Our tenant in St. Joe hasn't paid us rent since September. She told us this long story about what went wrong and we felt sorry for her. We told her she could pay us October and Novembers rent this month. She was supposed to pay it at the beginning of the month. She kept giving us excuse after excuse - and she kept saying that she'd have the money by a certain date. Each time that day came around - she'd tell us a different date. John had given her an eviction notice a week or two ago saying that if she didn't pay by us within 15 days that she would have to move out. She went to the salvation army and they sent us a couple hundred. Today she was supposed to have $500 of the money she owed us. And of course, she didn't have it. John's friend (who rents out houses all the time), did another background check on her - and apparently she was arrested on drug charges not too long ago. So I'm guessing that is where all her money has been going. If there is drug activity going on, as a landlord you can kick the tenant out immediately so that is what John did. She is supposed to be out by Monday. But knowing our luck - come Monday she will be putting up a fight. We are flat broke. I kept holding out hope that we would get paid - because she has never given us any problems and seemed like a really nice woman. Hard telling what kind of damages/clean up we will have to do to the house when she gets her butt out. John hasn't seen the inside of it, but he said that there is glass missing out of one of the doors. We have no money to fix anything, so who knows if we will be able to get another renter in there anytime soon. Also, there is a utility bill that she never paid. and apparently she never took our name off of the bill and put hers on like she said she would - because we were recently turned over to a collection agency for this. We will be taking her to court. But that doesn't solve our immediate money situation. It's not like the rent that we were getting from this house was extra money. It's what we used to pay OUR rent. We had to pay our landlord late this month. I don't know what we will do for December. Heck, we won't even have any money to buy our children Christmas presents. Maybe we should foreclose on the house in St. Joe.
In other news, Dakota had a dr. appointment yesterday for his anxiety. We told the doctor about his gun obsession. That's all he plays with. That's all he talks about. He wants to take them everywhere we go and he wants to sleep with them. He begs me to print off pictures of guns from the computer. He hardly watches cartoons now - he only wants to watch westerns with lots of shooting parts. The doctor says that she thinks it's an obsessive/compulsive disorder. It has gone beyond an "interest" in something. He is really obsessed. The dr. thinks we need to take his guns away and not let him watch any tv with any kind of violence. But I'm not sure that's what I want to do. I mean, John and I would be pretty darn upset if the things we liked most were taken away from us. I agree that we need to try to detach him from the guns a little. We are starting with not letting him leave the house with his toy guns. He has started getting a little bit of an interest in things like Batman and Indiana Jones. For Christmas I was wanting to get him some toys and movies along that line to hopefully direct his interest in that direction. But, yeah. You know... The doctor also said that she was going to make Dakota an appointment with a specialist in Kansas City. She thinks he might have a problem with his flow of urine (or however you want to say it). We have been very concerned that Dakota is terrified to go pee by himself. He wants someone to help hold his pee pee down for him. And he is 5. His pee pee doesn't naturally point downwards like other little boys (he is going to hate me one day for saying that). And when he pees, his urine seems to go up a little. So - it makes it really tough for him to get the pee into the toilet. We need to have something done about it soon though because next year he will have to go to school all day long - and he refuses to pee unless John and I are helping him. So, that's just one more thing to add to our looong "list of things to worry about". 
4 comments:
Oh Tishia :(
I really really hope things start looking up... I know the feeling that things never end but everything somehow (eventually) works out for SOME reason... the big man upstairs has a plan, I'm not sure what it is but I'm certain he knows what he's doing ;) I would recommend trying to find SOMETHING else and keeping it changing with Dakota - maybe making "gun days" every few days or something so you can wean him away but not freak him out totally... a little girl I watch a lot has OCD and Autism and other things going on and has similar attachments.. we'll rotate things and she gets more interested in them if we play them with her and REALLY overemphasize how cool they are :P I know it's not the greatest idea but always worth a shot :) You're def in my prayers! xoxo
I'm sorry :(
I really do hope things start picking up for you guys. It seems like everyone is having a hard time lately, but it seems like the ones who really try in life get screwed the most. Try to keep you head up, even though it's hard to do. Believe me, I feel pretty depressed but I try not to talk about it. (((HUGS)))
aww girl i hope things start getting better i know times are hard.. I have to take kylie to childrens hospitol to have ultrasounds done on her bladder and urinary tract monday so hopefully everything goes good with that!! Let us all know how everything goes after monday!!
Ami
Don't feel bad about your tenant. Everyone has to pay rent and if her not paying rent puts your family in jeopardy then you need to do whatever you need to do to make sure that your family isn't out on the street! Hopefully she hasn't torn the house up too much. When I lived at the apartments we had to pay a $39 fee to have a background check done. It was nonrefundable. Maybe you should check into that. If nothing else, this was a good lesson and you'll be sure to not make the same mistakes twice.
About Dakota-He very well may have OCD. I don't know. It may just be a boy thing too. My Dakota is fixated on his Playstation 2. That's practically all he does. He doesn't play with toys. (He's 11, but still you'd think he would still play with a few things.) If Dakota's not watching TV, playing PS2, or dealing Pokemon cards then he's not doing anything else. I restrict his PS2 time. I think that'd be best for your Dakota too.
About Dakota's peeing--Do you think that maybe he doesn't wanna hold his pee pee down to pee because he thinks it's a naughty thing to touch his private parts? I don't know. My Dakota used to have an infatuation with his penis. He'd play with it all of the time. Took him to the Dr. and she said it was natural and that he was just curious and exploring. He eventually got over it. The Dr. told me to never discourage him from touching himself so I tried not to. Maybe someone (teacher, grandparent, etc.) has told your Dakota not to touch himself or something and now he's scared to. I don't know.
I'm glad that you're an involved parent and are trying to get all of these problems taken care of. Some parents don't give a crap anymore and just let the school deal with it. Good for you!
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