After months of certified letters, emails, phone calls and face to face meetings that accomplish nothing we’ve finally decided to ask the landlords to release us from the lease come May 1st.

We decided that asking to be released from the lease was the better way to go. If we needed to get a lawyer and present all our documentation supporting their breach of the lease we could. It is just that starting the legal battle takes much time and lots of money we didn’t really want to have to fork out if not necessary.

So, N made the phone call to the landlords this morning. He is the professional one who can present things in a non emotional way. I just tend to be blunt and rude about things like this and say stuff like F-you, you are an idiot. LOL…

Anyway, N got a call back about 10 min. before we had to leave for my chiropractor appointment be we figured that would happen and were ready.

During the call he outlined our frustrations with the rental situation. Talked about how paying them rent has been an ongoing challenge as a result of them changing banks and addresses monthly.

He brought up our health concerns over the mold and the fact that we asked them to take action back in November to help remedy the mold issue but they ignored our requests.

He talked about how we’ve sent multiple certified letters that they’ve refused to pick up and he basically said that we would like  to be let out of our lease, penalty free so we find a more stable home before baby Tater comes.

Her response was “Okay, we just need to get the owed rent from February and March first”… She didn’t even care about us wanting to be let out of the lease!

We recorded the phone conversation for our records and we’ll be typing up a letter stating that we’re being let out of our lease by the landlords that she will sign.

We’ve also placed a stop payment on the previously issued checks from February and March per her request and have turned those in to one big cashiers check to give her when she signs the “early release from lease letter”. Thank goodness we are out of here!

Basically we get the keys to our new place on April 1st and will have a month to get out of our current place and to tidy it up before the move out inspection here on May 1st.

We are super stoked and feel like a huge burden has been lifted from our shoulders. We are still trying to be sure we keep good documentation of all of it just to cover our butts but essentially it should be all done and over with now.

We found our new place, got released from our current one and are pretty much on track for getting all this madness taken care of before Tater comes. Yay!

For those of you in similar situations with unresponsive landlords you may find the following posts and references helpful. Read all about our moldy, indiana rental and what we did about it in these posts (arranged from newest to oldest):

• The Filter Queen, a cute country home and more landlord drama…
• Checketty, check, check those things off that list! The landlord comes a knocking
• Slumloards, credit scores and a prenatal chiropractor [in a pear tree]…
• Bubbling with anticipation and watching the world blow by…
• Getting the holiday ducks in a row and not looking like a hobo anymore! Mold test photos.
  
• In Indiana breathing mold is okay but home birth is not, just an FYI.
• I am just a tad angry right now! The saga of the first certified letter.
• Good morning all, got a flood? We do!

You may also find the following external links helpful:

• How to write an early termination letter to your landlord.
• Sample Letter: Breaking fixed term co-tenancy: all co-tenants vacating
• SAMPLE ONLY – Letter Breaking a Lease
• Mutual release from contract/ lease form

The post The final chapter of the crappy evansville landlord drama. appeared first on Updates from Ryder Family Farm.

In the meantime we’ve been trying to focus our energies in other areas like storm cleanup (we sort of thawed out over the weekend) and we have been doing some baby nursery preparation.

You see, we’re toying with the idea of turning our unorganized storage room/ office in to a nursery. I say “toying with the idea” because we haven’t thought through the logistics of our lease ending, the baby coming, the BlogHer conference I’d like to attend and what we’ll do about the mold situation.

That is something we’ve been putting off an pretending like we don’t have to deal with, we’ll figure it out eventually though.

Anyway, while we wait to have our prenatal appointment rescheduled we are enjoying the novelty of my rapidly growing stomach and I realized I’ve been bad about posting the belly pictures on the blog so here is a little taste of what it is all looking like!

We conceived Tater Tot several days before this first photo was taken (conception date knowledge is all thanks to our fertility awareness charting). We went wedding dress shopping at David’s Bridal, found the dress I loved and were cluelessly planning our wedding details as fertilization, cell division and early stages of embryo development were taking place.

We had no idea we had conceived yet but I’ve got this nifty photo of my belly in my wedding dress from that day. Funny thing is we conceived about 1 month after our hectic and eventful move cross country. I guess stress helped us conceive or something.

October 9th (8 DPO) was a significant day in our lives, we looked at my fertility awareness charting and started to suspect that I was pregnant on that day.

Between suspecting I was pregnant and the date of this next photo I did many home pregnancy tests and we did much speculation. Come October 14th we were certain we had surely conceived, thanks to the positive test results in this photo.

On November 9th I was 7 weeks pregnant and felt I had began to show signs of being pregnant with my newly relaxed belly shape. I know it wasn’t technically a baby bulge since Tater was still so small inside me but it shows how my shape began to change.

This next photo was taken about 3 weeks after visiting the doctor to confirm the pregnancy.

We knew we were pregnant but needed the doctors confirmation to make our family feel better about it. Plus we wanted to be sure I was not experiencing an eptopic pregnancy like my mother had in the past.

At the doctors office we got to hear little Tater Tot’s heart beat for the first time and we also got Tater Tot’s first photo in the form of our first ultrasound pic. Hearing the heartbeat for the first time made everything way more real and exciting for us.

I took these photos because I felt I had began to show a bit more than I previously was at the beginning of November. These were taken while I was 10 weeks pregnant.

It doesn’t really seem like I gained much between late November and late December which is odd considering all the sweets and baking that takes place during the holidays. I did make an effort to photograph the belly on Christmas day just for the sake of memory.

We got a fun “parents to be 2008” ornament for our tree and we relished in the thought of Christmas 2008 being our last as just a couple. I was 14 weeks pregnant on Christmas Day.

Just a few days after Christmas we had to take the city bus to an errand because our car died. We noticed that my belly was looking surprisingly bigger all of the sudden so we snapped a photo before we headed out for the day.

Up until a few weeks ago I was still able to stubbornly cram myself in to my old regular clothes despite the growing belly. Unfortunately this is no longer the case because my belly has grown lots!

We went out and finally found me some real maternity jeans to wear that accommodate and even compliment the growing belly. These photos aren’t of the maternity pants though, they are of my belly in all it’s expanded glory as you can see.

I am now 19 weeks pregnant and am officially showing I think… Tater is about 9 inches long at this point according to baby development books.

Also, we got to feel Tater’s first movements at about 17 weeks which was super exciting for us. Now moving and kicking is a regular occurrence in my belly, I think I even felt a few fish flops in there too.

Now we are just waiting to see Tater’s penis in the ultrasound pic…  Do you think Tater has a penis or not?

The post 19 week belly shots and recap of past belly shots… appeared first on Updates from Ryder Family Farm.

Anyone who has been blogging for a long time knows that when our lives change often times so does the focus of our blogs. I know many bloggers who have been through this or are currently going through this right now (like her, her, her – awe hell the list could go on forever so I can’t possibly list all of you!).

This very blog has been through some of it’s own transformations in the 4 years I have been writing here. Back in the day the whole point of starting this blog was for marketing my business, then the economy slowed and so did my business sales. The focus shifted to me writing motivational articles and informative/ how to articles as I worked through a period of personal growth. Then I began writing sponsored posts for a while as I worked to monetize my blog and further my writing efforts.

Now I am more of a daily life blogger sharing all that is my life, honestly and sometimes boringly. Personal blogging is not only a venue for self discovery but as a blog reader I’ve found that it is also a comfort to find others who are or who have been in our same position.

This brings me back to the article I read that caused the revelation. It was a great read so click on over there and read it real quick! It said:

“ministry of mediocrity” – helping others by showing our real selves.

Yes, at times this blog is mediocre with it’s talk of poo and zits and other life events. I know we have enjoyed many dramatic – non boring things like the stove fire, the moldy basement issue, N’s job saga and moving cross country but the goal with this blog was never to impress anyone as I am sure you have already determined.

I think there is real beauty in realness which is why my writing style is the way it is now, it is also why I deeply love reading so many of your blogs. So much of society is about putting on your best face, we go around trying to make the best impression at work and at get-togethers. Soon life becomes this huge facade of us putting our best self out there which is fine but it also fuels the unattainable idea that we should all be perfect and “shiny” as the above referenced post puts it.

Bottom line is none of us are perfect, we can all try and try to convince others that we are but what if in doing so we forget to love and nurture ourselves, imperfections and all? I mean if we are so ashamed of the imperfect sides of us how can we truly love and accept ourselves? I guess that is why I am so open and real about things on this blog, ugliness and all.

So now I am taking an idea from Teeni and calling on my readers to help me come up with a new tag line for this blog, that reflects this idea. Also, feel free to chime in on this topic. I would love to hear your thoughts.

The post Blogging the real me to make you (and me) feel better. appeared first on Updates from Ryder Family Farm.

On the first day of Christmas, my true love sent to me
A garage cat with some fleas.

On the second day of Christmas, my true love sent to me
Two broken cars (poor Nissan and Amigo!)
And a garage cat with some fleas.

On the third day of Christmas, my true love sent to me
Three months-of-pregnancy (almost 4!),
Two broken cars,
And a garage cat with some fleas.

On the fourth day of Christmas, my true love sent to me
Four petri dishes of growing mold,
Three months-of-pregnancy,
Two broken cars,
And a garage cat with some fleas.

On the fifth day of Christmas, my true love sent to me
Five feet of soaking, nasty basement,
Four dishes of mold,
Three months-of-pregnancy,
Two broken cars,
And a garage cat with some fleas.

On the sixth day of Christmas, my true love sent to me
Six days of rain (and no freaking snow!),
Five feet of soaking basement,
Four dishes of mold,
Three months-of-pregnancy,
Two broken cars,
And a garage cat with some fleas.

On the seventh day of Christmas, my true love sent to me
Seven pans of cinnamon rolls,
Six days of rain,
Five feet of soaking basement,
Four dishes of mold,
Three months-of-pregnancy,
Two broken cars,
And a garage cat with some fleas.

On the eighth day of Christmas, my true love sent to me
Eight pounds of baby weight,
Seven pans of rolls,
Six days of rain,
Five feet of soaking basement,
Four dishes of mold,
Three months-of-pregnancy,
Two broken cars,
And a garage cat with some fleas.

On the ninth day of Christmas, my true love sent to me
Only nine checkers checking (at Walmart yesterday, what a joke!),
Eight pounds of weight,
Seven pans of rolls,
Six days of rain,
Five feet of soaking basement,
Four dishes of mold,
Three months-of-pregnancy,
Two broken cars,
And a garage cat with some fleas.

On the tenth day of Christmas, my true love sent to me
Ten packages shipped to loved ones,
Nine checkers checking,
Eight pounds of weight,
Seven pans of rolls,
Six days of rain,
Five feet of soaking basement,
Four dishes of mold,
Three months-of-pregnancy,
Two broken cars,
And a garage cat with some fleas.

On the eleventh day of Christmas, my true love sent to me
Eleven poo smears in the toilet,
Ten packages shipped,
Nine checkers checking,
Eight pounds of weight,
Seven pans of rolls,
Six days of rain,
Five feet of soaking basement -Yuck!,
Four dishes of mold,
Three months-of-pregnancy,
Two broken cars,
And a garage cat with some fleas.

On the twelfth day of Christmas, my true love sent to me
Twelve-hundred-dollars-of-car-repair-work for the amigo. Ouch,
Eleven poo smears,
Ten packages shipped,
Nine checkers checking,
Eight pounds of weight,
Seven pans of cinnamon rolls,
Six days of rain,
Five feet of soaked basement,
Four dishes of mold,
Three months-of-pregnancy,
Two broken cars,
And a garage cat with some fleas.

Whew! That was amusing for me. By the way, after I wrote it all out I also did sing it just for good measure. You know to make sure it all went well together. Hope you tried to sing it too, brought a smile to my face just trying it! Happy holidays all, I hope you are having the best time today!

I know mine isn’t as good as this but it was entertaining!

From the album: Holiday Spirits by the Straight No Chasers

Now, I am not the only blogger who has reworked a holiday song just for their blog, many others have also done so! If this includes you please enter the link to your holiday song post below. We would love to see what others have come up with!

The post The 12 Days of Christmas, Talina and N's style appeared first on Updates from Ryder Family Farm.