Four Shekel and Fifty-Five Cents

The baking chug ended yesterday. I am not all that broken up about it. It is a really good idea, but it needs to be better thought out, so until we think about it some more, Eema, please dont decide to do another one.
I am going to meet up with Ora today. I havent seen her for almost three months and since we live in different cities, it is going to be difficult to see her during the year, so I expect that this will be my last time seeing her for another few months. How sad!
Hmm, the clock just changed and now reads '8:00' so I am going to assume that that means that it is time to really start my day. I guess today I should look semi-presentable, and change out of my running clothes.
Toodles!

Lori decided last night to set the alarm. That doesn't really bother me, but it was set for nine o clock, so of course, that's when I woke up and started my day. Right Lorz ;) The first thing I did was go back to sleep for half an hour. It was a wise decision. Then I decided it was probably a good time to get ready for the cooking chug, since cook is what we did today.
Eema and I went to Superdeal and it was freezing in the store. The guy wasn't stacking cabbages today, but I didn't need any in any event, so it didn't really matter. Today he was putting out onions! And a wonderful job he did of it, or I'm sure he had a hard time pouring the crates into the onion space. When that was over and done with, we stopped at HaKol LeShulchan. We got little tins and soup containers and jumpropes :) AviChai likes to jump rope and Im sure could become moderately ok at it if he would jump more than two times in a row.
The cooking chug was underway and Eema showed the girls how to make angel hair pasta torte. It is really yummy stuff. But I didn't eat any really during the chug itself. Then we had a vegetable cutting up session. Its really sad that some of the girls think that they know everything, because they really could have used the lesson. Cooking is an art form as are most other things. The vegetables are supposed to be cut into neat pieces, not hacked up into different size chunks. I ditched twenty minutes til the end :) hehehe...
When I came home, I found out that Avi was at the Yaffas house, so after Ezri made a big deal about having to go get him, I went too. We picked the Dibble up and then continued to the pizza place. While I sat and watched the Dibble devour his pizza and barad, I looked across the street at the playground, so once the food was gone, we headed toward the park.
All in all it was a nice afternoon. It is only a little bit after eight and I am trying to decide what to do tonight. I guess I'll post about that tomorrow.
g'night mush

I am so so tired, but that didnt stop me from having a nice Shabbat. Eema made this really yummy pasta/fish thing that was really really yummy and Brenda and I ate all of it (except for a tiny amount that other people had) and that was an appetizer. So I really was not hungry at all for soup or other food, but I wound up sitting at the table for another hour and a half anyway. Its not all bad, because I took a leisurely stroll to nofi aviv with Lori, and Libby, and the badger, of course. There was no one around because they are all at their seminarions and mine isnt until next week, so there were no real friends around to see. Dan was around though, the poor guy. Obviously he didnt get the notice that this week it was "uncool" to leave your house friday night after the meal, so he bumped into us :) He is a funny little dude.
Shul was strange. I dont know why really, but it was and then lunch was also on the weird side. This fish came out good :) on the bright side... Wow, I didnt eat any meat this shabbat... so unlike me.
The afternoon went by really quickly. I played apples to apples, which I havent played for a really long time, and now I remember why. Also I think I consumed way to much brown rice and bulgar wheat. Ewww... just a bit
I know this post isnt half as long as it should be, but like I said, I am falling asleep, so good night moon and good night stars where ever you are, hiding behind the clouds?

I posted everyday this week! Amazing! Simply Amazing! I am going to give myself a round of applause for this. One second...
Wait!
Did you hear that?!

On to business: Today was supposed to be a mad rush as usual, and it is, sort of. I even made pasta salad. I dont like making this pasta salad. I always manage to cut myself. Its awful! But today I made it and have no new injuries to show off because of it. Lucky me.
I crept upstair for a few minutes and thats why this is here, but I better go back down before the holy blessed mother notices i'm gone.

Shabbat Shalom Everyone!

Sour Sticks

Coca Cola flavored or Blue raspberry? It is a difficult question. Which to pick? Which smells worse? Which is cooler?
Most people answer both, but this is not strictly true. I prefer the red ones :)

I seem to be having on and off days. Today was an on day. That means that the green light flashed go all day long and I was moving from here to there to the next place. Granted I thought the day would be sort of a yellow light and so I tried sleeping late, but I went to the grocery store instead and laughed at the guy stacking cabbages and laughed with eema as we took all of the bread flour that they had out on the shelf. She even bought me a cauliflower, so I made lunch when I got home. Then of course it was time for the baking chug and its a good thing to, because I dont think that my stomach could have handled to much more cauliflower. I let Eema have the rest.
We made challah today. Why is it that when you want them to follow instructions, they dont, but when you tell them to do what they want, they question your every move? Well, Abba had turned on the air conditioning and some how we didnt realize, so it got to cool in the house for the dough to rise properly in its allotted amount of time. Kneading the dough was also an experience and why dont people listen when you say, "dont touch"? So I left Eema to play with the doughs and the ovens and I divided pretzels and Brenda gave out chocolate and sprinkles to the girls. It made a big mess, but seeing as this didnt need to be cooked and it was chocolate, they were thrilled. I left Eema to help them braid it, we were working on overtime again, and I escaped upstairs to my room. Of course, I was left most of the bowls to wash afterward, but it wasnt too bad.
The really big event of tonight was dining at Normans steak and hamburger house. I like meat :) So do most of my cousins, and my new cousin-in-law. It was a big hit.
Oh, right, why were we celebrating? It is the one year aliyah anniversary of my grandparents. I even wrote a speech!

" A year ago I presented you with a poem, but tonight I am going to be less creative and display my message with unrhyming prose. A year ago you made aliyah and that was one of the most exciting moments of our lives. Our own aliyah experiences had been momentous and changed our own lives, but after living 5,631 miles away from you for two whole years having you nearby again was amazing! Not to mention the fact the we can now party with the Preisers (and Admons :) ) whenever there is an occasion too. This year was filled with new experiences, a lot of learning (right savta? ;) ), planting gardens, and settling into a new home. You have overcome these challanges and so we are celebrating here tonight. Be'ezrat Hashem, soon every Jew everywhere will follow your example and we will all live in Eretz HaKodesh with the coming of Ma'shiach. Kol HaKavod Saba and Savta! We love you both very much!"

It was a touching little speech. Thank you Abba for helping me polish it up. Back to the party part: Chaim got a really really big burger, Avi wiped his plate clean (a first!) and I ate steak which was very very yummy :) I like meat (:
Once we were all done and left the restaurant, a man walked up to my father and asked him if he had davened maariv yet. My father replied in the negetive. "Good!" said the man. "We're nine," stated my father. "Nine? And i'm ten?!?! Wow! I made a minyan! That was easy!" Shouted the man with glee. Anyway, the shocked and happy look on the guys face was amusing. So the men davened maariv and the women and little boys went to wander around. Finally we got into our rightful cars and headed for home.
Now its time for bed and sleep doesnt seem to be to long in coming...
g'night mush

Today WAS boring. Don't misunderstand me here, it was the most boring day I've had for three weeks! I didn't like it.
But Eema and I went to a yoga class at around eight o clock and that was really really nice. I stretched muscles that I hardly ever use. I hope I hurt on Thursday. That supposedly means that I did it right.
Anyway, since tomorrow looks to be full and exciting I will sign off and go to sleep. And yes, when you've been getting up at seven something, eight fifteen is late :)
g'night mush

For the first time in a few weeks, I dont have anything to do today. Its so weird. I mean, I slept late, til 8:15 and now I have been reading the newspaper since then. Sigh, maybe i'll take Avi to the park or something.

Did anyone ever notice that its really really really nice outside during the early morning? I remember that that was one of the only reasons that I liked sha'at efes. It was quiet outside on the way to school. anyway, I had a flashback of that again today, but it was after six thirty, still... it was nice.
Raizi and I went into Jerusalem today. The nurse checked my arm and I have to go back in two weeks, because, as she stated, everything is fine, but we want to check again. Then we went to find Raizi's skirt that we werent able to get on thursday. We finally found it after wandering around for an hour? was it. But the good news is that I found an insert for my yoman! This is so exciting!
I am very sleepy. I had a long day, so off to bed.
g'night mush

Lori left this morning to go to work and for the past three hours I have been sitting in my room trying to decide what to do. I have not been completely idle and have worked a bit on uncompleted projects. Its a nice feeling. Today looks to be busy, but its not really. There is the baking chug and today we are actually really baking. Cookies! Ugh =) And then later we are supposed to be having some company, so we will see what I do in between. Oh! and Lori is coming home again tonight! Shes a funny girl.

Two weeks left of vacation. I thought that it would never end, but now I am getting worried about life after these next two weeks.

Shabbat was nice. Friday night Lori and I spent time with Shani. We walked to Nofi Aviv and found Raizi. Actually, Raizi found us :) But Sara was missing, so we didnt get to see her. She disappeared. Strange.
I didnt know that the alarm on my phone rings even if the phone is off. At six this morning it started playing and every fifteen minutes or so it went off until seven thirty. I got up once Lori left for shul and then copied her and left. Shul was quick, but interesting. Lunch was yummy. Eema made health salad. I like health salad :)
I think we slept for three and a half hours, but it felt so good to wake up from that. It was hard walking to Saba and Savtas house though. I mean, we hadnt even really properly woke up yet. It was nice at Saba and Savtas house, we saw pictures from Tova's Bat Mitzvah. Brenda was really cute then and I had a lot of teeth missing. I think I had missing teeth for an abnormally long amount of time. Oh, btw Eema, I am sort of sorry that I pulled those two loose teeth right before my Bat Mitzvah. Those are awful pictures :) hehehe!
I think tonight we are supposed to be doing something fun, since its Loris last night of vacation. I think playing with Barbies was on the list. Toodles!

Raizi realized on Monday, that a blog is not just to state what you did each and every single day. You can write whatever you want, no matter how random. The best part is, that its yours, and you can say anything you want without having to consider peoples comments. Delete them, ignore them, dont allow comments... tons of options.
However, when I do blog, usually its because I have something to say and today definitely merits being told about...

A little before eight I woke up. I think I had time to brush my teeth and pull a skirt on over my pajama pants before I left the house with Abba, Lori, and Raizi. We dropped Raizi off at her house to wait for her cleaning lady and then went shopping at Mister Zol. As Lori put it 12 hours later, "What?! That was this morning??? It feels like forever ago!" or something along those lines. We bought groceries for "My" baking chug and it wasnt to long before we were back home.
I had time to get cleaned up. I put in my contacts, got dressed for real, and then ran around like a crazy person (never so unusual if you know where I live...) I finished filling out some forms for Sherut Leumi (it starts in under a month) and then Abba quickly drove me over to the doctors office, so that he could print out the results of my blood test and stamp my paper. We even got to visit the red box that you drop letters into on the way home =) one less thing to worry about.
Trying to be smart and time saving I decided to go look in our local shoe store to see if they had the shoes I need. Abba drove home to pick up Lori and Eli, seeing as they also needed shoes. Eli got a new cool pair of brown sneakers and Lori got hard, new, clean naot. There was a chefetz chasud in mercaz, so we heard it being blown up. That was exciting... The scene from monsters inc replayed in our minds, "23 19!!!!!!!" We ordered school books for Ezri and Avi, and then finally went home.
"My" baking chug went very smoothly. ;) stam, Ima taught today, seeing as I didnt know the fancy ways to make pie crust. The girls were funny though. They drove Ima crazy, but they did that last week also, and she didnt really have to be near them.
Literally right after the chug ended I got to practice my newest hobby.
I got home just in time to watch the end of Anastasia with Raizi and then we tie-dyed!
We made lots of cool shirts, although it made a mess of our fingers.
Supper was a little pasta with cheese, not very yummy, but we were running to make it to a concert in beit guvrin. Kayla and her mother came with us, which makes sense, since they were the ones who originally told us about it. It was nice, interesting, but the after party was better.
We came home, and thanks to Raizi's hotdogs, we grilled hotdogs and lots of yummy vegetables and it was a perfect past midnight supper :) Now its late and tomorrow is supposed to be really really busy, so
g'night mush...

Hello hello!
It is really Tuesday, considering that I am writing this after midnight, but if you notice, I have changed the time to 11:59. This is a very clever trick that I stole from Lori and you never would have known or noticed had I not told you. But now that I have drawn your attention to it, notice and wonder :)
Today started off lazily enough. I did something today that I havent done in months and months. I read a book from start to finish and didnt put it down. Dont worry, it only took me from tenish til three. I did DO stuff today in additon to the reading part.
Raizi decided to make a BBQ in honor of Elisheva's Birthday. It was yummy, Raizi dearest, especially your new pasta salad. They were cute little noodles, by the way... Most of us took a turn standing at the grill. We ate, chatted, laughed, and had a good time. Then my phone starting ringing a lot. It was Lori and my mother both calling me at the same time and I accidentally kept hanging up on them in an attempt to change from one conversation to the other. I think I got the hang of it. I learned loads of new things today.
The real question of the night is: Will I ever get my bed back? I took over Loris, so she took over the pullout, therefore we pile junk onto mine. It is a problem, but I'm sure we will solve it soon.
I'll go see to that...
g'night mush

What a day!

I think that this Tishah B'Av was a very meaningful one. I will not go into detail, but leave everyone to think of their own opinions.
What I will tell you about, is what went on today in the Polly household.
Mommy was sleeping most of the day, so there was no screaming after noontime.
Abba, Kol HaKadov, recited all of the Tishah B'Av kinnot. Its very long and it took him a very long time to say, but he did it!
Eli, stayed invisible, which he usually does.
Brenda also only appeared at around three o clock or so.
Ezri and Avi Chai watched The Borrowers. This was basically background noise, as I dont think that the playroom ever got so messy from just watching a movie.
But please, come upstairs to where Lori and I live. Last night we watched The Pianist. That is one freaky movie, as movies about the Sho'ah usually are. This morning once Lori came back from shul and slept for a while, we watched a movie called The Windtalkers. This was also a freaky movie. It took place during World Wat II and as Lori put it, "was one of the best war movies that i've ever seen". Dude. Thats all I have to say.
Shoshana arrived just in time, because I had finished making her bed. She is staying with us for Shabbat amd maybe she'll be daring and stay til Sunday morning? Dont worry Lorz, I wont give away your secret plans.

Hmmmm, my stomach has gotten over its initial shock. So maybe I should go eat more coffee cake? It was really really good.
What to do! What to do?
g'night mush

This one's for Raizi:

Yes, the gaps between my posts are growing once again and I must apologize for that. Lately I've had so much to do that I never get around to writing it down.

Sunday I helped Sara out and came to play counsler for the day. It was a long day and the kids are tired before they do anything. My own personal opinions, sorry if they seem rude, but Achdut could be a much better camp than it is. The campers need to learn some disipline and the staff needs to help disipline them. Maybe it is the Israeli mentality, but when kids think that they can get away with everything, you know that there is a problem.
Aside from that discovered issue, I had a busy day running after escaping campers and trying to get them to listen. By the end of the day I was fed up and was so happy to go home knowing that there are "only nine days of camp left and then I dont have to come to camp anymore" (that was a quote made by girl in my group.)

Yesterday, which was Monday, Kayla and I ventured a trip into Jerusalem. We went to listen to some shiyurim about shmirat halashon. I discovered that Har Nof is actually a rather pretty neighborhood. but the Neveh Yerushalyim campus offended my sensibilities a little. I had originally thought that the topic we would be hearing about, would be awfully boring, but each of the three speakers took a take on a different angle of the topic and it was fascinating and I am really glad that Kayla and I went. I havent heard speakers speak like that for a long time and it really strengthened something within me to hear what they had to say. Needless to say, it was not your average boring speaker reciting to you how bad it is to speak lashon harah.

We got home sometime in the afternoon and my headache, which had been steadily growing since shabbat, was worse than ever. so I decided to go to sleep and maybe sleep for fourteen hours or so. Knowing me, if you do, you would know that I am not really one to do this type of thing and I am starting to think that lying in my bed with nothing to do, trying to fall asleep does not really appeal to me, so I finished the last two hundred pages of my book. I am really glad that I borrowed these books from Savta, because I happen to think that they are amazing.Rosamund Pilcher is an amazing author. I read three of her books and am in love with two of them. I thought that they would be sappy romance novels, which I was in the mood to read when I started the first book, but turns out that it wasnt. So I read all three and two of them are just so amazing that I have been in a state of perpetual suspence since late last week. I was going crazy trying to figure out how they ended and now I know. It is slightly disappointing, because now I have nothing new to read. And to top it all off, I cant even reread them, because they are to fresh in my mind and I would be greatly disappointed if I did not get as engrossed in the books as I first did. Which I am sure that I would not be, because the stories have been replaying themsleves in my mind since I finished then last night.

Brenda made supper. She is so odd. After eating lots and lots of potato soup, I cleared my place and left the house to get a bit of fresh air. I walked to Saba and Savtas house. It was a beautiful walk. I walked through the sunset and it was cool and breezy and not to dark. I spent an hour there and then we took a drive back here, where they left me and went home. So I had to find something else to do. I dragged Brenda down to the toy room and then made her watch a movie with me. I have made her watch that movie so many times that we both know it by heart.

This morning was also an adventure. I had to got o the doctor to get some forms filled out for sherut leumi which is starting in a month. I forgot my kepat cholim card, so we drove home quickly to get it. I got all the forms filled out and now all I have left to do is get a blood test tomorrow morning to determine if I need another heptitis B shot or not. And to go into Jerusalem to get a PPD test done. Which isnt a lot really.

I now have to organize all the papers that are lying around my room and put them into some semablence of order, so that my room is neat. I want to come home after a week of working and living in a dorm and know where all of my stuff is. So I figure that I am going to need to organize my room. Plus, if I want to have friends for Shabbat, then it would be nice if my room was neat, because then maybe someone will be kind enough to sweep and wash the floor in my room for me every once in a while ;) (: should I dare to hope?????