LIFE IS AMAZING!!!

Hi Everyone,
How are you all? Please send me a note and update me on your lives!
Well, here is my update. LIFE IS AMAZING!!!
Might as well write when we are on the upswing. Right? Well, loads to share and tell. We are doing really well. We are growing and connecting and as a matter of fact looking to buy a house. (more on that later). Kids are doing really well. Zach is the most incredible. In two months he will be taking bacclaurate exams for grade 10 in Grammer, Math, Computer Science and History. They are exams that test the whole years work and apply towards his university acceptance stuff. He has been working really hard at getting his language going. I am rreally proud of him. Josh also has kicked into gear and caring more about grades and school in general. This year for him has been school 7:30-3:30 and then tutoring after school 2-3 x week. Not fun but I am so proud of him. His bar mitzvah is this summer June 19 at the Western Wall in the Old City. His true wish for a bar mitzvah party including belly dancing girls and being carried in on a magic carpet gizmo might not happen. He loves to skate board and roller hockey. Zach is busy at the gym pumping and primping. He looks all cut and 16. I wish I had his discipline. Josh, well, as his nickname is Baccus he is certiainly still enjoying the riches of life (lox and smelly cheese go down the hatch easily). Both are healthy and we are blessed.

Drew, is pretty much conversationally fluent by now. It is amazing. He is walking around speaking hebrew everywhere. As some of you may or may not know we are going through an Orthodox conversion. Lots to tell threre. After 6 months of me kicking and screaming and making everyone in around me generally miserable, I am finally getting on the band wagon and 'doin it to'. It is quite a change but almost all for the good. I can;'t think of any for the bad but there is always that residual rebellious nature of mine that doesn't seem to go away. It is a very serious committment and change of lifestyle. It takes a year at least to do the whole she-bang so that is still a work in progress. He is working at the factory still, growing, learning and studying Torah with his download Podcasts in his new Ipod during the day at work. Not bad at all. His plan is to get back into painting on a serious basis and move in that direction. I am so excited to see fun new paintings.

Ok, The big news is that we hopefully found a house. House shopping in Israel is a little like being in a mental institute full of wacko's! I tried to sit here and think of metaphors like...fishing, or whatever but nope, it is psychotic! Here are some of the ground rules. First of all there are no ground rules. There are some givens. Like, the realtors represent both the buyer and the seller. If you want to call it representation. I told my realtor to make an offer at such and such amount of monopoly money and she said 'No'. That the seller would only take full price and that I had better offer full price. Ok. onward. The first house we made an offer on, the seller said that he was no longer interested in selling but just wanted to see what he could get for the house. Now I am sure there are crazy real estate stories everywhere on this earth and we are certainly novices in the real estate world but it is really funny unless at the moment you are crying. Ok, rule 2: Different houses have different real estate agents that go with them. So the only way to see the house is if you hire that particular agent. So, we have worked with about 7-10 or so different agents all bull shitting us along the path. Rule 3: As soon as you make an offer you need to get a lawyer. Everyone needs a lawyer for real estate stuff. Anyhow, not to bore you too much but it is a little snippit of life here. Rule 4: never believe anything you hear.

Work is amazing for me. I am still working in the Navy. I am implementing new programs that I learned this past winter in the states. I am presenting a lecture at the International Sports Medicine Conference in June. Building my private practice in a very half ass kind of way. Working in Jerusalem 1 x week and booked there so my local town is more for being a mom and keeping house, body and mind and wishing I was doing some ceramics. I guess in retirement in the big sky there will be time for ceramics. I just took a course in dry needling techniuqe so I am getting into that more. Just a frustrated Acupuncturist at heart. The soldiers love anything painful so I am right in the right spot. They suffer quietly through my deep strong massage stuff. It is so funny but for my whole career as a PT people have often said to me: "OK sargent". It used to make me mad at times but now it is so funny. I am where I am finally supposed to be.

My angle on Israel and war stuff. Well, pray for peace, don't read the newspapers or listen to news. Don't believe anything you hear. All politicians lie for money. Think that maybe one day a messiah will come and we don't have to worry no more, every girl is a size 8. ha ha!

I pray for all of you that you will be healthy and feel goodness, joy and peace of mind. That you can take the time and laugh and hang with your friends. Eat yummy yummy food and work out!
Blessing and love,
Adele

Hospitals, culture shock, and other kinds of wild things.

Hi Everyone,
Once again I am moved to write and tell all. Ha. This letter is a another inside discription of how life looks here. It has been a very interesting experience and brand new to me so I want to share with all. Some of you might say...DUH!!! But, it was pretty trippy for me. I also need to put in a disclaimer that I am sure all my shocks are a regular cultural phenomenon for anyone else who has moved to a foreign country.
Well, we have had a very interesting last week. Josh got sick. Yep. "Mommy, my face hurts, especially my jaw." So off we go to the doctor. Now, mind you, we have all had a very intensively sick winter thus far. I was sick for 3 weeks with a cough and cold. So this was already; week three for him as well. Also, I am not sure if you all remember the Oscar letter in which Josh won an Oscar at his camp for being the sickest kid. So, my motto with him is.....if there ain't no fever, there ain't no sickness. I basically don't believe anything he says about mostly anything. Yes, awful situation but since you are my dearest loving friends and won't judge me unfavorably....He is a total bullshitter!
OK back to this sickness. So, painful lower jaw I am thinking he can't be making this up. Well, off to MD. Another note about the doctor. This was our third visit to her. On the last visit, she palpated his stomach and said that we need to go to the ER because he might have appendicitis. Or, if we didn't want to do that, we should just go get an x-ray in case he has pneumonia. What? How does one relate with the other? So, I went home, put a hot rice bag on his stomach in front of the TV and all was well. Mother and healer's intuition was that he had been coughing so hard for so long he strained his rib muscle. Plus, we did not go to the doctor for any abdominal pain. Josh basically did not want to go to school. So, 3 days later starts this jaw pain. I am thinking he can't be that creative that his jaw is killing him. Off to MD, x-rays of face. Phone call front ENT, need to go to hospital for IV antibiotics. FOR A SINUS INFECTION??? Now this is really getting crazy. I need to go to the ENT and have him check Josh for sure. Well, the last appointment in the Jewish city of mine is taken and they tell me I need to go to the next town over (less than 1 mile away) which is an Arab city, called Faredeis (paradise). We don't really ever go to Faredeis. Kinda scary. We go see the board certified Jewish doctor that also treats part time in other Arab cities. I never imagined that we would have to go to an ISRAELI ARAB CITY to get an appointment and see the doc but we went. It was all fine and no stress but it was just another twist - o in my getting used to this place. Confirmation to hospital for frontal sinus infection which can't be penetrated with oral antibiotics. Off we go to a hospital. Now, when you are trying to figure out which hospital in Israel to go to everyone just gives this sour looking face like they have just tasted bad milk. They pause and say: "well, go to @$#%^%$^^. They may be the nicest there". So, with my glowing recommendation in hand and heart we drive to Haifa to the hospital. To shorten this some, Josh was ecstatic. Go figure. I guess it was something new and exciting. His pain was pretty severe but he was coping. We get admitted. He is a total trooper. Tests, IV, etc. First night we left him alone...why you ask? Because we rented him a mini TV that was right in front of his nose. He was in heaven. Kind of like Club Med. Room service, cable TV, no chores, cleaning, nothing. There was no toilet in his room so no shower either! He told us to go home and that he would be ok. We came every morning (1 hour drive each way). So, Josh was in the hospital for 5 days. It turned out to be not such a party for him. It was tough. He couldn't tolerate the strong meds and threw up most of the time. It was not great but we got through it. Now, this letter was not prompted by his experience so to say. It was more to share with you how the Arabs and Jews live hand in hand here. And share with you some of my ignorance and nativity.
All the pharmacists I have ever been to here are all Arab. All the nurses at the hospital were either Arab or Russian. The cleaners at the hospital were Russian. The doctors were Russian and Israeli. 85+% of the patients were Arab. The people selling coffee in the local kiosk (like a Starbucks deal) were Russian. Remember, socialized medicine here. The first morning I happened to go to the nurses station and see people standing in line for the am breakfast. Nope they don't bring the trays to the room. No one told me anything about getting our own food so I am savvy ya see and get in line. After a minute a young Arab mother ( big girl, head dress, the whole she-bang) stands in front of me in line and looks at me like: ' I am a gonna ---- you if you ---- with me". I feel like I am in a prison. I can't believe that I feel this whole Arab conflict waiting in line on the pediatric floor for breakfast. Other kind of wild things were we left Zach there to sleep with him for a night. They allowed my 15 year old son to sleep with my 12 year old in a room with out adult supervision. They just watched TV but Josh was in heaven.
So, we got out of the hospital 5 days later. Sent home to recoup for another few days. Yesterday, while I and Drew were at work Josh's class took upon themselves to come and visit. 15 kids came over unannounced, no parents at home and hung out with him and went crazy in the house. Totally normal and expected here. They all brought $ to run up to the pizza store and..have a party of course. Partying is a big thing around here. Israelis love to socialize.
We are a young country compared to the US so give us some time.
So thats that. yesterday on my drive to Jerusalem (2 hours) I almost got into 3 major accidents. Live is very exciting here. At times frustrating beyond belief. And other times totally hysterical. I love it and sometimes hate it. Yep, good ole me...black and white.
Some other news. Drew is going through a formal conversion to orthodoxy. He is totally in love with it and I am me. I have to jump through some hoops like be completely observant on the sabbath..no electricity stuff but I still get to live how I like. Life is good. We have to get married again at the end of this. That should be amazing. Probably sometime around September. So, you are all invited to my wedding. I will only have 2 weeks notice so stay tuned.
blessings to you all.
love
adele