A picture of the new living room

Today, I vacuumed it for the first time.

I used the brand new Pet Hair Eraser vacuum we bought in light of the new carpet.

And the vacuum broke!

After I was done vacuuming but still.

So Dane took it back.

Anyway, I meant to post a picture with the new carpet post but never did. So here you go.

A nothing-to-do Saturday

After a long week of sickness, slogging through work and overall just fighting through it all, today is extra nice.

It's a Saturday with nothing to do.

Sure, we need to go to the store. We're out of things like half and half, contact solution and wet cat food. But none of that is particularly urgent.

My voice is still shaky, though maybe a bit louder than yesterday. And I think Dane isn't feeling the best, though he is still asleep.

The sun is out, though, and I have hope that it won't be so bitterly cold today. I may even try to run outside.

I'd like to read my book, too. Maybe today will be one of those days where we make time for ourselves.

Right now, Rye is happily playing with the toy castle he got for Christmas. He has just locked the king up inside.

I love watching him play on his own. "He can hold a sword," he just said, as he pushed a plastic sword into a soldier's hand. And joy just now as he found the king's coat, which had been disastrously lost for about two minutes.

We've eaten breakfast and now we're just here.

The coffee tastes a little better this morning.

Retraction

To everybody I e-mailed earlier today saying I was feeling better after violent stomach flu/food poisoning the last few days, scratch that.

I now have a fever, chills that turn into feeling way overheated that turns back into chills, muscle aches, a head ache and the beginnings of a sore throat.

It gets better.

Today, Dane discovered that our washer has been leaking water all over the floor underneath it for months. We've got a nice little colony of mold, too! He learned all of this 20 minutes before he had to go to work ON A SUNDAY.

So now, only days after basking in our new carpet/couch glory, we have to crawl on top of the washer and dryer, which are pulled out into the hallway, to simply get to our bedroom. There are wet clothes and blankets draped randomly around the house. This takes all the fun out of the new stuff. Not to mention, we're sort of running out of money.

One more thing that's pretty much the icing on the cake: Rye has a very pink, watery, green-and-yellow-matted eye!! That means we can't go to daycare tomorrow, and I already missed work Friday while puking. Not to mention, he's nobly telling me it doesn't hurt, but it looks so sore and itchy, it obviously does.

When it rains it pours, it never ends, and all those other little sayings we use to muddle through are appropriate here.

This, too, shall pass. I know. (There's my bit of optimism).

Still. Come on, already.

new carpet

It's amazing what new carpet does to a house.

Maybe it's just that seeing what's underneath carpet when you rip out the old is so disgusting and awful that anything put in on top of it would be better.

But I think more so it's that the new carpet is really nice.

And it's in our house.

I sort of can't believe it.

My stepdad said over the weekend that it was like we were getting a new house.

Not really, I thought.

And it's still obviously not a new house.

But when the basement is done being refinished (not soon enough) I think it sort of will. More so than not anyway.

We still have much of our furniture crowded into our kitchen and dining room. Right now, I am sitting on the love seat staring happily out onto a sea of beige in our "new" living room.

I'm liking it.

I'm guessing it will be even better when I actually feel like I can walk on it without damaging it.

Apparently, Rye refused to walk on it at first. And as far as I know only one of our four cats has yet to set a paw on it either.

I guess it's just that new.

Maybe one day we'll even put furniture on it.