Guaranteed to be very Random....

I haven't had time to do this, so before I put the kids to bed....I will update some. What a busy, intense, crazy few weeks this has been....



Last Friday, I ended up taking Ara to the ER. She was pretty sick beginning last Monday, and had symptoms like sore throat, cough and headache. I took her to the doctor, and they tested her for strep. That came out negative. I kept her home. She didn't get better. She missed a week of school. She is behind, and overwhelmed. She had trouble breathing and tightness in her chest. I called her PCP, and they said, based on her symptoms and the fact that she has asthma, take her to the ER. I decided to take her to Sacred Heart, its right by our house. We had a very long wait, but I am so impressed with the way the entire staff, treated Ara and I. Ara saw a few nurses, one ER doc, a Radiologist, Transportation Staff, and Admitting Reps. They all were so nice, and treated us like we were the most important people in the hospital! They did an amazing job. Ara was tested again for Swine Flu, which was negative. She was also given a chest x-ray, to look for pneumonia, which also came back negative. She had a nasty viral flu bug. I've never seen her so sick, I was so worried. I had the phone tree going, the text tree going and the email tree going (I love my blackberry!!) Ara is feeling better now, and back in school. She is getting caught up on homework too. Ara will be working at the temple on Wednesday nights. She will be helping teach a Hebrew class, and help tutor some of the younger kids. She is getting paid for this, and did I mention that Ara wants to go to Israel, for part of her Sophomore year???? She is working at the temple, and will be attending the Rabbi's Holocaust class on Thursday evenings. This participation in the class and tutoring will help her earn money, for the trip she wants to take to Israel. Through the temple, she can go live on a Kibbutz.....here is a basic description of a Kibbutz, obviously not my words. .....

"Kibbutz means group in Hebrew. It is a modest name for something unique: a voluntary democratic community where people live and work together on a non-competitive basis. Its aim is to generate an economically and socially independent society founded on principles of communal ownership of property, social justice, and equality."

In addition to working on a Kibbutz, she would go to school there. Clearly the rest of her parents and I, are scared at the thought of her going over there...We keep telling her that we haven't decided if we will actually allow her to go. She is still willing to work at the temple, go to Rabbi's class, and see what happens.


Tolkien is in his last year of Hebrew school. His Bar-Mitzvah is Feb. 22, 2010. He is so excited. He is still doing football this year too. He really enjoys it. His team is called, "The South Hill Soul" and all his "Soul Brothers" go to Chase. Its pretty cool. He loves the fact that he can walk down the hall at school, and see a team mate. They all get a kick out of it really. Lately, Tolkien has been OBSESSED with his hair. It is now below his shoulders. He spends a GREAT DEAL of his morning getting it all groomed and it has to "lay" just so. He is so possessive over it too.. He won't let anyone touch it. In fact, he worries about head lice, like you wouldn't believe! He knows I'll shave his head if that happens! They had to ride bikes at school the other day, and he didn't want to use the helmets that the school was providing. He said, "They offered us hair nets, but I don't trust that!" I wonder how long he will want it to grow. He still gets mistaken for a girl all the time. Last year he had a substitute at school. She was mean to all the boys and super nice to all the girls. The teacher thought Tolkien was a girl, and was calling him a "she" and "her" all day. He said he never corrected her, because she was being so nice to him. He said when she found out he was a boy, she was so mad and embarrassed.......

Emma. Emma. Emma.....she is a 1st grader now. She loves school, and it is wearing her OUT! She falls asleep on the way home, every day. Her teacher is so sweet and loving. Emma really enjoys her, and the new class. She has PE this year, and hates wearing her sport shoes to school. Emma is all about wearing dresses and skirts, and loves her dressy boots. She has been so helpful around the house. She is the type of girl that is always on the go, always busy, and always wants to be busy. I told myself that this year I was going to get her more involved around the house, she tends to be very emotional and grouchy when her time isn't structured. We go to the dollar store a lot and get arts and crafty kind of stuff. She helps me start and fold laundry, disinfects the house with antibacterial wipes (she even has her own house cleaning gloves she wears) feeds the animals, helps with dishes and helps make dinner, oh and helps make lunches. A lot of times it takes even longer to get through things, because she is still small and learning, but overall, she is more behaved, when she is involved with things.

I have been keeping myself busy, with the kids...I have joined the PTSG and band parents group, at Ara's high school. I helped chaperon the freshman activity night....and that was interesting! Wednesdays the kids go the Hebrew school (except Emma) Emma and I use that time to go to Hastings. We go to the kids section and read books, and play with the wooden train set. We will be renewing Emma's library card, and going to the library, while Ara and Tolk are at Hebrew. We are still making time to play Guitar Hero. The latest one has a "beginner" level, and so it just requires strumming. This is wonderful, and Emma is now able to play in the band, without getting mad. Yeah, the new Guitar Hero lets you play guitar, bass, drums and sing...like Rock Band. We've been really into this show on the Discover Channel called, "The Universe." The kids love it, and this always leads to a conversation about aliens...something Emma loves to talk about. We've been decorating for Halloween. Emma picked out this door knob cover that is a big, bloody veiny eyeball. She loves how gross it is. Ara and Tolkien hate it...lol...Emma loves Halloween just as much as I do, so we've enjoyed decorating, and have been making ghosts and scary pictures of our own! My B-day is Oct 10th. We will not be celebrating this year, on the 10th. We are going to instead, celebrate on the 31st, have a small Halloween party, and my family has agreed to dress up. We will be a family of vampires. We are making tombstones for the front yard. Ara wants to make one for Randy Rhodes (the guitarist for Ozzy Osbourne) and Tolkien wants to make one for Bon Scott (the former singer of AC/DC) Emma wants to make one for Michael Jackson.


One last note, before I close this....we just bought a puppy! He is a Shorkie. His name is Julian. (I got to pick out the name...he is named after singer Julian Casablancas from The Strokes) He is 8 weeks old, and so adorable! We are all so happy to have this new life in our family. We can't wait till Jeremy is home, to enjoy Julian too!