Gemini Girl

I don’t want to get into long winded stories of my trip, so I will include some pictures and a caption of sorts:

Me and my cousin B at the airport. She had brought balloons for the girls, one of sponge*bob and another weird shaped one. They flew away:

B and her husband- totally love them together:

My husband’s aunt Dina (his mom’s sister who used to be my aunt. If you don’t know what that means go back a few posts): We arrived and stayed by my husband’s Uncle’s house. They are the most AWESOME people in the universe. His uncle had a kidney transplant a year and a half ago and thank GD seems to be doing well now:

They have a separate apt for us. These signs were on the door. Red one says all our names, green one says “welcome” but sans the E, and the blue one says “We missed you very much”: Flower’s & Balloon we believed were for us (until I read the card on the flowers and realized they were from my husband’s cousin’s boyfriend for herbday):

But the chocolates, cookies and fruit WERE for us… or so we hope since we ate all the chocolate:Presents for our girls:That first night was TOUGH. They cried non-stop from 12-4am. I wanted to shoot myself in the head: S’s tummy hurt so we had to give her a laxative:

After she poopied:

The next day we took the girl’s to my grandfather’s house. Strange for me to say that as my grandmother is no longer here. Many of my aunt’s & uncles were there to greet us. This is my mother’s side of the family.. all her sisters & their kids.

My mom’s sister is holding Neve. To the right is her 18 yo son who is severely autistic. He is a sweetheart. To the bottom right is another aunt’s 3 year old daughter (my little cousin who is the baby of the family- but not so much anymore) :

To the left is another one of my mom’s sisters. She is hugging her son who is 5. My mother was so happy to see us- she is crazy about her granddaughters:

4 of my cousins in the picture plus another one of my mom’s sisters (she is my favorite aunt ever). The two boys dressed in black are her sons. The one that is closest to Soleil is 11 and was an IVF baby. She is the aunt I turned to when I was going through ivf. Her other son pictured was conceived 3 months after she gave birth to her ivf baby- naturally! she was in the shock of her life when she found out she was pregnant:
My mom’s youngest sister. She is so cool. She is only 38 years old, which makes her 11 years older than me. She has an 18 yo, 17 yo a 15 yo and this next adorable cutie:
How cute is she?:

Me, my grandfather and the girls:

My mom and Sol: My husband and Neve:
I took this picture of a picture. In it are my grandmother’s parents when they were young. My great grandmother who is in this picture is still alive and well:

This picture is of my grandparents a few years after they married. Notice my white grandmother’s afro. You ask where I get it from? GD how i miss her…

Me & Soleil. She is actually smiling


My husband’s sister & Soleil:

My husband’s cousin (daughter of those we stayed by). She has been married and TTC for 6 years. Only recently they found out it’s a problem with her husband. They will be trying ivf soon, i helped her through:
Soleil not having it when a sweet baby wants to touch her:
Neve eating her fist watermelon

Out to lunch with my mom, favorite aunt, hubby & the girls (had a greek salad):
Fave aunt & mom:

Daddy playing with Soleil: The second set of twins:

My husband’s uncle (to the right) had a BBQ in our honor and invited a few relatives. Here my husband is in mid- convo with his uncle and dad:

My husband’s aunt (the one we are staying by) handing crying soleil over to her father:

Trying to make her happy,giving her an ices for the first time. She doesn’t seem to like it:

My husband’s youngest sister (1/2 sister) with Neve:
A pic of maybe 1/4th of my husband’s family: The next day, we were invited (my mother included) to lunch at his dad’s house.

My father-in-law, his wife, and my husbands 1/2 sister:

BTW- My father-in-law’s wife is BY FAR the biggest dodo I have ever met. She is. When my husband was having a conversation with her about astrological signs and how Soleil is already showing signs that she is a scorpio- she asked, “So what sign is Neve?”

Umm.. they’re twins.

Neve not wanting to participate in a 3 generation picture:
So many more pictures…. Way too tired. Will continue post tomorrow

I do not miss this age of non-stop crying:

My sis-in-law’s 6 year old son (older bro of the twins):
S & Soleil
My husband’s dad with 3 of his grandchildren (it seems as if Soleil has spit up): It was nice to not hold anger in my heart.
End Scene.

My cousin Tal.

Oy- how much he meant to me. Of course, that’s in the past. He is my shared cousin with my husband. He was my best friend, as well as my husband’s. Tal was not cool with the union btwn me and the hubbster. We would all hang out and spend time together, but he seemed to always have a chip on his shoulder. Now instead of him telling us how he felt, he was INSANELY passive aggressive towards ME. Why me you ask? I have no idea. It was like I was the reason he was no longer super close to my husband. Tal would never say anything mean outright to me in front of my husband, but he did when we were alone. So when I would tell my husband about how Tal spoke to me, he would say he didn’t want to get involved since that was my relationship with him, not his. I totally agreed- I mean , it was his cousin as well.

He started acting like sh*t the night of our joint bachelor/bachlorette party. Yes we had a joint party on B’s roof/penthouse apt.

I was in Tel-Aviv with my cousin B getting ready to go out to the bar. Tal was driving my husband and Tal’s gfriend to B’s apt (about 45 min away) so that we could all meet up for the party. My husband had to use the gas station restroom for a moment (I know, gross)

Britney Spears seems to enjoy the bathroom potty

- and when he returned to the car, he had realized that Tal and his new gf of 3 months had just had a HUGE fight. Once Tal got to B’s house, he took my husband aside and said that he wasn’t going to join the festivities and was going home with his gf. My husband was shocked. I mean this was not only his best friend, but his cousin! Not only was he not going to join us, he was stranding us an hour away from home, with no car. And taking public transportation is out of the question in Israel at 3am. My husband started to realize what a jerk Tal had become.

The day of our wedding, he was supposed to be our driver. In Israel, people don’t rent limos for their weddings. They get a shiny car, cover it in ribbons and a friend or family member drives the bride and groom around that whole day.

example of an Israeli wedding car:

He was supposed to be our driver, but after stranding us the night of our party, we figured we would look into someone more reliable. My cousin Yosi (B’s bro) was our driver- and he totally rocks.

Yosi being awesome:

Anyway, the night of our wedding, Tal came by to our bridal/groom suite to have a glass of champagne with the bridal party (this included my cousin B, her hubby, my bro and yosi- not an actual bridal party- just people who hung out). He looked like he had a chip on his shoulder.

It’s funny- I truly feel like if we had that part in the reception where they ask anyone to object- he so would. He would say “It’s weird for me that you guys are getting married. Don’t” But he didn’t say that. He did show it through action when I found him having 0 s#e#x with his gf on my veil in my bridal suite. Yes- I caught him mid- action…

My cousin B was with me. I was taken aback.

While he and his gf were getting dressed, I ran to get my husband from the party to tell him what was going down. He asked my cousin (our cousin) what he was thinking. My cousin replied “So we got drunk and had a little fun, what’s wrong with that?”

What’s wrong with that is that you should not have done it in my suite especially not on my veil dude.

Then Tal proceeded to tell his gf to get their stuff because they were leaving, I looked at his gf of 3 months (aww, true love) and said “Yes- leave”

Apparently this did not sit well with my cousin, so he called me a bitch and lunged at me fist first. Yes- my wedding turned into something out of Jerry Springer.

My husband saw this, grabbed Tal and proceeded to want to beat him down, when B’s hubby and Yosi got btwn them. Tal left and we never heard from him again. No apologies.

Fast forward 3 years:

One day this past month I was taking the girls for a stroll in my husband’s community. I was going to take the girls to visit their great-grandfather (my husband’s grandfather- who happens to be Tal’s grandfather as well). I ran into Tal’s 15 yo brother and we started talking. Then Tal’s 23 year old sis Shirley came home (she had just arrived from Ireland where she now lives). We were all talking in the driveway, when a car pulled up and HE emerged with his skanky ass gf.

There was no where I could run- he was coming toward us. I am sure he didn’t think I would be there.

I was about to make a U-Turn with my stroller to leave, but Shirley grabbed me and said not to – to just put it in the past. She grabbed the stroller and wouldn’t let me leave. He came towards the stroller, bent down to the girls and just stared.

Conversation:

Awkward Pause

Me: “You can say hi”

Him: “Hi. So a boy and a girl. Actually 2 girls. Neve and what?”

Me: “Soleil”

Him: “Oh.”

End Scene

That was it. After 3 years.

I told my husband about the interaction and he said he would not have stayed for one second or had any interaction with him. I had to say something to him since I have been dreaming of my grandmother lately and in my dreams its me, her and Tal- as if she wants us to make up. I wont make up with him but I can be civil.

My Ex-uncle O

Wow where do I begin?

My mother’s younger sister dated her now ex husband since she was 18. I was 1 at the time. They married when I was 6.

I loved him like an older brother. He was born in Israel but was raised In Denmark. He spoke English to my brother and I every time we were in Israel. He would play with us, take us to movies and make us laugh non-stop. I admired him, I loved him like a brother.

He and my aunt divorced when I was 18, but I didn’t want that to mean that our relationship was done. Their divorce was very civil and they have two children. So when I was on vacation there when I was 19, we went out to dinner. It was cool- he was cool. We hung out at his apt and he made drinks. OK I know it sounds weird for a 19 year old girl to hang out with a 36 year old man, but he was like a brother to me.

OK, so apparently he got drunk and decided “Hey, wouldn’t it be cool if I hit on my ex-niece”? which is what he did by the way.

He stuck his tongue in my ear. Just the thought to of it sends me into convulsions people. I pulled away mortified. He realized what he had done and quickly said he did that as a joke.

Umm, ‘pull my finger ‘ is a joke, not sticking your wet nasty ex-uncle tongue in my 19 year old ear perv.

A mother licking her calf’s ear- not what he did:

So that was it- another relationship bites the dust.

I did see him many times after the fact. The first time I saw him post ear scandal 2001, he took me aside (while my hawk of a husband watched from afar) and said he was drunk and never meant to do anything like that to me. That he viewed me as a sister and wanted our relationship to be OK. No way Jo’se.

I never told my aunt (his ex) of what happened, because lets face it- they have two children together and she would be weirded out by it. I told my mother, and she said “Well, you shouldn’t have been in his apt in the first place“. Thanks mom. That’s like saying to a woman who was sexually abused, “you shouldn’t have worn that short skirt honey, you were asking for it”

I had to invite him to my wedding (bec it would have been suspicious otherwise) but he declined. He told my brother (who he is still close with- thanks bro) that he didn’t attend my wedding because I was a bit*ch to him the last time he saw me. Umm yeah bud, you shouldn’t have tried to get with me.

I did see him last week at his daughter’s 14th bday party. He hardly addressed me, but when he did he didn’t look me in the eye. He saw my daughters and said “Who would have thought that you would have twins”?

That was it. He also tried to be cool with my hubby and asked him if he wanted some coffee.

So after writing this all out- I realize that I am super awesome. People burn me and I remain civil. This is new for me since I am one who holds a deep grudge inside for years. I think going through so much with the girls early on really taught me to put things in perspective.

Have any of you ever held a grudge for someone who burned you? If so have you let it go since and if you have- what made you let go?

Seriously people. I am starting to get offended. I know you re out there… I see it on my site feed. But only 5 of you comment. What’s up with that ladies and gents?

Take the time to say hi! I would love to read your blogs as well if you have one.

BTW- My girls are 7 months old today people. How insane is that?

Moving on.

Let’s discuss lawn ornaments.

Yes, those little gnomes or rabbits made of stone that bring a smile to someones face as they pass your house.

Hey there pipe smoking gnome. What LSD induced stories do you have to share with us today?





I admit, I think they’re cute.

But why in GD’s name would anyone do this to their lawn??!:

Crazy ax murder waiting to greet you outside your home:

“Hi”



You too can have an African Safari in your own backyard! A ghostly figure riding on a buggy going nowhere



“Sammy” Meet the VERY PROUD owner of this fine spectacle (and my husband’s uncle):

He loves his lawn ornaments so much, he even names them. Oh wait, he also changes their clothes and shoes yearly. Yes people- they have a change of clothes. You would think this man is deranged, but actually he is perfectly normal. Imagine seeing these figures in middle of the night?

My husband, the girls, and I were invited to a BBQ at his aunt’s house (in our honor) and this is what we saw upon arrival. I could not stop laughing. I took out my camera to snap pictures so that I could share this wonderful site with all of you. My husband knew why I was snapping the pics and he laughed.

My husband and Dan:

I had to get in on the fun, here I am giving Dan bunny ears. Hope that doesn’t make him mad- you wont like him when he’s mad.

We had a nice time at the BBQ. His aunt invited my husband’s father and his family, and two more sets of aunt and uncles.

Oh but wait, the crazy sets in soon.

His aunt has a newly married son who lives in his parent’s house (never a good idea) with his wife. I met his wife (Sharon) maybe once prior to this visit.

A week prior to this BBQ, Sharon and I met and she seemed sane. That is until she became OBSESSED with my children. She took out her camera phone and continued to snap pictures of my children non-stop. Now, this would be OK for my husband’s 13 year old sister to do since she is their aunt and is a tween. But this 26 yo woman would not stop. She wanted to hold them all the time. OK, I get it. When you don’t have kids and see a cute baby/babies you want to hold them. But even me as a woman who had problems having children would NEVER have snapped so many pictures of my husband’s cousin’s babies. I just think that’s a little off- esp since I have never met you before. Then she kept looking at the pictures.

Now, the following week at the BBQ, she was there and told me to come to her room. I proceeded to follow her and she had a bag with a wrapped present in it. Now instead of her handing it to me to open, she actually opened the gift wrapping herself! Umm.. ok crazy.

She had purchased 4 new outfits for them. FUGLY is not the word. It made them look like psychedelic circus clowns. Here the girls are modeling two of the outfits:

Here Neve is modeling her neon green ruffle top (I don’t think ruffle and neon green should ever be muttered in the same sentence) & Bell bottom bright blue pants:

In the same collection, here is Soleil modeling her neon orange ruffled shirt, with her hot pink bell bottom pants:



Mom, help me get this off:



Why must you torment us with these outfits?Of course, I told her that I LOVED the outfits. I hope she doesn’t run into my sister-in-law soon (since I handed these and many more fugly clothes that I received from people as gifts off to my sis-in-law who loved them). Sharon even told me that she was showing everyone she knows the pics of my kids and was counting down the days to see them. OK Crazy.

Before we left, Sharon (after snapping many more pics of my girls) said “OMG, I am going to miss them so much. I cant believe we wont see them for years!” I tried to console her and said, well there are another set of twins (my brother-in-law) for you to go ga-ga over (no pun intended). She then looked at me with a crazed look in her eye and said “No, they will NEVER be as special as these girls”.

I mean, what can you say to that? You just nod your head and smile when you’re in crazy lawn ornament land.

OK- I totally stole this post idea.

How about I entertain my readers with the story of my husband and I? It’s sappy but cute- something to tell the kiddies when they get older.

Here goes- try to keep up.

My uncle E (mom’s bro) married a woman named Dina.

You with me so far? K.

Dina happens to be my husband’s aunt (his mom’s sister).

Which means- we are somewhat related- but through marriage (no blood of course!)

Far left: My mom’s bro E, Dina, My father-in-law & Mother-in-law (on wedding day) , and my mother:

So in a way, we grew up together. My husband and I have 3 shared cousins (from the failed union of E & Dina). One Cousin is named Tal. I will get to him later.

Every summer, when I was on summer vacation in Israel, I would hang out with my cousin Tal and his cousin (my hubs).

One early memory of my interaction with my husband is going to his house with my mother and brother. My brother played with my hubby and his older brother in their room- while I stayed in the living room. My husband came out of the room, came up to me and with all of his 8 year old self and said “Why don’t you come play with us”? I was shy- I didn’t want to.

Far left: My husband, My brother, Me, our shared cousin Tal, a friend. I keep telling my husband that he is the one that is so smitten with me in this picture, that he cannot keep his eye’s off of me. He claims he was looking at the bike. Liar.

Naturally, I became smitten with my husband at around age 10 when I saw him at Tal’s (shared cousin) bday party after years of not seeing him(his mother passed away in a car accident, and his family became somewhat estranged from everyone).

But when I was 13, my insane obsession with him peeked. I would make every attempt to hang out with Tal, just to see him (bec tal and my husband were the best of friends- and were until our wedding day). My husband was well aware of my crush- but was def NOT INTO ME. He said my fro was not attractive (see last post).

When I returned home from Israel that summer, I told all my friend of my crush on this boy.

Every summer, when I would see him- my heart would do a backflip. But alas, by the following summer- he had a girlfriend. One who would be his love for the next 5 YEARS! Yes, my husband seems to be into monogamy.

So yes, we would hang out- but it was an unrequited love type of deal.

When I was 20, I had just broken up with my first real boyfriend and went on a two week vacation to Israel. Now, at this point I wasn’t so into my husband- I was healing a broken heart. One day we just hung out, and we clicked. It felt really nice and right. I went back home feeling that we could have had a relationship if I were close by. So naturally, I booked a ticket back that summer.

Within one week, we were living together and in love. The rest is history.

To this day my hubby loves to tell people how in love with him I was for years, and how he didnt give a crap about me. Ah- true love.

Our legal wedding at civil court
Random Pictures:

Our Henna (yemenite wedding prior to real wedding) with his aunt Dina:
Our wedding:
Last week at his friend’s wedding in Israel:

*BTW- Had an encounter with cousin Tal after 3 years. Will post at another time.

OK- This post goes out to my friend who wished she had a fro.

This is me: Age 6

Yes- that’s me under that fro. I was apparently too busy playing lego to notice the country that was on my head.

Me: Age 4-5?

My father, brother, and I were by the beach. I was calling my mother. No that is not Donna Summers- That’s me. (My brother seems to be scratching a non- kosher itch)

Me again- with my fro.

Not sure who that guy is to my side. Hope he’s doing well

Now- I just had to add this picture.

Let me give you the background of the situation:

My brother and I were fighting about something or other, and my brother started beating me up. Now instead of my father intervening- he took out his camera and started snapping away. Yup- I am surprised at how functional I am these days.

There you have it folks- some pictures from Christmas past.

So as I mentioned before- one of my memory cards is still in Israel, and therefore I cant post some pictures.

DAY 1:

Where to start? OK- Our plane ride to Israel went pretty well. It was a red eye so the girls slept for a good 7 hours.

When we arrived my husband’s aunt was the one who was supposed to greet us by the gate- but instead it was my cousin and her husband. She came with balloons. I didn’t expect to see her since you know- the girl NEVER returns or answers calls. She actually called me a few times before I flew out- but I never answered her calls- you know to get back at her (I feel very conniving like Alexis from Dynasty). But she managed to find out my flight info and came.

(btw- We received so many monetary gifts from family (for the girls births) that we did not use a dollar of our own money. To top it all off, my father-in-law gave us money to pay for our tickets- so the entire trip was free! Yeahy! What can be better than that?

I found this trip to be very difficult. I guess we’re just not used to being with the girls 24 hours a day. It was just really hard. At first, Soleil cried all the time. When she sees an unfamiliar face, she freaks out. But that quickly needed to change- since there were way too many people to meet. And surprisingly, she became much more people friendly.

What was great, was that we had a whole apartment to ourselves. Two bedrooms- one for the girls with two cribs, and one bedroom for us. This was a apt in my husband’s uncle’s house. His sister and cousin usually share the apt, but cleared out for us. It was great. We arrived to signs on the door welcoming us, gifts on the table, and chocolates everywhere. My husband’s family is amazing. They put my family to shame!

That night we went to visit my husband’s father (who lives in the same farm- yes farm) and we introduced him to his granddaughters. He’s not a warm guy- but he hugged them- which was nice.

Grandpa & The girls

Our first night was hard- the girls refused to sleep. They were awake from 12am-4am. They cried NON-STOP. Soleil’s tummy hurt since the girl NEVER poops, so I gave her a suppository, she pooped- and finally went to sleep. (pictures to come- not of poo, but of her crying)

Day 2:

Was Sabbath, so we had breakfast with my husband’s family and then headed out to my grandfather’s house. My mom had arrived there the same day as us- on a different flight- so she was there and so was most of my family (my mother’s 6 siblings and their extended families). Everyone saw the girls and it was pretty bitter-sweet. It was the first time I was at my grandparent’s house since my grandmother’s passing. Just being there made me sad. She would have been so insanely happy to meet her great-granddaughters.. she so wanted me to get pregnant. My grandfather cried as he held his first great grandchildren and said “Why wasn’t she here to see this?”. Of course that made me cry.

Great-Grandpa & The girls

Now you can just imagine what that did to my self confidence. Not great.

And what kills me- is that people know that I had twins a few months ago! I mean, do you think I am a celebrity- getting my pre preggo body back in shape in a jiffy? It’s going to take time people! And your comments don’t help. But you cant change a nation of tactless people. Because, lets face it- tact is what 90% of Israeli’s lack (and I can say this since I am pretty much Israeli).

I mean, do I really need to explain to them that I had ivf- which blows you up in the first place, then was hospitalized for 6 weeks knowing that my girls might come early- and the bigger they are the better their chances were (which caused me to down daily milk shakes from burger k*ng since my heart burn was so bad I couldn’t eat anything solid)… but WHATEV.. I digress…

I also do NOT like sand.

I don’t like being hot.

So all these things together make me HATE the beach, but I knew that I needed to take my girls there- so I put my own feelings aside and went. They wore their first bathing suits and it was a nice photo op. The beaches in Israel are BEAUTIFUL.

Me & Soleil

My brother says Soleil looks like Carmen Miranda: My husband’s sister & Neve
Daddy & His girls:
So that’s all for today- will post more about my trip to come…

BTW- As I had mentioned in a previous post- my blogging BFF Heather sent my girls the cutest onesies ever that read “Do we look identical?”- love it. Anyway, I sent the website (where she purchased it from) a pic of the girls wearing the onesies and they posted it. Check it out. Thanks Heather for making my girls “Stahs”

A messy house:


And two infants that have been awake and crying since 2am:

will post more when my brain is functioning!