It’s been a long time!

Wow, I haven’t posted in a while.  I am going to try to catch up now on everything since Friday:

Friday I got the kids off to school and then I did some finishing up on my cooking for Shabbat and Keren and I ran to the supermarket to pick up some last minute things that we needed.   Eric called me around 11:30 to say that he made up a lot of time in the air and that he had landed already!  So I called Robin and asked her to pick Ben up from school and I ran to get Talia from school at 11:45 and we went straight to the airport.  Of course I couldn’t find her anywhere and it turned out that she was let out of school a few minutes early and she went straight to Cabessa, the store that sells the candy!  So after the entire school emptied out I ran over there and, sure enough, she was on line.  So I grabbed her and we ran to the airport and picked Eric up.

Friday night was just the 4 of us.  We had a bit of hysterics here by the time we got to the table b/c the kids both wanted to sit next to Eric.  Don’t ask!  I finally got up out of my seat and sat at the other end of the table so everyone would be happy.  I think Eric was ready to hop onto the next flight out of here and back to America to get away from teh crazy screaming and crying family (I was only screaming, not crying).  Anyway,  we got the kids into bed nice and early and we went to sleep pretty early too. 

Oh, forgot to mention the huge shiner that Ben had on his left eye when he came home from school.  he apparently fell into a wooden house, or something like that, and his eye was swelling more and more as the day went by.  In the end he wound up with a red/purple eye lid.

Friday night Ben had a dry diaper!!  What happened was on Thursday night I realized that we had run out of diapers for him!  So I told him that we had no more and that I would wake him to pee in the middle of the night.  Well, it was a little too late to be springing that idea on him and he kind of flipped out that he was not going go have a diaper on and he was getting  all stressed about the possibility of waking up in a wet bed in the morning.  Luckily I was able to pull out a Swimmie diaper from Keren’s room that was only 1 size too small on him and he slept in that.  So Friday night he was prepared that he was going to give it a go.  I had bought him Pull Ups on Friday with a special design that disappears when wet.  He wore them on Friday night and I took him to the bathroom in the middle of the night when I nursed Keren and lo and behold, he woke up dry on Shabbat!!  Yay Ben!!  He had a repeat performance again on Sunday but unfortunately this morning he was wet and when I went to wake him in the middle of the night last night, he was already wet and was unable to go when I took him.

Onto Shabbat:  For Shabbat we had Robin and her kids since Freddie is in the States and we had my friend Jere.  I love having Jere b/c besides the good company, she always bakes something delicious for me!  The kids, although they ranged in age from 4 to 16, all played really nicely together and when the older ones left, the younger ones stayed and they didn’t go home until after Shabbat!!  Savta had bought Talia a game called Taki, which is very much like Uno, and it was a big hit with the kids. They played with that most of the afternoon and then they played in the back for a while and then at 4, after constantly asking if it was 4 pm yet, I told them that they could take the little racing car that Lois bought them for Chanukah and ride it down the hills of Chashmonaim.  They had a BLAST!!  Talia and Sammy went on together and it was the sweetest thing to watch.  They really had a great time zooming down the middle of the street.  They did get yelled at by one “old lady” who told them they were giving her a headache, but other than that they had fun (hey, it was after 4 and rest time was over!!!)

Sat. night we stayed in and we watched a movie on slingbox  HBO on demand.  It was an old movie called Home for the Holidays with Jodie Foster and Robert Downey Jr.  It was cute.  Looked like one of those low budget films. 

Sunday the kids went to school and I spent the morning looking for a snowsuit for Keren that I KNOW I have somewhere.  Of course it is still pretty warm here and not snowsuit weather, but it is killing me that I know I have it somewhere and I can’t find it and it is going to get cold soon (I assume) and I will need it.  So, in doing so, I wound up unpacking another box!  I thought there was china in the box but there was some clothing and some tissues and toilet paper (a HUGE commodity here!!) and some other things like a new raincoat for Talia that was handed down to her by our cousins, etc.  So it was a great find!!  Then I also organized Talia’s room and put away the clothing that is too small on her that was sitting on the desk in her room.  I also did some laundry.  I really accomplished a lot in the way of home organization!

Later in the morning we stopped by the car place to make sure the car was ready to be picked up before stopping at the change store to exchange money so we could pay for the car.   Then we stopped at a local place to get some brunch before going back to the car place.  After brunch we went to the car place and I dropped Eric off so I could take Keren home and feed her and then get Ben from school.  On my way to school Eric called from the car and said that the check engine light just went on as he was pulling out of the place and that he was going back to give them back the car and that I had to go back and pick him up after getting the kids!!  AHHHHH.  What a pain!!!! 

Talia had her English Chug and we biked there.  Sunday evening we hung out in the house playing with toys and talking to family on Sight Speed.  It was nice.  After the kids were in bed we decided to watch another movie since we enjoyed the one Sat. night so much.  It was kind of boring and I wound up falling asleep pretty early!

Today after I got the kids off to school and went to school myself (Keren stayed with Eric today, ahh!!) I came home and hung out and had lunch with Eric and then when the kids came home from school we all went to a playground in Modiin that Eric discovered with Keren this morning while the rest of us were in school.  As we were getting into the car to leave the car place called Eric on his cell phone to say that the car was all fixed up and ready to be picked  up.  So we swung by there first to pick the car up and then made our way to the park.  Yay.  We have a car.  We officially own a car in Israel.  I feel like our klita is complete, finally!!  So the kids hopped into the new car with Eric and I stayed in Saba’s car with Keren and we went to a really nice park.  The kids had a great time there.

We came home at 4 and Ben went to Karate and we came home and did homework with Talia.  It was kind of a combined effort b/c we had to keep our cool as she read b/c she can be so frustrating sometimes when she reads that I wind up either wanting to throw her out the window or throw myself out the window. 

Ben came home around 5 and we all ate dinner together.  The kids requested tuna patties and fettuchini alfredo.

Now I am all caught up on the last 5 days.  Phew!!