Happy Thanksgiving

Today is Thanksgiving.....a day to be thankful. And this year, I have a LOT to be thankful for! I have a wonderful husband who is not only kind, loving, considerate & compassionate (except for when he gives me his cold!), but also a pretty good cook as he is doing almost all of the cooking today :) I'm thankful for my 2 great kids & even though they drive me up a wall sometimes, I'm glad that they're mine! I'm thankful for my family back in Pennsylvania & although I can't be home with them today, I know we are all thinking about each other & we love each other! I'm thankful for my Lord Jesus! And lastly, I'm thankful for having a wonderful realtor who has been there for us as we searched & searched & SEARCHED for a home until we finally found this one:
It is everything we've been looking for & more! 4 bedrooms, 2 1/2 baths, HUGE eat-in kitchen & even bigger pantry (okay, so I'm exaggerating a little, but the pantry is BIG!), fireplace in the family room, 2 car garage, a partially started finished walkout basement, hardwood floors in the kitchen & entryway PLUS brand new carpeting throughout the whole house! It does need some things (all appliances since it's a foreclosure & they took them all out including the garbage disposal!), a deck, garage door opener & the landscaping could use some work next Spring, but we are so happy to have finally found a home! If all goes as planned, we should be closing right before Christmas :) And now the fun begins.....packing!!! ARGH! Any volunteers to help? :)

Today is also a bittersweet Thanksgiving for me since 1 year ago today was the last time I spoke to my Mom on the phone before she passed away :( I remember our conversation like it was just yesterday! She was in a good mood & glad to hear my voice. When she told me that she loved me, I cried because I wish I would have gone home to spend Thanksgiving with her! And if I would have known that it would have been her last Thanksgiving, I would have been there! But you just never know! So hug your parents, spouses, children & family members tight and be thankful for each & every day you spend with them!

Hope you & your family have a safe & blessed Thanksgiving!
Benita

OOPS!

So much for another challenge! Seems I suck at doing challenges & never stick with them! Ah well.....I do have a LOT to be grateful for this month, even though I forgot to post about them all. Guess one of my New Year's Resolutions will be to not do any challenges, lol. I have been taking pictures of things I'm grateful for, just not everyday. So here are a few more:

I'm grateful for my right to vote, which I did on November 2nd :)

I'm grateful for my job.....which is one of the reasons why I haven't been able to keep up with this challenge! Right after Halloween, I was super busy doing the changeover to take down Halloween cards & put up Thanksgiving & Christmas cards. Having to do 5 stores has it's own challenges sometimes, but I do like my job.

I'm grateful for Facebook & all the friends I have found from my past & present :) I've connected with some old friends from high school & friends from when we lived in Virginia.
I'm grateful for this cute smiley mug. I sent this mug with some flowers in it to my Mom a few years ago & when she passed away, I got the mug back. It now sits on top of my computer & I look at it every single day & smile back at it, knowing that my Mom is smiling down on me :)
I'm grateful for Chocolate Chip Cookies! LOL This was actually a new recipe that I tried adding pudding to the dough.......they were YUMMY!!!
I'm grateful for my pets.....this is one of our mutts, Reeses.
I'll be grateful when Jim makes Pumpkin Pies out of this Pumpkin for Thanksgiving :)
Speaking of Jim, I'm grateful for having such an awesome man that knows how to Bar-B-Q! Yes, he even does it in the dark!
I'm grateful for my new Pink Ribbon Sketchers Shape-Ups Shoes. Yes, I realize they may be ugly, but they are the most comfortable shoes to wear when I'm standing on my feet at work!

As Thanksgiving approaches this week, I'm sure I'll have a LOT more to be grateful for! What are some things you're grateful for in your life?

Until next time,
Benita (the one that sucks at doing challenges!)

30 Days Of Gratitude

I was catching up on some blog reading tonight & found this challenge on Evelyn's blog called the 30 Days of Gratitude. I guess each day we are supposed to take a picture based on different things that we are grateful for. The prompt for today is Home.
Jim & I have been looking for a home for, hmmm.....longer than I care to remember! We thought we found the perfect home a few weeks ago.....we put in an offer, they counter-offered, we counter-offered their counter-offer, they accepted, we had an inspection & found out that the roof needed to be replaced badly, so we counter-offered again, but they then decided to take the home off the market :( So not only are we out $370 for the home inspection, but now we're back to the drawing board.....yet AGAIN! But hopefully, that will all change this week as we just put an offer in on another house this past weekend. Only problem.....they have multiple offers, so we are praying that ours is the best!
These pictures are of just a few of the houses we've looked at over the last several months.
We looked at private-owned homes, short sales, foreclosures.....you name it, we looked at it!
3 bedrooms, 4 bedrooms, unfinished basements, finished basements, 2 car garage, 3 car garage....the list goes on & on!
One of my favorite ones was this one pictured above, but come to find out, we couldn't finance it due to it having an in-ground pool because of the type of financing we're doing.

But my absolute favorite one will be the one we end up buying.....whenever & wherever that one is! We WILL find it! And when we do, it'll be perfect......for us :)