Summer has come and gone

I would love to say that I have not had time to write because we were busy being Israeli and vacationing all of August.  I mean, you are welcome to think that. But...

The reality was that we were busy being crazy people this summer and while we did sneak in a few short trips, we were mostly working, staying out of the heat, sending kids to various camps, working and occasionally, sleeping.  In the air conditioning of course.  It is still really hot here.

Work Update:

Well, I am still so happy that I switched jobs.  I really love working in the NICU.  I finished my training, so now I usually only ask approximately 20 questions per shift instead of my previous 50.  I love the work that I do, even when every baby is crying and I am trying my best to keep up with what everyone needs.  I love dressing the babies in the stash of preemie clothing we keep there.  And I love it when the parents come in and they see their babies in real baby clothing and not naked in an incubator or in the hospital issued baby clothing.  I still struggle with the language a lot.  But the parents are almost always very understanding and helpful.  Hopefully my Hebrew will continue to improve because next, I want to study Arabic.

What I don't love: I don't love the part of my job which involves caring for babies that are born with fatal conditions.  It was not really an aspect I thought about.  I knew there would be babies that would not make it because of their size or they were born too early.  But so far I am only working on the step-down unit so I have not dealt with the teeny babies yet.  It is hard not to get too attached to babies that we have for months and months, especially if they do not have any visitors.  So I just do my best to give them and their parents the best care that I can while we can. But that is definitely hard.

Summer plans:

Everyone had a different schedule this summer. One worked at a Judaica Store.  He has learned the lesson that work can be really boring and you have to work a lot to make money.

One child was home all summer aside from the week at tzofim camp and the week of netball Maccabiah.  She learned that she likes to pass her time with baking.

One child was at Hacker camp, tzofim camp and then two weeks of surf camp.  Israel is cool.

One child was at Hacker camp for most of the summer, save one week of tzofim camp and two weeks of being at home bored camp.

Both boys had a guitar concert which was really fun.  But the funniest picture I got was when I was taking a picture of the vice mayor, sort of on the sly.  One child was less than pleased.

Family Trips:

One day, I had the brilliant idea that we should all go camping on the night of this huge meteor shower.  And we should take the dog.  And we should do all of this at the beach.  So we did.  It was basically a comedy.  First, the dog was having too much fun.  Our puppy is kind of overly friendly and wants to lick everyone.  She is offended if you don't come over and give her belly rubs.  So while she loved the beach, she couldn't chill.  So after a few frantic texts, hubby drover her back to a friend to keep for the night.

Then all went really well.  Kids played in the water, I took fun pictures, we ate delicious food and we did some stargazing.  Or sort of searching for stars behind clouds, because during the big meteor shower night, it was cloudy and we saw basically nothing.  I saw one shooting star and one child saw two.  But anyway, we were having a fun family time...until it was time to go to sleep.

I was under the impression that once it got dark, it would cool off.  Umm, I am quite sure that it got hotter out.  I could not sleep at all.  Four family members were sort of sleeping and one daughter and I could not sleep at all.  So after a few hours of sweating and not sleeping, I woke up everyone at 2am and we packed everything up and came home.  Camping fail!!!


The next family trip was better.  This one was heading down south to Mizpe Ramon to do stargazing and see the Machtesh Ramon which is a giant crater, of a type that exists only in Israel.  This time I was smarter and made reservations at a youth hostel.  After a long drive down, where us generous parents let them buy whatever junk they wanted at the gas station, we arrived in time to watch the sunset in the Crater. 

My choice was ice cream and Arak

We asked for directions at the youth hostel and they sent us to a great space to take pictures.  But they also said, there is water there but do not go in, it has been standing already for four months.  No problem, we weren't about to go into water anyway.  We arrive at said spot, and what do we see?  Tons of Israelis not only in the water but with inner tubes and arm floaties for the kids. Guess no one warned them or they didn't care.  We were satisfied with looking around and taking pictures.  I learned while there, that I am too short and not skilled enough to take cool jumping pics like my kids and husband do.  I need to practice.

We finished off the night by attempting to see another stargazing event that night "downtown" in Mizpe Ramon.  But again it was too cloudy so we ended up just wandering around, having a few snacks (of course) and watching my eldest join a Wii Just Dance Party that was him and twenty pre-schoolers.

The next day included a decent youth hostel breakfast, a visit to the Ramon visitors center and more awesome pictures.  I have been to the visitors center before but now it is also based on the Israeli astronaut Ilan Ramon.  The museum is really great and because it is a national park, it is reasonably priced.  Then rush back home because it was a Friday, buy shabbat food, get the dog and relax.  A great end to the summer.

Teenagers love early wakeups

Don't fall backwards kids

Alone:

Okay, the next week began with hubby flying off to NY for work.  He doesn't really travel for work but he had some sort of event, not 100% sure (okay to be honest, he has been at the same company for 18 years and I still don't really understand his job)  I just know that I love his company.  So he flies off while I am at at work.  The kids are home alone with the dog.  I am working overnight.  I get a text around 11pm, that one daughter went to the laundry porch (our laundry is outside) and a big fat mouse was staring at her.  But I shouldn't worry because she isn't afraid.  I just tell her to shut the door and I will investigate tomorrow.  No big deal.  Then I start getting texts at 1am that the same daughter thinks the dog has an ear infection because she wont stop barking and scratching her ear.  I come home from work at 8am, and take the dog to the vet, where yes, she does have an ear infection.  Fun times giving the dog ear drops.

Let me just say, I did come home and look for the mouse.  It wasn't hard to find since it was peering out at me.  Ugh.  Aren't there enough cats in this country??  We set a trap and just didn't do laundry while the hubby was away.  Because I didn't want that little guy getting into my house.  Fun times!  We survived, he came home and the mouse has not been spotted again.  Hopefully some cat enjoyed him.  We did however, name him Gus-Gus.


Back to School:

Finally, the first day of school rolled around.  I asked not to work that morning so that I could be around for it.  Everyone was groaning about the first day but I was doing a happy dance.  I took the usual pictures, made sure they had their bus passes and waved goodbye.  Then I sat alone with a sleeping dog and drank coffee. But with the Jewish holidays, they have had one week of school and now they are basically off for a month give or take.  In that one week, here is what has happened:

#1 went to the opening day ceremony and saw my favorite Mayor

#2 went to another opening day ceremony and was one of five parents there

#3 the five of us there received a blessing from the principal
#4 the boys school had a fire (everyone was fine)
#5 so my boys had a half day
#6 city bus full of high school girls got into an accident with another city bus (everyone was also fine)
#7 my girls were on that bus and called me like it was no big deal
#8 I took them for ice cream, because what else do you do when your girls call and tell you that?
#9 snagged lockers at the boys school.  if you've read my previous blogs you'll see that lockers are a key element of back to school
#10 and yes, the microwaves have arrived in school, phew.  All is right in the world

Finally:

Well, the chagim have arrived, earlier than usual.  I am thankful for so many things, but especially for being blessed to able to live where I live, for having a big family who keeps things exciting, for our health and safety and for the feeling of safety we have here.  I am thankful for my dream job even when it is hard.  And I am thankful for my husband who is awesome in every way and who keeps me calm, especially when I call him and inform him that when he comes home the first thing he needs to do is investigate a mouse situation.

Wishing everyone a Happy New Year and a wonderful year ahead.  And if you made aliyah this year and joined us, well wouldn't that just be the cherry on top???