Road Trip

Jay's brother Abed is our unofficial tourist guide. He and his wife Deena are the only people here that love to travel and explore as much as we do.
Friday November 15 we had one goal in mind. To head north. When you live in Israel, life is centered around Tel Aviv, and the Beaches. You forget that an entire world exists up north. Now let me explain something. Israel is small. Much much smaller than you can imagine, and when you look at maps and see the thousands of towns, you must think Israel is a fairly large country. Wrong. We live on the border of the Westbank. For us to drive through the crooked and windy roads to get to the beach, it takes about 25-35 minutes, 12.5 km.

We used to commute daily IN the city a minimum of 25 minutes on the highway. I used to drive 35 minutes each way to work and people were jealous! When you say you are going to Gan Shmuel, a local shopping mall, people think it's sooo far to drive! It takes 15-20 minutes to get there. To get to Tel Aviv, it's about 90 minutes.
So for us to take a day trip up north, not many people are willing to take that on. To go from our house to the farthest point in Israel, north, you are looking at a 2 hour drive. Maximum.
We started out at 9:30 and aimed our cars for the Golan Heights. Let me say that there is NO danger driving to this area. You honestly have no idea that it's any different than driving around the rest of Israel. I saw no military, in fact less than where we live. We are right on that dotted line closish to Hadera.

Our first stop was just past Nir David. It was a nice little park setting with the clearest stream running through it that I have ever seen. It ran so smoothly that you could hardly see any ripples in the water. There were lots of little fish that loved fighting over nibblets of bread. Lena decided to do some climbing of the huge Eucalyptus trees that are all over Israel.

We hit the road again and began our journey up a mountain that straddles Israel, Jordan and Syria. See map here. It is dotted with bunkers from the 1967 war, signs announcing area's you can not enter due to possible unexploded land mines.Yikes!

 

That is Jordan you are looking at.

Lena couldn't pass up the opportunity to throw in a little gymnastics...

As we made it to the top of the mountain, we had a tail end view of Lake Galilee. 

After dealing with the strange difference in temperature from the base of the mountain to the top (+10*!) We continued our drive to the El-Al river. Amazing views, great cactus and a long hike, that we didn't take. There is also a winery that requires reservations for tours. 

Lena has enough pictures by this time.

After this we continue to head due north. Directly into the Occupied area's that just a short time ago was Syria. It is significantly cooler in this area. The street took a sharp right turn and we were faced with this. A stark reminder of the devastating war that was fought in the area. Please note that this once was a Mosque. Mosques are not placed in the middle of no where. They are placed in the middle of a town so that all members can walk to it. There is no town left. We went up in the tower where the call to prayer is called. and had an anxiety attack on the roof. I wish I had the mind to take pictures from up there, but when you are pale and shaking and hyperventilating, it's a little hard to stop and take a picture. You can see where the bombs hit and destroyed it.

As we began to head west, we passed through area's that you could tell were once towns by the organized piles of rubble. We also passed signs that announced TANK CROSSING 100 METERS. Sure enough, there were some over turned tanks in the fields, old military jeeps that were dismantled. We then came upon a shepherd herding his sheep through a town. 

We wove passed apple orchards, and stopped at beautiful rest stop and met a man from Syria selling Honey, Carob syrup and a mish mash of other items. He talked to us about how he can sometimes hear and feel the bombs when Israel and Syria exchange bombs. Very interesting man.We were also very close to a UN Station as we saw a few of their white SUV's with UN stamped in large letters and once, a man riding a horse. 

Wind turbines

We ended up in a town called Mas'ada.

We stopped at a suk, an outdoor flea market and then went across the street to have some food. It was freezing there and they were all talking about making preparations for the coming snow.

And last stop, a coffee break.

My kids.

Zane is my 3 year old. He and his sister Lena, nearly 11, could not be more different. Every day I sit back and wonder how I got 2 such different kids. Lena has always been the follower. All I had to do was bend down, whisper some threatening words into her ear and she would stop what ever offending deed she was performing at that moment. With Zane, just lately have we been able to use the whisper trick, but only by saying You are embarrassing ME and Yourself. You better stop it now. Otherwise he just looks at us like, HA! Just try to stop me!
There are two other things that sets my two kids apart. One is naps. Lena was a terrible sleeper. Horrible. I was so sleep deprived for YEARS that I thought I would never catch up. I used to sneak in personal naps by having her play beauty salon with me. She would literally sit for 30-45 minutes coming my hair. To get her down for a nap was just so much of a battle that I wish I hadn't fought so hard. She NEEDED a nap, but when it took her 2 hours to fall asleep, CLEARLY it wasn't time for a nap.
Zane? He LOVES naps. Just today I was telling him he needed to finish up his apple because it was nap time. He stood up, gave me the left over apple and announced,  I LOVE naps! They make me feel so good! (visualize him hugging himself with his cheek tucked to his shoulder.) He quite often will tell ME that it's bed time and could he please go to bed? o_O Say WHAT!?

Another thing is art. Lena is my little artist. We could and do sit for hours doing art projects. Every day when I would pick her up from preschool her cubby would be FILLED with drawings. We could do play-dough for days and she would never get tired of it. Zane however... His idea of art is to destroy. I tried the other day to do some tear art with him. We painted some tree trunks (frustration has begun before step one has been completed) and tore up different colored paper for the leaves. That took longer than expected as he got super frustrated (AKA crying and grunting at the paper) by the "unripable paper". Ok, so let me finish ripping the paper so we can move on (screaming, why can't he just CUT it!!!). Put glue all over the top for where the leaves go, (crying that he just wants to take a box and cut it up with scissors!!!) Me getting beyond frustrated with the entire stupid idea at this point but I was trying to make it look fun and sooo easy!! At this point he is sobbing. He doesn't want to do tear art, he wants to chop a box up and paint it!!!! Enter the terrible mom who should have been put into time out with a box full of chocolates and just handed him the freaking box and paints and called it a day until nap time.
And then today. He got out his paint and announced he wanted to paint. Ok, fine. Got his paint set up, let him go at it while I was making lunch. He then comes to me with the BIGGEST smile on his face and gleam in his eyes. Hey mom!!? Did you know that you can like paint your entire body? Your hair, your face? Everything!!? OMG. ok, no paint is visible yet. Oh, really sweetie? Deep breath Erin, it's ok... So I calmly removed his shirt and told him he would have to take a bath afterwards.. OK! He said running off. I hear giggling from the table but refuse to spy. Let him be creative, let him be free to make weird choices.. IT'S OK! He comes running in with about 5" of his arm painted and proudly shows me. It's SOOO COOOL!!!!
He then gets a wipey and cleans himself up. Then brings all his paint to the kitchen and wanders off to do something else.
How could 2 kids be SO different!!

Things That I Miss

As expats living in a strange country, there are a lot of things that I miss. We are lucky that we live in a country that is influenced by American culture. But there are things that I just can't find or do that I really miss. (No particular order)

1. Food items. There are few food items that we just can not find here nor anything close to it. A few things we have found substitutes for. But here are a few of our favorite things that are missing from Israel.
1. Graham Crackers. I grew up on these. My daughter grew up on these. These were a staple in our house hold. We were never with out graham crackers. We found a biscuits that are some what similar in filling the need to munch on something in the mornings. But it's not the same.
2. Ritz Crackers. The buttery, flaky, saltiness of Ritz crackers can not be replicated. 
3. Sun Butter. Israel isn't big on Peanut Butter (just peanut flavor snacks and candies). However, you CAN find peanut butter in any store. Jiff typically. But to find a peanut butter alternative for my kids who have nut allergies. Sigh. Can't be found.
4. Lindsay Black Olives. Yes. you read that right. You can not find California style black olives in Israel. Any other style of olive, but not the salty briney Black Olive. Oh, how I miss thee. My kids have been known to pop open  a can and eat the entire thing. 
5. Jack In The Box. However, we are all better for this. But sometimes I really miss being out and about with the kids and running to JITB for some chicken strips and fries. 
2. English Speaking People Over The Age Of 18. Living in an Arab area, it's very rare to find someone over the age of 18 who speaks English well enough to hold a conversation. And lets be honest. How much can a 39 year old talk about with a 17 year old. It's nice when we are at family gatherings. You will more than likely find me hanging out with the teenagers. In Jewish area's it's much more common, but how often do I get there? 
3. I would say Target and Walmart. But I have learned a lot by not having access to them. My spending spree's are extremely rare and limited. (when the register reads 450 shekels I still panic thinking it's dollars. ($125)) Big Box stores are really destructive to mom and pop shops that are the heart of Israel. They promote consumerism and the need to BUY BUY BUY. When I have to go to 5 different stores to get what I need, it really cuts the fun out of shopping, and you get done much faster.
4. THRIFT STORES!!! Growing up we didn't have a lot of money. Most of the time I really didn't know it. I thought everyone shopped at thrift stores or garage sales. In Arab area's its just not done. Things are used until they are DONE. Old clothes typically get donated to the "poor" or to the West Bank. I gag every time I have to pay full price for something that I KNOW I can get for 30-50% of the price at the thrift store. Example. I am looking for a cookie sheet. Apparently these are NOT common here. I checked 6 stores in the area for one. ONE store had them. $40 for one. $40!!! Sorry, I don't need it THAT badly. And I don't want to pay $35 for a pair of jeans for Zane. I did and with in 3 weeks they had a hole in the knee.
5. English Book stores and Libraries. Apparently there are 2 English book stores in Tel Aviv. But it's not exactly convenient for us to take an evening trip into Tel Aviv. It's about 90 minutes away and finding parking isn't that easy. Plus Books in English are sooo overpriced. You can pay up to $20 for a paperback. 
6. Going to the Movies. Movie theaters are few and far between here. They do exist, but you have to go to a Jewish town to watch. Trying to navigate the website to figure out which theater and the times and days they are open/showing the movie that is NOT dubbed is tricky. Forget kids movies. They are all dubbed in Hebrew. 
7. American TV Programs. We have access to about 5-6 English TV channels. We get a few TV shoes, mostly CSI, a few Disney shows and lots of movies. But I miss HGTV, TLC, etc.
8. Taking Long Walks in Our Neighborhood. In general if you want to take a long walk here, you have to go over to where the freeway entrance is. It's the ONLY well maintained sidewalk area where you can walk for a few miles with out tripping over garbage, over grown weeds or being obligated to stop in for tea at everyone's house that you pass by. But how safe is that? And how inconvenient! I have to drive 10-15 minutes to get there. I just want to walk out my door and take a walk for Pete's sake! 
9. Neighborhood Parks. One thing that is severely lacking in Arab cities are parks for kids. Up until a few years ago, Baqa did not have a public park. It now has one, but it doesn't have any of the typical kid friendly equipment found in American or Canadian parks. I can go to a Kibbutz, or Herzilya or Tel Aviv to find a great park. But once again, nothing in the area. It has to be a half a day trip to go to one of the other cities to have the kids play.
10. Walking Into Any Store and Being Able to Read ALL the Labels. I know this is to be expected. Hello, you are living in a different country! Just something I miss. 
11. Play Group. I really miss taking Zane to the Ontario Early Years Centre.  
12. Having a pet. I miss our Daisy girl. My parents are taking really good care of her. But sometimes I miss the love of a pet. We currently have a feral cat that has adopted us. She is helping bridge the gap. 
13. Church. You would assume that living in Israel there would be thousands of churches for me to go to. nope. No churches. Unless I go to Nazereth, or into Tel Aviv. But even those are not a church I would be comfortable going too. They are much more Orthodox that I am used too. 
14. My Parents and Family I don't have a big family. It's basically my parents, my brother and his family. Especially compared to my husband, who is related to nearly everyone here. 
15. Friends. I had just made some really good friends in Canada when we left. I really miss having a friend to talk to, to complain too and to laugh with. Husband. I love you, but you are not a female. It's NOT the same.
16. Christmas. I really really really miss the spirit of Christmas that you feel as December 25th approaches. The malls aren't decorated with Christmas Tree's. There are no Santa's hanging out on the corners ringing bells. No Christmas music on the radio's just after Halloween. No chill in the air with the promise of snow. Do stores fill with decorations to buy. No wrapping paper. No hot chocolate to sip. No one to get excited about decorating Christmas cookies with (except my daughter!) No Christmas tree's propped up against the sides of grocery stores. Last Christmas I made a Christmas tree out of  green glitter paper. This year we have a car and are hoping our trip to Nazareth will produce a tree. 
17. Watching Snow Fall. I swear. There is nothing more peaceful that sitting in front of a large window watching the snow fall. 

High Holy Days-Israel 2013

September is a busy month for Israel. (please note that many of the cities I have mentioned are linkable to wikipedia for information about the city)

First Israel celebrated Yom Kippur, also known as Day of Atonement. It is the holiest day of the year for the Jewish people. Jews traditionally observe this holy day with 25 hour fasting and intensive prayer, often spending most of the day in synagogue services.

As we live in an Arab area we are not generally affected by the holiday's. But when it comes to Yom Kippur, all of Israel shuts down. Stores are closed, bus service stops, the airport closes, as a Jew you are not allowed to drive, or use any electronic devices. Jews also are required to fast for 25 hours. Needless to say there were a few emergency room visits, people passing out and hitting their heads and even a death of a child who fell into a ritual bathing pool. Yom Kippur also landed on the weekend, Friday and Saturday, so there was no days off of work to be missed for Jay. 

We knew that Yom Kippur was one of the Holiest days for Jews, but we honestly didn't give it much thought as we headed out to Caesarea to hang out on the beach for a few hours. Then we got a phone call from a relative warning us about rock throwers and to be careful. We had second thoughts about going, but figured if we saw any danger we would just turn around and come home. The streets outside of town were oddly quiet, but there were still a few cars driving here and there. When we got to the beach, there were only about 20 other people. As the sun slowly set a few Jewish families showed up and set up huge encampments. A few other Arab families were there enjoying the peace and quiet of a Friday night on the beach. Around 8pm we decided that it was dark enough that we couldn't enjoy the beach any longer and headed out. What a strange drive home! From Caesarea to Marja, it's about 20 km (12.5 miles). The drive is on a typically busy road and then into the Arab village of Baqa el Gharbiyya and then onto our village of Marja. From Caesarea to Baqa, we passed 2 cars, more than likely other Arab families. It was very eerie driving along the road with no other cars any where around us. When we got home I happened to look out our large picture window, and noticed that things looked a little different. Then I realized why. Highway 6 was completely empty. One of the busiest highways in Israel was empty of cars. Not a solitary car passed by that night. 

We did not run into any rock throwers that night, but the next day a relative of ours decided to go visit a friend in a large town south of here called Tayibe. On the way you pass by 3 Kibbutz, Bahan, Bat Hefer and Yad Hana. She had rocks thrown at her car as she passed by. Fortunately she was uninjured and was able to make it home with out any damage done to her car. 

This week marks the start of Sukkot I will let Wikipedia explain that one for you. So far I have seen truck loads of palm fronts being driven all over the place, and one of the most interesting was when I visited a mall in Kfar Saba yesterday.  There are several restaurants outside of the mall. They had Sukkot huts set up outside so that if you wanted to enjoy a meal out and still be observant, you could dine in the hut. I wish I had taken a picture, but I was too embarrassed to feel like a weird American tourist taking pictures of the natives so to speak, but here is a picture from google of a similar one. But it was covered on the roof with palm fronds. 

Israeli Pastimes

I have been thinking for months about this posting. And over the past year that we have been here in Israel, a few things have become very clear to me. Israel has many pastimes.
1. Cleaning.
Woman of Israel are obsessed with cleaning. At least the Arab women I know. I haven't been to any Jewish houses to witness their level of cleanliness, but Arab women are OCD about cleaning.
They typically wake up before the rest of the household and begin their daily routine. Generally that consists of sweeping the entire house, then dumping soapy water all over the floors, and squeegeeing it outdoors. Sometimes that is only done once a week. Thank goodness because it can be an arduous task. Then they clean the bathrooms, and the kitchen. You will not find nary a crumb or speck of dust in an Arab household if there is even a whisper of a guest coming over. The house must appear perfect at all times. Children will be kicked outdoors or into their bedrooms as to appear they do not belong to the household or that they are the most perfect children in the community.
As an American coming into this, I have been overwhelmed. Houses here are designed as showpieces. All flooring is tile. Which is amazing for allergies by the way. But it shows EVERYTHING. Bedrooms area always either on a separate floor, or separated by doors, like in our house. You also have a "guest toilet" that is only used for guests. It's kept in immaculate, no one has ever pooped in this room cleanliness.
Our main living room has an enormous picture window. The window guy was in horror over the thought of a solid piece of glass in the center, framed by smaller windows on the sides that can be opened. "HOW ARE YOU GOING TO CLEAN IT!!!". That was his concern. How was I going to clean it. A few other choices of ours were followed by, "it's not as easy to clean as the other style". That is ok. I want THIS style. For the record, cleaning has not been an issue. Several times a year the windows in the bedrooms, and kitchen are removed for a hose down. Those windows consist of 5-10 parts. The first part is the glass itself. Then a single screen, then the shutters. They are all completely removable for ease of cleaning. I spend 1-2 hours a day doing basic cleaning, sweeping, kitchen duty, straightening up etc. And I take one day a week to do a thorough go over on the rest of the house. Once every few months, I do a HOLY CRAP, lets get the house CLEAN. My mother would not believe this was my house.
2. A tie between Cooking and Eating.
Somehow between all that cleaning, women cook. They make dinner in the morning. I kid you not. During the school year kids go to school early. Around 7:45am. So typically they drink their Nescafe ( a hot milk and instant coffee concoction that everyone from the age of 2-190 drinks, except my kids) then they take a snack to school for breakfast (10:30 am). Then they come home starving to death at 2:30, which is when they eat their main meal of the day, which mom conveniently made as soon as they left for school while they were cleaning. In the evening they will have a light snack, sometimes boiled eggs. Pastrami sandwiches, Tea with toasted cheese sandwiches.. And they finish the night off with Nescafe.
Now, as far as I can tell, men either take a break from work at this time, head home to join in on the meal, or if you work for a large company like my husband, work provides food for you!!! He gets about $10-15 a day in food allowance. He is given a card at which he can use at over 120 locations! He discovered a sandwich shop down the street where he can get a sandwich, a bowl of fruit, and a tall glass of freshly make carrot juice for less than his daily allowance. Plus, at work they have an espresso and tea bar, and enough cookies, pastries and candy to make anyone diabetic. He as the choice of going to the buffet, but it's filled with really heavy food that is difficult to eat at noon. We don't eat red meat. Which has led to a lot of "What do you mean you don't eat no meat!" Via, My Big Fat Greek Wedding.
3. Smoking.
I swear all the men smoke here!! Arab women in general do not smoke, Jewish women do. But the men. I think they had out packs of cigarettes when you enter high school. It's like the 1950's here where teens are only "cool" if you smoke.And they smoke everywhere. Coffee shops, the paint store. The tile store, the hardware store, the fruit shops, more than likely in hospitals... OH! I am pretty sure we were in a doctors office once and the doctor was smoking... holding babies. Inside cars. On the beach. Everywhere.
4. Peeing on the side of the road. 
This has to be one of the oddest. But it happens everywhere. At first Jay thought it was an isolated incident. Until we started driving him to work along the main freeway. Then everyday along the 32km drive, we would see 3-4 people pulled over. And they don't HIDE the fact that they are PEEING BY THE SIDE OF THE ROAD!. They get of their car, and just stand there peeing!! Jewish and Arab alike. Some at least stop at the bus stop and try to hide behind the shelter. But I have seen more men just whip it out and proudly pee. Parents holding their little girls, mid air, to pee. In parks too. I have gotten used to allowing Zane to pee on the nearest tree, or the farthest depending on how crowded the park is.
5. Speeding and in general ignoring any and all driving laws.
I can not even go into detail on this one. Motorcycles follow no known laws that I have ever seen. Other than stopping at red lights. Speed limits. Oh? Are there speed limits? Passing only on the left? ha! For sissies! You have to have balls to drive here. Somehow I found mine and have become the main driver. Go figure!

Sticks and Stones

It's funny how 30 years after an off handed comment was made, that I still think about it.
I was around 11 years old. I was off to a friends house for a slumber party. We were friends through Church, or my old school. I can't really remember. Her name was Brenda. It was her birthday and I remember being nervous because she was having friends that I had never met before, and some that I knew. She lived in this not so awesome house with an incredibly awesome backyard in an awesome neighborhood. The trees in the area were the tallest I had ever seen inside a city.
This particular sleepover was for her birthday. Her mom sent us on a scavenger hunt around the neighborhood. The typical things, a piece of red thread, an apple, those types of things that would be easy to find. The twist was that we had to dress up in clothes from Brenda's dress up trunk. I grabbed out a dress to put on. It fit, but I could not do up the buttons in the back. I remember Brenda's mom coming in and saying, "Maybe we can find Erin a shawl or something. These dresses aren't really made for someone as... FULL as Erin is."
In other words. The dresses were made for FLAT chested girls. Not ones with boobs. It literally ruined my entire night. I was so self-conscience of my chest for the rest of the night, that I hung out at the back of the group as to not flaunt the fact that the gap at the back of the dress had to be covered with a shawl. I remember how I could not wait for morning to come and my parents to arrive to get me.
That was the last time I ever saw Brenda. I refused to go over to her house ever again.
Parents, please. Be aware of the words that you use around your Daughters, and around her friends.
Sometimes off handed comments can stick with people for a long long time. Especially when they are in that awkward stage in life where body parts are doing strange things.

The Eyeball

Today started out like any other day. Woke up at 6:45 to get Lena ready for school. Woke up Jay at 8 to get him ready for work. Did my grocery shopping. But that is where it all went to hell.
We don't have a water dispenser yet so every week I have to buy bottles of water. (Don't worry, we recycle them) The tap water here is just gross. Anyway Zane likes to cut open the plastic that holds the six pack of bottles together. For 6 months now he has done this without incident. Until today. There is and always will be an "Until today".
First he got his plastic toy knife from his toys. But when that proved to be insufficient, he got one of these out.

It looks innocent enough. But when a nearly 3 year old is using it, nothing is innocent. Everything is going fine then I heard the knife hit the tile and SCREAAAAMMM!!!
Life literally stopped for a moment as I ran to him.
Somehow he managed to whip the knife up and cut from his cheek, to his eye lid, scratching his cornea.

Now, being an experienced mother, I duly freaked out. I lost it. I got on my OMG voice. You know the one, the one that only mothers use when their child has potentially poked their eyeball out with a butter knife. As I held Zane like a pack of lions was trying to pry him from my arms. I called my husband who in turn called his brother the doctor to find out what we should do. Said brother showed up 30 minutes later to take a look at Zane and arranged an appointment with the ophthalmologist in a few hours. Being a stranger in this country I had NO idea what the F to do. I hate that and it's been one of my fears. I don't even know the number for 911 here, only that it isn't 911. I think it's like 100 or something.

So now he is sleeping peacefully on the couch where I can keep an eye on him.
I do believe this has taken a few years off my life, and a few points off my perfect mommy record.

Care Packages

We just received our care package as I like to call it. Technically it's items that I ordered from the states. I order them from Amazon, or tell my parents what to get, then they box it up and ship it to us. It's a long frustrating wait, waiting for that box to get all the way over here to our little village in Israel. But every time one of those boxes arrive, we all get giddy with excitement as to what this box will hold.
This time it was new books for Zane. Thank goodness as I am getting sick of reading Sammy the Seal, and Rumble in the Jungle over and over and over. It also had 3 new books for Lena. One of which she has yet to set down.

Also included was a nice collection of movies!!! We are so excited to watch them all. TV here is very limited on it's English channels. We have about 8-10 total, and 3 of those are news channels. We have poured through our DVD collection and if I have to watch Ice Age, Toy Story or Madagascar one more time, my head will self destruct.

OTC medication was also included. One thing that is lacking here, is the same variety of  OTC meds at ridiculously low prices (thanks Walmart). Here 16 Advil can run you $8. I had my parents send me 1,000 generic ibuprofen for $13. BIG difference. We now share with the family. 

My one wish would be real mail from friends and family. I really miss friendships and correspondence outside of emails. Christmas cards are the biggest. I know it's a little more to send a card to Israel rather than locally, but if you can spare the buck, please, drop something in the mail to us. Lena LOVES getting things in the mail. She really misses everyone and everything. Little trinkets, toys, books, stickers, post cards... you name it. 

Erin Dacca

P.O. Box 5220

Zemer-Marja, Israel

38828

864 days

2 years, 4 months, 13 days
That is how long it's been since I last updated this blog. And in that time a whole boat load of things have happened. 
First, Zane is a toddler, no longer that super cute giggle monster that I last wrote about. 
Lena is a pre-teen. No longer the toothless wonder that was last seen on here.
And biggest of all, we are living in Israel. 
We left Canada July 15, 2012 and aimed our ship for Israel. We took a detour along the way and visited my parents in Reno for 6 weeks. Jay decided to come straight here and started the construction on our house. It was very difficult for him to be separated and for me to attempt to choose things over the phone and internet. In the long run, he just waited until I arrived. It was so much easier looking back on it, but horrible when dealing with jet-lag and a super cranky 2 year old. 5 months later we moved into our beautiful home! (We live on the second floor.) 

There is actually a lot still to be finished, but it has been an amazing experience to be able to choose every detail of your house and it be be exactly how you want it. 

Here is what the munchkins look like now. All growed up! ;^)