I didn't realize how long it's been since I last wrote. I guess I must have a lot of things to write about now after being away for so long, let's see….
Last week was a good one, but a little bit hectic. I had lots of translating work (good thing) with deadlines to meet, LEAP, sick kids, homework – Meshi is now getting homework too (they are making the alphabet, each week they have to make a letter out of any materials that they want to use – fun for me too!), and Claire and Si arrived! I had a couple of all nighters, but that's part of the deal, right?
The girls were completely surprised to see Claire and Si. I took them to the marina for lunch after school on Monday, to meet Granny and Gampa, and of course Claire and Si were there too. For them it was totally unexpected, and so they were a little dazed, although thoroughly excited. And, needless to say they were totally spoiled!
They each got a whole bunch of stuff but the favorite is their digital cameras! Meshi actually sang about hers this morning.
We went to the Dead Sea yesterday, it was the kids' first visit and we'd been promising to take them there for months. Unfortunately Shiraz wasn't well, she had a very high temperature (yes, I admit it, I carry my thermometer with me everywhere) and didn't feel well at all (luckily she is feeling much better today, though she didn't go to school). Ben didn't really have fun either, he's too small to go in the water or the mud, and so we had to keep him occupied all day, which is no easy feat! Meshi had a ball! She especially loved the mud, and even jumped in by herself after going in twice before with her dad.
The day was enjoyable, despite the hordes of flies and of course poor Shirazi feeling so bad. We were kept entertained by the visitors to the beach! The worst part of the day was the shower at the end. It must have been rush hour because the shower rooms were packed! The hot (or to be more precise, warm) water came and went, so most of the time the water was freezing. Meshi and I showered together and it was quite amusing when she had to rinse the shampoo off her hair and she started crying, all the ladies in the packed rest room let off a simultaneous "aawwww". When we finally rinsed off and left the shower stall, there was a line of naked ladies from the showers almost out the door (it wasn't nearly as sexy as it sounds!).
I have to say that using public restrooms with Meshi is usually entertaining, and I have to say often quite embarrassing. Her normally rather loud voice seems to go up a few decibels, and I will either get a graphic description of how she is doing (although I am standing right next to her), or she will make some comment about me and my anatomy, which I would rather she kept to herself, or about someone in the next stall – maybe, a "mommy I can see the lady in the next stall's feet", or "that lady made a big fart".
On that note, I shall end off and wish all of us a good and quiet week.
Sunday, November 23, 2008
Tuesday, November 11, 2008
Election Day
It's municipal Election Day here today, and I still don't have a clue who to vote for as Mayor of this fine town. I do know who I don't want as Mayor, which would be ALL of the contenders for the job! None of them are worthy so it's a bit of a dilemma, I don’t want to forfeit my vote, so I am using these last few hours to decide what to do. Luckily there are some very good people running for the City Council, so the only problem there is that I only get to vote for one party!
What else is new? We had a very quite weekend at my FIL's. We did have quite a scare on the way there, we all went out to wait for the lift and when Ben got in he fell over, then I noticed that there was blood all over the lift door and floor, and of course his clothes were covered in blood. The poor little thing had cut his tiny finger. Of course that made me really queasy, to see my poor little baby bleeding. We bandaged him up and stopped the bleeding, but the next day the cut started bleeding again so we decided to take him to the doc to have it checked. We had left it too long to be glued together, but the doctor said that it wasn't deep, so they just washed it out and put a plaster on it. Of course I was the one who needed medication for my nerves after the whole incident.
The week started off really nicely, Sunday morning I went with DH to Shery, my Reiki Master's (and one of my fav peeps) to help her with her computer. I love visiting her home, the energy there is amazing! So that was a wonderful way to start the week. That evening I went with Niki to sell some of the LEAP ladies work (or rather to learn and see what to do).
Monday was the LEAP group, but only one lady turned up. Someone had passed away in their community, and as is customarily they all went to the funeral. At least I got some time to chat with Niki and learn more about the project and what I will be doing.
After that it was off to the Baltimore Park to meet up with the visiting group from Baltimore and of course to sell more of the LEAP work. (We did very well with the sales, which makes me very happy, these ladies definitely need this positive feedback).
Monday is the girls' drama day, so we spent the evening with my parents (hadn't done that for a while, so that was fun!). They have lessons one after the other, so I left Ben with mom while I took each one to her lesson. The teacher said that Shiraz participated a lot so I'm very pleased about that!
Other good news is that I got a fun translation job to do, so I am of course very thankful for that. And Shiraz got 100% in her first math test…well done, Wuzzie!
What else is new? We had a very quite weekend at my FIL's. We did have quite a scare on the way there, we all went out to wait for the lift and when Ben got in he fell over, then I noticed that there was blood all over the lift door and floor, and of course his clothes were covered in blood. The poor little thing had cut his tiny finger. Of course that made me really queasy, to see my poor little baby bleeding. We bandaged him up and stopped the bleeding, but the next day the cut started bleeding again so we decided to take him to the doc to have it checked. We had left it too long to be glued together, but the doctor said that it wasn't deep, so they just washed it out and put a plaster on it. Of course I was the one who needed medication for my nerves after the whole incident.
The week started off really nicely, Sunday morning I went with DH to Shery, my Reiki Master's (and one of my fav peeps) to help her with her computer. I love visiting her home, the energy there is amazing! So that was a wonderful way to start the week. That evening I went with Niki to sell some of the LEAP ladies work (or rather to learn and see what to do).
Monday was the LEAP group, but only one lady turned up. Someone had passed away in their community, and as is customarily they all went to the funeral. At least I got some time to chat with Niki and learn more about the project and what I will be doing.
After that it was off to the Baltimore Park to meet up with the visiting group from Baltimore and of course to sell more of the LEAP work. (We did very well with the sales, which makes me very happy, these ladies definitely need this positive feedback).
Monday is the girls' drama day, so we spent the evening with my parents (hadn't done that for a while, so that was fun!). They have lessons one after the other, so I left Ben with mom while I took each one to her lesson. The teacher said that Shiraz participated a lot so I'm very pleased about that!
Other good news is that I got a fun translation job to do, so I am of course very thankful for that. And Shiraz got 100% in her first math test…well done, Wuzzie!
Wednesday, November 5, 2008
A LEAP in the Right Direction
On Monday morning my mom took me to meet Niki and the LEAP ladies at the Havatzelet Community Center.
LEAP is a wonderful project which Niki started about 3 years ago – Ladies Ethiopian Art Project, in Ashkelon. This gives a group of ladies, who cannot work outside the home, for various reasons, the chance to do something to bring in a little extra income, and at the same time it builds up their self esteem and also gives them the added value of being a part of the group. The whole project is very interesting, and I will write more about it later – when I am more involved.
I'll be helping Niki coordinate the group, starting off with a few hours while Niki continues with a lot of the work and will slowly take over more of her hours, freeing up her time for some of her other endeavors. I'm really excited about this!
Monday is the day that Shiraz finishes school early, so after we finished there I had to run and fetch her. I hadn't made lunch for the girls (were at a Bar Mitzvah the night before) and I hadn't planned to be out all morning, so my parents and I took the girls to the Marina for lunch. As usual the food was great, and the girls had a really good time. It was also really hot, like a summer's day. We had fun throwing bread down to the fish and watching them fight over it, there are so many different sizes of fish there (though they all look the same to me).
Yesterday I was very productive in the kitchen, besides making the meals I made some breads and granola (yes, I have some for dad), and today is Wednesday, so it is our baking day, we made brownies (again!) – heart shaped ones.
(of course I had to show a picture of the bread)
We visited the Baltimore Park, here in Ashkelon, for the first time yesterday, we met Lilach and Sheked there, and of course much fun was had by all.
Today was Shiraz's first math test – we didn't prepare for it, as she knows all the material that they covered. She came home feeling good about it and said that she definitely got 100 – let's hope so!
This morning at about 9:00 DH and I were both home working, a siren went off. A qassam rocket hit Ashkelon. Of course it came as a surprise (though it shouldn't really) after the long quite period, and I just wanted to go to the school and see that Shiraz was ok. I know that they have had drills and so they know what to do, but that wasn't real time! I knew that Meshi would be ok, as she wasn't really somewhere new, and of course Ben wouldn't know what was going on. I spoke to his care taker and she said that the little ones didn’t know what had happened. Both girls were ok when I picked them up and they didn't make much of it – Shiraz's teacher wrote about it on their daily homework page, she said that they were very good and grown up. I hope that this doesn't become a permanent subject on my blog!
LEAP is a wonderful project which Niki started about 3 years ago – Ladies Ethiopian Art Project, in Ashkelon. This gives a group of ladies, who cannot work outside the home, for various reasons, the chance to do something to bring in a little extra income, and at the same time it builds up their self esteem and also gives them the added value of being a part of the group. The whole project is very interesting, and I will write more about it later – when I am more involved.
I'll be helping Niki coordinate the group, starting off with a few hours while Niki continues with a lot of the work and will slowly take over more of her hours, freeing up her time for some of her other endeavors. I'm really excited about this!
Monday is the day that Shiraz finishes school early, so after we finished there I had to run and fetch her. I hadn't made lunch for the girls (were at a Bar Mitzvah the night before) and I hadn't planned to be out all morning, so my parents and I took the girls to the Marina for lunch. As usual the food was great, and the girls had a really good time. It was also really hot, like a summer's day. We had fun throwing bread down to the fish and watching them fight over it, there are so many different sizes of fish there (though they all look the same to me).
Yesterday I was very productive in the kitchen, besides making the meals I made some breads and granola (yes, I have some for dad), and today is Wednesday, so it is our baking day, we made brownies (again!) – heart shaped ones.
(of course I had to show a picture of the bread)
We visited the Baltimore Park, here in Ashkelon, for the first time yesterday, we met Lilach and Sheked there, and of course much fun was had by all.
Today was Shiraz's first math test – we didn't prepare for it, as she knows all the material that they covered. She came home feeling good about it and said that she definitely got 100 – let's hope so!
This morning at about 9:00 DH and I were both home working, a siren went off. A qassam rocket hit Ashkelon. Of course it came as a surprise (though it shouldn't really) after the long quite period, and I just wanted to go to the school and see that Shiraz was ok. I know that they have had drills and so they know what to do, but that wasn't real time! I knew that Meshi would be ok, as she wasn't really somewhere new, and of course Ben wouldn't know what was going on. I spoke to his care taker and she said that the little ones didn’t know what had happened. Both girls were ok when I picked them up and they didn't make much of it – Shiraz's teacher wrote about it on their daily homework page, she said that they were very good and grown up. I hope that this doesn't become a permanent subject on my blog!
Tuesday, November 4, 2008
Making Old Friends
Last week went by so quickly and once again I have been rather tardy with my blog. It was a good week, and as always it seemed to flow by really fast.
I managed to fit in quite a few fun things, like our trip to Ikea, spending time with friends, and a fun visit to the Science Museum in Jerusalem.
It was our second visit to the museum, and we enjoyed it just as much as our first. This time we went with friends, and much fun was had by all. Definitely another place I recommend visiting with your kids (or anyone else's who will 'lend' them to you) when you are in Jerusalem.
If you are wondering what all of this has to do with old friends, let me explain…I have just found two of my oldest friends through Facebook. Funny, I wasn't really interested in Facebook at the beginning, but I've found a few old friends since I've been using it. I actually knew one person who was competing with her husband over who had the most friends on Facebook (I will keep my comment about this to myself). I "found" Richard, who was my neighbour and one of my best friends since we were about 3 until I was aobut 16 and left South Africa and Lisa, who was a close friend since nursery school. It's really fun to find out what people are up to after so long!
I managed to fit in quite a few fun things, like our trip to Ikea, spending time with friends, and a fun visit to the Science Museum in Jerusalem.
It was our second visit to the museum, and we enjoyed it just as much as our first. This time we went with friends, and much fun was had by all. Definitely another place I recommend visiting with your kids (or anyone else's who will 'lend' them to you) when you are in Jerusalem.
If you are wondering what all of this has to do with old friends, let me explain…I have just found two of my oldest friends through Facebook. Funny, I wasn't really interested in Facebook at the beginning, but I've found a few old friends since I've been using it. I actually knew one person who was competing with her husband over who had the most friends on Facebook (I will keep my comment about this to myself). I "found" Richard, who was my neighbour and one of my best friends since we were about 3 until I was aobut 16 and left South Africa and Lisa, who was a close friend since nursery school. It's really fun to find out what people are up to after so long!
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