Entries Tagged 'Tammy' ↓

SO I didn’t get a chance to post yesterday because we came home late.  So here it goes:

Yesterday Eric woke me up looking for my brand new teudat zehut.  He had to go to Yerushalayim to fill out some paperwork so they would release the lift.  He couldn’t find it anywhere and he wanted to know where it was.  I told him it was in my bag but it wasn’t.  It also wasn’t in the car, the stroller, the folder he’s been carrying around or at the bank, which is where I last had it!!  Luckily, I called Savta and she remembered Eric asking me for it when we were at her apt. yesterday.  It turns out it was next to her computer and Eric forgot it there!  HA!!  Just as he was shooting me the evil eye, we found out he never gave it back to me.

So while Eric went first to Petach Tikvah and then all the way to Yerushalayim, we went to get Talia her books and her T-shirts and her school supplies.  We walked to the “book store” on the yishuv and luckily bumped into a friend of mine that I know from Camp Moshava and her daughter.  She is the woman who stars in the Baal Gan vieo that the yisuv made.  Anway, she took the list from me, gave it to the woman, told the woman I would be back to pick them up tomorrow and whisked me and the kids off in her car to the T-shirt place and to school supplies store. 

Let me explain to you, Talia has to wear these t-shirts to school with a little emblem on the corner and she can wear any skirt that she wants to.  I think that most of the skirts that she has are too short for school but luckily I have a bunch of longer ones coming on the lift so she’ll be okay.  Anyway, we walk into the store (called Stoochies) and there are wall to wall Israelis pushing and shoving.  Well, maybe not pushing and shoving but there is a lot going on.  Had I gone myself, I am sure I would have turned around and left.  So we decided to make a list of what we needed, what color shirts the girls wanted and leave it there but by the time we did all that, the line was gone and after stopping off for a bite of pizza accross the street, the shirts were ready.

Next we went to another store to get her supplies.  That only took about 15 minutes.  I actually handled that myself.  I spoke Hebrish to the girl working there and she helped me find what we needed.   We walked in just before Eric and he was impressed by what we got done.  Frankly, so was I.

I took the kids to ices in the afternoon after the makolet opened back up.  It is hard to get used to the fact that things here are closed mid day.  i keep wanting to go out and Channah keeps telling me that the place that I want to go is closed as I am halfway out the door.  After they picked their ices I took them to the new house.  I was worried b/c the second floor has a master bedroom and two other bedrooms.  I wanted to put Keren in one and Ben in the other and then put Talia upstairs on the third floor which has a nice small room for her with a skylight and then a very big room that we’ll use as the den/playroom.  I thought that she would never agree to it.  She took a look at the skylight and saw that she could have her own bathroom next door to her room and she grabbed it!!  I only hope that she won’t be aftraid up there at night.   The truth of the matter is that that’s where I’ll probably be hanging out when i am not in the kitchen or my bedroom befroe i go to sleep so she’ll have the company next door.  So the kids seemed to like the house.

In the evening we went to a much anticipated Bar Mitzvah of Eric’s cousin.  It was in a place called Eretz Bereishit.  It was basically on a mountain overlooking Jordan or Jerico, I think the latter and they had beautiful tables set up in the middle of nowhere with pottery for the kids and camel rides and music and a bedeoiun tent (don’t know how to spell that) and it was just an amazing atmosphere.  I took some pictures.  Click on the link to see them:  http://www.yorkphoto.com/share/p=869271219865657412/l=418862454/g=70636009/cobrandOid=1002/otsc=SYE/otsi=SALB

We got home really late, it was far away, and the kids got up late again this morning.

Now for today:

Today was pretty uneventful.  We went to misrad haclita today to find out about some of our benefits that we have as new olim.  The kids were pretty bored.  Next we went for pizza (I had schwarma) and did some other errands.  Of course, we went to a store that was reccommended to us to get Ben his kippot and tzizit and they were closed!!  I am never going to learn.

In the evening we had a BBQ here.  Channah invited some friends from camp.  It was nice but I was tense b/c we had to go to Talia’s school tonight for orientation and I was nervous that I wouldn’t get the kids in to sleep on time.  Of course, I didn’t get them to sleep.  I showered them and left them here to watch a movie while we were out and we took Keren.

The orientation was all in Hebrew, of course.  I understood maybe 5% of it.  Luckily I sat next to Eric on one side of me and an Israeli on the other side of me who helped me understand.  By the end my head was killing me and I was ready to go!!  The fact that the air in the room wasn’t working didn’t help matters either.  SO hopefully Talia will have what she needs for school b/c I really didn’t understand much.  Now I know how she’s going to feel on her first day!!  Glad it’s only until 11:45!!

Came home and put the kids to sleep and now Keren won’t go to sleep and I am zonked.  Tomorrow we have another full day so I’ll end this here and see if I can get her to sleep.

Today in the morning Eric went over to the house that we are going to be renting and met with the contractor.  He said that his men will be working there this week and hopefully be finished with most of the things this week.  I really hope to be moved in before the weekend, optimistically.  Maybe we’ll have to wait until Sunday.  We’ll see.

Next we went to Petach Tikvah to open a bank account at Avi Schonbrun’s bank.  He was great and really helped us out.  We dropped the kids off at Savta and Saba where they played while we went to the bank.

Later on in the day Talia had a playdate with a girl who will be in her class next week.  She made aliyah with her parents 3 years ago and they live in a beautiful house on the yishuv right accross from the school the girls will be going to.  They seemed like really nice people, probably people we will be friendly with one day.  Anyway, I called around 7 to ask if she was okay and the little girl’s mom said that she could stay longer if she wanted.  Well, she wanted!  Long story short, at 8:45 I got in the car and went over there to get her!!  I found the two girls on the street corner hanging out while her mother went to walk some relatives of theirs to the bus stop.  Welcome to life on a yishuv!!!  Of course she wanted to sleep there and didn’t want to come home.  Since her mom was nowhere in sight we waited for a while and then I just took her home.  Later her mom called me to apologize and say that she was delayed at the bus stop b/c the bus never came.  OKAY!!!

I am including in this blog a link to get to our pictures that we’ve taken so far.  There aren’t many.  I have laundry to fold and I am exhausted since Keren isn’t sleeping so well at night here.

http://www.yorkphoto.com/share/p=450251219673253221/l=418821579/g=70636009/cobrandOid=1002/otsc=SYE/otsi=SALB

So today was full of accomplishments!!
First we went to Talia’s school and signed her up for school. We met her teacher and saw her classroom and it was all good. Next we tried to sign Ben up. This part was a little more complicated. It turns out that there aren’t enough kids to make a 4 year old gan so they put the 4s and 5s together. So now the class is completely full with 35 kids and one teacher and one assistant teacher (I know, that’s just how it is in Israel). So, they want us to put Ben in a class where he will be the 34th kid and most of them are younger than him! There are about 2 or 3 who are his age and 2 or 3 who are older than him, but for the most part they will younger than him. I was upset about this at first but then I realized this is basically what happened this past year in Chabad and he did very very well there. Also, Channah (our friend who we are staying with) said that her son’s birthday is a month earlier than Ben’s and he did the same thing last year and it was a great year. So it all ended well.

After the school we went to Yerushalayim. I can’t believe how close we live to Yerushalayim. I am so used to going from my grandparents’ house and it taking upwards of an hour and now we are only 25-30 minutes away! Thank goodness it’s not farther b/c Keren cries the whole time we go anywhere in the car. She HATES driving in the car. It’s terribel!! Anyway, we hung out a bit at a playground and then walked to Ben Yehudah Street ang got some pizza. Eric and I wanted baguettes but the kids won on that one so we ate at Apple Pizza. Next we went to the Nefesh Be’Nefesh offices (the real reason we went to Yerushalayim) and got our Teudat Zehuts! We are proudly holding them in the picture above that Ben took of us.

The rest of the day was just filled with a trip to the supermarket and playing with the kids at the house, etc.

On tap for tomorrow, now that we have our Teudat Zehuts, is the bank, the phone store, etc. Busy Busy Busy!!

Okay, so this is my first post.  I got the idea from a friend who moved to Israel a couple of years ago and started a blog.  Her blog was so helpful to me and I imagine to others who have since moved, that I figured i would give it a go.

Anyway, hello to my friends and family and anyone who may be reading this post.  I’ll catch you all up.

August 18th we got in a van from Camp Moshava and went straight to the airport.  We met Eric’s sisters Atara and Ayelet there and his father.  We said goodbye to them and hopped on the plane.  10 hours later we were in Israel!!  The flight was good.  The kids were well behaved.  There were tons of noisy kids on the plane but luckily it didn’t bother our kids and they watched tv and slept.  There were Sheva Brachot on the plane a couple of rows ahead of us.  They broke out the guitars and everything!

So because we took a Nefesh B’Nefesh flight, we had most of the paperwork done on the plane.  They came around with these computerized tablets and had us fill them out and we were done!

When we landed there were cameras all over the place.  We landed, walked down the stairs of the plane and took a bus to the old terminal.  There were soldiers there and people clapping and singing.  It was extremely moving!  My grandmother, great aunt, cousins Avivit and Avi and their baby Shelly and Miriam were there.  I even bumped into some friends from home as well as from camp.  It was great.  BB was there at the ceremony and gave a speech.

After the ceremony and the hoopla, Eric went to fill out some paperwork which took some time.  By this time the kids had had it.  They were still pretty well behaved but they started the complaining.  Eric eventually came down and we got our 10 bags and off to the taxi we went.  Through Nefesh B’Nefesh we get a free ride to the place that we are staying/living.  So there was some confusion between the taxi companies and there was a bit of a fight over us but we eventually got into a cab and got to the Spiegelman’s house.

Now, for those of you who don’t know why we are staying by the Spiegelmans, it’s a long story.  The short story is that we had a place to live but the guy decided 4 days before we left that he wanted to sell it and not rent it.  He finally agreed to rent it out to us but by that time we decided to just come and stay here and go look at the house and others and make a decision when we got here.  So we’ve since made a decision and we are going to go with that house.  Pictures will follow as soon as we move in.  We aren’t entirely sure when that’s going to happen, though, because it’s still a bit of a mess from the construction and there are things that aren’t finished yet that will hopefully be finished this week.

Anyway, to continue, the day that we landed we basically took it easy.  We got settled and took naps and then went for a walk around the yishuv and to the park where the kids played for a little bit.

The next day I called my grandmother and she and my grandfather picked up Eric, Talia and Ben and dropped Eric off to get a rental car and the kids went swimming and shopping with my grandmother.  The rental car was a huge accomplishment and we decided that would be enough for the day.  Meanwhile, I was in Chashmonaim with Keren and we went to look at the house since I had never seen it.  Then we walked to the Macolet and bought some yogurt and milkies and gum.  On the way I saw a pomegranate tree!!  You don’t see that in America just walking down the street!!

Anyway, later on Eric came to get me and we went to my cousin Avi and Avivit’s house to pick up the kids.  We wound up going out with my grandmother for dinner and the kids fell asleep in the car.

The next day, Thursday, first thing in the morning, Eric went out and got our kupat cholim done!!  Another huge accomplishment.  We decided to celebrate by checking out the new mall in Modiin.  We made a big deal about being able to eat in the food court.  By the time I read the whole menu at the Burger Bar, which is where I was eating, I no longer had an appetite.  I thought SOMETHING would be in English but it was all in Hebrew.  Anyway, I mustered up the energy to figure out what it meant and I ordered a very yummy burger.  By the time I can to the table with it, Eric and the kids had finished their meals, and Keren was ready to eat too!  We bougth the kids some candy and bumped into Michelle Kaplan (Michelle Fischer) and talked for a little bit.  She said she would invite us one day for dinner.   That was sweet.  It was nice to see a famliar face.  The rest of the day we hung out around the house.

Friday morning Channa and three of her kids came home from camp.  We greeted them and then headed out to meet Savta, Avivit, Avi, Shelly and Aunt Yisraella at the pool that my grandmother’s friend belongs to.  Then we went back to Avivit and Avi’s house for lunch.  Before we left Avi Schonbrun came to say hi to us since we hadn’t seen him yet.

Friday night we ate by a nice couple (a little strange though) with a whole bunch of kids.  We stayed there until 11:45 at night!!  They wouldn’t bench and let us go.  I guess they enjoyed our company too much.  It was crazy!!  Because we got home at midnight, the kids slept until noon today!  We got up and ate lunch and then played a little.  In the afternoon friends of ours from camp who are staying in Chanshmonaim by their parents came over.  It was great because they have a little girl who Talia played with so nicely in camp and I love the mother so it all worked out well.  Then for seudat shlishit we went out to this couple with the most gorgeous house!!!  I felt like I stepped out of Israel and into an American house but not just any American house, a really really beautiful American house.  It was really stunning.  The people there were really nice.  They were older than us.  We had a nice time.

So over all, Shabbos was very nice.  I was sorry that I didn’t get to shul but as long as we aren’t held hostage at someone’s house next Friday night too, I should be able to get there next week and meet some people.

So this first blog turned out to be a really really long one!!  I had a lot to catch up on.  Hopefully I’ll post once a day and this way they won’t be as long!!  Next time maybe I’ll add some pictures.