Taking the Scenic Route

Our current landlords sent us a letter saying we had broken our lease, and that because we hadn’t given 60 day notice, we had to pay rent until the place is re-leased.  Before we got the letter they verbally told us we would definitely have to pay for April, but they would be willing to “work with us” and not have to pay any after that. 

Well, this really ticks me off because we didn’t break our lease.  Our lease ends.  We looked up the laws and found out that legally, we don’t have to pay them a cent because the lease ends.  We only have to give notice if we are breaking the lease, and even though the lease says that you have to give 60 days notice, the county statutes say that tenants are not required to give any more than 30 days notice, and has a statute saying that a lease can not override that.  The law recognizes the end of the lease is the end of the contract.  The landlords are able to raise the rent and change it to an at will lease (month-to-month) if we don’t vacate, but the law assumes we are vacating if we do not sign a new lease.

So, it sounds like they are attempting to screw us, but we totally have the law on our side.  Also, in the statutes, it says that if we sue them and win (which we will since it is so clearly laid out), that they have to pay all of our legal fees.  If they get nasty about it, we can probably get a class action lawsuit because I know that they did the same thing to almost every resident I have gotten to know that has left.  They would owe a LOT of former residents money back if it ever came to light the company routinely disregards the county statutes and just charges people like crazy. 

It will be interesting how this plays out.  I really don’t have any interest in a lawsuit, but I also am going to be pretty tenacious about making sure they reflect our appropriate ending to our lease.  We have 4 years of on time (and mostly early) rent and no damages, and we deserve to be treated better than this.

Last night, in an attempt to entertain cranky, goober nose girl, we went outside and gave her a peice of chalk.  It was the first time she has had the experience of drawing and she was delighted!

So, do you think she could be any happier?

Video of her as she plays

Zora is just a fountain of snot these days.  She is also a bit on the cranky side much of the time, which is totally understandable, but I am ready for her to be happy and independant again.  She cries like her heart is broken if I move out of eye sight to the kitchen or bathroom and wants to be held all the time.  She is eating some and nursing like crazy, so I don’t think she is super sick, just general icky feeling.  She does get really happy when Daddy takes her on a run to the store to get more liquids and groceries for everybody. 

Zane isn’t particularly snotty, but he is sick.  He tossed and turned and moaned through the night, fell asleep in the middle of the afternoon, isn’t really eating anything, and has a fever.  When asked what hurts, every body part brings a “yes”, so I am assuming that means that he just aches all over.  He is still talking to some degree, but he wants to be holed up in his room, goes into meltdown mode if Zora comes in, and just wants to sit on his little chair in his winter pajamas wrapped in his blanket playing a Mario Bros. game on Nintendo.  He just looks like he feels really yucky.  Poor little dude.

 I found some cool flow chart type graphics that show the structure of Organic companies.  I didn’t realize that Kashi and Morning Star are owned by Kellogg and Boca Burgers are a Kraft product.  Lots of interesting connections in there.

Taking a look

We are in this half of the duplex.  We have a tree! yeah!

It’s blurry, but you get the idea.  Kitchen is behind the fireplace, The bedroom on the right we think will be Zane’s.  The laundry is also on the right, and a door to the upstairs bathroom.

See…basement stairs!  I can be less-than-freaked during tornado season now!

Zach showing Zora how to go down the stairs backwards.  There is a room at the base of the stairs, and the playroom is the one without a door.  To the right is another bedroom and bath.

Playroom from the utility/furnace room door, the stairs are on the other side fo the far wall.

40 gallon water heater!  I might actually be able to rinse my hair without chattering!

Today Zane shocked his therapists when he was able to instantly tell you the number of things on a card, without obviously counting them.  Now he does go through and count them if it is harder to keep track of how many, but if there are under about 10 items, he can usually just answer without counting.  I wonder if that is an unusual skill for a 5 year old or if it is just that they weren’t expecting Zane to be able to do it.  It wasn’t a great surprise to either of us.

Tonight when we tried to get him to taste the curry Zach made (he is still on his ‘perfecting curry’ kick), and Zach was saying “One bite, just one bite”  Zane started by saying “No bites”, then progressed to “Zero bites”.  lol. 

On another note, Zane keeps carrying around the Mario Brother’s instruction book and appears to be reading it.  We are now on the search for regular books that star the Mario Brothers.  I haven’t found more recent things, but I did discover that in the early 90s, if you bought two cans of pringles, you could get a free Nintendo Adventures book and a lot of them starred Mario. It is a “Choose Your Own Adventure” book, with a Nintendo theme.  I know both my brother and Zach both adored those type of books as kids, so I bet Zane would like them too.  I put in a bid for the first one on ebay tonight.  If it doesn’t go very high, we might have one for him to see if he likes them as much as we think he will. 

There is a charity raffle organized for Lily Mathis . 

She is in the PICU. www.carepages.com search for LilyMathis (typed exactly)

She is one of a set of triplets that were home birthed.  She and her two brothers were born healthy and Lily woke up sick last week.

My mom wrote a really nice entry that is the text of a sermon she did.  (when the pastor was absent)  The 11 month old baby she talks about was me.  Made me all teary. 

Signed the lease!  I think I am really going to like the new landlord.  She seems reasonable.  I am a little dissapointed that I can’t get outdoor toys that cover up grass space (sandboxes, playhouses), but she is willing to let us have things that have a smaller footprint.  (swings, for instance) or can be pulled onto the patio so they don’t destroy the grass.  She has been burned too many times by people who destroyed the yards, which I can respect.  We can probably get a sand/water table, just not something that would sit on the ground and kill the grass.  Baby pools are alright as long as they are emptied and taken off the grass in between uses.

Requesting prayers for clarity for Zach as he works to narrow his thesis.  He feels like it is almost there, but is struggling a bit to find that last piece of inspiration that will solidify it. 

If doing a project wasn’t a terminal degree, he would have been done about 6 times over, but he wants a degree that will allow him to continue if so chooses to pursue that in the future.  He wants to combine the work he has already done on the NASA projects, along with his database knowledge.  and his mad programming skillz. 

He feels like it is right in front of him, right *there*, he can almost feel it, but just can’t quite see it yet.