Falling into Place

I never thought I'd be so excited to do laundry and take out the trash, but I hadn't done any laundry since before our San Francisco trip (about 3 weeks!) and they were out of trash cans when we moved in, so we were going on 3 weeks without one of those too. Yesterday they finally dropped off our trash can, and two days ago the guy installing our A/C hooked up our dryer (I tried several times, but it just kept smelling like gas - even after buying new parts from Lowe's.) We finally got to clean up the trash bags lining our side yard, and I promptly threw three loads of wash in, and suddenly it feels like we really live here. 

As of Wednesday we officially have central air and that has made a HUGE difference in turning this from a house to a home. Now we aren't constantly thinking of air-conditioned places to hang out instead of home. We considered a lot of other cooling solutions, such as an attic fan, window units, floor units, a swamp cooler, etc., but ultimately we knew we'd want central air down the line, and figured we should just go for it sooner rather than later. Poor Ezzy would get sweaty just walking from his bedroom to the living room. Now he can comfortably play all day long without dripping sweat. Definitely worth the investment.

Also, our house no longer looks like this:

Or this:

Here's a sneak peak of Ezzy's room:

And we've started taming our yard. See if you can spot Ezzy in that jungle of weeds:

It looks even better than this now, because we've cleared the pile of weeds out of the middle of the yard, but you get the idea:

This is un-house-related, but after 6 dentist visits since May, I'm finally done for awhile!! That includes 1 root canal, 3 crowns (2 that I've had since I was 8 had to be replaced), several cavities, and a cleaning. Now it's just cleanings every six months, and hopefully no more drilling or novacaine for a long time. Before this whole process started, I didn't really have a fear of the dentist, it was more the cost that scared me. Now I may have a legitimate fear. It's just really nerve-wracking to have someone you barely know drilling into your skull. I will say though that I had two really good dentists (I had to go to a specialist for the root canal), and that the whole process was relatively pain-free. Here's Joe mocking my novacaine-paralyzed smile:

And here's a photo of Ezzy enjoying finally having a yard to play in. He LOVES playing outside. 

Oh, and we can't forget a picture of our friendly neighbor. He was a little skittish at first, but now we're on familiar terms. Last night, after we pet him for awhile, we went back inside, and he just lay there outside our front door for another half hour or so. I love black cats, so he's welcome to visit any time :)

We're down to just 2 boxes to unpack, 1 cabinet from Ikea to assemble, hanging all our pictures/art and decorating, and probably another three loads of laundry. Slowly we're getting there!