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! ;^)