Ok, so I went ahead and told the landlord that we wanted to move out before the lease was up (or rather, my husband left a voice mail to that effect), and they're very unhappy. But perhaps I should have expected that, as we're renting a house from an individual instead of a business?
In addition to attempting to guilt trip us, they are also talking about lawyers and saying that they can charge us rent until they find someone to fill the place- which seems odd to me because the lease includes a termination fee. I did look up the law, which seems to side with them, which is annoying- why have a termination clause if the law already takes care of it and you jump immediately to that option?
So now I'm emailing them back clarifying that we're a) not vacating immediately (We're staying through Nov. anyway, not sure where they got the idea that we were going to abandon the place), b) willing to look for replacements, and c) definitely not intending to stay.
Arg. I wish they saw it as a business transaction, but they seem to see it as a personal affront that we want to move out and they feel we've treated them unfairly.