Shalom!!

We Made It!!  

We arrived safe and sound and we are so happy to be here!  The airplane ride went well, the kids slept all night and were ready to rock and roll.  All of our bags made it and after getting our rental car we were ready to find our place.  

Here it is!  This is our temporary spot until we can move into our permanent location. 

Yes, we are on the top floor and there is no elevator in this building......and yes, I am pregnant.  This will keep me in shape.  It didn't take Benji long to say "I hate stairs!".  They are getting good at them 10 days later.

Yes, this is a hamburger, fries and a coke.  This meal was waiting for us outside our door.  I was so thankful and it was so delicious! Coke out of the glass bottle is the best.  We are well taken care of!

 We are in currently in central Tel Aviv and it is very fun.  We are about a 1/2 mile/15 min walk to the beach and lot to see in between.  It is fun to be in the heart of it all and to explore the city.  There is a lot to see.  We of course went to the beach our first day, it is so beautiful and the water so lovely.  Sally's quote is "MOM, you have to come try out the ocean!! It is GREAT!!"  It really is. We wonder, will we ever get tired of this??

Here are a couple tummy shots for the grandmas.....26 weeks.....14 to go!!  

It looks bigger standing up! 

Learning how to play paddle ball.  He will be a champ in 2 years! 

Did I mention that we love the beach?  This is Sally's list. You may have to click on it to see her writing it says "beach".  A perfect list. 

Here are a few things we see on our way to the beach to give you a little taste of our everyday life thus far.

I think this is a Banyon Tree, but I'm not sure.  It sure looks cool! 

YUM.....!!

There are a few things I have learned in the first few days.  I go to the grocery store a lot, and I still feel like we have no food.  It is expensive and I can only buy what I am willing to carry home and haul up 65 stairs (yes, we counted them).  The food is delicious, I have yet to eat something that I wasn't completely fond of.  Their hummus is amazing, their produce very fresh.  That big jug you see with the red top is a jug of plain yogurt.  I love it, I put honey in it for the kids.  The grocery store has warm pitas, they are almost gone by the time we get home.  I have to remember to buy two packages. 

We bought "salt" for residue that you put in a container at the bottom of your dishwasher every few months  instead of actual dishwasher detergent.

I need to know German to use my dryer AND I need to empty the tank that collects the condensation in order for my dryer to actually dry the clothes.  In the states I think we vent our dryers.  Here there are no vents there are tanks to collect the water that is pulled out of the clothes and they need to be emptied.  My laundry room was 100 percent humidity and I was wondering why on earth my clothes would not dry in this blasted dryer. :) Thankfully, one of the HP wives is from Germany and she filled me in on the ins and outs. 

This "white cheese" is delicious.  Byron thought for sure I was eating sour cream by the spoonful, but it is salty and we think, kind of like cottage cheese but without the curd, this is delicious in your pita stuffed with tomatoes, cucumbers and a little red onion.

And here we are waiting for our first Kosher pizza.  This means that your pizza does not have any meat on it.  Meat and dairy are not to be eaten together.  This references back to Exodus 23:19, Exodus 34:26 and Deuteronomy 14:21....not to cook a kid in it's mothers milk.  The pizza was very good but you will have a hard time finding a pizza with meat in Israel. 

We are enjoying learning about our new surroundings and if these pics don't convince you to come visit, I don't know what will.  I love how the kids are just so excited and adaptable to their new surroundings.  I can't wait to see how quickly they pick up the language.  I feel like we are finally adjusting to the 10 hour time change.  We have been told that for every hour of time that you change it takes 1 day to adjust so 10 hrs = 10 days.  This seems to be true, today the kids were up at 7 am opposed to 3:00 am and hungry.  Thankfully our flat had a huge box of corn flakes.