Oh! Nuts

Hello all! Wow.......the longest blog break I've taken to date but with such good reason! Running a house, taking care of 4 kiddies, working, etc. leaves little time for musings but I'm still faithfully taking pics and will post them one of these days. 

I just wanted to share a fantastic way to send mishloach manot (or gifts for any occasion) remotely. Check this out!

Their website is user friendly and prices affordable. 

A Freilichin Purim and I look forward to posting again soon!

3 Men and a Little Lady

With thanks and gratitude to the one above, we would like to officially announce to the blogosphere the arrival of our long awaited (an extra 2 weeks long if you MUST know)
girlie! Tziporah Chana Svei- currently known as "Tziporah Chanala" - was born on the 11th of cheshvan, the yartzeit of Mama Rochel. More details to follow about the princess and how the 3 princes are faring but suffice to say that we are definitely enjoying!

Nachas for Zaidy

Our Mommy builds our Sukkah. It isn't that our Abba CAN'T build a sukkah..........its just that it'll take a whole lot longer than if our Mommy does it. Our Abba's Abba can't figure out where his 'handy genes' went.
Here's a little nachas for our Zaidy:

Sukkos at the Svei's

Moadim L'simcha to all!
We hope that all of you in the diaspora enjoyed your first 2 days of yom tov. Now its back into the kitchen to cook for shabbos followed by just one more kitchen stint for shmini atzeres/simchas torah. We're almost there! I really do enjoy (and look forward to) yontif. Its just that my hands are perpetually cracked and stained and my wrists are starting to ache from all of that vegetable peeling.
The husband's been sleeping in the sukkah this week which I'm enjoying immensely as I don't have to clean all of the junk off of my bed before I go to sleep- I just dump it all on his bed. The 2 big boys sleep in the sukkah as well. Heh heh. Jason's REALLY enjoying being kicked in the head by Aryeh Leib all night. Slumber party for the men and R&R for the Mommy!
Yet another perk about being a mom of boys. Unfortunately for them, they are looking more and more girl-like recently as their mosquito-bite ridden faces, arms, and legs are being perpetually painted pink with calamine lotion.

Speaking of Shabbos. I took AL and YM to the grocery store to get MORE veggies as well as various other shabbos related food stuffs. Among our purchases was my favorite new drink- Ice Tea made by "Spring". I actually got 3 of them for 15 NIS which was MOST exciting. I then saved myself 18 NIS by shlepping all of our purchases home on the bus instead of paying for the delivery. Actually I only saved 13 NIS if you subtract the 5NIS for bus fare. Well, really only 3 NIS if you subtract the 10 NIS for the 2 bottles of ice tea that were run over by the bus after falling out of my stroller upon alighting from the bus. Guess we'll have water this shabbos. Water's free. (Ok, thats not really true either- but its cheaper than Ice Tea.)

Chag Sameach!

My little Scholar

I took Yitzchok Zevi to the eye doctor a few weeks ago- not because he was having difficulty in school. Thank G-d, we're doing great on that front..................and on that note, we interrupt the regularly scheduled program for a brief nachas moment. Jason called the Rebbe the other day just to introduce himself and see how YZ was doing so far. Before he got a word in edgewise, the Rebbe said, "Ah- Svei? He's one of the best kids in the class." I know. I know what you're all thinking. I thought the same thing. But, I spoke with an education expert here in Israel who told me that exaggerating a child's excellence in an effort to please parents is SO NOT done here. Basically, the rule of thumb is if you DON'T hear from the Rebbe, you can feel confidant that there aren't any real problems. Grandparents, you can feel free to kvell- and invest in the college fund. Now you can pick yourselves up off the floor- I'm joking. For real. Seriously, you ARE more than welcome to invest in the apartment fund.
Back to the eye doctor.............
I figured that since the kid is in first grade, it would be an opportune time to get his eyes checked.
The doctor asked me if YZ knew his numbers.
I answered in the affirmative.
He projected a row of numbers onto the opposite wall and asked YZ to identify them.
Nothing.
Next row- numbers a bit bigger.
Still nothing.
At this point the doctor turned to me, "Are you SURE he knows his numbers?"
Next row- numbers a little larger.
YZ: "dot, dot, dot, dot, dot, dot" (And he's got personality!)
Next row- (you get the picture)
YZ: "9, 5, 3, 6, 7" (Some weren't even accurate!)
In short, YZ got glasses- much to everyone's chagrin. I'm frustrated because I envision this becoming an extra expense - I dunno, say, once every 3-6 months or so. YZ is apprehensive because he's worried about being called 'mishkafofer' (that would be the Hebrew equivalent of four eyes).
Either way, thems the doctors orders so we'll all have to deal.
We picked up the glasses last night and thankfully, now that he has them, he's quite fond of them. He takes them off every 3 minutes to clean them and even asked Aryeh Leib if he recognizes him without his glasses.
Aren't kids fantastically resilient!?!

Glasses for YZ

Gmar Chatima Tova to all!

Dumb American?!

I sit here basking in my fantastically freezing living room curtosy of my newly fixed AC. This is the life.............The only thing that I lament (other than 2 weeks of endless sweating) is coming out of the whole ordeal feeling like a dumb American.
Our warranty expired a few months ago but we suspected that the problem stemmed from faulty installation. So, I convinced the company that it was in the interest of their own good name to send someone to check it out- on their dime. This was all communicated in hebrew. I was quite proud of myself. So, we waited for 2 weeks for their technician to show up only to be told that the problem was most certainly not the instalation. (Incidentally, the technician they sent was the very same person who installed the AC. Whatever.)
He was more than happy to fix the problem for a mere 350NIS. Not wanting to be taken for a chump, I told him I'd be in touch after I got a few estimates. (No one's gonna call ME a stupid American!)
I found out afterwards that 350 NIS was a very reasonable price. You live and learn.
In the meantime, We called a private (and very highly recommended) handy man to check out our ailing AC. His quote: 500 NIS.
We told him that company X (who'd sold us the AC originally) quoted us 350. (see?! I'm no DA- I can bargain like a sabra!) He laughed and said that company X is no company.

Uh oh.

Does this guy really know what he's talking about? If so, were we taken for a ride originally? Should we trust him since he's a local resident and offers us a warranty on his service or do we go with our friendly technician who could have created the problem for us in the first place?

Meanwhile Mr. Handy Man lowered his price to 450NIS...............

I feel like I'm always falling into these traps! Pay an extra 100 NIS now and save the possible 350NIS later? Jason always tells me that we are going to go broke on my 'bargains'.

I'm HOT and I just want my AC to work already! I'm so confused!

I said a silent prayer, agreed to the higher price, kicked myself a few times for being (or at least feeling like) a DA, and looked forward to a frigid living room.........

What's an extra 100 NIS in the scheme of things? (please do NOT quote me to the husband.)


On a different note, here's a picture of my boys enjoying our entertainment center.

They actually sat in front of the stereo for an hour as they listened to a story about the 10 plagues.............Who needs TV?!

I love raising kids on Torah values!

Tootaloo. I'm off to get a sweater.

3 Cheers for Global Warming

You'll please excuse me for being remiss in my blogging frequency. Its just too hot to blog. I don't think I've ever experienced a HOTTER summer in my life. And, incidentally, our AC is broken. So I have no energy to do a blessed thing (including work............) ::sheepish grin:: except sit on my couch and be hot. Someone told me recently that I shine. I pointed out that its just my sweat she's noticing.
And my 2 big boys are home- though that's going far better than could be expected. With Yisroel Meir out of the picture for the morning, the dynamic is very different and surprisingly pleasant. (no guarantees how long that's going to last.......) That's not to say that we don't LOVE YM- surely we do! Its just that he gets in his brothers' faces and then they clobber him and then I go into protective mode "HOW DARE YOU HIT MY BABY!!!!!!!"- and then we end up with 3 very sad little boys and one very frustrated Mommy. I don't even mind when the big ones fight with each other because AL can dish it out about as hard as YZ can. So, with the stakes even, its every man for himself (as long as they don't step on my piles of laundry in the process). But may G-d have mercy on you if you mess with my baby. (And, of course, YM is very very well aware of his coveted status and makes sure to cry extra loud- just for me. Won't he be in for a rude awakening when he's dethroned.........iy"h)
Nothing much else going on here- just drinking tons and plodding our way through the oppressive unbearable heat to the local supermarket since their AC is AWESOME.
Praying hard for the heat to break or our AC to unbreak.
Here are some pictures that my downstairs neighbor took of my boys. She's quite talented (and quite convenient). The photo session and ensuing pics were free since she's in the midst of creating her website and attempting to enlarge her portfolio to display on it. Unfortunately, my boys will NOT be featured on her site since they were less than cooperative (except for my baby.........he was so good) and, thus, she didn't find any pictures of them that excited her. (No indication of their overall cuteness, of course!) Either way, I got my free pics- so I'm happy (and hot).