Side note

I forgot to say what a wonderful dinner we had with Becca and Sarah on Friday. Shabbat pizza and beer (juice for me). We watched Bee Movie, which we had rented in order to make fun of, but then found ourselves strangely enjoying.

Becca and I went to the Bodies exhibition today which was AMAZING. Real preserved bodies, with each organ system separated so you could see it. They even had a whole section on reproduction and fetal development, which I found fascinating. My lovely squeamish husband didn't want to go, so in deference to others of his ilk I won't go into detail, only to say it was well well worth it, and I highly recommend going to the exhibit for when it comes near you.

Books I've been enjoying lately, on an amazing similar theme: Belly Laughs by Jenny McCarthy, Expecting Miracles: Finding Meaning and Spirituality in Pregnancy Through Judaism by Chana Weisberg, Be Prepared: A Practical Handbook for New Dads by Gary Greenberg, Super Kids in 30 Minutes a Day by Karen Kwiatkowski. Lest you think all I read is child-related things, however, my mom just sent me The Friday Night Knitting Club, which I intend to start this week. And we just watched Enchanted, which reminded me of MARLEENA all the way, and This Movie is Not Yet Rated, which is a piercing look at the MPAA and how movies are rated. Forget any of the books, watch the documentary, it's utterly brilliant and will forever change your opinion of Hollywood.

Still working on the belly pictures part.... I'll get there soon.

Big news

My 101st post should be something big, yes? Something definitely new. So here goes... I'm pregnant! Many of you know this already, or have guessed, but I'm officially in my second trimester so am telling the world. I'm at 14 weeks, due at the end of September. The main reason I haven't been posting so much the past few months is because of morning sickness... it was all I could do to go to school, act normal, then come home and do homework, all while trying not to throw up. I'm feeling much MUCH better now, and I'm also no longer falling asleep at 8pm. When people say their first trimester was categorized by "nausea and fatigue" - both words are a severe understatement!

I'm starting to show, as well, at least if you knew me before. I'll take pictures soon and put them up. We had an ultrasound at seven weeks and everything was fine, and just yesterday Becca, Jonathan and I heard the heartbeat with a Doppler device. I lay down on the couch in the doctor's office, she put what looked like a microphone attached to a box on my belly, and boom! there it was. Everything's going normally and in another month we find out the sex. (And yes, I will tell absolutely everyone).

Of course I've been doing a ton of reading on pregnancy and childbirth, and have many many books to recommend if people are so interested. I definitely want a natural childbirth, and so have been speaking to local midwives and the women's health center in the area. (See Ricki Lake's documentary The Business of Being Born, it's very insightful). Jonathan and I have been discussing names, we know that the guest room will turn into a nursery, and I'm working it out with the school to take fall semester off and go back in the spring.

All in all, it's been a very full few months. More updates to come!

Visitors

Becca comes in tomorrow, hooray!

Purim pulpit visit

I just had what was arguably the best pulpit visit of my (admittedly short) student rabbi career. I dressed up in my usual nice clothes but led services with the Harry Potter sorting hat wedged firmly on my head (thank you, Beverly). About twenty people were there, most in costume. I led an abbreviated service up til the point where we would usually do the Torah reading - then I led a Q & A about Purim (e.g. What city does the story of Purim take place in? What is Esther's Hebrew name? You're supposed to get so drunk on Purim that you can't tell the difference between what and what?). I threw out candy from the bima to those with the right answers, and people were laughing and cheering each other on.

Then, instead of the regular Megillah reading (reading of the Book of Esther), Carmit had passed along a Purim play. I let the 9 year old be Esther, of course, gave Jonathan's Renfaire cloak to the woman playing Haman, gave the King our RenFaire scepter, gave Vashti a glittery tie around her waist (from my bellydancing outfit), and so on and so on. Everybody had a prop and hammed it up to the max. We interspersed songs throughout, and if I didn't know a song, usually someone else did so we taught it to everyone. I also had the 9 year old help me with the hand motions to a cute Hebrew song, "My hat has three corners, three corners has my hat" - which is a very fast, very loud song. We also did one that ends with "rash, rash, rash" - literally, "noise, noise, noise" and everyone used their graggers to the utmost in an attempt to be loudest.

I had looked up some other songs and found a few adorable ones - one was "If I had a siddur" (prayerbook) sung to the tune of "If I had a hammer" by Peter Paul and Mary, and the other popular one was "Hey Jews" to the tune of the Beatles' "Hey Jude." I gave a mini-mini-sermon, we went straight to the Aleinu and concluding prayers, and everyone stayed a really long time for oneg (the schmoozing eating part afterwards). One thing that was nice was that three students came from Eastern Illinois University, and I talked to them for a long time about the meaning of Purim, how this differed from a regular service, and why Purim has absolutely nothing to do with Good Friday.

Adult Ed on Saturday went well too, I had a long five-hour drive back, and now I'm sitting on the couch eating Israeli hamantaschen sent by my dad. It was a great two days! Now I need to get started on homework... and other things like laundry and vacuuming.

We survived the winter!!

Hooray for yesterday being the first day of spring. Today it is a warm and balmy 39 degrees. I can't believe I'm saying that. Wow, times have changed.

And Mom - PPPPBBBTTTT!!! That's me sticking my tongue out at you for saying I wouldn't make it through the full season without wanting to move back. ;)

Mystery gift

Jonathan and I just received a lovely little box sent from a company in New Jersey. It contained hamantaschen, chocolate, pistachios, and a bottle of slivovitz. Yet it had no name attached to it. Did one of you wonderful people send us a Purim gift? Thank you, whoever you are.

Purim

I was born on Purim, and it's always been one of my favorite holidays. Everyone dressed up today for Sunday school, and the kids were sooo cute. I went as Vashti, the deposed queen, and came in my bellydancing outfit (with the appropriate undershirt, of course).

We reviewed the story of Purim, ate hamantaschen, read a Purim story, and had a wonderful music session where the kids got louder than I ever thought possible (thank you graggers). I stayed for the Purim carnival, schmoozed with a bunch of people, then came home completely exhausted.

Graggers or "rashanim." They give you a very, very big headache when twirled often enough.

Hamantaschen. My favorite innards are cherry pie filling or chocolate chips.

Jonathan finished his big work project this weekend, literally working 18 hours on Saturday running the phone calls about the computer update. After he took a short nap, we went to Carri and Scott's for dinner. The man can cook! There were different courses and everything. The best (worst?) part came when Jonathan and Scott started bonding about not letting their wives in the kitchen for fear of what we'd come up with. Hmmph, I say. Carri and I eat really well, and that's what counts. :)

Birthday celebrations

My birthday was absolutely fantastic! It started out somewhat crappily (is that a word?) with a Biblical Grammar midterm at 8am, but as soon as I finished the day got increasingly better. There were warm birthday wishes from people at HUC, lovely phone messages from people like Mara and Marleena and Sylvan and others whom I don't talk to often enough (but I will call you back!), emails from everyone from Rachelle to my extended family, Facebook messages, and last but certainly not least, lots of packages in snail mail! I felt so loved and really a part of a big nation-wide (world-wide) community.

After school ended I made travel arrangements with a 4th-year student for next month, when we both are going to a conference in Connecticut. He gave me a ride home, and when I got back, I gloriously ignored all my homework in favor of reading the new Newsweek. (It has a very interesting spread on Hillary in terms of gender and politics, if you're interested.) When Jonathan got home, he and I went over to a little local family-run Italian restaurant where we met Sarah and Chris, Sandra and Arnie, Jessica, Josh and Karen for dinner. It was great! I came home completely schmoozed out and filled to the brim with lasagna and cheesecake.

The night ended at home when I opened the presents I'd been collecting, and then Jonathan and I finished Return of the King for like the fourth time. We went to bed way too late and paid for it this morning, but wow was it a good day!

I hope everyone else's March 12th was just as happy. :)

Life!

So the visit with Holly was fantastic. However, I realize there really isn't that much to write about it. What did we do? We hung out and talked. Where did we go? On errands, while hanging out and talking. We covered every topic imaginable. It was a glorious four days, filled with catching up. Poor Holly though, her flights back kept getting delayed and cancelled, so a 4-hour journey took her almost 24 with the layovers.

We talked so much we didn't end up taking pictures! Here is the only one, and it's bad, but Savta, I know you'd never forgive me if I didn't have one up. :)

Us in the car. Hard to believe we've been best friends since we were 13.

And yes, Gregory is absolutely ADORABLE. He came to school with us and was very popular. Even the cats warmed up to him - they were wary at first (the new spy! he crawls but meows oddly! oh no!) but near the end they paid him lots of attention, especially when Gregory discovered that they could play together. Like so:

What a cutie pie!

\

Note Simcha behind the speakers, getting ready to pounce.

After Holly left I had a major midterm cramming session. They went well, I think. It's hard to judge. I have one more test on Wednesday, then we're done, aside from a few things due before Passover.

Jonathan is recovering from his pneumonia, thanks to hefty antiobiotics. We're in the midst of a major snowstorm here, and I got mad when he went out to shovel the walk. Men! (Though I will admit, it made life easier today getting in and out of the house with a foot of snow.)

Across the street. If you click on the picture to make it larger, you can actually see the flakes.

Our porch steps.

Sidewalk looking to the left of the house.

Other than that... um, I can't think of anything else. My birthday's on Wednesday. Anyone in Cincinnati want to go out for dinner?

Erk

Jonathan has been coughing for a week, and was just diagnosed today with walking pneumonia. He's absolutely miserable. Send get-well wishes his way!

As far as I'm concerned, I'm not sick but am pretty busy. Two essays down, just one more test to study for and I'll be all set for midterms tomorrow. Now I need to file the FAFSA, pay bills, all that other stuff. Holly left yesterday - sniff - I'll post pictures and write more about her visit later.

The weekend

Just a quick note to say that our housewarming party went over smashingly! We had about 20 people over, with HUC students and a good smattering of Jonathan's coworkers, plus a tassle of kids. Our real estate agent had brought over pizzas, and Holly and I had arranged veggie and fruit trays, humus and dip, and other good munchies. People came, toured, schmoozed, stayed for the mezuzah ceremony, and then left. The whole thing was only about three hours long, which was perfect.

Holly being here has been incredible - HOORAY for old and dear friends! We've covered everything from childbirth to teething to religion to politics to movies to marriages and more, and haven't run out of things to say yet. I'm going to be sad when she leaves on Tuesday. :(

Off to dinner...