The Proof Is In The Pants!

In case you haven't checked out our other (Toni & I) weight loss journey blog lately, I've lost 18 lbs. in the past 3 months! 18!!! And the proof is in the pants :)Just 3 months ago, these capris were very tight on me. Now, I have to wear a belt with them & I have to pull the belt tighter than before :) I'm a shrinking woman! LOL I also haven't been able to wear the shirt that I have on in the picture in quite some time as it was always tight in the sleeves.
I haven't gone out to buy any new clothes yet, other than a swimsuit & lots of work-out clothes, but I may have to soon. Jim said that my butt is really baggy in most of my pants, lol. I'm even wearing spandex type work-out pants because all of the other ones make me look like I don't even have a butt anymore! Now if I could just lose the hips that fast!

While I'm at it, I might as well post my 3 month picture, too & yep, I also got my haircut which I needed done badly. You can see the side view on my slideshow on the other blog over there ----->

Cass is coming home tomorrow, so we have to make a 4 hour drive (2 hours each way) to pick her up. It'll be good to have her home again, although it sure was quiet here this past week. Maybe going through the empty nest syndrome won't be so hard afterall ;)

We went to look at yet another house today (actually, two more houses) & we really like the first one, so now we're just waiting to see if it's going to work or not. Only downside, it's in the town we used to live it, which means it's a little further from the gym, but not too bad. It has a library (or should I say 'scraproom', lol), beautiful kitchen with cherry cabinets, 3 nice size bedrooms & the basement is in the beginning stages of being finished (all the studs, insulation & plumbing for a full bath is in place). I'll be sure to update when we find out whether or not we're going to get it.

Have a great week :)

Benita

Random Rambling

First, I wanted to take minute to say Thank-you for all the birthday wishes for my DD! I think she had a really nice birthday, although I doubt she would ever admit it, lol. TEENAGERS! Her friends decided to stay another day, so they didn't leave to go to Traverse City until Sunday. I gotta admit, it sure is lonely here right now :( I guess it's really starting to hit me that it won't be long now until she moves out on her own & then it'll be just Jim & I. Talk about a weird feeling! It's never been just Jim & I.....when I met him, I already had Shawn, so we were an 'instant' family. But now, reality is starting to set it....the reality that my kids are all grown up & I'm getting OLD! LOL I guess I need to look at this as a new chapter in my own life......a new start for me.....a new start for Jim & I. But it's still scary!

Here are some glimpses of her cake. Isn't Wall E cute? :)
And here is Eve, aka Eva.
After they left on Sunday, Jim & I decided to take a drive to downtown Royal Oak for their annual Antique & Garage Sale event. It was okay.....nothing to write home about. Just seemed like the prices were too high on most stuff. I probably would have enjoyed it more if it wasn't so hot & humid out! I only purchased 2 things while I was there.....the angel above for my garden along with this:
I fell in love with this plaque as soon as I saw it! Once Jim & I decide what we're going to do about moving, I plan on setting up a little garden area in memory of Karen & Jimmy which will include the angel & this plaque.
Here are just some more random pictures from around our porch/garden. This old milk can I purchased a few years ago at a garage sale for $5.00. It was all rusty, so Jim has a friend that offered to sandblast it & paint it for us & I just love the way it turned out! Now I'm trying to decide if I should decorate it at all with maybe some rub-ons, paint a design on it or something. Any ideas?
Here's a picture of our Black-eyed Susans, which Jim hates. They don't look like they're doing very good right now.....probably because of the heat.
I have no clue what these flowers are on the side of our house, but they're pretty. Anyone know what they are?
I just noticed these lillies blooming last night on the opposite side of the house.

As far as the moving situation goes, we still haven't made a decision as to what to do. Surprised??? ;) We do know that the expensive house right down the road from us is out.....turns out, a friend of theirs is going to rent it from them instead. But that's okay cause like I said, it just would have been cutting it too close financially.



We looked at another house on Friday that we really like.....mainly because it's new construction & we would be the first ones to live in it. BIG plus there! It's 4 bedrooms, 2 1/2 baths with a jacuzzi tub in the master bath & it has a HUGE kitchen, but no pantry, which we've been spoiled with. I think that's one of our biggest problems.....we have been spoiled with different things & somehow, they've seemed to almost become a necessity when looking for a new house. Side-by-side fridge with ice & water on the door, glass top stove, central A/C, etc., etc. The other good thing about the home is that it's $150 cheaper a month than what we're paying now & there's a pond right behind the house, so the view isn't bad. The only downside to this house is that we're a little worried about the neighborhood. The house is on a cul-de-sac, but to access the house, you have to basically drive through an apartment complex, which doesn't look the best. But another plus.....it's only 4 miles from Jim's work, so it would save us a LOT on gas, but then again, it's further away from our gym, which we go to 5-6 days a week, so there goes our gas savings right there, lol. ARGH! Why is this so hard??? I do know one thing.....I'm just tired of stressing over all of this....it's really been taking a toll on me lately, but I need to stop letting it!


Jim & I received some sad news today. We just found out that a fellow bowler/friend passed away on July 8th :*( He was on vacation in Tennessee & apparently drowned. He was only 47 years old & he left behind a wife & 3 kids. We didn't know him real good, but good enough that we still considered him a friend. I'm going to make a card this week to send to his wife & children.

Till next time,
Benita

My Baby Is An ADULT!

It's so hard to believe that at this very same time, 18 years ago today, I was lying in a hospital patiently waiting for my little girl to arrive. Okay, so maybe it wasn't patiently as I was in labor for over 21 hours! I remember it like it was yesterday. On July 17, 1990, I was taking a nap in our bed, which, btw, just happened to be a waterbed at the time. All of a sudden, I woke up because I felt something wet. At first, I thought that the waterbed had sprung a leak.....no lie! I yelled for Jim to come into the bedroom & told him that the bed was leaking. I jumped out of bed & that was when I realized that it wasn't the bed afterall ;) My water broke! So off to the hospital we went. Finally, at 10:42 a.m. on July 18th, 1990, she arrived.....all 9lbs., 4 oz. of her! And all natural! OUCH! I think I was nuts! I wanted to get an epidural, but the doctor kept saying that it was too late & that she was going to come out any minute now. Try 1,260 minutes later!!! But I can say this now.....I'm glad I had her naturally. Afterall, now I have a excuse for when she acts up & I can remind her of all the pain I went through to bring her into this world. Hehe :)

Oh, and I guess I should explain the picture above, huh? For those of you that have read my blog for any length of time, you'll know that she hates having her picture taken......HATES IT! So I had a really hard time even finding a new picture of her to post.....and then I found this one on my computer......a picture of her shadow :) I think it's fitting, don't you? Now she can't yell at me for posting her picture on the net, either, lol.

After seeing the movie Wall E, she has been wanting nothing but Wall E things lately. Yeah, I know......she's 18, but I believe that you should always be a kid at heart :) So not only is her cake done with Wall E on it, but we also got her a Wall E stuffed animal, an Eva bean bag, a Wall E t-shirt, a Wall E blanket & Wall E transformer type toy. She's going to love them! We also have a few other surprises up our sleeves for her which I'll share later.

Yesterday, we had to drop my car off for an oil change & what also turned into having to replace the tierods which then lead to needing an alignment (luckily, both were covered under my warranty!). I told the dealership that I had been feeling a vibration in the steering, so they checked it out to find that the tierods were loose & not working properly. Could it be from all the potholes everywhere??? Nah.....not in Michigan! ;)

Off to bed.....got a very busy day as Cas has 2 friends coming down from Traverse City for her birthday & then she's going back up to TC with them for a few weeks.

Happy Birthday, Baby! I love you!

Mom

MIA

I really AM a bad blogger :( I apologize for not updating my blog very often, but I've just had so many things on my mind these past few weeks with the house-hunting & stuff. We thought we found the perfect house.....all 3 of us fell in love with it! It was on the lake, had windows galore, the basement was a finished walk-out.....just everything we've been looking for. Turns out, the couple changed their minds about renting it because they really want to sell it instead :( But what really stinks about it is that the guy contacted US about the house! We posted an ad looking for a house to rent & he replied to our ad. Why do people do that??? :(

Oh well.....what can you do? There's also 2 more houses that may work out. One is in the country, which I'm not too sure I'll like, especially since it's on a well. Water is a very important thing to me since I drink a LOT of water everyday. The other one seems almost too perfect.....it's in the newer subdivision right behind ours which would be awesome & it's gorgeous! All stainless steel appliances, granite countertops, 4 bedrooms, a 3-season room on the back.....just truly beautiful! But the price is a little bit higher than we wanted to spend. We could afford it, but it might be a little tight. They're going to give us a decision by the end of this week or so, so now we just have to wait.

I did the layout above a couple of weeks ago, but kept forgetting to post it. That's my granddaughter at her birthday party. Not sure if you can tell, but I used stickles on the word Pony & also along the the swirls that I cut out from the paper, which is Basic Grey's newest Euphoria line. It's all straight IRL.....sorry if it doesn't look that way.

Now I thought I'd answer some questions that you all asked in my last post (thanks for all the comments, btw :) ):

I also have the same camera you do, does yours work?

The guy told me that it didn't work, but I guess I could try it, once I figure it out, that is, lol.

The robbery happened real close to my office! Scary huh?

Yes, it truly was scary! Someone was definitely watching over me that day! I'm still sad that they killed the guy, but I read later that he had a gun :(

Don't ya just love junk shopping?

Yeah, now I do! ;)

Do you have any other great thrifting spots you go to around the area??

I haven't found any yet, but I'd love to!

Everytime I get something new for my room I always tell my hubby but Benita has it honey.

Awww.....thank-you hpoormon :) (btw, what's your name?)

I was also tagged by Darcey a while back:

Ten Years Ago: I was 35 years old, Jim was 33, my kids were 12 & 8 (omgosh, when did they grow up???), we had been living in Michigan for just about a year, Jim had just started his new job, I drove a 1996 Chevy Monte Carlo, which was later totalled by a drunk-driver that read-ended Jim.

Five things on today's to-do list: Well, since today is almost over, I'll list 5 things I did instead. 1. Go to the gym - check! 2. Wash dishes - check! 3. Do laundry - check! 4. Take a shower - check! 5. Take another shower after going to the gym - still to do :)

Snack I Enjoy: Since I'm working on losing weight, I don't snack nearly as much as I used to, but one thing I enjoy is the WW ice cream.....they're only 2 points & settle my craving for ice cream when I have it :)

Things I would do if I was a millionaire: Buy a house with handicap access so that I could bring my Mom to live with us & get her out of that nursing home! Buy a 2009 Dodge Challenger :) Donate to several charities.

Places I have lived: Michigan (was born here), Pennsylvania, Virginia & Michigan again.

4 People I am tagging:

Jewls

Lorrie

Toni (when she gets back from Hawaii, that is)

Kim

Well, I just got home from the gym a little while ago & the shower is calling my name :) Hope you're all having a wonderful week!

Benita

Bountiful Bargains

This weekend was really busy & full of lots of bargains. On Thursday, we saw a story on the news about the Salvation Army having a 50% off everything sale on Friday, so we decided to check it out. Jim's not much for thrift store shopping & to be honest, neither was I.....until now! See those 2 cute little dishes above? They cost me all of $1.50 each! I just couldn't pass them up for that price :) I plan on using them in my scraproom, but I haven't exactly figured out what for yet.
Then I found this baking dish by Pyrex. It's hard to tell in the picture, but it's actually purple. PURPLE! :) The price......$2.50!
I also found a set of 3 matching mixing bowls.....for some reason, they were priced individually, but I grabbed them all. Total cost for all 3: $6.00!
Then I was shocked when I found this trashcan! It's from the Glynda Turley Rose Rhapsody line that JC Penney carried a few years ago, which is what my bedroom & bathroom are done in. I already have one of these on my side of the bed, so I got this one to put on Jim's side. Cost: $2.50! And these retailed for around $40-45! Yep, I love a bargain like this!
I also stumbled upon this little jar from Avon which I have another one of. I use it to store my Q-tips in, but figured I could use another one for cotton balls or something. Price: $1.50!
Okay, so Jim still thinks I'm nuts for buying this, but I just thought it was so cool & I know that scrapbookers can understand why I bought it :) It's a huge date stamp.....I'm talking HUGE! The numbers each measure 1/2" wide by just under 3/4" tall. Total spent on this awesome find: $3.00!

The shopping didn't stop there :) On Saturday, I decided to go to Michael's to use my 50% off coupon before it expired. I couldn't find anything that I just had to have, so I ended up just getting a magazine with the coupon. But I found all of the stuff above in the dollar bins.....journals, epoxy stickers, ribbons & black rhinestones. After leaving Michael's, I was going to head to another Salvation Army store, but then I remember that I still had a $10 Kohl's Cash coupon that I needed to use as it expired on the 5th also. So I headed to Kohl's first & must have spent half an hour in there, looking around, trying to figure out what to buy. I finally just ended up with another workout shirt.......boring, I know......that's why I didn't take a picture of it, hehe.

Anyway, off to Salvation Army I went. When I arrived, there were tons of police cars & they had most of the parking lot taped off. I was almost afraid to get out of my car, but right in front of where I parked, a guy was talking to another man so I asked him what was going on. Would you believe......they were ROBBED!! Who on earth robs a Salvation Army store??? The guy I was talking to was the one that got robbed.....he was working in the backroom & somehow, the robber came in through the back & got the cash out of the safe. Apparently, they caught his getaway 'ride', but didn't catch the robber (or at least they hadn't before I left). The scary part is, if I wouldn't have gone to Kohl's first, I may have been in the store when this all happened!

ETA: Update on the robbery: My dh just told me that the robber was killed by the police! Apparently, a confrontation erupted between him & the police & the police officer shot the man! WOW! I did NOT see a body anywhere when I was there. I did see the stuff that was in the parking lot (if you look at the video clip on this link: Officer Shots, Kills Robbery Suspect, you can see clothes & stuff scattered about). They also caught the other guy that carjacked a person & he's now in jail. Truly scary!

They did allow me to still shop, but I didn't stay for very long.....just long enough to find this:

A cute little metal mannequin/dressform thing. I'm not exactly sure what I'm going to do with it yet, but I know I will be painting it......probably black. Cost for this cool find: $5.00.

Then today, we decided to go shopping at Gibraltor Trade Center as it's been probably a year or more since we've been there. There were some tables set up outside & at one of them, I found this awesome old camera. I was almost afraid to ask the guy how much he wanted for it.....figuring it would be $25, $50 or more. Would you believe.....he only wanted $7.00 for it?!? Needless to say, I grabbed it right away & now it's proudly displayed on top of my Expedit bookcase :)

Total spent on these great bargains: $46.50 which includes the magazine that I got for 50% off. Not too shabby, huh?

The house hunting isn't going as well as we had hoped. We looked at 2 more houses this weekend. The first one was nice, except for the fact that the landscaping needed a LOT of work plus Jim saw ants in the master bedroom crawling on the walls & it looked like they had a major leak somewhere in the finished basement as the carpet was stained & you could actually hear water coming from somehwere. I did like the way the house was arranged, though.....it had a BIG kitchen with a center island, a large family room & the master bedroom was downstairs, away from the other bedrooms, which I liked. The second house we looked at today was really nice, but the only drawback to that one was the neighbors were almost right on top of you! There was maybe 3 feet in between the side of the house & the neighbors back door! And then there was another neighbor almost directly behind it, so it would have been just too hard to teach the dogs which yard was ours. We have 2 more houses that we'll probably look at this week & if neither of those work out, then we'll probably end up taking the one we looked at a few weeks ago. Once we decide for sure, I'll be sure to post some pictures of it.

Hope you had a wonderful holiday weekend!
Benita

Happy Independence Day

Just a quick post to wish you & your families a very Happy Independence Day. May you have a safe & wonderful holiday weekend! God Bless all of our troops that are fighting for our country to give us this Independence Day!
We don't really have too much planned this weekend. Tomorrow (or should I say today since it's after midnight already), we're going to look at yet another home as we haven't heard anything back yet about the home we looked at the other night. Then we'll be having a cook-out & afterwards, heading to the gym before it closes (it's closing at 8:00 p.m. tomorrow for the holiday). I doubt that we're going anywhere to see fireworks (the ones in the picture above are actually from over Niagara Falls 2 years ago). Saturday, we may go play a little golf since we haven't been out yet this year & I'm also hoping to do some more scrapbooking this weekend.

Speaking of the house we looked at the other night......it was absolutely gorgeous! Over 3,000 square feet, a gorgeous & huge kitchen with granite countertops, a library (which I could have turned into my scrapbook room), a huge master suite with 2 walk-in closets & 3 more bedrooms upstairs, one that had it's own bathroom & the other 2 shared a Jack-n-Jill bath. Anyway, the reason I doubt that we'll get it is because there were several other couples looking at it as well. In the time we were there, 4 other couples showed up & she still had more coming that night plus quite a few the next day! So I'm not getting my hopes up on it & we're gonna still keep looking. Besides, I'm not so sure that I want to be that far away from where we're at now & it's a good 35-40 minute drive one way to work for Jim. And on top of that, we'd have to switch gyms since the one we belong to only has that one location & we love our gym :)

Toni asked me about the movie Wall E & how I liked it. It was cute, but for some reason, it wasn't what I was expecting. I don't know why, really. Jim & Cass really did like it, though. And I bet most kids will like it as well.

Anyway.....I guess this post turned out to be longer than I planned, so I'll stop here as my eyes are getting tired.

Happy 4th!

Benita

Where'd The Week Go?

Forgive me for being a bad blogger. I just haven't had much time to sit down & blog lately nor have I had much to talk about. Just been busy exercising, cleaning & scrapping a little as well. Saturday night, we decided to go to the drive-in to see Wall E & Get Smart. I haven't been to a drive-in in AGES (since I was a teenager), so I was really looking forward to it. And hey, I even grabbed my camera so I could take a picture of the sign to scrapbook :) The only thing that stinks is the closest drive-in to us is 40 miles away in Burton! But it was well worth the drive, especially seeing this beautiful sunset along the way:
Right when we got onto I-75, I told Jim to grab the camera & snap some pictures of the sunset. It was actually a little scary looking as we were also expecting some storms that night.
Here the sun is just peaking over the hill.
Give me a gorgeous sunset & I'm happy :)

This one is blurry, but I love how he got the flag in it!

Jim & I are still trying to decide if we're going to move or not in August. We found one house that we really like, but it's a little bit smaller than the house we're in now (about 400 square feet smaller). But it's newer, has a finished basement with a pool table & I just love the landscaping. We're also going to look at another house tomorrow.....only drawback on this one is that it's so far away & it's also near Selfridge Air Force Base, which would mean having to listen to planes all the time.....something we used to deal with when we lived in Virginia, but I'm not sure I want to deal with it again. But on the plus side, it's $300 cheaper a month than the other one. All I know is that we have to make a decision soon (within the next 2 weeks) about what we're going to do as we'll have to give a 30-day notice if we do decide to move. Why are decisions like this so hard???

That's all for now.....off to get some sleep.

Benita