The Candrians Down Under

Little Grommet

Okay, he's not exactly surfing yet, but ya gotta start somewhere.
I'm always a little nervous when Rob takes him out on the board, thinking he needs to be a little more careful. But I took him this time and I'd say I definitely did a worse job.

No picture of the wipe-out but I think his face tells the story. This happens every time but he still always wants to go again the next time. He rocks.

Best Date

When my parents came to visit, there happened to be surf on the weekend. So Rob and I had our first chance since moving here to go surf together. After a while my parents came down to the beach with the kids to watch and be amazed (which I say sarcastically, but since they are three and one, they actually really do think we are studs). It's been a few years since I last went surfing and it made me feel young and vibrant and in love. It was the date that keeps on giving, because I've been stealing opportunities to go a lot more since, and it gave me the confidence now to go on my own.

Best date!

I am so drawn to the ocean and yet I also have this mysterious fear of it as well. I am not worried about shark attacks or anything truly scary. It's just the idea of emerging my body into this mysterious unknown environment with fish and bottom dwelling critters and seaweed and such. Anyway, it is funny how much I LOVE being out in the open water considering I'm also freaked out by it. I'm the equivalent of a claustrophobic who just loves hanging out in closets. But little feels so life-giving as getting tossed around by the waves, and every now and then actually riding one. I'm trying to take full advantage while we are lucky enough to live so close. Well, as much advantage as a mother of two young kids can manage.

Explorer

Ella the last few days -
1. Happily playing in the backyard, poking around in the dirt, she looked up at me for a second to exclaim "bird!". Then "bird dead!". Not what you want to hear from your kid playing in the dirt. And, yes, it was a dead bird she'd been poking around in and her hands were gooey from the guts, as well as some locks of hair. After I bathed her, I went to clean up the bird mess and there were maggots all over underneath. My stomach almost came out my throat. But she hasn't gotten leprosy yet so I think we're okay. Oh, yeah, and this was all while I was watching five young kids at my house, just in case I was feeling bored.
2. Last night I found a live worm on the kitchen floor, courtesy of the girl in the dress, I'm near certain.
3. Today Ella brought new meaning to the classic toddler favorite of playing in the toilet. I found her, literally, IN the toilet. Splashing her feet around, happy as a lark. I almost took a picture but then realized that she'd probably take away the message "cute" instead of "disgusting". So no pic. But she was pretty cute. And disgusting.

But she has also recently taken to saying "I love you, mommy" all throughout the day. So she pretty much makes life perfect.

The Salad Spinner is one of the best toys in the house

Pillow Talk

I was standing by the baby monitor tonight, just as Ella belted out in song "Lead me, guide me, walk beside me, help me find the.............................................................. Mickey Mouse. Haha. Laughing. Funny." So it looks like she got the Candrian gene of thinking she is hilarious.
I couldn't help but eavesdrop some more as she went on listing more Mickey Mouse clubhouse characters, animals and animal sounds, and then moved on to a list of her favorite fruits. I guess this is what a 1.5 year old thinks about as she falls asleep. Kids talking to themselves is seriously entertaining stuff to me and I'm guilty of having the baby monitor on at night simply to eavesdrop on her bedtime chatter.

Camel Farm

More pics from Jordan.

On a related note, last week we played Candy Land and guess who won? Emerson. Michael's imaginary friend. The real one lives in Jordan. Ever since our trip there, Michael loves to play a game called Border Patrol where he drives around the house and then stops at me and shows his passport and answers a series of questions. The only obnoxious thing about the game is that he really likes to mimic reality and wants to pass 5 different check points before he is "in Jordan" to play with his friend. Then it will be bedtime and he tells me he has to go through five more check points to come back home. My, oh, my. My solution has been to let him have lots of sleepovers with her.

Indiana Jones Date

We went to visit our friends in Jordan over the long weekend. With the help of them and their nanny we got to go explore Petra for a day child-free. Petra is where the last scenes in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade took place and I can see why this was the perfect place for an adventure film. It was spectacular!

"The Treasury" - over 2000 years old

The Amphitheater

"The Monastery" - lies high up on the mountain. We hiked, but there were many Bedouins with teams of donkeys eager to sell us a ride.

For true perspective on the size of this structure, check out that man at the entry. It looks like a simple entry, but at the base is a head-high wall that must be scaled to get in.

Home is where the heart is

Tradition in my family is to open one gift on Christmas Eve. Rob said he had to tell me my gift, so I threw a blanket over his head, carefully unwrapped his mouth portion, and he told me that he was sending my parents to visit us that Saturday! The mouth received a giant kiss mixed with some salty tears. What a sweet, heart-melting surprise! Just hours before I was telling a friend how I missed my family and how it would have been the perfect time for them to come visit, and little did I know he had already secretly been arranging it all.
My favorite part of their visit is all the fun Michael and Ella had with them. Michael about tic-tac-toed them to death, but they gladly humored him about 100 times a day.
We got to do plenty of sight seeing as well. Any time I am around my mom or m.i.l. I get pretty lazy about picture taking since they both like to take about a zillion and I can just steal theirs. Unfortunately, I couldn't get them of her camera yet so here are the only few I got.

At the Nahal Me'arot caves. Scientists have found evidence that these caves were inhabited continuously for 200,000 years, including 5 prehistoric cultures. But I'm pretty sure the Neanderthal people in the background are fakes.

Friendly cat at Ceasarea

My mom and Ella at Ceasarea. Sometimes I don't know where Ella gets all of her sweetness and peacefulness, and then my mom visits and I realize it just skipped a generation.

Having my parents come stay a couple weeks with us definitely made Israel feel much more like home to me.

Unexpected

Last night I went for a run. All day had been heavy storms, the kind where wind knocks over trees, streets flood, street lights are out, power goes on and off, and the rain pelts. It is reported to be the worst storm here in decades. But my parents are here to play with the kids, so I can run solo. So why not? I ran along the boardwalk and the sea was all in a major tempest. The winds made me run in place one minute and fly the next, the rain came and went, came and went, and *shocker* I didn't see another soul outside for six miles. Until the very tail end along the boardwalk. I saw a tall, lean, athletic looking runner coming toward me along the deserted beach. It felt like he was the only other soul on the earth. I sensed a kindred spirit in this stranger. I contemplated what brief comment or action (high-five?) to make to him as we were about to cross paths. And then he said hello and grabbed me! And then I realized it was Rob! I thought he was still at work! And there he was, my tall, lean, athletic stranger, the only person in sight for miles around, the kindred spirit crazy enough to be out running on the stormiest day in decades, grabbing me unexpectedly while the sea raged in the background.
I thought it felt like something from a romance movie.
He was happy to run into me and have my company on his run, but not blown away by the romance of it like me. I guess he didn't have the element of the unexpected like I did, since he figured he might run in to me. And he is a guy. But it was amazing, I swear. I love that we are so alike.

The Nativity

For all my belly-aching about being homesick during the holidays, you can't really get more Christmas-y than going to Bethlehem, can you? This trip was fabulous. Here are some pictures in Bethlehem and at the Church of the Nativity.

Stairs down to the original nativity. The church has been built up over it. The main entrance (not pictured) to The Church of the Nativity is child sized so that one must bend down and be penitent upon entering. Or just be a child, I guess.

The believed birth place

The place of the manger

The outer halls of the church.

Adorableness

Haircut

Michael needed a haircut. We liked his long hair, but it needed help.

Per custom, I first gave him a mowhawk. Although it needed more gel...

Also, per custom, Lorena made me get rid of it shortly thereafter.

And there is the finished product.

Nazareth

I have to admit I've had a bit of the Christmas blues creep up on me here and there. Until the season got here, I hadn't really considered all the things I would miss by living in a country that does not celebrate Christmas. How completely ironic considering this is where Jesus lived! Anyway, I read that there was actually a little Christmas festival in Nazareth. I figured that was just what we needed to feel the Christmas spirit so Rob took off work early and we made the drive. I even kept a decently good attitude when we got stuck in traffic. I wasn't a fan that it added an extra 40 minutes and made us take nearly 2 hours to get there, but then I contemplated Mary's journey - about twice the distance, while pregnant, while riding a donkey. And that sort of put the traffic into perspective. And makes me understand why she had her calling and not me.

Look at the smile on that boy! Such a happy little goof.

We finally got there and realized that they shut everything down early on the last day of the festival. Everyone was packing up. There was a big tall tree still lit, but that was it and I felt pretty heartbroken. But then comes in the beauty of children. They didn't know what they were missing and were still happy as ever, singing and dancing and wandering around. Michael was as enthusiastic as ever, Ella was as curious and enthralled (with rocks and stairs and such) as ever. And almost nothing ruffles Rob's feathers. My family saves me.

We still got to see Mary's Well and see the Church of the Annunciation (one of three that claims to be where the Angel Gabriel appeared to Mary) and eat the most scrumptious Arabic food I've had yet. So it doesn't entirely deserve to be filed under "disaster trips" in my memory, but somehow I think that is where it sits. If only my brain were more sophisticated.

Fifty Nifty

This has become our go-to party trick lately.
He learned it mostly on his own from youtube, because I still can't sing it through without getting stuck somewhere. He has a craze for maps and the USA and songs, so Fifty Nifty was an immediate favorite. I haven't been able to brainwash him into always saying California is the best (in the part of the song where you get to insert your favorite state) - he is a goof and always changes it up and Rhode Island won today (he knows he's being silly). I told him we would get to move the the USA one day and he was all, WOW, REALLY?! As if I told him we'd live at Disneyland one day or something.

Magic

Yesterday as I was looking through my purse for some change to pay for something, I remarked out loud that I couldn't find a ten shekel. To which Michael enthusiastically suggested "Mom, you should just use your magic and grab it out of the air!". He seemed rather pleased with his solution. I guess our dinner time games have been convincing.

And a story for Ella, too. Several weeks ago as we were finishing dinner, I got distracted as I was unbuckling Ella's tray. She wiggled it out of my hands and immediately turned it upside down on her head, all the food came raining down on her and with a big, silly grin she declared "hat!". She had us all cracking up. Two of her favorite words are "funny" and "silly" and boy does she have both of those qualities down pat.

Thanksgiving in Jerusalem

We took a half day trip to check out some of Jerusalem's old city. It did not disappoint! Besides all the cool sights, we lucked out on some Bar Mitzvah parties. I learned that Thursday morning is one of only three acceptable times that a Jew can have a Bar Mitzvah. Here it is tradition for the party to dance and sing and drum their way through the old city. Some people hold a fancy tent/cover/shade thingy above the special boy as they parade over to the Western Wall. We scored some candy as they partied past us. (Which really helped us out when Ella got fussy on the drive home.)

At the Dome of the Rock.

The Western Wall. Ladies must approach it from one end, men on the other. The line of people are men and women congregated on the fence that divides the two, standing on chairs to talk to each other over the fence. Cracks in the wall are all filled with prayers written on paper.

The interplay between multiple different faiths and all the history of these sites is so fascinating!


The stroller was a terrible idea. We usually anticipate stairs and choose the Baby Bjorn....oops. Stairs everywhere.

Recent stuff

Tonight I went to pick up Michael from his friend's house, several minutes drive from my house. About 10 seconds down the street cars were stopped still in an endless line as if there was an accident or something impossible to go around. I turned to take a different route, only to quickly meet up with the same grid-lock. Like a parking lot. This was on streets that I've never even seen real traffic. Tried a few other routes and met up with the same scenario. Then I heard the name of my street on the radio, amidst Hebrew so I had no idea what was being said except for I was certain that the apocalypse must be starting right there half a mile from my house. A terrorist had bombed a bus in Tel Aviv a couple hours earlier and so my mind was wandering...maybe something happened here too? Rude driving was going on. A van tried to squeeze in on my right where there was no lane, trying to eek past me. Of course I'm like, what the h#!!?! And as I looked over to the car with that expression on my face, I saw a man who gave me the most evil I'm-going-to-kill-you look I have ever been flashed, and in the same instance saw a huge chain saw sticking straight up into the air next to him. A FREAKING CHAIN SAW!
So I kindly offered him the spot in front of me, via his non-existent third lane.
The boring end to this story is that after 45 minutes of "driving", I turned back home (it took about 3 minutes once I was able to turn around), put on my running gear and took the jogging stroller to pick him up. It was amazing how light it was without Michael, and Ella kept screaming with delight "Fast! Fast!". It only took 15 minutes, I passed all those cars as quickly as I was passing houses, and my smugness was so delicious I could taste it. These are the instances I LOVE that I love to run. I had visions of what it might look like if there ever really was a mass exodus and my vision of us escaping by bike with the kids trailer attached made me happy to think about.*
Apparently the insane traffic was because IDF was stopping cars trying to find the bombers.

Unrelated, yesterday Rob actually witnessed the crazy guy who attacked the guards of the US Embassy with a pick axe.

We are happy to hear the cease-fire deal. My hopes are high, but expectations low, considering that there have already been numerous rockets launched into Israel from Gaza since the cease fire. I guess they aren't coming from Hamas, but it certainly doesn't make it seem like the most effective deal ever made.

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Since this is already long, I'm can't help going pointing out some lameness about the news reports. From a report in BBC about the bus bombing:
The US "strongly condemns" the bus bombing, Mrs Clinton said.
Thanks for that nugget, BBC!

The Ichilov medical centre in Tel Aviv said that of the 28 injured, 10 had suffered "body injuries" - three of them serious - three received "moderate-light" injuries including shrapnel wounds and burns, and the remainder were suffering from "anxiety".
Is BBC seriously humoring whoever decided to call anxiety an injury? Honestly!? I'm sure the anxiety is dreadful. But not an injury. Come on now. All the spin that both sides are trying to put on every aspect of this war is ridiculous.

*Dear Anna - it's kinda like the homeless survival game.

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