Sad...

We got a call back from that lady and went on a walk-through of the house. It was nice, small (well, smaller than what we're used to right now) but would have suited our needs. This lady, however, was an....well......for lack of a better word.....an old bitty! She was SO anal about the kids being hyper (they'd been in the car a good portion of the day, c'mon) and was asking if they were like this all the time (lol, that's a loaded question). She then informed us that she wanted a couple hundred more on the deposit because of the pets (which is fine and understandable except I'd already discussed the pets with her over the phone and she assured me the deposit would be this set amount), and told us a few things that we HAD to do as part of the contract agreement. That's fine, we'll agree to those things. Chris then filled out his portion of the application and then took the kids out to play on a nearby park-set. After they left, she kept asking me if I was SURE the kids wouldn't structurally damage the house or color on the walls with crayon. Ok, my kids get "creative" but they would never damage the actual structure of the house beyond repair. If she's so worried about that, then she shouldn't be renting it out in the first place! And, CRAYONS WIPE OFF WALLS REALLY WELL!!!! Not that I know from experience or anything! We decided that if we didn't hear back from her with the results of the application (criminal/credit check), we wouldn't further pursue it...I don't really think I want HER for a landlady anyway!

Then, today, we called on another couple of houses and asked to go walk through them (they're owned by the same person...he was out of town so sent his secretary to show them to us). The first house we went to, she had grabbed the wrong set of keys, so we didn't get to look inside that one, but the second one was ok. It was smaller than we were used to, but would have done the trick. It would have helped us save money like crazy too. Everything was going great, they were even willing to MAYBE work with us on the dog issue (our's are a few inches larger than their insurance will allow), until we told them how many kids we have. This lady handed me the application and told me to bring it to the office and they could take care of everything today. So we followed her to the office. Well, either on the way to the office or as soon as she got there, she called the owner up and freaked out about how many people there would be in this tiny house and that was not acceptable! The owner thought that the rent was the issue so offered to rent out another house for $50 less than advertised, but then realized that the dogs were bigger than he'd thought so told us that he couldn't rent to us because of the dogs, but if we decided to dump the dogs, then he'd reconsider us. He then explained what the secretary had told him about the number of kids we have and he was concerned about that as well. We tore up the application and I cried on the way home.

I'm SO frustrated right now with how we're being treated because we have kids and animals. I could understand the animal concern, but really folks....kids aren't like animals. You can't just dump them off at a shelter to be cared for and then come pick them up weeks or months later. AND, our animals are part of the family, so that's out of the question anyway! This seriously makes me feel like getting a sitter for the kids the next time we go to a walk-through of a house so that we don't get "found out", but then the thought occurs to me, they'll find out sooner or later, might as well be now so they know what they're up against. Chris keeps suggesting places that are for rent out of the area, but to me, that's not an option. We've been promising James that he could go to school this next year, but anywhere else, preschool is upwards of $150+, which isn't something we can afford. Plus, I KNOW that this school district can help him in school. He has some issues that are of concern to me and I've talked to the preschool teacher about them some, and seeing what they've done for Terra so far, I'm confident that they'll help James imensely!

I'm also digging my feet in on not leaving the area because, finally, for once, I have friends that genuinely care about me, not just "flakey say I'm here but seem put-out if imposed upon for help". I don't want to give that up. I finally "fit-in" somewhere, only to be faced with the possibility of it being ripped from my life. *sigh* Everytime I pray about this, I feel at peace about it, so I know we're doing something right, but I'm getting anxious and stressed. I HATE house-hunting with a deadline! So, I'm asking for all your help out there. Please pray for us to find something this week, or we'll have to move out of the area. That's pretty much the decision we've come to :o( !!