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Amazing Race Reminder

Just a reminder that The Amazing Race 7 is starting tommorow night on CBS at 9pm ET/PT.
Enjoy!

Sugar and Spice...

I am constantly stunned that Gila is turning into a real "girly girl". Sure, she likes to play in the snow and can throw a baseball pretty well- but she keeps exhibiting real little girl behaviors. I know this shouldn't seem shocking since she is a 3 and a half year old girl, but I was never such a girly girl. Sure, I liked playing with Barbies but that was more because I liked making up imaginitive stories with them. I was never into tea parties or princesses.

Gila was invited to a "princess party" (or as she pronounced it a princess "pawty") a few weeks ago that she was instructed to wear "princess attire" to. She looked forward to this party for weeks (partially because the invitation came around a month in advance of the party). We walked into the party and all the girls were dressed like princesses. I thought it was lame, she LOVED it. Every day after school, Gila makes me put her ballerina/princess costume on. Before, we were watching baby mozart and she saw a unicorn. She said, "oh, it is a beautiful flying horse with wings!". My mother promised her a gold bracelet when she became toilet trained (which she finally did!) and Gila was soooo excited! I think it is so adorable that she is such a typical little girl. I just have to keep reminding myself that she is the normal one and not me!

On Children...

The kids have no school today due to the snow. There is no snow. They had off most of this past week and some of last week. Help! I just got this forwarded in my e-mail. Enjoy!

WHY GOD CREATED CHILDREN (AND IN THE PROCESS GRANDCHILDREN)

To those of us who have children in our lives, whether they are our own, grandchildren, nieces, nephews, or students...here is something to make you chuckle. Whenever your children are out of control, you can take comfort from the thought that even God's omnipotence did not extend to His own children After creating heaven and earth, God created Adam and Eve. And the first thing he said was "DON'T!"

"Don't what?" Adam replied.

"Don't eat the forbidden fruit." God said.

"Forbidden fruit? We have forbidden fruit? Hey Eve..we have forbidden fruit!!!!!"

"No Way!"

"Yes, way!"

"Do NOT eat the fruit!" said God.

"Why"

"Because I am your Father and I said so!" God replied, wondering why He hadn't stopped creation after making the elephants. A few minutes later, God saw His children having an apple break and He was ticked! "Didn't I tell you not to eat the fruit?" God asked.

"Uh huh," Adam replied.

"Then why did you?" said the Father.

"I don't know," said Eve.

"She started it!" Adam said

"Did not!"

"Did too!"

"DID NOT!"

Having had it with the two of them, God's punishment was that Adam and Eve should have children of their own. Thus the pattern was set and it has never changed

BUT THERE IS REASSURANCE IN THE STORY! If you have persistently and lovingly tried to give children wisdom and they haven't taken it, don't be hard on yourself. If God had trouble raising children, what makes you think it would be a piece of cake for you?

THINGS TO THINK ABOUT!
1. You spend the first two years of their life teaching them to walk and talk. Then you spend the next sixteen telling them to sit down and shut up.

2. Grandchildren are God's reward for not killing your own children.

3. Mothers of teens now know why some animals eat their young.

4. Children seldom misquote you. In fact, they usually repeat word for word what you shouldn't have said.

5. The main purpose of holding children's parties is to remind yourself that there are children more awful than your own.

6. We childproofed our homes, but they are still getting in.

ADVICE FOR THE DAY: Be nice to your kids. They will choose your nursing home one day.

AND FINALLY:

IF YOU HAVE A LOT OF TENSION AND YOU GET A HEADACHE, DO WHAT IT SAYS ON THE ASPIRIN BOTTLE:

"TAKE TWO ASPIRIN" AND "KEEP AWAY FROM CHILDREN"!!!!!

(But let's be honest, who can't love those beautiful faces in the pictures?!?)

CSI Effect

ashington -- The honeymoon is over between real-life crime scene investigators and the stars who play them in the immensely popular television show "CSI."

Forensic scientists are now complaining about something they call the "CSI Effect," which is, according to Max Houck of West Virginia University, "the perception of near infallibility of forensic science after watching a few episodes of CSI."

FULL STORY

Greg and I laugh about this all the time. There is NO way that any of the stuff on CSI is realistically possible. Just from the bureaucratic standpoint- they get search warrants WAY too quickly and I am sure they use evidence that would not normally be admissable (sp?) in court. Also CSI is a government agency and there is just no way the government is providing the money for the kinds of technology (realistic or not) they are using on the shows. The final unrealistic aspect of CSI: Miami is Detective Horatio Kane. No one uses cliches that often in their everyday speech.

It is interesting that this "CSI effect" is reaching the courtrooms. Our country
(including me) watches way too much TV.

What goes around...

When I was 4 years old, my father went away on a business trip. As Murphy's Law would dictate, everything that could go wrong went wrong for my mother while my father was away. One afternoon, she got a flat tire. She was totally overwhelmed and her 4 year old daughter (moi) was driving her crazy. While she waited for AAA to come, she sat me on a lawn chair and gave me a bag of jellybeans. I think she assumed I would take a few and put them down. Well, I ate the whole bag. That evening, I regretted eating that bag of jelly beans. I was up all night throwing up. My parents marriage worked like this: My mother did homework(sort of ), My father did vomit. My mother was NOT happy. Needless to say, I haven't eating jelly beans in 24 years.

Fast forward to last Tuesday night. Greg left for a 3 day business trip. I was relatively calm and things were going great. At around 9:30, I heard Gila crying and I went up to her room. She had thrown up all over her bed, her clothes, her Princess Dora doll (I had to cut her hair). She was shaking violently. I tried to stay calm but I got nervous. The baby started crying. I called my mother and asked her to come over and help. She laughed and laughed and laughed. Poetic justice? Probably!

Sinus Headaches Vs Migraines

For as long as I can remember, I have had sinus problems. I get very frequent sinus headaches, semi frequent full blown sinus infections, and I even had sinus surgery almost two years ago (along with surgery to fix my deviated septum which was another huge factor in my headaches and general inability to breathe). I thought I was cured. Recently, I have been having pretty bad headaches again. I take advil cold and sinus and it works generally 25-40% of the time. Over the past few days, my headaches have been crazy. They keep returning in the exact same place-right over my right eye. The weather is changing and the change in barometric pressure usually wreaks havoc on my sinuses. I just can figure out why the sinus meds don't work. I finally began to do some research on this today, and thanks to google and blogdigger, I found numerous articles related to headaches that we think are sinus related but are in fact migraines.

On one hand, this makes me happy to know that there may be a reason my sinus surgery hasn't helped my so called sinus headaches. I am also relieved that I may be able to go on migraine specific medications that will stop these debilitating headaches. On the other hand, I am someowhat annoyed that my ENT never brought up the possibility of migraines and helped treat me for them as well as /instead of sinus headaches. In the meantime, I have tried to call my doctor and wouldn't you know it, he isn't in the office this week. Figures.

Stupid List

I've never done one of these stupid lists, so here goes:

Favorite Band: O.A.R. Green Day
Favorite Movie: Billy Elliot, Almost Famous, Karate Kid
Favorite Color: Green
Favorite Restaurant: Abigails
Favorite Animal: Prairie Dog
Favorite Politcal Party: Stupid Question but I am a registered Republican
Favorite Season: Spring
Favorite City: Jerusalem
Favorite Play: Our Town
Favorite Store: Target
Favorite Game: Trivial Pursuit
Favorite Sport: Nukem (spelling?)

*Which is Better*
Gold/Silver: White Gold
Pessimist/Optimist: Practical, but comes off as Pessimist
Cat/Dog: Neither Ugh.
Right-brained/Left-brained: Left with a few right-brained tendencies
Right-handed/Left-handed: Right
Bush/Kerry: Bush
Invisibility/Flying: Invisibility.
Shoes/Barefoot: Shoes
Money/Fame: Money
Religion/Science: Religion mixed with science (see Slifkin Debate...)
Ritz/Saltines: Saltines
Tall/Short: short
Love/Peace: Love

*Have You Ever*
Smoked: no
Beat Somebody Up: No
Been to Foreign Country: Yes
Kissed a Guy: Yes
Kissed a Girl: Nope
Been in a Car Wreck: Yes
Skinny-Dipped: No
Watched a Pet Die: I watched my in-law's dog have a stroke and they put him to sleep the next day.
Broke a Bone: no
Had Surgery: yes
Cut Your Own Hair: no
Dyed Your Hair: no
Streaked: no
Tried Out For Cheerleading: no
Shopped at Goodwill: no
Shopped at Abercrombie: no
Gotten Wasted: no (unless you count the family meal before my sister's wedding when I was on medication and had a bit too much wine)
Been in Love: Yes
Slept for 8-Hours Straight: Probably not in the last 5 1/2 years.
Been to Texas: yes, but I can't remember- I was 2.
Used Fake I.D.: no
Been to a Funeral: Yes
Eaten Dog Food: no
Been Surfing: no
Ridden in a Limo: Yes
Been Overweight: no
Been Pregnant: Yes
Seen the White House: Yes
Hugged a Tree: No
Made Yourself Throw Up: Yes
Made Yourself Cry: Yes
Ridden a Horse: yes
Milked a Cow: no.
Been Back Stage at a rock concert: Yes
Eaten a Bug: Not intentionally
Cried at a Movie: Yes
Stayed Up All Night: Yes
Shoplifted: Yes, when I was a little kid (gum)
Had a Near-Death Experience: Not sure
Broken the Law: Speeding
Believed in Santa: No
Been on T.V.: No
Been in a Movie: No

Greatest Moments of Your Life

On a messageboard that I occasionally visit, there is a topic posted "Greatest Moments of Your Life". I got to thinking what the greatest moments of my life have been.

The top three are definitely the births of Ezra, Gila, and Eden. There was something unbelievably magical about the labor and delivery process. Yes, there was pain (except during Eden's birth which was really fantastic), but the end product was remarkable. I know I will savor the memories of their births forever.

I was thinking about whether my wedding day was among the greatest moments of my life. I don't know. I know that being married to my husband is one of my most cherished things, but I honestly can't say that the wedding itself was up there in my experiences. I was a tad stressed and I didn't feel 100% (as evidenced by my barfing in the hotel bathroom right after the wedding). The wedding was fun and enjoyable, but our lifetime together that came after (and is still to come) is what was and is important.

Another really great moment happened when I was studying in Israel for a year following highschool. I was in the Old City for Shemini Atzeres/Simchas Torah. We davened in R' Nachman Kahana's shul in the moslem quarter for Simchas Torah. During one of the hakafos, we danced to the old Cotton Market where you can look at Har Habayit from around 30 or so feet away (I could be remembering the distance wrong) and sang "V'shavu Bonim L'gvulam". It was a remarkable moment.

Another great moment was when I graduated from Graduate School. When I was a kid, I wasn't a student. I didn't have any learning disabilities, I did ok some of the time, I did poorly other times. I really just didn't care about school. This wasn't very well looked upon in my school and specifically my grade of over achievers. The majority of my grade were the types of people who cried when they got a 90 (or heaven forbid in the 80s) on a test. For some reason, when I got to college, I started caring and I did really well. The culmination of my education was my graduate school graduation. I felt really accomplished and proud of myself at that moment.

These are some of my greatest moments. I've had some other great moments that don't need to be recounted, and I have had some not so great moments. I look forward to experiencing
many more great moments in my lifetime.

Amazing Race wrap up

OK, so Freddy and Kendra won, yada yada yada. Second time in as many seasons that my favorite couple came in second (yes, I admit it , I loved Colin and Christie).

In any event, Season 6 is over and Season 7 will be debuting in just 3 weeks. CBS has posted the teams. As you can see, Boston Rob and Amber from Survivor will be running the race. I was just talking to my cousin, Esti about this and we were discussing their chances. Neither of us likes them very much but we both agree that they will be tough competitors. They are smart players. In my opinion, unless they have extremely bad luck (a'la Lena and Christy) on a roadblock or have major taxi problems, they will probably come in within the top three. What a shame, I was leading the pack in the anti Rob and Amber during Survivor Allstars.

FYI, Amazing Race is the first extender of Rob and Amber's 15 minutes of fame. The second extender will come during May sweeps when they get married on TV curtesy of CBS. Pathetic...

UPDATE: I forgot to post my picks for the new Amazing Race. At this point, I would like to root for are Debbie and Bianca and Ron and Kelly. Once again, if either of these couples is extremely annoying or gets eliminated right away, I will have to change my mind, but these are my pre-show picks.