Well, it was a busy week, but I still managed to do the switch - I am currently blogging from the beta version. They main difference for me is the homepage - it's nicer looking. Also, when you go to "Edit Posts" it also shows how many comments, which I don't think regular blogger does.
You can do a lot of fun stuff with your template, which I tried - the coolest thing is the color shuffling tool - it randomizes the color of different aspects of your blog with the colors that you have already chosen - the only issue is that if you changed your template (like I did), you lose those changes. They keep a copy of your old template so you can go back, which I did, because I couldn't figure out how to keep the things I changed (like the comments opening on the page, or showing only new comments) in the new blogger.

So, my busy week... I had my first pediatric nursing test, and got an A (yay!!) which was really exciting. Today I went to an information session at SUNY Downstate for their RN-BSN program. I was really nervous, but I spoke to the credit/gpa evaluator person, and she said that I was "competitive" - which is really Really exciting.

And, of course, all of my classes decided to give papers due over the chaggim, so that's been fun trying to get done, especially since there are NO MORE SUNDAYS.

So, thats what's been happening. I haven't seen my husband for a week because of classes and studying, and tonight is long slichot, so he's gonna be out for a while... maybe we'll get so spend some time together over Rosh Hashana. That would be nice.

I'm doing it

Okay, After this post, I'm going to take the plunge to try better blogging. So, if I dissappear, you'll know that I'm lost in the world of Betas.

Better Blogging?

So, there's this Blogger in Beta thing, has anyone tried that? I'm always in to trying things in beta, but they said that if you try it you can't go back.
So, please - let me know if you've tried it, and what you think.

School is Cool

So, I'm back at school.

Yay.

No, really -- so far so good. My nursing teacher's great, and my clinical instructor is really sweet. Last year's pediatric nursing class had a terrible teacher, and apparently they weren't so happy with her, so she suddenly took a sabatical, leaving us with a GREAT teacher. I'm also taking History of the Soviet Union, which is actually really interesting. My teacher doesn't seem sweet or anything, but she's really interested in the subject, which makes for great teaching. I'm taking Abnormal Psych, which SHOULD be a good class, but the teacher's REALLY boring. Really, really boring. 3 people got up and left in the middle of the first class, because she's so boring, and it's a night class - once a week, which means that it's from 6:30 to 9:50, which is like FOREVER. And it's forever of my longest day... I start at 8 AM and have only one hour - 5:30-6:30 break. So by the time I get there I'm exhausted, and I have to sit through her monotone, it's not the greatest situation.

Anyways, at least pediatrics is good - that's the most important thing.

More About Israel

Family Time:




Town, on Motzei Shabbos:


Angels for Lunch:


Old City Day:






So, that was our trip in picture form.

I know, it's been a really long time, but I was in Israel, and didn't have any time to post, and then I got back on Tuesday, and was so tired... and school started. Okay, no excuses, I'm back.

So, we spent 8 days in Israel. Which is really short, but enough to remind us why we want to move there. We stayed in Yerushalayim the whole time, and were completely busy, it was the perfect vacation.

Here are some pictures:

Me'ah Shearim:


KFC:


Fair on Emek Refaim:


Falafels in town:


Guy davening:


Meeting my friend who made Aliyah in 2nd grade:


Israel Museum:


Yosef & his breakfast:


More later...

Shosh has a fun meme up on her blog. So I copied it. Here goes:

1.Grab the nearest book.
2.Open the book to page 123.
3.Find the fifth sentence.
4.Post the text of the next 3 sentences on your blog along with these instructions.

The book closest to me was "The Other Boleyn Girl" by Philippa Gregory. A great book for historical fiction lovers. I couldn't put it down. Carried it everywhere.

So, here's goes, page 123:
"'Hear this, Mary. I am playing my own game and I don't want you interrupting. Nobody will know anything until I am ready to tell them, and then they will know everything too late.'"

And you'll have to read it yourself to find out about her game.

It's been awhile

since I last posted. There hasn't been much going on. I've been working, sometimes, at the local day camp... making their newsletter, working in the office, teaching a crocheting elective... not doing much, but thanks so the extra money we're going to be able to go to Israel this year. I'm so excited. Especially after reading this.

I had a wedding last night - it was great and all, but I think I got food poisoning, which is less than fun.

I've been working out a lot this summer, which is good, because I haven't done that in a loooong time, and it's really not healthy to not have exercise. I started at the college, but the gym there stinks. There are 3 working treadmills and 2 working bikes and 1 working stair master, and you constantly have to wait for other people to get off. In the weight room there's only one set of 10 lb weights, because they don't expect girls to come in (and--i should add, laugh at us when we do). Also, in the cardio room, there are mirrors on all the walls, so that you have to stair at yourself while you're red and sweaty and gross.
So, we started going to a real gym, and I LOVE it there. There's a complete lack of mirrors by the cardio stuff, which makes me feel completely anonymous. There are TVs, which makes everything feel easier. AND there's a 30 minute express workout, which is like Curves - exercises every muscle in your body with step between each station. It's great. Oh, and they discourage body builders from going there, so that you're not working out near these scary huge people, and they're not using all the equipment. And it's HUGE, so there's never any wait for anything.

Wow, I just wrote a really lot about going to the gym. I'm gonna stop now.

Gay Pride Parade

I promise, I'm not a liberal. I'm a republican... but...
I just saw a sign in my shul yesterday to contact XY&Z organizations to do whatever they can to stop the gay pride parade in yerushalayim. It gave me this terrible fear of what's going to be. There's a terrible feeling against gays in our community-- and I understand, they're an abomination according to the Torah, but what does that mean for us? Does it mean that we should scare them away from the community? Make them hate our religion because of what we did to them as teenagers? Or should we embrace them, just tell them that they are not allowed to act on their gay inclinations.
I can only imagine the feelings of the gay teenage boy - of course, no one knows he's gay - and how must he feel, seeing that sign in his shul. And oy, what's going to happen at the parade--which, let's face it, is going to happen. What kind of massive Chillul Hashem is going to be? How much can we NOT afford to make a chillul Hashem at a time like this?
I dont know, maybe Hashem wants us to make a Chillul Hashem about some thing like this. Does this count as today's avodah zarah? How do we decide something so huge?

Vacation is a beautiful thing

Seriously, gorgeous.
I had two friends over for shabbos, which was really nice. They stayed 'till Sunday morning... it was really nice - I got a chance to hangout, like - fun hanging, and I got to talk, seriously, about life, religion and other important things.
Sunday was spent with Tzvi, which is always a pleasure. Monday the plan was to see Superman in IMAX 3D, that didn't really work out for us - it was sold out. Of course, by the time we got there I was so totally dehydrated, after the gym and the 800 degree weather, that I just couldn't walk outside again. So, we saw the Da Vinci Code. We agreed to disagree with the critics, we liked it better than the book.
Tuesday's kinda a blur. After coming home and barely being able to move I overslept. Then I went out to lunch, and when I came home I dont think I moved much. Oh, except to clean the bathroom. I got all this energy around 5ish and scrubbed the bathroom from top to bottom, changed the shower curtain liner and everything.
Wednesday was a great day, except for my failure in sneaker shopping. I went to the gym, came home and showered, and then 3 of my friends came over and we hung out for a while, it was so nice.
Today was kinda boringish... spent the whole day making the Young Israel Day Camp's Newsletter... not done yet.
Tomorrow should be a pretty chilled day. I'll probably wake up late and excersize in the house, since the gym's closed on Fridays.
That's it.

Summer

Parenting

I'm not a parent, so if you're gonna read this and criticize me because I don't know what I'm talking about, agreed, so save your breath.
However - here are my thoughts. Parents today are spoiling their kids. I filled in for my friend today at the day camp office. A parent called to find out if their kid got Youth Corp (meaning they'll get paid more because the government is paying them). I learned that this parent calls every day to find out. Another parent called for her daughter, a counselor, because she doesn't like her group. The parent told the camp that if they didn't change her group the counselor would quit. The camp said, "So quit," and she did. Someone else told me that some of their 7-year-old campers wont sit on the floor.
If I was a counselor, and didn't like my group - my parents would say "deal with it." It would be up to me if I wanted to see if they would change my group. It would be up to me if I wanted to quit. My mom would NEVER call for me.
If I was a 7 year old, my mom would say, "get over it, sit. You're in camp, you listen to your counselor."
What happened to that mentality?
Now, when a kid does something wrong, it's the counselor/teacher/principals fault. How did this happen? My parents generation didn't do it, and my generation seems to agree that this style of parenting is totally ridiculous. So what happened to that generation in the middle?

Happiness is...

I took this photo on July 4th. Behind the American Museum of National History is this really cute sprinkler type place for kids - they were all over running around. So, while our friends waited for us to meet them at the museum, my husband and I stopped to take some pictures of the kids.

Photos

So, my husband found this great website Photojojo, and they sent me to another fun site, Photo Friday. Photojojo is a biweekly newsletter of fun stuff to do with your photos. Photo Friday is a weekly challenge for photographers, from children to professional, of something to capture. So - I'm gonna try it. I'm totally a novice, but it's fun.

New York, New York

So, I went to Maryland twice over the last month, for a bridal shower and then, last night, for a wedding. Both times it occured to me that every road leads to NY. When driving south, you go south to Trenton, then south to Philadelphia, then south to Baltimore. But the second you get on the road in Baltimore going North, you're going north to NY.

It always makes me feel good when I'm on my way home, like - yup, I'm going the right way to the right place. It's a warm fuzzy feeling.

Anticipated Sequels to the Children's Book "Everbody Poops"

BY MELANIE MINZES

- - - -

Everyone Lies

Everyone Hates Brussels Sprouts

Everyone Has Premarital Sex

Everyone Dies

Women's Vote

I'm in class now. Yes - I'm in class and blogging, but I'm blogging about class, so I guess I'm kinda paying attention. We're learning Women's History, watching a documentary about Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony.

Imagine being in Seneca Falls. Stanton reads the changed declaration of independence, to include women, and adds a "Bill of Rights," including the right for women to vote. What is your reaction? Wouldn't you think there would be cheers for this idea?

There weren't. There was mumbling. Everyone there thought she was crazy. Even the women who helped put together the Seneca Falls Convention for Women's Rights. Mott, one of these women, said, "Lizzie, you'll make a fool of us." The person who backed her up in this declaration was Fredrick Douglas, former slave.

Can you imagine? People really thought she was crazy to ask that women should vote! It was another 75 years before this right was given. It's impossible for me to understand Here are these women, getting together to fight for women's rights, and they think she's crazy...

Weddings

We went to one of the most beautiful weddings I've ever been to tonight.
The guys is Tzvi's friend, and he's had a tough time over the past couple of years. His first wife was, um, lets say - a life lesson, and his mom died two years ago. I've spoken to him a couple times, but I've never seen him look so happy.
He spoke under the chuppah, right when he came in. He explained that the yellow rose he was holding was his mother's favorite flower, as well as what she walked down with at her wedding, and the song, "Sunrise, Sunset" the song she walked down to. He then spoke to her, something along the lines of, "Even though you're not here, I know you're watching down on me." There was not a dry eye in the house.
Fine, so that part wasn't happy - that was heart wrenching. But watching him with his new kallah, and dancing with his friends - that was happy. Also happy, his brother is getting married in two weeks, his father is getting married in August, and his younger brother's Bar Mitzvah is this year. So, this was the first of many simchas coming up for the family, and there was just this total happiness surrounding everything.
The kallah's family is conservative, so the first half of the wedding was for the orthodox group, and the second half was for the conservative group. And watching the two of them dance together, there was so much love, so much happiness, so much looking forward to the future.

Who are you? Part II

Believe it or not, this question just came up again.
I'm taking two summer classes - Women History/ Femenist Theory and Sociology of Marriage and Family. It's actually working out very nicely, because I was able to answer questions today in history because of the reading I did last night for soc... very convinient.
Anyways, point it - in my soc class, my teacher (Dr. Sigler, a Jewish old crazy man) handed us index cards and asked for information - name, contact information, marital status, and he asked us to answer 4 questions - the first one, "Who are you?"
He read a few of the answers, most people tried to answer, to discribe themselves. He read mine, too, and there was a resounding "Oooohhh..."

Who are you?

That was my issue when I was in Israel for the year. You don’t want to answer that question the typical way, “I’m a nurse/lawyer/CPA. I’m so-and-so’s daughter/wife/mother. I live where ever.” So, how does one answer that question?

The question cannot be answered. However, after hours of pondering this question, I believe that who a person “is” is a collection of his or her actions and reactions. How a person behaves, and how a person reacts to other’s behavior is their essence.

Any alternative answers?