Road Trip Respite

Ah, home at last. For awhile. Gloria and I got here Thursday after two days of driving from Arkansas. We drove a rather large Budget truck with a trailer hitched to it towing her Ford Explorer. Cheaper than driving two vehicles and better for the drivers too. It would have been really rough if we had both had to drive. BC (her cat) wasn't too thrilled with the arrangements but he settled down after an hour or two. Friday we unloaded the truck - most of it went in the garage and Kristjan and I were pretty proud that we managed to get it all in and still have room for Danny's motorcycle (it's a one-car garage). Saturday we took Gloria for a drive through Charleston. There are some Senior apartments on Market Street (in the historic district) and hopefully she will be able to move there soon. It's a nice section of town, just a short couple blocks from the open air Market - I'd like to be there!
Today was spent doing some re-arranging around the house and getting some groceries. Now I just have to get the upstairs bedroom ready. Atalya and our little ray of sunshine arrive on Wednesday. They will be staying for the rest of the month of May.

Blogging Backlog III - the oys of family camping

Yes, you read that right - Oy! Danny's job has been pretty all-consuming for him so we decided to go camping the last week of Pesach. What could be better than a Seder in the wilderness? So Friday we loaded up and headed to Buck Hall Recreation Area in the Francis Marion National Forest. It's just up the road from us about 3o min. The location was really nice. Our tent site was on the water and there was a nice breeze blowing all day on Friday. We had Matzah ball soup and then I grilled some lamb chops for dinner. It was fun to do our Seder in the tent. Kristjan's voice is getting so low - it sounds funny to have him sing Mah Nishtahnah. Hopefully we can get Ray in on it next year. Even better than that was our Seder on the first night. Just Danny and I so yes, yours truly had to sing!
Well, anyway, I got sidetracked. Saturday at the campsite dawned warm and clear. I made breakfast burritos but not long thereafter Danny wasn't feeling well. Next thing we knew he was rolling around in the tent in pain. We took him to the ER where they diagnosed him with a kidney stone. He's all medicated now and I think I'll have to get a neighbor to drive me to the airport on Tuesday. Well, a memorable Pesach for sure.

Blogging Backlog II - or, A Litany of Excuses

Yes, I am woefully behind in my blog. I suppose I don't have to post every day, like other people, but I still feel behind since I am rapidly accumulating interesting pictures and have not posted. So I thought I would just post my "schedule". This can serve as a list of reasons why I haven't posted, or, were we to put a positive spin on it, you can look at this as a list of things I will be blogging about in the near future. So here you go, be impressed -

Mar. 22-23 Wightman's visit from VA BCH
23 Boys visit Ft. Sumter, girls take the carriage tour
Mar. 27- Apr. 1 Mom visits
28 Charleston Carriage tour
29 Angel Oak, John's Island
30 Mom takes Yeshi birthday shopping for clothes - shorts as it turns out. Good, they should last longer than the jeans he outgrows every few months. He's 5'8" now.
31 Walking tour of Charleston (I posted about this one!)
Apr. 2 - Yeshi's 14th birthday - we bought him a bike and dinner at Wild Wing Cafe - he loves his hot wings.
Apr. 4-8 Daddy and Fran visit to go to Master's practice
5 - Angel Oak
6- Mitch arrives for Master's Practice
7- Daddy, Danny and Mitch go to the Master's Practice in Augusta
(they have no problem getting up early for golf!)
Fran, Yeshi and I drive out to Isle of Palms and Sullivan's Island just to look at the houses.
Apr. 11-14 I go to DC for a ProShow Gold/Producer seminar(this is the slideshow program I use), took the train both ways (NICE - I didn't have to drive! and on the way back I get to work on my slideshows the whole way!)
15 - WOW, I'm home for a whole day!
16-17 take Yeshi to VA BCH, drop him off with friends who are taking him on a trip to NYC, then drive back to SC (that would be today)
18 - clean for Pesach, yeah, a whole day for that, good luck
19, 20 Shabbat and Pesach begins
22, 23 - back to VA BCH to get Yeshi
29 - fly to AR to get Gloria (Danny's mom)
Apr. 30 - May 1, 2? drive back to SC with Gloria, she's moving in with us until she can find an apartment in Charleston
May 7 - Nastassja and Ray arrive for about a 3 week stay
So there you have it, hopefully I will post some pictures this weekend after Pesach begins....like Sunday or something.....

and yes,I did get carried away with colors. Somehow I got away from my default color and couldn't get back.

Blogging Backlog I - Charleston walking tour with Mom

Mom and I took a walking tour of some homes and gardens in Charleston. Every year at this time there is a Home and Garden Festival here for about a month. There were 11 homes/gardens on the tour we took (East Battery) and we got to 10 of them. We got rained on at one point but the weather was good most of the time. Naturally, the rain really started when we were done and walking back to the car. Unfortunately, I was not allowed to photograph IN the houses and gardens so this is a sampling from outside. The tour was 3 hours and I let Yeshi roam Charleston on his own during that time. He was pretty excited about that. Nice to be someplace where I feel comfortable letting him do that. Here's Mom at the beginning of our walk - look! her hair matches the building!

Mazel Tov!

Yeshi and I had yet another trip to Virginia Beach, this time for the Bat Mitzvah of Sarah bat Adam, shown here:

Afterwards we all went back to their house where the kids had a great time playing football, paddling around in kayaks, jumping on the trampoline, etc. Just general kid fun. Her Dad grilled burgers and dogs and served up some tasty chili. After sunset he lit a good sized bonfire for them - end of a perfect day....

Wintergreen, VA

We're up at Wintergreen for some snowboarding (for the boys anyway). I skiied last year but decided to save money this year and just take some pictures of the boys and relax. They had beautiful weather today...about 50 degrees and sunny. They were on the slopes most of the afternoon, came back for dinner and then went back for a couple hours. Flo baked chocolate chip cookies for them when they came back, yum. We're staying in a condo with a beautiful view of the slopes.


It was so nice we could stand out on our deck without a coat. Still had snow on the slopes and almost all of them were still open. I was hoping to post a few more pictures but the internet is a little dodgy up here. And besides, I'm relaxing...

Discrimination!

Here we are in NYC. My sister Molly thought it would make an interesting picture to get Yeshi and cousin Josh reading Chinese newspapers in Chinatown. BUT, they had hardly picked up the papers when the lady shopkeeper came out and yelled at them "leave my stuff alone! You put my stuff back!" Yeshi put his paper down and Josh was in the process when she snatched it from his hand and stuck it back in the rack "you stupid boys! leave my stuff alone!" GOSH, maybe I'm culturally ignorant but I didn't think they were hurting anything. The only thing we could figure is that she figured 2 teenage boys handling the papers must be up to no good. Then she got mad at Molly for taking the pictures! "Oh, you want to take picture?!! I get my camera and take your picture!" Yeah, whatever, hurt me ok?

See, there she is snatching the paper right out of Josh's hand.

Pretty in Pink

This is my Mom's house on Long Island - it's pink! We go up every February for her birthday and usually get a nice blizzard. Not this time. This picture is from '06. (I'm dumping the 20 part of the year - Atalya thinks we need to get over it and do the years like we used to, last two digits only. I'm with her) It was actually pretty warm. We went in to the city on Monday and ended up carrying our jackets around. Mom took me down to the beach to get some nature photos on Sunday (we forced Yeshi and his cousin Josh to come with us) and I got some nice pictures by fooling with the white balance on the camera (it was overcast and a bit dark out). Ever watch Sunday morning with Charles Kuralt? You know the end of the show where they just showed some nature footage and had no narration or music, just the critter-sounds? I always enjoyed watching that with my cup of coffee, ahhhh. This is the online version. You'll have to imagine your own critter-sounds. Get your coffee..... (oh, pink picture first for a nice segue from the pink house :)

Wrestlemania!

Behind on my posting since I've been out of town and sick but trying to catch up now...This is my son's younger brother Braylan.(He's the one about to stand on his head...We lived across the street from him for 10 years and he and his brother Avery are like Yeshi's younger brothers. Danny melded their names and calls them "Bravery") He was ahead on points most of the match and I guess Rami managed to get the upper hand in the end and win. Still, you can see Braylan is truly enjoying himself. That's why we love watching him compete. He's a fierce, agressive competitor but no matter what - he always enjoys himself. You go Bralyan! w00t!

This is Iraq

Yes, ladies and gentlemen, this is Iraq - or more accurately, my husband in Iraq. This picture was taken at Abraham's Oasis, it's on the base he was stationed at, Al Asad. This is supposed to be where Abraham camped and received the promise that G-d would make him a great nation. Danny is wearing one of his favorite shirts featuring one of his favorite treats - peeps.
The shirt says "chillin' with my peeps" - which appears incorrect here - well there are a couple peeps chillin' behind the camera. Not sure who but this expedition was headed by the Jewish chaplin. So there you have it, peeps, in a war zone....and thusly I have piggybacked onto someone else's blog war.....