I love this time of year! In my past life (you know, before last July...) it was the changing colors of autumn that really got me, but here - oh my G-d - the sounds of hammers and drills late into the night, people dragging palm fronds across streets, etrog stands on every corner - it's so awesome!!

Rosh Hashanah was enjoyable, Yom Kippur was breathless, and now Sukkot is only two days away. David drove to work today, so when he got home I jumped in the car to run a few errands. First I stopped at our makolet (small grocery here on the yishuv) for some fresh vegetables. Shmitta started on Rosh Hashanah and I'm all fahmished trying to figure it all out. Our friend, Dov, said he wasn't sure if we could buy veggies at the grocery store I usually go to but that the veggies at the makolet were otzar beit din. So here's what I understand although it's probably not totally accurate: Otzar beit din is when the farmers make their farms ownerless, then the rabbaim hire the owners to work on the farms. They get a set salary, and since the farms are ownerless, anyone can help themselves to the produce. Heter makeira is when the farmers actually sell their land to the Arabs (or anyone other than Jews). Vegetables with the bodatz hechsher, one of the "highest" levels to look for, are vegetables bought from either Arabs or chutz l'aretz. So that means that Jewish farmers are totally out of luck during shmitta.

So, after the makolet I raced to Sha'ar Binyomin, the little shopping area at the bottom of the hill (maybe a couple of miles from the yishuv). I was afraid the stores there would already be closing, but silly me! Two nights before a major chag (holiday) they apparently stay open pretty late. First I went to the health food store to get a certain flour for my challah. This store has mostly spices. I've been looking everywhere for dry mustard and also for chili powder. The owner said he'd never been asked for chili powder before but I was the fourth person to ask within the last week so he's going to order some. In case some of you were wondering - the Lecy minhag lives on. Yes, we WILL be serving chili dogs for the first night of Sukkot! Long and not very interesting story how that minhag (tradition) came to be, and stranger still that we've continued it, but a minhag is a minhag, after all.

Next door to the health food store is a hardware store, which in Israel means they sell just about anything and everything. I got two sleeves of large plastic cups (the only place I've ever found in this country to sell anything bigger than 6 oz.) and 3 meters of thick clear plastic to put over my Sukkot tablecloth (which our good friends, Albert and Shifra, bought us on their Disney cruise some years back).

And then I walked down to the lower parking lot to the grocery store. What a balagan! The grocery carts outside had all been moved to make room for the lulav and etrog sales. People were milling around, shmoozing, checking things out, shopping. As I drove home in the dark, I enjoyed the almost-full moon in a cloudless, starry sky and the lights of several communities atop all the various hills on every side of me. I love it here! I love this time of year! I actually live in Eretz Yisrael! I am so blessed; sometimes it just seems unimaginable.

And then I got home and there was David (with his faithful helper, Emma) working on our sukkah. After analyzing every corner of our yard, my husband realized the perfect spot. It's in our front "yard" (if, indeed, one would actually use that term to describe that spot). He's using two existing stone walls that make up part of the fence that circles our yard, and since you have to walk down six or seven steps to get to our yard, the walls are pretty high. Later this evening we heard that someone was selling palm fronds up on the main street of the yishuv so we hopped in our car and went down to get some. The boys who were working there put them in through the trunk which opens up into the back seat. We moved the front passenger seat up as far as it would go, but the branches were very long and hung down on the street behind the car. David drove home slowly. He, being the stubborn - oops, I mean independent - person he is refused help from neighbors (actually, wives were volunteering their husbands, but I'm sure they would have helped) and all by his lonesome threw the palm fronds on top of the sukkah onto the beams he'd placed there earlier. It was awesome! For the first time, we have a real, authentic sukkah! And even better, it's put together two whole days before Sukkot! Pictures will be posted sometime in the future.

So now that the sukkah is up, I can breathe a sigh of relief, although not for the same reason as David. What it means, of course, is that he will now be free on Wednesday to make the chili. You see, David is secretly a really good cook. I say secretly because he's always telling me all the things he's made in the past (read: before we married over nine years ago...) and all the things he's GOING to make (for which he buys ingredients in preparation...). But there are two things I know he can make really well because he has actually really made them during the past nine years, and one of them is chili. (The other is stir-fry but I won't get my hopes up on that one because they don't sell half the ingredients here that he uses for it). So now I only have to worry about boiling the hot dogs in beer (real all-beef hot dogs which are almost impossible to find here and real Michelob Genuine Draft - is life perfect or what?) and putting all the sukkah decorations up and cleaning the house and making challah and cooking the rest of the meal - I love it! I love all the preparation! I love the anticipation!

David took off all of Chol Hamoed (the middle days of the 8 day holiday), and after tomorrow he'll have eleven days off work. Hopefully we'll figure out some fun things to do that won't be expensive because we never get to do fun things and we don't have any money. Well, I get to do fun things but David hasn't had much time off so it will be nice that we can do some things together. Now that we have a car, I'd love to take some day trips to places we've not seen yet - and that's just about everywhere outside of Yerushalayim.

I had to call the vet to come out yesterday for poor Emma. The pads on her back paws, which should have been black, were pink and she couldn't stop licking them. Dr. Doni thought it sounded like some kind of contact dermatitis. He's only come to see her once but she apparently remembered him because when he came through the gate with his two suitcases (medications and supplies for home visits), she freaked out. I thought she was going to scratch me to pieces and I could barely hold her. He hadn't even touched her yet! We thought it best to muzzle her because she snapped at him the last time he was here. After he gave her a shot of cortisone and I put her down, Emma just circled around the dining room table while we talked. Then she went to the door to be let out and oh, what a mistake that was. As soon as I let her out, she just stood outside the screen and barked and barked and barked until Dr. Doni left. Even then I couldn't quiet her. When I finally got her back in the house, she stood staring at the front door, growling every few seconds. Somehow I don't think she'll ever let him come back again which is too bad because she's due for shots in a couple of months. I'm not looking forward to that!

I didn't realize it had been so long since I last wrote. Lately I've been getting ready for Rosh Hashanah; actually, mostly worrying that I'm not doing enough to get ready for the new year.

I quit working at my transcription job. It wasn't the right job for me. It seems I need a job with more structure rather than just waiting day by day for a job to show up in my inbox and then never being able to plan activities in case something was due right away. After the chagim (holidays), I'll make a concerted effort to start looking for something better. Unfortunately, we can't afford for me NOT to work even though I have no problem staying busy 24/7 without a job. Kids are back in school and everybody's back to a routine, and I've come to the conclusion lately that I actually would enjoy getting back to going to work every day.

On Shabbos it hit me that even though we love living where we do, it's basically a community of families. There are no couples our age to socialize and share Shabbos meals with, and I've really been missing the community we left in Ramat Beit Shemesh. We have a three-day Yom Tov (holiday) coming up, and none of my friends will be here to share it with. Families with kids don't like going out for the night meals because they start so late. We invited our upstairs neighbors (they're young, French, and have three little kids) for Shabbos lunch, and I just invited another family for another lunch. This second family has two older kids in the states and three still at home, plus the husband is in computers, so hopefully we'll have a nice time. I know Rachel through Penina, and we taught her how to play mah jongg. Miryam and Shaya are going to sleep at Penina's the whole Yom Tov, and we'll probably go there for a couple of the night meals. I walked there Shabbos afternoon to play mahj before going to the late afternoon shiur (talk by one of the rabbi's wives), and walking back up the hill was HARD. There were hills in RBS, but nothing like this hill we live on. SInce I've been sitting at my computer the last few months transcribing, and also since we've had a car, and also since we now have a yard and Emma doesn't need to be walked four times a day - I have totally stopped walking and am now terribly out of shape. Someone at the shiur told me that she and a friend used to walk down to the main street and then walk all the way up to the top of hill every morning for exercise. Now that it's cooled off tremendously, I think I need to make a concerted effort to do that every day. Isn't this the time of year for new year's resolutions? And, hmmm, doesn't everyone make the resolution that they're going to get in shape?

As much as I'd like to commit to doing that, I know there are so many other ways I need to think about "getting in shape" for the new year. Like, how am I improving my middos (character traits)? How much chesed am I doing? How much time am I wasting every day? What efforts am I putting into being a better wife, a better friend, a better person? There are so many improvements I need to make and lately I've been so sluggish about doing everything. I'm leaving in about half an hour to go to the kotel (the Western or Wailing Wall). It's been months since I've been there, and I have so much to talk to Hashem about. Living here on the yishuv, all I really need to do is go to the end of my street and look all around me, and Hashem is right here. But there's something about going to that holy site in the Old City of Yerushalayim, surrounded by other yidden (Jews) that makes it really special to daven (pray) there. If I time it just right, and get on all the right buses, I can get to David's office right when he's ready to go home and we can drive home together (he took the car this morning).

שנת בראות טובה ושנת שלום A healthy year and a peaceful year!

Shabbos was so nice this week (and last week, and the week before...). Miryam called me Friday morning to say she'd just found out that our street was having a "block party" for Seudat Shlishli (the third meal of Shabbat), and that I needed to contribute some salads and a dessert. Oh, wait - let me start with Friday night.

David and I went to the Ashkenasi shul's rabbi's house. We'd been there a few weeks ago. The rabbi used to be the chavruso of someone we knew from St. Louis, and he and his wife and father-in-law (and married son, daughter-in-law and grandson who live in Beitar) were staying here in Kochav Yaakov with them for Shabbat, so they invited us as well. It was a great time; Mordechai and Jonathan go way back and had a lot of private jokes. We really like the rabbi's wife, Chanie, and it was great to see Jonathan's wife, Chanie, and her father, Perry, as well. David walked over the next morning to take Perry to Chabad; they used to daven together in St. Louis.

Our friends, Howard and Lisa, came with their kids for lunch, so Emma had a great time. She loves to lick Hudi and Chanita all over and run around with them in the yard. Miryam and Shaya came also. Unfortunately, it was in the mid-nineties and HOT. We had all the fans going at full speed and I froze a lot of ice before Shabbat. I made a fruit soup which I don't normally do, but it was kind of refreshing on a hot day. I also did something I'd seen Ellen do in Ramat Beit Shemesh; instead of cholent, I bought a huge rolled roast (I have no idea what it was other than a #17) and cooked it in the crock pot with just onions, garlic and onion soup mix. The smell Friday night and Shabbat morning was heavenly!

Around 5:15 PM David took two of our folding tables up to the street and I followed with potato salad, crunchy cole slaw, homemade chocolate chip cookies, and a few other odds and ends from lunch. Just about everyone on the street came. David went and got Shaya and Miryam's new puppy, Coco (not the same one from RBS) to play in the yard with Emma. A lot of the kids congregated in front of our fence to watch the dogs play. Everyone put their food on a couple of tables and then everyone just helped themselves. I met a new friend who lives a few doors down and across the street. Her name is Ilanit and she's a speech therapist. Her English is only slightly better than my Ivrit. She says she wants to have us for Shabbat, but the rule is that conversation will be in Ivrit and that they'll help us. I was hoping to meet someone like Ilanit! Professor Bashari and his wife kind of organized the whole block party, and he spoke at the beginning - in Ivrit, of course. Then he introduced us as the new kids on the block, and David told a little about us which the professor translated for everyone (unfortunately he didn't translate anything anyone else said for us!). Several people gave dvrei Torah (we just sat and smiled). Professor Bashari apparently has an extensive wine collection and was going from table to table pouring drinks for everyone. When the men all gathered under a street light to daven maariv, Miryam and I went over to sit with Leah, Nava and Julia - the other three English speakers on our street. After davening, someone did havdalah for all of us, and then we all gathered up our stuff and headed home. It was so nice; the feeling on the yishuv is that all of us - the French, Israeli, South Americans, North Americans, English - are one. The yishuv really promotes that feeling of אחדות (unity). I have to admit that I miss how easy it was in Ramat Beit Shemesh, like being able to know what was going on at all the shuls and in the neighborhoods because it was in English. It's so hard not to be able to read our mail or know what's going on. Miryam, Shaya and we were talking about hiring a private ulpan teacher for the four of us and anyone else on the yishuv who needs it. Otherwise, the ulpan is in Yerushalayim, and none of us have any time to go there on a regular basis.

Last Wednesday I got to go somewhere sooooo fun! A friend took me to Rimonim, which is a another yishuv close by. We took the road towards Beit El, but turned to the right almost immediately (from the entrance to the hill leading up to Kochav Yaakov). Then we just drove through the most beautiful countryside you could ever imagine. Everything was stark; we drove around desert hills on a nice highway - I can't even describe the beauty to you. Next time I'll bring my camera. It was a little disconcerting to see white and green license plates on the road with us, especially when there weren't so many vehicles on the road. My friend pointed out that there are many Arab villages and beduoin tent cities in this part of the "Shtakim" (territories), and there was at least one sign commemorating the site where a settler was murdered by Arabs.

Okay, but now the good part. We got to Rimonim in about 15 minutes. They had the most beautiful, refreshing swimming pool! It's the first time this summer I've had a chance to go swimming. There are different hours for men, women, and mixed swimming. We were practically the only women there for the first hour or so. The pool was HUGE and clean and sparkling, and the view from the hill was spectacular. There was a covered children's pool, and all kinds of other recreational activities. It's probably best not to mention that I could barely swim one lap before I thought I would drown, but I did built up my endurance somewhat while I was there. While my friend swam lap after lap (show off!) I did all the water aerobics I could remember from about 20 years ago when I took a class. And I only sat out in the sun for a total of 15 minutes but of course it was enough that I got a slight burn. The Israeli sun is like no other place in the world, and being on the top of a gorgeous hill - the feeling of closeness to Hashem is just overwhelming. Lately I've been stressing over the problems of family members back in chutz l'aretz, but lying out there in the sun and feeling Hashem's warmth enveloping me, all I could do was say, "Thank you, thank you, thank you" over and over. I am so blessed. I just can't believe that He's showered me with so much abundance. So maybe air conditioning would be nice, but I sure wouldn't trade it for living here. Not that I would ever, ever give up living here (b'li neder), unless it could, in some way, help my sons and nieces and nephews be happy, healthy and productive. But that's all in Hashem's hands as well.

David will be home from work any minute. I'd better go get supper going.

These are my kiddies! That's Charles (2) and Zoe (6) in the top pictures, and the bottom one is me with my sons, Nathan (l) and Jared (r). Charles and Zoe belong to Jared. If you want to know the truth, Zoe really belongs to me. When I went to see them on my trip to the states, Zoe wouldn't stop hugging me before I left. She told me, "I miss you, Nana." She knows how to tug on the heartstrings! It was so hard to leave her again. At least I got to see them twice; Nathan and I drove down to see them once each of the two weeks I was there. Jared lives about three hours outside of St. Louis. On the last visit we went to Petco to see all the animals (you name it -- kitties, rodents, snakes, lizards, spiders, birds and fish) and then to Wal-Mart where we got all of Zoe's school supplies and even a dress to wear on her first day of first grade. Then the kids went swimming in their nice-sized wading pool. It was a hundred degrees; I pulled up my skirt a little and got in with them.

The whole time I was in St. Louis the temps hovered around 100 degrees. Nathan's car had no air conditioning, but the friends I was staying by let me use their car -- which used to be my car; they bought it from me a few years back. Sweet! They didn't want Nathan driving it, though, and his car wasn't in the best shape for long distance driving (especially in the heat), so we rented a car the second time we went to see Jared's family. Unfortunately, the rental company called late in the afternoon to see how the car was working out for us. I say unfortunately because they used the number I had given when I registered online for their rental club, which was our St. Louis number that rings at our home in Israel. Which is eight hours ahead of St. Louis time. Which woke David up from a sound sleep when he had to run to the salon in the dark to answer it. Which didn't make him happy.

It wouldn't have been so bad if that had been the only time it happened. On one of the nights I was in St. Louis, I went with my friend, Lori, to the Muny Opera to see Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. Someone had given her great tickets. I normally don't like musicals (strange, huh?) but it was a great performance, even in the heat. I kept thinking I couldn't forget to call David. I was calling him twice a day while I was in the states so he could share in what I was doing; noon (8 PM his time) and 10 PM (6 AM the next day his time). I called him before the show started, at 8, thinking that was the regular time, and when he answered I immediately started raving about how we got to park right in front of the Muny in the guarantor's lot and how we had box seats and how much fun it was. He finally interrupted me sleepily and asked, "Do you realize it's 4:00 in the morning?" Stunned, I realized what I'd done. "Oh," I said sheepishly. "Never mind."

The flight to St. Louis was pretty uneventful. I had an aisle seat at the end of a section which I had thought would be good because the שירותים (bathrooms) were right behind my seat and I could stand comfortably behind my seat when my tush got tired of sitting, but it seemed the seats in that particular row didn't tilt back except for an inch or two. I knew I had to sleep on the flight because I would be getting into St. Louis (with a quick stop in Atlanta) at 8:05 in the morning. So when they offered wine with the first meal, I drank it along with a couple of Benedryls. Normally I don't sleep at all on planes, but I think I that might have done the trick. I slept about five hours off and on on the 12 1/2 hour flight, which felt great.

The fun thing about the flight was that the plane had state-of-the-art video equipment. On the back of every seat is a personal video screen for the seat behind. It was a touch screen, and the options were tv shows, movies, HBO ($2 a show), music or games. Each one of those options had many, many choices. There were at least 20 different movies on the movie channel, and you could start each one whenever you wanted. You could even pause it. The music station had at least three or four choices in each genre. I fell asleep with slow jazz playing in my headphones.

The big event while I was there was Malky's bat mitzvah. This was a bat mitzvah celebration unparalleled in modern history. It began on Thursday night and ended on Monday morning for all the out of town guests. Malky's parents are Albert, my officer manager at Aish who I worked with for ten years, and Shifra, one of my "best" friends and mahj partner for ten years. Malky is a special girl who makes friends wherever she goes. She told her parents that she wanted ALL her friends at her celebration, and they were happy to comply. You see, as Albert said (what Shifra wrote) on the video they played on Sunday morning, they were told when they adopted their daughter over eleven years ago that Malky had "special needs." What no one knew at the time was how much Malky would flourish with such "special" parents; that the nurturing and love and attention she received from them would truly make her special. Malky knows what a stranger is; she's just never met one. Everyone who's come into her life, from her teachers and aides and classmates to the firemen at the fire stations her Doda Lynda takes her to, to the people who work at the Jewish Community Center, to the many clerks at the mall she visits regularly - is a friend for life. Approximately 200 people came to Malky's kiddush and twice that number came to her carnival celebration the following morning at a downtown hotel. It's equally a tribute to Albert and Shifra as it was to Malky that so many people wanted to be a part of the celebration. I was grateful that I could be there.

(The secondary benefit was that I could see so many people that I wanted to see all at once!)

The third best thing about going "back" to the states (first being seeing my sons/grandchildren and second participating in the bat mitzvah) is that I got to PLAY MAH JONGG WITH MY GROUP. It was so nice for the four of us - Shifra, Lynda, Barb and myself - to play together again. Barb could only play one night the first week because she had to get her father home to South Dakota, but the other three of us played again the second week and the last Shabbos afternoon I was there. It felt so comfortable - and comforting.

The really wierd thing about going back was that it sometimes seemed the previous twelve months hadn't occurred; that I was simply in a time warp where I went to bed one night and when I woke up the next morning all the kids in the community got a whole lot older and bigger! Plus new houses and buildings that were being constructed when I left were suddenly finished. So it was kind of like being in the Twilight Zone, you know? Also, I fit in - but I didn't quite fit in. I just really, really want all my family and friends to move to Israel! That would be really, really cool! Really!

David passed his driving test this morning and he'll get his license within a week. Yea! The process for getting it is so long and drawn out. Hopefully they'll call me soon so I can have my test. It took all of ten minutes, if that long, David said. Oh, I have a great picture I want to post. After I end this post, I'll just add a lot of pictures. I figured out how to upload all the pictures in my camera to the computer (okay, fine - David told me how to do it).

Oh, but don't go away yet; I have to tell you one more story! This is really crazy. Late Sunday night, early Monday morning (2 AM), Emma started licking me and wagging her tail. I just thought, why does she want to go outside now? She never wants to go out in the middle of the night. I just rolled over and went back to sleep. I sort of felt her jump off the bed as I drifted back off. All of a sudden, there was screeching, the likes of which no one should ever have to hear. I thought something weighing 2 tons had fallen on her or else someone had an axe and was chasing her around the house. David and I both jumped out of bed and went running to the salon. David switched on a light, and we saw a cat hunched up against the patio door and Emma hysterically screeching (it's the only word I can think of to describe it) at her. David tried to grab the dog and the cat ran past us - and out the open front door!! Now I always check to make sure the front door's locked before I go to bed; I must have forgotten Sunday night. But for sure it wasn't ajar. That cat must have jumped on the door hand and opened the front door! David thinks it's the cat who used to live here. She had gotten in our trash can and there were chicken bones on the floor. It was pretty wierd. I'm surprised the upstairs neighbors didn't ask us about it the next morning; I thought the whole yishuv must have heard Emma. Baruch Hashem, she may be small but she's a great watch dog!

Okay, I think I can safely end this now. There's more I can say (isn't there always?) but it can wait until the next installation of A Mahjer Makes Aliyah and Has Wierd Experiences in the Holy Land. 'Nuff said.

I couldn't resist adding a few more pictures. The one just above I titled "It's a hard life." That's Emma taking a snooze with her daddy on a bed in the guest room. All that fresh air blowing in the window, I guess...

The picture in the middle is the view from the back end of our street (remember, we're the highest street in Kochav Yaakov) looking down the hill. You can see another settlement on the hilltop in the background (it's an Arab one, I believe). There are all kinds of settlements on top of all the surrounding hills.

And the top picture is looking down our street at the houses. Ours is on the left side, behind the 2nd car (not ours). You can barely see it, but there's a staircase from the second floor to the street. And at the far end of the street, if you look closely, there are apartment buildings in the distance. That's Telzion, which is also on our yishuv.

Maybe I'll post some more pictures tomorrow.

I have so much to do in the next couple of days; I leave for St. Louis on Monday. Between making sure the house is cleaned, the laundry's done, David has all the provisions he needs, my clothes get ironed, arrangements made for the dog, and a myriad of little details - plus making sure I don't forget anything, I'm a little stressed. I really hate the flight, but I'm looking forward to going and seeing everyone. My grandson won't even know me; he was only 11 months old when I left last year. I got him and his sister, Zoe, huge, colorful towels with their names monogrammed on them. I probably should have gotten my sons presents as well, but money's pretty tight.

The past few days have been excruciatingly HOT. Even though we have ceiling fans and floor fans, it's just been horribly uncomfortable. We decided today that we're going to have to get air conditioning. Even though people are saying this is an unusually hot summer, I just don't think I can live with this heat. Even Emma has been panting and sleeping under one of the beds in the guest room. I gave her some ice cubes throughout the day and she licked them up in no time. David and I had lunch together and then I walked down the hill to Penina's to play mahj with her and her mother and daughter. They have a window air conditioner in their salon and it felt so good! I think that one of the medications I take says that I shouldn't be in heat while on it, so I think that justifies the cost of the ac. Not that we need to justify it, but our cash supply is dwindling fast.

David has decided to start taking the bus to work instead of driving. Gas has been costing us around 300 NIS a week which really adds up. It's over $6 a gallon here. David is still on crutches but he sees the doctor tomorrow and hopefully he won't need them anymore. His knee has been feeling much better the last few days so we're hoping it's healing finally. It's been almost two months, so it's about time. He's felt pretty handicapped and is itching to start using his rather extensive tool collection to build things for the house. The gate he built is really beautiful; he bought some green paint to make it the same color as the fence. Our landlord should be pretty happy with all the improvements we're making to the place, although I have to admit that we hope they decide not to come back and eventually sell the house to us.

I can't forget to take all my notes from ulpan to hone up on the plane. My friends in St. Louis are going to think I'm proficient in Ivrit when in fact, I haven't had any pressure to be speaking it and have forgotten most of what I've learned except for the basics.

I probably won't get a chance to write again until I get back the middle of August so this may be it for awhile. !להתראות

As of last Friday, we have been Israeli citizens for a WHOLE YEAR! Is that totally amazing or what? I am so very grateful to Hakodesh Baruch Hu for making it possible for me to be here. And also for our friends (all over the world) and our family and our home and our puppy and our car and our parnassah and our health -- we may not have much money left but we are so wealthy, it amazes me! I don't particularly enjoy hearing gunfire and firecrackers nearly every night from neighboring Arab villages, but I love this yishuv and our life here.

Let's recap the last week's events.

Last Monday, my neighbor across the street, Miryam, and I took David to work and then went to a women's writing seminar in Har Nof. It was a really nice day; the speakers were wonderful and gave over a lot of useful information.

On Thursday afternoon I took a bus from Kochav Yaakov into town. I left the house at 4, intending to take the 4:10 PM bus, but no bus showed up until 5:30. Apparently a bus broke down, but I'll never know because everyone else waiting at the bus stop found out what happened and were telling each other -- in Ivrit, of course. A lot of people "tremped" (hitched) rides, which is very common here, but I stuck it out. David and I were meeting Tzi and Toby from Ramat Beit Shemesh at The Red Heifer for dinner at 7. We've been wanting to eat real steaks since we got here, and boy, did they have good ones! Tzvi also offered me a job while we were there. He's director of one of the Aish learning programs for women and while I would love the job, I don't really want to work full time. He wants me to work 9-5 Sunday through Thursday. I wouldn't have time to do anything else! When I get back from St. Louis I'll go in and speak with him and we'll see what we can work out. It sounds like something I would enjoy and be good at and he even said I could bring Emma as there's a yard in back! But I think she would be a pain and want a lot of my attention; she'd be better off at home. I'm not going to think about the job yet.

While we were in Yerushalayim, we got two Shabbos invitations by phone! David and I had planned to have two quiet meals at home on Shabbos and then go to a neighbor's down the street for Seudat Shlishi, but apparently people here decide on Thursday nights to invite guests. So on Friday night we went to the home of the Ashkenasi rabbi. The rabbi's wife is very personable. After we benched, David and I sat speaking with her for a long time. Four of their kids were there; the oldest three are married. The two older girls at the table (post high school age) couldn't stop giggling and laughing; they were so cute! The rabbi learns a perek of Mishlei with his family every Friday night and we enjoyed listening to them learn together.

For Shabbos lunch, we walked to the totally opposite corner of the yishuv to the most beautiful house. Deena, the wife, also works for the transcription company I work for, and her husband, Jordan, is the brother of someone we knew in RBS who went to our shul. They added rooms to their house when they bought it and it was so lovely. Their kitchen was double size; one side was fleishig, half the other side was dairy and the other half parve. Three separate sinks, 2 refrigerators, two stoves and two dishwashers, plus six bedrooms upstairs. I tried really hard to stuff that green envy stuff way down in my innards... They were such nice people and their children were so cute. How is it that each family we meet is nicer than the one before?

After lunch we came home and rested for awhile, and then Lisa, Miryam, Penina and Penina's daughter, Rochel, came over for a couple hours of mahj. We would have played longer, but David and I had been invited to an early Seudat Shlishli. Julia and Eliyahu had a funky house (they decorated their kitchen with really cool cabinets from Ikea) and some little, active kids. We stayed there a long time talking.

The English speakers in the yishuv are really close with one another, maybe because there are so few of us. Last night I actually hosted a women's Rosh Chodesh program. It was called for 8:30 PM but no one started showing up until about 8:40, and then they just trickled in. By 9:15, thirteen women had showed up, which was good because I made a lot of refreshments. The speaker was great; she spoke about women and the Mikdash, and it was sort of interactive with everybody throwing in their two shekels worth. Afterwards they stayed for awhile and ate and talked. I'm getting familiar with the faces now that I'm meeting more people. Baruch Hashem! Poor David was stuck in his office with Emma for a couple of hours; I think he fell asleep in his chair.

Emma seemed to need a change of scenery this evening, so I took her out on the leash for maybe the second time since we moved here. We walked to the end of our street (we're the fourth house from the end) where there's an open fence leading to higher up on the hill. I can't believe I hadn't gone up there before now. The view was spectacular! You could see hillside after hillside with small settlements on them (mostly Arab). I can't wait to take my camera there tomorrow. In fact, we haven't taken any pictures here yet. I'm waiting for David to have some time to hang up three curtain rods for me so I can hang the curtains I bought, and that's really the last thing I have to do on the inside of the house. The women last night couldn't believe we were totally moved in already. Some of them said they still have stuff in boxes after living here for a long time. I like to feel moved in as soon as possible. It definitely feels like home now!

It's just so wonderful to be living in Eretz Yisrael. I was supposed to take a bus into town this morning with Penina and we were going to spend the whole day there shopping, but I had a bit of a stomach bug. Hopefully we'll go later in the week.

Th -- th -- th -- that's all, folks!

What a great Shabbos this week! We were invited to a family two streets down for dinner last night -- quite an experience. She's from the States, he's from England and their five kids (ages 10 and under) are all sabras. We realized when we got there that we should have worn earplugs! The kids were all extremely cute and really, really loud. When you don't live with little kids it's hard to get used to the noise level that a lot of little ones make. But they were all very sweet and we enjoyed ourselves.

Today we had three families for lunch; there were fourteen of us. Lest you think I misled you about the size of our dining room, let me assure you that we could never fit fourteen people in that room. On Friday David put up a tarp from outside our front door, connected to the wall on one side and to the top of the fence on the other side. Then we set up a six foot and an eight foot table and put fourteen chairs around it. We couldn't put a tablecloth on because of the wind. Before lunch today David had to wrap twine around the table to keep the tablecloth on. We set the food up inside buffet style. We had such a good time! Miryam and Shaya across the street, our friends Lisa and Dov and their two sweetie pie children, and Pnina and Pinchas and their four teenagers all came. Pnina made extremely delicious challahs and also brought some lavender sorbet that she had made (from lavender that grows wild in the yishuv). David had asked me to make Mediterranean dishes from a cookbook he'd given me, and I have to admit that I had a pretty good spread: 3 kinds of shnitzel (honey-mustard, plain with spices, and cornflake coated), stuffed whole peppers (with couscous), sweet 'n sour baby onions, avocado/orange/tomato salad (without the avocados because they were still hard as a rock after sitting in a paper bag all week), really good eggplant salad, crunchy cabbage salad (okay, not everything came from the same cookbook), and some other things. It was unfortunately hotter than the forecast predicted, but I think I was the only one "glowing" because I was running in and out of the house so much.

After lunch the menfolk left, and Miryam, Pnina, Pnina's daughter and I taught Lisa how to play mah jongg. At 5:30 we went to a women's shiur very close by. That's really the only learning in English for the women on the yishuv and I've been wanting to go but it's been so hot since we moved here. Okay, fine. The אמת (truth) is that David and I have been playing mah jongg with Miryam and Shaya on Shabbos afternoons, but hopefully we'll play earlier in the day so we (the girls) can get to the shiur. There were about 15 women there and I knew 3 or 4 of them from visiting the yishuv before we moved here. Hopefully we'll get some more Shabbos invitations now. All of the women were close to my age and very friendly. I think meeting more of the English-speaking families who live here will help us feel more at home here.

Miryam and Shaya joined us for Shalosh Seudas, as they've done every week since we moved here. It's so nice to have friends right across the street.

Did I mention that Rusty came over to play with Emma today (the dog who weighs 150 pounds) and after he left, Choko (Pnina & PIncha' dog) came over. Choko is more Emma's size and they had a great time running around the yard and house. Something tells me Emma is going to sleep really well tonight!

As I'm sitting here, I'm listening to fireworks in Ramallah. This is the third night in a row. On Thursday night it went on for at least four hours, and you could hear music and shouting, and some of the noise could have been gunshots. They were talking about it at the shiur today. Apparently there are a lot of weddings there, and they shoot off guns and firecrackers. As long as they're not lynching Jews, I guess I can live with it.

Have a great week!

I've been told that my font size has been too tiny so I've moved it up a notch. Is this better?

Happy 4th of July! And Happy 27th birthday to my older son! I spent practically two whole days trying to find him a present online. All he wanted was $$$ but I'm fresh out of that these days. Besides, I wanted to get him something just for him; not for his family. In the end he got a cookbook. He enjoys cooking and is good at it, so I hope he likes it. I haven't gotten in touch with him yet. With the 8 hour time difference and him working nights, I have to wait until it's late at night for me to call and be able to reach him when he's not working or sleeping.

And we actually had a 4th of July celebration here today. The transcription company I work for invited all the employees to a baseball game and BBQ. This is the first year Israel has had a national baseball league. The baseball park we went to (one of three in Israel) looked literally like the one in the movie Field of Dreams with Kevin Costner. It was way off the beaten path, near a kibbutz called Gezer, in the middle of nowhere surrounded by wheat fields. We watched the Modi'in Miracles beat the Netanya Tigers 6-1 in a crushing defeat. Our office manager did a great job of setting everything up. We and our families (David couldn't take off work so he didn't get to be there) got one set of bleachers to ourselves. Thank G-d there was a tarp over it because it was pretty warm today. We all got vouchers for one free ice (like a popsicle) and one free bag of chips. Our company also brought bottles of soda and water for us. After the game, when all the other spectators had left, we had lunch sponsored by Burgers Bar, a well-known chain of restaurants here in Israel, consisting of burgers, hot dogs, grilled chicken fillets, fries and onion rings. Then whoever wanted to get on the baseball field got out there with some of the players who had stayed and played a little ball. They had a clown there all afternoon for the kids who painted their faces, made balloon animals, read them stories, did some arts & crafts with them, and played with them on those huge blow-up things that the kids go inside of and jump around on. So, all in all, it was a very nice day!

Earlier this week we had another first, although one I could do without. Someone we knew from St. Louis was נפתר (died) at the end of last week, and her husband and family flew with the body to Israel to bury her. The plane landed at Lod Airport near Tel Aviv at around 7 PM on Monday night and the לוויה (funeral) took place at 9:30 PM in Yerushalayim. It was nice to see so many St. Louisans there; people who just happened to be in Israel visiting as well as people who live here now, who were able to be there with the family. The family then got on a plane the next morning to go back to St. Louis to sit shiva. I can't even imagine how exhausted they must have been, flying for pretty much 36 hours with little more than half a day here inbetween.

What amazes me so much here is the "connectedness" we all feel. Even meeting all my fellow employees today (we all work from home so it's the first time most of us have ever met), we all spoke with someone who knew someone we knew. For instance, there was an older couple there who have lived in Israel for several years whose son and daughter-in-law had lived in St. Louis for a short time, and I knew the young couple when they were in St. Louis. Another person who had been at the training session several months ago was originally from St. Louis and is even related to a good friend of mine. I could give you example after example, and it happens every time we go anywhere. A couple weeks ago David and I were sitting at the license bureau and met the sister of a rabbi who had worked with me at Aish in St. Louis. It's like being part of one family that reaches across the globe.

It looks like I'll be making a two week trip to St. Louis at the end of the month. It's not that I want to leave my home and it's not that I feel an urge to see the good 'ole US of A again. But I miss my boys and my granddaughter, and my grandson turns two this month and I haven't seen him since he was 11 months old. And the daughter of my close friends is having one heck of a bat mitzvah celebration. And I do feel the need to see all my friends and play mah jongg with my group and even to get a Slurpee. I think leaving Ramat Beit Shemesh even after only being there a year was kind of traumatic for me, after just leaving St. Louis a year ago. I think I'm the kind of person who likes roots; I need to feel settled. Packing and unpacking, and then packing and unpacking again eleven months later... As much as I've grumbled, I see that Kochav Yaakov is a good place for us to live and a good fit for us. And yet, the move was overwhelming for me. Now that the unpacking is finished, it's time to find new doctors, new pharmacy, new hardware store, new places to buy all the things we need. I had just figured out where to do all those things in Beit Shemesh, but living here, one has to go into Yerushalayim for most things, so it's time to figure it all out all over again. I don't want to do this time after time! In Beit Shemesh we had that "softer landing" -- many things were in English, like the phone book and advertisements. Here it's all in עברית (Hebrew). We can't read a single thing in our mailbox. Obviously we'll be forced to learn the language quicker, but it's very isolating not to understand a lot of what's going on. At least we're meeting people in the same boat we are, so I don't feel quite as alone as I did a month ago. I just have to give it time. Baruch Hashem there are English speakers here, and people our age, and we have a car. Baruch Hashem for so many things! Our health, our ability to pay our bills, our cute little Emma, our computers, our yard, etc., etc., etc. So many, many things to be grateful for! I know I'm going off on tangents, but I think I'm giving myself some חיזוק (reinforcement?) here. Okay, let me think this over for a few minutes and try to rephrase what I think I've been saying.

(brain working overtime ... okay, just working)

So here it is: I'm going back to something familiar for a couple weeks to give myself some נוח (strength) to get through this point in my life. There it is, David. I didn't understand it myself until I wrote it all out. I know you'll need to do this, too, when the time is right for you.

Did I mention that next week I'm going to another writing seminar? Miryam (who lives across the street from me) is going with me. There will only be about 35 women there this time, and it will be more writing than listening to speakers. I'm looking forward to it.

We're having guests for the first time this Shabbos. Last week we went out for dinner and lunch, and this week we're invited out for dinner, but we're having twelve people for lunch. Unfortunately, our salon won't hold more than eight, and that's pushing it, so we're going to set up tables outside. David is going to put up a tarp so we'll have some shade. We invited the family who lives here that we know from St. Louis (four of them), Shaya and Miryam from across the street (that's two), and their daughter and son-in-law and four teenagers (six altogether), so it should be an fun afternoon. David wanted everything I made to come from a Mediterranean cookbook he had given me, so we're going to have some rather interesting dishes. Miryam's daughter, Pnina, plays mah jongg (as do all four of her kids). Actually, Miryam, Pnina and Rochel are coming over tomorrow for a game or two. At least it only took a month to get a group together here as opposed to about three months in RBS. Yea!

Well, David's been asleep for awhile now and Emma is asleep on the bed behind me (my desk is in the guest room), so I think it's about time to get there myself. A handyman's coming in the morning to put up our ceiling fans which should help with the heat. See you next time!

So many things to catch up on!

We're mostly unpacked. Let me rephrase that: I'm unpacked. One of us has an awful lot of boxes of computer and electronic parts with nowhere to put them. The house we're renting is MUCH smaller than the apartment we left (I may have already mentioned that) and we've been really creative in finding all kinds of nooks and crannies to put things. But David's office/Beis Medrash (the third bedroom) has bookshelves on 2 1/2 walls crammed with seforim (religious books), a window on the other half wall, and an aron (wardrobe/closet) on the fourth wall that has his clothes and also a couple shelves of some of his computer stuff. But there really isn't any more room to put the rest of it. The shed we bought outside is packed. David's solution is to buy another shed, but we're spending what little savings we have left at an alarming rate and another shed is not a priority.

We wanted to put in a patio outside the sliding doors of the salon, until we heard how much it would cost. Right now the whole yard is just dirt. We paid 700NIS (about $175) to have all the weeds pulled; there was never any grass. And then we paid 1000NIS (about $250) to have the yard (on the side of the house facing the street) be leveled, then covered with plastic, then covered with little white pebbles so we could put the shed on top of it. We've spent another several hundred dollars buying cabinets, shelves and closests, and having pictures and shelves hung. It's a lot of money to put into a place we're only renting, especially since the landlord told us that when his wife finishes nursing school in 4 years they'll be moving back (I need to daven that she gets a really juicy job offer in Haifa or Tel Aviv or Netanya -- somewhere so far away they'll have to sell the house!). So we probably won't put in a patio, even though the landlord (he's very sweet) said he'd pay half by taking it off the last month's rent, and we probably won't grow grass which is problematic right now anyway since the shmitta year starts in September (there's a 7 year cycle that the Torah commands in which we don't work the land every 7th year in Israel. Hashem promises us that there will be plenty of agricultural goods in the 6th year to tide us over through the 7th and even into the 8th when we begin planting again. It mostly pertains to fruits and vegetables, but there are laws pertaining to lawns and gardens as well).

Another big ticket item is an air conditioner. It almost hit 100 degrees today and we have no air conditioning. Apparently there are all kinds of tricks people employ, like keeping the treesom closed (kind of like heavy duty outside blinds that all windows have) and running fans in all the rooms. Even Emma slept all afternoon. It should be a little cooler tomorrow; it's only supposed to be 90! I really don't want to spend the money, although it would be something we could take with us if we have to move.

Sorry, Mike -- we haven't taken any pictures yet. First we have to get more settled and get everything in place. I may be a little reluctant because it's not as pretty here as it was where we lived before. It's hard to explain: Kochav Yaakov is attractive in other ways that Ramat Beit Shemesh isn't; private homes for example, instead of apartments. I'm just feeling a little isolated in a place where most people speak only Hebrew, and all the notes and newsletters we get in our mailbox are unreadable. Lots of kids come over to play with Emma, but they ask lots of questions and I haven't the foggiest idea what they're saying. There was a certain comfort level in Ramat Beit Shemesh. Even though everyone came from all over the world (all over the US, Canada, England, South Africa, Australia), we at least spoke the same language for the most part. And it was the only city in Israel where the phone book was printed in both Ivrit and English. There's an email list for the English speakers here -- we just met very few people yet. David's still on crutches plus the heat's been horrific, so we haven't been to shul yet; they're down the hill and we're up on top.

The good thing is that we met a couple across the street from us, from Baltimore, and we've been spending at least 2 out of 3 meals together for Shabbos since we've moved here. Shaya and Miryam are just a little older than us, and of the English speakers on the yishuv, were the only older couple here. Their daughter and her family made aliyah about 6 months ago and live down at the bottom of the hill, so they have family here. This past Shabbos we ate lunch by them, then we all took naps at our respective homes (it's nice to age gracefully, isn't it?), then they came over and the four of us actually played mah jongg until Shabbos was over! Shaya remembers his mother letting him play when she had her group over (up until the time he was ten), and Miryam also played a long time ago. So this week was just reacquainting them with the game. I seriously doubt that David will want to play mahj every Shabbos, but I'll take it as long as I can get it! Miryam's daughter is in the states right now, but she wants to play when she returns, so we just have to find a fourth for a weekly game.

Okay, let's move on to the less mundane topics! I've wanted to write about this for a week and I'm just now getting around to it (did I ever tell you that my former husband's father once gave him a "round tuit" to carry around, so he would never have an excuse for not doing something? Didn't work...).

Anyway, David and I went to a wedding a week ago tonight that was so unbelievably breathtaking it's going to be hard to explain it. The choson (groom) is the brother of one of my son's closest friends. In fact, they have a whole group of friends from St. Louis and NCSY, and later from all their various yeshivot, and the boys (young men) have stayed close and in touch. So I knew many of the guys that were at the wedding, not to mention the choson's mother who came from St. Louis. My son, unfortunately, couldn't make it, which was the only thing that marred the event.

The kallah is a baali teshuva (she "returned" to her roots) within the last couple years or so. Both of them had been going to a yeshiva in Bat Ayin, a settlement in Gush Etzion just south of Yerushalayim. I don't know if my description of Bat Ayin can do it justice, or even if it's very accurate -- it's just my perception of what this little place is. I would have to say that it's comprised of some very special, young, laid-back individuals who would have been very comfortable living in the hippie world of the 60's. It sounds as if the rebbeim have made many shidduchim (matches) between the young ladies and young men attending their (separate for each) yeshiva. This particular choson will be getting smicha (becoming a rabbi) in about three years, and is part of the kollel there. The married couples are given caravans (trailers) to live in, and they're all so caring about each other. It was so beautiful to see this exquisite kallah giving all of her friends beautiful and heartfelt brachot for their own futures, and to hear these young people praise Hashem over and over, and to hear the enthusiasm as they poured out their love for each other and for Yiddishkeit. What special rabbis they must have there! The chupah was held outside under the stars, on a hillside overlooking the lights of Bat Ayin, and Beitar in the distance. I felt so close to my Creator there! And when the dancing started, and the singing, David and I looked at each other with tears in our eyes and felt that here was the future of our people. It was an evening so heimish, so full of emotion, so full of love. Earlier when the choson came to the bride for the bedeken, no one could breathe as the kallah was so overcome watching her choson walk toward her with a smile on his lips. The Rav finally had to take the choson by the arm and lead him to the chupah, or we would all still be standing there!

Last night we were invited to the last sheva bracha in Ramot. It was at the house of another one of my son's friends and his very sweet wife. We didn't even start until 11:30 PM since it was the longest Shabbos of the year. Again we ate outside and the apartment had an unobstructed view of the entire city of Yerushalayim. How beautiful is this country we've chosen as our home! We didn't get home until almost 2. This morning I drove David to work and then, for the first time, I drove alone into Yerushalayim. I went to pick up Caren, the choson's mother. The plan was to take her to see Ramat Beit Shemesh because she goes back to St. Louis tomorrow, but it seemed that Hashem needed another one of those "I need a good laugh" days. By the time I navigated the right streets to pick Caren up at her hotel and then tried to figure out how to get out to highway 1, and getting stuck in some really nasty traffic, it was too late to go that far. So we just went into Givat Shaul and walked around Kanfei Nesharim and Defus, two streets with lots of stores. It was basically just someplace to walk and talk before we had to say goodbye.

It was so nice to have a friend from St. Louis come. Of course, she was very busy with her sons and the wedding and meeting her son's new family and going on all kinds of tiyulim (field trips), but we still got to see quite a bit of each other.

My company isn't giving me much work; I think summers are kind of slow. I've been giving some thought to maybe going back to the organization I sort of worked for a couple of times over the past year, that raises money to feed hungry Israelis. I'm much closer to the office now, and I could drive in with David and then just take a short bus ride down Shmuel Hanavi. We definitely could use the extra money.

Although -- I'm going to another one-day writer's workshop on July 9 in Har Nof. Leah, the woman organizing it, feels that if I get the right training I could make money by writing a couple of articles each month. I would love to do that! I play around mostly with autobiographical stuff; I don't know how I'd do with non-fiction. Wait -- does that mean my life is fiction? What I meant to say is that I don't want to have to research stuff to write about it. Or maybe I do; who knows? We'll see how the workshop goes.

I'm up pretty late for having had about 3 1/2 hours of sleep last night. Emma seems to like our new arrangement here in our new home. My computer is now in the guest room; it's the only place for it. So she has her pick of either twin bed to sleep on while I'm typing. Sleep on the floor? Not for our princess! She seems to have attached herself to my hip. Emma won't go to bed when her daddy goes to bed; she has to wait for me. If I leave for five minutes or five hours, she acts as if I've been gone for a year. Oh! If I had forgotten to write this, I'd be in really big doggie doo-doo - bigger than Emma's, anyway. On Friday, David spent his ENTIRE day off building a really nice gate to keep Emma in the yard. Our little hussy's been sneaking out to visit Rusty across the street. Let me explain something: Emma is about 10 pounds - wet. Rusty is somewhere in the neighborhood of 150. He's very gentle, but one overexuberant swipe of his paw would put Emma in traction (or worse) for a year!

So now I can let her out in the mornings and not worry that the wind blew down the board we had up. We still have to paint the gate, but it's a really cool shape; pointed at the top with vertical slats, and one long diagonal one. My eyes won't stay open and I can't stop yawning. Could that mean something?