Living the life

Another month (or two or four) has passed us by and as usual, many days have been normal and just a few where weird and unusual stuff has occurred.

Let's begin:

So, hubby now has to travel more for work.  While I am happy that he is getting to do new and exciting things for work, I also hate when he travels.  So to help soften the blow I have decided to visit him when I can, AKA travel to his destination and shop and tour while he works and then see him at night.  The first of adventures occurred in September.

So I buy a ticket that includes carry on luggage only.  Because the hubby gets two free checked bags, I don't need any.  He can be my shlepper.  I arrive at the airport via train (which is super convenient from where i live)  I find my line at the airport and as I am about to get into it, I suddenly get swept up in the middle of a big family.  So I wander along with them.  I am literally in the middle of a whole family.  And they are all wearing hijabs.  Plus me.  I mean, obviously I fit right in.  Finally, halfway through the line they offer to let me go ahead of them.  Cool.

Then the security line is backing up, so some security staff start walking through the line, asking who is alone, who is a group, etc.. So after being part of this Muslim family for a bit, a security officer walks up to me and starts speaking to me in Russian.  Not Hebrew, not English, Russian.  Geesh.  This was a day where I apparently didn't fit in anywhere.

So I arrive in London, after enjoying a lovely flight with usual cocktail on the plane (yay for free booze when flying internationally) and eventually figure out how to take the trains to the hotel.  I then proceed to have a whirlwind 60 hour London vacation.  Basically shopping, touring and seeing a show,  And having my first ever pint of beer in like a pint glass.  I felt so British,  Or Irish.  Or whoever is famous for that.  Basically, if you travel alone it is super weird but fun.  I hit all of the shops recommended to me by British friends, and discovered that they have TjMaxx in London, except they call is TKMaxx.  Odd what you find fun when it is not available to you normally.

I got to check out my hubby's super cool building in London and do a sampling of their coffees and snacks.  I got to walk 9 zillion steps each day because I thought it would be faster than the subway. Sometimes it was and sometimes, not so much.  I wanted to buy show tickets so I was 2nd or 3rd in line for same day tickets. Scored some "Book of Mormon" tickets.  Let me tell you, I almost decided not to go to a show because I was so tired, but I am so glad that we did.  This show was hilarious and I forgot that I really enjoy musicals.

Basically, the trip was a huge success for me.  I assume it was also good for my husband professionally.  And we managed to leave our kids and they survived.  Some friends stepped in and drove them one night when they had a far away activity (I mean in the same town just kind of far to walk at night on the kind of abandoned path).  I am now busy planning my next getaway, obviously.

What else has been going on?
We had all of the chagim.  You know that whirlwind month of Jewish holidays where we cook, eat, see friends, go to synagogue/shul, repeat.  And if you have my job you work on the majority of those days.  When you arent working, you are apparently eating cake.  It is a hard month health wise!  But lots of fun to see friends and such.

This year my parents came out for the tail end of the holidays.  Since most of you readers are friends with them I am sure you have seen their facebook postings.  We all had a really nice time together and got to have some new experiences.  They even got to have a beach day at the tail end of October, actaully the last day of the year that our favoritre beach was open.  And we even had ice cream on the beach.  Because our weather here is awesome.

Now because I've basically forgotten what has happened in the months it has taken me to write this might as well skip right ahead.

November is the month where tzofim (scouts) ruled this house. Practice every night until really odd hours, tons of plans and meetings, etc.. it all culminates in the Pesti which is where we go and sit outside, freeze our buns off and cheer. So this year I went in full winter gear, gloves, thermos of tea. And it ended up being like 60 degrees 😂 but I was ready!! My younger son's group won again, probably because of his sweet dance moves! Overall, a fun time. I love seeing all of the events that are run totally by teenagers. They motivate and serve as role models for the younger kids and it's just some good fun. Also I get to hang out with my friends.

Next year:
Our eldest is in 12th grade (odd considering my age) and now he is trying to figure out what to do next year. The army runs a number of different gap year programs, like a year of volunteering, a year of studying, learning, lots of different things. But you have to decide what you want, visit apply, get accepted and then have the army defer your draft date. In classic Israeli style this is all done in a super short period of time.

So a few weeks ago, my eldest and his friends got together and went all the way up North to visit a possible choice. He is still very undecided but it seems like they had fun. Aside from the crazy long bus ride. But they got there and back safely and seemed to enjoy themselves.

And then last week I sat at a school meeting about these boys and their options. I sat with my friend of 20+ years who I met on our own gap year.

Sunrise sunset.....


And because this blog has been taking me months, let's just skip to the now.

Hubby and I did a last minute escape vacation. Another perk of living here is never having to worry about finding kosher food. We went to Mizpe Ramon, stayed at a fancy hotel that I've wanted to stay at for a  while and just had a great time. They have a pillow menu where you can order your own pillow. I mean, come on...

I meant aside from when I had the brilliant idea to do this endless hike where I felt like I was walking across Mars with no end in sight. Or that I was part of the movie Spaceballs. Aside from that it was amazing. But the other hikes were fun. Also I didn't plunge to my death which is always my big fear while hiking. So score one for me.

And now I leave you my latest Hebrew blunder. It's not even a new one, but apparently I don't learn...

At work:
what I meant to say:  I recommend using the green needle, not the pink one to pierce the rubber top on a medicine vial, so you don't get little pieces in the bottle.

What I actually said: I recommend using the green needle, not the pink one to pierce the rubber top on a medicine vial, so you don't get little hot guys in the bottle 😂

And that my friends is how you do it.

Semblance of normalcy

Wow, time is flying and apparently I haven't been using that time to blog.

So I think I will start off with this.  I am not involved politically and am always way behind on the news.  But I do know this.  Where I work, we treat all patients and their families the same.  It doesn't matter if we can communicate in Hebrew, Arabic, English or something else.  (Anyway I speak to the babies in English.  And Arabic is next on my list of languages to learn) ) Here is  sampling of photos I have taken. I am guessing that you cannot guess who is Jewish, who is Muslim etc...
This is Israel.

Summer happened:

So I think that I did actually write about summer stuff.  Basically, summer was exactly the same for the adults and I needed a personal asistant basically, to keep track of the kids whereabouts.  There were camping trips, hacker camp, jobs, running a summer camp for a week for little kids, hacker camp again, camping again, art camp, and did I mention camping?

Lots of people were visiting Israel:

So one of the great things about living here is that it seems like most of our friends and family eventually visit Israel for a trip.  So we still get to see them.  This summer was a lot of fun getting to see some of our close friends who were visiting.  Come back soon and if you havent yet come , then come already  And we will meet you for a coffee or dinner or whatever.  Just dont ask me to meet you to go ziplining because just NO!

We moved:

So while our kids were on one of these camping trips, we moved,  Down the street. Because as I mentioned, we are crazy.  Like not even really down the street but like five houses away.  We love our neighborhood and did not want to go far.  After a month we are finally 95% unpacked.  Now if only the dog could figure out that the dogs on this side of street don't need her to bark at them every time they bark.

One bonus of the house that we did not even know about?  We have an amazing view out to the hills of Jerusalem.  I can sit on my front porch type thing and see the hills.  Its awesome.

I discovered that I hoard weird stuff:

Moving stinks but packing and unpacking are excellent ways to clean out stuff that you dont need.  It is also a way into self discovery as you try and figure out why you own certain things.

Odd things that I found:
*Resume paper, from 2000 when I graduated college.  I mean, who sends a paper resume these days and why do I still have this?  And why when I posted it online did several people want it?

*Small notebooks.  Apparently I have purchased about 20 surplus small school notebooks for the kids since we have moved here.  And they no longer even use that size yet I still have them.  Why??

*Siddurim (prayer books)  Okay so maybe this isn't so much hoarding but the amount that we own is not normal.  I think that we can open our own shul in the house and host a minyan for both nusach Ashkenaz and Sepahard.  Because in NJ we used Ashkenaz and here we almost always use Sephard so obviously we need to own double.

Along those same lines.  I have enough copies of the Tanach to open my own school.  Which sort of makes sense because I did used to homeschool but my enrollment capped out at four students.

I attempted shopping with teens:

Actually I don't even want to blog about it. We lived and they aren't naked. End of story.


Boys had a day of adventure:

Since I took the girls with me to Vancouver for my niece's bat mitzvah a few months ago, the boys were supposed to go on an adventure this summer.  But due to everyone's busy summer, it didnt happen until the very last week of the summer.  But apparently it was worth waiting for! The hubby and the boys drove all the way up North and went to a ropes course, a zipline, ice skating, go karting, and some other stuff. Oh, paintballing. And ate manly foods like pizza and ice cream and other healthy choices!


School started:

I know what you're thinking. I'm too young to have such big kids. It's true! But it's all part of my big plan to be young and wealthy when they all move out.  At least the youngish part is working so far.

Activities started:
Scouts
Scouts
Scouts
Scouts
Taekwondo
Taekwondo
Netball
Guitar
Art
Tricking

Hallelujah for public transportation!!


My dog is a jerk:

She spent a week barking in the middle of the night after we moved. I spent a week telling her if she didn't stop I was selling her. At least she is cute and fluffy.

Post office adventures:

It's been a while since I've had a good Israel story so here ya go.

So the post office here is interesting.  You can read into that whatever you want but lets just say, I'd stand in line any day in my old NJ post office instead.  Here you take a number at the post office.  Here you take a number when you enter. But there are different categories for services.  So first you hope that you took a number for the correct service.  Then you wait.  The fact that the post office has many many chairs should be the first clue that you will be waiting for quite some time.  Also that they have vending machines.  Some have stamps and some have snacks.  So basically they are sayng, take a seat and buy a snack because you will be here for some time.

Why am I telling you this? Because I ordered something from England.  Most of the order came to the candy shop right near my house, so last week I walked over, and picked it up.  But one item apparently wanted to go to the main post office in my town.  So I finally decided to go and pick it up.  I went in and took a number, There were only like ten poeple there which is a small crowd.  But one little detail.  After you take a number there is a big screen that shows which number is being helped and who is next and there is also a speaker system that announces it.  But the screen was broken.  So we are all just sitting around.  Then one woman is getting annoyed so she tells them, call out the numbers.  Because apparently the screen is broken but the system is still working, they just need to hit the button for next.

So we wait and we wait, because apparently people are like taking out mortgages at the bank and earning university degrees.  Then finally, miracle of miracles, my number gets called.  But there is already a customer at the widow I am called to, so I stand behind him,  Until the postal worker say what do you need?  I said, you called me.  She is like oh sorry I pushed the button by accident.  So back to my chair I go. I few more minutes pass and yes, you guessed it.  They called the number after me, because hello, the system.  So as the guy who is number 285 walks up, I say, (in Hebrew of course) hold on, I am 284.  He says yeah they already called you.  So I respond yes but she sad she called me by accident.  The postal worker is like, just come over, we will take care of you quickly.  So thankfully I wasn't registering for citizenship or anything and just getting a package so I was actually done in about 90 seconds.  For me to walk over and intercept a guy taking his turn (which was actually my turn) means one of a few things.

I am starting to assimilate a bit
I was really hungry and wanted to be done
I was so excited to go to back to school night and didn't want to be late
I am not a frier (sucker)
I really wanted the package

Suddenly back to school night isn't so scary:

This past week was my first back to school night of this season. Each year since we've been here (can you believe we are starting our fourth school year) I have attended these events and stressed about them. One thing about having twins is that your sidekick is never there for you. As in, the parents have to split up.  And our boys are also in the same school as one another so we have to split up always.

You might remember blogs of years past where I was so stressed just about going around the room and saying our names and our child's name.  Last night I had none of that anxiety.  I wasnt even worried that I wouldnt understand things at the back to school night.  This is a huge shift for me.  I guess a year and a half of working here has made me realize that I do understand Hebrew and even if I dont catch 100% I will get enough to be able to know what to do and what I need to ask for someone to repeat.  The biggest issue was that the air conditioner was so loud in the classroom that it was hard to hear the questions that the other parents asked.

But big news.  This year, no one asked about the lockers or the microwaves.  I guess in 10th grade we start to be concerned with class size (47 kids in my kids biology class as of this blog) and volunteer hours etc...

And finally, one little work tidbit:

During the year we all attend many many days of continuing education. I used to totally stress over these but now I just stress about the parking. Last week I attended a class on the testing we do ojnall babies after birth.

Yesterday I attended a class about feeding premature babies which was actually way more interesting than it sounds.

So first victory, I understood about 99% of the lectures. It helps that most of the speakers are people that I work with so I already know how they speak. Also I was sitting on the front row and stating right at them. Sorry if they think I'm too intense with the eye contact but I have to stare at you if I want to understand you.  I even managed to ask a question in front of everyone. Probably because it was to a doctor that I work with and she always send to understand me so I was less scared.

So then we have a presentation about a new piece of equipment that we did a trial with and might start using again. The details aren't important to this blog. What is important??

This slide

Yes they call this piece a Christmas Tree. And yes it was weird to hear that during a Hebrew presentation. And yes they apparently call this a Christmas Tree in America as well. But I'm guessing when it was presented to them, no one said Christmas Tree with a nice thick Israeli accent and a nice rolling letter R.

I snapped this pic to send to fellow nurses in the USA and they got a little giggle out of it.

And that is my current update of odd things that happen here.

Summer adventures/misadventures/it's all good chaos

So, the summer has begun.  What does that mean for us and how is it different here?

For the adults, it means that we basically do the same work, but apparently just stand there and hand money to every camp/scout trip/other camp/etc/basically anyone that asks for money.  All of my kids are at the age where they are too old for most camps, but 3/4 of them are too young to work.  And 1/4 of them has been looking for a summer job, which is not easy to come by in a city of zillions of teenagers looking for the same thing.

So far, it is the second week of July.  (Okay now it's August, I got sidetracked)

Kid #1 - finished up school exams, found a job, he thinks
Kid#2 went camping for five days, came home sick for the following five days, just left again to go camping for another four days
Kid #3 - went semi-camping for three days, just left today to go camping for another four days
Kid#4 - into the second week of Hacker Camp, that he also did last summer.  Today is on a field trip to Shuk Machane Yehuda where he will get to eat at his favorite place, Fish and Chips

Since this was written, all four have gone to tzofim/scout camp for 5-10 days depending on the kid.

Me - still laughing it up at myself at work.  Literally yesterday I was chatting with a student at work and she seemed to have me confused with someone else, so I said (in Hebrew) maybe you have my accent confused with the other American at work.  But the word for accent is somewhat similar to the word for sale.  So she was super confused until we sorted that out.  Hebrew also isn't her first language.  And then she said that my Hebrew is Sababa.  So it was all good.

Then there was the day last week when I came on shift and I see that all of my babies are dressed in hospital issued tiny white clothing.  Now, it isn't that those aren't cute but we have a full drawer of boy clothing and a full drawer of girl clothing (usually) so I always try and dress my babies in real clothing.  It helps their parents feel like they are real babies and not just small or sick babies in the NICU.

So I head back to our clothing and pick out the most adorable little pink outfit for this girl.  I come back and start dressing her.  And then the head nurse points out that this baby is a boy.  oops!  I mean, he was so pretty!  So I head back and from the boy drawer I get another cute outfit, blue and white stripes.  I dress him and as I finish snapping up the outfit, what do I see?  On the pocket it says, Mommy's little girl.  I really just couldn't win that shift.  Finally, I found an appropriate outfit.  When I met his parents the next day I told them the story and they were laughing and said well, he is very pretty.

So thankfully I have fewer Hebrew issues at work, but of course they always pop up.  Lucky for me, the babies are really not judgmental at all.  They sleep through my stories (maybe that is being judgmental) or they cry at my grammar (also judgmental) or the grab onto my fingers which I will just assume means that they know I love them.  People ask me all of the time, how can I work in the NICU and isn't it really hard.

The answer is, first of all, I have only been working for a year so I have not seen post of what the veteran nurses have seen.

Second of all, yes, sad things do happen and we see a lot of what no one should ever need to see or hear about.

Third, I also get to experience miracles.  This what is really amazing about my job.,  You can have a baby who is very sick, or who is very premature and small.  And you get to watch them develop from a tiny thing into a full fledged giant fat baby who is trying to eat your arm while you try and change their diaper three months later. Below is a small sampling of what I do at work. Pun intended.

I have lost all perspective of what a normal sized baby is, and I feel like I need to bend at the knees to lift a 3kg/7lb baby!


Moving:

Okay, so I mentioned before that we are moving.  In 20 days.  Down the street.  Because we are crazy apparently.

Update( We moved one week ago. I'm officially crazy. )

One benefit of packing is that you get to throw stuff out.  I love throwing stuff out. Sadly, only one child has inherited this trait from me.

A negative of moving is that you find stuff that you forgot about and then you need to look through it.  So I possibly got a bit lost looking through old photo albums.  It was fascinating seeing all of the photos of my girls in the NICU, and comparing it to what I now know as a NICU nurse.

Then I found all of the photos of my year in Israel.  So of course I had to take pics of the pics and send them to friends.  And then I found pics of hubby and I when we were 19 years old, so I had to take pics of that.  Finally I just had to pack the albums.

Other gems found while packing..

A giant rubber band ball. Apparently I'm not allowed to throw this out.

The world's largest personal collection of siddurim (prayer books) and chumashim (Torah) and related books. It's not normal. The photo below is about half of what we have.

What was the funniest part of moving. Well, the two funniest? We had to move six bikes down the street. Except our kids have apparently been listening and the bikes were super duper secure and interlocked as we have taught them to do. And the kids were all away at scout camp. And we could only find one of their bike keys. So we released only one bike and one of the movers rode it over.  I think the other guys were a bit jealous.

Then ummm, okay we weren't exactly 100% packed when the movers showed up. So towards the end they just gathered up junk and tossed it in random boxes. I'm in the new house directing them where to put everything. So one guy shows me this box and I see that it doesn't have a label so I peek into the box. And he says the box is kibbutz galuyot, which is basically the ingathering of the exiles 🤣 And this my friends, was a perfect description.

End of the year stuff:

Final Netball game of the season:

Good news - after two full years of attending netball games, including the junior maccabiah in Haifa last summer, I somewhat understand netball.  Child #3 was rocking her final tournament of the season.  And even though they lost she scored a bunch of baskets and it is always fun seeing your kids do what they love.

Art Show:

Then child #4 had his end of the year art show.  This year he took an art class once a week and he absolutely loved it.  He has always loved art but this was the first time we sent him to a class.  He will continue to do the class during august and hopefully again next school year.  We lucked out with the teacher, especially because half of the reason I chose this class was because it is within walking distance.  My weird work schedule means the kids need to be able to get around mostly without us.

Music:

You all know that child #1 is obsessed with the guitar.  I don't get to see him perform that often, but if he is home, all I hear is guitar.  And then he comes out of his room and asks if I heard that.  Umm yeah, because I cannot turn off my ears, kid.

But seriously we love that he has found what he loves.  And when he performed on the last day of school, a friend was my spy and snapped a pic of him.

And we had an end of the year ukelele concert for child #4 as well. Let's just say, he isn't continuing with the ukelele next year and we are okay with that.

Only in Israel:

What "only in Israel" moments have happened recently?
Well, I was walking around Mamilla, outside of the old City of Jerusalem, waiting to meet an old friend of mine who was on vacation in Israel. I was early so I was wandering. Then I am approached by a group of teenage girls wandering around with a bottle or water and a stack of cups. What do they want? They are looking for people to give water to, and have the people make a bracha (blessing) so that the girls can say Amen. Well okay then, glad I could help girls. That was a first for me.

Okay, I had better publish this blog before I get distracted again by annoying things like unpacking. Or like cooking. Did I mention that the week we moved I decided that it was urgent to bake three cakes. Because I had bananas and lemons and we can't waste those!