A Lot's Been Going On...

Alright, it's been a while. I've been getting complaints and dirty looks through Skype, so I decided that it's time to update the blog. I believe that my last post was from my first Shabbat here with the kids before Mira arrived. So, without further ado I'll recap the past month and a half with the major highlights...

First and foremost, Mira's here (just in case you didn't hear). About the same time that Mira arrived we lost our newest member of the family, Hamsty. He was missing for around 36 hours when we heard some scraping behind the oven in the kitchen. We pulled the oven out and Mira nursed him back to health- I've never seen him drink as much water as he did that day. Since then, Hamsty has been a cherished member of our family and is the constant distraction for the kids whenever they get bored. We look forward to many years of playing with Hamsty (as long as PETA doesn't see exactly how much "fun" the kids have with him).

The holidays went off pretty well. It was somewhat nerve-wracking to prepare for a 3-day Rosh HaShana, but I somehow pulled it off. Over Yom Kippur we reserved a babysitter through some website. Of course, she never showed up, but Mira did very well with the kids on her own. We had about a 25 minute break in shul between the morning and the afternoon- things to change for next year, I guess...

The cake that no one ate :(

For Sukkot, Mira organized a very nice Succah decorating event by the shul. We had a whole bunch of kids come in from the community. We bought yummy treats and cake. It was at this point that we realized that we're the only ones that actually would eat the food we brought. Everyone else needs it to be Chalav Yisroel, Pat Yisroel, Heimishe Shechita, etc, etc, etc... All in all, though, it was a fun day and everyone left happy.

A few weeks ago, Mira's parents came over. It was very nice to have them (I'm assuming that they are going to read this so I'll watch what I write). The kids had a great time hanging out with them and got to see things that we never saw. before For instance, who would have known that there is a family with a chicken coup around the corner from us. After a couple of days, though, I was getting a little stir crazy so we went on a trip to Verizon for iPhones. After that, Siri became everyone's best friend and the tensions eased. I left on Sunday (see next paragraph), but I heard that the everyone had a great time going to the Colombia Gorge and seeing the waterfalls.

Over the past three weeks, Mira and I became frequent fliers. I flew out to St. Louis for the day (Game 6) and then went the following week to Kansas City for 3 days for a conference. Last week, Mira went to New Jersey for 3 days for a Rebbetzin conference. I'm not sure what they discussed, but her cooking has definitely improved since she came back (that's going to cost me, but worth it...).

The kids have been adapting to life here wonderfully. They have tons of friends and are invited to play dates almost every day. Dina's school is run by Chabad so we get to hear her take on the Parsha every week. While discussing Avraham's relationship with his nephew, Dina told me about how he got into an argument with "Lite". At first I tried to correct her to tell her that his name isn't Lite, but Lot. Then I realized that they do things differently around here. Don't worry if this last paragraph didn't make any sense- it shouldn't...

Yesterday, I went up to the country to do some shooting (it's normal for Portland people, or so I'm told). I got to shoot a .22, an AK-47, a handgun, shotgun, and an elephant gun. Yes, it's a gun used to kill elephants. I'm not sure how many bullets it takes to put it down, but the gun can only hold 5 at a time. I guess that you just hope for the best.

I would be remiss not to welcome the newest member to our family, no it's not a hamster this time. Olivia Kopp was born on Saturday and we're very excited to get to meet her in person. Mazel Tov to Sally, Randy, Eddie, and (for the very first time) big brother Max.