Notes stopped syncing in Mountain Lion

Question

I've just realized that my notes haven't synced from my iPhone to my Mac for several months.  I've been reading all the discussions about this not quite working in Mountain Lion and am wondering if there is any remedy.
I had several notes where I kept ongoing updates.  For example, I was opening the same note and adding to it about my cat's health.  But the additions from the last several comments I wrote are missing on both the iPhone and the Mac.
All the notes are still on my Mac in the new Notes app under ON MY MAC, but there haven't been any updates there since 2012!
My IMAP account with Google is set to Mail and Notes ON, but there is only one recent note online with Google.  I remember making that particular note on the iPhone first, so that one is working correctly.  I think that setting is a historical default since Notes used to be in the Mail App.  I tried looking for the other notes and note updates all over my gmail account- in All Mail and Trash- and don't see any of the notes that are ON MY MAC, old or otherwise.
I really can't figure out what happened.  I tried opening Time Machine, but I wouldn't know where to look.  I have backups 2 years back, but that wouldn't help with the more recent notes anyway.  I don't really understand why the most recent updates aren't still on the iPhone.  I think maybe the Default Account under notes was set to my gmail account (the default?  I didn't set this?  How did that happen?) and it should have been On My iPhone?
Very confused and disgusted- would like to find the Notes if possible so I could copy them somewhere else and never use Apple Notes again

Answer 1

Notes in the On My Mac or On My iPhone section are not synced.
To restore notes that have been deleted from the computer, do as follows.
Triple-click the line below to select it:
~/Library/Containers/com.apple.Notes
Right-click or control-click the highlighted line and select
Services ▹ Reveal
from the contextual menu.* A folder should open with an item selected. Quit the application if it's running. Restore the selected item from a backup that predates the unwanted changes.
*If you don't see the contextual menu item, copy the selected text to the Clipboard (command-C). In the Finder, select
Go ▹ Go to Folder...
from the menu bar, paste into the box that opens (command-V). You won't see what you pasted because a line break is included. Press return.