What does the elephant say?

Lots of fascinating new videos uploaded to youtube. Search for shirard1. Here's a teaser...

the contest is over...

and i won. i found me a full-time job. so i've earned myself my undying love and affection and a real prize, which turned out to be a clothing shopping spree. sorry for all you contest losers. maybe you should have tried harder? :)

Hello all Isenbergs,

The parental units are back from our trip to the East Coast. We have made Aliya L'Pittsburgh, got a grand tour of Shmuly and Avital's new house. It is really lovely, and whoever hasn't seen it yet is invited to visit. We also went down to Baltimore and dropped off Davy at Ner Yisroel. His roommates this year are Eli Grinblatt and Tzuriel Amster, two Chicagoans. We also checked up on Mutty, who is busy learning at Rabbi Shlanger's yeshiva. We got home at 3:30 a.m. Now, only Itchy and Chaife are left at home, and Chaife is leaving a week from Sunday. So put in your reservations now for Rosh Hashana and Sukkos. Unlike Romanian, I take reservations up to the last minute. It's hard to believe that the summer is almost over - I always get a little sad at the passing of another year. Baruch Hashem, we have had some nice simchas over the last year. May this coming year IY"H be even better and may we see much nachas from all of you. Good luck to one and all in the coming school year. Keep on posting.

Love,

Mommy

Updates from the holyland

Well, thanks to Yehudis we were invited on to the blog. B"H things have been settling down around here. Sruly went back to yeshiva on Rosh Chodesh. And we are waiting for our shipment, it is supposed to come this week, keyword "supposed to" yet, if the shipping guy would tell us where it is, we may have a clue as to when it's coming. But, we have kept ourselves busy, Friday we started to paint our kitchen. Boy, we didn't know how much work (and mess) goes into painting walls, I had to buy another can of paint today (don't ask how long it took us to find brown paint, who knew!) Here are some pictures of our new "pad". Also here are some pictures of our challa baking excursion. And you can check out our great fun with mashed potatoes...

Also we just downloaded skype, now we just need a corporate sponsor for our camera (hint hint). Our screen name is Isenberg613. We also have a handy-dandy American phone line, which is a Chicago area code (cool) call if your bored at 2 am your time.... 773-647-2920, we look forward to hearing from everyone :)

~ Sruly and Adina

Happy Birthday Hadassah!

Although today is Hadassah's birthday, Dovi and I decided to hold our celebration yesterday, both to accommodate various relatives who were taking vacations and because Friday is not an ideal day for a birthday party. Thank you to all of those that attended. Dovi and I truly appreciate you taking time out to help us celebrate. To those of you who were not there, whether out of town, ill, or otherwise pre-occupied, here are a few shots of Hadassah's birthday bash.

Enjoying her first piece of cake ever!

The Spread

The castle cake

The Pre-Party

The Dress
Hooray for cake!

It's ALIVE

So Thanks to Tattie and Mr. Dissen, James has been revived and is expected to make a full recovery. It kinda stinks that I already purchased a new computer. My new sony should be coming tomorrow - btw, I need name suggestions. So it is not %100 yet, but I think that Itchy will become the new owner of James. I don't know if I can give him up - he really was beloved to me! We'll see what happens. Anyway, I just thought I should share the good news - in fact I'm using James right now to write this post!
-Chaife

ramblings of an insomniac

This is what I wrote at 3 am two nights ago. . . wasn't sure if i should post, but figured why not. may even start getting u guys back to posting more regularly....

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Yo, mi famila. wassup? long time no post on this thing, and well, I can't sleep so I figured it'd be nice to give the folks in Israel something to read during their waking hours.

I am tired, mentally and physically exhausted and smell oddly of rubbing alcohol (thanks Esti!) but my apt is almost ready to be cleansed of the bugs that shall not be named. Most likely the dreaded B-bug that 1 out of 17 NY'ers are dealing with these days. (I thank my friend Elana for that statistic) Kinda makes me want to move to Montana, Nebraska or really any state ending with "A". (Steer clear of Arizona though  - i hear they're not too far behind with bug issues of their own. ask Esti for more info - i haven't been reading much of the news lately)

According to my doc after a number of treatments for moquito bites, hypocondria, scabies (i kid you not), or worse?! with modern technology and a biopsy of a bite they did discovered that the "wonderful" bites/rash/allergic breakout/hives i now posess may be caused by a mosquito, spider or some other lovely insect that has taken up residence with me. So i guess hypocondria is out. what a relief!

Whatever the cause, i expect by this time tomorrow anything living in my apt will no longer be living (that is, aside from me of course) God bless exterminators. May they live long and kill (bugs) often.

I think the past few weeks many of the Isenbergs and co. have had a bit of a rough time. Hope T-Dawgs feelin better, and Shira's more calm - and parents are less worried about their NY daughter who cant' seem to shut off the waterworks when it comes to talking about multiple legged creat- well, lets not go there for all our sakes. and baruch dayan haemes -my condolences to Chaifenstein on the loss of her beloved computer James.  (Go with a SONY this time!!)

Anyhoo, just wanted to post and get this blog moving again. Thanks to Lisa for keeping the momentum!! Post pics? I'm curious to see what Chaifenator and T made in art class. Post pics? And how was the Isenbergs of WRP*'s trip to the holy land?! (post pics :-D  ??)

Oh almost forgot. I want to add a few of our readers on to be authors too... you know who you are. (just in case you don't: Y&C chicago,  S&A israel) so send/resend me your emails and I'll add you to the list happily.


Lila tov to all and to all a good night.
~PM

*West Rogers Park

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Today's update: baruch Hashem yom yom that the heat remediation went fine according to the experts and my apt is ok to live in.  (hopefully it'll cool off soon... so i can live comfortably) thanks to all who helped me out and suffered through "crazy hudis" my apt is almost back in one piece and tomorrow it's back to work.

And Itchie's on FACEBOOK!?!? wow.  

Our South Haven Getaway

As most or all of you already know, we took a week+ vacation to South Haven. Here's a run down of what we did.

We left the house close to 8pm on Thurs. night (2 Thurs. ago). We drove through the night, arriving Fri. morning before 7am (Eastern). The ride was mostly uneventful, with just a few stops. At one rest stop, Yosef spoke to a woman who seemed to be Jewish and was hitchhiking from NY to Denver. I think this was near the east end of Ohio that he saw her. We briefly entertained the idea of helping her out since she was Jewish, but decided we really couldn't risk the safety of our kids by taking a complete stranger in the car with us. The only other incident was getting pulled over in Indiana for driving 80 in a 70mph zone. B"H we (read: me, Lisa) only got a warning. The kids slept somewhat fitfully in the car and did not want to go back to bed upon our arrival in SH. Yosef and I, of course, did go back to bed as soon as we could.

Friday's activities: Sand dune rides (with Chaife!) and the pool. Also, Zaidie had a sandbox put up in front of the house, and the kids had fun with that.

Shabbos: We got to spend time with Sruly and Adina before their departure to the Holy Land, and Itchie and Davy came over and ate at the house for Shabbos lunch.

Sunday: Dutch Village (with Savta, Chaife and the Ben Porat kids) and a ride on Zaidie's boat (it was Ari B-P's first ride in the boat!), although we didn't actually make it to the lake.

Monday: Curious Kids Museum and the beach below it, in St. Joseph. Tip: If you ever venture to go by yourself with 5 kids to a beach, find a better way to carry the baby and supplies than a stroller and a cooler! Strollers do not go well over the sand. The beach did not go over well with the kids. It was too hard to actually bring everything to near the water, but the sand was too hot to play in and walk on.

Did I mention that other than Sunday, Yosef did not join me on our outings? So, after our beach experience on Monday, I started leaving Hadassah at the house with Yosef so I only had to contend with 4 kids.

Tuesday: The Ottawa County Fair. It was near Holland, a little farther away. It was a great hit with the kids! We saw exotic animals, rode lots of rides, and looked at the 4-H animals too. We did one booth game and each kid got to choose a small prize.

Wednesday: This was our "slow" day. It was kind of overcast and we had gotten a late start. So, we went to Walmart and bought some craft-type activities in case we were going to be stuck indoors. We got sand art, balloons to twist into shapes, and foam art projects. Later, since it didn't rain, we went blueberry picking (at Degrandchamps) and then swimming.

Thursday: We went to Kalamazoo. We went to the Kalamazoo Valley Museum and the Air Zoo. Amazingly, both were free, so I only had to pay for a parking meter near the KVM, and got away with a pretty cheap day!

Friday: I made blueberry cakes with some of the many blueberries that we picked (we mostly being Yanky). The kids spent some time working on their Walmart crafts. I watched the kids at the pool for a little while (the boys' pool was empty, so I watched the 4 older kids there). Then, Zaidie arrived and we went for a boat ride again, this time all the way to the lake. Yay! That was fun. Zaidie and Yosef even jumped into the lake, and Zaidie demonstrated his expertise with a snorkeling mask.

Shabbos: This time there were just us, Savta, Zaidie, Chaife, and Chaife's friend, Yael. Itchie and Davy stopped by, but not for any meals this time. After Shabbos, we packed up and hit the road. Driving through the night again.

Sunday: We arrived in Pittsburgh at the Shmuvitals around 7am. They were gracious hosts, and they wake up early on Sundays. Why were you guys both up by 7:30????? We got to see the Aronins, and take over their room to get a little rest before leaving again. Did we ever figure out if one Hadassah is taller than the other? We left the Shmuvitals around noon (with the possibility of not being invited back ever again due to a certain comment I made about a haircut, or lack thereof), and went to the Pittsburgh pizza shop. From there, we started heading home, with a stop on the way at Seabase, a kiddie place with mazes to climb through, mini golf, and arcades. After that, we started making good time until Sara threw up. B"H, we were near a rest stop, so we took care of that and got gas for the car while we were at it. Unfortunately, I forgot to check Hadassah's diaper at that stop, so she spent the next 30 miles or so crying till we got to the next rest stop and took care of that. Once we got out of that rest stop, we were stuck in stop and go traffic for a lo-o-ong time. Once we got out of that, B"H, the rest of the trip was fine and we got home around 9.

Monday: Back to normal!