Esther & Adiel’s Blog

So right after we got back from our amazing surprise trip to Atlanta, we had only 30 hours until our departure to White Oak, PA where my bud, Nachum and his family, lives. This was not a spontaneous trip like the one to Atlanta, but had been planned in advance along with Nachums brother, Shabsy.

What Esther and I did was drive out to Passaic and leave our car there, so that on the way back, Shabsy and family could go straight to the mountains (where they would be the shabbos after Shavuous) without having to drop us off in the city. Great move!

By the time all was said and done, we had left Passaic at midnight and drove through the night (alternating drivers and making necessary stops) and got to White Oak (Pittsburgh suburb) at 6 am. we waited around for shacharis, got a minyan, and then slept for most of the day.

We were so happy to see Nachum along with his awesome wife and 6 kids! woo hoo!

Esther and I were setup by a nearby neighbor who gave a us a room which was freezing cold (awesome), dark, and could hear no noise. we poofed like the rebbe!

I don’t know if it was because I am getting old or because of the all night car ride, but at 2:30 am the first night - I was bombed and walked home to go to sleep. At least I was up for shacharis the next morning.

The rest of yom tov was the same : Eat amazing food, Sing amazing songs, Sleep amazing sleep, daven, learn – then start all over again. Of course, there was plenty of shmoozing and catching up done.

We left White Oak around 11-ish that night and drove to Passaic. We got there around 5:50 am and made our way out to Far Rockaway. Esther slept for an hour before going to work. I forgot what i did.

Thank you Nachum and Family for the amazing time we had.. lets do it next year in Jerusalem!

PS – i just found this on the web –>  …

Sorry we haven’t posted in a while but we’ve been so very BUSY. Alright, I’ll start with the Atlanta trip and Adiel will continue with Shavuous.

The story is like this: we have some old family friends from the LES that moved to Atlanta. Our families were very close and Adiel and I also spent a shabbos there when we visited Mom for Thanksgiving. Now they were making a Shabbos Bar Mitzvah but none of us thought we’d go. Then Mommy had to go to Chicago and found a very good rate on travelocity’s last minute deals. So she told me I should keep checking and there was something really cheap, she’d pay for one of our tickets. I checked every night but didn’t see anything. Than, as a last try, I checked Wednesday. And I found a very good deal. It was like $145 a person plus a free rental car. After deliberating about the craziness of leaving the NEXT day, missing work, and figuring out all the logisitics, I booked three tickets for us and my brother. After I booked the fare, a little man popped up which said “I love being spontaneous too”. . So we packed in an hour the next day and were on our way.

Thursday night we went to SR for pizza dinner and left our car there (since she has a driveway and is close to LaGuardia and JFK, she becomes the local parking garage whenever someone in the family flies somewhere). Then, her husband drove us to the airport, where we got frisked on maximum security because we had booked it last minute. Otherwise everything was uneventful. As the flight landed at around midnight, we decided to book a couple of hotel rooms on Priceline ($31) so we got a decent night’s sleep. Turns out the hotel was close to the Jewish community.

The next day, we dropped Aharon off at a Beis Medrash, picked up some bagels (all the restaurants and pizza stores don’t open till 11, so we bought from the cute and somewhat yeshivish kosher supermarket), and drove to Marietta. There we surprised Mom and spent the afternoon with her. Then we drove back and got ready for Shabbos.

The Bar Mitzvah was beautiful. Mrs. W cooked EVERYTHING for all 40+ people that came. THere were a number of East Siders and other NYers that flew in and it was nice seeing everyone. The Bar Mitzvah boy lained beautifully and there was a nice positive vibe going the whole shabbos. The guests ranged in age, religious type and gender, but we were all there because we love the W’s. It was a wonderful Shabbos and we were very happy to have gone, even so last minute. We also spent some time walking through Atlanta which is very pretty but also hilly so I don’t think i’d want to live there….

Motzai Shabbos we drove around and got some Pizza in the local PIzza store. The boys had eaten deli for Shalosh Seudos, so were stuck eating fries, but I was smart and left myself milchigs. We left early early Sunday morning and got very little sleep Motzai Shabbos. But we didn’t have much time to catch up on sleep as the very next day, we were going away for Shavuous…

OK, honey, your turn.

A lot has happened in the last few days, but the big thing I want to post is a video where Esther and I surprised my mom on a visit to Atlanta this weekend.

 Watch this for a good laugh:

We’ve been busy the last three days, each day was a different dinner with a different feel. Each day we starved ourselves till dinner, then fressed out when we got there. Although, I think the food wasn’t even all that great as we had expected it to be…

Sunday was Yeshiva Derech Chaim’s dinner. Adiel learned there for a while after he came back from Israel and the dinner guy convinced him to go. I had my own reasons to want to go, my brothers both learned there (Moshe still does) and my uncle is very involved. The dinner was in the Brooklyn Marriott which is Downton Brooklyn, a very cool and historical place. I wasnt so interested in the honorees or Rabbeim speaking, and Adiel and I were on completely seperate sides with a mechitza. But I sat near Mommy and shmoozed about her trip to Chicago so that was nice.

Monday was Aunt Leah’s shloshim. It was in Mercaz Hasimcha, in Flatbush. We were of the first there (as usual) and I must say it was a very inspiring and emotional night. Because my mother’s family has 7 sisters and only 2 brothers, they did something unusual: all of the siblings, besides one spoke. It was so touching to hear all of the memories and words that my aunts and uncles said. Mommy was really great. I recognized some charactersitics and stories, but there were also some new things mentioned which I found fascinating. The women speakers added a real emotional touch and I’m so glad it was done that way. At the end of the evening, there was a beautiful slide show with pics of Aunt Leah over the years, set to music. I was in one of them! And there were a number of family members that were in the pictures and are unfortunately no longer with us. We were all very touched and a number of us were crying. Adiel and I sat on differnet tables, but were able to see each other and wave. I sat near SR and shmoozed with her all the different relatives. It was a beautiful evening with about 70+ close family members and it really made a roshem on all of us.

The dinner that I had the least to do with but might have been the most fun was last night, the Yeshiva of South Shore (Mesivta Ateres Yaakov) dinner. Adiel works there and basically got a free invite. I think I need to pay a little. But anyway, I digress. The dinner was in the Sands, which is a mechaya to get to from Far Rockaway, and just GORGEOUS! There was a HUGE lavish buffet with sushi and loads of other foods and the best part was: it was mixed seatig . I had lots of fun hanging out with my hubby and meeting some of his (non-Jewish/frum) colleagues. I barely knew anyone, but it was still fun because I had my guy on my side. The food was great and even the presentations were done very well. Beautiful videos, short and poignant presentations, and limited speeches. After the dinner, there was a vienesse desert table with loads of yummy deserts (like make your own crepe) and a few guys singing. What fun, even though it was supposed to be a boring dinner.

Anyway, tonight on the way home, Adiel asks what we should have for dinner – ‘Should I got get some chinese?’ “NO WAY!” I was tired of store-made meals and wanted to eat at home. We realized we didnt’ have too much food but somehow Adiel threw together a beuatiful milchig dinner. Soup, corn, salad, and spaghetti-ziti-pies. .

B’Teavon!

I want to take a few moments to wish a very happy Mother’s Day to all of you hardworking moms out there. I hope you all get something special today, even if you believe that ‘every day is Mother’s Day’. Mothers work so very hard and get very little credit, so this day is for you!!

I want to give a very very special shout out to my Mommy – Elkie Price, and my Mom – Rose-Marie Miller for being the most wonderful, generous, caring mothers in the world!

From what I’ve always learned, you can’t get to the next lesson in life until you’ve learned the current lesson. Some people stay stuck in a rut for a long period of time because they just don’t get it. They haven’t discovered a new solution to a known issue that they live with. I speak for myself (from experience). And the only way to overcome the current issue is to go beyond oneself and do something which might even seem out of charachter.

I know it’s hard and it HURTS! But not all growth comes from love and good feelings. For a muscle to grow, it has to be torn through the process of lifting weights – then it gets cramps! After that, it needs to rest a little… and eventually it can lift the same weight a little easier and move on to a higher weight. But know that the muscle didnt grow through giving it love and whispering sweet little nothings at it. It had to go through a process which included pain to become stronger.

For myself, it is difficult to experience change. I find comfort in some routine things – especially since I’m getting older. And whenever a new nuance is introduced to the dynamic of a relationship, it makes sense that it won’t be met with a ‘yippee! woohoo attitude’. But i’ve found that if i think about the fact that a change has to be made, i’d be more readily agreeable to it. This way i’ll be prepared to deal with something new. That goes the same to anyone else out there who is stubborn.

woo hoo!

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In other news, Shabbos was great with my Kallah friend Rena who is getting married in 6 weeks!! We shmoozed a lot, ate out by my second cousins (Naomi and Doni) Friday night and had my friends Shoshana and Yanky come to visit.

Today I went shopping in Old Navy, got a couple of skirts, and than we went to a Chabad of 5 Towns Lag B’Omer fair. It was cold but really nice. Mainly for kids with all sorts of games and entertainment (Shooby Doo Shloimy!), but some good food too. Can’t wait until we have kids to bring to these types of things…:)

Shabsy’s neighbor told me I look like my mother. I asked how she knew my family. She said from your blog. LOL! It’s funny that these random people are reading about my life. Hi, btw, if you are reading!