'COLD' Day & Colts WIN!!!

Current Conditions Reported from Pontiac 02/05/2007 8:53 AM EST
Temperature: -4°F -20°C
Conditions: Partly Cloudy
Winds: WSW 10 MPH WSW 16 KPH
Relative Humidity: 71%
Barometer: 30.29 Rising
Visibility: 10.00 Miles 16.09 Kilometers
Feels Like: -20°F n/a

School was cancelled today, but not because of a snow day, but a 'COLD' day! Jim was watching the news last night & told me that Cassie may not have school today. I was like, okay.....why? Well, it seems that most of the schools in the surrounding areas were closed because of the cold. And last night, at 11:29 p.m., our district announced that they would be closed as well. Needless to say, Cassie was quite happy. And I didn't mind either because I got to sleep in :)

Jim is estatic right now that the Indianapolis Colts won the Super Bowl yesterday. YAY COLTS!!! Wooo-hooo! And what a game it was! I'll admit, I was a bit scared when the Bears scored a touchdown within the first few seconds of the game. But the Colts pulled it off & WON! Wish we could go to Indianapolis to celebrate.....that would be so cool! But we'll be going there in July to visit Jims' sister & go to the Brickyard.....can't wait!

Just a quick update today. Going to finish working on my scraproom this morning & then Cassie wants to go to the mall today since she doesn't have school. At least it's not snowing.....yet!

Have a fantastic Monday & stay warm!
Benita

Happy Birthday, Dad!

Today is the birthday of a very special person in my life....my Dad. Over the years, my Dad & I didn't have the best relationship, but in the past 2 1/2 years, it has really grown. And although it took an awful tragedy to bring my Dad & I back together, we are closer today than we've ever been before. I just wish I got to see him more often than I do, but with him living over 500 miles away, it's not easy. I took this picture of him back on August 29th right after we all visited the gravesite of Karen & Jimmy. As you can see, he's a big Kasey Kahne fan just like me :)

Today is also a sad day for Jim. It was 21 years ago that his Mom passed away. Sadly, I never got to meet her, but Jim tells me all the time that we would have gotten along perfectly. He claims that his Mom would have out-shopped me, too.....hmmm.....that would be tough to do!

Right now, it's freezing in Michigan.....the temp is only 3 degrees! So we'll be staying home all day, cleaning the house, doing some laundry & watching the Super Bowl tonight. I have some baby back ribs in the crock pot simmering away & although I don't eat them, they smell soooo good! Who knows, I may just have to try them :)

Back to cleaning....have a great Sunday,

Benita

P.S. GOOOOOOO COLTS!!!!! :)

February So Fast?

I can't believe that it's February already! Wow, where did January go? I actually like February for a lot of reasons:

One, it's a short month & once it's over, I know that Spring isn't far away.

Two, Jim & I met in February.....February 18th, to be exact. This year, we'll be celebrating 18 years of knowing each other.....hard to believe it's been that long already!

Three, my Dads birthday is on the 4th of February. But sadly, the 4th is also the day that Jims Mom passed away :(

Four, Valentine's Day is in February. I'm not a major fan of Valentine's Day, though. I just love all the red & pink everywhere.

Here's a picture of a Ty Beanie Baby Frog that I bought the other day. Isn't he cute? It's not for me, though. I'll be giving it to my Dad because it shares his birthday. Hopefully he'll get a kick out of it :) I also got him a pair of Kasey Kahne floor mats for his car (just like the ones I have in my Charger). I was going to mail his package to him, but it looks like I'll be going home next week (pending the weather) to see my Mom as she hasn't been getting any better. I just talked to my sister Donna in an IM this morning & she talked to Moms doctor yesterday. He said that she has an infection in her bones & the reason why he took her off the blood thinner was because she was bleeding internally. Not good! So now she risks getting blood clots, which also isn't good! The only good thing is that her house finally sold, so now she has the money to pay the nursing home, but it's going to be so hard going home & not really going 'home', if that makes sense.

That's all for now. Hoping to head out to The Scrapbook Zone today for their Freaky Friday sale, although I really don't need anything right now. I just need to get out of the house for a while.

Have a great weekend & GOOOOOO COLTS!!!!!
Benita

He Did It Again!

The way this man of mine shows me his love each & every day never ceases to amaze me. But then he goes & does something like this.....again. For the second year in a row, Jim got me roses on his birthday! He knew that I was disappointed yesterday because the gift that I ordered for him didn't come in yet, so I had absolutely nothing to give him for his birthday this year :( I ordered him a pair of bowling shoes at the end of October & thought for sure that they would be here in time. I had to special order them since he's left handed & they only stock these particular shoes for right handers, but they can be special ordered for lefties. But nope, they still aren't here. So then I thought I would buy him a new bowling ball that he mentioned he wants.....only problem is, that ball doesn't even get released until February.....just my luck! So when he came home from work yesterday with 2 dozen gorgeous red roses in his hands, I broke down into tears! I can't believe how lucky I am to have such a wonderful husband!

But not all was lost because Jim still had a good birthday yesterday. He only had to work part of the day since he's taking a training course this week, so he was happy with that. Last night, we went out to dinner at his favorite restaurant, Kalloways, & he ordered the Prime Rib. Gary, the owner, came over to see how we were doing & I told him that today was Jim's birthday, so he offered Jim a free dessert (they do that for everyone on their birthdays). But Jim was stuffed from the Prime Rib, so as we were walking out, Gary came up & handed Jim a very nice polo shirt with their logo embroidered on it. Plus he gave us 2 buy 1, get 1 free coupons for their Sunday Brunch. How cool is that? Jim & I haven't gone to their Sunday Brunch yet, but we've always wanted to check it out as we've heard it's awesome. So now we're going to try to go this Sunday.

After dinner, we brought Cassie back home & went to see the movie In Pursuit Of Happyness. EXCELLENT movie! If you haven't seen it yet, I highly recommend it. It really makes you grateful for what you have. And it makes you think about people that may not be as fortunate as you. Definitely a tear jerker, too, so make sure you bring some tissues (or get lots of napkins from the snack counter like I did, lol).

The other day, Lorrie tagged me on her blog & I'm just now getting to it. And although I've done this one before, I'll do it again :) I'm supposed to list 6 weird things about me....this should be easy, right?

1. I don't eat any meat except for bacon (but most of you already know this one).
2. I have very dry hands, but hate putting hand cream on them because I hate the greasy feeling that it leaves plus I'm constantly washing my hands because I can't stand for them to be dirty. I think I finally fixed the dry hand part, though......now I put it on at night with these gloves that help make the hand cream soak into my hands. Then I take the gloves off when I wake up & first thing I do is wash my hands :)

3. I'm always checking my car to make sure that no one hit it with their doors or a shopping cart whenever I go anywhere. And I'll take up 2 parking spaces, but I park down towards the end of the parking lot as to not be inconsiderate of other people. Hey, it's still a new car to me. Jim thinks I'm a little too obsessed with it sometimes. Nah, not me :)

4. When I'm bowling, I have to blow into my thumb hole before I put my thumb in. It gives me a little extra grip on the ball. Hey, I've seen some pro bowlers do it on live tv, so it can't be too weird, right? :)

5. All of the shirts in my closet are arranged by color (black, brown, purple, blue, green, yellow, orange/peach, pink, red, etc) & they have to be hung up all facing the same way. I even had to buy those non-slip hangers from HSN because I wanted my closet to look nice (not like anyone else but Jim or I sees it, though, lol).

6. I have more Prima flowers than probably 100 people could use in a lifetime! But most of you probably already knew that one, too :)

There you have it.....I could probably think of more than 6 weird things about me, though. hehe. Now I'm tagging the following people: Jennifer, Emily, Kelley, Sue, Carrie & Jewls. Have fun & I can't wait to read your lists :)

It's snowing (again!), which really stinks because Jim & I promised Cassie we'd take her to the mall today since she only has a half day of school due to finals, plus Jim has a haircut appointment at 1:00 & I wanted to go to Ikea as I need a few more things for my scraproom. I've been doing a little bit of rearranging the past couple of days.....once I'm done, I'll take some updated pics.

I can handle the snow, but it's the cold that I can't stand! On the way home from the movie last night, it was 3 degrees out at 9:15 p.m.! The sun did come out yesterday, but the temperatures kept dropping throughout the day. Lately, it's been snowing on & off almost every single day & that's just depressing. I just wish we'd get one big storm & get it over with! (Did I just say that? lol) My car is filthy right now & needs a bath BAD! Ah well, welcome to Winter in Michigan :)

Have a great Friday & wonderful weekend,
Benita

Happy Birthday, Jimmy!

This post is dedicated to my wonderful, caring & loving husband as he celebrates his 42nd birthday today. 42 already? When we met, you were only 24. I am so grateful to God for bringing the 2 of us together for there was no way we should have even met, but we did. Throughout the years, you've lost a little more hair & gained a few extra pounds ;) , but that hasn't stopped me from continually loving you. You are the kindest, most unselfish person I know & I'm so proud to call you my husband!

2 years ago, on your big 4-0 birthday, I made you a scrapbook album to celebrate your life & our life together (above is the first page in the album). I will never forget the look on your face when you opened it.....you were truly happy that I took the time to make you such a wonderful, thoughtful gift.

And now today, whenever I do a layout about you/us, you give me the best praise I could ever ask for. Just knowing that you love the scrapbook layouts I do is all the satisfaction I need!

Happy Birthday, babe! I'm looking forward to spending your next 42+ birthdays with you as well :) And yes, I know I'm still older than you......you don't have to keep reminding me ;)

Love & hugs,

Benita

Super Bowl Bound, Baby!!!

Jim is on cloud 9 right now! His hometown Indianapolis Colts are going to the Super Bowl, Baby!!! Wow, what an exciting game! We even missed the Apprentice last night because we were both into the game & forgot to TiVo it! Above is a photo of the game winning touchdown. I'm actually looking forward to watching the Super Bowl this year :) GOOOO COLTS!!!!!

Today I have a job interview with Tarjay :) I'm very nervous for some reason......probably because it's been over 5 years since I've worked. Yeah, that could have something to do with it, lol. But now that Jim's overtime has been majorly cut, I need to do something! Wish me luck!

I still haven't made it home to see my Mom yet as the weather hasn't been the best & then my son couldn't take off work this past weekend to go with me. So maybe we'll try again this coming weekend, pending the weather. I admit, I don't like driving in the snow, nor is my car the best in the snow! I talked to a nurse at the nursing home the other day & they said she was doing a little better, so please keep the prayers coming. Thanks.

Off to get ready for the interview.....have a great day,
Benita

Welcome Winter.....FINALLY!

I received a phone call from my sister Linda on Sunday night telling me that Mom isn't doing good at all right now. Apparently, she's not eating or taking her medications & they had to take her off of her blood thinner because her white cell count was too low. So now she risks the chance of getting blood clots. And from what Linda said, she's not in the right state of mind again, either :( They took her to the emergency room on Monday morning & while she was there, she had a spoon in her hand & asked Linda for a light.....she thought the spoon was a cigarette. So please, if you pray, can you keep my Mother in your prayers for me? Depending on how she feels today, I may leave tomorrow to go visit her for a few days. Shawn said he would go with me so that I don't have to drive alone since Jim can't go because he doesn't have any personal days available.
After having unseasonably warm temperatures lately, Winter decided to finally show it's face Sunday night. It started out with an ice storm & then last night, we got snow. The temperatures aren't supposed to get out of the 20's for the rest of the week, either. Right now, as of 11:00 am, it's a bone-chilling 16 degrees outside! Above is a picture of our River Birch (click on picture to see it better). For a few brief minutes this morning, the sun actually came out & I love the way it makes the ice just sparkle! But I doubt that the sun will be melting any of the ice anytime soon. Luckily, we weren't part of the 80,000+ people that lost power in Oakland County! Just one thing I love about our subdivision.....underground power lines :)
A close-up view of our River Birch.
This picture was taken yesterday of one of our neighbor's trees.
Here is our Clematis behind our garage filled with ice.

Cassie didn't have school yesterday due to the ice, so she enjoyed the 3 day weekend, as did Jim. We didn't get much done like we planned, though, so now I need to get busy around here. But I did work on a layout over the weekend, so that felt good :)

Till next time,

Benita

Goodies Galore & Meaningful Memories

Yesterday, I received my layout back from Scrapbook Trends along with this AWESOME package! When I first sent them my layout to be published, I was under the impression that they just sent you a copy of the magazine that your layout is in as compensation, so I was completely blown away by all the goodies that they sent....not only one, but TWO copies of the magazine, an SEI 2007 Calendar, some Calendar stamps, brads, eyelets & everything else pictured above. Now I need to start submitting with them more :)

The other day, Sophia posted a challenge for us to walk through our home & share photographs of gifts from others, things that speak 'you' in your home. I have several things that are very meaningful to me.....the first one is this clock that belonged to my Mom. Like me, my Mom loves clocks & loves hearing the chimes each hour. When I was home in August, my sisters were going through my Mom's things since the house was going to be sold & originally, Donna was going to take this clock, but she said it was too loud for her, so I asked her if I could have it. Now it's hanging proudly in my family room where I see it & listen to it every single day.

Another item that I will always cherish is this jewelry armoire. It belonged to my sister Karen & when she passed away, I asked her sons if I could buy it. I also have a few pieces of Karen's jewelry inside of it that I don't wear because I'm afraid of losing them. This armoire is in our master bedroom & although it doesn't match our bedroom furniture, I will NEVER part with it! I know I can't bring my sister back, but I can cherish the memories of her forever!

My Mom gave me these pictures a couple of years ago which I now have hanging in my scrapbook room. She had them hanging in her home for years & I remember when I was little, I always wondered who it was in those pictures. It wasn't until several years later that my Mom told me it was ME. Wasn't I a cute baby? :) And believe it or not, I still remember that dog that I'm holding.

This clown statue that my father gave me several years ago for Christmas is yet another meaningful item to me. It had no real meaning, really, other than the fact that it was a gift from my father & one I will always cherish. At the time, my father & I weren't on the best of terms with each other, so the fact that he even gave me a gift was meaningful to me! I proudly display this clown in my scrapbook room where I can look at it everyday.

These next 2 items may not seem like they would be meaningful to anyone else, but to me, they are. When Jim & I first got our granite countertops installed, I wanted a canister set that matched them. I found a set like these on ebay & since Karen sold Tupperware, I asked her if she would be able to get them. They were discontinued, but she searched & searched for me until she found me a set. I told her I was willing to pay whatever it costs for them if she found them & being the generous & loving sister that she was, she gave them to me at her cost & also found some other pieces that matched which she gave me for free. I will never part with these canisters because everyday that I use them, I'm reminded of my wonderful relationship with Karen & it brings a little tear to my eyes.

Lastly, this set of glasses is another item that sits on my countertops & they hold some very fond memories. When I was just a little girl, everytime I would go visit my grandma & grandpa, they would give me a drink in these glasses. They had several other glasses in their home, but I always had to have my drink in one of these. When they both passed away, my Mom had to have an auction to sell some of their things & the one & only thing that I asked her for were these glasses. Although I don't use them now, they bring back some wonderful childhood memories when I see them on my countertops.

Thanks Sophia for doing this challenge & letting me share some meaningful memories!

Have a great weekend......Jim is off work all weekend & on Monday, so we're hoping to get some things done around the house since they're predicting a snow storm......it's about time!

Benita

1st Pub In Print!

It's official......I'm published! :) When I got the email a few months ago from Scrapbook Trends asking me to send in this layout of my granddaughter, I was really excited! But now, after finally seeing it in print, I'm ECSTATIC! :) I went to The Scrapbook Zone on Friday for their Freaky Friday sale & they had copies of the January issue of Scrapbook Trends, so I just had to bring one home with me since I haven't received my copy in the mail yet. It's definitely a dream-come-true for me! And I just love the way they photographed the layout with the baby blanket & teddy bear.....too cute! Thank-you Scrapbook Trends for giving me this awesome opportunity & for making my dream come true! If you buy Scrapbook Trends, my layout is on page 148 :)
Here is the scan of the layout, although the edges got cut off.

Just a short entry today. Gotta get ready to go watch the new Apprentice. Have a great night,
Benita

Happy, HAPPY New Year!

2006 went out with a BANG.....literally! While driving to our friend's house for their New Year's Eve party, we had thunderstorms! THUNDERSTORMS! In Michigan in December! Talk about some wacky weather we've been having lately! And here I thought I only had to worry about thunderstorms in the summer! WRONG!

We had a GREAT time at the party! Played cards, ate, laughed, ate, toasted at midnight & ate some more :) I made over 200 Jello Shots & sadly, I still have over 100 left.....anyone want some? :) I also took a Peanut Butter Pie like the one pictured above.......LOVE these things! So creamy & yummy & extremely fattening! Oh well, time to make yet another new year's resolution to lose some weight :(

We left the party around 3:30 a.m. & took our time driving home since we knew there would be drunk drivers on the roads. I wasn't drunk, though.....I'm not really much of a drinker anyway & when I do drink, I never get drunk. Even with all the jello shots I ate, I still didn't get drunk :) We were sad to see the party end, but we knew we had to get home so that we could get some sleep before we had to pick Cassie up on New Year's Day.

Now it's time to get back into our routines, which is always hard to do at first after the holidays. The Christmas Tree is already down & most of the decorations are put away.....still have to take the stockings down off the staircase which I'll be doing today. Jim had to go back to work today & it was hard to wake up without him next to me this morning :( I got spoiled while he was home! And so did he! We would stay up till 1 or 2 in the morning & then sleep in until the dogs woke us up needing to go out. Cassie goes back to school tomorrow, but she's glad that she has an extra day off.

I'm hoping to start a new 'business' of sorts in the next few weeks. Once I get all the details worked out, I'll be sure to let you know.

Hope you have a fantastic New Year,
Benita