The Birthday Boy...

Our favorite furball had a birthday yesterday :)

I can't believe a year has gone by already. (well technically we got him 9 weeks from now but still)

Eating his Peanut Butter Delight cake :)

This was his one and only gift. He's already pulled it apart a little.

Ross calls it the Q-tip.

We love our pooch so much!

♥

Cathy

Reflections...

So I've been going through a phrase. A long one. That I wish I could move on from but just haven't been able to let go of some stuff. It's been really hard at times.

I came into work today, checked my email and this was in my inbox:

The subject line read:

Reflections of a Monday Morning

And the body read:

Well it's another Monday morning, the beginning of a brand new week, a brand new start to something amazing. What will this week bring? Hardship, joy, changes? What can we do to make the world a little better this week? How can we change ourselves for the better? What can we give up that is holding us back or impending our progression in life? What are we not letting go of?

Let us take this week and dedicate it to changing ourselves for the better. Let us overcome those things holding us back or slowing us down. Let us focus on the little things that make us happy and let go of the things that don't. Let us help those around us to make their lives better too.

Life is full of choices. Some big some small. How do we let these choices affect our happiness. Can we let go of the reins a little and just sit back and see where life takes us?

No one ever said it was supposed to be easy but it will be worth it.

This email was from my Husband. This is all it said. I thought he had copied and pasted it from somewhere but in fact (to my disbelief) he wrote it. I knew he was a good writer (I have to admit that he wrote a few of my college essays for me) but didn't know he was this good.

I have a very patient, loving, and smart eternal companion, whom I don't ever give enough credit. He's my cheerleader and therapist.

Keep this in mind this week. What can you do to make your life just a little better? What can you do to help other's enjoy their journey through life?

♥

Cathy

Well that's funny....

So I don't have readers who are romantic novel lovers. Why am I not surprised?

I'll will be giving one book to Debby who stated that she wanted to continue eating and creating a healthy lifestyle and I think I'll give the other one to my mom. Shes always up for a good read. : )

I'll have a better giveaway another day.

New Design Trend I'm smitten with:

Velvet.

Call me old school but I'm loving it right now. Like really loving it.

Is this not a beautiful headboard?

This couch would be so comfortable to snuggle up on :)

And last but not least..... Kate Middleton rocking a velvet clutch and belt combo. Not to mention a gorgeous lace number. Man, to have her closet.

First day back at my Yoga class today - I definitely missed it.

Hope everyone is having a great week and that you're keeping up with your resolutions!!

:)

Cathy

Resolutions and a Giveaway....

So, I have no excuse. Really. I just got busy doing stuff and being lazy. It happens. :)

We had a relaxing Christmas. Tons of goodies and Medved had no idea what was going on but he loved it.

He currently has only one of his Christmas gifts left. Everything else has been destroyed. We need to get him some more durable ones next time.

We went up to Ross' family for New Years. It was really low key. We "cheered" to Mountain Dew and Ross ate Taco Bell 2 mins after Midnight. (He gave up soda and fast food for a whole year)

Some New Years Resolution for me this year:

Lose some weight (I have yet to have a year without this one)

To not be so hard on Myself

Envy Less

Learn to Accept More

Make more time for Myself

Since I haven't been blogging that much lately, I wanted to make up for it with a Giveaway. We went to the Nate Berkus show this last fall and everyone in the audience was given this:

Goddess of Vengeance by Jackie Collins.

She was at the show. I wasn't totally impressed but apparently these are supposed to be pretty premium for their Genre.

I'm not a romantic novel reader myself, and Ross barely reads books, let alone girly ones. So I've decided to give them to two "lucky" readers.

What you have to do:

1. Post a comment here telling me a New Years Resolution of yours (if you can't post a comment, please email me at cathymschanck@gmail.com)

2. Become a follower of my blog.

And that's it. If you do both 1 and 2 you'll get added twice.

I'll be putting all the names in a hat (because I don't know a technical way of doing it) and drawing next Monday night. January 23rd.

Good Luck!

I did a little photo shoot with Medved with his Christmas Bowtie on. Yes, they aren't good. Yes, I don't know how to use a camera. And yes, I'm a little obsessed with my dog.

Isn't he so photogenic?

I call the last one the look away Blue Steel. He knows he's handsome. LOL.

Here's to a new year with new possibilites!

Cathy

Shiznit we got for Christmas.....

I asked Ross what I should call this post after telling him what I was going to talk about and this is what he suggested. We're tired. As you can probably tell.

So the "shiznit" we got for Christmas would be for our on going tradition. (2 whole years now!)

The ornament we decided on this year was a graduation one.

I graduated in May and Ross graduated earlier this month.

This is also Medved's first Christmas so we decided to get him his first ornament...

And his very own stocking. :)

Marla also gave me one of Ross' first Christmas ornaments from the year he was born to hang on our tree. Very special to us.

We just bought everything for Christmas cookies to make tomorrow.

It'll be nice to have some time to relax with my husband and puppy for a whole day, I forgot what that feels like.

:)

Now all it needs to do is snow.

Cathy

Oh Christmas Tree...

Hey guys!

I think today is the first day I haven't stayed late at work in about 3 weeks. I've missed chatting with you guys. (one way conversations, of course)

We've had a FULL month. I can't even believe how much we have done in the last few weeks. I had my birthday......22! Yay.... I feel a lot older than that. Haha.

Myles, Ross' brother, came home "early" from his mission a week ago. And by early, I mean that he decided to tell us a later date and come home a bit earlier then that date and "surprise" us instead. And by surprise, I mean us actually surprising him at the airport because we found out his "plan".

Okay I think I just did over kill with the "".

So he's home for the holidays and we had a fun week catching up with him and spending time with family.

He's spent the last two years in Romania, teaching people about our religion. Such a huge sacrifice. Learn more here. :)

We stupidly forgot our camera when we went to the airport. This is all we got of the handsome RM.

Hahahaha...

He's single ladies.

Now for some CHRISTMAS stuff.

This is when we got our tree. Medved smelling it, marking his territory - no big deal.

This is us, figuring out that it won't fit in our stand.

Here's Ross shaving down the bottom with a kitchen knife so it would fit.

Ah, finally.

He loved the lights. :)

Before the tree skirt and presents.

And after :)

I feel like I have sooo many things I want to talk about. But I think I'll just leave you with the tree for now.

Expect posts soon though! Like tomorrow and the next day and the next day. I have to make up for the last month!

And I have so many fun Christmas things to talk about.

:)

Cathy

GRADuate...

Ross finally graduated. He's (almost) done. He has one more paper and one more presentation and he's dunzoo. He'll have his BA in Russian Language from the University at Albany. :)

I'm very proud of my man. The last few weeks have been a little rough but he handled it like a champ.

Here's us before:

(Dave, Marla and us)

During: (all blurry)

And the party:

I made the banner, the mason jar candle holders, and the chocolate cake :)

It was fun to spend some time with family and friends, and bask in Ross' great accomplishment.

Medved and Trueman sleeping :)

Rinn and Medved. Medved's Best Friend.

She put this jacket on him, I thought this was the cutest thing!

(haha, he doesn't like pictures)

He did great!

We picked up our tree tonight and we're decorating tomorrow. Look forward to some fun posts soon :)

Cathy