Fool me once.... by Thomas

So this is it, yesterday we got a phone call from our landlord informing us that he was moving in on the first of July, and so he was expecting us to be out by June 30th. So these two last months of school before summer will somehow be stressful for us and the kids. Not a lot of house are for rent, if none... 

Once again, our landlord showed no signs of remorse. And while I cannot criticize the mean (this is his house and this is surely the cheapest solution for him), I still am in total shock of the way he handled the whole situation... Even going to say that us not having a home was none of his business. He did not care at all. In a way, we are not family so why would he care. Maybe two years ago we should not have took care of his dad and just let him die like a dog when he got his strokes while trying to get up his bed. But well this is just not us.

In a way this taught me a great lesson. Next time I am having to deal with a landlord, I will stay a nice tenant but this will be strictly business. I will let Kim do the social if she wants... Cause I won't. From now on, I will consider every person I am doing business with in this country as a potential selfish backstabber... As Americans are saying: fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me

Please....

Please say a prayer or wish us well...cross your fingers with us...anything...
We do not want to move...

It's all so weird...we have a great relationship with our landlord and his family...we had Thanksgiving dinner and plenty of other things with them....and suddenly as if it is no big deal, we are told that we may have to leave...It's not definate...only if he rents out his house that he is living in now...then we will have 2 months notice to find another place...what if there is NOT another place?? Then what??

The kids are worried...The frog is feeling betrayed...and has said that, fine, after this he will stay French and not share anything personal with anyone again, he will just keep to himself, because who we thought were friends...turns out it's just business...gaahh!

The hardest thing for me is, the lack of remorse...after he told me...matter of factly...just simply put, not a sorry, or I wish it could work out any other way, but this is our only option...nothing...just if we rent out the crow hill road house, we are moving in here...no concern or anything...I could not turn back to look at him...I had to leave the room and not come back..I could not finish or start dinner...

It's a horrible feeling...I understand he has to do what is right for his family, but to tell me this with such finality and oh well you'll have two months...sucks...it's a weird betrayal that we have all felt...it's horrible...

But I guess with that said...everything happens for a reason...and I do hope this reason is good at least for someone! We will be fine, it just stings our feelings a bit...I guess this is what will make us thicker skin and less trusting...considering we are probably the most trusting...(well at least I am:) it's probably a good lesson to learn, with just a landlord....

I am currently waiting to hear from him if he will raise our rent and let us stay...basically he is renting the other place for 1300 and we pay 1100, I asked if it would help us to stay here and not uproot us all if we paid more...he said possibly...he would do some number crunching and see....so please say a prayer, send some positive vibes or whatever you can do...or maybe a miracle will happen and the family that is staying in Germany for a while will rent us their house for the time being...even though they are asking 2500 and that is not possible at all...maybe they will realize they won't get that and take half of that and know we will take good care of it.....it's doubtful, but not impossible:)

Wish us luck!
Oh and our fabulous garden, that we made, the raised vegetable garden...may have to come out...a hard days work...a beautiful plot just waiting for vegetables to be planted....sniffsniff...I have been dreaming of a veggie garden for 12 years...and finally my frog made my dream come true...all to be possibly yanked out next week if we have to move:(

Winter is over.. spring always comes with some surprises

Finally winter is over. The weather has been very nice, and with the business turning good the year started really great. We even planned our summer vacation... This year will be Cape Cod.

Another family project is to make a little vegetable garden. We have the best spot. Asked our landlord if it was ok with him... On saturday , he even showed me how to use his rototiller. So Sunday we went shopping.. landscaping wood and other material to make the best raised garden. Dylan and Thomas spent the entire day working. They were sooo sore. Perfect you would say.

Well what started perfectly ended up in nightmare... ok nightmare is not the word, but the ending isnt so happy. Sunday night, while we were cooking dinner, our landlord comes and tells us this little story:

So basically, he has 3 houses. The one we live in, where his mom lives downstairs from us. The one he lives in and is trying to sell for about a year now. and the one right next to our house that he bought to move in when selling his current house. So the discussion was roughly about the fact that he actually started to rent his to-be house with a year lease started 1st of june this year. BUT he was still trying to sell his house. The market is so low though that chances are that he wouldnt sell anyway at the price it is listed. Instead he was going to try to rent it until it sells... and if you have followed well, you probably already guessed where he is going. Current house for sell/rent, to-be house for rent for a year... I really wonder where he is planning on living with his family... Oh wait, why not tell Kim and her little family that well... if his house happens to rent.. could be tomorrow, could be in months, could not happen... well she would have two months to move out.

In a way this is his house, so there is nothing much we can say about it... but why didnt he tell us so before we actually spend so much money and time on that garden. All I can say is that as much as I thought he was a very nice person. I lost total respect in him... Oh and obviously... summer vacation are on hold (we just made the reservation 4 days ago... with a non refundable deposit)

Sh@$! in your plate

I love food, I mean I really love good food. But I really am amazed about what we are eating

Beef with growth hormones: or why wait for Mother Nature to do its job when you can just accelerate the process

Milk with growth hormones: same... more hormones= more milk production

Chicken "cleaned" with Chlorine dioxide: No comments, I mean seriously, I know Americans are scared of chickens but...

GMO corn, soya... people have been eating these for more than 10 years in the US without knowing. I guess it is better than with pesticides, but then again

Extra salt in process food: luckily I avoid these, but hey, put a bit more salt than needed and your product becomes heavier with water absorption (since you pay by weight...) not too good for the heart. Look at your labels.. salt is everywhere, even in sweet food.

Until it was "banned" not so long ago: Shortenings.

For the ones loving Diet food. you got the aspartame that turns into methanol and phenylalanine. 

And let's talk about the Natural flavors. I mean obviously no one wants artificial flavors so you take your milkshake with natural your strawberry flavor it tastes like real strawberry you say? try some kind of australian wood with alcohol and some secret ingredient, I mean wood is natural... 

When you think about all the things that we have not found out about yet, you imagine what we must be eating? I once asked one of Kim's friends who is a doctor about this and she replied, "I am more concerned about foreign policy".  Oh well, I guess no one really cares about what we eat. I am starting to wonder if Bio is as Bio as it is.

And they want to make us believe that we will all live till 100 years old

For info:

Nestle: $9.7 billions profit in 2007

Kraft: $2.6 billions

Danone: $6.1 billions

Monsanto: $689 millions in 2006