Intrusive?

So since Benjie and I went to Florida last weekend, we rearranged Dovi's night nurse's schedule to work the entire time we were gone. She works five nights per week, usually Monday through Friday.

Well what we had her do instead was work Thursday-Tuesday nights to give my in laws coverage and a full night's sleep while we were gone.

So that means that she did not work Wednesday and Thursday nights this week.

So while we are tired (correction:Benjie is tired. Dovi wants nothing to do with me at night. Or frankly during the day either. I am a poor, poor substitute for the All Powerful Oz Abba), I said something to Benjie last night:

"You know, it's kind of nice being just us in the house"

He agreed.

Now I must say that our nurse is MAGNIFICENT. We adore adore adore her. She adores Dovi. Dovi adores her. She has worked for us for almost two years. I have heard the nightmarish stories people have to tell about their nurses-no call no shows, drunk on the job (I kid you not. The child was total care. The mother is literally suffering from post traumatic stress disorder now from coming home and finding her nurse passed out on the floor next to her ventilated son. I'm not making that up), stealing, lying, etc etc etc. So I have a hearty appreciation for her nurse, her caring and respect for Dovi and our family.

But the bottom line? Have you been in my house? It is not big. It's actually rather small. I love it. It's cozy. Aside for the need for another bedroom (how much longer can Shana share with Elisha and Jacob? They are six. It's not good), I could not ask for more in my lovely home.

But five nights a week, we share our home with our nurse.

She is unobtrusive. Quiet. Kind. But she is also about ten feet away from my and Benjie's room. So we have lost a level of privacy.

So while we Benjie appreciate(s) the sleep that having our nurse gives us, it was nice, really a treat, to be just us overnight.

Although I'm not sure if Benjie still felt the same way while giving Dovi his meds and changing him and his linens at 4 am.

Lovin' the New Camera

So I'm loving my new camera, and today I'm sharing one of my latest crafts with you all.

If you're a blog-surfer, you might have noticed that one of the popular home decor items right now is silhouettes. ( Possibly one of the hardest words ever to spell, second only to diarrhea. So many superfluous letters!).
How freaking lovely is that? Imagine it in a kitchen...mmmmm.....more ideas abrewing. I did not make this. I got it from a free clip art blog I read. No mocking, please.

Well silhouettes are expensive.

I am cheap.

Soooo....here's what I did:

1. Since at the time of the craft, I was camera-less, I asked my lovely friend/neighbor Rebecca to take pictures of the hoodlums. We had them stand sideways against a plain wall. At dinner time. While Rebecca had to get HER hoodlums ready for swimming lessons. Immediate gratification issues, I know.
   
2. I then printed out the pictures of said hoodlums on my putey as an 8x10. Oh. After we spent like 20 minutes trying to email the files to me, until we realized, ya know, that I could just take Rebecca's camera home with me for a few minutes. Which I did.
   
3. Then, I took a very, very sharp pair of scissors and cut out the pictures.
4. (This was a many-stepped process) I then traced that cut out picture, slooooowwwwlllllyyyyy and carefully onto some black scrapbook paper I scrounged up from my scrapbooking days (Hi, Peta!!)
5. Then I cut that out.
6. Then, because I suffer from immediate gratification issues, I hopped in my car and drove to Michaels. I bought pretty scrapbook paper that was on sale for $.35 a sheet. I bought four. Because, ya'know, I have four little ungrateful hoodlums.
7. Drove home. In the snow. It was slippery. Remember, I need immediate gratification?
8. Then I used my kids' school glue sticks and very carefully centered and glued the black cut outs onto the pretty paper.
9. Then I needed frames.
10. Scrounged around in the scary slasher basement and found three black 8 x 10 frames from another previous craft. But that wouldn't work, because, remember? Four ungrateful hoodlums.
11. Remembered that Dovi had some pictures of him and his counselor Nuchie !who is getting married! on his wall. Ran upstairs. Removed a frame from the wall. What's my son's happiness at looking at his pictures when I have a project going???
12. Took said frame downstairs. Realized it was slightly different that the other three.
13. Decided to do two of each type.
14. Ran back up. Removed other picture from Dovi's wall.
15. Stuck picture of Dovi and Nuchie from now-spare-frame-from-three-from-scary-slasher-basement and ran back upstairs to at least give him one picture.
16. Put lovely silhouettes in four black frames.
17. Spent an hour measuring and making itty bitty holes in the wall to get them ever so evenly spaced.
18. Total Cost? $1.54.
19. Total time? Minimally two hours, all told.
    
20. Voila!
    

Here's the big question, though:

Can you tell who is who?

EDITED: I realize it looks like Shana's is a little higher than everyone else's. She isn't. Trust me. I've spent much quality time with my level to avoid that.

OK here we go....

On to the trip... (I'm going to write all the restaurants we went to for all my Orthodox food deprived friends. Maybe I'll even tell you what we ordered for maximum gastronomic fun)

THURSDAY

We left early early early on Thursday morning...here's Benjie half asleep at the airport. Poor guy, I tortured him with pictures this trip.


We crammed ourselves into our Spirit Airlines seats. Note to readers: If you are above 5 foot 3 inches, stay away from Spirit Airlines. It was. not. normal. Look at Benjie's legs!!


We got to Ft Lauderdale Airport right on time, good thing, because Benjie might have lost circulation in his legs.

Got the rental car, and as we were pulling out, the tire pressure light went on. So they switched us. To this. We felt ridiculous. But we had no problem finding it in parking lots! And have you ever heard that flashy cars get pulled over more often? It's true. But that's a story for Monday.



So since it was a "cold snap" (hahahahahahahaha) in Miami that day and only 65 degrees...horrors! We went to Tea for Two for lunch (yummmmmmmm), walked around Lincoln Road, and went to The Frieze for sorbet. Then we went to the boardwalk by 41st and Collins and walked and read books. Us and the 80 year old Bubbies and Zaydes. I kid you not. I also watched people jog the boardwalk and got increasingly worried about Sunday. Here's Benjie at the boardwalk.


Then, to continue our reign as Bubbies and Zaydes, we went to dinner at Grill Time. At 5:45 pm. Yes, 5:45. No, we did not have kids with us. But it was either that or 9:30, and we were sleeping at my friend Steph's house that night and wanted to get there earlier rather than later. So we went at 5:45 with the Bubbies, Zaydes, and families with small children. No matter, it was YUM!

Then we took the drive over to Steph and Mary's and had a lovely evening. I bought clothing for my new nephew Yitziey from her neighbor that bought an insane amount of boy's clothing to resell as an investment, we drank Italian Martinis Margaritas, and they mocked me wearing flip flops and I mocked them wearing winter coats. In 65 degree weather. I mixed up her daughters' names. I am still embarrassed. They were gracious about it.

We went to sleep. Day One of vacay...over.

FRIDAY

Steph and the kiddies left at like 8ish. We got up, drank the lovely coffee they left us in their very fancy Grind and Brew coffeemaker (note to BENJIE: This would make an excellent gift to your lovely wife), and we headed out to the hotel.

Got to the hotel at 11:30. They told us we couldn't check in until 4. I was not nice. Benjie said I was rude, I say I was merely persistent. Whatevs. We went to lunch at Jerusalem Pizza with Avi and Rachel (their picture will show up later on in the post marathon pics), then we ran to Publix to buy yummy yogurt and other snackies for Shabbos, and got back to the hotel about 1:30, when we were able to check in "early". Benjie says for sure they spit in our glasses and wanted to short sheet our bed. Ha ha.

We then spent the rest of the day...at the pool. Ahhh bliss. I {heart} the pool. Really really really.


Awww aren't we cute? This picture is actually from Monday but go with it.
It's suuuch a nice pool. It has that infinity edge and looks out over the bay. Divine. We went up at about 5:15 to get ready for Shabbos which was at 5:38-amazing how fast you can get ready with no kiddies! Then we went back to the pool, where we hung out with various people (Hi Raphi!) after dinner. We had some really ummm..quality? beverages courtesy of the Camp Simcha Guys. All I can say is that it is just wrong to be mixing neon drinks in Team Lifeline water bottles.

SHABBOS/SATURDAY

Benjie went to services in the morning, I sat by the pool. We ate lunch. We sat by the pool. Rinse. Repeat.

Small world? We sat with a woman at lunch who carpooled last year with my sister in law Tamar. Who would've thought?

Then Saturday night was the pre-race pasta party. It was nice. There was a nice video. A mom spoke. I spoke last year, remember? It was inspirational.

We went to sleep early-ish. Because Sunday was....

RACE DAY!

4:00 am wakeup...I was up from 3 am on.
Ate my normal breakfast of champions pre-race...Drakes Cakes. Don't knock it until you've tried it.
And let me tell you, it worked! I ROCKED THE MARATHON! I couldn't believe it. I really hadn't trained anywhere near as much as I should have, and I just plugged along!

Oh wait, backtrack. I got interviewed by the ING people pre-race. Moshe (head of Team Lifeline, my old Chai Lifeline Midwest director) asked me if I could be interviewed. And to say "Team Lifeline/Chai Lifeline" as much as possible. Now I thought I was being interviewed for a Team Lifeline video. Nope. I was interviewed, along with a Crohns/Colitis guy (Team In Training?) by an ING guy. I sounded like a bumbling idiot. Sorry, Mo. Crohns Guy? Very smooth. Lots of numbers. I was all like "I run the marathon on Team Lifeline, because, ya know, my son goes to Camp Simcha, we have 230 runners and have raised over a million dollars, etc etc". But I sounded like an idiot. What I wanted to say is: "Crohns guy? Hah! You've got stomach ailments? We've got sick and dying kids! Top that!" Well I can say that because, well, I am a parent of said sick kid.

Back to the run. I really rocked it! Shocking. I plugged along, running the whole time, until mile 7 or 8. I ran up to mile 6 with Rachel and Avi. Hi guys!



Don't they look cute? Well, being as Avi did not train, he did awesome. Ran up to mile 6. When I left them in my dust. Haha. Oh no! The picture is gone. Will reload it tomorrow at work. OK it's back.

Then I ran with another girl up to mile 8 or so (walked a little bit). Then from mile 9 to the end I ran with another girl. Which was good because I was kinda...tired. My time was good. I think it might be better than they gave me. So I sent them a dispute form. Will update as events warrant.

Benjie was waiting for me at mile 11. Here are some pics of random runners.



Hi Ari! Hi Malky! The Benschers have been running on Team Lifeline since its inception 4 years ago. Malky is a speed walker. She speed walked the full marathon. This year she just went for a leisurely jog with her hubby.

Random guy. But aren't us Team Lifeliners sporty?

Another random guy. If you recognize who it is, anyone, let me know!


Oh look! It's me! Post marathon. That's Raphi and another camp guy behind me. I was very sad. I thought I beat Raphi. But alas, he is 21 and young, and I am 31 and old. He beat me. But then again, he did cheat and start in an A corral where there was no congestion. So maybe I beat you, Raphi, because I didn't cheat?? :)

We were back at the hotel by 11 am.

Funny story? There were TEAM LIFELINE shuttles. You know, coach buses with a big Team Lifeline sign in the window?? So we take the whole 45 minute ride back to the hotel. Actually, it was more like an hour due to the bus driver being unable to use his GPS taking us on the scenic route. So we pull up. We're all getting off. This guy looks up at me: "Is this the last stop for the shuttle?" I say to him "This is a TEAM LIFELINE shuttle! Not an ING shuttle" He looks perplexed. I continue: "This is the ONLY stop! But you can ride it all the way back!" Can you imagine running a half marathon and then having to sit on a bus for almost two hours for nothing????? Yikes.

I was showered and in the hot tub by noon.

Where I stayed for the next two hours.

Until the post race victory party, where I ate my body weight in food. I was. so. freaking. famished.

Returned to the pool/hot tub area for another few hours.

Then we went upstairs to the room and snoozed and watched some true crimes show on MSNBC until we went out to Bissalah for dinner.

I had a fatout. No clue what it was. It was a pile of fried dough/feta/mozzarella/black olive/mushroom goodness. And it was good. And soooooooo bad for me. Along with my smoothie made with whole milk. But heck, I'd just run a half marathon. And if I couldn't eat it then, when else could I?

I was asleep by 10:30. And I was wiped.

MONDAY

Woke up 8:30ish. Went down to pool.

Stayed there till 2 pm.

Went to lunch at JP Bistro. YUMMY!

Went to CVS because Shosh told me that they had kid's toothpaste was on sale for $.19. They didn't have any. Boo hoo.

Then we went to the beach. Hi Benjie at the beach!


oh yes...the pulled over story.

We were tootling down Hallendale Beach Blvd or whatever it's called. Next thing we know, a police man is standing in the middle of the road holding a radar gun and waving us over. Benjie looks at me, perplexed. We honestly had not a clue what we'd done. It seems that we were in a school zone. Speed limit 15. We were going 30. We looked around and noticed that everyone was going....15. As in crawling down the street. We told him we were from out of town and he took pity on us and let us go. It was that bright yellow car, I tell ya!

So after the beach we went to the airport and returned the the freaking frozen tundra of Chicago. What is wrong with us? Why do we live here? We're idiots.

And that, my dears, was Sara and Benjie's big marathon adventure.

I am proud to report that, aside for the 2:37:31 that I was running the marathon, I wore my Fit Flops. The entire time.

Oh and Benjie said I should have split this up over a few posts. But I love y'all and figured I'd give it all to you at once. But I'm not sure if I'm posting tomorrow!

I Promise!

I'll update tonight.

Much to tell you.

Fun pictures to upload.

No time at work.

So I've set this post to auto-publish

Because as it does,

I WILL BE ON THE PLANE TO MIAMI!!!!


Talk to you all on Tuesday when we get home.

If my camera comes today I'll have lots of nice pictures for you.

Hello My Pretties

Look! Look! Look!

I just packed for Florida.

Look what I packed!!

My fit flops.

My heart is happy.

Very happy.

Insanely, inappropriately happy.

Is it unreasonable that I kissed them?

Benjie said I need to be committed, but I swear, as I got them out from the summer shoe box under my bed, my heart was aflutter.

Why, oh why? do we live in Chicago? It is cold. And snowy. And you cannot wear Fit Flops year round in this stinky cold city.

Ahhhh....my pretties.

We shall meet again soon.

And I apologize. I tried to be snazzy with various-ly sized type. But obviously I'm a spaz and cannot do this correctly and now it looks all ridiculous.

Edited again. It seems my work computer likes to let me be snazzy, and my home one does not. So now it looks normal.

A Whole Bunch of Randomness

So I just realized that it's like 2 in the afternoon and I have abandoned all my lovely bloggy friends today.

I really don't have much to say.

Shana has strep. WOOHOO!!! Strep is possibly the best childhood illness ever. Why, you ask? They are fine within one or two doses. In Shana's case, she is generally fine within two hours of the first dose. And yesterday proved to be no exception. She got her first dose at 12:30pm ,and was feeling better by 2pm. I kid you not. It's insanity.

And btw her doctor appointment was at 10:45, and she didn't have her antibiotics until 12:30. Why? Because I had to go to two different stores. Why? Because the first store (Walgreens) did not honor my competitor's coupon for a gift card with a new prescription. And darn it, I wanted that freaking gift card! So I called my pediatrician's office back and they so nicely called it in to CVS for me. So it took forever. But between Benjie last week and Shana this week, I have $60 in CVS gift cards!!! WOOHOO!!


Jakie came home from school on Friday with only one sneaker:

"I don't know what happened, Mommy. I went to school with both sneakers in my bag but whenI opened my backpack when I got to school there was only one! It was like magic"

Sure. Whatever.

So yesterday was open school day (that's a topic for another day. Soooo bad for working moms). I stopped into the office on the way out, and EUREKA! his sneaker was sitting there in the lost and found. Wonders never cease.


Lastly, I'm getting really, really excited for my Florida Marathon trip! Benjie and I leave on Thursday morning and are coming home Monday night...I cannot wait! So much sun to sit in and yummy kosher restaurants to eat at. If you've been recently and there are any new ones we need to check out, please let me know!

I just checked the weather forecast...where are the 80 degree days? :( :( it's only going to be in the 70s...but it's not supposed to rain. Watch it pour. But I suppose 70 is better than the 15 it currently is here in Chicago.


Still waiting on the new camera...much to show you all.