Life Update

We've been busy... with...

• Chasing two kiddos.  I could go on and on about how hard it is to be a parent.  I've said it before - some days are great, some days are terrible.  Of course, I tend to concentrate on the terrible ones.  What am I doing wrong?  How can I/we teach our kids better manners, be polite, be respectful?  Oh the list goes on.  I ache so much because I love them so much.
• Work.  Work, work, work.  Ryan's busy season is starting...  tonight was the first night he's been gone overnight in a LONG time.  It's always an adjustment.  There's always meltdowns.  There's always something that pushes either my buttons, or the kids.  Always.  We adjust, but the first couple times with him gone, it's hard.  My work is CRAZY.BUSY.  I mean, the type of busy where 4 projects are due at the same time.  Hmmm... wondering how that's gonna work!? 
• Prepping to finish basement.  We've been back and forth with a contractor - super, duper long story, but in the end - their bid was very unreasonable, and we had to kind of start over on the process.  3 months later, we now have a different contractor - and he can start next week.  That means get the basement cleaned out.  We've been organizing, dumping, making piles, putting stuff in the storage area... and reminiscing too.  It's been a process, and we aren't done yet.  This weekend we'll finish it all up, and the basement will be cleared out!   I plan to track and post all about it... I'm sure it'll be interesting!!
• Garage sale.  Yep, it's that time of year.  This year, Nikki is hosting the sale... huge thanks.  With the basement up in the air, I had no idea whether we would be in the middle of finishing and have stuff in the garage... so it worked out to have the sale at a different house this year.  The sale is Thursday night and all day Friday.  Again - not the best timing with everything going on, and my work being mass chaos, but whatever!!
• Quincy is getting old.  He's super skinny...  mopes around... sleeps a lot...  poor guy.  
• Cora will be 3 in about 3 months.  Unbelievable.  My mind is racing about that!
• Keeping up on stuff... everything around the house.  Keeping it clean, keeping laundry up, keeping food on the table, keeping organized, keeping the kids happy... hardest job ever.

Tonight the kids and I got home...  I could tell they were both tired, but we had talked about doing dinner out.  Beforehand, both kiddos went potty... and then Cora's tantrums started.  She wanted a pull-up on.  I had purchased a small sack of them (to start trying here at home this weekend).  She of course saw them - nothing gets by this little girl.  She threw an absolutely tantrum.  She was upset, I was upset... Kayson was even upset.  He kept saying "Cora just listen to Mom!!"  Poor kid.    Anyway, I did not give in, and I won't.  We finally got things settled... and went out.  They both did great at dinner, ate well, sat well, and talked nicely.  Once we got home...  they both got naughty again.  GRRR.  It's me and our house!!!  So baths were taken - Cora was asleep by 7:40, Kayson by 8:10.  Yawn.  

I have a terrible kink in my neck and back... so I'm sitting... and I'm not moving tonight.  I'm wiped out!!!