Anyone Need A Roommate?

My apartment complex is awesome. And by awesome, I mean not awesome at all. I called today because my lease is nearing its 60-days-until-it's-over and I wanted to know what my options were. Needless to say, apparently I was supposed to get a "letter" explaining my options two weeks ago so I would have time to decide. No letter has been received and now I have to give my notice by tomorrow if I decide I want to move out at the end of my lease.

If I move out, fine, great, but I will have to be out by the end of February (yikes!) and I'm pretty sure I'm not ready to move yet. If I stay, I have two equally craptastic options: a) sign a 12 month lease along with a rate hike of almost $125/month or b) go month to month with a corresponding rate hike of $300+/month! Given that I'm paying $650, that's at least a 20% increase in my rent for no other reason than we changed management companies! You have to be kidding me!

So needless to say, if anyone wants to pick up a couple hundred bucks and a roommate for a few months while I house hunt, I'm in the market! I swear I'll be a nice roommate and I shouldn't be there long - I just don't want to rush the house hunt because who knows where that would stick me. Ugh. Stupid apartments. Stupid, stupid, stupid apartments.

Merry Christmas!

I hope everyone has a very Merry Christmas! I'm sad I haven't gotten to spend the holidays this year with family, but everyone around here has done a very good job of making this a special year.

And extra thanks for all of the super cool presents! I got everything I wanted and then some... I'll post pictures later today - along with my second decorating job for the year. It's pretty sweet. :)

But for now, I'm going to go cuddle with Lillie and enjoy a relaxing day at home! Merry Christmas everybody!

12 Christmas Facts

Let the tagging continue... Dana tagged me for sharing 12 Christmas facts about me. How ever do I narrow them down?? :)

Here they are in no particular order...

12 Christmas Facts

1. My favorite Christmas TV special of all time is "A Claymation Christmas." If you haven't seen it, come talk to me. It's amazingly bad and awesome at the same time. I mean, it has the California Raisins!! How can you not like it??
2. My mom made ornament lists in order to keep us from fighting over who's ornaments were who's at the end of each Christmas season. The lists contain the ornament description and who gave it to us by year... it started when we were born and continues up until she gave us each our boxes upon moving out. (And people wonder where I get it from...)
3. Every year my mom makes us Christmas breakfast (which of course we eat after we open presents). For several years she made this AWFUL dish called a "puff pancake". It was this weird fruit filled pastry and I don't think anyone in our family liked it. Nobody had the heart to tell her so year after year we all suffered through the puff pancake and joked about it when mom left the room. Finally, about 3 years ago someone (I honestly don't remember who, but it was probably me) got up the gumption to ask why, after all these years, we continued to have puff pancake since nobody likes it. Mom had no idea we didn't like it - she didn't even like it and luckily, the puff pancake has never graced our presence since.
4. All of the kids' stockings in my family were sown by (I think...) my mom's aunt. I'm pretty sure they were hand made anyway... Though I'm probably going to have that sweet memory dashed by posting this and getting corrected by mom. :)
5. My mom is the only person I know that has a completely separate set of dishes she uses around Christmas.
6. Colored lights anywhere is a big no-no in my book. Colored lights inside the house should be a criminal offense. It drives me BATTY! (Even though for the first 15 or 16 years of my life our house was filled with colored lights everywhere.)
7. I own three santa hats. Why do I own three? I don't know. Just in case? And for the record - they are awesome.
8. It 100% does not faze me that I had to remove my TV, find a new place for an arm chair, completely rearrange my living room, and ask a friend to house my TV console for the holidays just to fit in my Christmas tree. It's all for the cause...
9. My Christmas music folder comprises almost 35% of the music content on my hard drive. I have everything from A Twisted Christmas to Kenny G. And yes - I listen to all of it. Oh yeah - for me, Christmas music season doesn't start at Thanksgiving. It starts somewhere around early November with pheasant hunting season. Do I hunt pheasant? Nope. But my ex did and we started the tradition then. Even though we aren't together any more, I think it's a good policy so I kept it. :)
10. Every year we get underwear in our stockings. The sad part is, most years it's one of the things I look forward to most! It's a tradition, what can I say. I can't wait until I have nieces and nephews (because, let's admit it - I'm probably not going to join the kiddo band wagon) so I can put underwear in their stockings too!
11. My dad played the Grinch one year in our church Christmas play. We were all Whos who didn't know what to do. It was hilarious. And the biggest thing I miss about being home for Christmas? The candlelight service on Christmas Eve with the handbell choir. I'm still looking for something like that around here.
12. My favorite Christmas candy of all time is my mom's homemade toffee. Each year she makes around 8-10 batches to give to people. And each year I get warned that I'm not allowed to eat it all. And each year I end up eating 3-4 batches on my own, rather handily I might add. I love the stuff. Most people eat it in 1" pieces. I knock off a fourth of a pan (they are about 12" round pans) at a time. It's amazing.

This reminds me - I really need make a batch of toffee. Maybe that's why it hasn't felt like Christmas yet...

Oh yeah - I tag Todd, Josh & Lisa, and Melissa! Quick like a cat - it's almost Christmas!

Finally!!

It's Christmas!! I know, it took me FOREVER to get these posted... but for your Christmas enjoyment, I now present to you (and don't get too excited. I don't think they are as good as last year.) ...

The Decorations!!

Found!

I discovered two things this morning:

1) If I'm not looking for something in my apartment, it's only because I haven't realized it's missing yet.

2) My camera cord was buried in my stack of mail that I need to sort through.

I discovered these things as I was on a frantic hunt for my car keys trying to get out the door in time to make it to my sim. Apparently I was more desperate this morning than I was the other day looking for my camera cord because I was looking in weirder places. But happy day, I found the keys and the cord and now I can post pictures tonight. Yippee!