The ants go marching one by one, hurrah hurrah!

Okay.  I have a TON to catch up on!  I’ll go day by day:

Thursday:  Ben woke up and was upstairs with me and I heard Talia in the bathroom a number of times before she came up.  knew right away there was going to be trouble.  So she came upstairs and said that she was really sick and couldn’t go to school.  She said she was in the bathroom all morning with an upset stomach.  So I got Ben to school and I left Talia at home and then I came back.  I figured that since she was going to be home, I might as well get some cooking for Shabbat done.  So I missed my big test in ulpan!  Talia spent the morning running back and forth from the bathroom to the couch and I did a ton of cooking.

I don’t remember much but Ben came home and the two of us did some more cooking.  I saved the things that he likes to do for him since he likes to cook/bake with me. 

Eventually Talia stopped running to the bathroom and I took her to her English chug and then took Ben and Keren to the airport to pick up Eric!  As usual, the ELAL site was wrong and it said he was landing at 5:20 but he didn’t land until 5:50.  So we waited in the airport for a while.  It wasn’t bad, though.  Ben and I both got some ice cream and we people watched.  He got tired after a while.  It was 7 or so by the time Eric came out.  By 7 Ben is usually more than ready to get into bed.  On the way home I took a wrong turn because I wasn’t concentrating and we wound up going WAY out of our way.  So we didn’t get back to the house until 8.  I was worried because Talia was at a friend’s house since she didn’t want to come to the airport and there wasn’t enough room in the car for all of us and for Eric’s suitcases.  I thought the parents were going to be really mad at me for coming so late but when we went to get her Eric said the house was rocking and even her little sister was awake and in clothes.  So it was all good.  Ben fell asleep in the car and I threw him straight into bed and then Eric, Talia and I went through the things that he brought us home from America before Talia went to sleep.

Friday:  Got the kids off to school and I did a little more cooking while Eric hung out and picked up a few things for me.  Kids came home from school and I don’t know what we did the rest of the day but before I knew it the 3 girls we were having for Shabbat were here.  We had my friend Stephanie Minkove’s sister and her two friends who are learning here this year.  They came and they brought great gifts for the kids and we hung out and they played with the kids for a while.  The girls totally won me over because when I asked them if they played Bananagrams, they said they did and that they brought the game with them!!!!  So we played Friday night after the kids went to sleep.

I can’t remember when it started but we now have an ant problem in the house.  I think it was one day last week that I came home to a bunch of them crowded around a piece of something on the floor.  Now they don’t want to leave!  It must be ant season.  I keep washing the floor and making sure that everything is swept up but it is hard to keep the floor spic and span with little kids and it seems that it is a losing battle.  So for now we are living with it and I think Eric is going to buy some ant traps when he gets a chance. 

Shabbat:  Shabbat we went to shul while the girls slept in.  Came home and had lunch and then the kids took two of them for a tour of the yishuv.  So cute.  They wound up bumbing in to Robin Zemel, who knew my friend’s sister from Regesh of some camp that they worked in together a couple of years ago and they wound up talking there for a while and then Robin came back to our house with Eitan and we all hung out here until Shabbat was over.  I got a couple more rounds of Bananagrams in before Shabbat was over.

Sat. night:  Talia knows that she has to be home by the time the street lights come on on Shabbat afternoon but she didn’t come home from the playground until about 5 minutes after Shabbat was over!!  She wound up meeting the neighbors in the park and she walked home with them but we were really upset and worried about her.  So we told her that if it happens again she won’t be allowed to go to the park by herself on Shabbat. 

We had a seudah hoda’ah to go to for my cousin and her husband who were in a bad fire last year and nearly died.  The seudah was in yerushalayim so it worked out well because we were able to drive the girls back to their school.  Before we left, Eric said that he remembered that when he was in Yeshiva and went to people for Shabbat they would give him food to take back for the week.  So we asked the girls if they wanted to take back some food and they said yes!  When I was upstairs getting ready to leave, Eric told them to go into the fridge and take what they wanted.  When I came down the three of them were in the fridge cleaning us out!  It was such a funny sight!  I wanted to take a picture of it but I didn’t want to make them feel bad.  All I know is there was food being scraped off of platters and bagged into Ziplocks.  They were so happy.  I was really happy that they were taking it because we had a lot left over and I know that they will enjoy the food this week.

So after the bagging frenzy we squeezed into the car and dropped them off in Yerushalayim and went to the seudah hoda’ah.  There were a ton of people there and many speeches, all of which were in Hebrew, and we basically waited outside in the hallway until after it was all over.  Then we all ate and talked.  It was nice because Eric got to meet a lot of my family here that he hasn’t met yet.  I saw my cousin who was in the fire.  i thought she looked terrible and I was really depressed but everyone else said that I should have seen her before and that she looks great.  So that was kind of sad. 

We got home and into bed around 1!!  Poor Keren was exhausted!  She slept on and off while we were there (Savta got her to sleep) but she kept waking up every now and again.  She went to sleep around 12:45 and although she woke up again, I ignored her because I just couldn’t get out of bed and she stopped kvetching and I got 6 straight hours of sleep.

Today (Sunday):  Today we got the kids off to school and then we went to Yerushalayim to the Misrad Ha Rishui  (licensing office) to get our green forms stamped so that we can take our driving lessons and tests.  I thought it was going to take forever but it went really fast.  We took a number and waited for probably around half an hour and got our forms stamped and we are on to the next step in the long process.  The woman there was so happy that we brought photocopies of our licenses and she didn’t have to do it for us! 

We decided on the way home that it would be nice to make a birthday party for Ben tomorrow night with the family.  So I called the family and invited everyone to come for his birthday tomorrow.  Then we stopped off at the mall in Modiin for some breakfast.  I fed Keren and Eric and I shared  a yummy chalumi cheese panini and an iced coffee.  Yummy!  Next it was off to the toy store to buy gifts for Ben.  I had to buy him a present from us and one from my grandparents and one from my great aunt.  We still have to buy a present for him from my parents but I think Eric is supposed to do that tomorrow morning when I am in ulpan.  They are getting him a new scooter. 

After the toy store we came home and I picked Ben up from school and Talia came home.  I fed Keren and Eric took teh kids out to pick up all the stuff we need for his party tomorrow and Keren and I took a nap.  i was so tired all day from the late night that we had and I needed to go to sleep!

I woke up around 5 and Ben and I made some dough for one of the things I am going to make tomorrow night.  In America I would have been able to just buy the dough pre-made.  Oh well.  This was more fun for Ben.  Then I wanted to get Talia and do her homework with her and she was nowhere to be found!!  Ben said she went to the park right outside our front door but when I looked there she wasn’t there and it was dark outside!  I went next door and she wasn’t there.  That’s when I started to panic a little.  I told Eric and he came out to help me look for her.  I went across the street to another friend and sure enough she was there!  She claims that she told Eric where she was going, he says she did no such thing.  So that was a fun little scare!  Oh, the best part is that she wasn’t wearing any shoes!!

So Talia came home and they ate their dinner and did her homework and got them into bed.  Ben was exhausted as usual and collapsed before Talia even went into her shower.  We’ve been giving the kids showers lately b/c of the water situation here.  I guess we could have moved into that house that had no bathtub after all!  Ha Ha.

I am sure there is a ton I am forgetting but I am looking at the word count on this thing and I think this is my longest blog yet.  I’m going to have to end it here.  Tomorrow is Ben’s birthday and I have a ton of cooking to do for his party after I come home from ulpan.  I hope I get it all done!!