Riley and Avery

The tree decorating pictures will have to wait since we've been slowly doing that over the course of days, and usually the girls aren't dressed in a way that Grandma would approve of!

So we piled the kiddos on the car on Wednesday and drove out to Woodland Park to Pike National forest to legally chop down our own tree. The permit was only $10, so you can't beat that. There was a lot more snow on the ground than we had anticipated, so we couldn't hike too far in for a tree. I went in with the idea of purposely getting a tree that did not look like a lot tree. I wanted a tree that looked like a real tree. Rudi is going around looking for a lot tree. I finally convinced him on a sparse-looking tree with dozens of pine cones still attached to it. It was about four or five feet too tall, but he chopped it down and cut it down to size at home.

Next year we'll go a little earlier in the cutting season and bring our snowshoes. We also decided to get the girls their own snowshoes next winter. Riley will definitely be big enough. We'll see about Avery, she may still need to be worn.

So I sold my three books back to the school for a whopping $130!! Holy cow, UMBC never paid that much. Especially considering that I bought them on Amazon for $75 total! Sweet!

We've been filling out applications left and right. I am pretty much willing to work anywhere, but Rudi is being more picky. That's fine with me. If I work for a month or two it'll give Rudi time to find something that he doesn't hate everyday. It's actually been nice having him home, for once. I guess it makes a difference that it wasn't really his fault that he got fired, and that I'm not mad at him for it. When money starts getting a little tighter, I'm sure things won't be so rosy, but we're not letting it kill our holiday spirit. There's a brand-new Costco opening up about two miles from our house. It's supposed to be a great company to work for, like they practice what they preach, unlike Walmart. If Rudi can get in there, we'll be golden. But I'm not sure exactly when they are opening, I think about a month or two. Definitely within 12 weeks, since you can't apply for a job there until the store is 12 weeks from opening. I just don't know if we can wait 12 weeks for Rudi to get a job. Hopefully it's much less.

I filed an unemployment claim against Walmart. I'm sure they'll fight it tooth and nail and we'll get nothing, but at least I'm trying. In Colorado an employer can fire an employee without cause, but as far as unemployment goes, unjustified firing is the same as laying off. Otherwise, all companies would just fire employees without cause rather than laying them off and having to pay unemployment.

I am filling out an application at Mountain Mamas Natural Foods. Hopefully I'll be able to get a job somewhere. Anywhere.

I just thought of something. Being in the paralegal program, we get free unlimited access to Westlaw, which is the premier online database for cases, case history, and precedence. Most law firms cannot afford Westlaw because Westlaw charges lawyers $36 per minute to use their database, and the lawyers usually turn around and charge the client about $60 per minute for the research. Holy cow, my access to Westlaw is golden. I could probably get hired by a law firm now as a legal secretary now just based on my access to Westlaw! By the time my Westlaw access ends I'll be a full-fledged paralegal. Oh yeah! Not that I'd do it, but just because I could...