Hey gang, just letting you all know that "I'm back." Not in the classic, "I dropped out of WW, gained back my weight, and am ready to lose it again," but rather in the "I was traveling and wasn't posting while I was away, but now that I'm home again, I'm back to posting." :-)

We were in Israel for ~10 weeks and it was an amazing trip overall. There were some incredible highs mixed with some incredible lows.

On the "high" side, we bought an apartment while we were there, and are planning on splitting time between Israel and the US. We spent a lot of time on this process, and we are so excited to finally have this opportunity. We also spent lots of time with our daughter (who is working and taking college classes there), ate lots of great kosher food, had lots of great learning opportunities, and most importantly, had a really great series of High Holidays while were were there.

On the "low" side, we visited a number of sites in the Gaza envelope region where the October 7th attacks happened, including the Nova music festival site. I can't even begin to describe our feelings about bearing witness there. I still end up on the verge of tears if I think too deeply about it. We were also there when they found the six hostages murdered in a tunnel (including Hersh Goldberg-Polin), which was really impactful as Hersh had become a rallying point for many in Israel (there were lots of "Free Hersh" and "Hersh lives" graffiti everywhere). We were also there during the most recent Iranian missile attack and heard some Iron Dome interceptions while we were sheltering in the protective room in our rental apartment.

In any case, it was a great trip and we can't wait to spend more time there.

On a plus note, my weight was more-or-less stable over that time. Still a few pounds over my personal goal, but doing fine.