MRI

First of all, thank-you for all the well wishes & prayers....I appreciate them so much. I had my MRI done this afternoon, but unfortunately, I won't know the results until Friday when they call them into my doctor. I haven't slept the past 2 nights because I guess I was worried about having it done. I had no clue what to expect.....Jim just told me that they are very noisy & to ask for ear plugs. When they were getting me ready, they handed me a set of earphones & asked me what radio station I wanted to listen to :) Jim didn't like that too well cause they didn't give him that option when he had one done. But where I messed up was I didn't have them turn the music up loud enough, so I could barely hear it from all the noise anyway.

The test itself only took about 20 minutes & I thought I would freak out a little, being so confined in such a small space, but that really didn't bother me. I probably could have fallen asleep if it wouldn't have been so loud. I did feel a lot of twingling in my arm & shoulder while they were doing the test & that kinda scared me. I asked the guy afterwards if that was normal & he said yeah because they're sending radio waves (or something like that) through you.

So, that's all I have for now.....hopefully I'll know more on Friday. I just want to figure out what's wrong so I can hopefully get it fixed! I did manage to bowl tonight (if you want to call it that!), but the pain started getting worse into the second game. Even though it's my left shoulder & arm & I'm right handed, I have to hold the ball a little bit with my left hand first & usually, I use my left arm for balance, but tonight, I just kept it down to my side. I probably looked pretty dumb, but after the way I bowled, I didn't care!

Till Friday,

A Very Exhausted Benita

Got Bit By The Bug

Jim & I got up at 5:00 a.m. on Black Friday to head out & do some Christmas shopping. Our first stop was to Home Depot as we decided to get an artificial Christmas tree (okay, so I decided to get an artificial Christmas tree, hehe). They had a 7 1/2" pre-lit LED tree, regularly $200, on sale for $49. Luckily, the line wasn't too long & we were able to get in & out in no time. But then when we got out to the car, the tree wouldn't fit! We got the back door closed just enough to be able to take it home, driving with the inside light on the whole way. Thank goodness Home Depot is only about 10 minutes away!
After dropping the tree off at home, we then proceeded to head to Walmart as we needed to pick up a couple of DVD's & video games for our dd. I knew about the Cricut Expressions being on sale there for $199 & we decided if we could find one, we would get one. Otherwise, no big deal. Well, this Walmart was already sold out of them, so we left there & headed to the mall to go to JCPenneys & Macys. After the mall, I asked Jim if we could go to JoAnns to see if maybe they would match the price on the Cricut. Well, that was a nightmare from the beginning! The lady at the service desk called the manager up front & the manager proceeded to tell me that no, they couldn't match it because it wasn't the same Cricut. UMMM.....H-E-L-L-O! Yes, it was! She was trying to tell me that the one in the Walmart ad was the Baby Bug, even when I pointed out the picture to her & showed her that it wasn't. I asked them for the phone number to their corporate office & decided to call them while I was still there, at the service desk (thanks Jewls :), but of course, they were closed, so all I could do was leave a message. Just as we were getting ready to leave JoAnns, another lady came up to me & asked me if I was the one that was trying to get the price matched on the Cricut. I said yes & she said "well, my husband is a manager at Walmart & he told me that it's not the same one." I just said "okay, whatever, thanks" & turned around & left without spending a penny!
We then went home & we were going to call it a day as we were both pooped & I had to go to work in a few hours. Jim suggested that I try calling some other Walmarts & see if they had any of the Cricuts, so I did. First one I called, no luck, but the lady referred me to the Walmart in Flint. So I gave them a call & they had 2 left! 2! I asked them if there was anyway at all that they could hold one for me as we were about 45 minutes away & she asked her manager & said they couldn't hold it, but told me to call & talk to the store manager to see what they would do. So I called her & she said the same thing.....no holds, but she was so sweet & even told me that if they were both gone by the time we got there, then she would call around & try to find me another one :) We jumped in the car & headed to Walmart. I dropped Jim off at the door while I went to go park since a guy in the car in front of me was taking forever to move. I parked, got out of my car, starting walking in the door & there was Jim, coming down the aisle with the Cricut box in his hands :) I'm so pissed at myself for not getting my cellphone out & snapping a picture of him with it! It was priceless! Wonder if I should take the box back into Walmart & re-inact it? LOL Anyway, I am now the proud owner of a Big Bug :)

I debated for a few days whether or not I should even keep it & didn't even take it out of the box. Like Jim said, if we found it, we should buy it so at least we'd have it if we did decide to keep it. I like his way of thinking :) But then today, I had a surprise sale on my Etsy shop.....a lady purchased 6 of my caddies! WOOHOO! I couldn't believe it! Jim said that was my sign right there to keep the Cricut & then proceeded to tell me "Merry Christmas." What a sweetheart!

So I was trying to figure out where to put her (yes, she's a her, lol). I wanted her somewhere close to the computer in case I decide to ever get the SCAL program, but I had no space anywhere on my desk. I then told Jim that it would be neat if I could make the shelf in my cabinet that my printer sits on into a pull-out shelf. He ran to Home Depot, bought the sliders that we needed & whalaa.....my cricut is now safe inside the cabinet (see second picture) & will be easy to access by simply opening the doors & pulling the drawer out.

I've already cut out 2 cards & a few things with the Home Decor cartridge, just to make sure she worked okay because I've been reading about some people having problems with the ones from Walmart. But so far, so good. Now I need to find the spatula tool as I can see already that it'll be a must-have item.

Okay, enough about the Bug :) Our Thanksgiving was wonderful, except for the fact that I didn't get to see my granddaughter :( Shawn came over for dinner & stayed for quite a while, which really surprised me. He was a little hurt, too that he wasn't able to see his daughter.....I could just see it in his eyes! Broke my heart! Apparently, Toni took her to her father's house a few days before & then she wasn't even able to make it there for Thanksgiving (still not sure why, though). But anyway, we had a really nice time all weekend long. Jim even said to me today that he really enjoyed all of the weekend :)

On Tuesday, I'm schedule for an MRI of my shoulder as I'm still having a lot of pain in my arm & hand :( I'm scared, but at the same time, I just want to know what's going on with it, so I'm looking forward to just getting it done & hoping that they can pinpoint exactly what's wrong.

Now I'm pooped, so I'm gonna go relax with Jim & watch some tv.

Have a wonderful week!
Benita

Happy Thanksgiving.....

.....from our table to yours! May you & your family have a wonderful Thanksgiving filled with lots of memories to scrapbook & lots of food in your tummies :)
After the turkey, be sure to enjoy some Apple or.....
Pumpkin Pie :)

Shawn is expected to be here in about an hour, the turkey is cooking away in the oven, the aroma is in the air, the table is set & the house is clean :)

Today, I am thankful for:

My wonderful husband of almost 19 years!

My 2 kids......although they test me at times, I couldn't imagine my life without them!

My granddaughter.....although I don't see her very often, I know that she'll always be a part of me.

My parents, for bringing me into this world & raising me the best that they could.

My sisters, although we don't always see eye-to-eye, we know we'll always be there for each other.

My mutts, who truly are a part of our family.

Our home.

Jim's job & my job.

For losing 51.2 pounds.....and hoping I don't gain any of it back today!

My health, even though I'm still having pain in my shoulder, arm & hand, I'm hoping that they find a solution to it next week when I have the MRI done.

For food on our table, clothes on our backs & shelter over our heads.

I truly am thankful!

Tomorrow (pain pending), Jim & I are planning to go out & battle the crowds to do a little Black Friday shopping before I have to go to work. I'm not too impressed with any of the sale ads for tomorrow, but I figured we'd go anyway as it's a 'tradition' for us.

Have a very safe & Happy Thanksgiving!
Benita

Snow, Scrapping & Other Stuff

This is what I woke up to this morning.......more snow & about 3-4 inches of it! I gotta agree.....it's pretty, but I guess I just wasn't ready for Winter to get here so soon. It made me realize that Christmas is only a month away! 1 MONTH! And I haven't even thought about getting the tree yet because, to be honest, we're not sure if we are going to put one up this year. I do have a couple of small artificial trees that I'll be putting up & decorating, but Jim & I have been debating for a while now if we should get a real tree this year. For one, I don't think they're worth the money & since we're living day-to-day right now, not knowing what's going to happen with his job, I can't see spending $50-75+ on a tree that will be dead in a month! But I also know that it won't be the same without one :(

Anyway, on to more snow pics:

Here's my burning bush out front with the berries covered in snow.

View from my scraproom window.

I did manage to do some scrapbooking while I was out of commission all weekend. It wasn't an easy task by any means, but I had to do something to keep from being bored & to try to take my mind off the pain!
The above layout I had all done in my mind, but I wasn't sure what picture I wanted to use with it, so I dug through all my photo boxes & found this one from April 1991 of our dd when she was only 9 months old. Boy, talk about bringing back some memories! The top of the layout is actually going to stick out from the page protector, so I'm planning on cutting some cardboard to go behind it so it doesn't get bent in the album.
This one didn't really turn out how I had planned it, but it's done. I no longer want to spend hours/days on a layout! I want to start scrapbooking faster so I can get more pages done. That's going to be one of my new year's resolutions!

The other day, Cindi gave me not one, but 2 blog awards :) Thank-you so much, Cindi!
For the first award:
1. You have to pass it on to 5 other fabulous blogs in a post.
2. You have to list 5 of your fabulous addictions in the post.
3. On your post of receiving this award, make sure you include the person that gave you the award and link it back to them.

I'll pass this award on to the following:
1. Lorrie
2. Janet
3. Linda
4. Sarah
5. Heather

Now my list of 5 fabulous addictions:
1. Pizza :) That one pretty much goes without saying!
2. Scrapbooking.
3. Organizing & re-organizing.
4. Photography, although I still have a lot to learn.
5. Bowling.

Now for the other award. Here are the rules:
1. Write seven strange things about yourself. They interest us all!
2. Tag six other people at the end of your post.
3. Visit everyone that you have tagged and leave a comment on their blog to let them know that they have been tagged.

Seven Strange Things about Me:
1. I could eat pizza every single day of the week!
2. I have a left sock & a right sock. Jim thinks it's really weird, but as I'm putting my socks away, I'll make one pile for my right foot & one for my left foot, going by the toe area of the sock, before I put them in pairs.
3. When I put my food on my plate, I can't let one thing touch another. I know they all go in the same spot, but that just drives me nuts if they touch each other!
4. I absolutely hate going in the basement! I've had a fear of basements as long as I can remember & since our washer & dryer are in the basement, I won't do laundry unless Jim is home to go down with me ;)
5. All of my shirts in my closet are organized in rainbow color. I've had them organized this way for years & I just think it looks so much nicer. Now if I could just get Jim to keep his that way, too!
6. Although I love making cards, I'm not that good at it :( I'm hoping Toni's talent will rub off on me someday :)
7. I can't stand eating anything with nuts in it.....candy bars, cookies, brownies, etc. But I'll eat nuts by themselves.

Now I tag the following people with this award:
1. Sues
2. Toni
3. Lorrie
4. Linda
5. Janet
6. Darcey

Janet also tagged me with this fun challenge: You go to your pictures, open the 4th folder, and find the 4th picture, and share it on your blog. Then tag four of your friends to do the same thing.
Here is my 4th picture in my 4th folder.....my 2006 Dodge Charger Daytona R/T. This picture was taken right after we brought her home from the dealership. Needless to say, she's not that clean & shiny now!

I now tag the following people to do the challenge:
1. Toni
2. Jewls
3. Kim
4. Cindi

I'm still waiting for the steriods to kick in. I just pray that they do the trick so I don't have to go through physical therapy & an MRI! Thanks again for the prayers.....keep them coming!

I'll try to update again on Thanksgiving with some pics. I'm still not sure if Shawn is coming home or not nor have I heard from Toni about whether or not she plans on bringing my granddaughter by.....hopefully, she does!

Till next time,
Benita

Out Of Commission

Last Monday, I apparently pulled a muscle in my back while using the weight machines at the gym. Although I didn't feel anything pop that day, over the next couple of days, the pain just kept getting worse & worse until I finally couldn't take it anymore. I went to my doctor on Friday because when I woke up, the pain was now traveling down into my left arm & hand. He said that I popped 2 ribs out of place from the swelling in the muscle. While I was there, he gave me an ultrasonic heat treatment & then prescribed me 2 different meds.....Relafin & Flexeril. I ended up having to call in sick to work because I could barely move.
By Sunday morning, the pain still hadn't gone away, so I called the doctor on call & he prescribed Hydrocodone, generic for Vicodin. I've now been on the Vicodin for over 24 hours & still nothing is working on the pain :( So I just called my doctor's office again & I have another appointment at 3:00 this afternoon. It literally feels like someone is stabbing me with a knife all along my arm & hand! Pain usually doesn't bother me.....heck, I had to babies that were both over 9 pounds! You would think I could handle any pain after that! But this pain has just been completely unbearable! Please pray for me that it's nothing more serious as I truly am scared right now!

Update: My doctor took me off all of the above medications & now I'm on Prednisone (steriod) & Skelaxin. He said that if I'm not feeling any better by Thursday, he then wants me to see a physical therapist & he'll also order an MRI at that time. Thank-you so much for the prayers & well wishes!

I hope to be able to blog more later on, but right now, it even hurts to type :(

Benita

1st Sign Of Winter!

It's official.....Winter has arrived in Michigan, even though the calender says we still have a few weeks. We received our 1st snowfall of the season on Sunday & if we don't get anymore for the rest of the year, I'd be happy, lol. But alas, we got more again tonight. I know, this is Michigan, which means this is just the beginning of the white stuff to come! The good thing about the snow yesterday was I stayed inside all day & got some more layouts done:
When I saw this paper at Scrappy Chic last week, I just had to get it. I usually don't like working with 'themed' type papers like these as I always struggle to use them, but I knew I had pictures to go with these papers, so I thought I'd give them a try. And I'm pretty happy with the way these layouts turned out. In the layout above, I cut around some of the swirls in the paper & used them to overlap the photo, added some gold rick-rack as a border, some gold & purple Prima Flowers & used a Tim Holtz Grungeboard bookplate in which I stickled.
On this one, I used more Tim Holtz Grungeboard which I covered with mulberry paper, added some ribbon & rick-rack, Primas, an old Basic Grey bookplate & American Crafts Velvet Thickers for the title.

Tonight at the gym, I accomplished another first :) I got the incline on the treadmill up to 20! It about killed me, just trying to hang on, but I felt so good afterwards! And I burned 652 calories in 45 minutes! WOOHOO! Now I'm pooped, but also energized at the same time, not to mention stinky & sweating, so I need to go take a shower before bed.

Have a wonderful week,
Benita

Catching Up

Yesterday, I decided to take a drive out to Scrappy Chic to pick up my prize winnings which included all of the stuff shown above.....and it's all by Making Memories, which I absolutely love :) Yeah, it's some older stuff, but I know I'll still use it all. And believe it or not, I didn't have any of those embellishments. Shocker, I know! LOL
I did manage to get 2 layouts done this past week in between working 5 days in a row. The one above is using almost all Making Memories products (except for the little alphabet stickers for the word Halloween....those are EK Success & the chipboard girl is Maya Road along with Stickles to make her glitter). Not sure if you can read the journaling that goes with the title, but it says "When Your Mom Told Me You Were Going To Be A Princess For Halloween, I Said...You Don't Have to Wear A Costume to be A Princess."
I did this layout using the pictures that my dh & dd took when they went to the Apple Orchard & driving around. I used Heidi Swapp rhinestones as a border around the biggest picture & then I used Stickles on the piece of Basic Grey paper that I cut out (close-up below):
It's also lifted off the layout a little to give it more dimension. I'm beginning to think that I'm getting a little carried away with my Stickles. Is that possible? :)
The above layout I actually did a few months ago, but don't think I ever shared it before now. Again, I used Stickles on the yellow part of the flowers on the background paper & I also stickled the one side where I used part of the Basic Grey paper from the packaging to make it stand out more.

Starting this weekend, I no longer have to work on Saturdays.....YAY! Instead, I'm now working on Mondays from 4:00-7:00, Fridays from 3:00-8:00 & then I only have 2 more Tuesdays to work 1:00-5:00 until the girl comes back that I was covering for. I'm actually going to miss working on Tuesdays, though. It was a nice shift & worked out perfect for bowling. Which, speaking of bowling, a week ago, my thumb started swelling up on the one side while I was bowling. Then a few days later, my other thumb got the same bump on it & they won't go away. I struggled with my bowling this week because I could hardly get my thumb in or out of the ball! I even had to go back to using my 14 lb. ball yesterday because the weight of my 15 lb. was hurting my thumb too much. So today, I have a doctor's appointment this afternoon to see if he can find out what's wrong. It may be arthritis.....that's the only thing I could find about it when I did a search online. Hopefully it's nothing too serious that will put a damper on my bowling!

Well, I gotta get off of this computer & go do some house cleaning. Fun, fun! I even skipped going to my Groovin' Moves dance class today so I could clean. But Jim & I will be going to the gym tonight since we don't have our weight loss meeting this week. They're having a blood drive at the church where the meetings are held, so we couldn't meet this week.

Till next time.....have a wonderful weekend,

Benita

I Won!

Last month, Scrappy Chic's challenge was to do a layout comprised mostly of Making Memories products. I decided to enter the above layout as it's one of my favorites & I won :) Okay, well I actually tied with someone else, but I'm super excited as this was my first time entering one of their challenges! I have no clue what I won yet, though. Now I need to make a trip to the store to find out......like I really need a reason to go to a scrapbook store ;)
And while I'm at it, I thought I would share a recent layout. I'm trying to do more layouts for my dd's Europe album & I really like the way this one turned out. It's of the Heidelburg Castle in Germany. I painted along the edges of the layout with 2 different colors of paint, although it's kinda hard to tell. I also used some Tim Holtz Grungeboard along with lots of the Primas from Michaels.

I've got an extremely busy 5 days ahead of me as I have to work Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday & Tuesday while still trying to fit my workouts in there, too. But I'm determined to do it! I slacked way too much in October & promised myself that I would get back on track this month. I also have a couple more layouts that I'm working on, so I want to try to finish those up this weekend as well.

Hope you have a wonderful weekend! It's supposed to get cold here after being in the 70's the past 3-4 days, so I'm not looking forward to that!

Till next time,

Benita

Numb

I was originally planning on just doing a wordless Wednesday blog post, but right now, I just can't be wordless. There are so many words to describe my feelings right now......

sadness, scared, heartbroken, afraid, worried, frightened & just plain numb.

I'm scared for America! I'm scared for other countries! I'm scared for my children, my grandchildren & my great-grandchildren! I'm just plain scared! Yes, I know we needed a change, but is this really the change we needed?

As I sat there watching the results tonight, I couldn't hold back the tears, especially when John McCain conceded & Sarah Palin stood beside him, also in tears. He showed true class & integrity with his speech. And it's because of his speech that I will do my best to support our new president, even if I admittedly didn't vote for him.

I'm not doing very good as far as elections go.....the past 4 elections, the people I've voted for have all lost. But at least I voted! And it seems most of America has voted this year as well, which I think is truly wonderful. They let their voices be heard & now I just hope they aren't wrong. I pray they aren't wrong!

And now, just a little humor to end this post:

When I saw this shirt, I just knew I had to get it, even if I won't get to wear it again. If you can't read it, it says "I'm Voting For Sarah Palin and that White-haired Dude." :)

And please, if you cannot read this post & respect my blog enough to not leave any nasty comments on it, then please don't comment at all. Lord knows we've had enough negativity over the past 18+ months of the election to last a lifetime!

Thank-you & GOD BLESS AMERICA!

Pretty Princess

Shawn & Toni did show up on Halloween, although they were late, so we only had about 45 minutes to take this Princess out trick-or-treating. Here she is, in her gorgeous costume :)
And here she is with her crown on.
She was eating a blue sucker in this photo, which is why her mouth is all blue. Doesn't match her costume, though, lol.

The very happy Gamma :)

Giving Daddy a big hug.

Both kids being silly.

I'm just so glad that they brought her here & I was able to spend some time with her, even if it only was a few hours. Toni brought a, ummm, boyfriend with her.....at least I'm guessing it was her boyfriend since they were holding hands most of the night. That was a little awkward, to say the least, especially at dinner. We went out to Max & Erma's because none of us had a chance to eat before trick-or-treating. I took some videos while we were there, but haven't had the chance to load them on my computer yet.

That's all for now. Jim is off work on Monday & also on Tuesday for the election. Speaking of which, make sure you vote. I know I am! And I got a cute shirt that I'll share a picture of after the election :)

Have a marvelous Monday,

Benita