Now that Turkey Day is over

We came home early from Mom's it was a good trip though and besides the fact that my brother's adorable loving giant pit puppy beat up my boyfriend all is well. Bill is starting feel better in both ways. He got signed up for unemployment, a first for him. After that we went and ran errands and did some grocery shopping. In the whole running around town we got some type of squash that I dont know what it is or, more importantly, how to cook them. They were free. Here's their mug shots.....

When it rains.......

So Monday we found out that \:

Bill has a kidney infection AND the flu and possible a urinary tract infection
Bill is on the layoff list at work effective next week
J is contemplating leaving the trailer as soon as January

Bill is off for the rest of this week before the layoff starts to get better and Teen was going to do Thanksgiving at her maternal grandparents. So we arranged for her to stay there for the next couple days. Her grandfather is terminally ill with cancer and she needs to spend time with family she would otherwise not see due to the fact that her mom is barely in her life. So I decided that we should go on a trip to see my parents 3 hours north in Decatur. Obviously I have internet access here. So I hope everyone has a happy turkey day. I'll keep in touch.

The housing crunch

So its been awhile. Bill has been working days on a safety comittee thing and so that kiboshes my late night blogs. I've been really stressed out lately. I completely attribute it to lack of blogging :) Bill has a temp of 100 and teen isnt feeling well either.

We have been looking at getting a place of our own. Where we live has been a pain in the butt for a while, when I first moved here (almost 3 years come Christmas Day) it was me, Bill, the teen, J&S, G, 3 cats and 1 dog in a 3(now made into 4) bedroom, 1 bathroom double wide trailer. It was cramped but somehow we made it work for the most part. Then this last May G graduated and he and the dog moved up by Chicago. S&J bought the trailer from him (or so I thought, more on that later). Since then things have pretty much sucked. I do most of the cleaning anymore (though we each have house chores we are suppose to take care of) because otherwise it doesnt get done.
Tonight I find out tonight that J called off their engagement. They are still together but I don't believe that'll last long. In fact me and Bill saw this coming. But I'll not get into details the point is is that tonight Bill found out that S owns the trailer. Which clears up some concerns and makes new ones. We have to find a place, even if its just renting again until we find something to buy when they do break up, which I do foresee. They have mentioned long before about the possibility of buying it from them when they graduated but I dont want this place. There are too many problems that they are either not taking care of or are doing half assed patch work on. We have been mulling over the whole prospect of our own place really since I got bitten by the "green" bug and gushing about what I'd really like to do.

So now we are really truly needing to look at places. We really had only looked at one place about 20 minutes from here but they want waaayy too much money for the condition that the place is in... I haven't even tried to get pre-approved for a loan. It would have to be in my name as Bill's 2nd ex (I'll explain our family later on sometime) completely trashed his credit. Anyhow, so the race I guess is on.

Me vs Mold, Round 2

So I go to make beef and noodles Wed evening and I get the noodles out and unwrap them...they had mold!!! AGGGGHHHHHHH. What the hell? So I made a new batch of noodles and what didnt go into dinner went to the freezer..take that mold! Yeah, dinner itself turned out splendid. It was my first time making it and didnt have a recipe, it went so great that Bill had me create a recipe card for it :D

Backtrack a moment

This was Tuesday night until Wednesday morning. Ok so I have been rather industrious as of late, cleaning, laundry (my normal weekend stuff) but I also dove into the "craft room" and straightened it out. It looks soooo much better and I might be able to work in there now without being cramped. I hauled crap out to the living room and had 3 piles...Garbage, Shed, and Who's this belong to. J woke up around quarter til 5am and we proceeded to weed out what I had dragged out. Cleared out a fair bit of junk. While cleaning it out I got my winter clothes out and managed to clear out my closet. I have a garbage bag full of stuff to have taken to the Women's shelter. The other half of the room that I didnt attack is mainly weapons for Dagorhir fighting (foam weapons). Later in the morning J and I ran down the street to Arnold's grocery, then we made waffles :D I miss real maple syrup. But the bottle I got was on sale for a dollar and wasnt that bad.

So since my last entry several thing have happened. Bill's truck broke down and what we thought was going to be a $150 job turned in to a $260 job. At the $150 mark we had been ok about it. I would buy the groceries (we usually split it even, thats another story later) and then the extra money had to come out so that pretty much screwed us up. To the point were I freaked out and did a panicky scramble. This would be putting us behind in bills. I tend to freak out about stuff like that. I had already been trying to catch deals and clip coupons and what not, I had found quite a few good deals that were going on. So now its Saturday, the last day of said good deals and this truck fiasco is going on. I decide that I cannot pass up the deals and must shop. Since I have to work Saturdays I had to do it on my lunch break. So I called Bill and got an update, the truck was finally fixed and he met me up at Krogers. I hauled ass (according to Bill I almost ran people over) and hit all the sales I had written down on my paper (I was planning this out) and when it was all said and done I kicked ass! Bill called me amazing :) What would have been $103 in groceries I knocked down to $83 with my savings card deals and my coupons. Call me silly but I kept my receipt, like a first prize ribbon or something, I felt very proud. Now I keep telling myself I could save more money when I start canning and baking my own stuff. Now to just watch my spending the next couple weeks and hopefully we will get back on track.

The second thing that happened was I had an allergic reaction (we think) last night and it scared the crap out of me. Bill was off and I made a late night dinner after I got home, still glowing from the shopping triumph. I made Tequilla lime marinade chicken and a salad with balsamic vinagrette dressing. About 10-15 minutes after dinner I started coughing and having problems catching my breath, then I had to push really hard to breathe and was wheezing...I didnt know what was happening I got all phlemy in my throat and chest, my nose started clogging up on me and my head started hurting from all the coughing...I kept thinking...my throat isnt closing up, my tongue isn't swelling this cant be an allergic reaction. Bill was trying to keep me from freaking out but he started pacing. So we dosed me with Benadryl tablets and waited after about an hour my nose declogged and started running (not fun at all) and my wheezing finally calmed down a little. We went to bed and all I remember was falling into bed. I woke up today late and felt fine just really tired. So the only thing that was different was the Tequilla lime marinade, I've had balsamic vinagrette before and I was drinking chamomile tea and honey, something I do often and I had some of that before I even started cooking dinner. The chicken tasted divine, which really sucks now cuz I'm never gonna have it again.

It's cold as hell out now and very pretty. Im thinking about doing a batch of candles early for Yule & Christmas presents. The trailer is cold, the furnace is kept on very low. J put some shrink wrap on the windows but refuses to do the sliding glass door, which is old and the door doesnt shut right and therefore leaks cold air like no ones business. They need to caulk leaks around that and the front door. Im very irritated about this. I might do the sliding glass door myself and say to hell with it, let her get pissed. I have to dig out my winter clothes and wash them. I love sweaters and sweatshirts ....I should learn how to knit or something. Anyway, I dont mind layering some clothes but damn I won't be an eskimo.

Drumming, dancing and bison

So November is Native American Cultures Month at SIU here in Carbondale. They had a drumming and dancing exhibition and I took my last personal day to attend it with J. I love Native American culture, not only cuz thanks to Dad I have some Cherokee (lots of people have some) and Blackfoot (not so many ppl have) running in me. So I sat in awe and adoration of drummers and dancers. I actually prefer NA drumming to most drumming you find in the pagan communities and I actually detest having to drum, I prefer to listen. I'll only do it if it's absolutely necessary. I do however like rattles and other shakers. Go figure. We didn't stay nearly as long as I wanted to but I still had a good time. On the way out there was a booth set up by the local bison farm with info on them AND a price list. Which is great cuz yesterday I was at my friends' Halloween Party/Wedding reception and they served chili with bison and I mentioned I would love to have some. Someone sells it at the Co-Op but Im not sure if it's the same people. If it is their farm is about 15-20 min away from the trailer, might take a road trip and tour. I promise to get more batteries soon.

The new canner

Behold my new canner in all its boxy glory!!! Yeah this is the one I was talking about. The only difference between what I got and whats at Rural King is the pressure gauge. The expensive one has a dial gauge. So I got mine for $30 at Walmart and I will end up going to Rural king to get the canning rack and the canning tool kit for. Walmart didnt have any of those.

In other news I made my first batch of home made noodles and they are drying. Im feeling quite accomplished today. Couldn't take a picture of them as the batteries died. I really need the rechargeable set.