A Year of Dates : January 2012

For January Dan picked a "Stay at Home" date. However, the date was a complete flop... I'll tell you why.

Build a Snowman

So for this date we were suppose to go outside and build a snowman. Hmmmm... can you now guess why our date was a complete flop... NO SNOW! Kind of hard to build a snowman without it. We really haven't had hardly any snow this winter. Don't get me wrong, I can't complain... I'm not a winter person at all... but I was sure we would have had enough by now to get a little play time in the fluffy stuff! O'well... so much for our January date!  Hopefully February's will be more eventful!

Photo a Day - Week #3

 Week of January 23rd - January 29th

Monday

(We ran out of Sweet 'N Low at work... had to resort to using Equal... the HORROR!) 

Tuesday

(Grocery day in the Rhoton house)

Wednesday

(homemade Carmel Apple Spice)

Thursday

(speed)

Friday

(pure joy... Remington loves his Kong)

Saturday

(old stomping grounds... I miss these days)

Sunday

(road trip)

Thankful Thursday (Letting Go)

Today I'm thankful for the ability to let go!

There are days when some things and some people REALLY get to me. It honestly takes me a long time to reach my breaking point, but recently I have discovered that I have reached it with certain situations. I've finally decided that some of the people that are stressing me out and some of the situations that really raise my blood pressure are not worth my time.... not worth it one little bit...

So... I'm choosing to let go... let go of the anger, stress, and hostility that I feel... let go of the worry, the amount of energy it takes to feel this way, and the people and situations that make my life and relationships struggle. I'm thankful that I have the ability to choose to let go and live the way I'm suppose to.

FINISHED!!!

This weekend my life consisted of working 12-14 hours because of Phonathon Training!  It is amazing how much time it takes preparing to train 30 callers! PHEW!  I'm glad I'm finished!  However, this whole week I'll be working weird hours (all evenings) to make sure my students are comfortable and aren't having any problems. I hate switching up my usual hours because it just throws my whole body off. I don't know how Dan does it when he is switching on and off shifts.

Now I just need to get through these next 14 weeks and I'll be looking at a little freedom for a while :)  YAY!

Photo a Day - Week #3

My photo a day challenge needed a little bit of direction... I just can't help but take a million pictures of Remington. Anyways, I found a website that actually gives you little suggestions for pictures you can take each day. YAY!

Week of January 16th - 22nd


 Monday

(morning routine : coffee and milk)

Tuesday

(time : all the time zone clocks in my Phonathon Room)
  
Wednesday

(feet : like I would take a picture of my own feet... instead I give you Remington's)

Thursday

(colors : Phonathon scripts for training this weekend)

Friday

(something flat : my cherry coke that has been sitting around the past couple of days... it's way FLAT)

Saturday

(breakfast : english muffin with Nutella, oatmeal, and a glass of milk)

Sunday

(schedule : making up a schedule to make 30 students happy is a nightmare)

Gatlinburg

Well, we have booked another (less expensive) vacation!  YAY!  I will now be able to sleep at night knowing that we are able to use the money we saved on loans that need paid off!

The vacation we picked was Gatlinburg because it was fairly cheap, we can drive there, and we have our own kitchen to make some meals instead of eating out every day/night! I'm really looking forward to it!

Here are some pictures of the cabin we are staying in...

I hope our cabin turns out as nice as it looks (I have read a few bad reviews) and we were told that we picked the cabin that has one of the best views of the area (fingers crossed).  I'm looking forward to a week of rest and relaxation!  I can't wait to take to the trails for some running and hiking. And the very best thing about this vacation is...

We get to bring this BIG fur ball with us! Life doesn't get any better than that!

Thankful Thursday (Phonathon Interns)

Today I'm thankful for two wonderful Phonathon Interns!

Kayla

Mark

They both make my life at work so much easier and are always willing to lend a hand and help out when ever and where ever needed! I might go a little crazy without them :)

Canceled Cruise...

I'm still in a little bit of shock that we actually canceled our cruise.  After we started looking at plane tickets that were going to cost us about $800... I just could not bring myself to go through with the trip.  We were looking at a $3000 vacation between cruise tickets, plane tickets, boarding Remington, cab fairs, cost of luggage... and the list goes on.  It would have cost more than our wedding!  I just wasn't going to be okay with that. Luckily, we were able to get a full refund on the cruise since we canceled 75 days in advance.  Now our minds are working trying to think of something fun we can still do and feel comfortable with the price. Any and all suggestions are welcomed :)

We were pondering over Colorado, Florida, Gatlinburg, South Carolina???

Two Best Friends

Grandpa Rhoton came to visit us this past weekend.  Of course we were excited!  We ate great food, napped, ate more food, watched football, and ate more food!  Can you say perfect weekend!

While Grandpa was here, him and Remington bonded... this is the first time I have EVER seen Remington really "take" to anyone else besides Dan and I... it was precious :)

Buddies hangin' out...

I think they look perfect together :)

After Grandpa left, Remington bummed around the house the next day... you could tell he missed him... Hope you come to visit your buddy again soon Grandpa!!!!

Mileage Monday

Running stats for the week of January 7th - January 15th... I don't know what it's gonna take to get me in the gym. I swear I can drive by there with all the intentions in the world to work out and still not go.  PATHETIC! I can even tan for free when I'm there and that won't even get my feet in the door! I don't know what is wrong with me. I know that working out makes me feel great!  I know it's well worth every bit of effort I put into it. And I know it will allow me to eat whatever I want!!!  So why don't I go???  All I know is I better have a change of heart soon or I'm seriously going to be regretting it come cruise time that's for sure.

Total miles for this week : 2.5

Photo a Day - Week #2

Week of January 9th - January 15th

Monday

Tuesday

Wednesday

Thursday

Friday

Saturday

Sunday 

Blonde to Brown

I did it!  I got my hair dyed to brown.  The goal is to get it back to my natural color (whatever that is). I have been highlighting it for so long I have no idea what my real hair looks like.  My hair stylist said that she dyed it one shade darker because you have to take into account the fading.  She said this color should fade into my natural nicely.  And going blonde to brown you have to been careful because your hair could turn out an ashy green. YIKES!  It is a little darker than what I was picturing, but I'm okay with it.  My hairstylist said that we will probably have to dye it once more to get the color to stick because the highlights will gradually start coming through... I think they already are a tad bit.

When I sent this picture to Dan his response was "HOLY COW!"  I'm not sure he is a fan.

Thankful Thursday (Job)

One of my New Year's Resolutions was to be more thankful... that is how this edition of Thankful Thursday came about. For the rest of 2012 I will be posting each Thursday something I'm thankful for. Here goes!!

Today I'm thankful for my job! Yes, I feel so blessed to even have a job that pays me enough to get by and that I enjoy for the most part.  Even though I complain, stress, whine, and lose sleep over it probably every day of the week... I know I'm very lucky for the opportunity to work where I do!

Here's to being thankful!

So so true...

Photo a Day - Week #1

At the start of the year, many people decided to take on the challenge of taking a photo a day throughout the year 2012.  I'm one of those people.  As I uploaded my photos for the week on this post I noticed a reoccurring theme... I take way too many pics of my dog!  This might turn into "a photo of Remington a day".  Happy picture taking!

Week of January 2nd - January 8th

Monday

Tuesday

Wednesday

Thursday

Friday

Saturday

Sunday

Dry Dry Hands...

The winter time always causes my skin to dry out really bad!  I suppose taking the hottest showers possible and hardly ever using lotion could be the cause of some of my problems...

Today, I finally broke down and put some lotion on my skin because my knuckles were cracking open!!!

Right now, you're probably thinking I'm the biggest baby in the world by the looks of this picture... but those two little red dots you see are my cracked skin and it hurts :(  Anyone have good dry skin remedies???

"Get that boy a coat..."

is what my friend, Debbie, said of Remi's new hair cut! We hate cutting his hair in the winter, but gosh darn it, he is just so darn HAIRY!

He went from this...

To this...

In 3 1/2 hours!

Love your new do Remi Bear!

New Year... Clean House!

Dan got off work an hour earlier than usual which was nice for a change! I was happy to get to ring in the New Year with him since usually it's spent either with Remington, friends or family because he's working and dealing with the crazies :)

I love spending the New Year with Dan because we are so much alike.  We are not party animals and truly enjoy just spending time at home watching movies in our PJ's.  Maybe we like it so much because we hardly ever actually get to be home together!

Enough about our boring New Year... what's most important is my house is finally clean! The biggest thing I wanted to get accomplished over break was to clean and organize my house really well before I went back to work.  However, you know how it is when you're on break... you turn into a super lazy person that just wants to lay around reading and watching TV for hours on end. Or is that just me??

Anyways, I tackled the house in sections... first it was organizing and purging the closets and cabinets!  Three bags of my clothes were sent to Goodwill after this process! Dan was annoyed :)

Then it was on to each of the rooms... and we're talking I cleaned them super crazy good!!! Dan thinks I'm super crazy when I start cleaning like this!!!

And Remington absolutely HATES it!

"Mom... I'm just gonna hang out under here for a while!!!"

Hope everyone had a Happy New Year and is ready to head back to work tomorrow!  I'm sure not!