My Turn!!

Well, I guess it was my turn to be sick today. I woke up with a stomach ache, and freezing cold. Will thought I was nuts when I asked him to turn off the A/C. I'm just glad that it didn't turn into what the kids all had last Sunday. Holy cow. Can we say PSYCHO!!

We went all the way through church last week and got to Sacrament Meeting. Sabrina told me after the opening song that her stomach hurt. I told her she would be ok, and to lean up against me and cuddle. She seemed ok with that answer, and did so. A few minutes later she turned around and said she needed to go to the bathroom. I told her ok, and she snuck out the side of the pews. All of a sudden I hear this vomit sound, and I turn around and there is Sabrina frantically trying to hold her hand over her mouth to keep it all in and from going onto the poor Missionary couple sitting there. I frantically dumped my purse out onto the pew, and raced to put my empty purse under her so she could finish throwing up in my purse as we tried to quickly go to the bathroom. While I was in the process of doing this, Vanessa had leaned forward and threw up into the pew ahead of us. She quickly got up and left to the bathroom with us. Will was obviously mortified, and came out a few minutes later, and got some paper towels. He kindly and quietly cleaned up all the vomit, and got rid of everything. I finally got them all cleaned up, and sat down to estimate all the damage, and try to get my contents that were in my purse into a plastic baggie. I then stood up, and it was apparently time for round two. After this next cleaning up, it was time to go home for sure.

All the kids stripped down, and got into their jammies. Isaac then started to complain as well, and the it was his turn. I on the other hand was getting more and more nervous that I would have to call in sick to my first day of a new job the next morning. I was praying that the kids would feel better soon. We all camped out in the front room each child with their own big round bowl next to their head, and their poor little tired bodies next to it. You could tell they were all so exhausted by all of this. I was tired just from trying to keep up with each of them. Will had to be to school early, and so I told him to just go to bed, and that I would take care of things downstairs. All through the night each one of then took turns into their bowls. Thank goodness around 4:30 in the morning they all stopped and fell asleep. I woke to the alarm I had set at 7:30 and got myself ready for the day. When I was done with my shower I came out to see two little super thirsty and super hungry girls ready to go for the day as if nothing happened. Isaac then woke up in the same hungry and thirsty mood, but feeling wonderful. I couldn't understand it, but was so very grateful they were better.

So apparently it was my turn to be really sick today, and everyone else was ok. It is now almost 11 pm and I'm starting to feel much better. SO it must be some little 24 hour flu bug. Thank goodness it is going away. I don't like the flu bug when it hits our home. So now with this holiday weekend almost over, we will try to get to the Zoo tomorrow, and do something fun with the kids.

An Empty House

As I sit here quietly, I realize that I am a little sad. All three of my children are gone to school, as well as Will is also gone to school. It is just me and Rommel, and even he knows there is something not quite right about a quiet house. I say house, because it feel like an empty shell without all the kids and Will around to put some excitement and love in it.

Anyway enuf of my sad little say. Now yesterday was the first day of this loneliness and it really didn't hit me. I was able to go through all the cupboards and totally "SPRING CLEAN" my entire kitchen. I got rid of things we didn't need or use. Funny how you end up collecting a bunch of crap and not even know it. So my kitchen looks great. Now off to the front room.

All the kids are having fun in school. Sabrina is so excited to be learning more in depth science and math. She gets this love of these subjects from Will, cause these two subjects were the most hated in my youth, except for maybe PE where you had to change into a uniform. BLAH! Vanessa is super excited about reading, and telling everyone stories that she comes up with. She has such a great imagination, and she has Sabrina's old teacher Miss Collins, and even Miss Colling told me yesterday when I picked them up from school that Vanessa is a bright little thing. Isaac had a wonderful day yesterday, and didn't even want to come home, but then again today he cried the entire time, and didn't want me to leave. Hopefully he will get better, and be happy to go to school. Ive been told that this is normal, and that's why the schools start the PreK kids on Thursday so that they have 2 days of school, and then the weekend to recover and feel safe again, and then back to school. I like their thinking. I NEED my kids for this weekend. I miss them so much.

Anyway, things are getting back to a routine now, we have the job chart going, and the rewards system in place. So far so good. I never thought I'd do a job chart when I became a parent. Mom always had job charts and I hated them. But here we are again I'm doing just what my mom did when I was little. The job chart works. It gives the kids a routine, and gives them a firm understanding of where they stand in the family as far as helping goes. And it also gives me sanity. WAY TO GO MOM!! I guess my mom knew it all. Back then I thought my mom was nuts, but who knew she was right, and knew much more than I did. That's kid mentality for ya!! I love ya mom, and thanks.

I WISH...

I wish I could express exactly what is in my heart. There are no words for the pain and sadness I have felt this week for my dear brother and his sweet wife. I have freequently stopped at random and prayed to my Heavenly father for help this entire week. I have prayed for the strength to be able to cope with this loss of such a sweet little spirit. I have prayed un behalf of my brother to be able to have the strength to deal with this tragedy. I have prayed for my sister in law to be able to have the strength to get up each day and be able to continue to love and be loved. I have prayed for help in being more loving to my own children, and not take them or their love for granted. I have prayed so many times for peace, and love.

I am the oldest of five kids, and this past week, I have really felt such hurt for my brother. I have felt so helpless. I wanted so much to take away all this pain that he and his wife have had to endure. As an older sister I felt that my ability to protect my brothers and sisters was taken away. I felt as though all I could do was watch as he hurt. I wanted to make everything better for him and Michelle make it so they didn't haveto hurt any more. I love my family so very much, and I feel a protectiveness over them that is not explained. I wish both he and Michelle could see how much I love them both. How much it hurts me to see them haveto go through this. However then I realize what we have all come to realize this past week, and that is that we all have the gospel in our lives. We will all betogether as a family once again after this life. I realized that even though this was such a great loss, this was also a great blessing. Our family is ever closer. Our family has seen that no matter what may happen, and no matter what sorrow or trial may lie ahead our FAMILY is always there for eachother.

Though the days and even months to follow will be tough, we are all there for one another and that gives me comfort. I also found comfort in a song that I have always sang to my kids before they would fall asleep for the night. Each night they would say "Mommy please tuck me into bed", and most of the time I would do it happily. It always consited of me tucking them into their blankets, kissing them, and then singing them the song "Till we Meet Again". Don't ask me why they always ask for that song, but for the last year that is the only song they ever want me to sing. Like I was saying earlier, Most of the time I would gladly do it, and then there were times when I was watching a movie or doing the bills or something where I just didn't feel like doing it that night. I did it again tonight for the first time since we came back from our trip to Utah for the funeral. I was more than happy to do this task, and atually felt privdledged to do it this evening. I sang the song "Till we meet again" and somehow tonight it had so much more meaning than it had before. To see how happy my children were after I did this, made my heart ache for Jaron and Michelle. I haveto admit I couldn't get though the song completely the first time, since I was crying. But then I got through it the second time.

My only wish is that I lived so much closer so that I am able to be there for my family and especially for my little brother and his wife right now. I hope that they will be able to know of my love for them, and feel my love. These two wonderful people showed me their strength and love for eachother and for the gospel this past week. I am truly amazed at how strong of an example and how strong of a testimony these two have. They truly understand the plan that the Lord has for them. I admire their strength, and their love and wisdom. They are truly an example to me. I love them both.

Jaron and Michelle, I hope you will continue to love eachother and strengthen eachother as the days and months progress. I have learned so much from you two in these past few days. I am so grateful for the opportunity I had to meet Gavin, and see just what a giant of a spirit he truly was. Your sweet little family will be in my hear and my prayers continually. You two truly are spiritual giants, and Gavin was way too perfect for this world. How grateful I am that the Lord was merciful to him, and took him back home to avoid all this unpleasantness. May the spirit bolster you up, and may you always look to the Lord for peace. I love you both!!

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.