Well...here it is midnight July 28 (or should I say 7/29?) in Jerusalem and I am using the internet for the first time since we left Houston! It's been kinda nice, but I am sorry we could not keep up a regular blog. John and I have taken zillions of pictures and tons of video, so we can do a day by day re-cap after we get home. I'm using one of three computers inb the lobby and even at this late hour there are several people waiting to get on.
Let me just say that this has been absolutely the best possible trip. I can't call it a vacation because we are beyond exhausted by the pace of activities, but we definitely got our money's worth. My head is crammed with new knowledge, understanding, ideas and experiences. We've made new, dear friends who we will miss and hope to keep in touch with via e-mail.
We have packed our suitcases and will bring them down to the lobby at 6:30 a.m. to load on the bus. After a quick but nutritious breakfast we will head for Tel Aviv and the ben Gurion Airport. Our plane is still scheduled to leave at 11:40 a.m. and arrive (12 hours or so later - go figure!) at Newark around 4:15 p.m. I think. If all goes well we will try to switch to an earlier flight, but worst case scenario we'll leave New Jersey at 8:15 and arrive in Houston 11-ish (Central time). We'll call to confirm sometime between now and then.
Love to all. I'm off to take a nap!
Mom/Miriam
Monday, July 28, 2008
Friday, July 25, 2008
No Newz is good newz?
Well, I guess Miriam and John are still having internet difficulties or maybe they are just too worn out to work on posting. That is OK, I will make them put it up when they get home. But to keep everyone checking back, I will tell you more about what we are doing here. How exciting!
Hurricane Dolly came through this week. Well, really she went through at South Padre Island, but we got a lot of rain from her. Thank you Dolly! We had short off and off rains on Wednesday when she came on shore, then as the bands came around on Thursday, we had fairly constant rain all day long. I could hear the grass sigh with relief, the garden flowers dance with joy! But we are back to hot and humid again today... and the foreseeable future.
AJ went to the fitting for the Finish Strong event. She will be doing a runway type modelling of running shortsnext Thursday. She is excited. She said that if enough people buy shorts from the show ( audience) then the girls modeling will get a free pair. AJ is spending a lot of time with her friends which is nice. She seems to keep herself busy with either work, friends or sleeping. She and Ben often stay you watching movies and just hanging. Of course then they sleep half the day. Luckily it is still summer!
Aaron is playing with his best friend Erin every day either at our house or at her house. He is still playing the Wii everyday too. He has all the place holders on the first level of tightrope walking. ( 1st, 2nd,3rd...10th) He keeps working to improve his time sno one can knock him off the records.
Moab continues to be a pig. He has eaten 3/4 batch of sugar cookies, 3 pieces of bread in the plastic, ~6 fresh tortillas in foil wrap, cheese sticks, cookie dough, a chicken breast( honey teriaki) plus who knows what else we don't even know about!! That big hog!! But he is still our sweetie monster dog!
Kitties are doing well too. Mitzi gets so much attention. The boys ( Ben and Aaron) and their buds ( Erin and Evan) are constantly fighting over the privildge of hoilding her and playing with her. The Aarons keep kidnapping her and holding her hostage in the bathroom or other rooms where they can make her a cage to keep her from getting away. They also love to give her baths!But the funny thing is that when they let her go, she usually comes back to play. Ben loves to just have her with him. She has started to like to sit on the keyboard while he is playing his computer games, or she sits in his lap wrapped in a blanket. I must say, that cat does not know the meaning of loneliness!! Libby on the other hand just watches and makes sure we all pet her once in a while. She is the observant type, she knows everyting that goes on in thies house. Good thing she can't talk!!
Well, we finally have a quiet house. Evan and Erin went home and we are winding down (it is 11:00)
Well, hope ot hear somethign from the travelers soon.
To all a good night! Or morning to John and Miriam.
Hurricane Dolly came through this week. Well, really she went through at South Padre Island, but we got a lot of rain from her. Thank you Dolly! We had short off and off rains on Wednesday when she came on shore, then as the bands came around on Thursday, we had fairly constant rain all day long. I could hear the grass sigh with relief, the garden flowers dance with joy! But we are back to hot and humid again today... and the foreseeable future.
AJ went to the fitting for the Finish Strong event. She will be doing a runway type modelling of running shortsnext Thursday. She is excited. She said that if enough people buy shorts from the show ( audience) then the girls modeling will get a free pair. AJ is spending a lot of time with her friends which is nice. She seems to keep herself busy with either work, friends or sleeping. She and Ben often stay you watching movies and just hanging. Of course then they sleep half the day. Luckily it is still summer!
Aaron is playing with his best friend Erin every day either at our house or at her house. He is still playing the Wii everyday too. He has all the place holders on the first level of tightrope walking. ( 1st, 2nd,3rd...10th) He keeps working to improve his time sno one can knock him off the records.
Moab continues to be a pig. He has eaten 3/4 batch of sugar cookies, 3 pieces of bread in the plastic, ~6 fresh tortillas in foil wrap, cheese sticks, cookie dough, a chicken breast( honey teriaki) plus who knows what else we don't even know about!! That big hog!! But he is still our sweetie monster dog!
Kitties are doing well too. Mitzi gets so much attention. The boys ( Ben and Aaron) and their buds ( Erin and Evan) are constantly fighting over the privildge of hoilding her and playing with her. The Aarons keep kidnapping her and holding her hostage in the bathroom or other rooms where they can make her a cage to keep her from getting away. They also love to give her baths!But the funny thing is that when they let her go, she usually comes back to play. Ben loves to just have her with him. She has started to like to sit on the keyboard while he is playing his computer games, or she sits in his lap wrapped in a blanket. I must say, that cat does not know the meaning of loneliness!! Libby on the other hand just watches and makes sure we all pet her once in a while. She is the observant type, she knows everyting that goes on in thies house. Good thing she can't talk!!
Well, we finally have a quiet house. Evan and Erin went home and we are winding down (it is 11:00)
Well, hope ot hear somethign from the travelers soon.
To all a good night! Or morning to John and Miriam.
Tuesday, July 22, 2008
Wii at home 7/22
Well, in case you all get your power problem solved, I will let you know what is going on here. It is weird to think of y'all running around Israel while we are sleeping and y'all sleeping while we are up and about. I guess jet lag will be pretty bad when you get back!! Anyway, Aaron is going to V.B.S. with Erin girl, they are in the same big group but in different little groups. They seem to be enjoying it. When they get home they stay here for a while then either both or just Erin goes to her house for a while. Ben rode his bike yesterday but stayed up way to late ( 4) playing Wii so he didn't get up until late. He did get the lawn mowed though :) We have a hurricane coming to Texas but probably not near us. We do hope to get some rain out of the outer bands though.
AJ is doing great. . She finally got a paycheck. -----$41.76 for 46 hours!!!! She was really mad!!It turns out they took out $200 for the lifeguard class, and $25 for a lifeguard T-shirt and whistle that she did not get. She told them that she never got one and they said they would get her one even though she is quitting in a week. They had a meeting at the pool today and the pool people were setting down new rules and guidelines because they are getting a lot of complaints from employees and pool members. ( of course they should have done that before they started!!) but anyway, they are looking into whether AJ has to pay for the class or not. Robin said that Jeff might be able to write them a letter. So AJ is a bit upset about the work for barely any pay but at least she wasn't the specifically in trouble at the meeting.
The Wii is a lot of fun. The kids are trying to beat each other's scores in the different areas. AJ is really good in many areas especially the balance, yoga and strength areas. We can not wait for you all to get home to try it out. John, you will love the tennis. Aaron loves the baseball, ski jumping and tightrope walking and boxing.. AJ doesn't know her favorites because she is so good at all of them. Ben loves the Tennis and the balance games like soccer header. I love all of them but I am pretty good at downhill skiing and hula hooping- well compared to Aaron ( ha ha) and I like Tennis and golf and bowling. It makes me want to go out and play tennis!
John, the house is not a total wreck , we are trying to keep it looking OK!
You should never have told Aaron that he was in charge- the Man of the house because he keeps saying I don't have to do that because I am in charge- dad said so. So now I just say OK, if you are in charge, there is a pile of kitty poop in the laundry room that the person in charge needs to clean up!! ha ha.
Joy called yesterday and asked AJ if she wanted to do a little modeling thing at Finish Strong- athletic wear. she does a fitting on Thursday and then something on Saturday. She excited. It is the place that they get a lot of their track stuff from.
The animals are doing good. Mitzi has gotten several baths courtesy of the Aarons/Erins. Moab eats everything not in the fridge. The big girls seem to be doing good too. So anyway we are doing pretty good. We will be watching to see if you get anything posted. If not, we will get your full report when you get home!
Everyone sends their love to you!
Aaron says "I love you!"
Continue to have fun.
AJ is doing great. . She finally got a paycheck. -----$41.76 for 46 hours!!!! She was really mad!!It turns out they took out $200 for the lifeguard class, and $25 for a lifeguard T-shirt and whistle that she did not get. She told them that she never got one and they said they would get her one even though she is quitting in a week. They had a meeting at the pool today and the pool people were setting down new rules and guidelines because they are getting a lot of complaints from employees and pool members. ( of course they should have done that before they started!!) but anyway, they are looking into whether AJ has to pay for the class or not. Robin said that Jeff might be able to write them a letter. So AJ is a bit upset about the work for barely any pay but at least she wasn't the specifically in trouble at the meeting.
The Wii is a lot of fun. The kids are trying to beat each other's scores in the different areas. AJ is really good in many areas especially the balance, yoga and strength areas. We can not wait for you all to get home to try it out. John, you will love the tennis. Aaron loves the baseball, ski jumping and tightrope walking and boxing.. AJ doesn't know her favorites because she is so good at all of them. Ben loves the Tennis and the balance games like soccer header. I love all of them but I am pretty good at downhill skiing and hula hooping- well compared to Aaron ( ha ha) and I like Tennis and golf and bowling. It makes me want to go out and play tennis!
John, the house is not a total wreck , we are trying to keep it looking OK!
You should never have told Aaron that he was in charge- the Man of the house because he keeps saying I don't have to do that because I am in charge- dad said so. So now I just say OK, if you are in charge, there is a pile of kitty poop in the laundry room that the person in charge needs to clean up!! ha ha.
Joy called yesterday and asked AJ if she wanted to do a little modeling thing at Finish Strong- athletic wear. she does a fitting on Thursday and then something on Saturday. She excited. It is the place that they get a lot of their track stuff from.
The animals are doing good. Mitzi has gotten several baths courtesy of the Aarons/Erins. Moab eats everything not in the fridge. The big girls seem to be doing good too. So anyway we are doing pretty good. We will be watching to see if you get anything posted. If not, we will get your full report when you get home!
Everyone sends their love to you!
Aaron says "I love you!"
Continue to have fun.
Wednesday, July 16, 2008
The Day Before
I (Aunt Jill) have created this blog spot for Miriam and John to chronicale their exciting trip. I hope that at the end of each day, while relaxing and missing the good old USA (and thier kids,)and before they forget the fun and unusual things that happen, they can spend a few minutes to write a little about thier day and maybe upload a few pictures. Then each day we ( A.J., Ben, Aaron and I) can look at what they are doing as we plot their travels on the map.
Shalom!
Shalom!
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