HOUSTON!

I have been in Houston for about a month and half now and so far so good, kinda.  First the bad.  There is no dog park for Tyson.  There are three that I have found for him, but they all have doggie ponds and come to find out the water has something in it that is giving my poor baby a rash.  Since all the parks around us have these ponds, we can't take him to the park.  He loves to roll around in the puddles and mud created by these ponds thus ensuring the rash each time.  Even if we bathe him right after he still gets a rash. Then last night Leland and I noticed bumps all over Tyson's sides and chest.  We gave him some benedryl and that reduced the bumps, but they were back this morning after going to do his business.  Poor little guy has terrible hives and we don't know why.  Traffic is a total nightmare!  I was almost t-boned twice within two days because people don't pat attention to the lights or they just can't wait to get out of the parking lot.  The heat and humidity are killing me!  San Antonio was pretty humid, but nothing compares to this kind of humidity.  I cannot go outside for a minute without sweating! 

On the bright side, I found a job the first week I was out here.  It is with the sister school of my school in San Antonio.  I am actually writing this post from work since I have nothing else to do and I have to be here.  I will be working with another PE teacher which rocks!  I have never worked with another teacher outside of student teaching so I will have someone other than the students to talk to during the day.  The gym is located in the central office building so I also won't be too bothered by people from the main campus.  The athletics here is also pretty well set-up so I am back to coaching soccer, yay!  I am so excited.  It's going to be nice to be back in the teacher mode.  I will still have stupid parents, but not as many and I can actually work with the kids in a positive environment.

Another top note: Leland and I are teaching Primary.  Thankfully we have the 9-10 year old kiddos.  Any younger and I would have died.  These kids are so flippin' gospel smart!  How do you teach kids the gospel when they know more than you?  At least, that's how I feel.  We have one kid that's a challenge.  he's pretty much a genius kid and we have already butt heads.  All I have to do is think of him as one of my middle schoolers and I will be able to handle it.  The rest of the kids are super duper!  They are fun and light-hearted with inquisitive minds.  I can't believe I am actually excited for Primary.  I get to sing all the primary songs again too!

Bright number 3: Sheikh. aka my all time favorite shoe store.  All the crazy, eclectic shoes I love for not much money!  I was shopping for Leland's birthday gift a couple of weeks ago and saw an amazing pair of heels in the window so decided to stop in.  The choir was singing and the light was shining for I had found gorgeous shoes!  I am so in love with this place!

The Woodlands: Not my favorite place in the world, but lots of concerts come through there and we can listen to them for free!  We paid and went to the Rascal Flatts concerts a bout a month ago and when we were leaving we found a great place outside the venue to listen to the concert.  You may not see what is going on inside, but the sound quality is so much better, plus parking is free and you can bring your own food and drinks!  If you want to know what the place looks like, you can watch that Lipton commercial with Lady Antebellum (I think that's the group) and see it.  That's where the commercial was filmed.  The next concert we are looking at going to is Linkin Park.

The Temple is only about 45  minutes away if the traffic is decent.  We haven't been able to get up there yet, but will soon.

Everything we need, except the temple and my work, is literally within five miles of where we live.  If it were safer to ride a bike I would be riding a bike everywhere.  It's pretty great having things that close.  My dad thinks we live in downtown since everything is so close and there are big buildings all around us, but that's just the Galleria/Greenway area.

Leland has already made up his mind to that we will be moving in two years after he finishes his residency.  He loves MD Anderson, but it's the rest of the stuff he doesn't like.  He is having a hard time with officiating football because it's such a good ole boy system and the refs are arrogant around here.  He doesn't have one varsity game and he's a division 3 and has been told by some of the top officials at the college level that he is a pretty darn good umpire.  If he were in SA he would be doing all sorts of varsity games.  The traffic gets to him and some of the people too.  But I am trying to find the good of Houston.  I am trying to make the best of this crazy place while I am here.

That's the life in a nutshell.  I know, not very interesting, but hopefully I will have some better things to post later.