1 month and 8 days later

So, I have a fully functional laundry room that is only waiting for door trim to be painted, a fully functional downstairs bathroom with a lovely large shower and a sliding barn door that is just waiting for touch up paint to the trim, a beautiful new back splash so no more wall dust on my stove top! The kitchen floor had its' final sanding and is awaiting the varnish (or whatever the heck it's called!) That I will be doing on Wednesday (if all goes according to plan) the dining room is still waiting for one wall of new drywall but I have one new bedroom door and a new basement door, no more ugly bi-fold doors! Other than that....it's all still the same. We are having another friend come in to finish up the downstairs bedroom, Caitiff's room upstairs and the bathroom upstairs hopefully quickly enough so we can get our heating system up and moving before it gets much colder. Right now a few large space heaters are sufficing to take the chill out of the air when we wake up to 48 degrees outside! I am STILL waiting for my yard to be fenced! I swear that has been the biggest strain on me and caused the most stress. The poor dogs have been relegated to one leash walk a day, going out back on leash for potty breaks and being sequestered in the one room that isn't torn apart. Sadie is handling it relatively well, I think the stress has gotten to Jojen. He is frantic in his sniffing outside now, even more food driven than normal (and he's a pig on a good day) and he's just plain more spazzy than normal. His nearly impeccable training has collapsed as well. It is very disconcerting but I'm doing my best.

The girls are doing well in school both have all A's with one B so far. We discovered the other day, thanks to the paper because the school doesn't officially recognize it any other way, that both girls made high honors last quarter in the last school year. I believe Caitie made high honors all year and since Rylie went back late she was only there for that quarter. Rylie was excited because "colleges like that sort of thing". Rylie is challenging herself with her AR reading goal this year. The AR is Accelerated Reader and it's a program that tests your knowledge of books you read. You accumulate points based on how well you do on the comprehension tests. By day 4 of school Rylie had already surpassed her given AR goal by double so she asked her teacher to put her goal at 1000. As of last week she was over 800 and we are making a list of books she's read that she hasn't tested for yet. This goal is quarterly too so she will need to meet or exceed this goal each quarter, this is the type of challenge she lives for. Saturday she went to the library and brought home 40 books, by Sunday she had read 5! I have't tested her but I have a strong suspicion she is a speed reader. Her comprehension of what she reads is off the charts, we've quizzed her, many times! It's crazy and inspiring! Of course I am their mom so I will brag on their good qualities, but they aren't perfect, believe me! They still make me crazy with being late in the mornings for school, not picking up their clothes after a shower and general teenage stuff, for the most part I can't complain, they are good to each other and really good kids.

Steve still loves his job in TN and is doing really well. He still hates being away from us and I am afraid that he may turn into the crazy guinea pig man (instead of crazy cat lady) LOL We miss him a lot and really look forward to his visits, even if we seem to be working on the house every time.

So that's where we are, still wrapped up in crazy and taking it day to day, sometimes, minute to minute!