It Is December!

Well, its now December, and things in the Gulley house are pretty normal for the most part. We have decided to let a couple friend of ours use the travel trailer since we are not using it. They will be moving it to a different park, where travel trailers are allowed here in town. From now til the 20th though, they are in it in our back yard. He just got a job where Gene works, so that makes 2 of our friends that have received jobs there in the last 2 months. I jokingly say, its becomeing an AA family affair, but with jobs so scarce right now, any job is the best job you could ask for. Out here especially everyone you talk to almost is on layoff, or recently been "downsized". Because of this, many have been downsized right out of their homes as well. Its a very sad state of affairs. On the lighter side, but in part because of that side, Gene and I have decided to host a 2 day holiday open house for the folks we know in program, both here, in Ontario Oregon, Vale Oregon, Nyssa Oregon, and everywhere else that my fliers have run off too from the meetings. Hahahah. I saw it done in Emmett, by Gene's brother and sister in law for a fact! She would open her house on both days so that people who didn't have a place to go, or at least a sober place to go, could come there, have food, listen to holiday music, and enjoy fellowship, and play games, ie....Cribbage, sorry, battleship, clue, ect....., so I began to think, that maybe, just ,maybe if I did the same, it would catch on here and others would have them, so that by chance if there were a few going on, people could wander from one to another, and pick up new ideas, new fun things, and new foods, ect.... then the fellowship would grow even more, and there would never be a time when there wasn't at least one safe spot for people during ALL holidays. On the working front, Gene is still steady at it, time alone together has become very precious, and very wonderful, as we are not taking eachother for granted as much as we used to, and things really get done, because that is the only time we have. For instance, today Gene was home by noon and doesn't have to go back for his second shift, so we are going to spend time doing some bills, we watched some tv (cable), and just talked about what is going on with each of us, and how wonderful and blessed our lives are. We always try to know what is going on in the world, and in some ways, that helps us to understand how blessed and wonderous a life we have! So we hope that those of you who find yourselves in tight spots and hard times this year, just tune in to some of what our soldiers, and even those families of our troops is going through, and remind yourselves just how lucky/blessed and filled with joy and love, your lives truely are. There is a saying in our program, and it goes:"There but for the grace of God, go I". How truely appripoe in a time like this. Just look at those who have lost their homes, and their jobs, and their pensions, and retirements, and take heart at what your life is made of and how you could be there! Speaking of retirement, Gene's mom just found out that she lost ALL of her retirement money when AIG went in to the toilet! The company/people she worked for as a nurse at the doctor's office in Emmett, had put all of the money on the 50/50 deal into AIG. The doctor's office sent her an apoligy, but that won't pay bills, so now she is into her own individual savings account, and doesn't know how long that will last. She has sold a few of the baby calves from last year, and had some from sales of cows before, but now she has to have a constant accounting of every single penny just to get by. We are praying for her that somehow she will be able to make the money last another 10 years, which sounds morbid to say, but that is the absolute life expectancy for people in Gene's family on both sides. On to better news; Gene and I are sending out Christmas cards via snail mail to everyone this year, and they will go in the mail later this afternoon, so in the next week, look for yours in the mail.It has been wonderful that the price of gas has gone down. Here we are paying about $1.60 a gallon. Milk has gone down too, we pay about $2.20 a gallon for that, and bread is .70-.86 cents a loaf, but I have been doing some of my own bread baking with flour and sugar, and salt down. I am hoping to get a web cam or a digital for Christmas so that I can download pics to go with this blog, so please read weekly to keep up. Know that we think of you all, and love you all much! Julie