Weekend Update

23/365 - Friday: Since I'm finally able to work out again (although not at full potential yet), I decided to take a pic of my second 'home sweet home' :)
24/365 - Saturday: I did some more scrapbooking on Saturday, so my picture is of the layout I did using the new Making Memories Sabrina line from Michaels. I just love this line....black, white & pink!
25/365 - Sunday: Jim's 44th birthday :) I did a collage of photos from the day.....the Volcano from Rainforest Cafe that we couldn't finish, the sunset on the way to the restaurant, a pic of one of the aquariums, Jim relaxing while playing XBox, we went to see the movie Mall Cop (very funny movie!) & then just a happy pic of Jim :) Thank-you for all the birthday wishes you left for him......he really thought that was cool!
26/365 - Monday: This is the mess on my scraproom floor right now! I'm doing a yardsale at an LSS this Saturday & I've been going through stuff for the past couple of weeks. This picture is not even half of what I'm taking! You should see the mess now! Hey, maybe that will be today's picture :) Off to take one now.
Okay, here it is.....now why does it look like less stuff when there's actually more??? LOL Guess it's because now most of it is in bins. I'm really hoping I do good at this sale. Last time I did it, I made over $200, so wish me luck! See anything you wanna buy? ;)
27/365 - Tuesday: Okay, so here is today's real picture. We got a slight dusting of snow last night on top of the old stuff & it was so pretty with the sun shining on it this morning. You have to click on the image to enlarge it to see what I'm talking about......at least I hope enlarging it will show the sparkles in the snow.

Off to do more pricing/organizing/purging!
Have a great week!
Benita

Happy Birthday, Babe!

Today, this awesome, wonderful, gorgeous man of mine turns 44! He'll quickly remind you that he's still younger than me, though. But I still love him anyway. And I'm so glad that I've spent almost 20 years of his life with him!

We don't have any real plans as of yet for his birthday. We usually go out to dinner to our favorite restaurant, but since that closed last month :( we'll have to go somewhere else. He mentioned possibly going to Plymouth for the Ice Spectacular show, but it's gonna be pretty cold today, so we're not sure if we will or not. If we don't go to bed soon, we won't be doing anything! LOL

Night,

Benita

More 365 & Some Scrappin'!

19/365 - Monday: Boy, this is harder than I thought it would be.....coming up with a picture everyday! But here is Monday's picture.....more icicles. These ones are above our deck on the back of the house. For some reason, our gutters turn into ice in the winter.....I'm just waiting for the day that they fall off from all the weight of the ice!
20/365 - Tuesday: Okay, so I actually cheated a little for the above picture & took it on Wednesday instead of Tuesday on our way to bowling. But I thought it was appropriate to use as Tuesday's picture since that was the day our new President was inaugurated into office. If you click on the picture to enlarge it, you can see an eagle on the top of the first flagpole. And yes, that's a McD's sign as well.....what's more American than McDonalds? :)
21/365 - Wednesday: Our Wednesday ritual. Just a picture of the bowling center we bowl at. Needless to say, I bowled like complete crap today! But look at that clear blue sky! Something we don't get to see much of in Michigan in the Winter!
22/365 - Thursday: Our grocery shopping trip. Okay, okay, so I know a lot of people don't like Walmart, but I DO! We buy almost all of our groceries here & I know we've saved a ton of money by shopping at Walmart! And besides, I just love the new Supercenter that they opened last year.
Now for my layouts.....I did both of these yesterday! 2 layouts in one day! I think that's a first for me :) I love the way the one above turned out. I used my Cricut Storybook cartridge to cut out the big diecut behind the photos. Everything on the page is by Making Memories except for the 2 big flowers. I used my typewriter to do the journaling because I hate my handwriting! You probably can't tell, but I also 'stickled' each little dot on the background paper :)
Most of the things I used on this layout are also from Making Memories (think I'm addicted to MM? lol). I also used some Prima flowers & leaves along with Stickles on the trees, the berry & leaves & the # 25. Everything is straight IRL.....honest :) Since I don't have a scanner right now, I take pictures of my layouts & that's not always easy, either.

My physical therapy is going pretty good. I finally got my shoulder doctor to fax over the RX for my shoulder, so now she's treating me for both my shoulder & neck & I'm there for 2 hours each time instead of just 1. Other than that, not much else is new.....been bowling like crap for some reason :( It's still Winter & although we're supposed to be in the mid to upper 30's today, it's supposed to get cold again tomorrow, only in the teens! I have to work tonight & then Jim will be meeting me so we can work-out when I get off. I was so excited to get back into the gym, but now, finding the time has been hard for some reason! It's just been a busy week, but next week, we'll be getting back on track & back on a schedule.

Hope you have a wonderful weekend,
Benita

3 More Days of 365

16/365 - Friday: Icicles hanging from our front porch with the sun shining on them. But once again, don't let that sunshine fool ya.....it's freezing!
17/365 - Saturday: Saturday deserves 2 pictures :) It started snowing early Saturday morning & didn't stop until Saturday night. The first picture, above, is of our deck....we have to keep shoveling a pathway for our dogs to get outside!
Here's Jim, having fun with his snowblower & proudly wearing his Detroit Lions jacket & Detroit Lions sweatpants :)
18/365 - Sunday: Home Sweet Home! My baby is home :) Since I wasn't allowed to take her picture, I took a picture of her suitcase instead, lol.

Jim is off work tomorrow for MLK day, so we'll probably head to the gym in the morning & then run a few errands.....that is, if it's not snowing again! One of the girls I work with reassured me that Spring is only 2 months away. Could have fooled me! I honestly don't mind the snow that much.....it's these bitter cold temperatures that I hate! But we had a heatwave today....it reached 20 degrees! Ha!

Hope you have a wonderful week & stay warm! Or if you're in a warmer climate, send some of that warmth this way, okay? :)

Benita

Days 11, 12, 13 & 14

11/365 - Sunday: When we first moved into this house a year & a half ago, we agreed to paint the upstairs hall bathroom since the landlords were in the process of removing the wallpaper before we moved in. Well, they never got it fully removed, meaning the backing was still on the walls, so we tried to remove it ourselves with no luck. It turned out to be an even bigger mess than it was before. Apparently, the wallpaper was the original to the house when it was built some 30+ years ago, probably installed by the builders themselves & therefore, they didn't prime the walls first. So the drywall started to get damaged & the backing to the wallpaper was just peeling everywhere! I should have taken a before picture, but completely forgot. Anyway, painting the bathroom was out of the question.....it would have looked awful! So our landlords paid for the wallpaper & we did the labor....we had to use a wallpaper that was made for damaged walls & picked a neutral color. We finally conquered the job this past weekend since our dd is out of town. NEVER AGAIN! That's all I'll say about that! LOL What a pain in the rear! But it's done & I really like the way it turned out.....just don't look too closely at the imperfections (or should I say boo-boos? Mess ups? Screw ups!?! lol).
12/365 - Monday: Today, we were supposed to pick our dd back up from being in Traverse City for the past 2 weeks. But since her friend had school, we wouldn't have been able to meet until around 8:00 p.m. & the forecast called for snow that evening, so we decided we should wait until this coming weekend as neither of us wanted to drive in the snow. Wouldn't you know it....the snow didn't even start until after midnight & then we didn't get nearly as much as they were calling for.....only about an inch or two! So Monday's picture is of her still empty room :( This is where she spends most of her time.....at her computer desk, with all her favorite nick-nacks on it. I miss my baby!!!
13/365 - Tuesday: BRRRR!!!!! THIS is what the temperature was last night on our way home from bowling! Yep, that's a minus in front of that 2! Not the best picture as it was taken with my cellphone camera & yes, I was stopped when I took it.....see the odometer at zero :)
14/365 - Wednesday: Someone posted the question on 2 Peas about what we had on our PC desktop, so I thought it would make the perfect picture for today as well. I've had this same desktop picture on my computer for a couple of years now. It's the 2006 Dodge Challenger Concept Vehicle that was at the auto show in Detroit a few years back. I used to own a Challenger a long time ago & boy, let me tell ya, I wish I still had that car today! I loved that car! And one of these days, I will own another one! I will!!! :)

I decided to start back to bowling as my teammates sister couldn't replace me afterall. So far, I'm doing okay with it.....the hardest part is having to pick up my ball with my left arm since most of the pain is still in my left shoulder. Thankfully, I'm right-handed, so bowling itself doesn't bother me.

My physical therapy is going pretty good so far.....thanks for asking about it. I've gone twice now & yesterday, she did some more massaging & stretching of my neck & shoulders, did some different exercises with me & then for 20 minutes, I had a moist heat wrap around my neck & some type of electrodes on my left shoulder. It felt like fingertips massaging my shoulder while sending pulses through me. It felt really good while I was getting it done, but then as the night progressed, it started getting stiff again. I asked the girl how often I could get that done & she said everytime, if I wanted to. Hmmm :) I go back again tomorrow & then on Saturday, so I may just take her up on that.

Till next time,
Benita

More of 365 & Other Things

Before I get to my newest pictures for my 365 album, I thought I would share the Christmas gifts I made for my Mom & Dad. I made them each one of these picture frames & put a picture of Karen with a real owl. I don't know when or where Karen had this picture taken, but it's one of our favorite pictures of her. She absolutely LOVED owls! You should have seen her home.....she had owl collections everywhere! The kitchen, the living room, the bedroom, even in the bathroom!

I used gold gilding flakes around the edge of the frame & love the way it turned out! Now I hope that they like them just as much as I do. Yeah, I realize that they're late, but when I was going through the majority of my pain, I couldn't do anything with my hands, so I told them ahead of time that their gifts would be late. Jim & I went to the post office & mailed them off today. I can't wait until they get them!

Now for my pictures for Day 9 & 10. Day 9 is a picture that my dh took of me, all wrapped up in my Slanket. I absolutely love this thing! With the cold winters we have here in Michigan, it's almost a necessity to have a Slanket :)

Today was my first day for my physical therapy, so the picture for Day 10 is of HealthQuest, my therapy center. And yes, if you look closely, you can see snowflakes coming down. Right now, we're getting socked with the white stuff! My first therapy session went really good. She did a lot of testing with my arm movement & strength in my arms & then massaged & stretched my neck & shoulders. She said I was really tight throughout my neck & into my back. She showed me some exercises that I need to do at home.....one of them is working on my posture (something that I know I need a lot of work on!). I see her 3 times a week on Tuesday, Thursday & Saturday, so hopefully this is the answer to my pain......finally!
As promised, here is a picture of the album I made for my 365 Project. I used an American Crafts 12x12 album & covered it with Making Memories Fifth Avenue paper, added ribbon along the top & bottom (since the paper doesn't completely cover the whole album) & used chipboard & MM metal mailbox letters for the title of the album. The tag hanging from the side just has the year on it.
Here are 2 of my pages....some days, I only have one photo, other days I have 2. I'm just using black & white cardstock for the journaling & I'm actually handwriting it all (for now, anyway). I'm using some of the My Mind's Eye photo overlays on some of the journaling spots just to add a little something.
After my physical therapy appointment this morning, I decided to take a drive out to Michaels as I haven't been in there in forever, it seems. I couldn't believe it when I saw this new line from Making Memories called Sabrina.....I immediately fell in love! And the best part, the papers were 50% off, including the journaling book one. I just wish the embellishments would have been on sale, too, but I may have to go back tonight & pick up some of those with my coupons :)

Hope you have a wonderful weekend & stay warm!
Benita

365 - Days 6, 7 & 8

January 6th - The valances are hung & the windows are finally finished. Now everytime I walk into our living room, I just smile :) It finally feels like home!

January 7th - Speaking of windows, a friend of ours gave us this old window a long time ago, but I couldn't decide where I wanted to hang it. Since I moved all the Target cubes out from between the 2 windows in my scraproom, I decided this would be the perfect spot for it. Right now, it's hanging on a chain that came with it, but I may add some brackets to the back of it instead. And yes, it does have a crack in one of the panes of glass, but I think that gives it more character :) Now, to figure out what I want to put in the panels or how to decorate it.....any ideas?
January 8th - today, I finally went to see the neurosurgeon. My appointment was originally schedule for Tuesday, but an hour before the appointment, they called me & said that the doctor had an emergency surgery to do, so they had to reschedule it for today. He wants me to stop taking the Percocet because he said if I keep taking it, then we'll have another problem to deal with (meaning being addicted to it). He said that I don't need surgery (thank God for that!), but he's scheduling me for physical therapy 3 times a week for at least a month & he also wants me to see a pain management doctor. I start my physical therapy on Saturday at a place right down the road from our house. I so hope that it works & is the answer to my problems! Keep your fingers crossed for me.

I'm still working on my 365 Day album.....I covered the front & back of it with Making Memories 5th Avenue paper plus added some ribbon, but I still need to do a little bit more before it's done. Glad to know that a lot of you are also doing the project. I love seeing all your daily pictures as well :)

The blog challenge on 2 Peas for Thursday is: "Make a list of five ways you've changed in the last five years." I love this idea! Here are 5 ways I've changed:

1. I've lost 60 pounds :)

2. I started exercising & I love it.....something I never thought I would ever do! But I love going to the gym so much that I got a job working there :)

3. I became a grandmother to the sweetest little girl!

4. I now have curly hair (thanks to perms) since I hate my hair when it's straight (although I've been seriously thinking about going back to straight hair again)!

5. Ever since losing my sister & brother-in-law, I've learned to enjoy life more & cherish each & every day I have! They died doing what they loved & I hope to die the same way!

Off to print some pictures & then relax. Till next time,
Benita

365 - Day 3, 4 & 5

Although I didn't order the Project 365 kit that Creating Keepsakes was selling (and I'm glad that I didn't with all the headaches everyone is having!), I decided to do my own version of the album. I'm using an American Crafts album with WeRMemoryKeepers 4X6 Photo Sleeve page protectors, which are basically 12X12 sheets that have slots for six 4X6 photos. I'm using my photos from my New Year's Day post as day 1 & 2 since it took 2 days to finish reorganizing my room (once again!). For day 3, I took 2 photos of our favorite restaurant, which is no longer :( Jim & I had just gone there to eat the day after Christmas for our anniversary (since they're closed on Christmas Eve, we decided to wait until the 26th to go out for dinner). We talked to the owner while we were there & he said that things were a little slow, but otherwise good. Well, we had a coupon that was due to expire, so on the 3rd, we decided to go out for dinner again, only to find the sign above & an empty building & parking lot, below:
Jim & I are both heartbroken as we just loved Kalloways! Apparently, the sheriff department closed them down, due to back taxes. We only know the owners by their first name, so we don't even have a way to get in touch with them :( They were such a nice couple & I truly hope that they can recover from this & reopen the restaurant one day!
My photo for day 4 is of my curtains. After living in this home for nearly a year & a half, we finally put our own curtains up! I'll be adding some valances to the other rods, so that will probably be my photo for day 6. I've had these curtains for a couple of years now & they've been stored in a container in the basement, so they're a little wrinkled right now.
Today, we were up near our old neighborhood, so day 5's photo is of our old house. They painted the trim & changed it to a dark greyish-green & I really like it. Looks so much better than the teal color it used to be! I was just disappointed to see that they took down the window flower boxes :( I knew I should have taken them with me!

Well, there you have it......my first 5 days of 2009. I'm going to try my hardest to stick with this project & take a photo everyday.....some of them may seem meaningless, but they'll be about my everyday life, which is what this project is all about, right? Once I start working on the album itself, I'll take some pics & post them as well. If you're doing the Project 365, I'd love to see your albums!

Have a great night.....I'm off to watch the new Bachelor :)

Benita

Happy New Year!

I hope everyone had a safe & wonderful New Year's Eve. Jim & I got a phone call from some friends yesterday afternoon inviting us up to their house last night, so that's what we ended up doing instead of going to a movie. We played cards, drank a few drinks, ate some munchies, caught up with each other's lives & shared lots of laughs. All in all, we had a really good time & it was fun ringing in the new year with friends.

Today, I was determined to get some cleaning done around the house. We took down the Christmas tree, vacuumed up all the needles, put away all the ornaments & lights, rearranged the furniture & then we even did some reorganizing of my scraproom. My paper storage cubes were on the wall in between the 2 windows, which was blocking one of the heat vents & I wanted to move them so we could get more heat in this room. It's really cold in this room due to the fact that it's on a cement slab & there's no basement under this part of the house. So I decided to move them to where my Target 3 & 4 drawer units were, which makes my paper a lot easier to access now, too.....I just turn around in my chair & it's right there at my fingertips. I then put the 3 drawer units on top of the paper cubes & put the 4 drawer ones on top of my desk:
I'm still not 100% sure if I like them on the desk or not, but I'm gonna try it like this for a few weeks to see how it works.
We also did some shopping today & went to the newest Target that just opened back in October. What makes this Target so cool is that it has a parking structure underneath it & then when you enter the store, you have to go up escalators to get into the store & it even has escalators for the shopping carts to go up. I was shocked when I found some of the Making Memories FaLaLa line there on clearance.....75% off! I got the paper pack, fabric alphabet stickers, embellishment kit & the stamp set all for around $11.00 total!

It's still hard for me to believe that it's a new year already! I'll admit, I usually get pretty emotional on New Year's Eve & often times will cry. But not this year. I don't know why. Maybe it's because I am glad to put 2008 behind me! It definitely wasn't an easy year for us by any means! But now I'm looking forward to a fresh start in '09! I'm not making any resolutions this year.....I just want to continue working on my health, continue with my weight loss, continue to improve myself & cherish my time here on earth. Janet wrote a beautiful blog entry that really got me thinking about time & just how valuable it really is! Time.....something I no longer want to take for granted!

Happy New Year to all my blogging friends! May the new year bring you good health, happiness & lots of fun times!

Benita