all of your people are toads

September 1st. Hello September.

We spent our first night in our new house and having our own bed back made everything feel right again, even though I hurt my back earlier in the day helping Shawn rebuild the bed frame. Stupid aging. I never used to hurt my back.

Today the pups turned one year old and celebrated by romping madly through their new yard. We will need to fence off a couple of areas that seem to invite them to leap from the garden to the grass and drop a few feet in the process. Of course they don't exercise any caution whatsoever and sail through the air as though they hadn't a care in the world while we scream and turn blue.

The new appliances arrived and once the delivery men had safely installed the stove I began to think that maybe Shawn did know what he was talking about when he said the appliances would fit in this kitchen. Then came the fridge. Of course it didn't fit in the tiny space allotted to it, which means we now have the fridge hanging out in the eating area which is awfully handy if you want to reach into the fridge without getting up from the table but you have to be careful so you don't end up with an ice cube tray in your ear. We have to rip out these cupboards and do some rebuilding. This is something we'd planned on doing anyway but now it seems a lot more urgent. The dishwasher is still in its cardboard box and we won't bother unpacking it until Shawn's Dad is around to help us. He says he wants to help and I'm glad because I don't. The washer and dryer are hanging out in the laundry area but aren't hooked up because we can't find the duct tape and have grown too tired to unpack anything else.

I finished unpacking all the kitchen boxes and some of the upstairs bathroom, which felt like a pretty major accomplishment, and we also drove over to the inlaws' to pick up some things we'd left behind including our car. And wonder of all wonders, it decided not to start. This is the old car, the '97 Neon, which has recently become the bane of my existence. Shawn wants to get rid of it altogether, which is tempting, but buying another new car right now just doesn't seem feasible with all the other costs we have on the go at this moment. We'll have the weekend to ponder this before we can get it towed to the dealership.

Meanwhile, I am doing all I can to air out the stink of stale cigarette smoke from the house which smells to high heaven. I know that repainting and removing carpet will help tremendously but these are things that will take time to get underway and the stink is bothering me now.

Tonight we are going to pick up Dad-in-Law at the airport and bring him home, then hang out at his place for a couple of hours. I think it will be good for both of us to get away from here for a couple of hours because we are tired tired tired and it's hard to sit here without feeling guilty about all the things that are left that need to be done.

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