Miracles DO Happen!

I called Barb today to see how everything was going & got some GREAT news....she is CANCER FREE!!! Thank-you God! This is exactly the miracle we all needed! Now she goes in on June 9th to start her reconstructive surgery, so I know that's going to be a long process. But it will hopefully be the ending to her battle! She has been so strong & brave through all of this & has truly been an inspiration to me. I'm so glad she's my sister!

In other news, I'll be starting my new job tomorrow as a merchandiser for a greeting card company :) They actually hired me over a week ago, but I had to wait for them to process all the paperwork before I could start. It's going to be a very limited part-time position, but I'm okay with that.....I just wanted something to get out of the house a couple of days a week anyway.....and the little bit of extra money won't hurt, either :)

Today, the 25th of April, marks my 2 year 'anniversary' since I started my weight loss journey.....it was 2 years ago today that Jim & I joined the gym. To date, I've lost around 60 pounds & numerous inches. And although most of that weight loss was within the first year & I haven't lost much since then, I have been maintaining my weight, so I'm very proud of that! I've had quite a few struggles along the way that have also prevented me from working out over periods of time, but hopefully, I've overcome them all now & I'm getting back on track. Speaking of which, I'm off to hit the gym now :)

Later,
Benita

Happy Easter

Happy Easter from my family to yours. I hope your Easter is filled with blessings & lots of joy.

My hubby picked up this beautiful Easter Lily for me the other day. I mentioned to him how we always used to get one for my Mom every year for Easter & he decided to continue the tradition for me. I only wish I was in Pennsylvania to put one on her grave :(

We have been having some AWESOME weather the past several days, temps in the 70's & even in the 80's which has caused some of my flowers to start blooming already. Here are my first flowers of Spring 2010.

And here is one of my Lilacs with buds on it already. Yep, I've been lovin' this weather! Sad part is, I'm afraid it won't continue.....afterall, this IS Michigan! And we've gotten that S word in April & even in May before! Hopefully that won't be the case this year, though.

Our Easter plans are pretty simple.....Church in the morning & then home to a relaxing day of laundry & cooking a ham. Sadly, I won't be seeing my granddaughter or even my son this Easter :( I'm pretty disappointed about that as this will be our first Easter that I haven't spent with either of them, not to mention my first Easter since my Mom passed away. But I'm going to do my best to enjoy the day as much as possible.....and try not to eat too much candy!

Happy Easter,
Benita

Fortune Cookie

Remember that bowling tournament that I talked about in my last post? After I bowled my highest series ever that Saturday (697), Jim gave me a fortune cookie with this fortune in it. Well.....this is the pay off:

$468.00 BABY!!!
$28.00 was for our team finishing in 6th place, $40.00 was for me finishing in 2nd place for all events with handicap & $400.00 was for 1st place singles handicap :) I just got the check last night & I just keep staring at it, lol. It's gonna be hard to take it to the bank.....but not that hard! I also found out that in June, I will be invited to an award ceremony thing where I will receive a USBC jacket with my 1st place embroidered on it. Heck, now I want the jacket more than the money!

A few weeks ago, Jim & I went to Gibraltor Trade Center & I had these decals made for my car.....one for Karen & Jimmy &......

....this one for my Mom......God, I miss her! I'd be lying if I said I was fine, but truth is, I haven't been :( I've just been trying my hardest to hide my pain.....from the internet, my sisters, my husband, my kids.....even myself! I haven't been doing any scrapbooking since my Mom passed away (other than her memorial board & the window that I altered). I just can't motivate myself for some reason. I wish I could! I know that they say 'time heals all wounds', but I guess I just need more time.

In other news, Jim ended up getting another new vehicle. Remember that Journey that we just bought a year ago? Well, we were having nothing but problems with it.....occassionally when you tried to unlock it, the panic alarm would go off instead & keep going off until you unlocked the door with the key & started the engine! The last time it happened, it was 6'oclock in the morning & I don't think our neighbors liked that too much! They also had to replace a cylinder in the engine that wasn't turning right, basically having to tear almost the whole engine apart to do it. Then we were having some issues with the ABS sensor & a wheel bearing went out. So needless to say, it was time to trade it in! Luckily, our sales person gave us an awesome deal on a 2010 Dodge Nitro & they also completely paid the Journey off. Can't beat that!

And I just love the chrome package that came with it. Jim said he could have lived without it, but I think it makes it look sharp.

See.....it even has a chrome gas cap.

And although the interior doesn't have all the little hidden storage compartments that the Journey had, the seats seem to be more comfortable & I love the way it rides....may not be as smooth as the Journey since it's 4 wheel drive, but I actually missed having that 'truck-like' feel.

Just another touch of chrome.

That's all for now.....I promise it won't be another month until I update my blog again.

Benita

Bowling Tournament

Before I start my post about the tournament, I wanted to post a prayer request for my Dad. He went into the hospital yesterday morning as the doctor told him he has a clogged artery in his leg. They were able to clear out the clog yesterday, but then the doctor said that when he was doing it, he found something in his stomach area, so they were going to check that out today. If you pray, could you please send up a prayer for him? As soon as I get some news, I'll update this post. I'm just so scared right now :(

UPDATE: They found an aneurysm in my Dad's stomach & are going to be doing surgery in about 2 weeks. He's going home today, but will continue to need lots & lots of prayers!

(the Black Team)
This past weekend (February 20th & 21st), I bowled in the Women's City Tournament & had SO much fun! I went in with a 179 book average (from last years league) & I'm very proud to say that I bowled over my average all 9 games! On Saturday, we bowled doubles & singles & usually I'm tired after 3 games, so I thought for sure I'd struggle doing 6 in one day. First was doubles.....my games were 182, 195 & 184 for a 561 series. Then we moved over one pair of lanes, didn't get to practice & I ended up shooting my highest series ever :) My games were 258, 257 & 182 for a 697 series! Yep, I knew I had a good shot at a 700 series & got extremely nervous, once again. But I am VERY happy with the way I bowled. I did end up winning $76.00 for my 697 series in the handicap jackpots......woohoo! Afterwards, we all went out to dinner & when I finally got home, I just relaxed on the couch & tried to watch the Olympics, but ended up falling asleep. I was pooped!

(Black & Red Teams)
Sunday was the team event & my fingers were killing me.....I could barely get them in either of my bowling balls! I started out having trouble trying to figure out the lanes, kept switching back & forth between the Zone & the Wild Ride & ended up with a 181 my 1st game & a 186 for the 2nd game. I finally called Jim after the second game & asked him what I should do. He told me that I either wasn't coming around the ball or I needed to move. Well, I don't even remember doing either of the things he suggested,lol, but I guess just talking to him helped because I ended up bowling a 248 my 3rd game for a 615 series :) I won another $24 in jackpots for my last game & then we all went out to dinner again. All in all, it was a great weekend....good times, good friends, good bowling, good food.....what more can you ask for? Oh.....cashing.....that's what else, lol. They haven't updated the standings yet & the tournament still has a few more weeks until it's over, but hopefully, I should cash in it.....keep your fingers crossed for me!

TOURNAMENT UPDATE: I just found out that I'm in 1st place for 2 things.....singles, division 1, handicap & all events handicap, division 1! Plus I'm in 8th for singles actual scratch & our team is in 5th place for handicap in our division! Now if I can just hold onto those spots for 2 more weeks!

That's all for now.....thanks in advance for the prayers for my Dad! I truly appreciate them!

Benita

Happy Birthday Dad!

Today, February 4th, this wonderful man in my life, my Dad, turned 82 years young! I called him tonight to wish him a Happy Birthday & he said "gee thanks.....I don't wanna get older!" LOL Then he said he was only 28 instead of 82. Gotta love him & his sense of humor :)

These pictures were taken last August when I went home. He's being silly in this one.....and as you can see, we're both HUGE Kasey Kahne fans :)

Love ya Dad.....hope you have a wonderful birthday & many, many more to come!

Benita

Altering Again

I've been having so much fun, going around the house, finding things to alter. This window is a project I've been wanting to do ever since it was given to me about a year & a half ago, but just never knew what I wanted to do with it.....that is, until now. I found a very old vinyl quote that I had purchased years ago & it worked perfectly.....using one word in each window pane.

I decided to make mini scrapbook layouts using family pictures. The first one is of my Mom, her parents & her house. I did it in black & cream colors papers using lots of Primas, bling, quotes & ribbons, all things that have been in my stash for months.....heck, years!


The top middle pane is of Shawn & his daughter then the one next to that is of Karen & Jimmy. You can see the glitter Welcome sign I have hanging on the edge of the window frame.

Then I used some old family photos, the first one was the 5 of us girls with our Dad on a bridge in Niagara Falls. I think I was 2 or 3 years old in that picture. Then a more grown-up picture, again of the 5 of us with our Dad. The pane in this part of the window is cracked, but I think it just makes it look even more loved.

The bottom middle one is of Jim & I & the last one is of my Mom & I.....I LOVE this picture of her & I together. It was taken Thanksgiving of 2004, 3 months after Karen & Jimmy were killed. I actually had to tickle my Mom to get her to smile for the picture.

The very bottom of the window is unpainted & I'm not sure what I want to do to it yet.....just let it go, paint it, add some embellishments to it.....hmmm. I have the window hanging in my scrapbook room in between the 2 windows & above one of my Expedit bookcases so I can look at it everyday. I'm so pleased with the way it turned out. Thanks so much for all the compliments on my flower jars & drawers....I've been really using my Primas a whole lot more since separating them that way.

I've also altered a lot of my B's that I have in my scraproom......I'll post pictures of them in my next blog post. Until then, thanks for stopping by.

Benita

I Did It!

A few months ago, after months & months of debating, I finally did it.....I sorted all my Primas by color & got rid of all those milk bottles! Yes, it was extremely hard to do, but I'm so glad I did it! (You can click on any of the pictures to enlarge them.)

I love the look of all the different types of glass jars. I purchased a lot of them at thrift stores, but also got some at Hobby Lobby, JoAnns & Michaels either on sale or using coupons.

I just love how much less cluttered my shelves look now, which means less to dust now, too :) I used a damask rubber stamp & black paint on my canvas boxes to dress them up a little as well (one of them is on the very top shelf & a little hard to see).

Over on the other wall are my ribbon & button jars. I picked up those penny jars, as they call them, at Target about 2-3 years ago, but I believe they still carry them.

Up on the very top shelf, I put some antiques, some of which belonged to my Mom. The wooden box has all of her school memorabilia in it & see those baby shoes.....they were my Moms! You may not be able to tell, but one of the shoes has a hole in it.....she said that he mom made her wear them until they literally fell apart! Now I just need to find the perfect baby picture of my Mom to put in the frame.

On the other side is an old milk bottle (also my Moms....we used to have a dairy not too far from our house that we always got our milk from.....boy, do I miss that milk!), an old scrapbook album along with an old camera & a Melissa Francis Bingo Card album. In the wicker basket I store my Making Memories rub-ons.

Another project that I just did this week was to 'alter' my Iris cart drawers so now you can no longer see all the 'stuff' in the drawers. All of the drawers are labeled (with the exception of a few that I need to relabel), so I know what's in them. I've been wanting to do this for a very long time, but just never got the time to do it.

The pattern papers are from The Paper Studio line sold at Hobby Lobby.....I've had them in my stash for a long time, but never wanted to use them, until now. I didn't want to use all the same papers on all the drawers, so I alternated between 2 different patterns. Since my room is mostly done in a black & white/cream damask design, I thought these papers were perfect!

I used my Xyron 900 to adhere the paper in the drawers.....I just ran it through upside down to put the adhesive on the front side of the paper. They're attached inside the drawers so they don't get messed up. I love the way they turned out & now I only wonder why it took me so long to do it!

Now.....what can I alter next? :) Hmmm (looking around my room, lol).

Have a great weekend,
Benita

My Word For 2010 - TIME!

TIME! Yep, that's my word for 2010! TIME!

Too often, I tend to waste a lot of TIME, sitting on the computer when I should be doing something else.....anything else. Too often, TIME passes by me too quickly! Too often, I tend to take TIME for granted & think I still have plenty of TIME to finish something I started. Truth is, TIME is very valuable! And if we're not careful, TIME will go by in a flash before we have the chance to grasp it!

This year, I will use my TIME more wisely! I will cherish my TIME more with my loved ones, something I wish I would have done more of these past 47 years! I will make more TIME for me! I will make more TIME for family! I will make more TIME for friends! I will make more of an effort to be on TIME this year!

We cannot turn back TIME, but we can make sure to treasure the memories of the TIME we've had! And I will be doing just that.....treasuring the memories I shared with my Mom! Treasuring the memories I shared with my sister Karen! And making new memories to treasure with Jim & the rest of my family!

TIME! One little word that means so much to me! What's your word for 2010?

Have a wonderful, happy & safe New Year!

Benita

Happy Birthday Mom!

Today you would have been 77, but God wanted you to come home 3 weeks before your birthday. He wanted you to spend Christmas & your birthday in Heaven. How can I disagree with that??? I can't! It was God's plan for you & even though I'm missing you like crazy, I know you're where you need to be right now.....in Heaven.....out of pain.....and happy!

I miss you SO much, Mom! I don't even think that it's really hit me yet. Since I've been battling the swine flu these past few weeks, my mind hasn't even been functioning properly with all the drugs I'm on! Yes, I know that 3 weeks ago today, you went to be with the Lord. But everything just seems like one big dream.....going to PA for the funeral, the funeral itself & even Christmas.....it just wasn't the same this year, not being able to call you & talk to you. I should also be calling you today, on your birthday. But reality is, I can't :( And it's that reality that is hitting me really hard right now!

Happy Birthday Mom! I love you......always!

Benita

Rest In Peace, Mom

Is anyone ever prepared for this day? The day you get that dreaded phone call from your sister at 4:00 am, telling you that your Mom passed away. How can you possibly prepare for that?

I not only lost my Mom this morning, but I lost my best friend as well! My rock! And a piece of my heart & soul!

She was the absolute BEST Mom in the world! I love you & miss you so much, Mom!

Rest In Peace, Mom.....you deserve it!
Mae Louise Seese
December 28, 1932 - December 7, 2009