind of just floating there.  There is a pipe coming out of the floor that has to be cut so we can get the fridge in.  I’m not sure it’s going to happen.  We’ll see.  It might have to stay put. 

When the guys moved the washer and dryer in, the dryer didn’t fit in the small door to the laundry room.  When this guy came, he took the door off, it was no problem, and the dryer fit!  it’s also an awkward fit but it’s in there!!  YAY!!  He hooked that up for me also and we’re in business to do laundry.  No more schlepping it to the neighbors.

So the one error that I made when the movers were unloading the truck at lightning speed was that we have a wall unit that has our tv in it in the living room and we have an armoire that goes in our room that’s meant to have our clothes in it.  These both look VERY similar when they are all wrapped up in their packing stuff.  So, needless to say, I confused them and I had the guys carry the wrong one up 3 flights of stairs.  They then had to carry it back down and carry the right one up.  They were NOT happy with me AT ALL!  The foreman on the job was a doll.  He said these things happen.  The very nice Russian gentelman that had to do the carrying said to me, “ma, at choshevet she ze kilo echad?!”  Yeah, he wasn’t too happy. 

That was the only disaster of the day.  Otherwise, I think everything that went onto the truck came off the truck.  It’s hard to tell even with the lists.  The stickers were falling off and all over the place and it was hard to keep track.  I counted the tvs and computers and stuff like that.  So the expensive stuff we have.

So the house is a MESS.  The vaccuum cleaner came wit the wrong kind of plug.  I think it was the right kind of we lived in England.  I was dying to vaccuum a little.  The very nice man who hooked up the appliances changed it for me.  Savta asked him to and he did.  Go Savta!

So at around 5 Keren woke up from her nap (in her crib!) and Savta went home and I took the kids out for pizza.  I couldn’t have sat them down at the kitchen table even if I had anything to eat here b/c of the mess.  We came home and I got them clean and into bed pretty quickly.  They are glad to have their things.

School went okay today.  We tried dropping Ben off before Talia and that didn’t go too well.  Ben wound up crying today!!  I am sure it didn’t last long.  He was VERY happy when I picked him up as usual and excited about the necklace he made at school.  Talia didn’t cry and she said she had a good day.  She said she isn’t going to cry anymore!  We’ll see about that.  She also said that Ulpan started today and that she didn’t like it b/c her teacher doesn’t speak English.  Eric said what kind of an ulpan teacher doens’t speak English?  So we are sure that she does and that she hasn’t told the kids so they won’t talk to her in English.  Makes sense to me.

Tomorrow I am going to go to a friend (actually Robin Zemel who is a relative through marriage) and see what she has to give us in the way of storage.  She told me that she has plenty that we can take for the year or something like that.  I can’t remember.

As I am writing this Keren has been trying to roll from her back to her stomach and SHE JUST DID!!  I can’t believe it!!

That’s all for now.  Off to bed.  Very busy day tomorrow unpacking and trying to make some order of my house here.  OY!  Only 5 days until Eric comes home…

I am really tired.  It’s after 10 on Sat. night and I have to get to sleep soon because tomorrow is the big day, the day the lift comes!!  I’ll make this quick.

Shabbat was very nice.  Friday night the kids stayed up to eat with us.  It was just me and the kids, Aunt Suzie and Savta and Saba.  At one point during the meal Ben went to lie down in my bed and fell asleep.  During dessert Talia layed down on the couch and fell asleep.  Keren fell asleep in Aunt Suzie’s arms.  So it was a good night!  Before I went to sleep Aunt Suzie and I played a couple games of Bananagrams.  So much fun!!

On Shabbat the kids played pretty nicely by themselves while Keren and I slept.  Then we got dressed and mete Savta in shul.  Aunt Suzie didn’t sleep the night before so she didn’t go to shul so she walked with us to meet Savta.  Then we walked to the park nearby.  Savta and Aunt Suzie wanted to go home and make kiddush but the kids were having fun so I stayed with them and they took Keren back to the apt.  It was really hot out so before we went back we stopped by Avivit’s house for some cold drinks.  We wound up staying there until 12:15.  Then we went back and ate lunch.

We hung out and played with the kids the rest of the day until 5.  At 5 we went to Avi and Miriam’s house for seudat shlishit.  It was nice.

We walked home and I quickly bathed the kids and packed up and ran home.  The kids fell asleep in the car and I had to carry them all in one by one, not easy!!  I gave Keren a bath, fed her and put her to sleep.

So that’s Shabbat in a nutshell!

I hope I survive the day tomorrow!!!

I finally was able to download the video of Keren rolling over.  It’s adorable.  Here it is:

http://s294.photobucket.com/albums/mm87/slickric01/?action=view&current=MVI_2461.flv

We all slept well last night and woke up ready to go to school.  Even Talia’s spirits were somewhat high.  I think it helped that I told her that her day was short, even shorter than Ben’s was going to be.  For some reason the mamad gets out at 11:45 and gan at 12:45.  So even though Talia was sad by the time we got to her school, she held in those tears and didn’t cry!!  YAY!

Last night Eric posted a request on the Chashmonaim list for help with the lift on Sunday.  We got 3 responses by e-mail and I got 2 phone calls.  I am really touched by the people in this community.  It is one thing to offer meals and come over and say hello.  It’s another thing to offer to stand outside in the hot sun and help with inventory lists while someone’s lift is being unloaded!

Okay, I have no time now to write the rest… In a nutshell, it is almost Shabbat. I will finish the rest tomorrow night. We basically had a nice day at the pool. I took the kids to the pool after school and now we are at my grandmother’s house for shabbat.

Here are some videos that I was able to upload at my grandparent’s house. Enjoy!

http://s294.photobucket.com/albums/mm87/slickric01/?action=view&current=MVI_2469.flv

http://s294.photobucket.com/albums/mm87/slickric01/?action=view&current=MVI_2468.flv

Tonight I am sitting at our table and chairs that we borrowed from a neighbor and writing my blog!  No more floor for me.  My tush appreciates it!

So I collapsed into bed last night and didn’t have a chance to blog.  After school yesterday Ben went out for a playdate and Talia came straight home.  My Savta came a little later on, as did my great Aunt Suzie.  They brought some plastic shelving for me that I put into one of the bathrooms to hold stuff.  Big help.  They also brought me some other useful items that I’ve needed since our lift isn’t here yet.  The best was Savta’s yummy noddle and cheese pudding!  They stayed for a while.  It was nice.  Talia and Ben were kind of looking for something to do while they were here and my grandmother suggested that they go play with friends!  So I guess they had had enough and she had had enough and wanted to just sit and talk so I sent them out again for another playdate.  That’s the great thing about living here!

When they left I walked accross the street (literally) to meet with the pediatrician here.  Unfortunately he doesn’t do well visits for kids under the age of 5.  So although Talia will go to him for both well and sick visits, Ben and Keren have to go to a tipat chalav, which is basically a clinic run by nurses from what I understand.  I am going tomorrow so I’ll see what it’s like.

After that the kids played and then I gave them a bath and we went out to dinner at a friend of mine from camp who lives down the block.  We had a BBQ, it was delicious.  Unfortunately, they have a big dog and Ben was really scared.  It was a very friendly dog that jumped on me when we walked in.  That’s all he had to see!  So they put it upstairs but it came down twice before they locked it up behind a closed door.  so the rest of the night Ben announced that he wanted to go home every 5 minutes!  Eventually he let us eat in peace and the kids fell asleep there on their couch watching tv and Eric carried them home.

So today we woke up and Talia decided that she wanted to walk to school by herself.  I was against the idea so I figured that I would walk her part of the way and then she could go the rest herself.  When it came time to leave me she chickened out.  She got really sad b/c she really didn’t want to go to school.  I wound up walking her the whole way with Ben also and then into the building and then she stood there crying that she didn’t want to go to school.  I felt SOOOOO terrible.  I left her at school, what else could I do? 

I took Ben who was very happy.  On the way there he told me that he wanted a playdate with “a little girl who wears glasses.”  I said okay, I would find her mom.  As we got close to school Ben saw her mother and told me!  So I introduced myself to her and asked if she had a little girl who wears glasses and she said yes!  I asked if she would like to come to our house after school and Ben piped in and said, “No, i want to go to her house!”  Her mom got a kick out of him and invited him over.  He played very nicely there until 4:00.

After I dropped him off I went back to Talia’s school to talk with someone there about the fact that Talia is miserable.  She was VERY simpathetic and said she would talk to her teacher for me.   I told her I could talk to her teacher but over the phone would be difficult in Hebrew.  I also signed her up for something called chancha or something like that.  It’s where a sherut leumi girl comes to the house and helps with Hebrew.  She also told me that Ulpan is starting next week for Talia. 

When I picked Talia up her spirits were high.  She told me that she understood some of what went on today.  She also said that she figured out when her teacher was telling another girl something and she explained it to the other girl and he teacher said “yofi talia!!”  so that made her feel good.   Then her teacher called me and we spoke a little and she said she had a good afternoon.  Talia told me that the morning was not so great but that the afternoon was better.  I hope gettting her off to school will be a little easier tomorrow and a happier experience.

After school Talia came home with a friend.  When her friend left she went next door to play with the little girl there.  She is very busy after school and is certainly enjoying her social life.  She has another playdate lined up for tomorrow. 

When I picked Ben up from his playdate the mom told me that she suggested they take out the cars to play with but that Ben said he would rather play with the dolls that she had.  She said she figured that he has other sisters.  Also, she is a full year younger than him and she said that he was helping her with everything and being very “big brotherly.”  Eric said he probably likes being the older one for a change.

Anyway, they came in for dinner eventually and we made grilled cheese in the sandwich maker and those instant pastas that you add water to, like the Traditions Soups that they have in America, and then wait 5 minutes and it cooks somehow.  They have yummy flavors here.  The kids had Thai noodles.  They loved it.

Since we have no trees or plants by our house, Talia decided that she would plant a peach pit and grow a peach tree.  We’ll see how that one turns out.  She left a stick by the area that she planted the tree so that she would know where it’s going to come up.

After baths Eric said goodbye to the kids and told them he was going to America.  They were really sad.  They got used to having him around constantly.  They made a big deal about it and Ben was screaming “I want to go to America”.  He just told me yesterday that we were lucky that we didn’t have to get onto a plane and go!  Talia was upset but was calmed down when Eric assured her he would get her the undershirt she wants with the “skinny straps” and bring them back for her.  Eric was really sad but I told him that they are usually sad when he travels but that then they forget about him (in a good way!) and they are happy.   I am going to be lonely at first also but I know that we always manage and we’ll adjust.  The first time is the hardest.

On that note, I am going to say goodbye to him b/c the taxi should be here momentarily.  Keren finally cried herself to sleep.  We just started to Ferberize her.  Then I am off to sleep.

The link below is the picture I took this evening of the sunset.  It looked better in person than in the picture.

http://www.yorkphoto.com/share/p=4631220468645030/l=418945919/g=70636009/cobrandOid=1002/otsc=SYE/otsi=SALB

So today was a big day.  The kids started school AND we moved into our new place!! 

The day started out really early.  Got the kids up and out to school by 8!  While Eric went to meet the cleaning girl at our house, I took Talia and Ben to school.  First we walked Talia her her school.  She was very very nervous!  I brought her up to her classroom like all the other parents and sat her down at her desk.  The classroom is set up with long desks in U shapes, I guess and the kids each had to find their name by their place.  SO I got her set up and the teacher started to speak in Hebrew and she turned to me and said “I don’t want to stay here!”  So I scooped her up and we ran out of the school and she’s never going back.  Okay, so that’s not what I did, even though every instinct in my body told me to.  Instead, I promised her that she was going to be okay.  I reminded her that she hated her first day of kindergarten.  She reminded me that in kindergarten she could at least undertand what the teacher was saying.  Anyway, I reassured her and a little girl next to her said not to worry, that she would explain it all to her!  So cute!!  Then I reminded the teacher who she was and that she didn’t speak of word of Hebrew and she told me not to worry. 

She happends to have a wonderful teacher and I think she is going to do very well in school.  I think she might be a little bit ahead of the class in math and from what she brought home today, I think she’s going to be okay in Hebrew too!  Go Westchester Day School!

Next I dropped off Ben.  He threw a minor fit on the way to school.  Something about wanted chocolate milk and Eric to take him and not wanting to go, etc.  I managed to drag him there (part of the way I mean that literally) and got him settled.  He too told me that he didn’t want me to leave so I stayed for a few minutes and talked to his teacher.  She told me that we missed a meeting the night before.  We never got a notice about it.  Whatever.  She said that the kids all made little crowns and they made one for Ben.  They kept calling him Binyamin b/c we filled that out as his name.  I thought between the Hebrew and the wrong name he wouldn’t know what was flying.  I quickly corrected that and told his teachers he didn’t know Hebrew and left! 

I was pretty happy with what I saw there.  It seemed like a nice big classroom with many different activities set up in an organized way on tables.  I think it’s going to be good.

I went back to the Spiegelman’s house and packed up the stuff we had there with Eric.  Oh, on a side note, the cleaning girl couldn’t find the house and we couldn’t find her.  It wasn’t looking good.

As I was heading to the house to help Eric clean at 10, I decided to call someone in Ben’s school to double check what time he was getting out of school.  Turns out he was getting out at 10!  I did an about face and went to pick him up.  He seemed to be very happy.  Go figure!  On the way out of school he asked me if he could go to a friend’s house and I asked the mother and he went home with them, where he proceeded to eat them out of house and home.  Unfortunately, the boy was an English speaker, so he won’t be learning any Hebrew there.

I got back to the house and got a call that our cleaning girl was on her way, that she went to another house and the woman there was expecting a cleaning girl of her own that she didn’t know and she thought she was it and she started cleaning for her before they realized what had happened!!  Right out of an episode of Three’s Company.  So she cleaned while the air conditioning people fixed the air on the third floor.

At 11:45 I went to get Talia from school!  I was so excited that I got there 15 minutes early.  I stood outside the school with the other parents and waited.  She came around the corner (they were apparently having some sort of celebration for rosh chodesh.  we’re not sure, though since Talia didn’t know for sure) and she looked okay.  not thrilled, just okay.  She started to come over to me but her teacher said that all the kids should go in and get their bags.  Her teacher was saying it and miming it to Talia.  I thought that was good. 

So we walked home and she told me the funniest thing!  She said that her friend told her it was time to put their stuff away and while it was taking her time to do that the teacher said something and when she turned around everyone had left the classroom!!  She had no clue what was going on.  She went out and figured out that they were all washing for aruchat eser (they eat lunch at 10 am here, crazy!)  So she went and washed with them.  I was hysterical when I heard this.  The poor kid has no clue what’s happening.  I told her that maybe tomorrow when the teacher announces it’s time to wash, she’ll remember the words and know what to do.  I’m not holding my breath.

So next we went back to the house and paid the cleaning girl (who ripped us off) and went to lunch while Eric went to look at some used cars.  We went to the mall b/c I couldn’t find Domino Pizza in Modiin.  We got pizza and slushies as a first day of school treat.  Eric later showed me how to find it so I can find it another time by myself.   Then we picked Eric up and we went food shopping and to the Home Center store here for some odds and ends.  We couldn’t buy too much b/c the fridge that my grandmother gave us to borrow is small.  It seems we’ll be frequenting the makolete until our fridge comes on our lift.  Still no word on the lift.

Anyway, tonight we made some sandwiches for dinner and the kids ate on a blanket on the floor since we dind’t have time to pick up the table and chairs that a friend said they could loan us.  Then we tucked the kids in and I unpacked and unpacked and unpacked some more.  I am exhausted and the lift isn’t even here yet!!  The problem is that we have no furniture to unpack into and houses here don’t come with any closets.  So we have neat little piles of clothing in all the bedrooms.  I just decided that we couldn’t live out of suitcases a minute longer!

While I was unpacking, Eric was looking to see if we have internet here from out neighbors.  Turns out that we do!!  Yay!!  So I am writing this blog from my blowup air mattress, courtesy of Camp Moshava, in our new house!  Tomorrow he’s going to see if he can hook up a phone over the internet for us.  The only problem is I think the connection is going to be stinky since it’s wireless.  We’ll see.  But having internet it great.

It is great to be in our own place (even with no furniture).  There was a beautiful sunset that I saw from my window.  I’ll get a picture of it tomorrow if it’s a clear day and post it if  I can.  The breeze on the mirpeset it beautiful.  Our house is in a really nice location. 

One funny story about Ben before I end this.  As we were walking to his gan this morning and I was tyring to prepare him for the language difference, I was telling him that soon he and Talia would start talking Hebrew to each other and Eric and i wouldn’t be able to understand them.  So we were going on and on and He said yeah, I am going to talk to you in Hebrew and to Talia in Hebrew.  And then he said, but what am I going o say?  I think that it sounded much funnier when he said it.  I might have forgotten the exact words.  Oh well.

Today’s pictures are of Talia and Ben with their backpacks on the first day of school and of the kids eating their sandwiches on the floor in the kitchen in the new house.  I’ll try to take pics tomorrow of the house too.

Click on the link below to see:

http://www.yorkphoto.com/share/p=32811220303452059/l=418915212/g=70636009/cobrandOid=1002/otsc=SYE/otsi=SALB

Well, today was the last day that the kids had of vacation.  Of course, school ends tomorrow at 11:45 am, but nevertheless, it’s the last day of vacation!

We didn’t do much today.  Just some errands.   Talia has been pressuring me to get her a new backpack for school.  I thought that she would use the one that she got in camp (for free) this summer but she insisted that it was a boring color (navy) and she wanted one with a lot of girly colors.  Anyway, today I gave in and bought her a pink bag with Bratz on it or with Barbie on it.  One of the two.  The quality is not the best but that’s what they all have here and it was 150 shekel!!  WHATEVER!!  Now she will have a pink bag like the 30 other girls in her class and she’ll be happy.  We also had to get something called a “bookie” in Hebrew.  It’s basically a workbook with fun things to do in it that the teacher asks them to take out and do when they’ve finished their assignment.

Once we got finished with those two errands we went back to the house and Talia played with the kids while Ben ran some errands with Eric.  I now have a new cellphone number and I can actually use it!  Yay!  I was sitting outside on the swing bench thing that they have and a friend of mine from camp drove by and asked if I wanted to go for coffee.  So I grabbed Keren and left Talia here to play (under supervision) and went out for coffee.

Later in the afternoon there was “a happening” here on the yishuv.  There was basically a carnival.  Eric took the kids while I cleaned the new house.  Well, I attempted to clean the house.  There was a ton of dust and I got some of it.  Tomorrow is the day we move in, even though our lift is still not here, and I wanted to get a head start on the cleaning.  Because the house is new, there is a  ton of dust.  I just went through this with my house in NY and now I am going through it again here.  Tomorrow we have someone coming to clean the house and I am sure she’ll do a better job than I did with the Sponga – that’s the mop that they have here in Israel.  I couldn’t figure out whether it was better to dump the water on the floor and squeegee it out the front door or use it like a mop.  I tried both and didn’t get very far with either!!

Tonight we got the kids into bed by 7:30, much to their chagrin, because we have to be at school at 8:00!! I wish they would start school an hour later and end an hour later.

Wish us luck!

I’ll get to why the title of the post is “I can’t stop thinking about elephants” in just a few minutes.  First I want to write about shabbos.

So our second shabbos here was very nice.  Friday night we went out to eat at a house accross the street from the spiegelmans.  It was a delicious meal and the company was nice too.  The kids were tired when we got there and not on their very best behavior.  They were the only little ones there and they fought a bit but after a while, Ben fell asleep on their couch.  He was so cute.

Shabbos we got up and went to shul!  It was very very crowded b/c there was a bar mitzvah and also shevah brachot and 2 engagements to announce.  So I could barely get in the door b/c we got there near the end of shul b/c Keren needed to eat at 10 and shul here only goes until 10:30.  After shul there was a kiddush with tons of ice cream and goodies.   The kids were very very happy.  To tell you the truth, most of the adults were very very happy also!  It has been really hot here, unseasonably so, and some nice cold ice cream on such a warm day was nice and refreshing for all.  Anyway, we met some nice people at the kiddush.

For lunch we were invited to the sheva brachot that I just mentioned.  We thought that the kids weren’t unvited (in the end they really were) so we sent the kids home to eat with the Spiegelman kids and their older married sister.  They were so proud of themselves that they walked home from shul by themselves.  Eric thought they were going to get lost for sure but they didn’t.  Talia knew the way.  So it was a nice, relaxing meal for us in the shul and again we met some nice people.

When we came back to the house we rested a little while the kids continued to play.  There were about 100 kids coming over for seudat shlishit so we had to get out of here.  We took our kids and the two little Spiegelmans, Tamar and Amitai, to the playground.  The kids played really nicely there.   At one point Ben told me I should leave. I asked him why.  He said that he could take care of Amitai and we could leave.  Let me just meantion here that Amitai is 4, almost 5, and Ben is 3, almost 4!  Amitai looked up and said something like he could take care of himself.  It was cute.  Since Amitai was away all summer and I guess didn’t make it to the park last week, a lot of the kids were excited to see him and welcome him back.  They said they missed him while he was in camp.  Well, Ben was trying to be friendly and he asked if they missed him while he was in Chabad?  It was so cute.  Then he told the boys that he didn’t live here, that he just moved.  I am not sure what he meant by that.  I have to find out if he thinks we are staying.  I think he meant that he lives here now but he’s new.

So we walked back just before Maariv and the house was full of smelly highschool boys.  There was a beautiful havdallah here, much like we have in camp,  and then it was time for shift two to come.  Channah was having her 12th grade boys over for a BBQ at 9:00.  We helped set up and then ran downstairs and tucked the kids in.  The house was literally rocking.   Luckily we all slept through it.

In the middle of the night when I woke up to feed Keren, Ben woke up and said he didn’t want to sleep anymore.  I tucked him back in and put on his air conditioner. He again got up and said “it’s not breezing on me”  So eric got up and tucked him back in and had the air blow no him.  Then Ben got up again and this time said he was having a nightmare.  When Eric asked him what it was he said it was about a man dressed up in an elephant costume!  We started to laugh, of course.  So Eric told him to think of the elephant wearing lipstick and earrings so it wouldn’t be scary.  He then told Eric “I can’t stop thinking about elepants!”  He said each word with a breath in between.  It was hysterical.  He eventually went back to sleep.

Another quick Ben story before I end.  Ben asked me, “How do your eyeballs stay in if they are not glued in?”  Talia piped in and said it had something to do with elastic.  Too funny!!!

Since I don’t have any funny Keren stories, I am including a link to a video of her that I took before shabbos.

 http://s294.photobucket.com/albums/mm87/slickric01/?action=view&current=MVI_2449.flv

So it’s Friday today and it’s weird b/c it’s both ever shabbos and sunday all in one.  Basically people are running around the house like chickens without heads here at Channah’s house.  Eric and I polished all her silver this morning and now eric is helping with the cooking.  I am sure he’s going to be this helpful when we move into our own house (HA!!)

Keren slept really well last night!  She went right to sleep when I put her in and slept until 4am and then again until after 9.  she basically went from 7-4!  yay.  So I slept well but I am not feeling well at all.  I think I got the sore throat that the Spiegelmans have.  I think somewhere in there Talia woke up and told Eric that she had a bad dream.  I’m not sure if that was last night or the night before.

Anyway, both kids are now at playdates!!!  I called a friend of mine and asked if her little girl would want to come over or if I could bring Talia over.  So Talia is there.  I know her because this is the girl who wrote the blog that I read before we moved and then we went there for Shabbat lunch when we came in November and the girls played nicely.  Her little girl is a year older than Talia. 

Ben was, of course, devastated that Talia went out to play so I took him to the Zemel’s house to play and after a tour of the house, I left him there.  The Zemels are related to us through marriage, distantly, I guess.  It’s Leora’s husband Jeffrey’s sister.  Anyway, Benjamin was only too happy for me to leave.  When I left Talia I had to walk her up to her friend’s room.  When I left Ben, he didn’t look at me.  Oh, he did, actually, to ask me if he can stay there until bedtime and it’s only 3:30 here!!

Tonight we are eating out at Channah’s neighbors and tomorrow we are invited to sheva brachot of someone that I know from camp.  Her daughter just got married and she invited us when we were still in camp.  So that’s nice.  I just found out last night that the kids aren’t invited, though!  So the kids are going to come back here and eat with the Spiegelman kids.  Channah’s oldest daughter Ayelet is married and she and he husband will watch the little ones.

So that’s the story.

Shabbat Shalom!

So today we went on our first tiyul and boy was it lousy!!  This was a “kid-friendly” tiyul for the new people that moved to Chasmonaim.  It was a tiyul of Modiin and it sounded great on paper.  We rushed to get out of the house and there by 9:15.  We met the other cars and our tour guide came at around 9:30 on her scooter with her daughter on the back.  The first stop was to some point in Modiin that overlooked the city.  We stood in the hot sun and baked while she explained how the city was built.  All the kids there were basically miserable!  Eric wound up sitting in our car with our kids.  At the next stop only half the families got out of the car and the tour guide couldn’t understand why!!  Then our kids had to go to the bathroom so we split from the tour and went to the bathroom and caught up with them 20 minutes later.  Frankly, I didn’t want to go back but we had to.  We even got a call wondering where we were b/c it took a while.  By the third stop my kids were hungry, hot and tired.  It was unfortunate b/c that’s where we saw come cacti with sabras growing on them.  They know the famous story of their Uncle Barry picking up a sabra and getting a million tiny needles stuck in his hand so they were semi-excited to see that.  At the last stop I stayed in the car with the kids and fed Keren.  Eric came back to the car and said that the guide wanted to hike for 40 minutes before having lunch but that everyone made excuses to leave!!!!!  It was too funny.  We basically ate our picnic lunch in the car on the way home after that!!

We made a stop to buy Ben a kippah and some tzizit.  I think he might start to wear them every day now.  We’ll see.  When we got home I took a much needed nap and Eric went to the house to oversee the workmen.  The kids stayed home and watched a movie and played with Tamar and Amichai, the two youngest Spiegelmans.  They also had a ton of junk food. 

At 4:30 we went to friends of ours in Modiin, the Kaplans, for a BBQ.  They filled up the kiddie pool and the kids went in and had a nice time.  It was fun to catch up. 

Now all 3 of them are asleep and Eric is working and I think I am going to go to sleep too.  I have to make sure to get Talia the last of her school supplies tomorrow before Shabbat so she’s all ready to go on Monday. 

At least the day ended better then it started!