Quick update

My laptop is still nicely sitting on our shelf, closed and unused.  It's very sad.

I do occasionally get to hop on to Tom's when he is around and not using it for homework, which let's be honest, isn't a whole lot.  Yesterday he did leave it home all day and it was awesome.  I planted the kids in front of a movie while I made dinner and cleaned the house and I didn't hear a peep from them.

Heaven.

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The biggest thing we have going on is we finally have visitors coming tomorrow night.  My cousin was nice enough to hook my mom and sister up with some standby tickets to come here, so all they're paying is the taxes, I believe.  So generous and so thoughtful.

I can't wait to show them around.  I don't know why it feels like such a big deal to me, but it will be so nice to have people see what our life is like here.  They will be here for two weeks, so I'm not sure how much you'll hear from me for the next little while.  Maybe if I can get my darn computer fixed I could post come pictures each evening since we'll be going all over the place.  We'll see.

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On a completely different note, did y'all know I hate bugs?  

I had heard ahead of time that Israel has some freaky insects, but I think living in the city has minimized a lot of that.  We get ants and we get teensy-tiny little spiders.  

And then we get cockroaches.  Luckily, when we got our kitchen redone the frequency seemed to decrease quite a bit.  For many, many months, the only time I ever see one is first thing in the morning when I go to throw something away under our kitchen sink.  I promptly slam the door and scream for Tom.  I tease him that he is my knight in shining armor.  But the thing is, I'm serious.  Him going all crazy on a roach and saving the day makes me love him even more than I already do. :)

ANYWAY, this morning I did my normal Monday shopping with a friend and came home to a dark house - I had actually remembered to turn out all the lights as I left, and I hadn't gotten around to opening all the blinds.  I got all the groceries up on the counter, turned on the lights, and just as I went to start putting food away, the BIGGEST freaking roach you have EVER seen was right next to my kitchen faucet.  I died.  My heart stopped, and I died.

Okay really, I screamed and ran across the kitchen.  Both kids curiously came running to see what was wrong and pretty much saw my heart pounding out of my chest.

I longed for Tom.  I froze.  I almost cried.

I didn't know what to do.  There was no way I was going go smash that thing and hear it crunch.  Plus it was sort of hiding behind a kitchen towel, and the logistics of slamming a shoe on it just didn't seem feasible.

(Just a side note, Joni calls the cockroaches "Mr. Frank", so we quickly named this one "King Frank" because did I mention it was the BIGGEST freaking roach you have EVER seen?)

Then I did what any self-respecting mother with two onlooking, frightened children would do.

I paced the kitchen and started talking to myself.  You can do this.  It's just a bug.  You can do this.  Stop shaking, it's just a bug! Should I go get a neighbor?  No, you idiot, they don't speak English.  You can do this.

I then grabbed an empty plastic container and stood in the middle of the kitchen, watching the little antanae that I could see peaking out from behind the bunched up towel, creepily moving around in circles like they were trying to get cell phone reception.

In an instant of bravery, I lept forward and covered the beast with the container, and then promptly slammed two pounds of sugar on top of it.

Whew.  I did it.  I was proud.  I went about my day.

Six hours later Tom came home and I left the room while he approached the dangerous situation.

He lifted the plastic container, and........

nothing.  The dang guy was gone.  He escaped.  WHAT. THE. HECK.

So now Joni is calling him Superman Frank because he lifted two pounds of sugar

Uncle Frank, to my knowledge, Joni using your name doesn't actually have anything to do with you.  But I could be wrong. :)