Crazy Baking, Ty's Birthday, Jobs...

Happy November! It is hard to believe that 2010 is almost over and the holidays are right around the corner! Washington has been a very rainy place for the last couple of days, I guess this is the "rainy season" we had been warned about. So far it has not been too bad, although Ty is not a fan of the rain because it hinders him from going out.

Today was a crazy baking day in the Rohrbough household. But, before I get to the that I want to update you on my job search (at this point it's obvious that the "I" in our blog is in reference to Tara unless prefaced otherwise). I moved out to Washington mid-June after my contract with Taylor County ended and spent the rest of the month getting accustomed to the area and unpacking, trying to make our house a home. I was also waiting for all of my paperwork to come through in order to be certified as a School Counselor in the state of Washington. I applied to all of the school counseling jobs that were open in 8 different districts but was made aware than until all of my paperwork came through I would not be considered an applicant because my file was "incomplete". The beginning of the school year came and went and I finally received all of my paperwork, but the open positions had all been filled. I started looking into substituting, but you have to have a teaching degree in order to substitute, and I do not. I have been looking weekly, daily for positions and have applied for what feels like tons. I have applied as a case manager, after-school program supervisor, drug abuse counselor, various positions on the Army base, and last week I even applied to work at the Gap clothing store in our local mall. I have had one interview (I did not get the position), and have another one coming up this week. I have called to check back with most of the positions I have applied for only to hear that they have extended the application deadline or they have not decided on an applicant yet. This has been a frustrating process to say the least because I am not good at sitting still for very long. Even so, I tried my best to remain hopeful and positive that something will open up (as hard as this is). I have recently decided that I need to make the most of my time and not sulk about being unemployed. We live in a beautiful part of the world where there is so much to see and do. We have an awesome dog who is up for anything. And probably most important to me, we have made some of the greatest friends anyone could ask for. CR's program has so many amazing people and families and we are blessed to be a part of it. I want to take each day in as a gift and be thankful for every second.

Thanks for listening to my rant, now on to the good stuff :) With all of this time on my hands I have been trying my hand at cooking and baking. My sister (actually my whole family) has always joked that I can't even boil water - I won't go into why this is the case :) I actually ENJOY baking! Recently, I have made several chicken dishes for dinner, chocolate chip cookie dough cheesecake for CR's birthday, vanilla bean scones, key lime pie, pumpkin pancakes, and an orange juice cake just to name a few.

Today's creations were bacon caramel popcorn (saw it on the Food Network and wanted to give it a shot) and a dog birthday cake for Ty (our cousin, Katie, who is a vet tech would cringe). The bacon caramel popcorn sounded gross, but delicious, I mean how can you go wrong with bacon?? It turned out disgustingly delicious, if you know what I mean. It's one of those things that tastes good, but it's SO bad for you!





Here is the link to that recipe: http://the-cooking-of-joy.blogspot.com/2010/02/bacon-caramel-corn.html

Also, today our pup Tyson is 1, so I thought I would make him a cake. I want everyone to realize that this does mean I have too much time on my hands, but I thought it would be fun and he REALLY enjoyed it!









Here is the link to that recipe (I only made half): http://www.bellaonline.com/articles/art12764.asp

Finally, CR and I had our first experience passing out candy to trick-or-treaters last night and we had a great time. There were about 30 kids that stopped by and we still have way too much candy left over. Although we did not dress up, Ty did. I will leave you with a picture of Ty's costume for the night - did you expect him to be anything else?