Skunked

Friday night, Travis & I were sitting in the living room when all of the sudden, we smelled this awful aroma. Our landlord's dogs had chased a poor little skunk underneath our house and it sprayed...most likely multiple times. It's an older house and not sealed very well, so the smell penetrated everything in the house. All of our clothes, furniture, dishes, appliances, everything smells of skunk. It was so bad that for the last two nights, we've been staying at my in-laws' house. Yesterday, Travis got an old washer cleaned out for us to use at our new house, and I started moving stuff. My mother-in-law has been washing my clothes, towels, linens, etc constantly since noon yesterday. She's also been watching Elizabeth while we run back and forth between houses trying to get everything out of the rent house. I don't know what I would have done without her! Travis's brothers and his cousin brought a trailer to the rent house and loaded up almost all of our furniture in one load! They were such a big help. All of the furniture smells, but it would have been a lot worse had we let it all sit in the house for much longer.

All things plastic are just excellent at holding smells, so we've been washing everything down with vinegar water. It is one of the only things that can cut through the smell. Not everything is perfect, but it's much better. Everything has to be washed to get the smell out. So my dishwasher has been running non-stop! Nothing can come into the new house before it has had a good cleaning!

We still have plenty to move out of the rent house, but it's getting better. I've never moved things so haphazardly and quickly before! Victoria College is on spring break this week, so Stephen's girlfriend, Lori, is also helping this week. She came over this morning and has been helping me move, pack, do laundry, go to Wal-Mart, and watch Elizabeth before work. I couldn't have done half of what was accomplished today without her.

Travis will get home around 6 p.m. tonight, so we'll keep moving things for a couple of hours. Then, it'll be all about cleaning the new house and getting it set up to live in. I was not prepared to move into the house quite yet, we're still in the middle of painting, so we'll all live in the front of the house in the formal living room. Travis & I had an extra queen mattress that we've laid on the floor to sleep on and Elizabeth will have to sleep in her play pen until I can get her crib detoxed. On top of trying to get the new house ready, I was not prepared to de-skunk!! This situation could be much worse, but thanks to all of the help I've got, it's much more manageable.

It may be awhile before I can post again...our computer is still in the rent house and our internet service will have to be moved. Besides, I've got a lot of cleaning to do!! :)