The 'Commercial'

Well, you can't actually see Jim (he said trust me, I'm back there in the distance, lol), but here is one of the two commercials that they filmed at his work. I just took pictures of it off of our tv, but if you happen to see the commercial & watch it carefully, you'll see some sparks in the background.....that's where he was :) I was in my scraproom when Jim saw it & he yelled for me.....gotta love TiVo as all he had to do was rewind it for me :)
These 2 guys are actors that probably don't even know a thing about the van, lol.
At the end of the commercial, Jim said that they had to keep wetting down the area to capture this 'look'. Don't you just love it when they show all those commercials of cars/trucks going through rain & snow, but yet they're still super clean? HA! Wish my car would stay that way!

So.....Jim's not an actual star to other people, but he is to me & that's all that matters :)

I found this husband/wife thing on another blog recently & thought it would be fun to do.....feel free to do it on your own blog as well & let me know if you do :)

What's his name? Jim, Jimbo, Jimmy ;)

How long did you date? 10 months & 6 days :)

How old is he? He just turned 43 on the 25th of January.

Who eats more? I'd say we eat about the same which, sadly, is too much :(

Who said "I love you" first? Believe it or not, we said it to each other at the same exact time :)

Who is taller? Me....by about 1/2-3/4 of an inch.

Who sings better? Me again.....he can't hold a note at all! Sorry babe, but it's the truth :)

Who is smarter? He wins this one.....he's currently going for his bachelor's degree & is always the one to help with our daughter's homework.

Who does the laundry? We do it together. You'll probably laugh at this, but I make him go down into the basement with me because I hate basements & that's where the washer & dryer are. I do all the sorting & load the machines, he usually folds & then we both put the laundry away.

Who does the dishes? The dishwasher ;) But we have some dishes that we was by hand & we share that chore.

Who sleeps on the right side of the bed? Right side? Hmmm.....if you're looking at the bed, then he's on the right side. If you're laying in the bed, then it's me. Does that make sense?

Who pays the bills? Me.....I've offered to let him do it before & for some reason, he refused, lol.

Who mows the lawn? He mows & I usually do the weedeater.

Who cooks dinner? We do it together.....it gives us an opportunity to talk to each other in the process.

Who drives when you are together? Me :) Need I say more? I LOVE to drive.....I even drove the moving truck when we moved from VA to MI. And Jim hates driving my Charger, so it's all MINE, MINE, MINE ;)

Who is more stubborn? Both of us! LOL

Who kissed who first? We kissed each other at the same time :)

Who asked who out first? Well, we met in a bar one night, so we never really 'asked' each other out.....we just hit it off & went from there.

Who proposed? Neither of us.....we just kind of decided to get married when my divorce was final.

Who is more sensitive? Definitely me!

Who has more friends? Probably him, since he has a lot of friends at work.

Who has more siblings? Me....I have 4 sisters, all older than me & he has a brother & sister, both younger than him.

Who wears the pants in the family? We both do.....jeans :)

Tomorrow, I'm doing my very first scrapbook/craft show & I'm SUPER excited about it, not to mention a little nervous as well. Wish me luck! And if you happen to be in the area, stop by & say Hi & feel free to buy something from me as well (hint, hint) :) It's being held at Scrapbook Emporium in Shelby Township, MI.

Then on Sunday, Jim & his team bowl in the finals for that tourney that I mentioned a few weeks ago. I may end up having to bowl, too as one of the guys has bronchitus, so that's just another thing I have to be nervous about.

Speaking of bowling......on Wednesday, I bowled my best game this year so far :) I started out with a 166 for my first game, then I had a 164 for my second. We ended up losing the first two games as we had to give up 131 pins in handicap! But then for the third game, I had the first 2 strikes, 9 spare in the 3rd frame & then 6 strikes in a row going into the tenth frame. I did everything exactly the same as I had been doing & ended up leaving an 8-10 pin split in the tenth :( If I had struck out, my game would have been 279, but I ended up with a 245, so I'm still happy :) Jim had to strike out in the tenth to tie me that game & he did (brat! lol). We did end up winning that game & taking totals, so we got 3 out of 7 points & we're still in first place :)

Hope you have a wonderful weekend & stay warm! It's currently snowing here (again!)!

Benita

"Lunar Eclipse Of The Heart"

Okay, so the song is actually called Total Eclipse Of The Heart, but I thought this title fit better :) We had a Lunar Eclipse tonight & I tried my hardest to get some good pictures of it, but for some reason, my zoon lens didn't want to cooperate with me :( I have no clue why.....it just wouldn't let me zoom in on the moon without making it all blurry. I don't think it got dropped or anything....Jim said he didn't even use it when he went to the Winter Blast in Detroit, but I'm wondering if the cold temperatures may have messed something up. Any good camera experts out there that would know?
Anyway, here are 2 of the shots that I was able to capture tonight. I didn't stay outside long through because it's FREEZING out there!

Tonight at bowling, I thought I was finally going to shot a 600 series for the first time this season. I started out with a 190 game, then a 232 for my second game & well, let's just say, I blew it :( I don't even want to tell you what my third game was, but I ended up with a 544 series, so you do the math. I was so depressed afterwards.....bowling can be such a mental game if you let it & well, that's exactly what I did! I'm going to start getting some lessons hopefully in a few weeks to try to figure out what I'm doing wrong this season. Last year, my average was 175.....this year, I'm barely holding onto a 169! Talk about depressing!

But on a more positive note, our team is in first place & has been for the past 3 weeks now :) We only have 6 weeks left of this league, so I'm hoping we can stay up there & possibly even win the league.....that would be awesome since this is our first year on this league!

Well, I'm off to bed.....I have a busy day ahead of me as I'm going to go get a perm tomorrow. I like the new haircut I got, but it's been such a pain to style & takes even longer than it did with a perm! So, back to curly hair I go :)

Til next time,

Benita

February 18, 1989

The date was February 18, 1989. The place: Adam's in Virginia Beach, Virginia. My friends & I decided to go out to have a few drinks & do some dancing. Never in a million years would I have thought that I would meet the man of my dreams that night.....my soulmate.....my best friend! But 19 years ago today, that's exactly what happened. He came into the bar with his friend Brian & as he walked by my table, he winked at me & well, let's just say, the rest is history :) The ironic thing about it all is that it was snowing & we ended up with a foot of snow.....in Virginia Beach! When Virginia Beach gets an inch of snow, everything shuts down! LOL But we kept the bar open & danced the night away :) Afterwards, we went to my friend's apartment to play cards & then around 5:30 a.m., we went to Wendy's for some breakfast. 10 days later, we went to see Bon Jovi in concert as a radio station was giving tickets away & I won them (maybe someday, I'll admit to what I had to do to win those, lol) & then in April of '89 (yes, only a month & a half after we met), we moved into an apartment & we've been together ever since.

It's been a wonderful 19 years & as I sit here on my computer, reminiscing, I look outside my window & see it snowing again. Even though we're not in Virginia anymore, I think it's kinda neat that it's snowing today (although I'm fed up with Winter right now & ready for Spring, lol!).

This weekend has been a really exciting weekend. Yesterday, one of my favorite drivers, Ryan Newman, got around Tony Stewart to win his first Daytona 500! WOOHOO!!! I kept yelling at the tv for Ryan to pass him & he did :) I called my Dad right away & he was so happy, too.....him & I like the same 2 drivers.....Kasey Kahne & Ryan Newman :) And not only did a Dodge win the Daytona 500, but 6 out of the top 8 places were all Dodges! That in itself is something to celebrate!

On Saturday, Jim & his team bowled in the Mid Michigan tournament & are going to the finals on March 2nd......YAY!!! As of right now, they'll win at least $200, but 1st place would be so much better.....$2,500!!! The guys were so psyched & bowled their best to get this far. They ended up having to bowl 5 games that day, which made for a very long day, but it was so worth it!

Tonight, Jim & I are going out to dinner to celebrate our 'anniversary' :)

Have a great Monday,

Benita

From My Funny Valentine :)

Jim didn't get off work until 8:30 p.m. last night, but on his way home, he stopped by a Hallmark store to get me a little something for Valentine's Day. He knows that we can't afford much right now, but he said he had to do something for me :) He got me the cutest little Beanie Baby, a heart shaped paperweight/picture frame & a gorgeous card.
Jim knows how much I love pink & brown together, so when I saw this beanie, it was PERFECT! If I could, I'd paint my scraproom pink & brown, but I'm not sure how much our landlords would like that :)
As soon as I opened the card, the first thing I asked him was if I could use that heart on a scrapbook layout! LOL It's so cool.....it's beaded & has a crystal dangling from the bottom! Since he didn't like the idea of tearing the card apart to put it on a layout (dang!) he did agree that I should hang it from the mirror in my car, which is exactly what I plan on doing. It's just too pretty to just stay in a card, don't ya think?

While Jim was at work, I did some baking :) I had these heart shaped Reese's Peanut Butter cups that I bought last year (luckily, they were still good) & made little heart-shaped peanut butter cookies with them.....just like the ones I make at Christmas using the round Reese's.

Aren't they adorable? And they're so yummy, too.....you'll just have to trust me on that one :)

Today, I'm thinking about going out to the Zone for their Freaky Friday sale just to see what new stuff they have in. Then tomorrow, Jim bowls in the Mid-Michigan tournament (the one where he finished in second place 2 years ago). I was going to bowl in it, but since I've been having a bad year this year, I decided to get someone to bowl for me. I'll still be up there cheering them on, though. Sunday is the Daytona 500, so you know where Jim & I will be.....glued in front of the tv! YAY!!! The Boys Are Back In Town!!! The Boys Are Back In Town!!!

That's all for now.....have a great weekend!

Benita

Happy Valentine's Day

For Valentine's Day this year, I made my dh this mini heart album & I'm so happy with the way it turned out :) I ended up giving it to him last night because he'll be working late tonight as they're filming a commercial at work & he just informed me that he's going to be an extra in it! How cool is that??? That is, if the commercial makes it on tv. He said they've done them there before & he has yet to see one of them on tv. I told him that this may be his chance at stardom ;)

Anyway, here is the inside of the mini album. I used so many different things in it.....a lot of the stuff I've had in my stash for YEARS, so it felt good to use some of that up :) You can click on each image to enlarge. The papers are all from My Mind's Eye Kiss & Tell Collection.

Pages 1 & 2: All of the pictures in this album were taken just the other night when Jim & I were playing around with the camera.
Pages 3 & 4: Here I used a Basic Grey rub-on (the heart with wings) & overlapped it with a rhinestone heart that I found in my stash....it fit perfectly! I also used some Queen & Co felt border & made it into a swirly.
Pages 5 & 6: I found an old little heart lace doily in my stash which worked perfect for the book & I used another heart rhinestone on top of that. I also added rhinestones to the lace trim at the bottom. The X & O are chipboard which I stickled.....I like calling my Stickles that :)

Pages 7 & 8: I also stickled the chipboard hearts on this page, used some fiber down the center of the 2 pages, more Queen & Co felt border with rhinestones, a clip that's been in my stash as well as Primas.

Pages 9 & 10: I put a Heidi Swapp ghost heart outline overtop the picture which I painted with Making Memories Glaze & I stickled the swirlies on the cupid....wish they showed up better in the picture cause they look really cool!

Pages 11 & 12: Lots of different things on these 2 pages.....AC Thickers, Primas, HS flower, MM Love Story chipboard heart, rhinestones & a sparkly heart sticker that was in my stash.....don't even know who makes it or where I got it from, it's that old!

All I did on the back was a Basic Grey Happily Ever After rub-on. I may add more.....just not sure what.

I also made a Valentine's Banner that I planned on hanging in our home, but that didn't work out the way I wanted it to :( Since I made it double-sided, I was hoping to hang it in the entryway so you could see both sides, but it's top heavy which made the hearts turn upside-down. Ah well.....he's some pictures of it anyway:

I used Basic Grey Blush papers (I still love that stuff.....it's my absolute favorite line from BG!), lots of Primas & rhinestones, chipboard & stickles.

Not sure if you can tell if you enlarge this picture or not, but I stickled all of the dots in different colors on the "Sweet" heart in the middle.....it looks so cool!

Now for a Valentine MeMe that Sophia posted on 2 Peas a few days ago:

1. What's one physical charateristic that you love about your mate? Definitely his eyes & his smile.....those 2 features are what attracted me to him in the first place :)

2. What's one personality trait that stands out about your mate? His wacky sense of humor....he can always get me to laugh.

3. How long have you been together? On February 18th, it'll be 19 years. Married? 18 years as of last Christmas Eve.

4. Would you say that you loved your husband first for his brains, his brawn or his bankbook? Definitely not his bankbook....he was in the Navy when we met, lol. I'd have to say his brawn.....like I said above, his eyes & smile immediately caught my attention :)

5. Did you pick out your ring or did he surprise you with it? He surprised me with it :)

6. How did you choose where to be married? Since we got married on Christmas Eve, we weren't able to find a church to get married in, so we got married in our condo by a US Navy Chaplain.

7. How is your marriage different than it was the day you married? We're older & chubbier, lol ;) It's stronger & keeps growing stronger each & every day. It's not perfect (whose is???), but we've battled through so many obstacles together & refuse to let them break us!

8. What do you love the most about your mate? He's an optimist & can see the good side in everything!

9. What's something that you do to keep your marriage happy? Always telling each other "I love you" throughout the day. In the morning when he kisses me before he leaves for work & again when he calls me from work to let me know he made it there safely, when he calls me during his lunch hour, first thing when he gets home from work, whenever one of us goes somewhere without the other (quick trip to the store, etc.) & when we go to bed. We also kiss & hug each other quite frequently.....you can never have too many hugs & kisses :)

10.List one word to describe your mate for every year that you've been together. Humorous, Smart, Kind, Caring, Honest, Affectionate, Hard Worker, Handsome, Optimistic, Dependable, Strong, Devoted, Loyal, Cuddly, Romantic, Fun to be around, Friendly, Wonderful Father & Husband, Lovable.

There you have it.....feel free to do it on your blog as well.

Happy Valentine's Day.....hope it's a great one!

Benita

Winter Blast, Detroit

(click on each image for a better view)

Today, Jim & Cassie braved the frigid cold weather to go to downtown Detroit to see the Ice Sculptures. I, on the other hand, went shopping :) He did manage to get some really good pictures of the sculptures (although they would have been better if I had taken them, lol). The temp only reached 5 degrees today, but that doesn't count what it felt like with the wind chill. I personally think they were nuts for going down there! I'm freezing just looking at these pictures! Right now, it's -1 outside, so I think I'll make this post short & sweet so I can go curl up into my nice warm flannel sheets :)

The sculpture above is the Detroit Red Wings logo.....Hockeytown, USA baby!

Detroit Pistons.
This one's for Emily.....the Detroit Tigers :) Hopefully they'll go all the way this year!
This is Jim's favorite......the Detroit Lions.....I'm still trying to figure out why he likes them so much, lol.
The "Thinker".....Jim can't remember exactly what he's called, so that's what he called him, lol.
MGM Grand Casino Lion.
Slot Machines.
Roulette (did I spell that right?) Wheel

Chrysler Steering Wheel.

Chrysler Logo.

Spirit of the D? Emily, maybe you can tell me for sure what this one is?

Hard Rock Cafe.

Each sculpture even had lights behind them, so I bet they were really neat to see at night, although I'm not about to drive down there to find out!

Tomorrow, I have to call the dealership to see if they can check the tires on my Charger. On the way home from shopping, the tire low pressure light came on & I checked them all & they seem fine. We put nitrogen in our tires when we first bought the car as it's supposed to be better for the tires, so it's not like I can just go to a gas station to put air in them. I'm just hoping that it's just from the cold weather we had today......anyone know if the cold can affect your tire pressure? I did hit a big pothole today, so I hope that didn't mess anything up as the steering felt really tight today, too. I swear, there seems to be new potholes in the roads showing up everyday now & it'll be months before they fix them!

I didn't get a chance to paint my wire tray from Target yet since I'll have to do it in the garage & it was just too cold this weekend to attempt it. So I guess it's staying green for a while. I did put my Queen & Co felt ribbons on the bottom, my Bazzill Blossoms on the middle & my 2 lonely 7 Gypsies stamps on the top tier. I'm still not sure if that's what I'll use it for or not, but it just looked so empty that I had to put something in it :)

The other day, I was tagged by Darcey.....yeah, I'm a little behind :)

You must post the rules before you give your answers. You must list one fact about yourself for each letter of your middle name. Each fact must begin with that letter. If you don't have a middle name, just use your maiden name. After you've been tagged, you need to up-date your blog with your middle name and answers. At the end of your post, you need to tag one person for each letter of your middle name. (Be sure to leave them a comment telling them they've been tagged and need to read your blog for details).

L - Loyal

Y - Young at heart ;)

N - Nice....at least I hope people know I am :)

N - Naughty :) Hey, it's late & I'm tired, lol.

I'll tag: Lorrie, Emily, Jewls & Staci :)

Well, I hear my flannel sheets & down comforter calling my name :)

Off to get warm,

Benita

Edited to add: I have no clue why everything is running together in this post.....for some reason, blogger won't let me space between paragraphs :(

Ice Ice Baby!

Tonight we made plans to do some shopping & as we were headed out the front door, Jim told me that I needed to take some pictures of the ice on our trellis out front. I didn't even know that it looked like this (goes to show you how much I go outside in the winter! lol), so I ran to grab the camera to get some pictures of it before it got dark. We have our very own ice sculpture in our front yard :)
This weekend, there's an ice sculpture show in downtown Detroit & we're thinking about going to it.....Jim really wants to go & I wouldn't mind it, except for the fact that it is in downtown Detroit. I guess he's seen some pictures of it on the news & the sculptures are supposed to be huge. Maybe I'll change my mind by morning cause if we do go, it'll have to be tomorrow as it's only supposed to be in the teens for a high on Sunday! BRRRR!!!
Have you seen this cool metal tray at Target yet??? I read about it on 2 Peas & since Target was one of the stops we had to make tonight, I decided to see if they had any of them. Well, as you can see, somehow, it jumped into my shopping cart & came home with me :)
It's called a Steel Wire Dessert Holder & the best part.....it was only $14.99. I plan on putting it to use in my scraproom, once I find a place to put it, that is. I will be painting it a different color.....just not sure what color yet. Probably either black, pink or white to match most of the elements in my room. I thought about cream since I have 2 other wire baskets that color, but they don't really match the room, either, so I might as well paint them while I'm at it, too.....right? :) Now.....to decide what I'm going to store in it.....decisions, decisions. I thought about my rubber stamps, but I like the way I store them now. Maybe my acrylic stamps? Stamp pads? Queen & Co felt? Primas? ;)

Jim & I were playing around with the camera again tonight as I need some new pictures of us to scrap :) I also wanted some of him without his glasses on.

The picture above is for Lorrie :) She requested a picture of my new hairdo & well, here you go, girl. Like I said, I still have a LOT of curl left on the sides & back, but I have to use a curling iron on the top right now. I'll probably get a body perm in a few months to solve that problem, though.

2 Peas blog challenge: "What are you scrappin plans today?" I'm hoping to start working on some more projects for an upcoming event that Cindy & I are doing. I have a LOT of stuff to do & very little time to do it all in! I'll share the details once it gets closer.

I'm off to bed.....hope you have a fabulous weekend & stay warm!
Benita

I Was RAKed By Prima!

The other day, I received a comment on my blog from Sharyn (Torm) requesting my email address. So, I emailed her & she asked if it was okay for her to give out my email address to someone else.....she said that she promised it was good. Needless to say, I was left in suspense & had no clue who would want to email me. Turns out, it was Sharon Laakkonen from Prima :) Apparently, she saw my scraproom on 2 Peas & my love for Primas & wanted to send me a little "goodie box, just because". She said that I even have more Primas than she does :) And what an awesome goodie box it was! Above is a picture of everything she sent me.....a bottle of Valentine Got Flowers, some Daisy Crazy Flowers, a package of Quick Pick flowers, a package from the Black Tie Collection, a package of Whispers wings, a Vintage Bloom metal tin, some of the Mini Me Primas plus some chipboard & inks which I didn't even know that Prima made. Thank-you so much Sharon.....you truly brightened my day on this very cold, wintry day in Michigan!
Last night & today, we were under another Winter Storm Warning & this time, the weatherman came through. Jim & I had to attend a meeting last night near Royal Oak (which is about a 45 minute drive on a regular day) & just as we were leaving to come home, it started raining. The further north we got, it was turning into ice & then as we got close to home, it was a mixture of ice & snow. We saw 1 car in a ditch & 3 more that had hit the median wall. Very scary!

When I woke up this morning, I saw our pine trees weeping from the weight of the ice (pictured above). We got a little break from the snow this morning, but around 11:00 a.m., it started coming down again & didn't stop until later this evening. Jim & I had to bowl today, too, so that was a fun driving experience......NOT! We didn't get above 20 mph on I-75 on the way home! From the time we got to the bowling alley until the time we left (3 hours later), we had 3 inches of new snow on our car.....it was literally snowing an inch an hour! Thank goodness we made it home safely cause the roads were a complete mess! After clearing all the snow from our driveway & sidewalk, we spent the night inside, staying warm & dry.
The other day, Maureen gave me a blog award :) She rated me as one of her Top 10 favorite blogs.....how sweet is that? So now I'm going to pass the award on to some of my Top 10 favorite blogs (in no particular order):

1. Emily. When I was working at the Zone, I got to meet Emily IRL & she is just one of the sweetest, nicest people you could meet plus a really good scrapbooker to boot!

2. Kim. I actually 'met' Kim through the AOL Scrapbooking Message Boards & she is always so nice & cheerful.

3. Lorrie. Although I haven't met Lorrie in person yet, I feel like we've been best of friends for years! She lives in VA, so one of these days when we go back down there to visit, I will meet her!

4. Staci. Staci is such a warm & caring person who I've had the pleasure to meet when I was working at the Zone. She's been dealing with & handling so many things since losing her husband & my heart just breaks for her.

5. Jewls. Jewls & I have known each other for several years....we first met online when we both collected Beanie Babies & she was the one that took me to my very first crop which got me hooked on scrapbooking :)

6. Sue. Sue also used to work at the Zone & she was so much fun to work with.

7. Kris. Kris is a member of the Zone's DT & I just love her work!

8. Brooke. Another ex-employee at the Zone that I became friends with.

9. Kip. Kip's blog is always so cheerful & she's so fun!

10. Stacey. Although she hasn't updated her blog in a while (hint, hint, lol), Stacey taught me the ropes of teaching at the Zone & helped me to not be so nervous :)

Well, there you have it.....just some of my favorite blogs/friends.

Tomorrow, Cindy & I are planning on going shopping, but we're going to wait & see if they get the roads cleared good enough first. So I better get some sleep just in case. Have a great night.

Benita

The Giants Win & So Do We :)

I honestly didn't care who won the Super Bowl this year, but my dh was rooting for the Giants.....he likes to go with the underdog :) I came into my scraproom to check my mail (since we had to cancel our Super Bowl party) & Jim started yelling because the Giants scored, but then he started yelling again.....all I thought was maybe they scored again. He ran into my scraproom saying "the Giants won & I won!" At first, I thought he was joking around with me, but nope.....he showed me his football pool sheet & yep, he won......$240.00!!! WooHoo!

I finished this layout last week, but kept forgetting to post it, so here it is.

I used the new Making Memories Chelsea's Place papers from Michaels along with AC Velvet Thickers & felt winter snowflakes, rhinestones, Jolees snowflakes & some Let It Snow ribbon that I've had in my stash forever. Sorry the pictures are so dark.....my scanner doesn't work right now plus we haven't had any sun in a while to take a decent shot of it & the flash would have just glared on the pictures.

Yesterday was the UAW bowling tourney & I thought I'd bowl good in it since the lanes were synthetic. Boy, did I think WRONG :( My first game was decent (177), but it went all down hill from there (155 second game & 135 for the third). I ended up sticking on the approach in the 9th frame of the second game & that just really messed me up for the rest of the day. I gotta stop letting stuff like that get to me! Jim, on the other hand, bowled REALLY good.....his games were 243, 224 & 227 for a 694 series :) We didn't do too bad as a team, but we won't know if we placed for quite a while yet.

Tomorrow, the 4th, is my Dad's 80th birthday. I know it's hard for him to believe that he's lived to see 80, but I knew he would make it :) He just has this spirit about him....a spirit for life! Happy Birthday, Dad.....I wish I could be there with you to celebrate it! But since I can't, I'll be watching a lot of QVC for their scrapbooking shows. I'm going to try my hardest not to buy anything......although.....we-did-just-win-some-money.....hmmm. I hear QVC calling my name ;)

Til next time,

Benita