Jo Ann Skied 27 Runs in Sun Valley on Thursday, January 18, 2024

 I had the best time on Thursday, January 18, 2024 since I skied and skied all day long.  Here’s a sumary of where and what I did.

I began my morning by boarding the blue bus in Elkhorn Springs at 8:30 am and headed to Dollar Mountain.  I was there in about six minutes, so I just took my time getting my boots tight and my helmet and goggles and jacket on and I got my skis ready.

Then, at 8:55 am, I headed for the lift which opened right at 9 am.  I usually go on the Quarter Dollar lift to warm up when I go to Dollar Mountain, but Quarter Dollar was closed, so I just went on the Dollar lift.

I was the third person up to the top!

I skied Sepp’s Bowl which was so fun  and then I went to the little terrain park on Poverty Flats.

I head back up the Dollar lift five more times and did New Bowl and then the terrain park jumps, Dollar Face and the run next to the terrain park, and then did everything I did the first time again:  Sepp’s Bowl, Poverty Flats, New Bowl, the run next to the terrain park, Dollar Face, more terrain park and then the run next to the magic carpet.

Then, I headed to the bus stop and got on the bus to Warm Springs.

When I got to Warm Springs, I took the Challenger lift to the half way point and skied the first part of lower Warm Springs and then I took the cat track to the Hemingway Run.  That was hard by the way…

Then I went back up the Challenger lift to the the halfway point and skied lower Warm Springs.

Then I took a break and after the break I went up the new Flying Squirrel lift and did the very end of Upper College and then I took the Olympic Lane cat track to Gun Tower Lane by the gondola and then took Gun Tower Lane to lower Broadway. 

Lower Broadway, as usual, was so fun!

Then I went up the lift which is at the bottom of lower Broadway and went down GunTower Lane again, but this time I took the Seattle Ridge lift tot he top of Seattle Ridge.

I stopped in the Seatlle Ridge lodge to use the restroom and drink water, and then I skied Christin’s Silver which was really hard and after that I skied the rest of Upper Broadway and went back up the lift.  Then I skied Leigh’s Lane to Upper Broadway and skied to lower Broadway and skied lower Broadway for a second time.

After taking the lift at the bottom of Lower Broadway up to the Gondlola, I decided to take the Christmas lift up to the top.  

It was super windy at the top so I began skiing down right away and I skied upper College to lower College to the cat track that took me to the end of mid river run and then skied lower River Run.

When I got to the bottom, I did a quick restroom break and then I did one more run on Lower River Run!

I then headed to the bus stop and waited for the Red bus and at 4:09 pm I headed home.

What an amazing day!!!

My Parents’ Plaque Is Finally Up and Correct

Forest Lawn finally got the plaque corrected….summary of what happened:  there was a lot of discussion by my siblings about what should be on my father’s plaque and it was finally decided it would just mirror my mother’s.  It took so long that I asked for an addition, but Forest Lawn messed up and it was wrong.  I felt so bad since me asking for an addition caused the error.  I asked if they could correct it and finally they did.

There was a disagreement with my siblings about what would be on the plaque on my father’s grave.  Billy first told me it was okay to write anything I wanted, but when Lynnellen disapproved of what I came up with, Billy just stepped in and mirrored what was on my Mom’s.  

When I visit my parents at Forest Lawn, when I see the plaque, I will only remember Lynnellen criticizing me for what I wanted the plaque to say.  I will also remember the “wrong” plaque that is no longer there since the error occurred because I asked if there was room for “Uncle” and “Brother.”

Incorrect Plaque left out “Grandfather”

This is what I wanted on the plaque:

Here’s the “back and forth conversation” about what the plaque should say:

(I showed Lynnellen and Billy this example sent by my cousin Donna trying to explain that the headstone tells those who see it in the future the story of one’s life.  They still did understand how important this was to me.)

(I feel different now  - I will still visit my parents at Forest Lawn, but this plaque discussion will forever be somewhat of a painful memory.)

Night Skiing! New Year’s Eve 2023

What an amazing New Year’s Eve!  Celebrating with night skiing on Dollar Mountain in Sun Valley was the best.  It was also incredible when there were fireworks and skiing with flares at the end!

 

My Very Bad Experience With Natalie Renee Baer

Right after the horrible October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, I received an update from my friend “Sarah” on an Israel-American young woman named Natalie Renee Baer.

Natalie’s story broke my heart.  Just a few days before the October 7th tragedy, Natalie had moved to a wonderful new apartment in Tel Aviv and was about to start what seemed to what would be a flourishing tutoring business. She’d put all her money into the move and the business.  

The day October 7th happened, all she built just seemed to crumble and in the days that followed, things just got worse.  The area the apartment was in was not safe and became dangerous and although Natalie was offered shelter, the places that offered shelter did not allow her to bring her dog Chloe.

Apparently Natalie told “Sarah” that her parents, Curtis Leon Baer and Leigh Ellen Baer, were no longer living and that although there were brothers, Nathan and Nick, that they refused to help her.  She told “Sarah” that her brothers just said, “Be strong.”

Natalie began to run out of hope, so “Sarah” set up a GoFundMe account to help Natalie go back to the USA.  I only gave $20 to Natalie’s cause, but I felt I had to give something.  

A week or two later, I heard Natalie used the funds to get back to the USA and I was relieved.

Then, just about a month later, “Sarah” wrote that she learned that Natalie had returned to Israel!  What?!!!

Well…it turned out that Natalie had been offered a job there but the job didn’t work out once she arrived and that there was a boyfriend she returned to in Israel who had punched her in the nose.  

Natalie wanted “Sarah” to ask everyone she knew if they could provide her temporary shelter anywhere in the world.

That’s where I came in.  I offered Natalie our home in Colorado until mid-April 2024.  

A few days later, I received a text from Natalie asking if we could talk on the phone.  An hour or so later, the two of us talked for about an hour and a half.  I learned that Natalie was 37 years old and an educated woman.   She earned a masters degree at Columbia University.  I learned she had been offered a teaching job at a primary school called King Solomon in Tel Aviv and that was her reason for returning to Israel, but when she arrived in Israel, the job was given to someone else.   She also said she’d reserved a room to tutor students, but when she’d arrived to the room with the students, she was told she could not use the room after all.   I learned her apartment and vehicle was still in Tel Aviv, so that was also a reason she returned.  I was told she had leased a car, which she said she could just give up if she went back to the USA.  I learned her dog Chloe was with the ex boyfriend named Eran who had hit her.  I was told she had Lyme’s disease, but it was in remission and that she once had been in Colorado to hike before she had contracted Lyme’s disease.  She told me she’d made Aliyah and had lived in Israel for two years and that the reason she first came there was for the ex boyfriend.  I was told she wanted to stay in Tel Aviv a bit longer to see if she could get any work, but Natalie told me my generous offer just made her feel better.  It was a nice conversation.

I was also told that another reason to just leave quickly was that in Israel if you owe money, you are not allowed to leave.  She said that she was considering not paying her rent and just skipping out before she ran out of money!  That disturbed me.

I didn’t really think Natalie would take up my offer, but I told my husband Dan about it and the two of us agreed that we should help this young woman.  We thought it was our small part in helping anyone who was affected by October 7th.

A few weeks later, I heard from Natalie.  She really wanted to come to Colorado and told me that she’d arrive around December 24 or 25, 2023.

So…when I told my adult children about this, they all wanted to help, but suggested that I get references.  Also, my Partner In Torah, Dena, told me references were essential.  Later Dena told me that talking to the references on the phone is essential too.

Before Dena had advised on phone calls from references, I wrote Natalie and asked that three reference letters be sent to my email address.  Natalie wrote me back and told me the three references had first told her to just write out letters and just have them sign, but Natalie said that would not be helpful and instead gave me phone numbers to contact.  Natalie suggested that we could have a Zoom meeting with my family so we could get to know her better.  (I could not figure out how to get the six of us together on Zoom at once though.)

I was bothered that Natalie asked me to not to mention to the three references that my friend “Sarah” had set up an GoFundMe account for Natalie and that money had been give to her from what “Sarah” had raised.  She said to withhold that information from the references since she didn’t want them to feel they needed to donate money.

I contacted all three references and had very nice conversations with all three of the people.

The first was an Israeli friend named Ido.  We talked a long time and the conversation made me feel that Natalie would be a great guest.  Ido told me his main concern for Natalie was the abusive ex boyfriend.  He said that he could offer Natalie refuge, but the abusive ex boyfriend would continue to track Natalie down in Israel.  He also said what Natalie had been through was a lot.  She just needed rest. Ido told me he had been told that both of Natalie’s parents were no longer alive to help.  Ido told me that the ex boyfriend is Jewish-Sephardic-Moroccan and he knew approximately where he lived.  He's is not a criminal, he owns a small company, lives in a nice place, and has an expensive car.  Ido told me the reason Natalie might have found it difficult to find employment in Tel Aviv was because she spoke very little Hebrew. 

Then I spoke with Natalie’s former therapist, Wendy.  I learned Natalie was a responsible woman and that she would find work and that Natalie had been through a lot and just needed to catch up financially and needed rest.  She thanked me for wanting to help Natalie.  It was also a good conversation, but Wendy told me that Natalie’s mother was still living, but from Natalie’s point of view her mother was “dead to her.”   She confirmed that the abusive ex boyfriend was the main reason Natalie needed to leave Israel, but the job not working out and diminishing funds were also good reasons.  Wendy thanked me for wanting to help Natalie.  

The third reference was the person who had hosted Natalie in Miami after she’d returned to the USA.  Her name is Amy.  The hostess explained that her conservative congregation in Miami offered to help people in Israel and hosting Natalie temporarily was her way of giving to the cause.  She said Natalie was a very nice and polite person and she’d been a good guest.  She said that Natalie had returned to Israel because of  the job offer in Israel that had not worked out and had only been in her home for about three weeks.  She told me that Natalie worked  for the Gordon schools of Beth David during her three weeks in Miami and that her congregation is Beth David Center for Jewish life in Miami.  Amy also told me that Natalie must be a brave woman since once she had been confined to a wheelchair due to the Lyme’s disease.

My friend “Sarah” and I were concerned after my three calls, since why would Natalie not want the references to know that a GoFundMe account existed?  

“Sarah” had also been told by Natalie that the school in Miami was not a Jewish school. “Sarah” had been told that the reason Natalie returned to Israel so quickly was the hostess wanted her to leave since the hostess needed to go to New York to help her daughter with a new baby and didn’t want Natalie in her home without her there.  (Natalie had actually stayed one week longer than the Miami hostess had wanted.)  This made sense, but Natalie had also told “Sarah” that apartments in Miami were too expensive with a $3000 a month teacher’s salary.  

In addition, I learned that “Sarah” only had met Natalie one time for an hour face to face.  The one time “Sarah” had met her, Natalie had called JFJ in southern California, expressing some interest in messianic Judaism, so “Sarah” visited her.  (Btw.. “Sarah” no longer works for that organization.)  “Sarah”” said during their encounter, Natalie was bedridden and was holding a cute dog, but couldn’t get out of bed.  After their meeting, they’d just stayed in touch.

“Sarah” and I began comparing what we’d been told, but something just didn’t seem right.:  

• Why would Natalie not want her references to know about the GoFundMe account?  
• Why did Natalie get angry at “Sarah” for suggesting to me that I ask that one of the references be the person who hosted Natalie in Miami?
• Where did Natalie get the money to return to Israel?  (I found out later that her mother Leigh was still alive and had given her the money to return to Israel!) 
• Why, once in the USA, did she fly to the Chicago for a short trip to see a physician and then fly back to Miami?  Where did the funds for those flights come from? 
• Why did Natalie write messianic congregations all over the USA asking for more money?  
• Why did Natalie tell the 15 messianic congregations she wrote to in her emails that she lived in southern Israel (is Tel Aviv southern Israel?) and that she followed and went to their congregations online?  Some of those congregations do not have online services at all!  
• Why was “Sarah” used as a reference to these messianic congregations without her permission?  
• Was Natalie’s mother Leigh alive or not and did her mother give her money?  
• Why did Natalie say her two brothers and mother would not talk to her?  
• Why does Natalie call her mother Leigh?
• Why did Natalie’s mother write relatives saying that the Lyme disease was all in Natalie’s imagination?
• Did Natalie exaggerate what was on her resume?
• Why did Natalie ask the King Solomon school in Tel Aviv for more money because she’d been teaching 14 years, not 13 years, and was that the reason the job in Israel was not offered to her?  
• Why did she tell “Sarah” the school in Miami was not a Jewish school over and over again?  
• Was Natalie pretending to be messianic?  
• Did Natalie’s ex boyfriend Eran really hit her in the face?  Did he really make her get an abortion?  
• Why did Natalie tell “Sarah” (and Ido) that she could not get out of her apartment lease and her car lease obligations?  
• Why did Natalie use bad language when she talked on the phone with “Sarah”?  
• Why was Natalie just planning to stay in my home in Colorado for three months  in order to find a job in Florida?  Why, if she didn’t like cold weather, was she coming to Colorado at all?  
• Why had Natalie told the school in Florida she didn’t want to go to a morning teacher’s meeting since it was too early the morning?   
• Did Natalie even need the funds “Sarah” raised for her?  (One of her brothers and her mother did give her some money!)
• Why did Natalie get mad at “Sarah” over and over again and lash out at her when all “Sarah” wanted to do was help?  
• Why did Natalie tell “Sarah” that the boyfriend Eran was pro Palestinian middle eastern Egyptian and not Jewish?  

Here are some photos of the ex boyfriend (Oran or Eran?) that is supposed to be either Sephardic or middle eastern.  

When I called Natalie asking to get the correct facts, Natalie told me that she was under a lot of stress since the apartment in Israel had mold and that she’d been busy moving since many of her things had to be discarded.  Apparently, when she’d been in Miami, there was a lot of rain in Tel Aviv and mold had grown in her apartment.  I was told she was now staying with the abusive ex boyfriend since she had no where to go.  I was told that Amy, the Miami hostess didn’t know much about her.  I was told that whether her mother Leigh was alive or not was not my business.  I asked Natalie to just please tell me the truth.  I also let Natalie know that me being asked not to mention the GoFundMe account really bothered me and her being back at her ex’s home bothered me too.

The phone connection was not good, so we decided to talk later, but instead I received a long hostile voice text from Natalie which pretty much said she’d done all she could providing me the references, but they were from different times in her life, and so that is why the facts could be different.  

I also asked Natalie if she was messianic just because I was curious and got another hostile voice text saying I was prying into her private life.  

Natalie also said that Ido was sick and that was the reason she was at the ex’s home, so I contacted Ido and asked if Natalie was safe.  Ido did write me back and told me Natalie was safe and that Natalie was now at his place although he was still ill.  We agreed that it just seemed Natalie was exhausted and needed rest.  

I wrote Natalie and let her know she was still welcome in our home.  I also sent her photos of the room and bath she would use since I wanted to show her that she’d be coming to a peaceful place.   Natalie had offered to send me her I.D.  if I wanted to do a background check and so I asked for that, but Natalie never provided it.

My questioning Natalie really bothered her, so it seemed that Natalie was no longer going to take up my offer and on Sunday, December 31, 2023 I let Natalie know that I felt that some of her communication had been very disrespectful since I am thirty years older than her, but I told her that although she was disrespectful, if she needed shelter in our home, it was available since I truly believed she needed a place to rest and catch up financially.  

I received communication from Natalie on the evening of January 1, 2024 that she had flown from Israel to Miami on December 31, 2024 and was in a hotel in Miami deciding what to do.  Here’s the communication:  

I wrote her back on the morning of January 2nd, and told her that I was glad she was now in the USA since her friend Ido said the main reason she needed to leave Israel was the abusive ex boyfriend and that I imagine Israel is not a safe place to be at this time.  I then told her after sharing her hostile texts and voice texts with my family, that although I was willing to still provide her shelter despite her being disrespectful, that my husband and adult children no longer wanted to provide our home, so that option was not available.  Here’s my message to Natalie:

Well, no longer having the option must have really set Natalie off since this is her response:

Now that “this” is all over, I have learned a lot.  There are people out there that prey on others and Natalie Renee Baer is one of those people.  I will never open my home up again to a total stranger without getting  a lot of information.  I have also been told that most people who are in Israel now are not leaving or trying to get money out of Americans.  I am sad that some of “Sarah’s” friends gave over $500 to Natalie. (“Sarah” raised and handed over to her more than $2000 dollars!)  I am joking, but I kind of want the $20 back that I gave towards helping this rather ungrateful and very angry and confused woman.

Also, is this a scam?  Was anything that Natalie claimed true at all?  

—————————

Just for reference, here is Natalie’s original post that was written a week after the October 7 attack that broke my heart:

Hi there again

I just want to share (in depth) how surreal this experience is of being in a war that started less than a week ago. The spotlight of the world is supposedly on Israel yet we feel so alone….few people can grasp how small this country is and therefore how deep the damage is here. Everyone knows someone who has been killed or who is in battle in grave danger right now. Those who have been FB friends for a while realize that I never post personal things but in these days I’ve felt absolutely suffocated by what’s going on… and in a place that everyone else is also in shock and horror it helps to get a breathe of fresh air from the outside world.

I wake up on Saturday morning to a text from an ex saying there are rockets launched and I should come to his house. Well that didn’t sound appealing… I go back to bed. I wake up to other concerned messages. These messages are quite a nuisance as I’m completing my lessons for the tutoring business I just opened that was supposed to begin…. TODAY. (160 students who i don’t know if I’ll ever have now since we obviously couldn’t meet…….) At 8pm I hear loud rockets near my apartment, I go to my exes house as he has a bomb shelter and I don’t.

For the next 2 days I’m at his house Hebrew news channels are blasting around me 24/7 (I only understand 50% of the language…) but I see the numbers of deaths on the TV keep rising so fast….. 300…600…900… when it got to 1000 everyone understands something apocalyptic is happening.

Those first few days go by so slow….. I hold out hope my tutoring business will still start in a few days…. The business I worked 5 months full time to develop… and I realize there’s absolutely no way that it will start on time as schools are cancelled and nobody can even think of anything but the war…. Everyone is in survival mode… how dare I talk about business when people are dying. Now is not the time. The whole time of this realization running in and out of bomb shelters. My dog is scared.

Then I hear about this friend and that friend that are missing dead kidnapped or injured. Then this person and that person left the country on an overnight flight and their pets are left behind… we become a country of abandoned animals…

The once thriving Tel Aviv city center competitively speaking like downtown manhattan is a ghost town… only creepy opportunistic men walking around there… my apartment that I just moved into on October 1 is right there. This apartment I was so excited to move into no longer has a use… that location is dangerous because it is so central and it doesn’t have a bomb shelter.

My friends are staying at their parents houses and I can only go if I don’t bring my dog. Not helpful. So then I experiment with leaving her for a few hours alone at night so I can have some company at night etc but none of it is a real solution. I’m even counseled to give her away among the many other abandoned animals.

Days that feel like years go by and I understand more everyday that my business will not run anytime in the foreseeable future or at all, there’s no financial support from the government as there has never been a war of this nature and theres no infrastructure set up for that, there are no jobs, most foreign dual citizens have left the country, many Israelis have left the country, and all of a sudden my life has nothing.

I contact my brothers as my parents are passed and they are the only ones. They tell me to “stay strong” OKAY……….

I see the American embassy is offering evacuation flights since the current flights are 3K each to the states. But this scenario really doesn’t solve the problem because if I leave I will also not have a house job or money same as here. And it takes a while to be employed. And if I leave, will I ever come back? And how do I leave with my dog? I go on a husky FB group and ask if anyone can foster her from a neighboring country while I get things in order but my post gets shut down bc an Egyptian man said Israel deserves this terror causing a fight on the thread. These kinds of things and worse are seen regularly on FB.

I look around me on day 6 and feel very shut in with every “option.” I realize I’m looking at very grave possibilities.

When just 6 days before I had a wonderful life having moved in to an apartment in the best location in Tel Aviv, have a car, a dog, a dating life, my dream job that was about to be extremely lucrative… to… nothing. And getting more bleak by the day.

Then im seeing dumb FB contacts putting up ignorant stock images of idiotic fake scenes like a religious Israeli man and religious Palestinian woman making out in love saying “hoping for peace” or the (new to me) “watermelon bracelet challenge” which is a “sign of resistance among the Palestinians” and hearing that Ivy League universities are once again blaming Israel. I just really don’t have the wherewithal for it this time.

Tonight I’m staying at an American girls apartment in a suburb of Tel Aviv with a bomb shelter. I am actually sleeping in the bomb shelter on a thick yoga mat. I’ve never met her before tonight. I found her in a support group on FB. She’s great but what has my life come to?

I can’t even see a silver lining in my current situation. And what worries me more is what is my life is coming to in these coming days……

Below is what was on the GoFundMe Page that “Sarah” set up:

Oct 15, 2023

October 21, 2023

December 3, 2023

B

Below is the letter that Natalie sent to 15 different Congregations asking for money:

From: Natalie <natalie_baer@yahoo.com>
Sent: Tuesday, November 14, 2023 6:40 PM
To: info bendavidmjc.org <info@bendavidmjc.org>
Subject: Help someone from Israel 

Hello, 

I follow your church online. I am a Jewish believer in Christ and also a dual US/Israeli citizen.

I have been living in the South of Israel which was affected by the attack. Thank you by the way for supporting Israel. It means everything to Israelis right now.

I am writing because I fled to the US for safety during the war following the attack on my home and business. I am asking for anybody in the ministry that could help facilitate financial help through the go fund me that a friend set up for me.  I have reached out to all the friends and family that I know but have been unable to gather substantial funds.

You are also welcome to call me at 656 210 3538, write me an email at Natalie_baer@yahoo.com or follow my story on FB- Natalie Renee. You are also welcome to reach out to my friend “Sarah,” a fellow Jewish believer in Christ who set up my GoFundMe.

You are also welcome to call me at 656 210 3538, write me an email at Natalie_baer@yahoo.com or follow my story on FB- Natalie Renee. 

Thank you and have a blessed day, 

Natalie Baer