Our Apartment

Is it Colin Raye that sings the song that begins "Love grows best in little houses..." ? That may be true. The kids still have their moments, but all in all they seem to be getting along better than they used to, especially the older three. Mary and Linda stay up at night whispering and during the day I hear much less teasing from Isaac. The older two seem to be getting a little better at helping and encouraging their younger siblings (i.e. Linda) instead of getting annoyed.  That gives me hope that eventually they will turn out to be good friends.

That being said, this "little house" IS really really little. One can never really get away from the noise, and these five children make A LOT of noise.  As I indicated above, at least it's generally happy noise, but a couple hours of all of us in the apartment and I have quite the headache. And since I generally prefer orderliness, the clutter of seven people in 1200 sq. ft. really gets under my skin.

There is refuge, here, though. There's always the patio. And I can send the kids up to the gym or the library or the student lounge, as well as the Judds' or Schade's houses (the other faculty families). And at night when they are all in bed, Ed and I can work out in the gym or go to concerts or lectures in the Forum. After all, there is always something better and always something worse about a new situation. And we really are happy here. I wonder how I'll feel six months from now.....

So starting at the southern end of the apartment, here is the girls' room, looking from the doorway. The closet/cabinet is the brown wall on the left. The window looks out on an olive tree and actually down onto the student apartments on the level below.(I think this picture is bigger than the actual room itself.) Isaac and Joe share a bedroom right next door that is identical except with a crib instead of bunk beds.

This is the hallway, looking from the girls' room. There are two very narrow bathrooms on the right side of the hallway, one with a tub/shower that is a full five feet long (nice for soaking).

After the bathrooms is the entry door on the right. From the carpet in the above picture, turn left to see the dining room, turn right to see the kitchen.

Right next to the fridge is a doorway (in which we requested a door to be installed which allows the kids to sleep in their bedrooms and us to talk in the living room at the same time without anyone waking up) leading into the living room. Because our apartment is actually two stuck together, you will notice that the living room is identical in size and layout to the dining room, complete with another kitchen. We use the extra kitchen mostly for storage and for a homework and drawing table. It's really nice to have another fridge and oven, though.

Right next to THIS fridge is another doorway, this one to the "adults only" section of the apartment. It's cordoned off with a baby gate, and what would otherwise be the entrance to that side of the apartment is now my makeshift office. How wonderful that it has such immediate access to the bathroom!

Immediately to the left of the office/bath combo is Ed's and my bedroom. It is also identical to the kids' rooms but with a kingsize bed (which fits, but with no space for anything else). Many thanks to the Ludlows who left behind their spacefoam mattress over the top of the two twin mattresses. Our sleep and our dispositions are much improved because of it!

So there you have it. Roughly 1200 square feet of clutter and craziness, but with everything we need to survive and be happy. Did you see the blue couch? It has a pull-out mattress; isn't that enticing for those of you thinking of visiting? Don't worry, we'll actually try it out before we subject you to it.

The Israel Museum

Just to refresh your memory, in Israel Saturday is the Sabbath, and while most Israelis take Friday as their Saturday and work Sunday through Thursday, the BYU Center and the Christian communities generally take Sunday as Saturday and work a Western week of Monday through Friday. So the museums, parks and zoos are pretty empty on a Sunday, which is excellent for us. A couple Sundays ago we went to the Israel Museum, in part for Ed to check the details of his museum assignment for his class, and in part because I was excited to see the Dead Sea Scrolls. We accomplished both of those things, but the kids only cared about the sandbox and the children's part of the museum. Ed and I will be going back sometime soon to see the other world-class exhibits.

Abby, tired of walking as usual.

Linda at the scale model of Jerusalem at the time of Christ.
Can you hear the whining? "It's tooooo briiiiight, Mommmm."

The sandbox, with pretty darn cool chairs.

The children's museum had an exhibit on sleep, complete with a strange "bedroom" that the kids could run around in, and a sculpture on the wall full of bedtime kinds of things. Wierd, but they loved it.

NEWSFLASH!!!

I've made the blog public, although still not discoverable by search engines. So please tell all family and friends that have been dying to follow our every move that our life story is now available for public consumption. Abby and Joe say they're shooting for 1000 followers. And if what I write isn't enough for you, please look to the right for the highly-recommended "Other Jerusalem Center Blogs," written by my lovely, funny, capable and proximal friends, Jill and Karla.

Another Baptism

We got to go to another baptism last weekend, but this time it was held at Qasr Al-Yahud, a site more likely to have been one John and Jesus would have used.  It is much farther south than Yardenit (in the Galilee) and about 30 minutes due east of Jerusalem, through Jericho. In this area, the Jordan river forms Israel's border with the country of Jordan, therefore it is a militarized zone, and was once the site of heavy fighting. My first picture here doesn't do the place justice--it is most barren desert I have ever been in. You have to be careful to stay to designated roads and not wander past the fencing because for miles around there are land mines left over from the 1967 war.

This is a view of the river, and the opposite bank is the country of Jordan (there were soldiers sitting near us, watching the baptisms to make sure nobody crossed the river from either side). There is a pilgrim site on their side as well, with a beautiful monastery and another dock built for baptisms. Yes, the water really is that color of green.

Adventures with Abby and Joe

I try to get Abby excited about sightseeing with me in the stroller by telling her we are going on "Exciting Adventures." Yesterday when I picked her up from preschool, she said with a big smile "Hi Mommy! Are we going on an Adventure?" So I guess she doesn't totally hate them.  Joe, on the other hand, is perfectly happy just to climb stairs, slam doors, or sweep the apartment.

One of our first adventures was to see the Mary Magdalene Church on the Mount of Olives. It was built in the late 1800s so it's quite new inside. The grounds are beautiful, with long winding stairs up the hill to where the church sort of jumps out of the trees at you.

These golden domes are visible from all over East Jerusalem and the Old City.

Here is the view from the church across the Kidron Valley to the Old City:

Apparently Abby didn't think Joe should be allowed inside the church.

After that, we walked about 100 feet down an incredibly narrow road to the Garden of Gethsemane. The garden itself is small but well-kept, and the olive trees are incredibly old. The religious importance of the site aside, we were somewhat fascinated by a lizard climbing one of the trees. Can you find it?

We also explored the Hebrew University Mt. Scopus campus (just around the corner from the BYU Center) and checked out the library to see if I could get circulation privileges (no luck). The interior of the buildings are a little run-down, but the grounds are beautiful. Abby explored them all climbing, spinning, and wiping out.

Abby's Preschool

Up the hill and around the corner about 1/4 mile is the Augusta Victoria Hospital, a Lutheran World Federation organization that works in conjunction with the UN to provide health care to Palestinians. On their grounds they also have a guest house, cafe, various other offices, a playground, and--lo and behold--a preschool! We got Abby enrolled last Monday and she LOVES it. Joe and I hung around most of the morning the first couple days, but now I can just drop her off. She wakes up every morning so excited to go to school like the big kids.

The preschool itself is run by Palestinians, and they speak Arabic, English and German. Many of the kids, however, speak none of those: at least half speak something else, like Greek or French or Czech. In fact, there is only one other child that speaks English, and she's actually bilingual English and Dutch.

Truth be told, Al-Mahaba Kindergarten is much more a play-school than a preschool, but its a perfect fit for Abby. Since she can go as much as 5 1/2 hours a day here, it's going to be a hard adjustment to go back home to Utah where she'll only be in preschool for 2 1/2 hours, 3 days a week.

The bike room

Oh no! Hit and Run! I've got to get out of here before the cops show up!