Now that's what I like to see!

If only we could get Selah to do the same...

Selah enjoying the trip

So we have left GA & are now in FL... We should arrive at Uncle Mike & Aunt Judy's by 10 tonight. And seeing as how we left at 9 this morning, it's been a long day. Poor Selah has had enough. Today has been a bit rough for her. We don't have those kind of kids who fall asleep easily in the car. Lucky for the boys, they have headphones...

Headed to GA...

Jonah loves Star Wars, and is loving that he is being allowed to watch as many as he wants. We should be in GA by 10 tonight, I believe. Long day on I-75, but we have quiet kids for now...

Quiet for the Little Einsteins

Noah's recent addiction is Little Einsteins. And hey, if it keeeps him quiet to continually watch the sme movie over and over...who am I to stop him?

Peaceful for now...

It's hard to take a picture of a rear-facing infant from the seat in front of them, but she's sweet anyway!

The Eagle has left the building

We finally got out this morning only a bit behind the original schedule. We are almost to Dayton, OH to visit Bryan's brother, Todd. And we are thanking God that not only has the first leg of the trip been relatively uneventful with well behaved children, but also that we are not traveling 75N in this area right now. Been there, done that. and it's never a good experience. The ambulance was just leaving as we passed, and the interstate was totally blocked off, with stopped traffic for miles. We pray for those who were involved (although we saw no evidence of an accident.) And pray that we stay safe on our trip!

Truth Revealed

We received a call from our neighbor today that there is a foreclosure notice on our old house. Now all is explained. Why he (landlord) couldn't have just come out with it we don't know, but we wish him well, and are thankful he had us move out before it actually went into foreclosure, as some landlords just keep taking your rent and then one day...the sheriff is knocking.

*see post below if you want to know the story.
(If you hadn't noticed, Bryan posted thie. I would not have been so nice...)

The Story of the Ugly Landlord.

(WARNING: THIS IS LONG and probably considered complaining- Bryan is likely to yell at me.)

As some of you have heard, we have been having issues with our old landlord. Specifically, he took $550 out of our deposit for "damages" we did to his house. (?!?!?) Right. We were pretty upset about this (because that would pay for the gas on our trip!!!) and decided to fight it. Thanks to some friends who are landlords, we got some good advice (and one friend even wrote out a whole sample letter for us! Thanks, Renee!!!!) and the issue appears to finally be resolved. We tried to reason with him at our "walk-through" (which was actually a "stand in the driveway" because he was in too much of a hurry to show us these "damages") and he promised to be "reasonable." Hmmm. Guess we differ on the definition of "reasonable," eh? His story to us was that he had "a guy moving in, in two weeks, and couldn't rent the place in the "trashed" condition that it was in" (!!!!!) If you hadn't guessed, this was his house that he had moved into brand-new and we were his first renters. Hence the complete misunderstanding of normal wear and tear. (As in your house will not look like it is brand-new after people rent it if it didn't look brand-new BEFORE they rented it!)

So he told us he had "a guy" (?awful big house for A GUY!) moving in and had to get it fixed up, right? Well, if you are going to lie to us, you should probably lie to everyone. The walls have ears you know.

Back up, so we sent him a letter disputing the charges, but offering to pay $225 of it to keep it out of court (making sure to include that we maintained our innocence of said charges.) And he calls and leaves a message for Bryan about talking about this "man-to-man." Did I mention that he refuses to deal with me at all? When I talk, he usually wouldn't even glance at me, and then would respond to Bryan. AS IF I WASN'T THERE. Last I checked, my name was on the lease, and it was 2009 in America, where it was acceptable for a man and woman who weren't married to have a conversation. But maybe I missed something somewhere. Maybe that was "in the lease", too. Like the supposed requirement that we reinstall appliances that he uninstalled or pay $75. This line must have read, "Landlord will only communicate with male tenants, females are brainless and of a lower class." I think maybe there were two versions of this lease.

So we decided to ignore his phone call, as he is legally bound to respond in writing to our letter. And then, my neighbor calls. As I said, "the walls have ears!" Actually, she called in the morning before he called. (Another reason we had decided not to return his call.) And she tells me that he called- her husband, mind you, as she is a woman and therefore not worth his breath- and told them that he needed the spare key they had for emergencies THAT DAY. Now up until this point, no one has been seen at the house (not even him), and the people who live across the street are very observant of all neighborhood traffic. (They let us know that his wife used to drive by regularly to check on things- and was probably why he called and told us that "a neighbor" had called and complained that we hadn't edged by the fence in the back when we had only lived there 2 1/2 weeks. Except that we spoke with all neighbors who can see our backyard, and none of them called him. We knew at that point we had seriously made the wrong decision to rent his house.)

So we are relatively certain that no maintenance has been done. And so then, she calls back that evening and tells us that he told her husband that he sold the house to a company that provides housing to those who can't afford it. BECAUSE HE COULDN'T FIND ANYONE TO RENT IT! Or buy it.

Hmm. Now last I checked, we received a letter telling us our lease was terminated, and we had to be out. We were not planning on moving. He told us to get out. We paid the rent early every month. He did not offer to allow us to continue renting or to buy the house as he had mentioned when we moved in. Interesting. And what about this "guy" he had moving in, in two weeks? Hmm, again.

Now this was all on Tuesday. And on Wednesday, he got the key back from the neighbors and met someone at the house. Again, still no one has seen "his drywall guy" there or any other "repair" people.

Interesting. And his message had said, "unless you WANT this to go to court." Did he miss where the landlord has to pay the court fees, and the security deposit is the tenant's until they AGREE to give him the money or a judge ORDERS that they pay him a certain amount. Oh, and that the law in Michigan (and most states) is extremely vague and slanted in favor of tenants, and HE has to PROVE that we did this "excessive" damage? Or maybe that's why he called back Friday afternoon. Because he realized these things and that if he is found to have wrongly charged us for anything, he has to pay us double the security deposit? To a tune of $4650? Hmmm. If I was the landlord, I'd be making absolutely sure I could win before taking my tenants to court!

His message Friday said that he "spoke with his wife, and we have decided to just give you what you want." Hmmm. Or you looked more closely at the law and/or spoke with people who have been landlords before and realized that if we go to court, you will not only get no money from us, but you will also likely have to give us $2325 out of your pocket? Yeah, that sounds more likely.

In light of all the new information we have gotten, we wish we would have refused to pay anything. As we were obviously scammed. But no worries, we have learned a valuable lesson for $225, and we are grateful that this issue was resolved. We have really been praying about it, wondering if we really do morally owe him for all these "damages." The ones he refused to show us, if you remember.

Other interesting facts were

~he said he had photographic evidence of the condition of the house when we moved in, but never provided us with any evidence of move-in condition or move-out condition when charging us. (I would think if he really could prove we did so much damage to his house, he would do so before taking us to court, to avoid the fees.)

~the address that he gave us for correspondence was not the address on his check

~the person who signed for the letter we sent to him was not him, his wife, or anyone with the same last name

~he is paying us the additional $325 in installments (because he doesn't have it, presumably), even though MI law states that the security deposit must be kept in a separate account, and he therefore SHOULD have this money right now.

~unless I misheard, he will pay us the second half of the money at the end of July, which would violate the law that only gives him 45 days from move out to return it, and therefore we can sue him for double the deposit (meaning he would have to pay us the rest of the money PLUS $2325.)

Guess you'd better research the law better next time, sir. Or else make sure your tenants are illiterate, stupid, or preferably both.

As I said, we are so thankful to God that this is resolved (or so we hope), as it has been a HUGE stress on us for the last 3 weeks.

Videos of Selah

I know the quality is terrible, these are all from my phone. The battery is dead on the video camera, and we can't seem to locate the charger. So, it is all I have for now, but here are a few cute ones of Selah this week.

Selah in the bath

Self-explanatory, I do believe. She does love to splash, spin and climb! She is quite a handful in the bath and we definitely need to get a bigger towel, and maybe a shower curtain to put under it. Baths in the living room are, well, let's just say there is a reason they don't usually carpet bathrooms.

Selah's "cracker" video

We have a video of Jonah at about this age that is basically the same, but with a cracker. (If I can find it, I will post it-as it is hilarious. His is complete with tears.) Selah is chewing on the silicone cover to my cell phone in the video, and she thinks it is hers.

Selah's crawling

Sweet little Selah learned to crawl last week. We just wanted to share how cute she was!

Apologizing again

I hate that I am so far behind, but I hope to catch up some this weekend since we are no longer able to go to OH. But for those of you not a "facebook friend" here are a couple of links to pictures recently posted there. (Much quicker and easier than blogger.)

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2025483&id=1468951298&l=ece57e419e

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2021031&id=1468951298&l=3d307ddf45

Enjoy.

Just a head's up

Just wanted to let you all know that Tammy posted some cute pictures of Selah trying to pick up an ice cube on her website. Here is the link http://etzpersson2008.blogspot.com/2009/06/our-sunday-dinner-guests.html

There is also a picture of me on there, for all those of you who have been asking about the belly. It is not a good picture of the belly, but you can see that there is indeed one. For all you who were skeptical, I would not have believed it if it I hadn't seen it either. I really do look about 5 months. But YES, I really am only 13 weeks, and YES, there really is only one baby in there. (No one seems to believe me, but it is true.) The doctor told me this is normal when they are so close together. Just another reason to have them further apart!

Also, I posted videos of Selah yesterday from my phone, but for some reason they didn't go through. I will try again, and if all of a sudden there are 12 of the same videos, you will know why!

Doctor's appointment

We all went to my doctor's appointment this past Friday, and now Bryan knows why I don't like my doctor. (He only met her in the delivery room with Selah last pregnancy, so he didn't get to see her true "bedside manner" in her office.) My appointments with her last about 20 seconds. Okay, really 3 minutes. I truly was planning on switching doctors, but I am admittedly lazy, and I had a great delivery with her, so.... (In my book, any doctor who listens to what you want and when during delivery and then okays it, ROCKS. And you may remember that I wanted my water broken and my epidural put in as soon as they started the Pictocin. Which she okayed, having never delivered me before. LOVE IT!) At the visit she told me they were giving me a due date of 19 December, and when Bryan said as long as it was before Christmas we didn't care, she said we could schedule an induction, that wasn't a problem (I have given up on ever going into labor. I think that this is a myth.) She then got a heartbeat, asked if we had any questions, and said "looks good, see you in 4 weeks." It was definitely less than 5 minutes. But at least I am not there all day!

And we scheduled the "big" ultrasound. This is where they check the anatomy, make sure everything is accounted for and developing normally, and, our favorite part, usually tell you what you are having. So we will be confirming if it is indeed Micah on July 23. Can't wait!

The "GPT" (Gender prediction test)

When I mentioned I was going to try this, quite a few people wanted to know how it worked. So here is the brief overview...
You have a jar, with what appears to be crystals and glitter in it. The label has two side, with examples of the color range for each gender. Yellow to orange means girl...

And a shade of smoky green means boy.

You add urine (the patent is pending so little information is given, but they are testing the hormone levels.)

Swirl carefully and rapidly for 10 seconds.

And let sit for EXACTLY 10 minutes, then read from eye level.

What do you think?

Looks like it matches boy pretty well!

I hope it is right. It would be fun having just the one girl- and less expensive! But either way, it was fun to try and we will know more accurately at the 20 week ultrasound. The reliability of this is only 82 %, so it could definitely still be a girl! Doesn't matter too much, since we have no idea where we will be living in December, and odds are there won't even be a nursery to prepare. But I might look for some clothes on clearance at Kohl's, since they allow you to return forever...

and the boys are THRILLED! The male majority appears to continue for now, this was the chance to even it up- and I am not sure that we will continue to have enough kids to even it up after this!

To answer a few questions...

I apologize, things are crazy here- as usual. I am not ignoring the questions, just swamped and having to always rank everything in terms of importance. Right now the dinner dishes are still on the table- as the sink is full and there really aren't any counters ( and I REALLY have issues with dishes in my sink, but oh well.)- and tomorrow I will regret having blogged instead of cleaned, but I just don't feel like it. So, I will try to answer a few questions we have been getting, and for those I miss, feel free to leave a comment or email, and I will try to answer them!

I feel great, when comparing this pregnancy with the last 3. I was pretty sick with Jonah- until 7 months, but the worst was Noah, when I would awaken in the middle of the night, I was so sick. But Selah was MUCH easier, and COMPARATIVELY this one has been a piece of cake. I am only sick in the mornings, and I am not nearly as tired as I have been with all the others- though I speculate that this is because it is not possible to become any more exhausted than I already am, as I have a 9 month old who still awakens 3 or 4 times a night! I am just very thankful that this one has been easier, with all that is going on!

I am still nursing Selah, as she won't give it up and drink the stupid formula. I thought we were making progress, but now I am not so sure. We have been buying the ridiculously expensive "ready-to-feed" stuff, as it does taste MUCH better, but she is still being pretty stubborn. Today was Day 2 of no nursing during the day, and I truly fear for her health. (I will not even pretend that I am going to deal with formula at night until she starts to actually drink it. I get little enough sleep as it is, and I believe that all of our neighbors do appreciate the sleep they are currently getting. The child may be little, but she sure can scream!)

According to the ultrasound from a few weeks ago, I am now 12 weeks along. The due date they gave me there was 20 December. I will get an "official" one on Friday from my Dr. (Hard to date because I was nursing.) I WILL be having this child before Christmas. If we stay here in MI, with this Dr., and she continues to induce at 39 weeks on Tuesdays (how we ended up with an anniversary baby, remember?) then I would speculate that the induction will be on the 15 th of December. But seeing as how that is 6 months away, yet, it is hard to say! We need the tax deduction for this year, so it will definitely be in 2009!

The boys are excited. Well, as excited as a 7 year old and 3 year old who have an 8 month old sister can be, I guess. They see how "un-fun" Selah still is, so I don't think the thought of ANOTHER baby to take away attention and make lots of noise is all that thrilling to them. But they do seem to be excited, they like telling people and talking about it and asking questions. They both DESPERATELY want a boy. Or a "Micah" as Noah puts it. I guess they see that a baby sister isn't that interesting, so maybe a boy will be better?

While on that topic, Bryan read about a gender predictor test (urine) that has just hit the market, and he couldn't help but buy it, so we should know with 82% accuracy if it is a boy or a girl tomorrow, and REALLY know late July, early August. We will let you know. (The things they invent!) Neither Bryan nor I really has a preference this time. We both think it would be much easier in the long run to only have one girl, but since they will be so close together (15 months) it might be pretty convenient to have another girl right now. It is kind of nice not caring! (This is very new for me, as I have only ever wanted boys- teenage girls truly frighten me!)

As for moving, we are hoping to leave Michigan within the next year (preferably before the baby is born so we can continue our tradition of not repeating birth states.) Michigan was never high on our list of places to go, but Bryan was offered 2 jobs when getting out of the Army, here and Connecticut- which gets even MORE snow, and already had a stack of cases waiting for Bryan before he accepted the job, and a promise of much travel and many late nights. The SAC (boss) there even told him he'd give him 2 weeks off to find a place to live and get his family settled, since he wouldn't be around much after that. Well, coming from Ft. Gordon where he was swamped and constantly worked late and weekends, this wasn't what we wanted to hear, especially since I was 6 months pregnant. Alas, we came to Michigan, and it's been fun, but we are ready to continue our mission to get back to the West Coast. Mild temps, mountain skiing, and beautiful views, it just doesn't compare. We will let you know when we hear something.

My "placenta brain" has given out on me again, and I don't remember the other questions, but feel free to ask them again, I apologize for forgetting!

Goodbye to the 'igloo'

I have been collecting milk jugs for almost 2 years, and now we have to say goodbye to the igloo that never was. (When we finally went to build it, we had to buy a bigger hot glue gun, and then it broke after about 10 jugs. It never did get finished.) Bryan said he will ABSOLUTELY NOT have any part of moving them again, so I can either smash them or come get them myself tonight while they are all asleep- which at this rate would probably be 3 or 4 am. I concede defeat...

The end result.

6 33-gallon bags of crushed milk jugs. I did not count exactly, but there were more than 200. (Some were not visable in last picture.) Poor igloo...

I never thought I'd be so glad to see...

Selah wet my bed. But after a week without any good wet diapers, I was so thrilled to have a wet spot that I didn't even care that I had to change my sheets. She seems to be doing much better now, just normal cold symptoms are left- runny nose & cough. Thank Heavens!

Selah's first time swinging.

Well, since we had 7 months of winter, poor Selah hasn't had many adventures yet. Today she tried the swing for the first time. She seemed to enjoy watching Noah swing more than swinging herself. But that's okay with me- she's so little I fear she will fall out.

Noah the 'space shuttle driver'

He couldn't seem to understand why I couldn't ride behind him. Nevermind that Selah was in the front-pack, I'm pregnant, & my bottom just isn't that little. Poor kid.

Selah moving around

She's not totally crawling yet, but she can roll, scoot backward and now low crawl. I asked her to wait until we moved, and she did, so I can't really complain. Now that she actually has play space, she is all over it- there is nothing she can't get! Good thing we bought gates!

The new place

ISN'T IT GORGEOUS??????

Oops! That's not it. That's just a house we saw driving around the other day. Someday, maybe...I bet it has 5 bedrooms!

I don't have a picture of the outside of the condo, and I am not going out in my PJs to take one. Sorry, you will just have to wait. It's not all that impressive anyway.

Here's why you haven't heard from us in awhile, and why you probably won't hear from us for awhile yet.

This is the view from the front door, the living room and dining area.

The view from the other corner. The living room/Selah's room. (See the crib hiding back there? Don't worry, we moved all that stuff, especially the ladder, before putting her to bed last night!)


This is the hallway from the bedrooms looking into the living room. The kids were all asleep, so there aren't any pictures of the bedrooms.

The bottom of the stairs to the basement.

The first view of the basement. (I think my kids have too many Legos!)

Looking at the "laundry room" (aka washer & dryer at the end of the room.)

The kitchen.

So be patient. I still have not found the dishes, or anything else I seem to need, and for some reason my family thinks it more important that I feed them 3 meals and 2 snacks than blog. Geez. Not to mention we are all (except Bryan-GRRRR) still sick here.

We will post some more pictures once you can actually see the house. (And yes, we have an enormous storage unit that most of our stuff is in. And no, we haven't heard anything about a job out west, yet.)