The Human Race

I have a lot of catching up to do, but I am not sure I have the energy tonight. So before this becomes completely irrelevant I want to get it posted. In my last blog I mentioned we came back from a weekend stay in Beit Shemesh and we all had a little bug. Well that was not to be then end of our sick days. In fact we would all be collectively sick for about 2 weeks! A few days after we came back from Beit Shemesh I came down with Mastisitis or a plugged milk duct. I woke up on that Wed. morning at 3:00am with chills and sore milk duct area. Once D figured out how bad I was we were up at the urgent care in minutes. Fortunately we live minutes from even walking. We asked the neighbors to watch our kids. I got sick on the final days of High Holidays at the begining of Simchat Torah. This where my commentary on the human race comes in. The urgent care unit is completely run by Arabs so that Jews don't have to work during the holidays. The same is true on Shabbat. In this day and age there is obviously a lot of tension between Jews and Arabs. It has been an on going war for the last 3,000 years or so and I don't imagine that Condoleza Rice or the Bush Administration can really solve these issues in a few summit meetings. Come on folks this isn't Scooby Doo, mystery sovled in 20 min.! So I was amazed that my medical care would be from "the opposition." The medical care there was excellent. I wound up having to go up every 8 hours for an anti-biotic I.V. drip from Wed. until Sunday AM. I had the same doctor for all but two of those visits. That man worked hard and played to a full house! In the evening after the holiday ended and right before Shabbat and right after there was no room to even wait in the waiting room it was so full. Yet my doctor was very thorough and very respectful and very competent from the first visit until his last visit on shift. In the end my final wrap up came from a different doctor. I wish that this harmony that I witnessed in the Urgent Care could be the way the world runs. It was truly a melting pot of the human race. Jews, both religious and non-religious, Arabs, and people who did not fit either category. Yet, the staff, was courteous and respectful to everyone and each person got the same care and the same treatment. In the waiting room there was not seperate seating, everyone waited together and those who were the worst were offered seats by those who were capable of standing. While it is wonderful see that people shine the brightest under difficult circumstances, I wish that human beings would be that compassionate under the best of circumstances too.

Everything But the Kitchen Sink!

Basically this is a quick blog that covers our life in a nutshell over the last month. At the end of August we got moved into our new apartment. It is 4 doors down from where we were this summer. It saved in moving costs, but unfortunately it turns out it is also a temporary situation. When we agreed to move in we were warned that the owners were trying to sell, but they expected it to take a while, turns out they had a potential buyer before we could even move in. But we are here for 6 months. This gives us enough time to unpack, catch our breath and think about our next move. Otherwise, it is nice and S has two neighbor boys to play with. We still have not gotten him into school, a bit challenging for all involved, but we are making do. In between getting moved and settled we have been celebrating the High Holidays starting with Rosh Hashana and now we are preparing to end a month's worth of activities with Simchat Torah.

The High Holidays are always enjoyable but hectic. We go from holiday to Shabbat a few days to prepare for the next holiday and then it is Shabbas again. Rosh Hashana was great We had one couple who stayed by us from D's Kollel which was really nice. They are newly married and we had wanted to go the wedding but it was in England and out of our budget. It gave me time to get to know her and that was nice. We also had two other couples who were in and out. One was our regular friends from up the hill that we see regularly and the other couple, also in the Kollel live in Bet Shemesh and have an almost 3 and almost 1 yr. S. and the 3 year old girl got along great and we just spent this past Shabbas at their house. A welcome break for all of us. We spent the first days of Sukkos at home and then out to Bet Shemesh where we stayed until Sunday night and went to a concert. The concert was 2 days we just went to the first, and consisted of main stream religious bands. Think Amy Grant and the like. Really a lot of fun and free too! It was the first time D and I have been to something like this since we have been here and it was great to have another couple to hang out with.

Sukkos was also really nice this year. Since our back porch was too small for our Sukka we put it up in the parking lot, which just got lots of comments of "so your the ones with the sukkah up there..." but nobody minded. It just meant a lot more running back and forth then we would have liked, but it was good exercise. We slept the first two nights out there, but then we were out in Beit Shemesh and then we got a little bug so that was that. But the night before I took S to Geula a religious neighborhood in Jerusalem so we could check out all the vendors selling Sukkah decorations it is a lot like checking out Chirstmas decorations in the season. It was really neat. Sukkot is really the decorating holiday, but instead of a tree we do a whole sukkah. One of these days I want to put up some of my old Christmas ornaments. I had my Cotton Bowl ornament already to go until somebody who shal remain nameless, but has the initials SJ broke it! Grrrrr....... In perspective it is just an ornament but still......I made him feel really guilty. Worked better than yelling or otherwise.

D is home one more week so I will try to get as much done as possible in catching up with chores and recovering from the holidays. Then we will be getting ready for my in-laws to come at the end of the month.

The kids are doing well all things considered and we are happy that S has friends on the block to play with. Although he tends to wander off and the other two boys are quite good at staying in their boundaries. The good thing is they tend to let me know when he has wandered off yet again. The good thing is he knows where he is going and I know where he goes and he usually comes back right away so we are just trying to be patient. And I do mean "Trying"! or maybe he is just trying my patience.........

Y is learning to use a spoon and should be feeding himself soon! At least that is what I am hoping for! He continues to be a whirling dirvish and a busy boy and his curls are growing in nicely. We have posted our latest picks so if you need the link again contact me off line.

M is up and running and very proud of her new found independance. She loves stairs and I have to watch her like a hawk when we are outside as she will head for the stairs up to the parking lot.

I think that covers everything up until now and I will hopefully be back on line more regularly with regular events and updates.