Last Day!!!

Thursday morning was another hard morning to get Jordy dressed and out the door. After dropping off the dry cleaning I brought the kids to camp and of course guess who didn't want to go??? Danya happily went to her group and then it was time for Jordy. After 15 minutes I left him screaming. I went to work and we have been working so hard that we are all caught up on everything and my desk is all clear of papers and I am leaving nothing for the new employee that will surprise her(ok...It might surprise her, but not because I didn't warn her). I used my lunch break to get my nails done for the wedding. After work I stopped at the fruit market for some stuff for the weekend. Then I went home where Alex shared the happy news that she ha a job! She was hired by friends of ours and I am so happy to not be leaving her jobless. I then left to go get my hair cut, sheital done etc. After that I went to the grocery store to get the few things the fruit market didn't have(why doesn't the fruit market sell craisins???). Then I wet home for a few minutes and then I went to my in-laws to drop off some of the food stuff. As I was leaving David, Jodi and co. arrived from the airport so I got to see and talk to them for a couple of minutes before their kids went crazy(as it was late) and I headed home. Friday is my last day of work! As I was telling Lanie, I am happy to have a break from work because I am so busy but I really like my job and I am sad to be leaving a job I like so much. Either way I am happy to be done doing the training! It is driving me crazy!!! Anyhow, we have a busy weekend ahead of us and I probably wont post until after the wedding!

2 more days of work

Since camp started I have been blogging in the morning because I leave the house so late. So yesterday was a fun day. It started with Jordy not wanted it get dressed because he didn't want to go to camp. Finally I got him dressed and we were on our way. We took Danya to her "class" and said goodbye to her and then the real fun began! I brought Jordy into his class by dragging him. He showed me his plant that he waters and is watching grow. Then with the help of his morah I tried to convince him to water his plant so I could sneak out but he wasn't falling for it. His morah told me he loves to play outside on the bikes and that today there was going to be a petting zoo at camp! Also as soon as he says goodbye to mommy he can make his own challah for Shabbos. He was excited about that but still didn't want to let go of my hand. Finally I just said goodbye and left. Of course he was screaming again! Then I went to work where I continued my re-training. I think she is finally catching on. And not a minute too late! I got a pedicure during my lunch break but ran out of time for a manicure so will head back tomorrow for that. I called Pops to remind him to pick Danya up so that he wouldn't have to pay her a late fee. He told me he was going to charge her for the ride home. When I got home Danya told me she didn't want Pops to drive her home anymore. I asked her why and she told me because he is going to make her pay him for driving him home so they would be even. She didn't want to give him his $3 back so she wants me to drive her from now on! I reassured her that he was joking and she could keep her $3. It was funny! The kids played nicely the rest of the evening and watched The Goofey Movie that was on TV. 2 more days of work and then the wedding fun begins!!! By the way, I think the camera problem was just battery related...here are some pictures that I found...I can't remember when they are from but one is Jordy making his breakfast and one is Danya eating dinner.

A Late Fee

Tuesday was a busy day. Jordy was not happy to be dropped off at camp. He cried and cried when I left him at camp...I felt very bad. People in the halls were turning to see who was screaming! After I left camp I headed to work. Work was another boring day of training and watching someone else do my job. Unfortunately my replacement didn't really retain much that I taught her the first week so I am finding that I am reteaching her everything. It is a little annoying but what am I gonna do. Did I mention that my father-in-law has been driving all the going home carpools from camp? On Monday he picked up Jordy at 1 and Danya at 3:30. So I called him at 12:45 to make sure he could do it again and he said sure. So when my phone rang at 3:45 with the director of the camp asking me who was picking up my child I was surprised! I called and as soon as he heard my voice he realized he forgot! The funniest thing about that though was he sent me an e-mail later about how there was a $7 late fee and he talked her down to $3 and what am I teaching his granddaughter. I was confused by the e-mail because I thought the camps fee for late pick up was $15 and I couldn't imagine it was negotiable. But when I got home from work Danya showed me that she had $3. I asked her where she got it from and she told me Pops gave it to her. I asked her why? She said she told him he needed to pay her $7 for picking her up late! I asked her where she learned that from or who told her to ask him for that and she said nobody, just myself! I thought that was pretty funny! So now I need to call Pops to remind him to pick her up on time so his late fee doesn't go up!!! After the kids went to bed last night I attempted to pack another box but of course it isn't full(I now have 3 boxes that aren't quite full). I started the board games but I am missing a lot of pieces that I expect will be found once we get a little more into the packing so that is being put aside and I will have to get back to it. But it was a good start and a nice attempt. I am also sorry about the lack of pictures. On Friday I noticed there was something wrong with the camera but I was hoping it was a fluke. I tried it again this morning and it still being weird. Possible it just needs new batteries but I have never had this problem before. So we will see what happens...Either you will have some pictures soon or we will be replacing the camera(yet again...grrrrr).

The New Schedule

Today was the first full morning of camp. Since camp starts later than school we got to sleep a little later. Then we got dressed and I made lunches(I didn't miss doing that). Of course I didn't have juice boxes so after getting dressed we went to Jewell before camp. We got the juice boxes and got caught in a downpour on the way back to the car! I was soaked and freezing. We got to camp and Jordy went into his class happily. He could have cared less that I left. Danya of course went happily as well. Then I went to work for my final week! I basically watched and guided my trainee. I was very bored today! After work neither Danya or Jordy wanted to tell me about what they did at camp. Finally Jordy told me he cried because he missed me. He also said his favorite part of camp was that they planted seeds and soon the seeds will grow. After they went to bed I made dessert for the Aufruf dinner and made more lunches. Oh, funny story, since Jordy had never been to school or camp he didn't have a lunch bag so today he used Danya's old lunch bag which is a purple bag with butterflies on it! I was a little embarrassed to hand his lunch in to the teachers this morning! So I went out on my lunch break and bought him a blue baseball lunch bag. That's all for now.

Camp is coming!

Shabbos was nice. We of course didn't make the early shabbos cut off so we started regular time. IT was a late night but it was a nice quiet dinner. Saturday morning the kids went to shul with Josh while I made salads etc. for lunch. After shul the Kaplanskys(or those who are still in town...David, Michelle, Dana and Daniella) came over. I felt so bad for David who had a horrible migraine and ended up on the couch. The rest of us had a nice time. It was good for Josh to finally get a lot of his questions answered. Daniella stayed to play a few more hours after they left. After Michelle picked her up Josh took Danya and Jordy to the park while I napped. After they came home they had dinner and went to bed. I then spent the next couple hours reading and enjoying the quiet! After shabbos we went out to DaNali's with Rebecca and Jeremy which was really nice. We hadn't been out on a Saturday night in a million years and we hadn't gotten together with them in way too long. We were out until about 12:30! This morning we took the kids to camp orientation. Danya was fine, went right to her group and could have cared less if we were there. Jordy needed some help and didn't want us to go but eventually he warmed up to one of the counselors and we were able to sneak out to the hallway for a while without him noticing. Hopefully tomorrow will go well! After that we went to the ICJA alumni picnic. It was rained out and moved to the academy. The kids had a great time...There was a magician, moon walk, jugglers, art projects, basketball and of course the BBQ part. We were there until about 3. Then we came home and Bubs came over with the Aufruf bag stuff and we set up shop and packed the aufruf bags. Danya and Jordy were good at it and it only took about an hour. Then I went out to Value City to buy the 6 foot folding tables that I have been waiting for. They have a table that is basically the same as the Sam's Club table but it folds in half and rather than costing $80 it is $50. So I went to get 2 but they had some difficulty pulling up the price and when they finally did it was even cheaper....$35 a piece...I should have bought more but I couldn't manage more than 2. That is about all our excitement for the day. I have to get out pretty early tomorrow as I need to stop at the store before camp with the kids in tow since I don't have juice boxes for their lunches. Good thing camp doesn't start so early!!! Sorry about the lack of pictures again!! I will get back into it!

Behind on the Times

Well I have been neglecting my blog for a few days now...Sorry! On one hand things have been so busy lately but on the other hand I haven't been doing anything in particular. Just your typical errands, work etc etc. I am still training the new employee at work and it is quite tedious work to teach someone else how to do your job. I am getting there though...A week and a day to go!!! Next week will be a busier week than the one before as there will be a lot of wedding preparations to be done, but then hopefully things will slow down a bit. I am trying to go through things in the house and sort out the garbage but there is so much to go through and it is hard to figure out what to keep and what to toss. Tonight I cleaned out a whole desk that had all the RSVP cards from our wedding. It was funny to go through all the old cards and read them all but I don't think I need to keep them...So those got tossed out along with all the school papers. I did keep the check register from 7 years ago as it was kind of fun to read. Inch by inch we are making progress. There is just so much more to be done that I can't picture ever being done! Oh well! Anyhow, I am off to bed! Good news though, I did finally get a bid on one of my ebay items. Hopefully it will get bid up but the fact that anyone wants it at all is great news to me! Have a good night!

Midnight snacks

Today was another fun day of training at work. Danya and Jordy had a good time at home while I was working hard. They spent the morning at the park and the afternoon in the pool. This evening was typical...Dinner, running around etc. Josh put Danya and Jordy to bed. After an hour Jordy came down and told me that Daddy was sleeping the wrong way on the bed and he was hungry. Josh had fallen asleep across the bed diagonally(hence the wrong way). Turns out Danya was also awake and they both came down for a midnight snack at 8:30pm. They had some pudding and then back upstairs to bed!

Happy Father's Day!

We spent a lot of time in the morning discussing our plans for the day and getting dressed. Once the plan was in place, I was to take Danya and Jordy with me to Target and possibly to Jewell, I spent another hour trying to get Danya and Jordy to get dressed. By noon we were out the door! We went to Target with a few goals. We needed to buy a pool, shoes for the kids for the wedding(Jordys shabbos shoes are brown and wont go with his black tux and danya's shabbos shoes are black and wont go with her pink dress) and a Father's Day gift for Josh. So we got Josh a Playstation2 game, got pools(2-they are inflatable so I grabbed an extra to stick on the lift) and spent a while in the shoe aisles. Jordys shoes were quick and easy. Like a true woman, Danya tried on about 18 pairs of shoes(mostly sandals) and I was very proud when she decided she liked the $5.00 pair best! We ran into Sherry and Francie during the whole shoe escapade which they found entertaining. Then we paid and headed to Jewell. We got the stuff we needed for dinner and went home. On the way home Danya commented that it was sad that Daddy was at home without us and that it wasn't a good way to spend Father's Day. I thought it was both funny and sweet! When we got home after some lunch, we got the pool ready and the kids loved it! While Josh watched them swim I placed our appliance order for Israel. Then we started getting ready for the Father's Day festivities. My in-laws and parents came for dinner along with my bubby and Josh's uncle. Also, Matthew and Marissa and Marissa's mom, Janice, and her sister. We had a full house and a great time. Jordy, of course, true to form, would not put clothing on. The kids were up very late and were very tired! I am writing this at 7am Monday morning and they are still sleeping!**I didn't take pictures during the Father's Day dinner but I took one of Danya and Marissa because Danya and Jordy were having such a good time playing with Marissa. They were so sad when she left!

I'm back

Thursday-I started training my replacement at work which is VERY boring to do! Not much else exciting happened. Danya slept over at Adina's house on Thursday night.
Friday-Again, more training...more boring...2 more weeks of this to go! For some reason even though we didn't start shabbos until regular time we were still running late! The kids stayed up until late...like 10pm! Shabbos was nice. Danya went to shul with Josh in the morning while Jordy and I read books and played. Then I tried getting him dressed for Shul. It took about an hour but I finally got him dressed and we went to shul. The Kaplansky's were at shul as they are in town for their nieces bat Mitzvah. Danya was so excited to meet Daniella. It was so cute once the 2 of them sat down and they were talking and talking and talking. They are going to have a play date this week. After shul everyone was full from the kiddush, except for me(since I didn't eat at the kiddush) so we didn't really eat lunch. Josh took the kids for a walk to take Danya to her friends house but her friend wasn't home so they played outside for a while. I took a nap and woke up just in time for them to go to bed. After shabbos I did a little more packing and organizing. Our appliance order is all ready to be placed tomorrow. And now to bed! Here are a few pictures....the one is of Josh dancing with Danya and Jordy in the kitchen to some Shabbos music! It was really cute but hard to capture on film!

Last Aliyah Seminar

Well I spoke to soon last night! Jordy was no where near asleep! He didn't go to sleep until 9:30!
This morning he slept a little late. Danya got up pretty early and played and watched TV. She then got dressed for her playdate with Chani. I took her there and then went to work where I tried to really catch up and get organized. I am starting to train my replacement tomorrow and I really wanted to clear off my desk before tomorrow but I am nowhere near there. I did get a little more organized but once she starts production is going to slow down majorly, so we will see how much I get done. After work I went to the post office and library. Then I was going to go home but realized that we needed milk and juice so I stopped at Walgreen's. When I got home everyone was in a good mood! Not long after I got there Pops came over to eat some Wacky Mac and then take the kids to Dunkin Donuts and then to babysit. When Josh got home we headed to the last of our Aliyah seminars. Josh left a little earlier but I got home at 9:15. I sat down then heard little feet running and heard Jordy yell "Surprise" followed by Danya. They were still awake. Not sure why Danya was up but Jordy gets crazy when he is on the albuteral. So now it is 10:08 and I have just tucked Jordy in(hopefully for the last time!). Off to bed!
Sorry for the lack of pictures!

Ahh...Sleeping!

Today was a busy day! As I am nearing the end of working work is getting crazier and crazier! On top of that Alex called to say that Jordy was coughing like crazy. So of course after trying to treat the cough I ended up having to take him to Dr. Goldberg. On the way home Alex called to say that he was coughing so hard that he threw up. Poor kid! Anyhow, we went to the Dr. and turns out that at this stage he just has a cough. He has him on a few preventative medications and of course cough medicine. We came home and I gave the kids baths while we waited for Josh to come home with Ken's Diner dinner. After dinner Savta stopped over to drop stuff off and pick stuff up. When she left we gave Jordy his millions of medicines which he didn't like and then put them to bed...so it is 7:30 and I am ready for bed! Sorry no pictures, I will try better tomorrow!

Showers

On Sunday Danya came with me to Marissa's shower where she had a great time playing with Gabriel Magence. The two had a really good time and behaved nicely for the most part...there was one small fight but it was forgotten when they found out they could help Marissa open her gifts. The shower was really nice and I was really impressed with Danya considering how long we were there for. After the shower she came with me to the dress maker to pick up my dress to the wedding. Then we went to the Jewish Art Festival where Josh and Jordy biked to earlier. When we got there the kids got to decorate cookies, do sand art, see a petting zoo. There were concerts there and of course Judaica sales. We had a good time except it was freezing. We had to leave because we were so cold! After we got home we had a restaurant at home for dinner and the kids enjoyed their dinner.
Today was Danya's first day of vacation. She had a good time with her friend Chani this afternoon. I left work a little early to take Jordy to Dr. Shlomo to test him for allergies. Jordy didn't like the allergy test but luckily Shlomo's office had some lolipops and stickers. The good news is that Jordy doesn't have any allergies! So his asthma is just that...Asthma...Can't blame allergies. The kids are happily playing in the basement now and they are heading to bed soon! Hopefully I will have some pictures from the shower soon!

Schools out, schools out...

Well Friday was Danya's last day of school! She was a little sad in the morning that it was her last day saying she was going to miss Arie Crown and she didn't want to go to a new school but she was excited for summer to start. With my shopping on Friday and cooking after work we were still able to start our first early shabbos of the year. Not sure what was so early about it since the kids didn't get to bed until 9:30! We had to explain to Jordy again about the rules of the milk and the crib...he told us he didn't think our reasons were "good raisins". But he eventually went to bed in his bed with milk. In the morning Danya went to shul with Josh while Jordy and I played Go fish and catch. Then we got dressed for shul. Jordy picked out a book to bring with, unfortunatly he choose Danya's Barbie book, but oh well. There was the big graduation kiddush at shul which we co-sponsored for Danya's kindergarten graduation. After shul Danya's friend Chaya Faige came home with us for lunch. The kids played for a while until Chaya Faige's mom picked her up. Then I took a nap while the kids played. Josh gave them dinner and then got them to bed before Shabbos was over.

Graduation!

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Today was the big kindergarten graduation!!! Of course the camera was in the wrong mode for the first half and the pictures didn't come out, but there is a cute video of her getting her diploma from Rabbi Samber and then some pictures(although not such good ones of her with some classmates, family and her Morahs). After the graduation I brought Jordy home and then went to work. After work I came home and Bubs and Pops picked up Danya to take her on a shopping spree to Constructive Playthings for her graduation gifts. While they were gone Jordy took Danya's mat from school that was used for nap time and decided to do some "soumersaltzes". It was pretty cute. Then at bedtime was when he wasn't so cute...he cried for an hour and a half...there is a new rule...if he wants milk at bedtime he needs to sleep in his big bed and if he wants to sleep in his crib he can't have milk(this way we will break at least one of his bad habits). This is logical since if he drinks milk in his crib and then needs to make we need to get him out but in his bed he can get out himself. But Jordy only likes sleeping in his crib so he cried about it for an hour and a half until at 9 when I finally went upstairs to calm him down and settle him in. Then he decided on sleeping in his bed with milk...good choice!

Another Dr.'s visit

This morning after driving one of my last carpools(can you tell I am counting down the days!) I ran a couple errands. One to the dry cleaners and then to the library. I got Danya a few CD's to listen to on her new CD player that she got for selling candy at the school candy sale(or really Saba got her for selling candy....or really Jenny, Saba's assistant got her for selling candy). Then I went to the fruit store. After that I picked up Jordy and we headed to Dr. Goldberg to recheck his asthma. Of course we spent 15 minutes schmoozing about Israel first. Then he decided that maybe his colds are triggered by allergies, so he put him on allergy medicine in addition to the asthma medicine. Jordy got his 2 stickers(1 for Danya) and we headed home. After that I went to work where I got a lot done. After work Danya and Jordy spent a bunch of time beating each other up. Then Jordy's finger got slammed in Danya's door and he was SCREAMING!!! He was very disturbed by the one droplet of blood of course. I put a band aid on it and the only thing that seemed to help was when I gave it a kiss and blew it under the band aid. After Josh got home I went to another Aliyah seminar. This one was about education. I didn't really follow it all and I was kind of sleepy during it but that is OK since most of it doesn't really apply to us just yet. Now I am back home trying to get the pictures to post(I have tried 4 times today and it hasn't worked yet)...I will try again now but if not then be patient!

Shavous and Beyond

Lets back track to Thursday. Our flight was at 10:40 and we got to the airport at 9:40ish. We got in line to get our tickets and check our luggage. When we got to the front of the line the computer told me that I missed my flight check in and I have to go on the next flight...I was very confused, our flight wasn't until 10:40! I asked the lady behind the counter and she said you have to check in 45 minutes before the flight. I looked at my watch and told her it is 43 minutes before the flight and I just spent 15 minutes in line. She didn't really care so bottom line is after standing in many lines we were now on standby on the 2:05 flight and it was only 10am! Good thing there is a wing of the Chicago Children's Museum in O'Hare airport. We spent an hour and a half there. Then we went to the gate, got ice cream, bought coloring books, went back and fourth on the moving walkways etc. We finally made it onto the flight but 4 seats no where near each other. One of the United people asked people to switch for us and we ended up with 3 seats together and Josh sat a row up and in the middle, not bad. The kids were good on the plane and the flight was uneventful. When we got there we of course were the last ones at the baggage claim since they lost a piece of our luggage! Turns out that when you check in your luggage at 10am for a 2pm flight it will miss the flight! The missing piece was our car seats so they had to find us car seats so that took some time. We were finally on our way to Silver Spring! We were so happy to finally be there! We were happy to meet Michal! Jordy kept referring to her at "that girl" because he kept forgetting her name. Danya and Meira were happy to play right away but from the first minute Jordy and Moshe did not. Jordy was not nice to Moshe at all-hitting him, yelling at him, taking his toys away. The kids ate pizza for dinner and went to bed pretty early...all but Jordy who was completely hyper. The rest of us ate dinner...Lisa did go a little overboard on the cooking...she made 5 pizzas for the 4 of us! We of course didn't make a dent in that! Libbie came over during dinner(she, David and Bailey were staying across the street at Shira and Danny's for Shavous) and Jordy hit on her right away! He noticed how tall she was and asked her what her number was(meaning how old she is), we got a kick out of that one. After dinner Josh and Jordy fell asleep on the couch. Lisa and Nafi went to bed and Lib left around 1. Friday we didn't go to shul. I needed to stay home in case they were going to deliver the luggage. Lib came over in the morning with Bailey for a little bit before they went to shul. Then after shul Libbie, David, Bailey and Shira(not Danny-he had to work at the hospital) came for lunch. We had a really nice time and a TON of food! Really funny was that Bailey thought the Danya's name was lasagna and she called her that, we were cracking up at that! I can't remember what else happened in the afternoon...I think the Binkiewicz's went back for a nap and then came back afterward until Shabbos. Friday night we ate leftovers even though we weren't hungry at all. We were so stuffed! Saturday we woke up and Josh wasn't feeling so great. After shul we had our big fleshig lunch except Josh wasn't hungry at all and headed right to bed. We took the kids to bed to play in the playground with Lib and Bailey and then Danya wanted to take her big phat nap. So we all laid down in the basement...Josh and Danya napped while Jordy and I played puzzles and ball. After a while Jordy and I went upstairs and played with Meira and beat up Moshe. The Binkiewicz's came back to play some more-I forgot to mention-David and Jordy really hit it off, playing baseball, basketball, juggling etc. Danya woke up not right, crying and tired. After the Libbie, David and Bailey left Danya started crying and then got up and threw up all over Lisa and Nafi's carpet. I walked her to the bathroom and she threw up all over the floor there too. Poor kid was so sad. Then the funny part was that Meira was so sad that Danya couldn't sleep in her room that night that she had a whole tantrum. She was trying to reason and rationalize that maybe she is OK. I felt bad for Meira but it was kind of funny the whole thing. Danya went downstairs to sleep in my bed, Josh was sleeping and Jordy was sleeping. Then Danya threw up again, this time she made it to the bathroom! Hooray! Sunday we took it easy in the morning. The Binkiewicz's came by to say a non-goodbye before they headed back to NY. Then once we decided that everyone was feeling better we decided to head to the National Zoo. We had a good time there even though the girls kept asking for gifts(and didn't get any). We headed back and then had dinner. Nafi gave the kids baths and then they went to bed. Monday morning after Lisa drove Moshe to school she came back and she took us and Meira and Michal out to breakfast. After breakfast Lisa took Danya with her to take Meira to school while Josh and I went back to finish packing and Jordy played in the playground. Our cab came and we said our goodbyes. We made it to the airport before the 45 minute deadline. When we got onto the plane the kids said hi to the pilot and they invited the kids to sit in the cockpit! They loved it! The kids were pretty decent on the flight(says me who didn't sit next to them). We got back, got our luggage, our car and headed home. It is always good to be home! Jordy and I took a ride to pick up some milk and juice and then dinner and bed. Today was the usual...and stay tuned for tomorrow where it is back to the usual!

***I finally got the pictures to post!!!