On Eagle's Wings

It was 4 years ago today that I lost my sister Karen & brother-in-law Jimmy. Four years ago that changed my life forever. A day that I will never forget & wish never happened. Lots of tears have been shed since that day & will continue to be shed throughout the years. Unanswered questions will never be answered.....where were they going that day? Why did this happen to them? Why didn't that girl pull over if she had a bee in her car (as she claims)? What were their last words? Last thoughts? Were they in any pain?

So many things go through my mind when I think about that day. The disheartening phone call from my sister Donna.....I remember it like it was just yesterday! First, she asked me if Jim was at work & I said he was. Then she told me to sit down & that she had some bad news. The first thing I thought of was something happened to Mom or Dad. I already had tears swelling up inside of me before I heard those words "Karen & Jimmy were in an accident." The next 3 words "they didn't survive." I immediately lost it. I started screaming, crying, shaking as Donna was trying to calm me down from 500 miles away. She told me that she was going to hang up & she wanted me to call Jim right away & have him come home to be with me. She kept asking me to promise her that I would call him. I don't even know what I said to Jim or how he even managed to understand me at the time. The next half hour was a blank to me until he got home.
There must have been over 1,000 people that came to the viewing to pay their respects. Karen & Jimmy were both well known in their town. They would have done anything to help anyone. The funeral was beautiful. The 'arch' made by 2 fire trucks to honor Jimmy, a volunteer fireman. Traffic at a standstill, awaiting the long line of cars to go through the procession.

The pair of crosses along the road where the accident took place. Still standing 4 years later. Each year, new flowers are placed at the crosses. Each year, the names are darken in as they fade over time.

I sit here crying as I'm trying to type this. Looking at their picture. Wearing Karen's sapphire ring on my finger (which never comes off my hand!). Dreading this day each & every year. They say time heals all wounds. I'm not so sure that I completely believe that.

If you have a sister, give her a hug. Tell her that you love her. Tell her what she means to you because you just never know....one day, that chance may not be there anymore. Life is too short!

In Loving Memory Forever

Karen & Jimmy Lucas

August 29, 2004

On Eagle's Wings

Some People Are So "Nice"

Thursday while I was at the gym for 2 1/2 hours, I came out to my car & noticed a nice, new dent in my rear driver's side door :( I went back into the gym to see what I could do. One of the managers came out & looked at it & he said that he could go through the video of the parking lot since they have cameras & see if he could see who hit it. All we can tell from the video is that a guy got out of his vehicle, went around to the passenger side (which was my driver's side). He was on the side of his car for quite a while & we saw him walking into the gym with a large gym bag. So apparently, he had something extremely heavy in his gym bag which he swung over his shoulder while hitting my car in the process & probably stayed there for a few minutes trying to figure out what to do. It would have been nice if he had left me a note......ha! Yeah, right! No such luck! It's kinda hard to get a good picture of the dent, but trust me, it's there (click on each picture to see it better)! And it's not that little, either :( You can even see some scuff marks right before the dent which were more than likely from his gym bag. I guess I just don't understand why people can't be more careful around other people's vehicles :( Every single time I go somewhere, whenever I get out of my car, I carefully open my door to make sure I don't hit the car next to me. It's just part of my nature, I guess. And I don't leave my shopping cart in between 2 cars in a parking lot! I take the time to put it in the cart return. But don't get me started on that pet peeve of mine!
I did call the police & they filed a report so I have that for my insurance, which is waiving my deductible for me (YAY!), but still. Anyone that knows me knows how much I love my car :) It's my baby! Just ask Jim.....he'll tell ya! The guy was still at the gym & I was half tempted to wait out in my car for him to come out, but I figured what good would that do? What would I even say to him? So instead, I wrote down his license plate number along with the make & model of his vehicle 'just in case'. I told Jim that I should have left a note on his car thanking him for hitting mine & not letting me know.
I've had my 'baby' for over 2 years now & I still love it as much as I did the day I bought it :) It's just so much fun to drive, except for in the snow, that is.

Today is the Woodward Dream Cruise and once again, we're not going to it. The weather is perfect for it, too, but we'd probably spend $100 in gas just to go around once! I'll pass :) Shawn actually called me last night to see if I would let him borrow my Charger for him to take it to the Dream Cruise. Ahhh......NOT!

Then tomorrow is the Nascar race at MIS, but we're not going to that, either. We just went in June & usually it's too hot in August to go, so we don't usually buy tickets for it. But wouldn't you know it.....it's only supposed to be around 83 tomorrow & gorgeous. Ah well.....we'll just stay home with the windows open & watch it on tv. I can't believe how nice the weather has been in Michigan this past week! Definitely saving some money on the electric bill by not having to run the A/C :)

Speaking of Nascar, I can't believe that I almost forgot. Thursday, a bunch of driver's were at Jim's work signing autographs & once again, one of them was Kasey Kahne :) Jim took in some diecast cars to get autographed along with 2 of my Kasey Kahne shirts & my Kasey Kahne jacket :) I forgot to take some pictures of them, but will have to do that soon & post them. He also got to meet & get autographs from Kyle Petty, Elliott Sadler, Bobby Labonte & Patrick Carpentier. Juan Pablo Montoya & Reed Sorenson were also there, but Jim said that they left early & I told him I wouldn't have wanted their autographs anyway, lol. Especially not Juan's! YUCK!

Well, I'm going to wrap up this post here. Off to the gym & then we may be going to the drive-in again tonight to see Pineapple Express & Tropic Thunder. Should be fun :)

Have a great weekend,

Benita

Thank-you!!!

Over the past couple of days, I've been blessed with a few blog awards :) KarenSue, Janet, Toni & Sandra all gave me the Brillante Weblog Award.

The rules for the Brillante Weblog award are:
The winner can put the logo on his/her blog.
Link to the person you received your award from.
Nominate at least 7 other blogs.
Put links to those blogs on yours.
Leave a message on the blogs of the people you have nominated.

So I am proudly passing this award on to the following bloggers:

1. Sues

2. Sherry

3. Kris

4. Kip

5. Cindi

6. Aimeslee

7. Heather

Then I was awarded the BFF Gold Card award by Sues :)

The rules for the "Blogging Friends Forever" award are:
Only five people allowed
Four have to be dedicated followers of your blog
One has to be someone new or recently new to your blog or live in another part of the world.
You must link back to whoever gave you the award. The winner can put the logo on his/her blog.
Here's my list for the "Blogging Friends Forever" award:

1. Lorrie

2. Emily

3. Darcey

4. Linda

5. Jill

Friday evening, we had some storms come through & the sky was looking pretty scary there for a while! But I just had to snap some pictures.

The tornado sirens never went off, but it sure looked like they could have!
We didn't go to the gym until around 9:30 that night as we wanted to wait until they passed.
I thought I would share 2 more pictures of my garden as well. I didn't even know that I had these big white lillies (at least I think that's what they are) until I went out to get the hose the other day.
I have no clue what this one is, though. Anyone know? Whatever it is, it sure is pretty! I love the pink edges with the yellow & white.

That's all for now.....gonna go relax before I head to bed as we just got back from swimming at the gym a little while ago.

Have a great week :)
Benita

My First Etsy Sale!

I had my very first sale on Etsy yesterday :) I am so psyched! I've been trying to sell these caddies that I originally made for a craft show for a while now & then the listings ended, so I just relisted them & right away, one sold! Woohoo! I just had to share my excitement :)

In other news, Jim & I just joined The Biggest Loser :) Be sure to watch for us in the fall line-up ;) Okay, so I'm kidding, of course. But we really did join a Biggest Loser program. It's through a local group & runs for 12 weeks. At the end of twelve weeks, the top 3 biggest losers will split the pot. It only cost $29 per person to enter & $25 of that goes into the prize fund. If you gain a pound or more during any given week, you have to add $1 per pound gained into the pot as well. I'm sure hoping that I won't be adding any money in! They did our weights & measurements tonight & according to their scale, I weigh about 2 lbs. more than mine, but then again, I weigh myself in the morning before I eat anything & also without any clothes on.....kinda hard to take my clothes off there, lol. Plus Jim & I had just had dinner about an hour before, so I'm sure that didn't help much, either. I'm just hoping that this is the extra push I need to keep going on my weightloss journey as I haven't been doing very good this week :( We ended up losing power AGAIN tonight, so we went to see the movie Step Brothers & in the process, I comsumed way too much popcorn! So my WW bonus points are about shot for this week!

I'm hoping to go shopping for some new sneakers tomorrow, too. My last 2 pairs of Rykas have worn spots in the heels down to the leather & they're giving me blisters on my heels :( I guess they're not meant for working out in or something. Anyone have any sneakers that they absolutely love?

Well, I'm off to bed as it was a very long day. Thanks for all the wonderful comments you left about my weightloss progress :) Reading your comments really encourages me even more!

Benita