Pain In The Neck

Thursday was a good day at work. I got a ride home for the first time(welcome back Seth!) which was nice. The best part was that I got home and it was the beginning of the weekend. I started thinking about Shabbat cooking and laundry. I don't think anything eventful happened with the kids on Thursday.
Friday morning I woke up in pain. I went back to sleep and then woke up in more pain. I made an appointment with the chiropractor. Josh got the kids to school and ran a few errands while I slept. When I went to the chiropractor he told me I was having a muscle spasm in my neck(ouch) and guess what? He fixed it. Or stopped it. It was all better. We then went to the pool for a few hours. Nadav fell asleep while we were sitting by the side of the pool for the second hour. Weird. We came home and got ready for shabbat. The Blocks and Brodsky's came over for a nice dinner.
Shabbat morning was quiet. We went to the Wener's house for lunch. We got home closer to 5 and Max came over later and played with the kids. Everyone ate, got ready for school and work and headed to bed.
Sunday morning I couldn't find a ride to work so I had to leave early to take the train. I got a lot of reading in so don't feel bad. Work was good. I got home late and missed Jordy's eye doctor appointment and Nadav's end of the year gan party(gan doesn't end until August but since some kids are going away for the summer they do it now). Since it was only for Mom's and kids Danya took Nadav. I think she had more fun than Nadav!

Thanks Danya and thanks Tammy for the picture!

Wandering Jew

This morning was another fast one. Nadav and I were up at 6:15am and I was out at 7:15. I got a ride again and had a good day at work. The ride home was interesting. I figured out a way to take 3 buses through Petach Tikvah to tzomet shilat and then get a ride to the yishuv. However the 2nd bus I was actually supposed to cross the street but I didn't know that so I ended up going the wrong way and ended up in Bnei Brak. That could have been bad but there was a superbus there that went straight to the yishuv so I actually arrived earlier than I had thought and right by the yishuv. I may have to do this on purpose everyday. Danya was a a party to say goodbye to her bnei akiva madricha when I got home. Nadav welcomed me home with "Ima, you missed you". Jordy was playing his DS and I am not sure he noticed me. I went to zumba and was happy to exercise even though I felt like I was going to fall asleep in the class. I came home, made the lunches and am heading to bed.

The Long Ride Home

Nadav and I woke up around 6am. His tummy was hurting him or as he said "my beten hurts you". We went downstairs and watched Blue's Clues(Nadav) and drank coffee(me). I realized he seemed constipated and offered him some raisisns telling him the raisins will make his tummy feel better. A little later, after a diaper change Nadav announced "ima, the raisins made beten all better". I left the house at 7:15am as I had someone who was picking me up to drive me to work. It worked out great and I got to work on time. Hopefully this will be a pretty regular ride. Work was good, I had a really busy day. While I was at work Jordy returned to school feeling a bit better. Danya had a swim party from her softball chug which she said was a lot of fun. I attempted getting a ride home from work but to no avail. I found the bus which was a 2 minute walk from my work. That bus took me to the train in Hod HaSharon. Then I transferred trains in Tel Aviv. I arrived in Modiin a little after 7pm. Then the hard part is there was no way from Modiin home. So....I looked around the train station, I looked around the mall area, I began walking and called Josh who was going to come get me just as someone from the yishuv was driving past. She stopped and drove me home. Door to door the travel time was 3 hours(?!?!?!) which is insane as I could drive the whole country in just about that. Here is hoping we figure out a more direct route home....and soon! After I finally got home I caught up with the kids and their days. Then Danya joined me in a trip to Rami Levy. That's right-3 hours of public transportation followed by a trip to Rami Levy. All of that and I came home to blog about it with you. Now I am going to sleep. Night!

Where's My Ride?

This morning didn't go as smoothly as I had hoped however it all worked out. I was supposed to be picked up for a ride at 7:30am. At 7:20 Jordy informed me that he wasn't feeling well and his head and tummy hurt. So I quickly scheduled him an appointment and ran out the door. I ran back as I forgot my lunch. Then I waited. I called the woman who was going to drive me and then she texted me back saying she wasn't going in today. What??? Now what??? So I ran back home and Josh insisted I take the car and he would figure out a ride with Jordy to the doctor. So off I went. I had a very busy but good day. The upshot to me having the car was that I was able to go to the bank which is only open later on Monday and Thursday. By the time I finished there and went to get gas I got home a little after 7. Jordy was feeling ok-his rapid strep test was negative. I was happy to see that the handyman came and hung up my mosaic that has been finished for many months now. Seeing it up only highlights how badly the house needs to be painted-so don't look at that-only the pretty mosaic.

The rest of the evening was spent doing laundry, dishes, making lunches etc.

First Day

I woke up bright and early this morning for my first day of work. Nadav woke up as soon as I did which hampered my morning plans but I kind of expected that. All the medicine he is on seems to be helping because he really seemed much better this morning. Everyone got moving and out quickly as they had been warned that if they weren't they would walk. I dropped everyone at gan/school and headed out. I had a good, busy day at work. I learned a lot and if it weren't for the massive headache that I got toward the end of the day I would say all went well. I made it home just as dinner was being delivered-a first day of work treat. For some reason Jordy was really mad about something and didn't want to do his homework and kept announcing that he wasn't going to go to school tomorrow. Finally Jordy went to bed. When I went to put Nadav to bed he got out of his room and went to the doorway and pouted. Then he announced "I NO going to gan Dina tomorrow". Thanks Jordy. When I laughed he then said "ZEH LO FUNNY IMA". The headache hadn't gone away yet. I continued to clean the kitchen and get the lunches made for tomorrow. Danya went to sleep and now I am going to bed as I am exhausted!

Ear Infection

Friday morning Josh got the kids out to school and I cooked for Shabbat. There sure has been a lot of cooking lately. I also did some laundry and ran out to sign Danya and Jordy up for camp as Friday was the last day for registration. Danya had a softball game in the afternoon so she was out most of the day. Jordy went to a friends after school for a while so it was just Nadav for most the time. Later in the afternoon I headed back to the chiropractor for a follow up appointment-have I mentioned how much he changed my life? He had a little more adjusting to do but really was checking to make sure I was still aligned. Danya returned from her game. She had fun but their team lost- apparently the other team had a really good pitcher. Everyone got ready for Shabbat. After candle lighting Talia came by to borrow a book and while she was talking to me Nadav fell asleep in my arms. Strange. I should have realized then.... Friday night dinner was quiet as Danya and Jordy ate earlier. After dinner the Brodsky's came over and we played Settlers for the first time in a while.
Shabbat morning Danya and Jordy went to the kids minyan. Then Jordy went to a friends house for lunch and Danya returned with Meira. After lunch I tried to get Nadav to nap but he wasn't interested. Jordy returned with a bunch of friends and they played in the yard most the afternoon. At one point in the afternoon I was holding Nadav and he stated crying that his ear hurt him. I gave him some advil and then sat to read him a book. He fell asleep on page 2. I decided I would also take a nap since he was asleep. We woke up close to the end of Shabbat and he was still crying about his ear. As soon as Shabbat ended we called our friend Akiva who came by and looked at his ear and reported "there is a nasty infection in there". He gave us a prescription and I headed out to Modiin while Josh got Danya and Jordy into bed. When I got home Nadav took his medicine and went to sleep. I made lunches, cleaned the kitchen and now am heading to bed.

Shopping

This morning I got Nadav out the door and returned to get the kitchen in order and fold some laundry. Jordy spent a while playing the Wii while Danya slept until almost 9:30 when I kicked her out of bed. We then sat and waited for the exterminator who was supposed to arrive at 9:30. By 10 I had Josh call him and of course he forgot to write down our appointment so he's coming another day. We finally got our act together and headed out to the giant grocery store in Hod Hasharon. The 2 story Chatzi Chinam. First we walked around the mall across from it.

Then we went to the store and the kids were amazed.

We spent a lot of time walking around and shopping. Towards the end Josh took the kids back to the mall for lunch while i finished up. We headed home and unloaded all our purchases. By the time I got everything away and helped Jordy with some homework it was time to head to get Nadav. The rest of the afternoon was spent at home getting dinner ready, folding laundry and then refolding it after Nadav dumped it all on the floor. Everyone ate dinner and then tried avoiding going to sleep.

Doctors, Chag and a New Job

Of course a lot has happened since my last post. Rather than do a day by day review of the carpool, grocery store , gym etc I'll give you the highlights. Last Wednsday evening Nadav finally had his appointment with the sleep doctor. He and I battled some MAJOR traffic to Tel Aviv at 7pm and I spent the whole car ride either on the phone with Josh trying to figure out an alternate route as I didn't want to miss my appointment and keeping Nadav awake as the car is one place he falls asleep easily. We finally got there and the doctor was running late so we were right on time. Basically we need to do some sleep training. She pointed out a few things that she thought were problematic in our sleep routine and gave a bunch of suggestions. Now it is our job to implement-unfortunatly she doesn't do that part, it is our job. The good news is that by the time we got home from the appointment Nadav was asleep-so perhaps that is her trick-just drive him from to and from Tel Aviv every night and he'll sleep well.
Last Shabbat was nice and quiet. It was the first week in a long time we were home just us for both meals. WE went to the Brodsky's for kiddush in the morning so we weren't compleletly antisocial.
Sunday was a busy day. I went to Danya's school to help lead a Zumba activity for the girls. Danya really liked it so that was good. Jordy had chug torani followed by a school activity in the afternoon. In the evening we got a babysitter and went to a Bar Mitzvah party.
Josh and I celebrated our 12 year anniversary on Monday. We ran a few errands-nothing like a trip to the bank and the gardening store for your anniversary- and then went out to lunch. I also went to a wine tasting while Josh was working in the evening at a nearby winery. Otherwise I spent the earlier part of the week cooking for Shavout.
On Friday I went to a job interview in Raanana. I have been looking for a job for a while now(5 years) however I was never able to find anything related to what I did before we moved(medical billing, insurance companies etc). I had seen an advertisement for an American medical billing company based in Raanana looking for someone to head up their workman's comp department. On Sunday evening I got word that the job was mine. Which means I am now in get "ready to be working full time" mode. Trying to get life organized and figure out transportation.
In other news I visited a chiropractor on Tuesday. I had been encouraged to see him by many people for quite a while. I had been hesitant to try it but really hurt my neck and back a few weeks ago and could not take the pain anymore. I was throughly amazed by the results and am a converted believer. It's amazing what the absence of pain can do for you! I was so amazed that I needed to share it with you, my readers. It was worth writing home about. If you are in the area you should see him-he is a miracle worker(and if you are coming for a visit I may make you go).
I know I haven't posted pictures in a while so here is one I took of Nadav and Danya. Nadav came home from gan with his Shavout projects and crown and I wanted to take a picture but he didn't want to. It's a cute picture of Danya though!

Shavout was fast. As we were waiting for Josh to return from shul Nadav fell asleep. We ate a quiet dinner and then Danya headed out. She was going to learn at school and then sleep over at the Balsam's. Jordy didn't want to go to the school learning so he, Josh and I played a game and then we went to sleep.
In the morning, after shul, we headed to the Balsam's for our annual Shavout lunch. No matter how much less we make from year to year we always have way to much food. Moshe wasn't feeling well so Danya and Meira returned to our house to play in the afternoon. Jordy didn't want to go anywhere so he hung out at home. At around 5pm Josh, Jordy, Nadav and I headed to a friends house for an open house gathering. We were still full from lunch so didn't really eat much but had a nice time with friends. We headed home and hung out until chag was over. Danya went to a movie night at a friends house a little later. Jordy ate dinner and went to sleep. I cleaned up and did some laundry.