A Very Nice Surprise :)

Sunday morning, I received a phone call from Toni asking me if I could babysit for her as she had to work & couldn't find a sitter. I was more than happy to :) Seeing this little girl just makes me so happy! We took her to Target & let her pick out some toys as an added birthday present since we didn't get her much on her birthday. She walked all around the aisles, several times in fact, until she decided on a Barbie horse & stable. It's so fun to shop for little ones again :)
Here she is, being a complete ham for the camera.

Her shirt says "Princess Parking Only! All Toads will be Towed" Cute, huh?

We also bought her some bubbles, which she had a blast with. But I had a hard time getting any good pictures of her while she was playing with them.....she didn't want her picture taken then. Go figure!

On Saturday, I decided to drive out to The Scrapbook Zone since it's been a few months since I've been there & I picked up some of the newest Basic Grey papers called Euphoria.....they're so much prettier in person! I also got some of the Making Memories new Travel line and these:

Doodlebug Crushed Velvet Flock. Aren't those jars just adorable? I think that's part of what sold me on them :)

Since we didn't make it to the gym at all this weekend, I have a lot of catching up to do this week & already started tonight. I did 10 minutes on the bike & 40 minutes on the elliptical! I didn't plan to go that long, but once I got started, I just kept going & going & going.....I probably could have even gone longer, but it was getting late. I like the elliptical more than the treadmill now :)

The world lost a wonderful person this weekend. Comedian George Carlin passed away on Sunday at the age of 71 from heart failure :( I took Jim to see him a few years ago for his birthday & we never stopped laughing the whole night! He was truly an amazing man & I think he could make anyone laugh. Jim & I will definitely cherish the memories of seeing him in person!

RIP George! You will be missed!

Until next time,

Benita

Thank-you, Toni!

Isn't this card just the cutest ever??? If you're saying to yourself that you've seen that card somewhere before, well.....it's probably because you have. Toni made it & she posted it on her website a few weeks ago :) She posted about it here, but I had no idea that she was actually going to send it to me. Thank-you so much, Toni! It truly brightened my day as well as the stuff you sent me below:
Toni knew how much I've been wanting to do WW to boost my weightloss, so she sent me the books on it as well as a journal & Points Finder/Booster. I think this is exactly what I need to push myself harder......no, I know it is! Just looking through the books tonight made me realize just how much overeating I have been doing! It's truly scary! And a huge wake-up call! I'm going to be doing the flex plan using the points. I sat down & figured out how many points both Jim & I are allowed a day & I'm allowed 34 while he's allowed 38. Hey, what's up with that??? Why do men get more points? I know, I know.....because they're men! LOL Thank-you, thank-you, THANK-YOU Toni! You ROCK! :)

Today was supposed to be my weekly weigh-in day, but I lost track of the days this week & forgot to weigh myself first thing this morning. Then by the time I remembered, I was afraid to jump on the scale after eating breakfast, so it'll have to wait until tomorrow morning. I'm not really getting my hopes up for a good weigh-in this week as I've been kinda depressed & eating more than I should have. Plus the past 2 days, I haven't been able to get motivated to work out when I go to the gym for some reason. I also haven't been sleeping very good, so I'm sure that has something to do with my lack of energy right now. ETA update: I just weighed myself this morning & I've lost another whole pound :) for a total of 11.2 lbs. so far! WOOHOO!!!

I did go shopping at Kohls the other day for some more work-out clothes & I was able to get into an extra large pant :) You have no idea how much that means! It may sound huge to some people, but to me, after being in 1x's for what seems like forever, this was a MAJOR deal! And I placed an order with JCPenney the other day that arrived today for some XL tops & pants & they all fit as well :) So although the pounds aren't coming off that fast, I know I'm still losing inches & I refuse to give up! I'm in this for the long haul!

I guess I should brag a little bit about my dh, too. He's lost 14 lbs. so far (which is more than me.....BRAT! LOL). I'm so proud of him! But why do men lose weight faster than women??? It's just not fair, I tell ya! Not fair at all!

Here's to a wonderful weekend,

Benita

Exciting Finish To A Boring Race!

As usual, the Nascar race at MIS was pretty boring, until the end, that is. If you're a Nascar fan & you missed the race, here's my recap. Above, my absolute favorite driver, Kasey Kahne :) (Remember to click on each image to enlarge.)
This was something new that MIS did this year.....fireworks after the National Anthem. Nobody was expecting them, but they were really cool.
And they're off! Here they are leaving the pits at the start of the race.
Kasey & Kevin (Jim's favorite driver) side-by-side at the beginning, although they didn't stay side-by-side for very long.....Kasey quickly moved forward & Kevin lagged behind :)

Love this shot of Kasey in front of Jr. :) I just wish it would have stayed that way!

New scoreboard for MIS.....it was really cool! I love how it shows the speeds & how the numbers represent what the actual driver numbers look like!

Kasey in the pits.

Kevin leaving his pit.....you can even see the smoke from his tires.

The finish. On the very last lap, Carpentier (# 10) wrecked & brought out the caution before Jr. & Kasey could get back around the track. If that hadn't happened, Jr. probably wouldn't have made it at full speed as he was running on fumes. But I'm still very happy with 2nd for Kasey :)

All in all, it was a great, although very exhausting, Father's Day. Jim & I are both a little sunburnt (Jim more than me), but we're just glad that the rain held off. I called my Dad several times while we were at the race & one time, I had him listen to the cars go by. He was like "wow, that's loud!" One of these days, I will be taking him to a Nascar race as he's never been to one.

Not much else is new here.....still going to the gym. Yesterday, I attempted to do a Step Class, but failed miserably :( It wasn't because I couldn't keep up, but because the instructor was just moving way too fast, doing some moves that I just couldn't figure out. Unfortunately, our gym doesn't have any 'beginner' classes......most of them are just listed as 'all levels'. But for people that have never done any type of classes, they're hard to follow! Looks like I'll be sticking with the elliptical & treadmill for now.

Till next time,

Benita

Cards By Candlelight

So what do you do when you're without power for 35 1/2 hours??? You play cards by candlelight, of course. Sunday evening at exactly 5:00 p.m., we just started to get some thunderstorms when our power went out. Needless to say, we had no clue that it was going to be out for a day & a half! And a very LONG day & a half, I might add! Let's just say that when you're without something for that long, you realize just how much you appreciate it! About 5 minutes after the power went out, the tornado sirens went off, so off to the basement we went!
We ended up losing a bunch of food in the process, which stinks because we just went grocery shopping on Friday & now I have to go grocery shopping again today to replace it all! We've been eating out, which definitely isn't good for my weight loss progress, but what else can you do when you have no power? Sunday night, we went to Kalloways in Oxford for dinner & on the way home, we saw a bunch of trees down, but they still had power. We hardly got any of the storm here & we lost power. Figure that one out! We also didn't get to go to the gym on Monday as they didn't have any power, either. I have a feeling that this is going to be another bad weigh-in week :( I was actually going through work-out withdrawals!
After dinner, we came back home to see if the power was back on yet. Nope....not a chance! So we drove back to Oxford & went to see the movie "You Don't Mess With The Zohan". Very funny movie in a really weird kinda way.

Monday morning, still without power, my dd & I went out to Big Boy for breakfast. The shopping center behind Big Boy didn't have power, but Big Boy did......another one of those things that makes you go hummmm. After breakfast, we went to Target to pick up some more batteries & a regular phone since all we had were cordless ones. I lost count of how many times Jim picked up one of the cordless phones & tried to make a call ;) But then again, I wasn't too bright, either.....trying to turn on the bathroom light everytime I went to the bathroom, lol. I think being without power for so long does something to your brain :) We considered going to a hotel, but the cheapest one we could find was $149 plus an additional $25 for the dogs.....i-don't-think-so!

Last night, we decided to walk around Great Lakes Crossing mall because at least it was cooler in the mall than it was in our house. We went into Sports Authority & Jim told me that since I was going through work-out withdrawals, that I should jump on their ellipticals, lol. Not sure if I would have gotten away with that for very long.....I'm sure they would have kicked me off. Being at the mall got old quickly, so we came back home & reheated our leftover dinner from Sunday night on the gas grill. Hey, you gotta do what you gotta do, right?

Around 9:00 p.m., I got a phone call from my Dad. He said he was watching the Tigers game & they had to stop the game due to more storms moving in. Yep, here we go again! Right after I got off the phone with him, our power came back on! We didn't even realize it until we saw the lights on the computer come on. So we went around the house, closing all the windows to turn the A/C on. That lasted all of about 10 minutes & then the power went out again :( It flickered a couple of times after that, but then we never got it back again until 4:30 this morning! So what's one of the first things you do when you get power back? You turn on your computer, of course & check your email, the message boards & you update your blog :)

And now today, I get to have some fun cleaning the house! YIPPEE!!! I have a load of towels in the dryer that we just started drying before our power went out & I'm half afraid of what they're going to smell like! Plus I need to vacuum.....badly! Can you say dog hair everywhere!?! I think after I'm done cleaning, I'm going to jump into my jacuzzi bathtub, turn on the jets & just relax :)

Should I be surprised that it's raining again right now? Nah!

Stay dry!
Benita

The Wings Bring Home The Cup!

Here's my hubby's idea of a practical joke on me :) After the Red Wings won the Stanley Cup Wednesday night, he decided to make sure that the octopus squished both of my penguin beanies! Like I said, it really didn't matter to me which team won, but it is kinda neat having the Cup back in Detroit again for 4 out of the past 11 years. Jim, the kids & I went downtown to the parade in June of 2002 & it was really cool, but we're passing on it this year. I was hoping that they would have waited until Saturday to have the parade....then we probably would have gone. But Jim just doesn't have enough personal days to take a day off right now. Plus it's supposed to be HOT.....in the mid 90's! Yeah, I think I'll pass & stay inside in the AC! Seems like we went right from using the heat to turning on the AC in a matter of a few weeks!
Remember that picture I posted the other day of my Clematis? Well, this is what it looks like now! And look at the size of those flowers on that thing! They're HUGE! I have never seen Clematis flowers this big before!
I swear, they must be at least 6-8" in size! I think I'll actually measure them.

Tomorrow (or should I say today since it's midnight already) is my weekly weigh-in day. I'm not really sure what to expect, if anything at all. This hasn't been the best week for me food-wise with having my granddaughter's birthday party on Saturday & then taking my son out for his birthday on Monday. But I have been doing really good with the workouts. I've been to the gym everyday this week & really pushing myself. Thursday, I did 60 minutes of cardio alone along with the weight machines! I was completely pooped afterwards, but I'm hoping it'll all pay off in the end. Jim has told me that my workout pants are getting "baggy in the butt", lol. Plus I've noticed that my bras are getting loser as well. Figures.....I'll loose my butt & boobs before anything else! LOL

Have a wonderful weekend & GO WINGS! :)
Benita

The Birthday Boy

Today we had another birthday to celebrate as Shawn turned 22. 22!!! OMGosh, where has time gone??? I have a 22 year old son! Yep, me! Heck, I still remember when I was 22 like it was yesterday! What the heck? Am I really getting old? Here he is with his chocolate chip cookie cake that we had made in the Pistons colors (although the Pistons blew it). We found out that Shawn went to their last game of the season on Friday.....I told him that's why they lost, because he was there! ;) Happy Birthday, Shawn!
We took Shawn & our granddaughter out to dinner tonight to celebrate his birthday at one of our favorite restaurants, Alibi. It was so nice seeing my grandbaby again :) She wanted to sit on her daddy's lap almost the whole night.

Here's a picture I captured of her outside on the bench....what a ham, lol!

Right now, Jim is watching the Wings/Penguins game (this picture was taken the other day, though). I mentioned before that I put 2 Penguins beanie babies on top of our tv (hey, I'm from Pennsylvania, so I like both teams!) & my very humorous husband thought it would be funny to put an Octopus Beanie Buddy on top of one of the Penguins. MEN!

The poor penguin is so squished! Right now, the game is tied & in OT & I keep hearing Jim cussing at the tv, lol. I have a feeling that this could be a very long night!

Benita

The PERFECT Day!

Yesterday turned out to be the perfect day afterall! Although I wasn't 'officially' invited to my granddaughter's birthday party, my son did finally call me & told me that I could come 'if I wanted to'. So yep, you guessed it.....I went! I wasn't about to let Toni's relatives keep me back! I just pretty much ignored them while I was there & they did the same to me, so we all got along perfectly ;)

Here are some pictures of the party as well:
The Birthday Girl :)

I wish I knew what she was thinking about in this picture.
I just love the way this one turned out.....even though she has her hat on backwards, lol.
Here she is after she opened one of our presents.....I think that means she likes it :)
Blowing out the candles.
Riding the pony.....this was her favorite thing to do.
Where'd she go? Is that her behind those glasses??
A VERY happy Gramma!

Dad & daughter.

Well, now I'm pooped after spending the last hour playing around with the videos, so I'm off to bed. Have a terrific Sunday!

Benita