El Dorado, AR

I guess it's about time I played catch-up and let everyone know what was going on. After a wonderful summer in Little Rock with Adam's family, we finally made it to El Dorado, AR. Where, you might say? It's a small town in SW Arkansas basically in the middle of nowhere, but it's surprisingly robust. It's about 16 sq miles with around 21,000 people. There is a nice hospital, a community college, and an arts center and symphony. We haven't gotten around to any of these, but they are there. Murphy Oil is based out here, and they've really revitalized the community. They have something called the El Dorado Promise, where they will pay for a person's college education (state school I'm assuming) if they graduate from High School in El Dorado. Crazy, huh? The downtown is really fun and they have quite a few things that go on. The fair was here last week, and next weekend is a music festival with Uncle Kracker and Pat Stuart, and more. OK, it's no DC, but we'll enjoy it for the year that we're here.

Now enough of the social studies lesson. Adam is really enjoying his job in Judge Shepherd's chambers. His commute is about 2 minutes, which is, of course, awesome. We get him home by 5:30 and he still has time to get his workout in at our amazing gym... a perk in El Dorado. We even get him home on the weekends. Amazing. The kids are loving it. Drew asks me all day "Where Daddy is?" It's great to be able to say he'll be home for dinner.

Abby is loving Kindergarten. Her school is a science and technology magnet school, and she loves all of the science experiments they do. Recently they've been learning a lot about different animals and their environments. Apparently they brought snakes in yesterday and she thought that was very cool. It's very interesting... there are 5 magnet schools out here: science and technology, art, athletics, recycling and nature, and... another one I can't remember.

Drew misses her during the day, but gets to go to Mothers Day Out twice a week, which he loves. When he wakes up in the morning I tell him he gets to go to his school and he starts jumping up and down yelling, "Yay!!" He's already made a few friends and seems to love the leaders.

I in turn get to do my shopping and cleaning in peace and in quick order. It's amazing how much faster I am able to get things done, and how clean my house is... for those few minutes until the kids get home. No, really, it's much better than it has been in our entire marriage. I'm getting involved in the Girl Scouts Organization and with an organization called CASA, which I will write about later because I think everyone should get involved. And I get to go to the gym every day, which is heaven!

Anyways, now that the weather has cooled down, we feel pretty excited and blessed to be here. If you're in the area, feel free to come and play. :)