I've been TAGGED!

Ok, well here we go. My sweet sister in law tagged me to list 6 unimportant things about myself. SO here goes.

1. I love to sing, and do arts and crafts.
2. When my parents were building the house in ST. Louis I was playing on the roof trusses, and slid across a truss nail. I sliced my thigh open, and had to be taken to the hospital. My dad took me, and I had to get 5 stitches. When I got home, my mom had made scones. My mom's scones are my absolute favorite. So I had my fill of scones and orange juice.
3. I used to watch Scooby Doo, Little House on the Prairie, Love Boat and Fantasy Island after school when I was younger.
4. I would always do naughty stuff when I was younger and mom would line us all up and make us sit till one of us told her who did it. I always was the one who did it, but I would always get Tyler to go say he did it so that we all didn't have to sit there. Sorry Tyler! Thanks for being a good sport about it!!
5. I would always get into my moms makeup when I was younger, and she would punish me when I would do it. She would say "Amber have you been into my makeup again?" and I would put on my best sad eyes and say "No mom I wasn't, why?" and mom would say something like "well I can see it on your eyes" and I would always say "but mom that is how my eyes came, they have always looked like that." (Yah right...powder blue eyeshadow all the way up to the eyebrows and red lipstick...Yes Heavenly Father must have tried out the new "permanent makeup" fad with me, or I was a horrible liar...I think the second of the two is more likely.)
6. I was scared to tell my parents that I was pregnant with Vanessa, because it was so soon after I had Sabrina. SO I waited till we were all in the temple waiting room waiting for Sarah and Justin's ceremony thinking maybe she wouldn't be so mad if I told them in the temple. I don't know why I was so scared. They weren't mad at all. They were a little wary that it was so soon, but they were happy.

OK now you know some unimportant things about me. I tag: Andrea C, Heidi C, Tiera K, Alicia W, Ginny S, and Terri S. To do the same thing, and then tag 6 other people. Have fun!!

It's always FUN when Grandparents Visit!!

Mom and Dad on the Tram Ride

My parents came to visit us this week, and we had a wonderful time. We went to the zoo, and to the kids museum. We went to Lauritzen Gardens and to the Fontanelle Forest. By the time my parents left on Sunday all the kids were totally exhausted. And to be honest I was a little tired myself. We had some great times and built many wonderful memories. How I thoroughly enjoyed seeing my little son Isaac ask Grandpa to read him a dinosaur book, and then see him snuggle up to my dad for the story. To see my mother reading a story to both my girls with them cuddled next to her while she reads made my heart leap with joy. Seeing all this throughout the week made me realize just how homesick I really am. I miss being around my family. I miss being able to see my parents for Sunday dinners. I especially miss giving my parents hugs. They are truly my best friends, and I love them dearly. I appreciate all the sacrifices they have made for me, and also now for my little family. I want them to know how much I appreciated them making the 17 hour drive out here to visit with my little family for four days. The days went by too quickly as they often do, however the memories will last forever. Thanks again Mom and Dad.

How we saw mom a lot of the trip.. It's great to have memories captured by such a great photographer.

It was a good time had by all.

IT'S OFFICIAL

Well, it's official. We are now no longer known as the Knight Family, but the Weigt Family. Will and I just got back from court, and from getting our new drivers licences. It is very strange to get used to the new name, but in time it will become second nature. We will answer to either name. Legally everything is still upheld in either name, so there are no worries there. We thought we would post our new DL to show now that we are official. Enjoy!! Now we just have to teach the kids how to spell and write the new name. Luckily Isaac will only learn how to write his new name when he goes to school this year. All the kids were excited to tell everyone that they have a new name. Rommel is doing great. He is really taking to Nessie. The two of them can't go anywhere without each other. Rommel has been so great for Nessie. She is like a new kid. So confident, and happy. On the other end of the spectrum, Rommel will only listen to Nessie (and myself), and is very protective over Nessie. Isaac was being mean to Nessie, and even after I yelled at him to stop, and Nessie was crying, finally Rommel had enough, and barked at Isaac, and then sat down on Nessie's lap and kissed her till she felt better. He is such an awesome dog. Like I said these two are peas in a pod, and cant go anywhere without the other. Hopefully when Nessie gets to school her confidence will continue, and she will be able to cope with groups till she can come home at the end of the day and recharge her confidence with some cuddle time with Rommel. The two of them are so cute. I will get some pics posted here soon.

Ironic!!

Well, we had HUD come out to look at and fail our home with the back door not working so that it forces Seldin to repair it. It is now 11 days, 4 lies, and 1 jerry rig job later, and it is still not repaired. Our HUD inspector showed up at 2:45 today to inspect and he failed the door. Here is what I find ironic... all of a sudden 2 men from Seldin showed up to repair the door at 2:50. The inspector still failed our home, and is still sending in the report. Also the two men both stated that we need a new back door, but they again jerry rigged it to work "for now". They both said that they are going to let the office know to put a new door in. YAH RIGHT!! We shall see how well they listen to their own workers. Hasn't worked yet for the last two years that they have been jerry rigging it to pass inspection for HUD, and then let us call and call to get it fixed, and then finally come out to jerry rig it again for another few months. They also failed the storm door lock on the front that was broken during the attempted break in. Hopefully Seldin will now get the hint...fix it, and don't mess with us.

All of this crappy treatment after we referred 4 families to live here, and they are all living here. Plus we only got the referral money for one of the families. They stiffed us for the other three. We now tell people don't even think of living here. It's horrible, and they promise things and don't follow through. Ever since Ashley moved on and is no longer the property manager, this place has gone to hell in a hand basket.

Bullies NEVER forget when they lose!

Hey , Will here...
Unfortunately, as I observed in our family’s blog, a bully will never forgive being embarrassed. I was right. Between our errands yesterday afternoon, we found a letter from Seldin posted on our door saying that we had 3 days to evacuate the property from the date of this letter. The letter was dated 7/11, meaning that we were to leave this day for failure to pay rent. We contacted our case worker and found that Housing had sent the rent check on the 1st, as promised, and that Seldin has had 2 copies of the Housing letter stating that no rent is due from us for the unit. (In June, I had very few hours at work and thus the change in our expected contribution to our rent.) The case worker gave us her direct number, as well as the direct number of her supervisor, and advised us to call them, and the police, if the doors are suddenly locked when we come home.
I forgot to mention that when we saw one of these managers, they made a point of telling us that they read our family blog, and that she “…didn’t appreciate seeing her name in it”. I find it interesting that our friends read the last 3 entries in our blog and ask: 1) if the police caught the guy who tried to break-into our apartment, 2) if our insurance has taken care of our car, or even 3) what was up with the eye patch that I was wearing yesterday (bad eye infection). Strange that after reading our blog that she only could comment on the use of her first name. I also found it interesting that she didn’t dispute the truthfulness of anything that I wrote about the situation with the dog.
If she didn’t want to look like a bully to those that read my blog; why did she act as the hand of a bully in attempting to perform an illegal act? “Just following orders”? Why a veiled threat that we are being watched, if she acted honorably and legally? If I said anything that was untrue, why didn’t she just leave a comment on the blog? Granted she’d have to leave her name, but why would that have been a problem? People who welcome the truth rarely seek secrecy.
By-the-way…the sliding door that was reported “broken” (9 days ago), and still can’t be locked…no one has been by to do anything about it since that night on the 4th (the door came off the track minutes after the workman left, and we re-reported the problem that night on the answering machine). We have called the Seldin office on this issue at least twice. Both times being told someone was on their way out to repair it. No one has showed up still. Coincidence?
Sounds like retaliation for forcing the Seldin managers at our site to obey Federal Law, to me.
I wonder what the legal penalties are for harassing a tenant for invoking their rights under Federal Law are? If they don’t cut it out right now, I can promise that we’ll all know the answer to this question, soon.

Bullies come in all sizes, ages and sexes

As many of you know, one of our kids is especially fearful of other kids (and not without some reason). This is why we decided to get a service dog, our beloved Rommel. A number of our neighbors have dogs, which are only permitted if they qualify as a "Service Animal" in conjunction with the Americans with Disabilities Act. So we searched for an appropriate dog that we could afford, and educated ourselves about the requirements of Service Animals in Nebraska. We sought the forms we needed from the management company to have the dog properly "permitted" under our lease. It was a lot of work.

Eventually, we got the necessary note from our child's pediatrician about their disability, and the necessity of the dog (in our case). He also noted the improvement the child made since the dog has been in our home.

Our application included My (Will's) name, Amber's, and the child in question. My doctor sent a letter first, stating that while I could benefit from the service dog, my depression doesn't rise to the level of a "disability". Quite true, and not unexpected. Amber's note hasn't been written yet.

Now I have a question for our readers. Which of the following actions did our landlords take in response to the 2 doctors' letters that they had:

A) Process the permit immediately
B) Wait until Monday to call and consult with the physicians
C) Request a meeting with us to discuss the options available
D) Deny the request, or any appeal, in violation of the ADA, immediately

If you said "D"...you are correct. Despite having the doctor's (very clear) note, the manager's supervisor (Carol) decided that it would be best to summarily deny the request, and have her minion (Kim) give us the bad news that we had 9 days to get rid of Rommel, or we would be evicted (and also lose our Section 8 Housing benefits) 14 days from that date.

There is nothing that get's my dander up like a bully. Especially a bully in violation of Federal Law. I had Amber immediately call the FHA (Fair Housing Authority), and the ADA national hotline. After they spoke with Carol, Carol had the hutzpah to tell Amber: "You didn't need to call ADA".

Apparently that was exactly what we needed to do.

I asked Amber if I have a note tattooed on my forehead (where I can't see it), that says: "Mess with me, I'll never stand-up for myself or any member of my family"?

I think many people underestimate the importance of standing-up to bullies, even when it's not convenient.

Clearly, Carol thought that she was beyond reach of any higher authority when she foolishly and illegally tried to bully us into doing as she commanded. I'm sure that she realized her situation (if she persisted), when the ADA and FHA people showed her that they had the authority to force her to do something that she didn't feel like doing. Nothing is more bitter to a bully than being forced to do anything.

Clearly, we are now off the Christmas card list of Seldin Properties, and our lease will not be renewed next May. I am certain because it is Carol's last area where she can force us to do something she wants us to do. Bullies never forgive those who embarrass them...ever.

We qualify for enough rent through Section 8 to rent a 4-bedroom house with fenced yard. Amber found several when we thought we'd have to move (immediately). It all works-out well because My mother will be living with us in March anyway.

The Car Issue!

Well, here is our car. Not a very pretty sight. I got "T Boned" as I was turning left on my green light, and this 87 year old man came barreling down the road and ran his red light at about 50 mph. I'm just so very thankful he didn't hit me any further up on the drivers side, or I would be minus one left leg. Thank goodness for miracles. This old man made my Grandfather who is 92 years old look like an athlete. This is the reason why they should take away drivers licences from old people. No offence to those of you who feel differently, but when you reach a certain age I think you should have to seek other ways of transportation, or one day it may not be just the fender, or someones leg, it could be their life.

I'm doing well, other than a few bruises to my arm and my stomach feels like I am constantly sick (the seat belt hits where my new stomach is, and so it bruised it really well). Other than that, and my poor car, all is well.

Why people domesticated wolves in the 1st place...

Hi All, Will here:

Our friends, James & Amanda Kleinau asked us (and paid u$!) to house their 2 Labradors while they are going on their annual fishing trip to Minnesota for a week.

We looked at this as an opportunity to: help some friends save over $200, make $150, and socialize Rommel with other dogs early-on. Everybody wins. But we got an extra bonus this morning.

On the night of the 4th, the back door jammed and our blinds broke. I was unable to get the door back on the track, and I was able to rig up the blinds temporarily with tape. A serviceman arrived (on the 4th! - take that Union Labor!) and was able to get the door back on the track, but was unable to fully close and secure the lock and door. Because of the holiday, he promised to return Monday morning to fix the locking problem.

I put a stick in the track, and didn't worry too much about the vertical blinds not closing completely, or the door being so close to the lock that only flies get in. I didn't expect trouble over the weekend. Add this to the long list of things I was wrong about.

This morning, an unknown man came to our window, and apparently looked through the blinds and could have easily seen our laptops sitting on the kitchen table. Probably sensing easy money at a pawn shop, he tried his luck. It was his turn to be "wrong" about something. The dogs charged the door from the other room (the Labs do not tolerate "strangers", which is why we were watching them in the first place). Amber, being in the next room while I was upstairs, arrived just in time to get a basic description of the man. I asked which way he went, and Amber was stifling a laugh as she told me how she last saw the jackass running over the top of the hill at full-speed.

Realizing that it was probably the duo of 100lb Labs and not the 30lb Rommel that inspired the fear; I asked Amber what Rommel's performance was like. I never saw the guy...he must have been running pretty fast. Amber beamed as she said that Rommel was right at the door, and after the threat was gone, he returned to Amber in the front room, sat between Amber and the backdoor, and continued to bark.

Good dogs!

Rommel is Home!

Well, we finally have Rommel home. He is such a beautiful pup. We had a long drive to get to him, and an even longer drive home. We got him from a really nice family in Iowa who bred their German shepherd. When we drove up to the family farm at about 8:30 pm last night, we were greeted immediately by a wet Rommel and his mommy. They were both so friendly and sweet right off the bat. We then met the Family, and did all the necessary paperwork. We were all inside while the dogs were outside. Will forgot to close the trunk to our car, and so Rommel and his mommy were free to get into our traveling food. Poor Rommel decided he was going to down the entire bag of Cheetos, and half a bag of gummy fish. You ask me how do I know this if we were all inside. Well, I'll tell you... As we were driving home at around 11pm Rommel decided to get carsick and throw up all over the back of the car. That's how we know what he got into. Before this we were driving in the farm areas of Iowa, and because it had just rained all the frogs were out on the road, so I couldn't miss them all, and we have frog guts all over the bottom of our car. Anyway, now the car smelled of wet dog, and vomit. We got home at about 1:30 in the morning, and looked over the dog, and realized he had ticks. We then went through his ears and fur, and pulled out 7 ticks. We then had to look the kids over. Nessie was tick free, Isaac was tick free, but Sabrina had three of them little buggers on her. SO we washed all their clothes jammies, and stripped their beds since they had already laid down on them. Then it was time to go to bed. We took Rommel to the Vet at 10 am, and had his shots, and worming, and microchipping and all the areas poked and prodded. The vet then removed 9 more ticks, and also gave us some medicine for him because he has hookworms. We then took him home, and bathed him, brushed him with a tick comb and then tomorrow will apply the flea and tick medication. He also had bug bite sores on the tips of his ears that I though was dirt, but it was scabs. The vet said they would heal now that he isn't running in the tall grass and corn fields.

Rommel seems happy, and loves the kids. The kids also love him. The one I was most afraid of was Nessie. She is so scared of big dogs, and is so tenderhearted, but she took to Rommel, and I think he took to her right away. He loves Pigs Ears, and peanut butter. We have had to train him to go potty outside, and that's going ok. He also doesn't know what to make of the leash and collar, but the vet said he would get used to it. He is so sweet to the kids, and I couldn't ask for anything better.