12 weeks down!

Almost 1/3 of the way through this deployment and we couldn't be happier! I am so sorry to everyone who has been following the blog but updating on her has taken a back seat to life. Seems like the last few weeks have been so busy (as I knew they would) that I have been barely able to sit down for a few minutes let alone get this updated as much as usual. As the school semester gets rolling here I have been trying to use my "down time" on school work rather than on Facebook, Pinterest, or on here. All those guilty pleasures of mine sure do take up a lot of time. On a school note, it is going pretty well except for a research paper I put off because I thought "it was going to be easy, so I can whip it out in a day" story... eh, not so much. Note why I am updating our weekly post today rather than Monday... it was a long few days. With the weather so amazing lately we have spent most of our time outside. Both Audrey and I would rather be outside any day! I guess we get that from my mom... Thanks! Last week was hectic busy between Miranda Lambert concert, the zoo, work and school but week 12 is over! Got an email staying Chris will be home no later than September 30th. So the first 1/3 of this deployment is over. April, May, June is the next chunk of time we concentrate on. And again we will keep so very busy! Baby Carter will be here in April, Glass City Marathon, Sugarland concert and Easter will keep us all busy in April! Then we head right into Summer :) Our favorite time!

Quick updates on all the "projects" I have going on:

Training for the Glass City Marathon: Sadly, I have not been able to run for 12 days now. I feel like I am dying. This stems back to when I fell down a set of  stairs 10 days ago and severely hurt my backside. I have not went to the doctors, A. because I do not have a day to go and B. they will probably just tell me to rest it. From the research I have done online I think I may have torn the muscle... there is no way I can run anytime soon. So with the Glass City Marathon less than a month away I have some serious decision making to do. I think as long as my butt doesn't hurt I will suffer through the marathon but I will not be fully trained by any means. I will run it merely for completion and definitely not for time. It will be ugly but I have to run the full for Team Miller and our troops. So hopefully a few more days of rest and I will be able to get back out and at least get a few miles in. April 22nd may be the death of me.

Becoming More Domestic: Audrey and I have really been trying a lot of new ideas. And I feel like I am becoming much more comfortable in the kitchen. I made my first homemade pizza last week and it was a success! And a heck of a lot cheaper than ordering pizza... especially when it is just Audrey and I. I think we ate that left over pizza for days! I made my first roast last week as well. I finally feel like I can just "throw dinner" together (to some extent) now. We keep the pantry stocked much differently now than I ever did. It is much easier to throw something together when everything is there rather than just throwing chicken nuggets in the oven. I am getting this domestic thing down! One thing I really want to learn how to do is cook on the grill. I think I will go to the master, my mother for this one. Chris always cooked on the grill in the summer! Probably 3-4 times a week he would make dinner on the grill... that is something I will definitely miss this summer. So I must learn how to do it for myself.

Project Organization: This is another one that I have diligently trying to work on. Audrey's room was in need of a huge makeover! She has entirely to much stuff. I have been using The Fly Lady as a wonderful resource for decluttering our house! Thanks to a recommendation by Aunt Monica this website has helped tremendously. As well as simple projects daily or weekly, I set a timer for 15 minutes a day and let loose on Audrey's room and she helps! This turns into a problem though because she wants to keep EVERYTHING. "Clutter attracts clutter" and I felt like it was to overwhelming to take that on in one day and who has an entire day to spend cleaning... not me. It is really amazing how much you can get done in 15 minutes and sometimes I do 15 minutes in the morning and 15 minutes in the evening! Anyone trying to declutter their house or lives for that matter definitely check out this website. It did not get like this overnight we aren't going to fix it overnight but daily we can hack away at it. Just think, when Chris gets home from deployment he will have a wife that cooks and cleans! Dang, what a concept :)

And our home search as officially begun! How exciting! We wanted to wait until this deployment was over to buy a house. But with less than 6 months until Chris gets home I have started looking now. We are in by no means in a rush but we have begun the process. It will take me 6 months to have this house in order to move! (That's also why the decluttering has begun) And our neighbor Donna is such a tremendous help with Audrey and her school is literally 2 minutes from our house so the convenience of where we are now is amazing while Chris is gone. So I really do not want to be in a new house until at least the end of the summer. I cannot wait to get out of the city and find the perfect country home :)

As for Audrey she is the biggest tomboy ever playing in the dirt, mud, sand, playing with bugs, spending most nights outside until it gets dark. And I love it! Chris bought her a sling shot to send home! I think that is something he should just bring home with him so he can supervise her with it. But she will love it! She is doing very well in school and it is hard to believe that she is 3 and a half already. Where does time go?

And time is starting to wear on both Chris and I. We got into a little issue recently because the communication between him and I was a little tense. Neither of us were communicating effectively when we did get the chance to talk. I mean we could go back and forth for days on who has it worse. But that is like comparing apples to oranges. Emails got a little tense over the weekend but marriage is hard, especially hard when you are on the opposite sides of the world. We figured it out and things couldn't be better! Well, of course they could be better but given the circumstances they are great! I remember writing about March and how it was such a busy month and now it is over! Time is really going fast and although we all have our bad days, we will all get through this as a family :) My new favorite quote:

"Be strong. It may be stormy now, but it can't rain forever."

I truly live by this everyday. Until my husband comes home!