8 Weeks Down!!

Here we are 8 weeks down and almost done with February! Time is flying!! This week was one of emotions but we are chugging right along here!

Audrey has been absolutely wonderful lately! She is to the age where she "wants to be good" and she is doing a very good job at this. I have not to many behavioral issues with her and she is doing very well in school. We have been working on chores and rules a lot more lately. Chris has always been the disciplinarian and I was always the one who would bend and give her what she wanted. I never had to be the "bad guy"... well until recently. If I did not step up into the role of Chris and have control of her she would walk all over me while Chris is gone. And we cannot have that! Not that I have every parenting thing figured out but I know how smart she is and she would be walking all over me if I did not step up to fill Chris' shoes. She helps pick up her toys, helps wash the dishes, I even had her helping to pick up dog poop! Many times we make these chores into games or races to get her more interested in helping out! Even at age 3 it is not to early to start installing these habits!

She also helps with dinner and making her own tacos! She is becoming so self sufficient!

Helping to wash dishes!

Making fruit salad!

"I don't like fruit salad... I just like fruit, no salad."



Although I don't really like cooking Audrey sure does make it more fun! She is a very good helper and she loves to be "working" in there!

Audrey hung out with a few friends this week... Taylor, Lucy and baby Jo Jo! She sure does keep me busy!

Audrey was "doing work"



3 going on 15... Lord help me!

Audrey starts a new swim class this week! And I start a new spinning class so we will be spending many more of our nights at the Y! Just another thing to keep us busy and keep time flying :)

As for me I have stopped watching the news as much as possible. All the turmoil and unrest overseas just makes me crazy here. I feel obligated to be up to date on current events. I read the newspaper, watch the news, check the news online but its all making my mind run a million miles a minute. Not just in Afghanistan but everywhere all the news is bad news. So this week was the first week of no TV in the evenings here at the Miller house.

Over the summer last year our barely one year old TV took a crap. We decided to not buy a new TV. I felt like it was always on... from the time we got up until the time we went to bed. Audrey always watching cartoons, Chris watching his shows, or it was just on just for background noise. It just got ridiculous. So when our new TV headed out to the trash we went all the way until Christmas without a TV in our front room. We still had one in our bedroom and I used that for the news but otherwise we did not use it much. And it was wonderful! We were spending more time together, talking more, more playing, getting outside more it was great!!

Although with my obsession with Christmas I knew we had to have a TV in the front room to watch Christmas stuff... just a part of the holidays :) So by Christmas we got a new TV for the living room but I vowed to not have it on all the time. Well that lasted for awhile but then it went right back to the same old thing. On in the mornings, on as soon as we get home, on until we go to bed. Not necessary.
 

So last week we have decided we will not turn the TV on in the evenings when we get home. No news. No cartoons. Nothing. I cannot watch the news anymore it just makes me cry and turns a good day into a bad night. And Audrey doesn't even ask for the TV normally I would just turn it on out of habit. Well I am done with that. So back to the basics. Life will not revolve around the TV especially as we head into the spring! Being outside is much better than sitting in front of the "idiot box" as my dad used to call it!

School is going really well. I go this coming week to schedule my last semester of classes before graduation! Thank you lord!! A long road but it is coming to and end :) And this semester is flying by wonderfully!

As for the marathon training its coming right along. My long run this week was 13 miles and I had a 9:20 pace. Not to shabby. More about completion rather than time for me so I cannot complain. I have learned that long runs are much easier when it is 35 and sunny out rather than 80 and humid out. While training last summer for Detroit I would dread the long runs even if I did them first thing in the morning. I was worried about training at this time of year but it has proved to be much easier for the long runs! Yesterdays weather was beautiful for a long morning run :)

We got another package out to Chris this week which was pretty much just food.

This one went out safely.

But we had another fiasco with the care package that was set to go out this morning. While out with Audrey on Friday evening we came home to the entire package destroyed! Hudson has gotten on the kitchen table and destroyed everything. I got home to chewed food, magazines, gum, he even chewed the cardboard box. As I got home in a panic trying salvage whatever I could Ann and Andrew stopped by. At that point we could only laugh because the house looked like a tornado of easy mac and ramen noodles had went through. But when I woke up Saturday morning I was mad. Really mad. Looking at the bigger picture this meant I would have to make another trip to the grocery story, stop by the post office again to get another box, repack the whole thing and still try and get it out today. Mail is already taking a very long time now add another thing to delay Chris getting stuff. Then I was crying because I don't really have time for this. But after the mess was picked up and I will get another box packed it is not the end of the world. I have to stop letting the little things get to me!

 

 

As for Chris, I have not talked to him much this week. We are on opposite schedules so he normally messages when we are sleeping and I reply when he is sleeping. The "official" return date is the end of summer now I guess. Chris says it is official but I know how this all works and I cannot get my hopes up for early return and his homecoming still be October. Of course we are hoping for early return but I take this with warning.

 

 

This week we will welcome March! This is one of the months we have been waiting for! So much fun stuff this month! Fresh Beat Band concert, Cassy's baby shower, Miranda Lambert concert, St. Patty’s Day and warmer weather! Which means closer to Chris coming home. I figured January and February would be the hardest months and now they are over :) Bring on March!! Let's do this!!