The Good and the Bad

Bad:
Our old landlord is being horrid twisting the wording of our rental contract to try to imply that we must paint the entire old apartment white as opposed to just the rooms we had previously painted a color. We seriously feel at risk for losing a large chunk or all of our 1500 euro security deposit because the man is literally out to get us. Stefan feels so ill after every phone conversation with the old landlord that he cannot eat. It's terrible. I've just never encountered a situation like this one. Please pray the inspection/key handover on Monday night goes well.

This also had us sweating because we had planned to use the 1500 to buy our two plane tickets to the US for Christmas. Things are tight because of the move, getting the kitchen, and generally having a lot of big ticket things hit at once this month, so we were really banking on the 1500 replenishing a few funds we'd had to dip into, namely our Christmas travel fund.

Good:
It pays to subscribe to those email newsletters because we just got our tickets for Christmas flights to the US at HALF the price we had anticipated paying! Stefan also already received permission from his principal to have the last day of school off before the Christmas break, so we were able to snag the cheapest flights AND get direct flights to boot. We knew we wanted to spend a lot of time with my family in Indianapolis, but we also wanted to spend time in the Boston/Gloucester area to see dear friends, so this is perfect. We will bookend our time in the US with time in Gloucester.

We were going to have to rent a car anyhow to do a Boston segment of our trip if we flew straight to Indy, so now we'll just do it the other way around. We're so excited to already have our tickets!! Personally I can't believe it will be 2 years since we last saw everybody (well, except my parents who've been over since our last Christmas trip)!

Good:
Stefan got word today that he's getting an extra lump sum in this month's paycheck. We're not sure exactly why, but it's already on the bank transfer docket, so it's for real! AND it's for the same amount of the airplane tickets we just purchased, so it's as though we got the tickets for free almost...COOL!

Bad:
My brother-in-law has been admitted to the hospital twice this week with unknown problems related to his breathing. The doctors have yet to figure anything out and it's been scary for everybody. We are grateful lots of family is around to help my sister and brother-in-law out, esp with their 6 month old baby.

So, lots has been keeping us busy. Our new apartment is great and so are our neighbors! The bell actually just rang and it was Frau Tille with a plate of homemade ice cream pie for Stefan and I to share. We'll split it tonight when we get home from working on the old place. Now if only we could get the washing machine to pump water and the plates to fit in the new dishwasher...

Please pray for my brother-in-law, Chris, as well as Stefan's crazy last 2 weeks of school and our whole old-landlord situation on Monday night.