Tel Hai Street

Welcome to Jerusalem.  Welcome to my new blog.  Here is my attempt at illustrating what goes on in our life over the next 2-3 years.   I'll try to update this blog as often as I can.  I'll keep pictures posted here and at our dropshots website (www.dropshots.com/julialivgorman).

In the past few days, we have started to settle in to a new routine.  Thomas is on the new time zone and Julia is close to following her normal routine.  We haven't been able to get her to sleep before 10pm but we'll try again tonight.  Today she woke up at 7:20am so I'm optimistic.  Last night she surprised us with a few calls to go to the bathroom.  Why she decided last night to try the potty - I have no idea — but probable a new delay tactic.  Either way, it doesn't matter because each time she actually produced something.  We talked about trying again this morning and we have been successful with a few accidents.  After a while, she decided potty training wasn't fun anymore — despite the opportunity for potty candy so on went the diaper.  Hopefully after her nap, I can persuade her to try again.  Baby steps.

As you can probably guess, a huge success was arranging internet in the house.  Finally! I'm eager to Skype with all of you and show you our place.  I'll try to add pictures soon.  So far I haven't been so good at snapping pictures. Where is Carla to help document all these new moments with her awesome camera??

Brian has walked to work now twice and it takes about 15-20 minutes each way.  It is HOT right now so I can't expect it is very comfortable in a suit but he hasn't said anything.  The forecast is hot and sunny for the next 10 days.  It doesn't seem to vary too much — highs in the upper 80s and 0% chance of rain.  I'm not sure when to expect the temperature to drop off.   We just signed up to be members at a pool down the street and it is open until the end of October.  The nights here are very pleasant and comfortable.  They are perfect for sitting out on the terrace and enjoying a glass of wine.  Our view from the terrace is nice and you can see part of the city but it's not nearly as amazing as my friend, Lexi's view from her terrace.  From her terrace, you can see the Dome of the Rock, the Mount of Olives and parts of the West Bank - including the wall that has been built on its edge.  It is breathtaking.

I explored the neighborhood today and found the swimming pool which has a kiddie pool and an area for lap swim.  Most days we can all go swimming but there are times reserved twice a week for men only and another for women only. I also pointed out to Julia that there is a big big slide into the pool.  It looks a little to big for her now but I'm guessing that she will be climbing up there before we know it.  I also found a reasonable grocery store next to the pool so I can get most things there and not feel like I have to bother Lexi to drive me to the grocery store.  The store is crowded with things on every inch of the wall but I was able to fit my big red stroller with the two kids down the aisle.  I stopped there to get something cold to drink and promised Julia we could go to the park after finding the pool.  We only knocked down a few things on the way out of the store.  Julia's chocolate milk only kept her quiet for the 2 minutes that it took to drink it but it felt good that I have navigated the store on my own without Lexi and successfully found granola bars and more formula (some kind of Similac but I couldn't understand all the choices) for Thomas.   I got half way home and I realized that something had fallen behind Thomas's back.  I'm not really sure what they are — maybe a bag of Israeli candy. It probably fell into the stroller as we knocked a few things over.  So now I have this extra bag of candy that I didn't pay for.  Do I go back and try to explain what happened for a small bag of candy?  It's too much for me to figure out what to do now so it's still sitting in the bottom of the stroller.

Thanks for reading my blog.  I'll keep you posted!!!