I seriously appreciate all the foot/shoe/orthotics advice. Definitely going to look into good orthotics and whether or not I might get my insurance company to pay for them. And when I get paid again in August I’ll be checking into Naot shoes, I think; for what I need and what I’m willing to live with those look like my best, albeit quite pricey (for me, anyway), bet. If I do pick up the New Balance sneakers, which isn’t out of the question either, I definitely won’t be getting them from Z@ppos, since they seem to be marked up quite a bit there.

I’m think if I can swing one pair of good sneakers and one pair of Naot clogs or something similar, I’ll be in good shape for the fall. (Confidential to Mrs. Figby and Mortimer’s Mom: did you know Crocs makes orthotic shoes? I can be tacky AND healthy! And neither of you would ever talk to me again!)

In the meantime, I am following up quite a crappy Fourth of July weekend with what I am determined will be a better week, with a better outlook. The girls and I were at my parents’ for the Fourth, and then Saturday we drove around looking at used cars and got ice cream and went to the park, so there were some good moments, but for the most part I have been cranky and snappish and impatient with the girls and with Mark (Kev is gone for most of July, so he has been spared my wrath) and I need to do better. There are things I’ve promised to do in both my personal and professional lives which I have not yet done, or am still in the process of doing, and am now so late as to be extremely rude and unprofessional all around. To sum up, I have slacked off enormously this summer — and yes, we’ve been busy with the move and I had a broken foot, but trust me, I have been slacking — and I have to shape up if I want to live up to my friends’ and family’s trust in me.

I spent most of yesterday in the basement sorting and organizing and do feel much better in general, like we’re starting to get a grip on things. Mark spent a lot of the day in the yard with the weed-whacker and the shears, and things look better out there too.

In other news, we are trying to work out car issues: the lease on the Ford is up in September, and while we own the PT outright we’d like to, ideally, sell that, buy a used Saturn wagon or something of the sort, and have some cash left over from that sale to put down on whatever other vehicle we decide to buy when we turn the Ford in. I am never leasing a car again; we only did two years ago because we were in dire straits, needed something that would hold two car seats and a teenagers, and we owed more on our trade-in than it was worth. The question is whether to buy new or used for the main family car; I am fine with used and it makes the most sense to me, but Mark, being a car guy, wants something new. I was hoping with the move we could turn the Ford in and not get anything else for a while, that we could manage with one car since we are much closer to town and on the bus line, but I don’t think that’s going to happen.

So we test drove a Kia Rondo on Saturday, since they were one of the only dealerships that was open, and I actually rather liked it. Mark wants to look at the Chevy HHR and the Saturn Astra too, although neither of those have third row seats and we’d be pretty squished when we all need to go somewhere together. I’d be happy with a used Windstar or something like that but I don’t see that happening somehow; Mark has a typical guy prejudice against minivans. And of course gas mileage is a huge issue even though we are driving far fewer miles these days. I don’t know, it gives me a headache to think about this so soon after moving and then dealing with the whole shoe crisis and blah. Just blah.