It takes some getting used to...

No matter how much you think you're going to like something, a new place in my case, it's still going to take some getting used to. Although I didn't think it'd be the case, Omaha homesickness struck (me) eventually ... probably because I'm still not feeling (completely) well and back 100%. I think I miss our home. However I'm slowly getting to love this new city, its surroundings, the people here. I love it that I can find my way easily going places (granted that it's dr offices only for now.)

We've been coaching our little angel through the challenges she's faced her second week of pre-kindergarten when she learned that she was expected to know how to write all the letters and numbers. Remember from my earlier post when she by herself with no training wrote the letters of her name slightly in the wrong order (but she did write them) and we were so very proud of her! Well, we're still proud of her and are practicing at home with her to get good at writing all letters. It's quite amazing to me how the curriculum here at Primrose requires 4 yr olds to learn/know how to write upper and lower case letters and numbers. Don't get me wrong, I think it's a great thing but with no previous practice like in Ella's case this is quite a huge challenge! She's such a trooper though, so dilligent, and willing to please teachers (and us), has asked for practice sheets from her teacher so she can practice at home. So we've been doing homework pretty much every evening. Another thing that amazes me is that she wants to do it and doesn't give up. I honestly thought I'd have at least another homework-free/school carefree type year but we're hitting the ground running here in Coppell. This is a blessing though that she is being challenged at an early age. It's definitely going to serve her well. However, I was hoping that she can have a few more months of carefree play in school. (Keep in mind this is coming from someone who did not want to learn to write or even recognize letters or numbers until she went to first grade... but then I had to hit the ground running and fast I must say but I turned out alright, didn't I ???? hahahah)
Her teachers are impressed with how fast she's catching up and they had a surprise for her today, they were going to award her the "student of the week" award as she proved to be such a good and quick learner.  I can't wait to hear all about it today when I pick her up.

I love being a parent, I love the challenge, and I think I love to live my childhood challenges (school related and otherwise) all over again through her. I feel she's matured a ton over these past two weeks. We're right there cheering her along the way! I too hit the ground running at work with new/complex projects requiring quick action and I think I like it, I like the pressure, I like the learning that occurs in those crunch time moments, etc. I think that when we're pushed we strive more, and we get better results. I think our Heavenly Father pushes us (gently) so we can learn more and more and get closer to becoming the kind of people that He wants us to be.

A long post I know... and when you think that I was not going to post anything today and that I was even considering putting this whole blogging stuff on the back burner for a while, just like I did with my facebook presence. But once I do start writing it's kind of hard to stop.

Otherwise, I really look forward to getting better (I'm taking a very strong antibiotic that knocks me off every night... don't like that) so I can connect more with families in the ward (we're thinking of inviting a couple of families over for a potluck, the former missionary to Romania, her husband and another couple from the ward about which I came to find out that she went to Romania and did social work at orphanages in Iasi. What a small world?!?!!!!!)

Let's see what else, oh I think we brought the freezing cold with us from Omaha, as we've been having below freezing temps this entire week. Very very unusual for TX... thanks goodness it's going to be in the 50's next week! Oh yeah, show us some lovin' TX!