America!

Ok, so here I go again...
I have refrained from writing up to this point because I’ve been having a really hard time adjusting to American life. I know this sounds trite, but I didn’t want to write as if I was whining or ungrateful for the many things that I have to be thankful for. Life here is easy and we are very blessed. I just have had a hard time; as making friends here has not been simple and the neighborhood we moved into is beautiful, but the very secluded. I say this because everyone seems to enjoy being anonymous and the neighbors are anything but friendly. We have tripped our house alarms a few times but have yet to have anyone even pop their head out to ensure that we are ok. We have a joke that they put their phones to their ears as the run from their cars to the house just to avoid a friendly wave. And as of living here for two months we have only met two neighbors. Despite this, the house and area are amazing! Our house is a cute thing on the corner with an enormous fenced in yard. Funny, maybe enormous is relative though. After coming from no backyard and no grass to be found, we are ecstatic with the beautiful fenced in yard and think it is huge!
One of my favorite things about living here again though is driving! The kids are happy, there’s no waiting for busses or stinky cabs and I have the safety locks on the doors so Ash can’t unexpectedly sling open a door at any unexpected moment. Also, this allows me to scale down from the big purse and just carry a wallet as I can leave the wet wipes , first aid kit and everything else in the car.
Another awesome amenity is the gym with child care! The YMCA here has a supervised playroom for the kids so I can drop Brielle off and go work out. She gets socialization time and time away from me while I get to work out and de-stress. And I have to admit, that on Mother’s Day we dropped them off there and instead of working out we went and sat in the hot tub for a free mini date.
As for Ashlynn, her school is going well. We have had to get used to people being really crazy about attendance and fundraisers since it’s a public school, but she seems to be adjusting well. I think the only major difference, that we have noticed, is the amount of bullying and kindergarten manipulation that goes on because of the large class size that she is in. There is one teacher to 23 kids and she can’t watch everything so Ash has been manipulated and bullied a couple of times. It’s nothing big and we have had lots of talks with her about how it’s ok to not do something even if someone says they won’t be your friend if you don’t, but it’s hard as some of these situations would be non-existent in a more affluent neighborhood with better supervision. Or perhaps they would still go on, but it is something we didn’t worry about before we got here.
Another thing that has gone on since I last wrote is that I was accepted into law school! I’m very excited as this has been a dream since I first visited the courtroom with my father when I was 4. For a bit there I was having doubts that it was supposed to pass, but when I received my acceptance I knew that it was the thing for me! Also, they offered me a partial scholarship so that helped to convince Hoss that we could do it. So now I am making preparations for this fall to go to Thomas Jefferson School of Law. Perhaps next post I will tell you why it was so important to go to Thomas Jefferson, but I think this post is quite longer enough for now.
Please forgive me for not posting sooner. I will now try to be more faithful in my correspondence and start filling you in on some of the funny and happy things that you have missed.