Happy New Year 2011!

It's official......it's ours, ours, ours, ours, OURS!! Okay, we'll it's ours & the banks for the next 30 years ;) We closed on the house December 23rd & have been going NON STOP ever since! We rented a Uhaul truck for 5 days to move all the big stuff & it's slowly starting to become our home. It will probably take months until we have everything unpacked, but I don't care! We finally have a home, sweet home again :)

We have hit a few snags along the way.....it seems that after our inspection, they re-winterized the house, but we don't think it was done properly as we've had some problems with some water lines, etc. Right now, we have a leak in the master shower that we hope is just coming from the caulking. The house is only 9 years old & when we had it inspected, the inspector said it was in excellent shape. When we found out about the plumbing problems the day of our walk through (also our closing day), we almost didn't close! It was either close on the house, or be out our deposit, inspection & appraisal costs. Since the house was a foreclosure, we were buying it 'as is'. I just pray that we didn't buy the Money Pit (like the movie!).

On December 27th, Jim, Shawn & I took a much-needed break from moving & went to see Jeff Dunham in Saginaw. O-M-G!!! He was so hilarious! We laughed non-stop! It was exactly what the doctor ordered! If you ever have the chance to see him, I HIGHLY recommend it! You will NOT be disappointed! Trust me!

Last night, for New Year's Eve, we went to a friend's house & played cards, ate, drank, ate, played more cards & ate lots & lots of jello shots that I made. We had a blast & we were already told that next year, the party is at our house. I can't wait!

Once I get the house more organized, I'll be sure to take & post lots of pics of the inside.....stay tuned :)

I hope you have a fabulous 2011! So far, ours is off to a pretty good start.....let's just hope it stays that way!

Benita

S*T*R*E*S*S!!!

That word doesn't even begin to describe what I'm going through right now! We are supposed to close on the house this Thursday......Thursday, the 23rd of December! But right now, nothing is even 100% guaranteed yet! We're supposed to get the final approval sometime today & then we just have to pray that nothing else comes up between now & Thursday. I have the reservation for the moving truck to be picked up Thursday afternoon, I've been packing as much as I possibly can to be able to still continue to live, but I haven't even begun to wrap any Christmas presents yet. Then to top it all off, I went down into the basement at the house we're renting to do some laundry today & saw that the water heater is leaking! JUST FREAKIN' GREAT!!! What the heck else can go wrong??? DON'T answer that! Cause at this point, I don't wanna know! All I want right now is some time to relax.....to be able to enjoy the holiday season.....to take a nice, LONG bath! Which is exactly what I plan on doing just as soon as we are settled in this:
:)

If I don't get a chance to post again for a few weeks, I hope you all have a very Merry Christmas & a wonderful & safe New Year!

Love to all,
Benita

Hard To Believe...

....that it was a year ago today that I lost my Mom! How could that be??? Where did this past year go? One year already?? I don't get it! It still hasn't even completely sunk in that she's gone! And now she's been gone a year? Maybe I still don't want to accept it. Maybe I don't want to believe it. Maybe I'm still in shock. It's been a very difficult year for me, I know that. Right after she passed away, I ended up with the swine flu (or H1N1 as they now call it), so it was like the whole month of December just flashed before my eyes last year! And now here I am, a year later, and still not dealing with losing my Mom.

It really hit me last night, as I was attempting to decorate our Christmas tree. I found this Mother ornament that I purchased last year & that's all it took for the tears to start flowing! When does it get better? People say it takes time.....sometimes I think they're wrong!

When I went to Pennsylvania this past August, I found these angel statues called The Reunion Heart. I purchased a large one for in my garden & then a smaller version that sits on my desk. I just love the poem & wanted to share it:

The Reunion Heart

Since Heaven has become your home
I sometimes feel I'm so alone;
and though we now are far apart
you hold a big piece of my heart.

I never knew how much I'd grieve
when it was time for you to leave,
or just how much my heart would ache
from that one fragment you would take.

God lets this tender hole remain
reminding me we'll meet again,
and one day all the pain will cease
when He restores the missing piece.

For Jesus heals each tiny part
that holds your memory in my heart.
This tearful heart reminds me of
when He'll unite us in His love.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

And with that beautiful poem, I will end this post here.

Benita

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 :)

Seriously....I'm Blogging???

Oh poor, neglected blog.....yes, it's been 3 months since I've posted on you! I didn't forget about you.....honest. See, it's this thing called Life that has taken over.....life has gotten in the way of blogging, but I promise I still love blogging & that is why I'm writing on you today :)

Above is my newest creation that I made.....my fall wreath. I've been wanting a nice looking fall wreath to put on our front door, but the ones that look really good are so expensive! So I decided to buy the stuff & make my own. I purchased a grapevine wreath for $2.39 ($3.99 minus a 40% off coupon), a leafy vine for $7.50 (half price), a floral bush for $5.00 (also half price) & 3 floral picks that have little acorns on them for 99 cents each (yep, you guessed it.....half price on those, too). So for a grand total of around $19.00, I now proudly display this wreath on my front door :)
At the end of August, Shawn & I went to Pennsylvania to visit my family along with Karen & Jimmy's grave. God, we had such a blast while we were there! We went out every night with Barb & I found a new love.....PUDDING SHOTS!!! OMGosh are they YUMMY! Now I'm homesick & wanna go back already :( Here are Barb, Dad & I at the grave.....it's hard to believe that it's been 6 years since they left us!

The hardest part of going home was visiting my Mom's grave for the first time since she passed away :*( When she first went into the nursing home, I made a promise to myself that whenever I went home, she would be the first person I would visit & the last person I would see before I left. So now, I'm continuing that promise to her.....as soon as we arrived in Williamsport, the first thing we did was go to her grave & on the morning we left, her grave was the last place we went. When we first got there, I wasn't sure how it was going to affect me.....the first thing I did was put some new flowers on her grave, then I cleaned off the headstone & just stood there......that's when I lost it! I asked Shawn to give me some time alone with her so I could talk to her. I cried, I talked, I cried, I talked.....and right now, I'm crying as I'm typing this :( Damn, I miss my Mom!!! While we were in PA, I found this solar lighted cross & decided to buy it for her grave. I then bought some stickers to dress it up a little. I didn't get a chance to put it on her grave until the morning we left, so I didn't get to see it lit up yet. But I hope it's beautiful, just like my Mom!

Okay, enough with the downer post.....that isn't what I wanted this post to turn into! So before it gets worse, I'm going to stop here. If you're still with me, out there in blogger land, thank-you!

Benita

Happy Father's Day

Happy Father's Day to all the fathers of all my blog readers & to my very own 3 special fathers in my life.....my Dad (pictured above with me), who has celebrated 57 Father's Days now as a great father & friend; my husband Jim, who is so supportive, loving, caring & has been a wonderful husband & father for over 20 years; and to my son Shawn, who continues to grow each day & gave me the most adorable little granddaughter in the world 6 years ago.

A father is a forever blessing!
Benita

Where Does Time Go???

I didn't realize that it's been over a month since I blogged last.....BAD Benita! And to top it all off, I'm getting old! Proof in point....my first born son just turned 24 on June 2nd! What's up with that??? Wait a minute.....wasn't it just yesterday that I was holding his cute little body with his blond hair & blue eyes in my arms? And now....he's taller than me!!!

Jim & I took him out to dinner & then shopping on his birthday.....I never know what to buy him anymore cause his tastes are always changing, so taking him shopping works out better. He's thinking about moving back down to Florida & although I'll miss him like crazy, I know that he's happier down there & that's all I ever wanted for my kids.....for them to be happy! If they're happy, then I know they're enjoying life & I did something right.

Nothing much else to report.....my life has been pretty boring, which is why I don't blog that much anymore. But hopefully, that'll change soon.....details to follow.

Until then, I hope you'll bear with me & continue reading my blog....I miss my fellow bloggers! Let me know if you're still out there, reading or just lurking :)

Benita

Miracles DO Happen!

I called Barb today to see how everything was going & got some GREAT news....she is CANCER FREE!!! Thank-you God! This is exactly the miracle we all needed! Now she goes in on June 9th to start her reconstructive surgery, so I know that's going to be a long process. But it will hopefully be the ending to her battle! She has been so strong & brave through all of this & has truly been an inspiration to me. I'm so glad she's my sister!

In other news, I'll be starting my new job tomorrow as a merchandiser for a greeting card company :) They actually hired me over a week ago, but I had to wait for them to process all the paperwork before I could start. It's going to be a very limited part-time position, but I'm okay with that.....I just wanted something to get out of the house a couple of days a week anyway.....and the little bit of extra money won't hurt, either :)

Today, the 25th of April, marks my 2 year 'anniversary' since I started my weight loss journey.....it was 2 years ago today that Jim & I joined the gym. To date, I've lost around 60 pounds & numerous inches. And although most of that weight loss was within the first year & I haven't lost much since then, I have been maintaining my weight, so I'm very proud of that! I've had quite a few struggles along the way that have also prevented me from working out over periods of time, but hopefully, I've overcome them all now & I'm getting back on track. Speaking of which, I'm off to hit the gym now :)

Later,
Benita