Son Of A...

...Rabbi

That's right, this is what a son of a Rabbi looks like!
Already learning, such a Talmid Chacham, wise student!

I am so proud of Y! He has been working very very hard over the past year towards this. He studied really hard and completed a 12 hour exam and now...Y is a Rabbi!!
Y I ♥ you and am so proud of you!

Gifts

It was my mom's birthday we had a photo shoot for her.

Happy Birthday!

Redeeming Chayim Natan Yisrael

CNY has been redeemed!
Weird ceremony...Pidyon HaBen

Welcome To The Tribe

Introducing......

Chayim Natan Yisrael

A BIG name for a little man. The Bris was a very emotional day for me, we initiated our baby boy into the tribe and gave him his name. While I was pregnant my maternal grandfather passed away and we had discussed that if the baby was a boy then we would most likely name him after my grandfather, Chayim Yisrael. After the baby was born we knew this would be his name. There is an idea that parents get ruach hakodesh (divine inspiration) in deciding the name of their child, we really saw this because the day before the bris both Y and I had the idea separately to also give our son one of Y's paternal grandfather's names, he was Natan Alter, so we chose the Natan. And there we have it, Chayim Natan Yisrael, Israel gives life or we give life to Israel!!!

Mazal Tov!

Happy Birthday

Happy Birthday baby boy!!
Chet b'Iyar 5770
April 21st 2010
7:45 pm

Already Smiling at 5 Minutes Old!

1 year

1 year ago, depending on how you count either a week ago on Tu B'Shvat or today Y and I were married. So much has hanged for both of us over this year and we have both grown so much, well one of us more than the other. As my belly is growing, Y's seems to be getting smaller and smaller. Some people think I don't feed him, but really it is just that I am feeding him, yay for healthy food and mom's who teach me the importance of whole foods! Thank you mom!

Y I love you more with each day!

One thing that my grandmother told me, was that you have to love the person you marry. She would say to me about my grandfather z"l, "I love him so much, but sometimes he just drives me crazy." Thank you grandma, I quoted you on that this morning!

Too many many more happy years of growth together!

ch-ch-ch-changes

My life is in a process of change. It's pretty hard to believe. Despite that my belly is getting bigger I think I am still in a bit of denial. Even after seeing our baby move I feel like I still don't believe it. Below are the pictures we got of our beautiful baby from 13 weeks 6 days. The first pick is the normal US picture of the peanut looking thing, that is our baby.

While we were getting our ultra sound done they asked if we would do it again in the next room. They had a new machine and needed to test it out on women at various stages of pregnancy. So lucky us we got super clear and more detailed pictures, including a 3Dish picture of the babies face.

Top frontal view, that looks more like a baby bear than a person, if you ask me.

This one is a side view of the face, you can see the nose and lips to the bottom left.

That's a good looking spine!

Look at that face, we think s/he has my nose already!

It was incredible seeing thiese live pictures and seeing the baby move. I think I am starting to feel the baby moving, but I'm really not sure. I guess I'll know in a few weeks for sure. What an experience. It is so weird watching my body change, I look in the mirror and don't even recognize myself these days. There was a while where I was every morning waking up and saying that I think my tummy is bigger. And no joke, I was totally serious!

sooo tired and so many months

A lot of time has passed, 3+ months since I have been posting. Time is flying by and I am just exhausted these days. Back in July was the 1 year anniversary of my first date with Y and this past Saturday was the 1 year anniversary of when we got engaged, this means that I have been married for almost a year. This year is just passing so fast. It feels as if we have been married forever (in a good way of course) but it is also so hard to believe that it could also be that we have been married for 9 months!

Life is basically the same, just trying to be a good wife, whatever that means. And not be too tired, I am exhausted these days. Life goes on...

a far way to have come in a year

Yesterday was the 1 year anniversary of my first date with my amazing husband! Wow!
It is hard to believe that it has only been a year since I made aliyah and met my husband.
Just 5 days after arrived and officially became an Israeli I went on my first date with my husband.
To celebrate last night I made yummy black bean burgers and then we went out for ice cream. After enjoying my cone of Ferrero Rocher and Mint Chip we walked past Cafe Hillel, the site of our first date. My husband thought I was cheesy, but I don't care I thought it was cute, and was delighted that he even remembered exactly where we sat.

A year can be filled with so many surprises!

Holy Hevron Wedding

What a Holy place for a wedding!!!
Mazal Tov Sarah and Eli!!!

Right here in Hevron in front of Ma'arat Ha'Machpela are the kvarim (graves) of Adam and Eve, Abraham and Sarah, Isaac and Rebekah, Jacob and Leah, and even Esau's head is buried there.

abu gosh wedding

on the way there...

Mazal Tov Jordana and Raphael!

Time Flies

It has been over 4 months now since my wedding. Things are settling slowly slowly. We are really making a house, the furniture is coming together and we just got a washing machine and dryer installed today! Wow my first big appliances!

Being married is awesome. Everyday brings new adventures.

We finally got our video from our videographer and we have two amazing clips that he made for us.







Go to YouTube to watch the "High Quality" versions!

3 weeks

Its hard to believe I have been married now for 3 weeks! Me a wife, a married lady! It is still a bit surreal. I am definitely enjoying it and it and I keep finding myself saying that it just feels so normal.

We had such an amazing and beautiful wedding. People are still telling us how it was one of the best weddings they went to and how special and spiritual it was. We broadcast the chuppa live on the internet so our friends and family abroad could watch it. We got married in Jerusalem and one friend who couldn't make it actually watched it online. The chuppa ended up being and hour and a half, we couldn't believe it was that long but it was so beautiful no one really noticed.

Here you can see the hair vine I made and my bouquet I ended up getting. The woman who did my hair couldn't believe I made the hairpiece myself, and she wants me to sell them, she said she has a lot of brides who would be interested in a hairpiece like what I made. So I guess I have a new little side business. That's what life in Israel is all about, piecing together jobs to make up one.

There ended up being possibly 400 people at the wedding, 300 intended guests and 100 more that came to celebrate with us. We couldn't believe how many poeple were able to come it was truly amazing! There were a lot people we missed but will BE"H be seeing soon in April when we go to North America. This will be my first trip to Toronto and meeting alot of my husbands family and friends who were not able to make it to Israel for the wedding. Husband, hee hee, I still have to get used to that part. More adventures to come...

about a month to go...

I can't believe it, in two days it will be a month until my wedding! This is such an exciting time, we have been accomplishing so much in such a short time. Today we started to begin deciding on centerpieces and flowers and all that fun stuff. We are going to have centerpieces that are plants that people can take and plant. There will be a mix of herbs and flowers. This is a great way to be more environmental as well as it goes with the fact that we are getting married on Tu B'Shvat, the Birthday of the trees!

I am looking at having a bouquet of orchids. While looking for pretty bouquets I came across some really interesting bouquets and this was just one I thought was really interesting.
I will probbaly be going with something a little more like this one though.
My DIY roots are coming through...I am not so into the idea of wearing a tiara but I did want to have something in my hair. I found some really cool and amazing tiara and tiara alternatives online and many on www.Etsy.com I decided to make my own thing to wear in my hair. In my search I came across a bunch of "hair vines" so I decided to make my own out of pearl beads, I am excited to wear it, I think it am eout pretty good. I showed it to a friend of mine yesterday and she couldn't believe that I made it. Way to go DIY roots, I knew all that craftiness would pay off one day!!!

Wow 32 days to go...

unintended hiatus

Wow so I didn't mean for such a hiatus to happen but well I got engaged exactly a month ago now. It is so exciting, but it is a bit time consuming! People are right when they say planning a wedding is a full time job. All I do all day long is fill out forms, run errands, and make phone calls that have to do with the wedding. It is fun and we are enjoying the process with all its ups and downs.


Ian is adorable and I am soo happy! I knew he was going to propose when he did but I was trying to act like I didn't know. I was so anxious and nervous and I couldn't really eat when we went out to dinner. Ian seemed fine and calm. After having dinner we walked to the Old City and he took me to his favorite spot, this old ampitheatre and that was when he asked me if I would marry him and I ofcourse said "YES!"

It is truly amazing, he gave me a beautiful ring that I love so much that was his Great Aunt's and it fts me perfectly and is so much ;like the style of rings that I like, it's not yelow gold and not white gold but a more rose gold and it is old and has an antique style and is unique, and even better it has a story because it belonged to someone whom he loved. And I feel so honored to have this ring now and to be marrying Ian.

After leaving the Old City Ian said that his Rabbi wanted us to go over to his house which was fine with me because I am very very close with this family, because oif this family is how we met! But little did I know Ian had planned a surprise L'Chayim there with my close friends and his close friends and the Rabbi's family and Ian's family, his parents and sister were visiting for a family wedding. I was soo surprised I couldn't believe it. It was really amazing.

Now ever since we got engaged we have been planning our wedding. We are so excited that we are God willing getting married on Tu B'Shvat, the birthday of the trees! This is just such a great day for us and we are so excited that it is all working out. Mazal Tov!

Check out my Picasa Web Album if you want to see more pictures from our engagement!

Mazel Tovsssssssssssss

On Tuesday was Nadiva Rose's Bat Mitzvah. It was so much fun two of my friends and I were the only "adults" invited the rest were a bunch of 12 year old girls. The other too are my friends Aliza and Hillel, who just got engaged, yay mazel tov!!

The Bat Mitzvah was so much fun and I am so glad and honored that I was there. I love the Rose family they are amazing. Yesterday there was a crazy rain storm that was not expected. I was not prepared for this rain I was wearing converse a hoodie and a light jean jacket. I got drenched. Yafo street had turned into a raging river, it was insane. On my way home I was going by Michael Rose's store, JBC (Judaica Book Center) and I decided to go in to seek a little refuge. Michael saw me running towards the door and was laughing, I just walked in side and said "Help!" he just laughed at me. I hung out talking with Michael for a while then went home when the rain stopped.

Thank God for the rain, we sure need it and it gave me such an adventure.

simchat torah

yesterday was simchat torah, the Jewish holiday where we rejoice and dance with the torah as we complete the "book" and reroll it to teh beginning and begin again with breishit. it is a great holiday with so much happiness (simchah) and dancing and singing! there were hours and hours of dancing and kissing teh torah scroll and fun festive meals.
simchat torah is also a holidya that simulates a wedding and not just the dancing at a wedding it is a wedding between God and the Jewish people, where we commit ourselves to eachother and rejoice in this holy communion! God is the bride and we are the groom, this is such an interesting custom and i am not exactly sure why we are the groom and God is the bride,, maybe it is because the bride usually knows and choises the groom, but he is the one that accepts teh committment by proposing and comittimg himself to hos wife during the wedding. God has already chosen us but we need to be the ones to make the outward committment!
L'simcha!

weddings upon weddings

I have been pretty busy taking care of all the details of moving to an other country. I finally got my kupat cholim (health insurance and provider) yesterday. This was a difficult process. So things in Israel seem to never been open when you need and always seems to be closed at weird times. Those of us coming from the west are used to places being upon in semi-convenient hours and being able to take care of things online or by a phone call. Well not here in Israel. So to get my kupat cholim I first needed to go to the post office to pay a few dollars for I don't even know what and then take the receipt and this paper form the post office to the health provider of my choice. So after two days of trying to go to the post office to find it to be closed for who knows what reason. It then took me a few more days to get to teh health provider because many businesses here in Israel close at 1pm and sometimes open again at 4pm or don't open again till the next day. This is very convenient for the people working there since there is no Sunday here, the weekend is Shabbat and for those of us who celebrate this holy day it doesn't leave another day to run errands like Sunday in America.
So basically it took me a few days to find the time to get back to get health coverage but now I have it.

Activating my bank card was also a long process. I received it in the mail a few weeks ago but wasn't able to activate it. i tried to call the number and use the English section and then tried it in Hebrew. I even had my friend's husband call and try to do it for me, we just couldn't figure out what number's it was asking for so finally on a day I was able to get to the bank before it closed, the bank is open from 9-3pm Sunday-Thursday, I was able to activate it in the bank over 3 weeks later.

Besides these little odds and ends I have had a few simchas yay!! Mazal Tov!

Last night my friend Marna got married. It was such a beautiful high energy wedding. Marna looked beautiful and I loved her dress! Above is me, Aliza, and Rachael looking oh so beautiful and pregnant with the Rose girls minus Shiran.

So the day before Marna's wedding I became a shomeret. The bride and the groom have a few close friends serve as Shomrim (guards) for them. This is kind of the equivalent to Bride's Maids because we run around taking care of weddings details and entertaining the family member's and making sure the bride and groom don't see each other. Some couples don't see each other for the week before the wedding so the first time they see each other is when the groom is escorted in by all the men singing and dancing while the women surround the bride. This is a beautiful and powerful that always brings tears to my eyes.


In little over a week Shalva is getting married so we had a tichiel (scarf) party for her. Here I am showing Shalva how to tie her tichiel after she gets married. I don't know how I became the tichiel tying teacher but I did and I showed her a few different ways to do it.

This is the last tichiel of the night and it happened to be form me! If I do say so myself I tied it on her pretty nicely!

So many simchas...Mazal Tov yoyeh lanu v'lachol Yisrael!

some other people's pics

On Tuesday morning, July 22, I landed at Ben-Gurion airport and there were about 200 people that came to greet the new olim that made aliyah from North America to Israel.

There were 217 olim on the flight including 50 singles (including 23 people joining the IDF through the Garin Tzabar program) 28 families with 98 children (98 - wow!).

The youngest oleh in the group is 3 months old and the oldest oleh is 88 years old. The flight also included 4 dogs and 1 cat.

A man named Jacob that came to greet the new olim posted pictures that he took
www.jr.co.il/pictures/israel/history/2008/a322.htm

Here are some pics he took. I am in the background of a couple, that's me in the green shirt.




Frances Greenberg, the first to receive her Teudat Oleh. She was the oldest new olah and was a passenger on the famous Exodus, that was denied entry to Israel. She moved to the USA with her husband and now at 88 she says “It’s time to fulfill the dream of my youth.After 60 years, I am finally coming to Israel to stay!”

Frances on the plane shows a photograph of herself and other passengers on the Exodus on their way to Israel. Unlike with the Exodus this time she will make it to stay!


My friend Marna came to meet me and the other olim at the airport. Thanks everyone!

sleep

I am not sure if I even know what sleep is anymore. I flew to NY at midnight Saturday night meaning I arrived in NY at 8:30ish am. Spent the day with Deb and Sebastian in their new home in Port Washington, NY. I was able to sleep a bit on the plane and then took a two hour nap on Sunday. Then Sunday night I went to sleep fairly late and only slept another few hours before heading to the airport once again for my Aliyah flight. woo hoo!!!! Monday I spent the majority of the day in the airport at JFK or actually on the plane. It was pretty cool to be on a whole El Al plane where all the passenger were making Aliyah to Israel! Something very special! because the light was in the middle of the day I wasn't able to sleep, I would close my eyes and try, but nothing.
Now I am so exhausted that it is hard to keep me eyes open. I did fall asleep briefly a couple of times but I am realy trying to stay up as late as I can. It will start to get dark soon, so if I can just hold out till then it will be great! If this doesn't make sense, I blame it on the weather and the lack of sleep.
I'll write more later when I am a little more awake and can even maybe put up some pictures.