Misc. Pics 'n Stuff

The battery of my camera, which I've had since we went to Crete almost 4 years ago, stopped holding its charge completely. So, logically, I bought a new battery. As soon as I put the new battery in, my camera went haywire. Won't focus. The lens won't retract when I turn it off. Etc. I took it back to the shop where I'd bought the battery and explained the problem and the owner said the camera has had it. Kaput.  I use my camera SO much! The GOOD news is that the price of cameras has come down and something comparable to the one I have runs 450-590 NIS (~$120-160) and we're talking 14 mega pixels rather than my puny 8 mega pixel one. He also said he would deduct the cost of the new battery from the purchase price of the new camera. Can't ask for more than that. Just have to wait for payday.

DH and Y are coming back from the UK today. I popped DH a text message first thing this morning about the death of my camera and he said they are just about to head out the door for the airport and he will see what he can do about picking up a new camera for me in duty free that is compatible with the new battery I just bought! So....... finger's crossed.

I was thinking that I'd better offload all of the pics from my old camera before it won't let me do even that. And I came across a whole smattering of pictures that I'd forgotten were even on it.

Follows a real mish-mash of stuff that I thought was photo-worthy........



Israeli milk. It's sold in bags. Just another one of "those things" you have to get used to when moving to another country. You put it in one of these milk pitchers, snip the corner of the bag and it pours beautifully. You CAN buy "real" milk i.e. cartons - at nearly twice the price.



T and I were sitting in the bus station in Rehovot not long ago waiting for a bus and we saw this elderly woman walking through the station dragging 12 boxes on "leashes". What are they? Gas masks! We got on the same bus as she did and we heard someone else commenting about how many she had. She said she'd picked them up for her and her family and a neighbor too.



Taken way back during Chanukkah. Some people place the menorah outside their homes or apartment buildings in these glass, aquarium-like boxes because we are supposed to "advertise" the miracle of Chanukkah. I thought it was so pretty sitting outside this apartment building.





Me. On a rare good hair + makeup day. Sorry about the boring background though. Taken at work.



Guess who?



The kidlets in the park next to our building. Doing the "Spider".



Taken last Thursday on my way to IKEA. You can see the rain storm rolling in. Look at those BLACK clouds. O MY!





More black clouds! (In case you're wondering, yes, I did snap this while driving. I know I know. Bad, bad me.)



Here comes the rain. Driving straight into it!



Once we got on the open freeway, it was pelting down. I was creeping along. I could see the white lane markings and tail lights of other cars but not much else. Didn't last long though.





I, inexplicably, woke "too" early this morning at 5:10 am and couldn't go back to sleep. But there are advantages to that. I got to see the sun come up and snapped this through our dining room door that leads out onto our postage-stamp size balcony.



T and I have been shopping for curtains for the 2 windows in her room. We can't find anything ready-made that we like. The styles here! UGH! Vomit! And to have curtains made is for rich people. So I had a brainwave and schlepped T down the block to the remnant fabric store and we both spotted a fabric we loved immediately. I told her I would attempt to make her some simple curtains or die trying. If it works, we've saved a bundle. If not, we won't be out a fortune. This is the fabric we chose. We thought we wanted sheer fabric but surprisingly, this isn't. It's a thicker, stiffer cotton.

My boychik! Happy little face......

The Last Few Days.....

Last week at work was horrifically boring. Absolutely NOTHING to do. And I hate that feeling of having to invent things to look busy. I can easily amuse myself all day long every day on the internet but feel guilty doing that when they're paying me.

Anyway.

Since DH and Y have been away, E has been sleeping with me in our bed. I love it but I know as soon as DH gets back (he doesn't love it when the kids sleep with us) I'm going to regret letting E sleep with me and having to retrain him back to his bed. It's just so much easier with him sleeping with me. He wakes up for a drink or whatever and getting him whatever he needs is so much less daunting than having to traipse all the way (Listen to me! I make it sound like I live in an 18,000 sq. ft. mansion!) across the apartment in this cold to get him what he needs or see what's wrong. But whatever.

So Tuesday night I thought he had a fever all night. I could feel his body heat radiating all the way across to my side of the bed. In the morning, his cheeks were bright pink and his eyes didn't look so good but I sent him to gan anyway (bad, bad Ima!). Wishful thinking. Around 13:30 Wednesday afternoon his gannenet (daycare carer) called me and said she thought he had a fever and he wasn't acting like himself. He'd fallen asleep even before noon which isn't like him. I wasn't happy he was sick, poor baby, but I was THRILLED to have a legitimate excuse to leave work. (It's definitely the first time I've had to take time off for a sick kid in the nearly two years since I've been in this job.) Silly, me sitting here twiddling my thumbs. Just dumb. When I'm busy I don't mind but when I'm not.....o man! I dashed to the gan and took him home.

He ended up having a high fever for three days! Apart from taking him to the doctor on Friday and the fastest IKEA run you've ever seen in your life on Thursday, we've been home in our pajamas watching a lot of movies and having a slow-mo Shabbat. I kept giving him Acamol to bring the fever down and when he was under the influence of that he was fine. Jumping around and playing and singing and playing games on the computer, etc. But when the Acamol wore off and the fever came back. O my! Horrible.

Friday night we all went to sleep pretty early. Then at 5:30 am yesterday morning E woke up because his nose was stuffy and he couldn't breathe. I put some salt water drops in his nose and we got up, had some petit ber buscuits dipped in coffee (our Shabbat morning treat). I was up with him until 6:30 then we went back to bed and we both slept until 10:45!!!!! I can't remember the last time that happened. Especially on Shabbat.

The carpet that I had wanted to buy for E's room had been out of stock at IKEA for a while and on Thursday I checked their site again and it said they'd gotten it in. So I grabbed E and we ran to IKEA to pick it up. Got the rug and a new shade for the little lamp in his room too.

The robin's egg blue in the rug exactly matches the new color we recently had the walls painted.

The base of the lamp is a deep, rich blue. Isn't the shade cute?

I had gone a week ago Friday to the bead shop in Rishon and stocked up. I had a bunch of jewelry projects that I wanted to get done while DH and Y were away and thanks to being home with E sick for three days I had even more time than I'd expected to work on my projects. In all I've made a pair of earrings and matching pendant (a gift for someone), a bracelet (also a gift), a necklace and matching earring set for me and last night started another necklace which I should be able to finish within the next day or two.


Here's the pendant. Still need to add the ring at the top and a chain or ribbon to hang it from.



Here's the necklace I made for myself. I'm stuck on this pattern. It's so me! I think this is the 4th necklace using this pattern that I've made and I've got a 5th in the works.



The weather forecast for the weekend was supposed to bring the mother of all storms, with snow in Jerusalem (very rare) all but a surety. No such luck. It didn't rain at all in Rehovot yesterday but today is a COLD, black, wet, wet day! I was reading on one of the English news sites that over Shabbat the Kinneret (Sea of Galilee) which has been at record low drought levels for at least 7 years rose by over 4 inches! That is a LOT of water. The snow that has fallen on Mt. Hermon and northern areas will melt and provide even more water. Hurrah! Great news! What a blessing! We're not out of the woods yet as far as our water levels go but we're headed in the right direction. May it only continue!

Prince Edward Island, Canada

I am in love with the Anne of Green Gables books and I own the whole set. I read them over and over as a teen and we have the movies which are absolute perfection IMO. The movies are not short and just within the past month or so I decided to try watching them with Y to see if she liked them. She LOVED them and we spent quite a few hours (in segments) watching them together.

I am just a teeny bit obsessed with Prince Edward Island, Canada, which is where the fictitious heroine of these books was supposed to have lived. This obsession with the place is compounded by my love of doing genealogy research on both sides of my family and the knowledge that my ancestors on my Mom's side came over from Bradworthy, Devon, England and settled in PEI in 1833. Through doing this genealogy research I also discovered that we are very distantly related to Lucy Maud Montgomery, the authoress of the Anne of Green Gables books! So it all ties in together very nicely, doesn't it?

In the past I have done extensive genealogy research into my Mom's side of the family. I was assisted in this by a cousin who sent me the documentation that she had. I took what she sent me and carried on from there. I haven't touched my Mom's side of the family at all for about 13 years but lately I've been bored at work and just last week went online and re-visited a few of the genealogy sites that were so helpful back in 1999 when I was doing my research.

I was thrilled and awed to stumble upon this photograph last week that someone else had posted, of my great-great-grandfather's sister-in-law, Effa "Effie" MacArthur. What a treasure! Effie MacArthur married William Dyment whose brother, Moses, was my g-g-grandfather. (Funnily enough, my son's name is Effie - short for Efrayim!)

She was born in PEI in 1815 and died there in 1909. It was written about Effie: "This lady was quite blind and yet was very particular about her dress and the dress of her granddaughters. She would ask them to stand out before her, so that she might "see" as she explained it, whether or not they were properly dressed for Sunday School or church, and she knew every little cap and apron apart. She travelled to the United States to visit several different members of the family every summer and lived an active life and also a long one, passing away at 96 years of age. Her children were John, George, Harriet and Maria. Another daughter passed away quite young."

Blog Recommendation

For a nice, pictorial blog of average, everyday things in Israel go to Real Jerusalem Streets.

Museum

I've spoken and Skyped with DH a few times. Sounds like they're getting around and seeing things despite the cold. The one time I spoke at length to Y she was telling me about Shrek (the play) that DH took her to see. DH's cousin drove them around town and they saw Buckingham Palace, Trafalgar Square covered in icicles, the soldiers on horses (missed the changing of the guard), and they went to the Science Museum on Friday. Yesterday they went to the Natural History Museum and DH sent me this picture of Y:

Goals

I am very please with how many of the goals I set for myself to accomplish while DH and Y have been reached. Not all of them, but a fair bit.

I went to the bead shop and 2 projects are either completed or nearing completion.

I went to visit my friend, Jayme, in Ashkelon last night. We went out for dinner. She had her daughter with her and I had E. On the way down there we dropped T off at the boarding school she went to last year. She has stayed in touch with her friends there and goes to visit them occasionally. We picked her up on our way home.

I got the ironing done. (Feeling VERY virtuous about that!)

I'm NOT doing so well on getting more sleep. I feel like I need to use/enjoy every minute I have to myself and hate to waste it on sleep. So there have been a quite a few late nights and I'm beginning to feel it. Not good. Maybe tonight I'll get into bed with a book as soon as E goes down and just call it a night.

At some point last night E came into our room. I hauled him into bed with me and we both went back to sleep. Love it! I toyed with the idea of letting him sleep with me every night while DH is away but know I'd regret it and DH would have a COW if he came home and found that E had gotten used to that and we had to retrain him to sleep in his bed.

The weather the last 2 days or so has been milder but starting on Thursday the temps are due to take a nose dive and the mother of all storms is supposed to move in and carry on through the weekend - rain, wind, hail, freezing temps and even snow up north and in Jerusalem - it does happen but it's VERY rare!

If you're having a hard time visualizing Jerusalem covered with snow, here ya go! (Pics I found online taken 2008.)

Funnies

I had the nicest Shabbat with my "big one" and my "little one" yesterday. Everything just flowed on a much slower pace than when DH is around.

E didn't stop making me and T laugh. What a comedian!

Friday night I made a bed for him on the living room floor which is our Friday night ritual. He was bouncing around, not exactly cooperating with going to sleep, so T said to him sternly, "E, lay down or I'm not your friend any more." He dramatically put his face down on his arms and was doing this REALLY fake and loud BOO HOO!-ing. Then he picked up his head and with not a tear in sight said very solemnly, "Ani bocha." (Hebrew fem.: "I'm crying." The fact that he got his Hebrew tenses mixed up made it even funnier.)  Then he put his head back down and carried on BOO-HOO-ing loudly and dramatically with an occasional wail for "Abbbbbaaaaaa!" thrown in for good measure. T and I were trying to be disapproving of him not going to sleep but he kept cracking us up. He knew he was being funny too which made it funnier.

Next, he would stand beside the "bed" of cushions and then leap straight up in the air and come down on the cushions like a rag doll, arms and legs flailing. Then he'd pop up and look at us both with a huge smile and say, "Nachon machik?" (Heb.: "Right it's funny?" The word for "funny" in Hebrew is "matzchik" so he didn't quite get that right either which also made it funny.) We were trying so hard not to laugh and we kept telling him sternly "No, E, it's not 'machik'!" But then T and I would just burst out laughing.

We were eating lunch around 3:30 yesterday. E was standing in his booster chair while T shoveled couscous into his mouth. At this point he had a shirt and diaper on but no pants. T said, "E, do you have kaki (poop)?" He said, "No. See?" With this he turned around and stuck his behind out as far as he could in the direction of her nose. I'm still not sure whether he wanted her to smell his south end or do a visual check but either way it was funny.

Then around 4pm yesterday I put E in the bath for him to play for a while while I read and then I got him out and we played hide and seek in my bed under the covers with imaginary lions and snakes and elephants after us - he LOVES that game. He kept telling me he was going to kill the lions and elephants and he kept pretending to shoot them. I told him Ima doesn't like guns and killing and he should just go "Boo!" and scare them away so we did that for quite a while and took turns going "Boo!" to the lions and elephants. So that seemed like a satisfactory solution. Heehee. That game kept us both amused for a good 45 minutes.

Up Up and Away

I'm losing 2/5 of my family this evening. I mean, DH and Y are flying to the UK to visit family for nearly 2 weeks. I'm missing Y already and I'm only slightly jealous that I'm not going with them. Until I remember how cold it will be there and then the jealousy vanishes with a "poof!". Better them than me.

I keep reminding myself how nice it will be to have the car to myself, have the bed to myself and not be woken countless times by DH's snoring, to have my evenings foot loose and fancy free after E goes to bed (I wonder what time that will be and if he'll give me problems in that department?). The possibilities are endless!

I definitely hope to get to bed earlier rather than later and catch up on my sleep. I hope to read a lot. I hope to get the house more or less shipshape and, hopefully, without 2 family members around, maybe - just maybe - it will stay shipshape for longer? I hope to spend some time with T shopping for things that she needs for her room to make it look like a room and less like a storage shed. I hope to get some beading done. I hope to get caught up on the ironing.

Also, since DH won't be here to do it, I'll be leaving work earlier for these two weeks in order to pick E up from gan. It will also be a mini-vacation for me to get out of work just a tad earlier and have more of an afternoon/evening to go to my Mom's, go visit friends who aren't local, take E to the park if the weather permits, etc.

I'm usually good - really good - on my own but I'm feeling sort of.......lost......just thinking about them going. And the dark, gray weather outside matches my mood.

New Language

When you move to a new country of course you have to learn a new language. But imagine my surprise after moving to Israel to discover that dogs no longer said, "bow-wow" nor birds "cheep cheep". (Luckily, cats DO still say "meow", cows still say "moo" and pigs still say "oink" - whew!)

An American friend and I recently got to laughing about Israeli animal sounds. Here is a short list:

Israeli dogs say "hahv-hahv" or "how-how".
Israeli birds say "tzif-tzif".
Israeli ducks say "gah-gah".
Israeli pigeons say "gur-gur".
Israeli frogs say "kvah-kvah" (HUH?).
Israeli roosters say "koo-koo-ree-koo!". (When E attemps to say this it comes out "ree-koo-ree-koo" - lol.)
And an Israeli rider says to his horse "dee-oh, dee-oh" (rather than "giddy-up").

*******
I remember shortly after arriving in the country, I was living and studying Hebrew at the Immigrant Absorption Center in Kfar Saba. A few weeks after arriving I got a bladder infection and went to the medical clinic. I knew the word (barely) for "test" (Heb.: b'dikah) but didn't know the word for "bladder" so I told the nurse I needed a "peepee test". I'll never forget the peals of laughter from all the nurses and all the people in the waiting room - most of whom were new immigrants as well and whose Hebrew was probably not any better than mine. Needless to say someone told me the correct word for "bladder" (Heb.: sheten) and thanks to this experience it's a word I'll never forget.

It's times like this after moving to a new country where you've got to make a conscious decision just to lose your selfconsciousness, let whatever you're trying to say just fall out of your face and leave it up to your listener to work out what they think you mean. Otherwise you'll give yourself ulcers.