The Greene Gene

This something that runs in our family, but only on my mother's side hence it is called the Greene Gene in honor of my mother's family. This gene gives the carrier to make a desert disappear in about 5 minutes flat when no one is looking. This is also the same gene that requires the carrier to make careful decisions when dining out. For instance if a restaurant has really good dessert, then the carrier must decide how much protein must be eaten, i.e. sandwich, soup, or other so called healthful food, with out filing up too much so that there is room for dessert. My mother, my Aunt E and myself seem to be the most affected by it. My Aunt S and sister are not afflicted by this. So lately it has been getting me into trouble. Earlier this week it was marshmallows. Now anyone who really knows me, knows I love marshmallows. I try not to love them so much, they are full of sugar and who knows what else, but they are so tasty, plus, until we moved here and I saw them being sold as a snack, I thought I was the only person in the universe who hate them raw and not just roasted, now I am in good company! I don't often get them for two reasons 1) we could not get kosher ones where we used to live and 2) the sugar. Now in Jerusalem we can get them with a good hechsher so D got me a bag, to share of course. Well if a small bag of marshmallows is purchased on Friday anyone who knows me, knows they are not going to make it past Mon. or Tues. and that is with sheer willpower! So needless to say when D went to go get them on Tues. after the fast they might have all been gone! Oopps! Now tonight it was pudding. D sat and said, " Gee I think this is the first pudding I have had all year!" Hmmm, I said, can't imagine where the rest are going? The kids maybe....(yeah right!) I have promised to try and reform my ways so that D gets to have more treats, but I keep telling him I have 3 kids I need the sugar to keep me going. Although the truth is this is why I try not to have it in the house. If I buy it I will eat it.....I thank G-d regularly for the fact that although I am afflicted with the Greene Gene I do not weigh a million pounds like my friends tried to curse me with in high school. More later from the Queen Junkie! (Junk Food, that is!)

D's Vacation!

D officially went on vacation starting Tuesday, a fast day marking the destruction of the first and second temple in Jerusalem. On the Hebrew calendar this is the 9th of Av. Three weeks prior to this on the 17th of Tammuz there is a minor fast which marks the breach of the walls of Jerusalem until the Romans succeed in destroying the Second Temple on the 9th of Av. For three weeks we "mourn" the loss of our Temple with the final 9 days considered as in mourning of a relative. For 9 days we don't play music, weddings and other similar occasions are forbidden, we dont' buy new clothes and we are in a state of mourning until after a 25 hour fast on the 9th of Av. The 9th of Av also marks many other tragedies that have befallen the Jewish people through out history. Including the expulsion of Jews from Spain marking the beginning of the Spanish inquisition, the start of WWI which led to WWII and most recently the Jews of Gush Katif were expelled the day after Tisha B'Av (the 9th of Av) two years ago. It is a "heavy" time and we use it to reflect on our behavior and how we have done and what we can do to improve ourselves. When the fast ends we are humbled, but filled with hope that things can improve and we are not with the ability to change things for the better.

Now that this time is over we are enjoying being able to do the things we have put on hold. So, on Tuesday evening after the fast we celebrated by making homemade caramel corn and watching Gigi! For those of you who don't know, like D did not, Gigi is a 1958 musical staring Leslie Caron that takes place in Paris. It is one of my favorite musicals and my mom just sent it to me so I really wanted to see it and I was patiently waiting until after the Tisha B'av to watch it. So I suggested it to D and he was like OK (think resigned male sigh.) I sweetened the deal with the caramel corn and we got settled and started the movie. We get through the opening credits, etc. and Maurice Chevallier starts singing and D gets the horrified tone and says, " this is a musical?! I didn't know it was a musical, this is going to take a lot more popcorn!" But we watched it and he survived it. Wed. was mostly a hang out day and get caught up on things day. I took the kids to the park for a couple of hours and that was it.

Today we took the kids to get shoes. All three. Between the expense and hassle we have been putting it off, but it turned out quite well. Hurray for outlet stores and back to school sales. Y has little blue and orange sandals which are a bit big but he can walk in them and there is room to grow. Finding proper shoes at this stage is impossible it seems everything is too big or too small. We had the same problem with M. While Y has hard bottomed sandals M has soft ones as she is not really walking yet. Also we could find them in her size, but not Y so he got the bigger shoes, good thing he has bigger feet. I also noticed that while there are about a dozen choices for girl shoes there are about 2-3 for the boys. Talk about slim pickings. However, I can see why when I shop with the kids. The reactions go something like this: S: I can hop, run skip and jump, these are great shoes! Y: What are these things? Maybe I should try eating them. I mean I can walk in them, but I would rather go barefoot. M: Oooohhhhh, they are so pretty! Look at these pretty new things on my feet. M was asleep as I tried out about 5 different pairs of shoes on her so she was really surprised when we finally put them on her after her nap. After 4 stores and 3 pairs of shoes we headed to the grocery and then home.

It has been really hot so no zoo trip. I am hoping it cools off next week. We are thinking of going to Shilo, another Yeshuv, where they are having a festival all afternoon with buses running there from Jerusalem for the event. It sounds like fun and would be a nice change of activity. Tuesday I going to attempt to meet up with friends yet again at the zoo. Maybe this time it will work.
An as usual we will be attempting to find a new place to live. We have made several calls but nothing yet. I just keep thinking everything in its time and place. Will keep you posted as we know what is going on.

Up, Up and Away!

This is sometimes how I feel watching the kids. That one day I will turn around and they will be all grown up! S is just so mature sometimes. Friday we went grocery shopping, it does not take a rocket scientist to figure that Friday is the worst day possible to to shop in Israel. You have a bunch of people all on a time schedule to get home and get their stuff done before Shabbat comes in. The stores are packed and everyone is in a hurry. But unfortunately, due circumstances there we were stuck shopping on Friday. So after enduring this chaos as a family, when we got home, S helped bring up all the groceries, asked me where to put everything and then handed me bags of groceries while I put stuff away. Such a big helper! It was really sweet.

Y is really cruising these days and we will be buying him shoes this week. He even climbed up the ladder at the park all by himself today, with a lot of supervision. He went down a pretty decent size slide for his size and loved it! He has no fear! Gee wonder where that comes from?! Y and M loved climbing on the slide today too. Y figured out how to get all the way up and then slide into M at the bottom, she thought this was hilarious. Go figure! He is such an engineer wants to know how everything works. When we were at the park on Shabbat he was really examining the teeter totter. I put him and M on it and that was OK to him, but he really wanted to know how it worked. He is already figuring out spatial sizing as well. He and M were playing with two empty small trash cans and he could see that one would fit in the other so he took it from M so he could put the one in the other. So cute!

M finally took her first two steps today! Hurray! I knew she was getting ready. M is our observer, she definitely knows what is going on but prefers to quietly sneak off and do her own thing a lot. Except at bath time. This morning Y got a bath out of serious necessity and she complained about how unfair it was that he got to get in the tub and she did not. Who needs a kiddie pool when we have a bath tub! (And by the way, when your 3 year old tells you that your kid is poopy, listen to him. It will save you from having to go around cleaning up a trail of slime left by said poopy child.) But M also likes to play with the boys and I can see that she is a lot tougher than her female counter parts. But she is also very much a girl.

Having three kids is such a work out on patience, energy, budget and so on, but the amount of creativity, laughter, entertainment and joy is really worth it. To see them all collaborating now and developing their own jokes between the three of them is really fun. I can't imagine what it will be like in another 6mo or a year when the twins can really talk. Watch out world my kids are on the run! Literally! And by the way, we have a helicopter! Really! Every time we forget to turn it on S points to the ceiling and asks us to turn on the helicopter! The ceiling fan has become a huge source of entertainment for the boys!

Yummy Crayons!

S keeps his crayons on a desk in his room, but the lid is off. Y and M came into our room and both had crayon all over their faces and Y was holding two more. Naturally I assumed that the crayons had been left on the floor. But no, there they were in their container a respectable distance from the edge. Y had climbed onto a box next to the desk and up on to the desk and retrieved the crayons. What gave him away? His doggy was up on the desk in a spot that only could have been reached if he had climbed up. S by the way was gone for all of this. Our friend Av took him for an outing to run some errands. Either we are too slow or the kids are too smart for their own good!

Warning Politics Ahead!

I normally don't spend a lot of time on politics here. It is boring, can cause family feuds and freak people out. All at the same time even! But I am making an exception because posted on Foxnews.com is a nice big travel advisory from the U.S. government on traveling to Israel. This is pretty much the same advisory that is always in affect so why it made the news I don't know; other than the U.S., the U.N. and crew are meeting in Portugal to solve our problems with the Palestinians...Yeah right, if you believe that....... So, the bottom line is they are saying 1) Don't go to Gaza. Ummm, Duhhhhh! 2) Stay out of the West Bank, this is because of infighting between the factions of Hamas and Fatah and Hezbollah. So basically they are asking people not to go to places like Ramahallah, Qalqilya, etc. Another Duh! Things out in Karnei Shomron as quiet as ever. And they are saying not go anywhere touristy, out to eat or other places that Americans might congregate such as large events. Specifically in Jerusalem. Oh give me a break. What are we supposed to do starve while our children drive us insane because basically they are telling people not to leave their houses or hotel rooms. I don't think so! Has the person who wrote this ever been to Jerusalem? Is there some where here in Jerusalem that Americans don't go. What is the point of people coming here if they are going to sit, umm, where? In a cave maybe, because they can't go to a hotel as there are Americans congregating there too. Oh and they also recommend not going to the American Embassy or the American Consulate. Oh there is some encouragement and commentary about all those security measures they take when we go . I knew their resources were being misspent! Talk about a lesson in inefficiency and lack of organization! Suffice to say we plan on going out plenty, hopefully to the zoo tomorrow and if we get lucky and get a sitter we may meet a friend at a restaurant for some adult conversation that does not include the statement: (please choose one: S, Y, M...stop that, no-no sweetie,etc.) I am most excited. In short, please ignore the man behind the curtain, he has no clue what he is talking about. If you want to know what is really happening here, drop us a line and ask.

Daytime Outings and Midnight Madness

Lately S has been going berserk and driving us all generally insane. 6+ weeks with no structured activity is begining to wear on us all. So last week I finally got it together and took the kids to the zoo to get their annual pass. Thank you to my wonderful aunt who gave us this gift for Y and M's first birthday. It has taken me forever to get it all together and get there. Because first there was the project of converting dollars to shekels, then the zoo wanted us to bring photos, so we of course are going to beat the system save some shekels and do our own and print them out at the photo place for a shekel a piece. Yeah right, first we all had to be home at the same time, when the kids were up and we remembered, then print them and so on. We finally get them printed and they are too big. So I decide to go on line just one more time to see if we really have to do this and how big the photos need to be, etc. and low and behold they do it there! Wow! Wish they had come to that decision a little sooner! Now here is the other duh! I forgot I was sitting on extra passport photos of us all. I am sooooo sllloooooowwwww. After a huge balygan in the morning we finally made it to the zoo on Thurs. afternoon. Almost exactly an hour before closing. And they even took everyone's picture automatically. Actually just mine and S because D wasn't there, see the photos did pay off in the end and the little monkeys don't need cards as they are under three. But even in that hour we did get to see some neat animals and most importantly S got to see the elephants. The great thing is now we can go back all the time!

In the midnight madness category we are trying to get Y to sleep through the night or at least more than he was. If we put him to bed later it helps as he doesn't wake up as much. I am trying to get him to sleep through the midnight-one AM nursing, but that means I am up listening to him. So that means a lot of times I am up on the computer, hence the midnight madness. It doesn't help that everyone except D is off schedule since we have moved here. Although right now Y is up making these cute little noises and talking to dog. He has since made friends with dog after being with out turtle for a few days. This is good since Mr. Turtle is currently MIA yet again. I brought him dog which he left in the living room and he was like oh good here is Dog, but now I am still missing Mr. Turtle. It was cute, poor little guy. I have no idea where Mr. Turtle gets off to, for a stuffed Turtle he sure moves fast and is good at hiding! I think one day I will have a journal just for the adventures of Mr. Turtle.

One thing about being up late though is I just finished Dean Koontz's book Fear Nothing. It was really good, but way spooky! Good thing D is home every night! I have never read his stuff and really had no interested but D picked up and I started reading it and got into. Turns out this is the beginning of a series, so I want to look for the next one. The nice thing is it came out originally in paperback in 1998, which means I can have someone look for it used in the States for me or D might even have it on line in his e-book collection.

Its 1:20am here maybe we can get some sleep now!

Kidisms

S: M, stop that!
Me: What's she doing honey?
S: She's laughing at me!

This is all taking place at the breakfast table as I am in the other room talking to D. All the kids in their respective seats! We couldn't help but laugh. I think someone got up on the wrong side of the bed today.

Just for Fun!

Av was over tonight for dinner and we were hanging out and doing random quizzes on the site listed below. Thought you guys might find this entertaining too! Brought back some fun memories. So who is your 80's hunk?

***Your 80s Hunk Is***


Michael J. Fox


Who's Your 80s Hunk?
http://www.blogthings.com/whosyour80shunkquiz/

Mr. Turtle and the Laundry Soap

There are lots of things I would like to blog about, but have not taken the time. But this was too much to pass up. Once or twice a week I manage to get out while D is home on lunch to go visit a friend. Her husband is in the Kollel with D and they learn together. So D watches the kids and I get adult conversation. We usually learn a bit and chat a bit and it is a great hour. So today was one of these days and off I went. Besides what can go wrong in an hour right?!
So I get home and it is quiet, real quiet, as in too quiet. "So all the kids are napping?" I ask. "Uh, yeah," comes the reply from my computer engrossed husband. M had gone down for a nap before I left, so I ask about Y and when he went down. It finally comes that Y is in the house somewhere, but his exact location is unknown. So we set off to track down our 2 boys who are MIA in the house. With out much effort we discover them in our room. By the washing machine. We buy powdered laundry soap in 9kilo bags, this about 19.5 lbs. It is almost full. It has been on the floor because there was no room on top the washing machine to put it there. I am hiding the toilet paper up there and a few other things the kids also like to play in. I finally decided to hide it out of site so know one would get into it. Yeah, right! So back to the present, we walk in and not only is there powdered soap on the floor, it is over flowing in the little drawer where you put the soap in the washing machine, all three slots and S is not pouring on top of Y, who thinks this is hilarious. It took everything in D's power not to break down laughing. He had to turn away a couple of times while trying to get after S for the whole thing. I do have to admit, it was pretty funny. And of all things, who should Y have in his hand, but Mr. Turtle! When I asked S where Mr. Turtle came from he said the garbage! Apparently he had been dropped into an empty garbage can in our room that had a lid on it. Never would have thought to look there. Now D swears he had just checked on the kids and they had been playing in Y and M's room which is connected to ours. But I am a bit sketchy on that defense. Especially since lucky him, lunch was over and it was time for him to go. So guess who is left cleaning up? Yep, that's right , me! D's only saving grace is that he did bring me a vacuum and that is not much! I told him that he was the one who should have been punished instead of S. I mean how hard is it to watch 3 little kids for an hour?! And not even 3, only 2 as one was asleep! D swears it could have happened to me. Hmph!