Harvey

Has anyone ever heard of Puppies For Rent?

They let you rent adorable puppies so you can go from sad to happy in just a few minutes

I rented Harvey because I babysat my nieces and nephews on Monday & I wanted to be that cool aunt that does fun stuff with them

I was super afraid the dog would be mean and grumpy, but he was SO friendly

I felt like we had been best friends for years

I highly recommend renting from them

Also, my little sister apparently has rad editing skills. She whipped this video up in like 30 minutes

I wish I would have known about this skill of hers when I searched the entire internet for a wedding videographer last year

An hour with Harvey from Nicole Curtis on Vimeo.

Exploring

An Israeli cow. trying with all of his might to escape, but the barbed wire fence
 continually gets in his way. Sorry little guy.

Jerusalem and Washington DC (two cities that have grown dear to my heart over this past year)
on the same sign

   

Nimrod's castle

We ended the day with a bonfire on the beach.
It's been decided...Israeli smores are much better than American smores.
Then again, I'm the only one who voted, but it's my blog so I get to decide.

Biblical Gardens

First off. Nature. hi, I've missed you. 

We went to the Biblical gardens today and had a hands-on experience of crushing hyssop, 

sheep herding, baking pitas on a camp fire and exploring the world of Biblical nature. 

I loved it. 

 Hyssop: an herb used in the passover to spread the lambs blood over the doorposts. 

Also, tastes good on pita.

lions and tigers and bears. Oh my!

For some reason I have this special attachment to animals. When I was a child I never cried when people died in movies, but I would bawl my eyes out when an animal died. Albeit, my family was terrible at keeping any animal alive other than a dog (shout out to Bandit...I love you, boy—don’t forget, you’re not allowed to die while I’m gone), but I love all animals anyway.

We visited the zoo today and my love for animals rekindled as we spent a whopping five hours looking at the animals.
My favorite? The monkeys, of course.

Diary of a wimpy dog

My dog, Bandit, hiding in the shower during yesterday's thunderstorm

Bandit hiding behind my chair

Its the middle of night. You're asleep in your nice warm bed dreaming the happiest thoughts. Then. With no warning whatsoever you begin to hear pant pant pant pant. "what is going on? Why am I waking up at three in the morning?" You wonder. And then you look outside your door and see a flash of lighting in the distance. "Ah...."everything starts making sense. "Bandit."

My dog is one of the wimpiest dogs I know. Even if our fire alarm starts to beep because it's out of battery he'll begin shaking so hard he looks like a cell-phone on vibrate. During the fourth of July he'll just about have a heart attack and to find him all you have to do is look in a nook and you'll see him curled up in a ball.

Two nights ago during the first thunderstorm I heard him peeing his pants in the hallway. Then last night I was very rudely woken up as he was trying to sit on my head because he was so scared.

"Bandit, go away" I told him. he still insisted on pant pant pant panting right next to my face.

"Bandit! GO AWAY!!" I yelled harder. he stood as firm as a rock. (a vibrating one that is). And did I mention his breath smells terrible?

Finally it got the point where I had to walk to my door and demand he leave the room. Was I extremely angry? yes. But did I feel a little guilty as he gave me that puppy dog look? yes, but I got over it once I was nestle safely into my silent bed.

That is, silent until he whammed himself into my door a couple of times. What am I going to do with that dog? He takes away all the coziness of a thunderstorm.