This Noted Life

I read somewhere that the way you spend new years eve is a good indication of how the rest of your year will go. Well, good. I spend new years eve being a responsible adult, with my family and I quite enjoyed myself.

New years day I was up at 6am and my dad and I were on the road by 7:20. 18.5 hours later… ArmyTown, USA. Yep we did the entire drive in one day – we got in at 2:00am. We were exhausted the last 1.5 hours but glad we made it through bc stopping just seems pointless once you’ve gone that far.

As for 2012, I’ve actually had a tough time coming up with resolutions…. As cliche as it sounds I want to do more for myself this year and find more inner fulfillment this year. One way I hope to do that is to get more involved in things going on around me and another is to spend a little less time on the computer and a little more time outside.

Other than that I don’t have very many set goals just constant things I’ve been working on for a while. That’s ok though. I just ask that 2012 be filled with good health and happiness.

What are your resolutions?

January

C said goodbye to me and the babies as i embarked on our first deployment as a wife

February

My mom and dad came for a visit!

March

This was my first weekend ever away from my dogs but i got to spend the entire weekend away filled with sun and friends at our units wives retreat

April

I traveled home for Easter weekend and got to spend lots of time with friends and family

May

C is home, safe and sound

June

we took our very first family vacation to the mountains

July

in July, we moved and after 10 long months, I finally got a job!

August

we went to see a Braves game

September

Happy 1 year of wedded bliss  We spent the night in the hospital for C’s very badly sprained ankle

October

This was probably one of the busiest months we had in terms of work but we made time to hang out with friends

November

We took a 21 hour road trip and spent Thanksgiving at home in MA

December

our house all decorated for Christmas and our Christmas party that we hosted

All in all, 2011 has been a great year – hoping for the best for 2012!

How was everyone’s Christmas?  Mine was alright.. it felt odd this year as C isn’t home and this was the first year my brother didn’t come home plus some other traditions were totally thrown for a loop  but we made due and at the end of the day I’m grateful i got to spend the holiday with family.

C sent me the prettiest flower arrangement as we had already celebrated Christmas way earlier in the month.

Some of my other favorite gifts are my new iPad 2 (!), lots of gift cards and my iPhone gloves. I know, iPhone gloves sound ridiculous but honestly they’re freaking amazing.  Have you ever tried to work an iPhone with gloves on?  Well you can’t… i don’t know why but you just can’t.  These gloves have something different in the tips of the pointer and thumbs so they magically allow you to work with the touch screen.. genius.

Since i’ve been home i’ve been able to see friends as well… i went to a reunion for my club swim team

and I was also able to meet up with my college roommates one afternoon for lunch (yep thats the same girl in both).

Other than that, the babygirls have been enduring the cold and we’ve been getting creative with ways to get our exercise in because when it “feels like 9″ going outside for long periods of time is just miserable.

Our trip to MA has been a good one but we’re looking forward to getting back home and settling back in to our own routine again.  Two more days and we’re homebound!

… from our family to yours!

2011 Holiday Card

My updates have been sporadic as life hasn’t provided a ton to talk about…  Does anyone else feel like it isn’t even Christmas or is it just me?  I’ve been back in Massachusetts for the past 2 weeks and even though I think the girls are happy that I’m back we’re still not living in our house (where they have a lot more freedom) so we’re struggling to find good routines and looking for ways to fill our days.

I thought having a month and a half off between semesters would be a great thing but it turns out I’m kind of ready to head back .  Speaking of teaching, after last semester ended I got offered to teach a second course!  This coming semester, which starts in January, I’ll be teaching another section of Interpersonal Communication along with a Business Communication section.  I’m really excited about this opportunity as it’s something that will really keep me busy and keep my mind working.

I’ve been doing a lot of reading as well.  I read the entire Hunger Games series in just 10 days.  I loved it that much and just couldn’t put them down

I definitely recommend these if you’re looking for an entertaining escape

I finished all of my Christmas shopping (for 15 people), taught myself how to knit via youtube, I’ve been back up to where I used to work to visit with clients, already attended two Christmas parties and have been helping my parents with silly odd jobs around the house.

It’s nice to be around family this time of year.

My blogging “breaks” haven’t been planned at all.  Things have just been busy and hectic and when blogging feels like a chore i tend to just stay away which is a-ok.  Here’s a recap of almost the past month:

Chris had a little “vacation” from work so in that time off we got to do a lot. We went and did a hike at a local canyon

We spent lots of time snuggling our babies

I wrapped up my first semester of teaching

We took a 21 hour road trip from “down south” to MA with the two dogs

The girls get to spend the next 5 weeks with their “aunt macy” and “uncle bryce” at my parents house

We spent Thanksgiving with family

C and I traveled back ‘down south” without our girls and so far have decorated our tree and our house for Christmas

And then we hosted a Christmas party so we could spend time with friends

And that sums up the past month.  We’ve been traveling, working and just enjoying our time together.

I really had no intention of taking a two week blogging hiatus but there’s been a lot of “real life” goings on and i just needed a time out.  I mentioned a post a while back about my dear friend who was coming to an end of her battle with MDS.  Since I last updated she has passed and that had a very big effect on me.  I have been so lost in the whole thing and really had a difficult time finding my bearings again.  Hence, the long absence.  I’m really not ready to talk about it anymore on here but grieving the loss of a close friend really helps you to examine a lot of other parts of your life.

Aside from that, I’ve been extremely busy with teaching.  I can’t believe the first semester is already coming to an end (i guess that happens when these semesters are only 8 weeks long ) but I have to say I absolutely love my job.  I love the freedom and flexibility of working from home all week and going to school to teach on the weekends.  My course runs every other weekend from 8-3 on saturday and sunday.  It’s really not a bad set up at all and after next weekend I have an entire month off for winter break.

Can you believe it’s already the holidays??  After work next Sunday, C and I are making the 21 hour road trip to our home state with the two dogs to go home for Thanksgiving.. please don’t be jealous .  In all honesty we’re kind of looking forward to it, we actually tend to have a lot of fun together on road trips.

In other BIG news, both my BEST FRIEND AND my cousin got engaged in the last week!

Thank you to everyone who participated in the giveaway!  I’m so happy that you all enjoyed it so much.  Peeled Snacks was an awesome company to work with.  I hope you’ll try their products the next time you see them

We had a total of 17 entires:

and random.org gave us ….

The winner of the peeled snacks giveaway is Molly @ Hungry Hungry Runner!

congrats Molly!  Please send me a private email at thisnotedlife@gmail.com with your mailing info.

Don’t forget to enter my giveaway!  It will close Thursday night and the winner will be announced Friday morning.

Yesterday morning my girls were so distraught when i put them in the car at 7:30 and the only way to get them to calm down was to tell them how lucky they were that they got to spend the day at the spa.  Yes, I’m that person

Has anyone ever seen a dog with wiry hair?  Border’s have a very wiry coat so they can’t get your traditional shave down or clipping.  Instead their hair gets pulled by hand.. the technique is called hand stripping.   It doesn’t hurt the dog at all and it keeps her wiry coat wiry.  If you cut a wiry haired dog’s hair, it actually ruins their hair.  Sadie’s hand strip can take anywhere from 1-2.5 hours – she’s a skinny little lady – only about 16 lbs so a bigger dog would take much longer.

This is the most recent photo I have of Sadie where you can see her whole body (i took this picture because she was sleeping like this on the couch one night and we thought it was entertaining)

here she is after her strip!

Maggie on the other hand just kind of goes along for the pampering.  She gets a bath, a mani/pedi and walks away with a new kerchief.  The truth is, Maggie tries to maul us every time we show her the nail clippers so being the kind folks that we are, we leave that to the professionals mainly so she won’t hate us.

here’s what she thinks about mani/pedi’s

Some battles aren’t worth fighting however she does look good in her scarf (which she will wear until it’s little threads around her neck).

I loved doggy spa day mainly because the day after (today) they didn’t get out of bed until 9 and then have been snoozing the day away

Are you guys ready for some free stuff???  Over the next few days I have three great products that I’ve tried and now am sharing with my wonderful readers!

Have you heard of Peeled Snacks??   Peeled Snacks is an amazing organization and I’m so happy that I had an opportunity to work with them.  Here’s what they’re about:

We strive to bring you natural, premium ingredients so you can feel good about snacking. We believe a healthy diet includes a balanced mixture of protein, fiber, and carbohydrates to help you stay fit and active. Eating well doesn’t have to mean eating tasteless, bland foods. It does, however, mean eating a healthy, wide range of foods from every food group.

We want to make snacking easy and enjoyable whether you’re at home or on the go. We know that staying fit and maintaining a healthy diet can often be a challenge when you need a snack in a hurry. Available snacking options are usually loaded with high fructose corn syrup and sugar. Often finding a tasty alternative to satisfy the munchies can be a challenge. At Peeled Snacks, we use the highest quality fruit without any added sugar to help you towards achieving the five-a-day servings of fruit you need. Peeled Snacks are loaded with a natural source of vitamins, minerals, and fiber that your body craves.

via Peeled Snacks – We want to hear from you!

I was so excited when this box showed up in the mail the other day…

I expected one or two samples of their product but was blown away when i opened it and found all of this:

So many tasty treats.  I have to be honest – I really loved the apples and bananas and chris loved everything except the mangos.  We aren’t big mango eaters anyway which is probably what skewed our decision on that one.  I would have liked to give it to someone who enjoyed mangos

These snacks are delicious and so easy to throw in your purse (which i did for class over the weekend) or uh.. manly backpack when you go to work

Anyhow, the wonderful people at Peeled Snacks want to share their product with you!  The winner will receive the Organic Fruit Picks Variety Pack.  

To enter, please do one of the following: (if you do more than one that counts for more than one entry)

•  Follow my blog!  My “followers” are so pitiful (i have 3 and one is myself ) then leave a comment letting me know.
• “Like” Peeled Snacks on facebook.  leave a comment letting me know you did so.
• Follow Peeled Snacks on Twitter.  leave a comment letting me know you did so.