Happy Birthday To My Granddaughter

Would you believe that tomorrow, May 31st, this precious little girl, my granddaughter, is going to be 4 years old?!? 4!!! How the heck did 4 years go by that fast??? I have no clue if I'm going to see her tomorrow :( Shawn is back in town from Florida (heck, he's been here since Tuesday & I haven't even seen him yet!) & he told me that Toni is having a party for her at Ceasarland, but I haven't received an invitation since her parents are going to be there :( You see, her parents & I don't get along at all! They don't like Shawn so that means that they can't like me, either. So once again, we'll be the grandparents that get left out of the activities. I haven't even seen her since Easter! So yes, I'll admit, I'm sitting here crying as I type this, just thinking about this beautiful little girl. I just want to be a part of her life so badly! And it's just not fair!
Okay, I'm going to stop crying & change the subject. Today when my package arrived from the Epson Store (I finally used some of my $45.00 credits from their ink settlement), I looked out & saw that my Clematis is blooming. Only one full bloom on it so far, but there's buds all over it & this one is set to bloom any time now:
Today was my weekly weigh-in day & I'm very happy to report that I'm down another 2.2 lbs. for a total weight loss of 8.4 lbs.! YAY ME!!! I also worked my butt off at the gym today, doing 42 minutes on the treadmill, 30 minutes on the weight machines & 20 minutes on the elliptical. I just know that having my iPod & listening to music while I'm working out has really helped to keep me going & motivate me.

Thank-you so much for all of the iTunes suggestions. If you have anymore, please feel free to leave me a comment with a list of your favorite songs. Here's my list so far (just the ones that I purchased from iTunes):

Free Your Mind - En Vogue (thanks Tracy!)
Walking On Sunshine - Katrina & The Waves (thanks Tracy!)
U & Ur Hand - Pink (thanks Tracy!)
It's Raining Men - The Weather Girls
Super Freak - Rick James
I Wonder If I Take You Home - Lisa Lisa & Cult Jam
Gonna Make You Sweat (Everybody Dance) - C+C Music Factory
Jump Around - House Of Pain
Pump Up The Jam - Technotronic
C'Mon N' Ride It (The Train) - Quad City DJ's
Good Vibrations - Loleatta Holloway
Finally - Ce Ce Peniston
Hung Up, Sorry & Jump - Madonna (thanks Linda!)
Take Your Time - The S.O.S. Band
And The Beat Goes On - Whispers
No Parking (On The Dance Floor) - Midnight Star
The Groove Line - Heat Wave
Lovergirl - Teena Marie
Push It - Salt-n-Pepa
Baby Got Back - Sir Mix-a-lot
Walk This Way - Run DMC
Freak On - StoneBridge vs. Ultra Nate
Double Dutch Bus - Clueless
4 Minutes - Madonna
Sexy Back - Justin Timberlake
Shake Your Groove Thing - Peaches & Herb
Stomp! - The Brothers Johnson
Instant Replay - Dan Hartman
Disco Nights - Rock Freak - G.Q.

I also put several of my albums on my iPod......Godsmack, Linkin Park, U2, Metallica, Michael Jackson, NIN, Backstreet Boys, Bobby Brown, Boyz II Men, Janet Jackson, Paula Abdul & The Village People :) Can you tell that I'm stuck in the 80's? So if you can think of anymore good 80's disco songs that I've missed, please let me know by leaving me a comment.

Thanks & have a wonderful weekend!

Benita

Happy Memorial Day!

Yeah, I realize that Memorial Day is almost over & I'm just a little bit late wishing everyone a happy one, but I've had an extremely busy weekend & just haven't had the time to sit down & update my blog until now. Thursday & Friday, I did a yard sale & I'm happy to report, I made $400.00! WOO-HOO! At first, it was only $340 & then on Saturday morning, a lady came back & bought 2 full boxes of Beanie Babies from me for $60.00. Not sure if that was a smart move on my part, but I just wanted to get rid of them once & for all!

I sold all 14 of my old scrapbook albums for $5.00 a piece plus some scrapbook supplies, paper & I even sold one of my handmade caddies :) I decided to put them in the yard sale since I haven't had much success on Etsy. I received a LOT of compliments on them throughout the 2 days, which really made me happy! So with my hard-earned money, I splurged on myself & bought one of these:

Meet my new workout buddy.....an Ipod Nano :) I had an old Ipod, but gave it to our dd a while back since she finally decided that she wanted one. She kept saying she would never buy an Ipod because she liked her portable CD player. Boy, how teenagers change their minds, huh?

Anyway, I decided that I needed my own Ipod to take to the gym because the music at the gym.....well, let's just say.....it stinks! Sometimes there's some good songs on, but I just can't seem to get into most of the songs they play there. I just bought the Ipod yesterday, loaded up my songs on it last night & then today was it's trial run at the gym. Remember about 2 months ago when we purchased an Elliptical & I couldn't even do more than a minute or two on it? Well, tonight, I did.......20 minutes on the elliptical!!! I couldn't believe it! And it felt really good! Although I was exhausted afterwards. But I just know that listening to the music on my Ipod pushed me even harder :)

Now, I need some help......music help, that is. I want some upbeat, dancing type music for my Ipod & would love any suggestions you may have. You can either post them in a comment on my blog or email me (see sidebar for email)......let me know what your favorite dancing, hip-hop, movin' music is. I need some TUNES! :) I already have things like Sexy Back, 4 minutes, Double Dutch Bus (lol), Push It & a lot of Janet Jackson's songs. But I need MORE! What's on your playlist that you exercise to?

Off to finish watching the Red Wings, although I'm kinda, sorta, just a little bit secretly pushing for the Penguins (hey, they're my hometown team!). But I'll always be a Wings fan, too :) Before the lady bought the beanies from me, I got the 2 Penguins out of the box & have them displayed on top of our tv. I don't think Jim has even noticed them there yet ;)

Benita

The Other End

Thought I would finally share some pictures of the other end of my scrap space. As of right now, this is where our dining room table is, although that may change as I've been wanting to move the dining room into the actual dining room area & move the 3 bookcase cabinets I have down into this room, but the only problem with that is that they would have to go along the railing (close-up picture below of that area) which means they would block off seeing the kitchen area a lot.
Our home is a tri-level, which I really like....you have a few steps going down into my scrap area & then the kitchen, dining room & living room are on the main part, then some steps that lead to the upstairs. In this picture, you can see my Expedit & beyond that, is the garage entrance as well as a 1/2 bath & the door to the basement.
Here is the railing I was referring to. The cabinets I want to put here are tall so they would block this railing & probably some of the light, so that's why I've been debating the changes. I know that once I do move the bookcases here, Jim won't want to move them back if I don't like them in this area. MEN! :)
Here are the windows in my scrap space. I love how much light I get in this room as well as the view of all the trees & birds! As you can see, my Target cube paper holders are between the windows.

If you haven't noticed yet, I added a new link to my sidebar: Our Journey. Toni & I are doing a blog together about our weight loss journey to support each other along the way :) She emailed me shortly after I joined the gym & told me that my recent posts about losing weight have inspired her & she also joined a gym as well as Weight Watchers. How cool is that?!? I inspired someone else :) So we decided that we wanted to support each other & thought that doing a blog about our weight loss would not only give us the support we need, but it would also hold us more accountable of ourselves. So feel free to check it out if you'd like. We're both going to do a weight loss album as well, so we'll probably be posting those pages on the blog. I know I started a weight loss album a few years ago, but it never had an ending.....that is, until now! That will change & this album will have a happy ending this time :)

Have a Happy Hump Day!

Benita

Good Monday Morning

Not much new on the homefront. Still working out, still struggling with my weight :( I didn't lose any weight last week, BUT, I didn't gain any, either, so that's a plus, right? Yesterday, I really pushed myself at the gym on the treadmill.....I got my speed up to 3.8 & did 2 miles in 32.58 minutes :) I have to slow down about every 1/4 to 1/2 mile to get a drink of water, but then I crank it right back up. I know I won't be able to do that speed everytime, but even if I can do it once a week, I'll be happy with myself :)
On Saturday, we had the most beautiful, puffy clouds & well, you know me, I just had to take some pictures of them. Some of them looked like they were coming down on you.....like you could almost reach out & touch them! Jim thinks I'm nuts when I take pictures of clouds, but what does he know? ;)
I'll be doing another yard sale this coming Thursday & Friday. Our next-door neighbors are going to be doing one, so she asked me if I wanted to join in. Heck, why not.....I still have a bunch of stuff out in the garage that I want to get rid of & the money's always nice. Now if the weather would just warm up! Here it is, the 19th of May and we're still running our heat at night! Sometimes even during the day! This is nuts! Right now, it's only 41 degrees out! BRRRR!!!

Ah well, I'm done rambling for today :) Have a Happy Monday!

Benita

Sharing Some Layouts

I decided to share some of the layouts that I actually did a few weeks ago. I just love how the one above turned out. When I saw my granddaughter's dress, I knew I had to find the perfect paper to match it :) So when I saw the new Making Memories Animal Cracker papers, that was all I needed!
The layout above was done with my last design team kit for the Zone along with lots of Fancy Pants felt. She always calls me "Gamma" & Jim "Pop Pop" :)

Nothing much else is new. Still going to the gym regularly, although I didn't feel like going yesterday as I've had a headache for the past couple of days that just won't go away :( But Jim pushed me into going & I'm so glad he did! We didn't have much time as we had an appointment to go see another house last night, but we got 25 minutes of cardio in, which is always better than nothing at all.

Speaking of the house-hunting, it's not going as good as we hoped it would. We found one house that we really liked the other day, but it's smaller than what we're in now (about 600 square feet smaller) & we're just not sure if it would work. We would definitely have to down-size a LOT, which isn't always a bad thing. The yard of the home was gorgeous.....it had a 3-tier deck & a pool! So right now, we're just outweighing the pros & cons of it before we decide.

I just looked at the calender & realized that today, my ex would have been 43 years old. It's sad that he felt he had to end his life so soon when he had so much to look forward to! If only he could be around now to meet his granddaughter :(

Today is the first day of the Great Lakes Mega Meet & I almost always go on the first day, but not this year. I may go tomorrow since Jim said he'll be getting out of his class early. I'm just not even that excited about going this year for some reason. Could I be tired of shopping for scrapbook supplies? Could it be that I have more than enough stuff already? Nah :) That can't be it! Maybe it's just the fact that I'm watching my spending closer now with the price of everything going up. Yesterday, Jim stopped to fill his gas tank on the way home & he paid $3.63 a gallon. About 4 hours later, I went to fill mine at the very same station & it was $3.79! That's just nuts! I really wish our President would do something about this crap! But I'm not holding my breath!

Okay, my rant is over, so I'll end this here :) Hope you have a wonderful day!

Benita

Weekly Weigh-In

Wow, what a busy weekend it's been! Saturday, we did the garage sale in the subdivision & then we out to eat dinner & did some grocery shopping. We decided to set up the garage sale again today since another neighbor wanted to as well. We didn't have very many sales today, but all in all, we made over $225 for both days, so I'm very happy with that. We also did some yard work today before heading to the gym & then, of course, laundry was calling my name. I decided to snap some pictures around my garden & I love all the things I'm finding.
This gorgeous bleeding heart plant is right between the side of our garage & our walkway. I didn't even know what it was at first & was actually going to pull it out because I thought it was a weed until the flowers showed up the other day. I don't know a lot about this plant (how long does it bloom? how much does it bloom?), but I do know that she's pretty!
Our next door neighbor told us that these are Lily of the Valley. I actually took this picture a couple of days ago & now they already have little white 'bells' on them.

These are/will be Black Eyed Susans. Jim hates them, but I think they're pretty & I can't wait for them to bloom!

I also have several hostas coming up throughout the yard which I've always liked. Then we have 2 crabapple trees out back that are just now getting their flowers on them.....I'll have to take some pictures of them this week. I love seeing all the things that are coming up throughout the flower beds.....it's like a new surprise every week :)

Well, it seems that going to the gym is helping.....I'm down 2 lbs in 1 week! Woohoo!!! I was actually kinda nervous about getting on the scale, but was so happy that I did! It's given me even more motivation to keep this up. Since we joined the gym on April 25th, we've been there 7 out of the last 10 days & each day, I up my speed & my time on the treadmill. Today, I did 2 miles in 36 minutes.....that may not sound like much to some people, but to me, it's a LOT! Especially with as out of shape as I've been for the last 15+ years!

I didn't do anything scrapbook wise for National Scrapbook Day on Saturday, but that's okay as I'll be going to the Great Lakes Mega Meet this coming week. I'm still not sure what day(s) I'll be going yet. I was planning on going on Thursday, but now I'm thinking I might just wait until Saturday to go. Jim wants to go along, but since he has a welding class all week this week, he probably won't be able to go until Saturday. And no, I'm not dragging him there.....he actually enjoys going & counts the other men that are there, lol.

Last week, Sarah awarded me with the Arte y Pico Blog Award. Wow, thanks so much, Sarah! That really means a lot to me! :)

Here are the rules:
You have to pick 5 blogs that you consider deserve this award for their creativity, design, interesting material, and also contributes to the blogging community, no matter what language.
Each award has to have the name of the author and also a link to his/her blog to be visited by everyone.
Each award winner has to show the award and put the name and link to the blog that has given her/him the award itself.
The award winner and the one who has given the prize have to show the link of 'Arte y Pico’ blog, so everyone will know the origin of this award.
To show these rules.

Now, to choose 5 blogs.....this one isn't easy at all because there are so many blogs out there that I love!

1. Staci. Her layouts are always so inspiring & wonderful! She has so much talent & I consider her a really good friend!

2. Lorrie. Although we haven't met in person (yet), Lorrie & I share so much of the same interests & I know we'd be the best of friends if I was still living in Virginia!

3. Aimeslee. I just love reading her blog as she has a wonderful sense of humor & wit about her :)

4. Kim. Kim & I actually 'met' through the AOL Scrapbook Message Boards & she's such a sweet person! One of these days, I'm going to take her up on her offer to drive down I-75 to visit her in Florida :)

5. Okay, I'll be honest.....I'm having a very hard time picking just 5 people to give this award to & don't want to leave anyone out. Sooooo.....for those of you that are regular readers of my blog, consider yourself awarded & pass it on :)

Off to make the bed, put away the laundry & then go to bed....I'm pooped!

Have a great Monday!

Benita