KG's Hideaway

What a great week we've had here, in spite of how cold I've been! I've got something to say about everyone in the house (surprise!!!) and in honor of that rare occassion I'll be posting my favorite pics of each one after their "story."

For the time being, anyway, things are running quite smoothly around here. Craig is SWAMPED at work and is looking at possibly promoting someone to be his assistant (or something like one) to take part of his workload. He's now not just managing the projects nationwide, he's managing the finances, project managers and projects nationwide. CV$ is the only client of his who hasn't backed off any of their planned stores, so there's alot going on and it seems (for him, anyway) that there just aren't enough hours in the day to get everything done.

Ryan's first track meet is at Texas A&M a week from Saturday and I. CAN'T. WAIT!!!! Today is her first day of practice for track, but she has to go straight from classes, to basketball practice and THEN to track practice. Her legs are going to be SHOT! Basically, by the time the track meet comes around she'll still have only gotten in MAYBE 10 jumps, so we're not sure how well this will go. The coaches really want her at the conference track meet so they have no expectations of her jumping before that.... but the conference meet is only one week after A&M, so she's probably really feeling the pressure!!

Kyra is, simply put, just amazing me right now. She has been really working on some of her issues and REALLY opening up about her feelings. We tried for so long to get her to this point and just when we'd started thinking that her stubbornness would prevent her from doing it she goes and surprises us! She's been writing "a book" and she's really proud of it, so I'm hoping that her self esteem issues will begin to improve as her pride in herself over this project begins to show.

She and I sat outside yesterday afternoon for a couple of hours just talking about how she feels. We also talked about what she thinks her "issues" are and what I think they are. She really made a bold move at Thanksgiving to get her Mom's attention and now she's really regretting it now. She said she lied because- and I'm not sure I understand this totally, but...- she feels like, where her mother is concerned, she is in the parent roll and her mom is the child. I understand WHAT she's saying, but based on knowing the situation (albeit from my vantage point) I don't understand WHY she feels that particular way. She starts counseling today and I really believe she's motivated (finally!!!) to improve the relationships in her life because she's pretty much pushed everyone away from her. I really feed bad for her because its apparent that she's really hurting, but her previous counselor said that she wouldn't make any efforts to improve her relationships with people until she had almost no one left. In spite of how heart-sick I am that she's hurting that much, I'm really excited about whatever it is that finally made her realize that she's got to make some changes!!

Austin has a job interview today that I'm really hoping he gets! I don't know if they are interviewing alot of people or even if there is more than one of these positions open, so I'm just keeping my fingers crossed for him. There's alot going on for him right now too, so I'm really hoping for the best outcome here!

In other news around the house... I FINALLY got everything in Ryan's room packed away in the closet so that I can prepare to do the walls. (Her room is just... well, PACKED with Little Mermaid schtuff) I've already gotten the kids' hallway stripped of all pics, light switch covers, baseboards... all that crap! I'm starting in Ryan's room and then going down the hallway, then Kyra's room and THEN Austin's. I'm reblowing the texture on the walls, painting and all that entails. After we're doing with the kids' rooms and hall we'll start in the living room. THAT is going to take massive work (including jackhammering out the HUGE natural stone fireplace!) and after that it'll be the kitchen. The kitchen is going to be VERY labor intensive. We'll be taking out all the cabinetry and installing all new, plus all new appliances. We are considering (nothing even remotely concrete now) combining the two living rooms into one large one with a smaller office towards the back. I don't know, though. I'm hoping that Craig will be able to input our dimensions into his AutoC@d and then create a couple of different looks for us to choose from. In that program, he can actually do the design, then turn it into an actual pricture (rendering) so that I can see it because I don't look at blueprints and do well "seeing" what it will look like.

So, there. I think that's about it. Busy week. Kyra counseling, Ryan two basketball games plus track, Austin job interview, Craig working and Kristi, what else... shopping!! YAY!!!