New beginnings

Back to blogging after a long break. I guess you could say that I'm running on the Israeli calendar where nothing really gets done until 'after the chaggim'.
Or maybe I'm just being lazy...
Either way, it's been a long time.
Some bullet points to summarize our activities these past 2 months or so...

-Our move went smoothly in the end. The movers were hard-working and fast.
-I passed the driving test, white knuckles and all.
-Kids started school and slid right in, no hard adjustments...just 3 happy little heads-held-high marching into the gans.
-Rich's mom came for a visit and generously helped us 'iron out' some kinks in the house...she also did a lot of laundry and dishes :) and we had a great time with her at the beach and zoo. Our guest room is now known as "Bubby's room" :)
-This past Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippor were the first in a few yrs that I was able to go to shul, thanks to the planning of a few friends who organized a rotation with a few moms, allowing everyone 2 hr chunks of freedom from the kids.
-Our sukkah took about 5 minutes to build, thanks to the 3+ walls that make up our porch and the pergula we had built during the renovations of the house. Rich just had to slap on the schach. Talk about a great holiday!
-Had a huge Chanukat HaBayit (Housewarming) party on the first day of Chol HaMoed. Lot's of great people stopped by from the neighborhood, and a couple of ex and current Baltimoreans as well. House was still standing by the end, which was all we were hoping for!
-Thanks to the generosity of Rich's dad, we spent Chol HaMoed Shabbat and Sun. in Eilat. Lot's of fun.
-Rich spotted and killed our first scorpion in the backyard. They're unfortunately pretty common around here...makes me nervous, especially for Ami who loves to just hang out outside, looking at lizards and bugs and plants. We've taught him to look but not touch until he shows us what he's looking at, but still, he's a boy...so he's had more supervised backyard romps since the discovery of our friend, the scorpion.
-Hila, our 2 yr old, has been officially potty-trained for about 2 months! No more diapers in the Dressler house!! It feels surreal after 5 1/2 yrs, straight, including a stint of couple of months with 3 kids in diapers! Thank G-d #3 is so eager to be like her big sis and bro. Definitely makes life easier for me!
-Rich officially started the army 2 days after Sukkot but it's been pretty light so far. His first day involved a lot of sitting and waiting for a piece of paper and the week following that he had some tiyulim (trips) to the Old City and to some museums in Tel Aviv. I think it was the army's way of gently easing soldiers into their lair :).

Today starts Rich's first week of reality, although we have no idea what that means. One of his commanders told him he needs to stay at the base all week and another said he'd be able to come home. Some say this week involves a lot of physically grueling training and others tell him that it's fluff.

To sum it up, we know NOTHING. I guess we'll have a bit of a better idea about things by the end of his year and a half, although I'm not sure what good it'll do us then!

I'm approaching the whole thing kind of how I approached aliyah: expect nothing. Be prepared for it to be hard and have all the ducks in a row, ready to grab whatever opportunities come along.

So far that has meant taking care of all the house stuff before Rich went went in. I've also made sure the kids are sorted out and occupied with chuggim (after school activities) and I've lined up a babysitter for a day or two a week to help w/ park, dinner and baths. Friends have been very sweet and generous with their offers to help out too. We'll see how much help we'll need. Kind of hard not knowing anything about Rich's schedule these next few months.

I got a call from the editor who I was working for way back in May and she said there is finally work on the horizon. It will probably start this week, thank G-d. Glad to start working again for 2 reasons...
An army salary is not exactly generous. We need whatever income we can get.
Now that everyone is settled into school and the house is pretty much done, I have a whole morning of free time that is beginning to feel a little too 'free'- I need something to occupy the time. Although the free time definitely served me well today, allowing me to post this update!

We'll post more as our new army chapter unfolds...