We’re back from Disney! We’ve actually been back for a few days, but seeing as how three of the four of us came down with colds as soon as we got home, blogging hasn’t been high on the list.

Fortunately, the one remaining healthy Faulk was Ana, so she was ready for her first day of school at her new school in her new town in her new state today. Could it be any newer? I think not. She was much better prepared than I was since it didn’t even occur to me until this weekend that Texas public schools might require different immunizations than Oklahoma. A school nurse in our congregation offered to look over Ana’s records, and sure enough, she was missing one shot. Fortunately, we were able to get it done that very same day at HEB. Yes, the grocery store. Who knew that they had a medical clinic inside the grocery store? Not me, but I sure am glad. Ana wasn’t nearly as glad about the shot, but she was plenty happy about it all today when she got to her school. I filled out the paperwork while she checked out all the tiger decor (Fisher’s mascot just happens to be her favorite animal), and in no time at all, we were meeting her teacher. As it turns out, her teacher is the daughter of one of our church deacons and already knew that Ana was on her way to one of the kindergarten classes. We’re so excited that it ended up being hers! Despite this, I still had some tears in my eyes when Ana walked away and was quickly surrounded by her very excited classmates. I know I would have been terrified to start a new school all by myself, but she was so brave. Can’t wait to hear how it all went today!

And what about Emma? Well, here in Texas (or at least in Pasadena), public school Pre-K programs aren’t open to everyone. In Oklahoma, your socio-economic status isn’t even considered, but here, it determines whether or not your child can attend. I knew this when we were preparing to leave Duncan (and I did beg Mrs. Kelly to come with us and teach Emma here!), so we were able to prepare Emma for it. Having watched Ana go through a full year of Pre-K and make the transition to kindergarten, I feel pretty certain that I know what Emma needs to know to be prepared, so I’m (VERY) informally teaching her at home. This wasn’t initially an exciting proposition for her, what with Ana going to the “Tiger School” and all, so we fancied it up a bit for her by calling it the Elephant Academy. And that actually worked so well that now she won’t let me get over this cold because she keeps insisting that “it is ELEPHANT ACADEMY time, Mommy!” Oh, boy. We’ve spent the morning doing matching games, tracing and naming letters, and coloring. I have some workbooks to go through with her, but I’m wondering if any of you out there know of some extra (free!) resources online. If you share your wisdom, Elephant Academy will be in your debt!

So, that’s about it. Oh, and we’re still unpacking. I have a feeling that I’ll be unpacking three months from now. If I can live without whatever is still packed until then, come to Pasadena and make me throw it away, okay? Seriously!

And I’ll be blogging about our Disney trip very, very soon…