Bizzy little bees.....

Oy Vey.....we have been busy, busy, busy the last few weeks! Thus the total lack of blogging for the last month. I do apologize....I hate to leave my readers (if there are even any left!) hanging, but I just did not have the time/desire for such an event filled post. But I finally decided I must do it whether I wanted to or not and thus I must now try to condense the events of the last few weeks into a few measly paragraphs. I do this for my own sanity as well as yours. Plus I honestly don't know if I can remember what happened three weeks ago.

So let's see, last I left you I had thrown a baby shower for my dear friend Debbie and now I am happy to report that the baby has arrived! A little boy, just 7 lbs, arrived three weeks early just over a week ago. All went smoothly and both baby and mommy (and daddy too!) are doing well and settling into their new family life. So we've been trying to help out the new parents as much as possible by bringing over baked goods, delivering food, cooking them dinner and just providing company and adult conversation. And of course we just want to hold the little guy sometimes because he is just so cute and cuddly it's like he is begging to be cuddled. It's tough work, but somebody has got to do it. Right?

Ahhhhhhhhh.....that's so cute!

We have also been seriously social the last few weeks. Remember how I mentioned that all our friends had gone back to the States for vacations? Well, they all came back and since then our social calendar went from serious drought to raining cats and dogs. We've been out to dinner many many times (which of course I love because then I get a break from cooking!), out for drinks, had girls night/guys night out, had friends over for dinner, been over to other people's houses for dinner, went to a party for our favorite one year old in Israel, had visitors (more on that later) etc., etc., etc. In other words.....we've been having a great time! So great in fact that the last few weeks have flown by and now we are only 2 weeks from taking our trip back to the States. Pretty crazy. I thought the day would never come! And of course I could go on and on and on about all the reasons we are so incredibly excited to go back home for three weeks (which of course does not include the hellish 13 hour flight there plus a six hour layover plus another three hour flight!) but I am sure you can figure most of them out based on my past rants about why me no likey living in Israel!

Instead, on to our visitors. Our friend Cheryl was here for a week on business again and this time she and her co-worker brought along the husbands. So we met up with them several times at their favorite restaurants (which just so happen to be oh-so-conveniently located very close to us) and enjoyed catching up with them. Also Phil's cousin Jonathan spent a night with us and will be staying another night with us in a couple weeks right before we leave on our trip. He is in Israel for a couple months with his High School so we kidnapped him on his free day and made him hang out with the old folks! He's sixteen.....thirty is ancient at that age!!!! We were told the rules before hand by the headmaster of his school and as instructed we brought him back on time, in one piece and did not corrupt him with alcohol. I'm pretty sure they will let us have him again.

The first day we took him down to the markets....the local artists market and the crazy Shuk. (Where, it just so happens that I got sexually harassed the other day when I was there with my friend. One guy told me he loved me, one said I was much, much too beautiful and the other one? Well, let's just say that he made a really inappropriate remark about the miniature melons I was buying. 'Nough said.) Anyway, after our walk to the markets we let Jonathan relax a little while we went to Ben's 1st Birthday party. Daneka (the Mommy) and I had spent several hours the night before whipping up some delicious coconut cupcakes that a) were slightly under baked in the middle which we fixed by re-baking them, b) spread too much at the top and thus stuck to the top of the pan and had to be carefully pried loose and c) may or may not have had too much butter in them....damn those pesky conversions! Despite all this they turned out delicious and we enjoyed some time with our friends while Jonathan enjoyed some down time. And I think little Ben sure enjoyed those cupcakes!

Happy Birthday Ben!!! (Coincidentally his birthday was the same day that the other little baby was born!)

The next day we headed out of town about an hour south to a National Park called Bet Guvrin-Maresha. We were all wanting to do a little hiking and as we got a little bit of a late start this place was relatively close so it seemed like a good bet. Plus we had heard from some friends of ours that it was definitely cool and worth the trip. Basically within the park are two ancient cities (Bet Guvrin and Maresha) and the many caves that they used for working and living in. So we hiked from cave to cave and up and down many flights of stairs as we explored all the ancient cities and their caves. It was nice and cool underground which was a really nice change from the scorching heat up above. And I think the "old folks" might even have worn out Jonathan. Okay, maybe we didn't wear him out.....I think we were just taking too long to look at everything and read about it! Here is our day in pictures......

So we'll probably be quite busy the next couple of weeks. Getting ready for our trip and spending more time with friends before we leave. And of course one more visit from Jonathan. There are also several holidays the next couple weeks (in fact the whole freaking month of October is filled with them!) so Phil gets to enjoy some time off of work before we leave. Vacation before vacation. What could be better!!?!? This week is Rosh Hashanah and we have some plans with some friends who are hosting a BBQ and next week is Yom Kippur. I have a feeling everything will be closed on these days....they just love to just shut down everything here and make it virtually impossible to do anything. On Yom Kippur in fact, the roads are essentially "shut down" to all traffic. So although I don't think it is necessarily illegal to drive I think you would probably get the evil eye if you did.....unless of course it was an emergency. (Debbie was actually due on Yom Kippur so she is eternally grateful that the baby came early!) So I am quite interested to see what it is like because we heard that everybody walks and rides their bikes out on the highway. Maybe the one day out of the year you aren't likely to get plowed down by a motorcycle or a crazy driver! Well.....I take that back. Even people on bicycles drive like mad men here!