Houston...We Have a Problem

And that problem is that we're not in Houston! I cannot wait for Daniel's training rotation in Berwick to be over. Both of us are getting really tired of being away from home and our friends and family. It's pretty boring here, too. On top of everything else, Daniel's reflux is getting worse, even though all the tests he had a few weeks ago came back normal. We are homesick!

Speaking of home, Daniel and I signed a lease at the same apartment complex as several of our friends in Houston. We're moving in on March 23rd. We got a 7 month lease so the house hunting will begin pretty quick after we move in. I'm really excited about getting a house but that does put more pressure on me to get a job. I've already applied to several districts in the Houston area but I probably won't hear anything from them until April at the earliest when they start figuring out what positions they'll have available next year. I was accepted as a sub in Katy ISD before we left for Europe but didn't have time to actually get into any classrooms. When we get back from Louisiana I'll have 2 months to sub and hopefully network a little bit to improve my chances of getting a full time position next year.

I went through the process of becoming a sub here in Louisiana but I'm not sure if it's going to workout. I had to attend a sub training last Thursday and after that I could bring my resume to schools and let them know I'm interested in subbing for them. I have to request that the principal submit my name to central office for fingerprinting and once all that is processed then I will be added to the sub list. I talked to the presenter of the training about my situation and he didn't think it was really worth it to finish the process because there's no guarantees that they'll be quick with processing my fingerprints. He did give me the name of a principal that might be able to help me out and expedite the process. I was planning on going in on Monday but it turns out they had Monday through Wednesday off for Mardi Gras! I will probably go talk to her tomorrow morning but if she doesn't think she can get me in by the middle of next week I don't think I'll have her submit my name. We only have 4 weeks left after the rest of this week.

I've been trying to keep myself pretty busy during the days. I've been working out every day, either running or using the Wii (thanks Aimee and Ronnie!!!) I've done a little bit of baking but it's hard without all my own pans and stuff. Also, the walmart here doesn't some of the specialty ingredients for some healthy cookies and muffins I really want to try. I was going to make some cookies before we went to Houston for a Super Bowl party (and a medical test for Daniel) but I ran out of time here and made them in Houston. They tasted delicious but I'll have to give them another try because they didn't look the same as the picture. For Valentine's Day I made red velvet cake balls. My first attempt at cake balls was terrible. I added too much frosting and they were too mushy. This time I was able to get the ratio of frosting to cake just right but I had trouble with covering them in chocolate. I need to figure out a way to dip them and get them out of the chocolate and onto the parchment paper without messing up the coating. If I make cake pops that won't be a problem but I don't want to have to use sticks every time I make cake balls.

This time they rolled into perfect balls.

Not so perfectly covered though. You can see the pieces of cake on the fork that made it hard to get them off after I dipped them. Also, if the cake balls were chilled too much then the chocolate clumped up real bad.

All done! Next time I would cover them twice since you could still see the cake through the chocolate.

I have a few other crafts I've got planned while I'm here. I want to make some decorations for Allyson's baby shower at the beginning of April and I've found some tutorials for cute fabric flowers that I'm going to try. I had to drive about 45 minutes to Houma to find a Hobby Lobby so hopefully I've gotten all the supplies I'll need. I also have a 2,000 piece puzzle in the works. I'm down to the hardest part, the sky.

Las Vegas puzzle! I don't know if I'll ever finish the sky.

Right now the most exciting thing I do during the day is play Wii Lego Harry Potter, my amazing gift from Daniel for Valentine's Day. :)  Sometimes I wonder if I'm too childish since I love playing video games so much but then I decide not to worry about it since I love it so much, hehe.

This is a pretty mundane post but the name of my blog is "A Little Bit of Everything" and right now there's not too much "everything" going on, lol. Hopefully we'll make a trip to New Orleans one weekend before we head to back to Houston. If so, that will probably be my next post. Bye!

Pleasantly Surprised

We're finally back in the States! I loved getting to experience so much overseas but it's wonderful to be back to the familiar. We've done so much since we got home, I can't believe it's still been less than a week!

When we woke up (at 2 a.m.) last Friday in Celle to leave for the airport it had started snowing and was sticking. It had snowed a couple of other times while we were there but it never stuck to the ground. We were a little worried that our flights might be cancelled or delayed but it was actually our taxi driver that was late. The ride from our apartments in Celle to the airport in Hannover was the scariest ride of my life! The driver was skidding all over the place, and it felt like he was going way too fast for how much snow was covering the roads. Luckily we made it safely. It did take awhile to get off the ground in Hannover because we had to wait while they got all the snow off the plane but, once everything was said and done we were only about a half hour late getting into Houston.

My dad picked us up from the airport and brought us back to Austin so we could see our family for the weekend. We managed to stay up until about 10:30 or 11 that night so we didn't have to worry about really bad jet lag. On Saturday we had a big get together for lunch at Daniel's house so we could see everyone. We set up a slide show on the tv with all our pictures and it was fun to talk with everyone about what we did and saw in Europe. That night we went to Vasanti's house for her annual Christmas party. Normally she would have had it in December but she was in India for 2 weeks. We did a white elephant gift exchange which is always fun. Daniel and I ended up with a frying pan, turbo twist (to put on your head when your hair's wet), an Eggie (to make hard boiled eggs without the shell), and a barbecue mop, lol. There were lots of weird gifts going around that night! On Sunday we got to see some friends from high school and spend a little bit more time with our families before heading back to Houston before going to Louisiana on Tuesday.

Sunday night we met up with some friends from Daniel's work. We've met some really great people in Houston and it was really hard to hang out with them knowing we'd have to leave so soon. We also had a lot of doctor's appointments to catch up on since we'd been gone for so long. The main thing we needed to do was get Daniel checked out by  his Gastrointestinal doctor. He was really having a rough time with the GERD while were overseas. His doctor listened to him breathe and his heart and decided that Daniel needed a CAT scan to figure out why his chest was so tight and an ECG since he heard a faint heart murmur. Luckily we were able to squeeze in the CAT scan and a consultation with a cardiologist on Tuesday before we left. Daniel will have the actual ECG this Monday, which means we have to drive back to Houston again. On the bright side, we get to go to our friends' Super Bowl party!

We had heard some pretty scary stories about living in Berwick. The apartments aren't cleaned in between occupants and an Australian couple we met in Celle said theirs was really dirty. We had also heard horror stories about bugs everywhere. So, when we pulled into the drive way late Tuesday night I was pretty apprehensive. Daniel had gone in while I was still parking the car. When he came out, he said "Brace yourself...it's about 20 times better than you'd thought it'd be." It was much nicer and cleaner than I expected. Here are the pictures.

The front of the house. This is our side of the duplex.

The living room. The couches are pretty comfortable. The t.v. is also a nice size.

 The kitchen. There's no dishwasher but I'm excited to have a full size oven again. Let the baking begin!

 The bedroom. We had bought new bedding since we weren't sure what would be here and how clean it would be. The bed was made when we got here but I still felt better using our new sheets since we had no way to tell if the others had been washed by the last person.

 The other side of the bedroom.

The closet. It's really big but there's not very many hangers.

 The bathroom.

Even though everything was pretty clean when we got here, I've spent the last two days deep cleaning. My allergies have been bothering me since we got here so I figured dusting would help that. I also cleaned the floors because they were pretty gross. The only problem is that there's no vacuum cleaner. I don't think the carpet in the bedroom has ever been vacuumed. Even though I cleaned the floors, it still feels yucky walking around barefoot. Oh well, if that's the worst part about living here I'll consider myself lucky :). Also, we're lucky we're here now because bugs haven't gotten bad yet.

We haven't done too much exploring of the area yet. We've been to the Walmart down the road to get groceries but that's it. Tomorrow morning I'm going to Morgan City to sign up for a substitute workshop. Hopefully I can sub during the days. That way I won't be bored and I'll be able to make a little bit of money. We'll also be here during Mardi Gras. Maybe we'll go to New Orleans :)

My next blog will probably be about whatever I bake for Valentine's Day!