Lamb Chop tours the kibbutz guest house

Alright friends, I promised to take you on a tour of the kibbutz guest house where I am staying for this month while I'm digging in Israel. I took Mommy Lamb Chop on the tour so she could see everything--she hasn't been out of my room yet.

Here is the outside of the guest house. If you walk down the sidewalk, you reach the Sea of Galilee.

Mommy Lamb Chop, you need to be in the picture more. Come on.

You're still not in...eh. Whatevs. Not pictured: the girl who was walking down the sidewalk and staring at me as I took the picture.

Opening the door to the house. Not pictured #2: The Australian man who was about to go out the door as soon as I opened it to take the picture.

Christine: (opens door, sees him) Oh...you can go through. I'm just...using the door. Haha.
Him: (looks at me weird and goes outside)
Christine: (walks in the door and tries to hold it open while he pulls it shut behind him. waits inside for a few seconds to wait for him to go away. opens door and sees him still out there. takes picture quickly with apologetic look.)

We're inside the guest house and looking to the right, where my room is.

See, Mommy Lamb Chop? It's the door around the corner! And you can see my level-taking stick leaning against the wall there.

You know this place! It's where you and the rest of the Lamb Chops spend all your time, and it's where I leave all my junk all over the place. Hey, what are you Lamb Chops doing piled up in the corner there? You sillies.

Had we gone left upon entering the house, we would have been in the kitchen. Mommy LC became fixated on this package of cake. She said she wanted some of the muffins. I told her that it was cake and that it wasn't ours, so I dragged her away to see the bathrooms.

Do you ever get annoyed that so much water is wasted every time you flush the toilet? Well, here in Israel, there is a solution. When you flush the toilet, you push down the lever and then pull it back up again to stop the toilet flushing when you want. Try it out, Lamb Chop!

Wow! Lamb Chop impressed! Eco-friendly!

Lamb Chop meets a new friend. She said her friend's name was Muffins.
Sigh. We're not going to hear the end of this, I can tell.

Weekend surprises with the Lamb Chops

Well, I'm back from Jerusalem and Bethlehem! It was an exciting trip, and I bought a lot more than I expected. I was excited to give the Lamb Chops their present, and I knew they'd be excited as well.

I heard giggles once I got in the house, and I turned the corner and saw them all waiting for me, but they quickly ducked back into the room and pretended to be asleep.

I let them open up their present. What could it be?

A guitar! Perfect size for Lamb Chops, too!

In all honesty, I bought this mini guitar for myself. At first, I thought it was a ukelele, but when I found out it was a mini guitar, I had all sorts of grandiose illusions of being able to practice guitar while I was here and sing and learn to play a unique instrument and actually be able to play barre cords ok. Oh, the illusions! But once I tuned the mini guitar, I soon found out that the frets were not in the right place for chords. I might try to figure something out, who knows. If not, I might leave this piece here.

But the Lamb Chops had a surprise for me, too! It turns out that they made a new friend while I was gone:

Mr. Peanut!

Mr. Peanut: "So I said, 'No, I'm not a cashew!'"
Lamb Chops: "LOL"
They all adore their newfound friend.

Some more than others.
I have to say, who could resist that seductive smile? ...Well, obviously not Football LC.

So, that's it for the weekend. I start digging again tomorrow, but I'll give the Lamb Chops a tour of the house soon.

Goodbye for the weekend!

I had to say goodbye to the Lamb Chops, because I am going to Jerusalem this weekend! I will be back at work on Sunday. Until then, I tucked in the Lamb Chops for their long weekend alone!Hopefully they'll stay away from mischief, but knowing these munchkins, I can't be too hopeful. Goodbye! Don't get too lonely! I'll see if I can bring you back a treat!

Say hello to the Lamb Chops!

Since the Lamb Chop family has six members, and all six members happen to be here with me in Israel, I thought it would be a good idea to introduce everyone and give them all formal names so they can be told apart.

This is Football Lamb Chop, as seen without the uniform. As the most outgoing and loud of the group, she tends to take on a leadership role. She is often jolly and good-natured, but she tends to have mood swings.

Although FB Lamb Chop usually takes on a leadership role, Mommy Lamb Chop is the eldest and the matriarch of the family. She's like a stooped, senile old lady, but at her age, she does what she wants and doesn't care what others think. In this way, she shows how she is still a baby Lamb Chop at heart.

Baby Lamb Chop is arguably the cutest member of the LC family. In appearance, she is a slightly smaller, better preserved version of Mommy Lamb Chop. She is shy.

Original Lamb Chop is a unique member of the LC family, being the only non-baby. She tends to be a little wild and likes to be the center of attention.

Christmas Lamb Chop is calm and is quite good at following along with the rest of the group. She is always happy and never selfish, embodying the spirit of a Christmas special.

Lastly, I'm not sure what to name this Lamb Chop. Her name may change, but for now, she will be Young and Agile Lamb Chop. She exhibits none of the wear and tear of Mommy LC and Baby LC--no chewed up pacifiers, no missing bows and buttons, no sagging stuffing, no intentional cuts. Of all the Lamb Chops, she is the least well known. However, my guess is that she is independent, creative, wise, quiet, and has a tendency to be a little melancholy. We will get to know her much better!

So, here is the family! They are very excited to meet you all!

Oh, I went there

Well, we just finished our first day of digging! It was extremely hot and dusty, but what else is new on the site? After lunch and swimming in the sea, I finally had some real free time for the first time since arriving, so I decided to finish unpacking my carry-on suitcase.

I opened it up...

...say now, what's this?

Stowaways!

Football Lamb Chop was just as surprised as I was! Seriously, I had NO idea they were coming along!*

Football Lamb Chop went and sulked in the corner a little bit, since she thought she was going to get all the attention this month and be the special world traveler, and she didn't want to share.

But the whole Lamb Chop family rushed to give her a group hug, and she remembered how much she loved all of them and decided that she could share the attention whenever she got just too tired of the limelight. Plus, it's good that they'll all be together while I'm gone during the morning, since I told them they couldn't come with me on the dig or on day trips. They're security threats, remember?

So, it looks like the adventures of the whole Lamb Chop family will continue this month! Coming soon: an introduction to the Lamb Chop family and a tour of the kibbutz guest house.

*And can you imagine how I had to squish them in the suitcase?

Lamb Chop, infrequent flier

We left on July 1 for Israel. By we, I mean Football Lamb Chop and me. I decided to take her along, since she had never been traveling before, and I thought the company would be nice.

We had to get up early for our 9 AM flight, so Lamb Chop took a nap.

Checking out the flight status at the terminal.

What? Delayed? Lamb Chop angry! Let me speak to the manager!
It's ok, Lamb Chop. We have a long layover in Newark, so we'll be just fine. Then we've got the long flight, about 11 hours. How does that sound, Lamb Chop?

...Lamb Chop? Lamb Chop, hello?

Aaah! Scoot back, Lamb Chop, we'll have plenty of time to be cramped on the plane!

That's better. (Lamb Chop still doesn't quite get the camera. She thinks she has to look into the lens like a telescope.)

Once we got on the plane, Lamb Chop told me to take a picture so she could show the rest of the Lamb Chop family what a good and positive traveler she was.

But pretty soon her resolve wore away.
So, she tried to spend the time hatching mischief.

Whaaa? Someone took my seat when I got up to use the bathroom! Oh, it's you, Lamb Chop! Very funny. We're all amused. (those people on the three-seat-wide plane were SO happy to have me on board)

Lamb Chop cheered up a bit once we got to the Newark airport, and she wanted me to take this picture of her so she would remember the spirit of our beautiful homeland while we're away.*

This is all that Lamb Chop did on the long flight to Tel Aviv. Let me out!

Once we got to Tel Aviv, I let Lamb Chop ride in the luggage trolley to bring some fun into her boring day of travel.

I was horribly tired, though, so I made Lamb Chop push the trolley a bit.

And somewhere in the second hour of our eight-hour-long wait in the Ben Gurion airport, Lamb Chop again got cranky from being stuck inside. She wanted me to take another picture of her when she had eaten something and was happy again, but we soon found out that security at the Ben Gurion airport don't like it you're 20 years old and walking around trying to pose and take pictures of a stuffed animal. They somehow find this suspicious. We found this out after two separate security personnel approached, thumbed through my passport, and asked questions such as, "How did you get here?" and "Why are you alone?" I thought the answers to these questions were obvious--that I came by, well, plane...and that I wasn't alone, I was with Lamb Chop, can't you see? But due to my astute observations, I could see that Lamb Chop was a clear threat to Israeli security, so we went and sat in a chair and stared into space for the next six hours, trying to be inconspicuous. The Ben Gurion airport is a place neither for free spirits nor for clueless camera-happy Americans!

Finally, after a 2.5 hour bus ride to the kibbutz, we unpacked and got to sleep! What an exciting couple of days for Lamb Chop!

*All this store needs is this flag

Well, these pictures are taking too much time for my lack of sleep right now. Tomorrow, I'll tell all about our many hours of traveling!