It sounds as it you're not stuck at all! You're getting lucid! Every time you get lucid your brain is becoming more and more aligned with the process of lucidity and getting better and better at it! Be positive about all those lucid moments and FAs you're experiencing. I've been practicing about the same amount of time you have, I started around the end of last August. And also for me, the most of the lucid dreams come close to waking up for the day. This is normal for beginners. sivason mentioned that it can take around 100 LDs before the dreams can cart coming earlier and earlier in the REM cycle where the real adventures begin. I have just in the last week had two LDs that came earlier in the sleep cycle, so maybe it's finally beginning for me? Keep at it, and it will for you, too!

My personal opinion on ADA (there's a great recent thread on ADA vs. self-awareness, check it out and read some of the great posts there!) is that the "animal awareness" portion of just paying attention to every single sense is not required (and maybe not even helpful at all) for lucidity. It's also exhausting, we're not built for that sort of sensory attention, like mice are. But rather, "all day mindfulness," or "continuous RC", where you take one aspect of your environment and maintain awareness of this relative to your self. I'm working on location: I'm trying to be continuously (lightly) aware of my self in my surroundings and constantly evaluate whether these surroundings are dream-like or waking-like. I also do a lot of explicit reflection/intention moments through the day, and nose-pinch RC in response to just about ANYthing interesting (and this got me lucid 3 nights ago: see weird scenery, "that doesn't belong here, I must be dreaming", nose pinch, I'm dreaming! yay!).

So instead of focusing on the minutiae of that shadow over there, that breath of wind, that dog barking, use your higher human mental brain function and synthesize everything together into a single scene and just ask yourself "is this a waking scene?" or "Why do I think I'm awake?" And try to keep this background mindfulness/evaluation going all day and eventually as you do it over and over it will become easier and easier and take less and less effort, with more and more results in lucidity.

Also, and this is hard I know, try not to be concerned with the dream ending, as the SC is really good at picking up those expectations and making them come true. I'd say: if you're lucid enough in the dream and have enough time to have conscious thoughts and make decisions about what you want to do, that you're doing great, even if they don't last that long.

Do you rehearse a getting lucid ritual? Like, as soon as you're lucid, a brief stabilisation technique? I haven't been doing that for a while, but when I was, I got my longest and most vivid LD yet after doing my full-body pat-down (brings the dream body into the dream) and looking around while slowly counting to 5. That can also help.

So I say: just keep getting lucid, and rehearse in waking life what you want your responses to be to various dream scenarios, like everything going dark (happens to me, too, and I usually just stand there stupidly wondering what to do until I wake up...better is to move around a lot, dancing, stomping your feet, patting down your body, trying to "see" your dream body and your hands), and keep getting lucid!

And remember it takes the brain a while to learn something and get good at it. So picking one thing and dedicating some real time to it (days/weeks is nothing, you should be thinking at least in terms of months). Repetition, conscious effort, honest self-evaluation and adjustment, staying positive, that's what it's all about! I've stuck through a couple dry-spells and the LDs and the dreams come back with continued efforts, just stick with it! Also participating in things like the DV competitions really helps, so keep your eyes peeled for the start of the next one.

Dream on!