Oh yeah by the way.....

As of Saturday morning circa 6am I got engaged!

I'll have a green, green, Christmas..errr Yule yeah :)

So in our household most of us are Pagan, except for Teen she's figuring it out herself which is fine. But anyways yeah we celebrate Yule, Winter Solstice. I came home early partly because Im still battling this wicked sinus infection and partly because I really wanted to give Bill his gift. We get his boys tomorrow to give them their gifts but I could not wait and pestered the hell out of him to open his. So we decided to open our gifts...save one that Teen could open while her brothers are here.

So I got what are in my opinion THE best gifts a girl who is dying to go "Green" .....6 canvas totes, that I can also embroider, a new hobby Im trying out, and 4 recycling bins!!! He got me my recycling bins!!!!! So now here I am happy and giggly as all get out. I am going to print off signs for bins and recycling will commence immediately! He doesn't think that he got me anything special!!! Silly boy made me almost cry. He has no idea how special this is, that its an enormous show of support and a huge gesture of what he wants our future together to encompass...silly boy.

We got snow on Satuday night. I was at my company's Christmas party, Bill was home as he had gotten the boys. Most of its gone now but it was pretty while it lasted. It has been very cold and the trailer hasnt been too bad. We'll see what the power bill looks like though. I did finally get some plastic up on the patio door but Baron (Bill and Teen's cat) has effectively put several slices in it. He's the only one that can as he isnt declawed and my girls were before I even got them.

The house hunt is still on and Im to the point of wanting to shoot someone. I dont know if I can afford what I want so badly for us to have what we've talked about that and as much as it sounds childish....I'd rather rent than settle for something I dont want. Of course Bill thinks otherwise, and he thinks if I decide to go with renting that we'll never get a place of our own. I'm trying here but right now I really feel like quitting.

Remember the song "Long December"

I got the Counting Crows song "Long December" stuck in my head. To bring everyone up to date. Bill got called back to work :) We were all expecting the layoff to last at least a month or longer but he got the call to come into work at 11pm on Sunday. So far I haven't heard of anyone else getting called back ( a few people I work with have relatives and/or spouses that work where he does) Officially he was out of work for a week and he was out sick the week before without pay, well on the bright side he got his waiting week done for unemployment. So its meant 2 weeks without pay and then another 2 weeks until he gets a paycheck. We are doing ok so far and I have picked up overtime. The next hurdle will be December 14 which is when the Union contracts are suppose to be signed....its also Bill's birthday.

December is upon us and I'm kinda blue. We didn't get any snow from those storms, we got rain. Now as Im writing its starting to get cold so we will have ice. I haven't put up any decorations and honestly I kinda just want the holidays to be over. I use to love the holidays and my family in Decatur seem to have this baking switch that gets flipped during the holiday season but its not like that here. We probably won't have a tree. We haven't had a tree yet since I've moved here. Im pretty sure S and J never had one or G for that matter. I haven't had a tree for Yule since I got divorced and thats a shame. My cats have never had a tree! LOL!!!! Maybe that is a good thing. Bill's birthday is the 14th and I have no idea what to get him. Yule and Christmas I've got it figured out for the most part as I am going in half with Bill on gifts for the kids (he has 4) but then it comes to him and he really doesn't want anything cuz he's worried about having presents for the kids...I reminded him that the fact that the kids are getting anything is a blessing in itself and they don't need a huge bunch of flipping presents to celebrate the holidays. Do I come across as a little testy? LOL. Yeah well he's been talking about power tools and I can't seem to find the list of stuff he wrote down but I know a circular saw and a "good" cordless drill were his top priorities. So when I go back up to Decatur (the 11th through the 13th)I will have to shop around. 8 more days Mom!!!!

Things here at the house with the roommates is just going weird and downhill faster each day. J will most likely be gone by January and then I think I will go insane because of S. We are still looking for a place but so far the only one that looks promising is the 5 acre place in Royalton but I have reservations about it. I had figured I would have time to pay off my credit card bills and a couple months without them before I applied for any mortgages. I worry that I won't be able to get a loan for a place when we find the right one. I dont want to get any less than 5 acres but at the same time Im not finding anything in our area that matches what we want. I worry that if we dont have at least 5 then we will be crowded. Yes feel free to laugh at me on that. We want to have a few chickens, a couple milking goats and Bill wants at least 1 pig, maybe more, a year that and we need lots of room for gardening. I'd rather not find out the painful way that we dont have enough room. We truly want a homestead and do as much as possible ourselves. I want the place to become as green as possible. I don't expect it to all happen at once but I at least have to have a place to work on in the first place. I would think with the real estate market as crappy as they say it is I could find something and make a good deal with it.