The Greatest Show in Houston

So we went to the circus and we saw this version which was actually quite a nice change, since there was only one ring and your attention was not too divided to enjoy all the acts. We walked in the door and this was the first thing we did even before we got to the pre-show festivities.


Guess we're big on getting the souvenir photo op everywhere we go, along with that twirly, spinning light-up toy. We got one of those with a piroutte-ing elephant on top.

Here are some pics of the Namer family "clowning around" at the Circus





I could have lived my whole life quite happily without the stupid acts with the cat and dog tricks that I found to be silly and boring, and a waste of time (or at least filler time). I'm sorry, but I'll just never be able to be excited about a dressed-up poodle, carrying its own hoops to jump through, in its mouth.

We really loved the second act though which was the live elephants and tigers and cossacks horse tricks and flying acrobats and an amazing display by the Shenzhen Acrobatic Troupe and "video game" and the last act was the most amazing of all. Read more about the Yunnan Flyers and these other acts here. The Motorcycle Mania thing was really awesome as the closer. I even caught myself with my mouth open catching flies. The best part was an exhausted Yoni sitting on my lap and me whispering to him in awe "Wow, how'd they do that?" As we were leaving, Yoni was perched on Abba's shoulders and he says so precociously - "Wow, That was amazing, How did they DO that?" in the most awe-filled innocent voice. It was a priceless moment, with no prompting, that I just had to share.

As I said, Yoni was exhausted. So much excitement for such a little one and he missed his afternoon nap to top it all off.
So here we a have another priceless gem...He was so tired he fell asleep in the car with his snack pretzel in his mouth.
Abba removed it only when we saw it at home and only after we had a good laugh and snapped a few pics of the event for posterity.

So that was a run-down of our trip to the circus. Yael was clositered at Bubbe's house and meanwhile learned how to get around on the walker. Guess we're in for a quick learner with her as she's not even 9 months and does all kinds of (in my non-biased mother's opinion) amazing, circus worthy, cute baby tricks!

cuteness!

So this has nothing to do with my cuties from home, but it amused me so you in blog land get to hear about it.
I work on the 58th floor and have to take several elevators to get to my floor. In the evenings as everyone is trying to go all at the same time, the elevators can tend to get “cozy” and all the gentlemen will generally defer to the ladies to let them get on first. Well this woman was holding her golf umbrella (since Noah is making a comeback – literllay we have had rain for 37 of the last 48 days – since June there have only been 4 days without rain of some kind, not to say that there haven’t been periods of lets say “not rain” rather than sunshine)

Anyway, she reminded me of my mother’s cousin Roselle – cropped non-colored hair, sporty glasses, strappy sandals, leather briefcase and stylish but youngish outfit.
The second elevator came and all the ladies entered in as per the custom. Then we arrived at the tunnel level and she was now in the back part of the elevator with the gentlemen standing in front near the doors. Well the men started to part ways to let the women pass. There were a few younger gentlemen there and this particular lady just started to beat them with her umbrella in a jovial way. She was kidding that the gentlemanly ways need to go out the window in elevators in a tunnel and to just move on outta the way. It may have been on of those “you-had to be there kinda moments, but it made me smile all the way to the car – which is actually quite a hike in the tunnel. Usually I take the street if possible (not raining) just cause it’s a bit shorter, but I still get stopped by crosswalks at street corners and have to inhale the food smells, and the occasional homeless person, and police whistles while directing traffic, and fumes from buses and cars the whole way. Also have to push my way through the throngs of people waiting for the buses to come. But I like the idea of walking outside.
So there!


Here is a cute picture of my little doctor from our Purim in July day at Camp! I told him he was a surgeon in his Spiderman do-rag and sent him with his doctor case with his stethoscope and bloodpressure cuff. The coat must be from their dress-up clothes at camp! Isn't he adorable?

camp bami

Supposedly the kids are supposed to go swimming everyday, but it rained for 2 weeks solid here so that didn't quite happen. Despite that, Jonathan has definately made some improvements in the Waterfront area. In Florida I was able to convince him that he could use floaties and finally let up on the death grip on momma...Now he has real lifeguards who have taught him to blow bubbles - which I couldn't do all on my own...Baby steps. At least I know he's learning water safety!

Here are a couple of Summer Camp pictures of my camper.

Here are some busy bees making an art project for posterity...


Here is Dancing Yoni at the Pajama Day Parade. We're still working on snapping our fingers, but isn't he cute for trying

Walt and the girls

Minnie, Yaeli and momma with Pappa Walt

corporate readjustment and other general chaos

So I think I am finally over the intial shock of the announcement that the powers that be (read: the money hungry executives in corporate America) have decided to sell off my division of our company. Now there are several things that are strange about this decision (irreverent of its effect on me personally and my immediate coworkers)
We are the Gulf Coast Division of my company. Our company now has several offices, including a large one in Tulsa which covers a different region. We are in the corporate office in Houston which houses the executives and another region besides the Gulf Coast.
Our executives and HR just recently moved their offices to the 58th floor of our building (from the 8th) and the other region to the 55th (also from the 8th) The Gulf Coast is on the 57th and the Accounting and IT Depts are on the 56th floor. This has been within the last month. The announcement about the sale of our division came about 2 weeks ago. Now why would they spend and invest all kinds of time and money on moving to sandwich the Gulf Coast if they knew they were going to put it on the market??
We may be bought out all together and not have any jobs going forward, or we may all have jobs with the new company or some may go on with other positions in our current company or some may not be offered jobs with either company.

I just know that I can't afford to be without a job or medical insurance.

This announcement was made a few days before my birthday. My birthday itself SUCKED!
There were high points: I went to lunch "off-campus" at a favorite restaurant with my co-workers, but there was really no "celebration" as the pall of the the announcement made us all a little off kilter. Last year I got balloons and confettia and a card and and and. This time, I didn't even get a cake on my actual birthday, even from my family (mom and dad were in Israel, to be fair) and that's pretty yucky! Kids love birthdays and I want to do all of them up special, but mine was lacking - definately not one for the record books. Eran did bring me some beautiful roses which he had to walk home with from the store, but it garnered us a dinner invitation for Shabbat where the hostess went out of her way to get me a parve triple chocolate birthday cake and surprise me with it! That was so NICE that it saved my birthday from being a total wash.

And of course, I have been thouroughly lambasted by my internist for having the insides of a 57 year old, considering the amount of high blood pressure and cholesterol in my body for such a long time. I think she hates me since she rushes around as if she is SO busy and its a huge incovenience to see me - and I hate going to the doctor as it is. I hate the fact that I am now on so much damn medication, I hate the fact that I now have a "condition" or two that just adds stress to my life!
And she took me off the meds that make it easier to take, claiming they induce weight gain and that is contra to the other health issues I should be facing. So I joined the gym and have even been once during lunch.

Then of course there is the fact that we were overextended from the renovations of half of the Houston Levine homestead. They went to Israel and we went to work (or at least Eran did) Eran went a little crazy and just kept going with all the changes...Luckily, I talked him out of painting over the wooden kitchen cabinets. It would have been a disaster!

So there you have it - Thank goodness my beautiful children are growing every day.
Yaeli is crawling quite nicely now and babbling "da-da" and waving - mostly to herself. She can squeal with delight and always lights up when she sees me, even when I came in the middle of the day to pick up Yoni. She is desperately trying to walk, pulling up on everything and getting frustrated when her legs give out.
Yoni is still struggling lately with laboured breathing but because of his runny nose and being off his asthma medicine. There have been a lot of issues with his camp class being out of control and not such a great environment for all of the kids. And to illustrate that point there was one morning (before nap time and right before Yoni got really sick from his lymph gland - which is still pretty swollen and sometimes tender to the touch) when the counselor called and told us that Yoni had hit a kid, bit someone else and choked a kid with his hands so hard that the other child was shaking. That is simply NOT the child I know and love. They always present it in such a way that you never know what exactly happened and which children were involved, but it was a definate reflection on the chaos that abounded in that classroom. There have since then been several staff changes, which is also difficult on this age group, but a lesser of the evils at this point, unfortunately, but hopefully the dynamics of the staff are now such that the overcrowding in the room won't be such an issue.

Back to Reality

Once we survived the madness that was Disney and Universal and the trip to and from Orlando, we returned tired and lighter in the wallet and on our feet.

Jonathan was of course over-extendeded and had to get sick the following week. He started out with an enlarged gland on his face right below his earlobe that looked like he swallowed a golf ball. We went to the doctor and I mistakenly thought I should take both kids in on my own. Yael had her overdue 6 mo well baby chcekup including vaccinations -she is only a little over 15 lbs, but started to crawl and pull up on things already. Yoni also had some blood drawn for a CBC on the spot, so I had 2 screaming unhappy children to contend with as I paid my money and slinked out the door.