r u gonna make it thru today?

Check out these awesome pics and maybe find some words of wisdom along the way

http://www.scribd.com/doc/130102/beautiful-inspirational-quotes

I sent this link to a friend of mine who is going through a tough time. I have yet to hear back what she found most useful. I particularly like 13, 15, 9, 20 and 26 and the picture on 18, 25

Tell me what stikes you....

Oh, and Yael has learned some new words:
"Hi" said in just the right way with all kinds of inflection
"gehn" - it means "do it again" and is one of her favorites next to muh (which means more - drink, song, story, horsie, whaterver)
"book"
"bah" now means brother and grandPA too
Still can't get bubbe out, maybe we'll try 'Rie instead

wordlist

Once upon a time in a book or more likley an internet article somewhere, I read that toddlers are supposed to have as many verbals as their age (in months) Meaning that if Yael is lets say 18 months (for simplicity) then she should be able to say 18 meaningful words. Let's tally up shall we? First I'll make the numberd list then I'll try to fill it in.
1. Ba=ball
2. Ba= Abba (sometimes ah-ba comes out by accident
3. Ba=brother [ are we noticing the trend yet ]
4. Ba=grandpa (possibly pa?-arabs can't distinguish those vowels, try taking a cab from the American Consulate in East Jerusalem)
5. Ma= mommy {yoni's word for me was "e", a little confusing}
6. My=mine, a toddler favorite
7. Nah=No!-vigorous head shaking accompanying or sometimes not
8.Ma=more which can mean more drink, more food or another time to sing Hot Potato or the Itsy Bitsy Spider
9. Gehn=recently, this means again, as in throw me up in the air and catch me again
10. Da=dogs
11. Da=down in reference to the aforementioned dogs. these two are used simultaneously as one.
12.
13.
14.
15.
16
17.
18.
So since I literally fell asleep in the middle of writing this post, it will have to wait for anther tinw

Stud or Dud?

Brenda wishes she were made of money, or at least that Jonathan’s money factory was a reality…

At least I only paid a reasonable $350 to find out that I could be pre-approved for a mortgage.
[Dad-I am INTENTIONALLY leaving out all the nitty-gritty details and being deliberately vague]
But I also paid another 270 and 231 for inspections to find out that there are active termite colony/ies and a million other “little” problems with our potential house Click here for the HAR listing
– money spent now so that at least I can make reasonably informed decisions in the future. I should be able to get my 1800 earnest money back – eventually - if we back out of the deal.

Stud or dud - you be the judge! Comments appreciated...

Also, all of the deposits for Jonathan and Yael's summer camp and for next year are due - some of which I thought I had already paid, but really hadn't...I still need to find the tuition money for this month and to cover the credit cards, and the ever-increasing cost of gas while I drive around all over looking at other houses so as to keep in the game. At least I know there will be money to cover the car note - I automatically deposit that money ahead of time!
Maybe I'll go back to riding the train for awhile.

And Jonathan was sent home AGAIN today! At least this time they sent home 10 out of 11 kids in his class. Guess its time for a haircut.

Purim 2008

Normally I don't post a bunch of pictures of my kiddos - I guess I'm scared of the evil eye or something, but these were taken by a father of one of the other girls in Jonathan's class [thank's Oded] and they are just too cute not to share...This is right before and during the Purim parade they had from Bertha Alyce to the JCC and back (with the gym as a staging area)
Jonathan's sword luckily broke before the parade (and before he got me in trouble for letting him bring it to school-even though I insited he leave it in his cubby, but he got to use it all night at the party anyway!
Since we had been to hear the Megilla and be a part of the annual Purim costume contest the night before at Beit Knesset-until after 10, home almost at 11, my kids were just a little over extended (understatement much?) Yael was one of 2 in her category (the youngest ones) and she of course came home with a prize for her sweet, adorable costume!!! Probably sets the standard from now on of what they'll expect from me (I got the costume super on sale, right after Halloween at the supermarket of all places!!!!)
I didn't plan this really, but Jonathan was a pirate (the best one of the 6 or 7 at school, if I do say so myself, and I do!) And Yael was a fairy (someone suggested she could be Tinkerbell - I didn't come up with it on my own) In these pictures they forgot to put her wings on. Yoni called her the "butterly fairy princess". Works for me!
I almost forgot to mention the parrot I am wearing on my head is a luau prop from the Dollar Tree in Meyerland Plaza - I'm a real big spender, let me tell you - Enjoy!

Namerim Cuties

Last minute Mommy Magic Tips for the Parade

Super Drew, Cinderell-Ophir,
and Captain Jonathan, munching on a hamentash

The Monkeys Class, Purim Style

Henry, Ophir, Romi, Drew,
Jonathan, Carson and Ashton
not picured: Seth, Caroline, Noah, Sophia,
Jack (Batman)

The Monkeys Lead the Parade

Before the parade started, the Monkeys held their weekly Shabbat "service/snack" in the classroom. Because I am seldom there and Ms Fran feels guilty about never actually seeing me because I'm always working (do I really make it sound like I'm a workaholic or what?), and the fact that the real Abba wasn't there, she let Jonathan hold the kiddish cup and challah plate with his neighbor during the blessings. (He got to be the Abba, basically) Totally adorable! Especially since he was dressed up with those floofy sleeves and the kiddush cup looks like a chalis.

This joyous day came one day after the big scare that the whole Houston Jewish community was on alert for .[Sorry about the grammatical slip-up, I am running on caffine and it is after 1 AM on a school/work night]. There was a mailed vague bomb threat that was received at the JCC that targeted "the community" on March 20 at 4PM. I, like all the other parents, was a nervous wreck about it several days prior to the event, when all the hubaloo was coming out, and HPD and the FBI were getting involved (at your kids' school - its a little nerve-wracking to say the least!). Of course rationally I know that if there was to be a terror attack, there wouldn't be a postmarked letter announcing it beforehand. But it still made everyone, including me, jittery. They "beefed" up security by having an HPD officer at the school in the morning and in the evening, but who's to say they were there all along? I stormed into the "principal's" office freaking out the day all this came out and made my point that I didn't want armed "security guards" near my children's pre-school. My husband disagreed, in typical Israeli fashion, and wanted all backpacks and lunchboxes checked at the door. I think having visible, paid, uniformed, armed, police protection (which is what they chose) for a week or two is just about right. At least I THINK they have to undergo some sort of regular arms/safety training. And I'm not doing the research to disprove that theory!

On March 20, they did have extra police/constable patrols in the area around the JCC and even our little storefront shul had extra security measures including walkie talkies at both entrances and an armed constable in the front and back as well. All's well that ends well, I say.
Of course I went to my HR director and was such a basket case that she gave me a 24 hour help-line number. And then I went to present the situation (much more calmly) to my boss, who is or was some sort of minister and it rather piqued his interest both that I was Jewish and had lived in the "Holy Land". I then proceeded later in the week to ask for that day off to spend with my kids (I had a doctor's appt first thing in the AM and then took the 2 of them to get Jonathan's ear looked at - he had been SEEPING green yucky stuff from it and had been on antibiotics and I wanted to be sure it was all better and that he still had a tube in there and not that he had ruptured an ear drum!) Normally, I skip the short-term follow-ups if all is better, but wasn't taking any chances with his ears at this point. He has a hearing screening next week. While we were there, he got his 4 year old boosters and I took Yael with just so she wouldn't still be at school. It was VERY thin around there that day. When I dropped them off, my kids were #5 and #6 in the whole building. And when I picked them up, Yael was one of 2 in her class and Yoni one of about 15 on the whole hall. Were we all scared? Or just overly cautious? The truth is, it was the Thursday before Good Friday and most people (at least in the infant wing) were taking advantage of the long weekend to go out of town and visit family.
Interesting 2 weeks huh?

Awful, just awful

Bombings, shootings, massacres, suicides...ENOUGH IS ENOUGH ALREADY!
Seems like everywhere you turn lately there is a shooting or a bombing or a massacre or somebody attacked somebody else or a baby drowned or someone went postal at a fast food restaurant or publicly commited suicide....

Just in the last 24 hours we had news of:
a minor boming in Times Square click here or click here,
a digusting case of intentional child abuse click here,
2 separate incidences of murdering university students click here,
a potentail mob killing click here,
something out of a sick Hollywood science fiction flick click here,
an accidental death and attempted suicide click here,
another teen suicide click here,
a massive death toll after dual bombings in Baghdad click here,
an unthinkable terrorist attack at a Jerusalem yeshiva click here

Here (see the comments) are some of my thoughts about the last event on the list that really shakes an entire belief system to its core: If you believe in study and learning and dedicating your life to studying Torah, then how and why can this kind of terrible thing happen in a yeshiva, basically a school and study hall, of all places? My inital thought is that the standard answer will be something along the lines of the fact that the Jewish people are in need of Tikkun and therefore we should study even harder to enable it to come to pass...
And Eran mentioned, in that dejected voice he has lately, that they don't even have to bother with getting a bomb built and finding a willing suicide attacker - now its obvious that an attacker can just find an automatic weapon-that's easy to get your hands on anywhere

As always, comments are encouraged to confirm the fact that I am not writing this blog just for my own mental health.
I don't care: Agree, Disagree, Acknowledge, Praise, Slander, REACT

Golden Rule

You’d think it’d be easy enough to operate a stupid no-spill container for filling up with gas.
Not so much.
It comes with valves and spouts and even INSTRUCTIONS!

And I STILL ended up with gas from the pump all over my hands, the canister, the ground, and then the car when I tried to pour from the stupid canister into the tank.

But I will say this - Don't ever underestimate the kindness of strangers.
Thank you to the nameless geo-physisict with an Austrailian accent (I think it was Aussie) who has worked for Exxon for the last 10 years or so

And that's all I have to say about that - can you put the pieces together by yourselves my loyal blog readers?

Only in the South

Disclaimer: Be prepared to giggle aloud! May not be appropriate for teenagers to read unless you expect and can handle whining and stomping off to their room with an accompanying door slam!


APPLICATION FOR PERMISSION TO DATE MY DAUGHTER

NOTE: This application will be incomplete and rejected unless accompanied by a complete financial statement, job history, lineage, and current medical report from your doctor.

NAME_____________________
DATE OF BIRTH_____________
HEIGHT___________ WEIGHT____________
IQ__________ GPA_____________
SOCIAL SECURITY #_______________
DRIVERS LICENSE #_______________
BOY SCOUT RANK AND BADGES_____________
HOME ADDRESS_______________________
CITY/STATE___________ ZIP______

Do you have parents? ___Yes ___No
Is one male and the other female? ___Yes ___No If No, explain: __________________________________________
Number of years they have been married _____________
If less than your age, explain: ______________________

ACCESSORIES SECTION:

A. Do you own or have access to a van? __Yes __No

B. A truck with oversized tires? __Yes __No

C. A waterbed? __Yes __No

D. A pickup with a mattress in the back? __Yes __No

E. A tattoo? __Yes __No

F. Do you have an earring, nose ring, __Yes __No
pierced tongue, pierced cheek or a belly button ring?

(IF YOU ANSWERED 'YES' TO ANY OF THE ABOVE, DISCONTINUE APPLICATION AND LEAVE PREMISES IMMEDIATELY. I SUGGEST RUNNING.)


ESSAY SECTION:

In 50 words or less, what does 'LATE' mean to you?

_____________________________________
In 50 words or less, what does 'DON'T TOUCH MY DAUGHTER' mean to you?

_____________________________________
In 50 words or less, what does 'ABSTINENCE' mean to you?

_____________________________________

REFERENCES SECTION:

Church you attend ______________________
How often you attend ____________________
When would be the best time to interview your:
father? _____________
mother? _____________
pastor? _____________


SHORT-ANSWER SECTION:

Answer by filling in the blank. Please answer freely, all answers are confidential.

A: If I were shot, the last place I would want to be shot would be:

_________________________________
B: If I were beaten, the last bone I would want broken is my:

_________________________________
C: A woman's place is in the:

_________________________________
D: The one thing I hope this application does not ask me about is:

_________________________________
E. What do you want to do IF you grow up? ___________________
F. When I meet a girl, the thing I always notice about her first is:
___________________

F. What is the current going rate of a hotel room? ______________

I SWEAR THAT ALL INFORMATION SUPPLIED ABOVE IS TRUE AND CORRECT TO THE BEST OF MY KNOWLEDGE UNDER PENALTY OF DEATH, DISMEMBERMENT, NATIVE AMERICAN ANT TORTURE, CRUCIFIXION, ELECTROCUTION, CHINESE WATER TORTURE, RED HOT POKERS, AND HILLARY CLINTON KISS TORTURE.


_________________________________________
Applicant's Signature (that means sign your name, moron!)


_______________________________
Mother's Signature
________________________________
Father's Signature

_______________________________
Pastor/Priest/Rabbi State Representative/Congressman

Thank you for your interest, and it had better be genuine and non-sexual.
Please allow four to six years for processing.

You will be contacted in writing if you are approved. Please do not try to call or write (since you probably can't, and it would cause you injury). If your application is rejected, you will be notified by two gentleman wearing white ties carrying violin cases. (you might watch your back)

To prepare yourself, start studying Daddy's Rules for Dating.



Daddy's Rules for Dating
Your dad's rules for your boyfriend (or for you if you're a guy) :

Rule One:
If you pull into my driveway and honk you'd better be delivering a package, because you're sure not picking anything up.

Rule Two:
You do not touch my daughter in front of me. You may glance at her, so long as you do not peer at anything below her neck. If you cannot keep your eyes or hands off of my daughter's body, I will remove them..

Rule Three:
I am aware that it is considered fashionable for boys of your age to wear their trousers so loosely that they appear to be falling off their hips. Please don't take this as an insult, but you and all of your friends are complete idiots. Still, I want to be fair and open minded about this issue, so I propose this compromise: You may come to the door with your underwear showing and your pants ten sizes too big, and I will not object. However, in order to ensure that your clothes do not, in fact come off during the course of your date with my daughter, I will take my electric nail gun and fasten your trousers securely in place to your waist.

Rule Four:
I'm sure you've been told that in today's world, sex without utilizing a 'Barrier method' of some kind can kill you. Let me elaborate, when it comes to sex, I am the barrier, and I will kill you.

Rule Five:
It is usually understood that in order for us to get to know each other, we should talk about sports, politics, and other issues of the day. Please do not do this. The only information I require from you is an indication of when you expect to have my daughter safely back at my house, and the only word I need from you on this subject is: 'early.'

Rule Six:
I have no doubt you are a popular fellow, with many opportunities to date other girls. This is fine with me as long as it is okay with my daughter. Otherwise, once you have gone out with my little girl, you will continue to date no one but her until she is finished with you. If you make her cry, I will make you cry.

Rule Seven:
As you stand in my front hallway, waiting for my daughter to appear, and more than an hour goes by, do not sigh and fidget. If you want to be on time for the movie, you should not be dating. My daughter is putting on her makeup, a process than can take longer than painting the Golden Gate Bridge . Instead of just standing there, why don't you do something useful, like changing the oil in my car?

Rule Eight:
The following places are not appropriate for a date with my daughter: Places where there are beds, sofas, or anything softer than a wooden stool. Places where there is darkness. Places where there is dancing, holding hands, or happiness. Places where the ambient temperature is warm enough to induce my daughter to wear shorts, tank tops, midriff T-shirts, or anything other than overalls, a sweater, and a goose down parka - zipped up to her throat. Movies with a strong romantic or sexual themes are to be avoided; movies which feature chain saws are okay. Hockey games are okay. Old folks homes are better.

Rule Nine:
Do not lie to me. I may appear to be a potbellied, balding, middle-aged, dimwitted has-been. But on issues relating to my daughter, I am the all-knowing, merciless god of your universe. If I ask you where you are going and with whom, you have one chance to tell me the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. I have a shotgun, a shovel, and five acres behind the house. Do not trifle with me.

Rule Ten:
Be afraid. Be very afraid. It takes very little for me to mistake the sound of your car in the driveway for a chopper coming in over a rice paddy near Hanoi . When my Agent Orange starts acting up, the voices in my head frequently tell me to clean the guns as I wait for you to bring my daughter home. As soon as you pull into the driveway you should exit the car with both hands in plain sight. Speak the perimeter password, announce in a clear voice that you have brought my daughter home safely and early, then return to your car - there is no need for you to come inside. The camouflaged face at the window is mine.

Deep Thoughts

This is an email that I sent a few weeks ago to an esteemed Rabbi Wolbe from a line of esteemed Rabbi Wolbes who sends out a weekly message regarding Torah parsha, upcoming Torch events and a "sermonette". These are some of my comments on part of the sermonette. I also copied a friend, mother of 4 and teacher/speaker/rebbitzen who is the head of the women's division of that same organization, and personally invited me to come to a women's conference in January that left me invigorated. Sometimes it's good to vent!

From: Brenda Namer [mailto:bnamer@Petrohawk.com]
Sent: Friday, January 25, 2008 5:14 PM
Subject: RE: To Be A "Mensch"



So I'm scrabling to make the house ready for Shabbat after I went to the VIP Shabbat program Friday morning at my son's pre-school and I read your article to take a break.



This part really moved me:

only this time it is not the Nazis who are finishing us off but we who are gradually doing it to ourselves through assimilation and intermarriage. The Jewish people are literally disappearing as we speak.



We have moved back to Houston (I'm native, my husband Israeli) and I struggle to keep our identity as a Jew in Galut - only bringing it up if someone notices that I am speaking Hebrew throughout the day to my husband on the telephone, food choices, etc



I haven't really come to grips with the fact that I am making a life for my family here and not in Israel.



Maybe that IS why I've found my way back to my roots here - to be the token Jew (it always seems like that is the case in my daily circle and with the choices I've made - {I went to LSU in Baton Rouge rather than Tulane where my mother went or UT Austin where my brother went}) who shows others around me that we are not all like the sterotypes and what I think it means to be Jewish. And of course to help others strengthen their Jewish identity by being comfortable with my own Jewish identity.



Thank you for these weekly drasha - it gets you thinking and sometimes even sparks a spark.

Brenda Namer


This is what I got from the author of the sermonette and whose children are at Sephardic Gan
From: TORCH [mailto:torch@torchweb.org]
Sent: Tue 1/29/2008 8:59 AM
To: Brenda Namer
Subject: RE: To Be A "Mensch"

Hello Brenda,

Thanks for you kind and touching words. I agree and think that just about the only way for a Jew to stay connected, especially in "galut" is by being empowered through Jewish learning. When we learn, we connect, and are able to stay strong and feel part of a community. I welcome you to join our learning opportunities.

All the best,
Aryeh
(have you ever gotten a note signed with just a first name from a distinguished learned Rabbi? Its a first for me too - and then last week he added me as a one of his 145 friends on Facebook..., its a new generation!)

This is what my friend wrote back later:
Sent: Mon 2/18/2008 11:50 PM
To: Brenda Namer
Subject: RE: To Be A "Mensch"
Well Spoken, Brenda. You are a wonderful Jew for others to meet and learn from…

What a warm fuzzy, just thought I'd share with the blogosphere!

Best laid plans...

So we're driving home from Bubbe and Grandpa's house this evening when Yoni brings up out of the blue that he wants to meet Santa Claus. Don't ask me where this came from?
Then he calmly mentions that "Jewish don't DO Christmas" as I plainly told him many times as we drove around looking at the "Merry Christmas lights" in December and watching all the Hallmarky goodness that are holiday time movies at the end of the year.
My question is: Why did he decide to remember all this right now at the end of Februaury?
Then he goes on to say that he has met Santa Claus at the North Pole and that it wasn't so cold. And that Santa had given him a lolipop, but not just any lolipop, a candy-corn shaped one that was filled with peanut butter. This from my child who is not super keen on sweets... What an imagination! I asked him if he could draw me a picture of that and he said SURE in all the beautiful tones of his innocence. Then he proceeded to hang his sister's pink and purple butterfly/flower blanket around his shoulders superhero cape style and took off running for the door. He won as usual by beating us to the upstairs door to the apt.



And another thing...
Sorry for taking so long to get back to blogging...Life somehow just keeps getting in the way.

Yaeli is "The Biter" in her class and she has left her indelible impression on a few of the other children, much to my chagrin. When they tell me she's biting, I give her a little more attention than usual and hope that those chompers will finally come through and stop tormenting her gums.... Sometimes a little extra TLC is all it takes.

It was president's day yesterday and BAC was closed as was my office (hooray, we didn't even have to think about who I was going to pawn the kids off on for the whole day - It was ME)
We took full advantage of the BEAUTIFUL almost spring day and went to 2 parks with the public library in between in hopes of calming down for an afternoon nap. Best Laid Plans....

The first park was quite nice until the first graders from Lovett had a picnic on the bleachers and then invaded our serene toddler friendly park.

So we went to the library (which worked so much better in my head than it did in reality) where Jonathan pulled so many books off the shelves that I thought the librarian was going to kill me on the spot. Yael was every bit a toddler and she promptly pooped 3 times in succession because I had no back-up wipes and then she was into everything and not wanting to sit still for the story I was trying to read aloud whilst the slight greasy gentleman in the back corner hid his glares from behind his laptop.


After the library we went to the grandparents' house for lunch and a quick diaper change (even though neither one of them was there) Yoni let the dogs out and they had a fun time chasing each other in and out the patio door through the curtain. Then we drew a snowman with different sized round objects and Yaeli and Mommy fell asleep watching Rachel Ray tell us about her favorite hot spots in New York and Chicago


We went back out to enjoy some more fun in the sun at the newly renovated BLUE park, as Yoni calls it, since the equipment there is a sun collecting magnet of dark blue and green. (the new improved Godwin Park with mud repellent, oh so soft wood chips on the ground under the equipment - whose bright iedea was that?) As my friend Miriam the Mommy puts it, here comes a honking BMA (Bad Mother Alert)
So of course Yaeli, probably the smallest kid out there, fell off the swing and got trampled at the park yesterday in front of all the other parents who were so shocked and offended they were frozen in time (or maybe they were just so glad it happened to someone else's child and they could live another day satisfied in the fact that they were perfect parents) Of course she was scared and rightly so. I had put her tummy side down on the big kids swing and dropped the stuffed dog I was holding for Yoni so I looked away for just that one critical second for her to fall off that swing and somehow roll under the feet of the kid who was on the swing next to her. He was probably 5 or 6 and he tried his best to stop so as not to kick her and gravity being what it was and the pendulum effect, his feet and her little head and body just managed to collide at full force.
SCREAMING ensued and I did my best to calm the other child so that he knew he wasn't in the wrong, meanwhile brushing her off and cradling her to my chest and picking wood chips out of her clothes and hair and the random piece or two that ended up in her mouth (dont think she swallowed any as there wasn't enough wind-up time between the time she started screaming for her to breathe and swallow)


And of course just becasue I wasn't having a bad enough time at the park, here it comes - another HUGE BMA - I kept losing Yoni - between all the other kids (and hovering adults), my split attention in keeping up with our acoutrements and keeping Yaeli out of harm's way-fearless little daredevil that she is- and all the great hiding places on the new playground equipment, I was just sure someone was going to make off with my perfect precious angel without me noticing and I was going to end up the subject of one of those awful made for daytime TV movies.....

I started the day out with a little headache that never actually went away and by the end of the day I had a full-blown major migriane that had me moaning in bed for a sip of water (even worse than my raging hormones on pitocin delivering Yoni) Thank you Eran for bringing me water to the bed, but next time spare me the accompanying Israeli dehydration lecture...Drink some water, its the Israeli band-aid cure for everything that ails you!

But we all survived -maybe a little worse for wear- and work was an unexpected haven today after I was hit with the harsh reality of being a stay at home mom - definitely not for me, but big kudos to those who do it, it's not easy. so much for my dreams of being a schoolteacher ...maybe with some practice I could really do some damage to some other people's kids.

On to other things...Yael was sent home early Friday with a case of kinim (Think Pesach seder). YUCK! Then the school called me again to come get Yoni too-same thing. And it was Eran's milestone 30th birthday and it was all kinds of ruined. He also got bsorot lo kol cach tovot - a childhood neighbor and father figure had finally lost his long battle with cancer (zochur l'tov). And then Macabbi Haifa lost their game today so he lost a bet and owes a friend a pizza...bkitzur, not a great week for my sweetie Eran - and his homesickiness is even worse than ever.

And just in case we weren't struggling enough with random stuff...Last year, BAC made a big deal that at a Jewish day school we don't celebrate Valentine's Day, since its not our holiday. This year, Yael got 3 valentines gifts and the two other kids that didn't bring "gifts" were two other 2nd generation deep-rooted Jewish kids whose parents knew better (myself, a Topek, and the granddaughter of one of the teachers at the school) AARGH!

Then of course there is the PM teacher that won't stop badgering me (and whoever comes to get my children-maybe I shouldn't have mentioned that I had grandpa drop off the check for me at the office) for a late fee that I was unfairly charged and told by the office staff to forget about. This incident was over 3 weeks ago and it is still lingering despite supposed intervention by the vice principle. And this morning I made a right big mess of the interaction between the AM teacher and the other teachers and the principle over the whole kinim issue. Damned if you do and damned if you don't - I just want a few days away from all the politics and demands on me and my already thinly streched, finely orchestrated chaos. If I leave just right from my house I can drop everyone off in time to get to my office by 8:15 (which is still 15 minutes later than I want to be and more than an hour after everyone else - it seems -gets there) Then if I am not in the middle of something and can just drop everything at work and not get stopped along the way by chatting or traffic - I can just make it to the school to get the kids and let Quin go get her child on time. But then I have to tack on another hour in getting Eran and dropping off those STUPID (I really want to use a stronger word here but am trying to restrain myself) FEDEXES!!! But if I don't do it, then I don't see my darling husband till hours later as he feels obligated to run whatever errands his ride wants to run (sometimes including a stop for their dinner on the way home)

Is it possible?

Can it be done, she asks?
Can you be in 3 major cities in one day?
Only in Texas (and Israel, of course)

In Israel I could start in Jerusalem, travel through Tel Aviv and get to Haifa all in a matter of 3 hours. In Houston, TX it can take 3 hours to get home from rush hour traffic.

Today I was in downtown Houston - despite the MLK day stuff - and I parked at the corner of Austin and Dallas.
Wish I had my cell phone charged up so I could take a picture of that!
Maybe I'll do that tomorrow

Did you hear the one about the "upscale" New York grocery store that advertised ham as a Channuka food?

I can't make this stuff up...See for yourself.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balducci's

Chanukah, oh chanukah...

After eating some latkes and fried chicken (it goes with the theme),
lighting the first candle on the Menorah,
singing some Chanukah songs
and getting the good gifts out of the way early,
we went and torched Yoni's new beautiful grey winter coat on the flaming menorah - oops!

The miracle was, he wasn't wearing it at the time!
But it is pretty much ruined.
I think he wore it a total of 3 times
and it had lots of life left and room for him to grow

I'm tired of Chanukah already and we have a whole week to go....


Can anyone tell me how you make a 3 year old sit still long enough for guitar lessons?

Aunt Carol ROCKS!!!
She found Yoni a rock star guitar with an amplifier (we're not using that-EVER!) and a microphone and stand.
Plus she got Yael a touchy-feely cloth book and a relatively quiet duck clacker, its still a clacker.

Pics/video to follow when gramps downloads them.
Did you know (or care) that the iTunes store has free Sesame Street downloads...where am I gonna put em all?

Bowfire

I'm such a geek.

I was flipping through the channels and landed on Channel 8, public television. This group Bowfire was playing and I mean they were ROCKIN'!!!

They're Candian mostly, but we'll forgive them as they were AWESOME stage show for virtuoso strings and fiddlers and just throw in some Celtic dancing for good measure.

They're playing the Beacon theater in New York on April 28, 2008 and if you have any way to get there to see them it is totally worth it!

The TV show was electrifying, can you imagine what it would be like in person?
Support the arts and have a good time doing so!!!!

Oh and as an aside, today was my first day on my new job...
We had an employee meeting this morning in our new space - where our engineering bullpen will have 2 flat screen TVs for starters and there are to be no cubicles on our floor as far as I can tell - goodbye CUBE FARM!
Now if I can just head off my co-worker at the pass and not get caught in the same old "territorial biddy" trap and be misreable from the start, all will be well with the world.

It was an interesting evening in my world...
Let's start with my weekly Monday afternoon meeting which is normally extremly long and drawn out. It was even more so yesterday as our new boss sat in on it to get a run-down on all our activities and future planned projects - drawing it out from a lengthy hour and a half to an unbearable almost 2 hours. My canned soda was no longer cold at the end of the meeting and I had drank it all anyway (which almost never happens)
So I left the meeting a bit parched and overheated with the beginnings of a headache. Somehow I made it to the 5:00 hour and looked up - I was already late in leaving, meaning my dash across town would now become much more like a crawl in heavy traffic. For every minute late in leaving my desk, I was likely to sit in traffic on the freeways for another 5 min or so.
Then as I was waiting for the series of elevators to get to the tunnels to get to walk to my garage, in the relative warmth and not have to face the biting cold wind on the street level (lately there has been a strong sewage smell in a certain area of the tunnel - yesterday I was in such a state as to not even notice it) I was chatting with a female colleague and pretty much ignored (not on purpose, mind you,) one of my male engineers I work with pretty much on regular basis.

I had a pretty strong headache by this time and probably should have stopped to take some Advil before I left my 57th floor office. But I didn't.

I got in my car wearing my husband's blue winter coat (which didn't match my outfit, and was probably too warm) and didn't bother to take it off. Somehow, the little plastic bag that was covering the brand new vanilla scented air freshener in my car (that's a whole other post) had fallen off and I didn't notice the strength of the scent till later.

Eran has asked me now to go watch TV since the clickety-clack and the glare are irritating to him at 4:15 in the AM...

Happy Thanksgiving from Ms. Hana

Inscribed on the back of this picture,
taken by one of the BAC Staff members
(who only supervises Jonathan
for less than an hour in the mornings,
and is one of the hordes of staff
who is simply enamored of Yael)

"Nov 2007

Happy Thanksgiving
Thanks for your
Trust & support

Love Ms Hana Karny

and Happy B-Day to Yael

I love you too
Jonathan"

Eleventeen

Oh don't you long for another list of Yoni-ims?

Well, first off there is our Electric Company counting song which gets us through 12 quite nicely without any reference to "eleventeen"
That only comes up when he is outright counting on his own and gets so carried away that ten is followed by eleventeen. This usually comes on about the 3rd round of counting...

Another continuing Yoni-ism is his use of "baby" as a strong insult. He also knows that some words are "potty" words and makes sure you do too. Kids'll keep you honest for sure!

Lately he has been the line leader a couple of times, which I make sure to make a big deal of. He was line leader and snack helper (I guess it was his turn) on Yael's birthday and he also got to come to her birthday party in her class at school. Then a few days later he was granted the PRIVILEGE of being line leader since he followed directions ALL morning long. Sometimes he just has GOOD boy days, then there are the other times when you wonder why they don't call it "the terrible threes"...

Yaeli [miskenah] has had a rough bout of teething lately. At one point her fever got so high as to make me consider heading for the ER. Even had the grandparents on standby to take me there. But then the Motrin kicked in and we just kept feeding her Pedialyte and Motrin at regular intervals. She was a pitiful mess! And alternately slept and howled. She did want to be held pretty much all the time too. She still only has the bottom nub and a small beginning of the second bottom tooth, but the upper gums were trying to break through (I know I saw one tooth at one point, but have yet to confirm its continued existence at present since every time I try to get a peek in there she bites down on my finger; or when I let nurse her that one [or more] time at night lately, she has been trying to chomp down - not pleasant for mommy and makes me reconsider this whole nursing with teeth thing).

We recently had the memorial service for Aunt Clara (Z"L) and Maxine came in from New Orleans to be there. I still haven't made it to the Renassiance Festival like I wanted, nor Dewberry Farms which are both supposed to be family fun events. I missed the Family Fun Festival with my morning drive time DJ at Seven Acres (and I was there the day before, and saw all the preparations for it).

But next on my fun family radar is the All School Family Dinner/Fundraiser for BAC and then the Light the Night Extravaganza
where I promised to WALK from BAC to Seven Acres and back - pulling my kids in a wagon, and contending with an illuminated balloon or two - to raise money for Leukemia Research. Unfortunatley, like always, I will probably be flying solo - though this one is in the early evening/nighttime. We shall see!

As an aside, Today was Veteran's Day here in the USofA and Sam-O had off from work. Ask me how I know this...Go on, it's killing you right? Well I'll tell you anyway. He was at home in his Brooklyn apartment and felt the urge to while away the morning by chatting with his SUPER (stressed for a change) big sister. Can't wait to see Uncle Sam and Aunt Carlye LIVE and in person later this week on their whirlwind trip to Texas for some down home country food - Tex-Mex and Bar-B-Q and of course some turkey, fit in there for the traditional Family Thanksgiving Fiasco, I mean Feast! - was that Freudian or just a slip of the lip?

Enough rambling...I feel like it's midnight!
Goodnight one and all and lets all hope my children will sleep through the night with no feverish wakings or crying that their legs hurt so that I can continue to have coherent discussions in the morning.
My next post will bring you up to speed on all the exciting trials and tribulations regarding my JOB situation...the good, the bad and the ugly!
It should be a treat!

Yaeli's first Birthday!!!

Pics to come soon, as soon as grandpa grump downloads them from his "broken" fuzzy camera

Phew...

We can finally breathe a sigh of relief (or ramp up the indecision meter in my case) since we heard about the sale of our division.
It has been bought by a small private company that supposedly wants as many of us to come to work for them as we can.
Now comes the ringer, do I want to continue doing what I am doing or get the opportunity to try my hand at something new...
I think I'd like the challenge, boredom and monotony stinks!

SURPRISE!

Blogger FINALLY let me upload pics. Here's the invite in case you missed it...

But, now that it went off successfully,
I can blog about the secret surprise party we had for Mom, hee hee (turnout of 50 people or so, who all managed to keep the secret!)

Marie is finally turning the BIG 60
Do we need another reason to celebrate?
Join us in making this her best birthday surprise ever!

Our party theme is the 1950's
That's when Marie came of age
Join family and friends to celebrate
This party will be all the rage!

GAG GIFTS ARE ENCOURAGED
(BUT NOT ESSENTIAL)

It's a surprise party
so please don't spoil the fun!

Slow down some so I can catch up

Once again, I am typing one-handed while cradling an inconsolable child in my arms. This time, Yaeli, my beautiful, wonderful barely 11-month-old TODDLER (yes you read that right, she is more upright than not)
She is now trying out her 4th pair of soft-soled shoes and I think we finally found a winner. The first pair was clothe - pink and white polka dots - about the size of an 18 month old foot, but it was what I had at the time. She manuevered out of those shoes and socks before we even hit the door of the school across the street.
Then I tried some hand me around leather shoes that a friend gave me. No dice. Too big, she was out of them in a flash. So I bought some infant ballet slippers that I knew were the size of her feet. She couldn't get her tootsies in, [they were exactly the size of her foot, but the opening was too small to get them on] so I gave up on them.
Finally, success!
I got a pair of leather shoes at the closest Babies R Us I could find. They would be SO adorable with the wedding dress tulle thingie she already outgrew, as they are white with little pink rosebuds on them. She wore them today with her blue top and 18-month old (Yoni hand me down) rolled up cuffed navy pants cause I am a little sick of pink! And she lasted the whole day in them. I even called to check on her and they said she fell asleep in them outside.
What?!?! The lady [Quin, whom I love most of all since she is there when
i come to pick her up] told me she was having so much fun that she wore herself out and had to be carried inside whereas she fell asleep the second she was lifted up onto the shoulder of said lady. [Aside...I LOVE Yaeli's daycare ladies, and they LOVE her. Recently, I gave the summer workers who watched her a special gift, just from Yael - I hope they liked it]
Tonight she is ruthless...she must be teething or growing again as she has sucked down 2 full bottles, won't stop crying or nursing, and has acidic diapers that leave her nether regions RAW and hurting. She has already had a dose of herbal teething tablets and baby aspirin. And she is still only fitfully sleeing...