Wall Hangings ....

My nephew sent me some pictures from my housewarming ... I thought I'd share a couple pics with you ...

This picture, my mom gave me. She heard that I was going to do my kitchen in Fruit of the Spirit ...


This one ... is extra special ... it was painted by my dear friend at Wanda's Wings ...yes, she painted it herself! I was so touched. Both by her gift, as well as her talent!



It's placement in the house hasn't been decided. My husband wants it in our room.

My children say it goes in the hallway where we call all enjoy it. :D It will probably go in the hallway ... we'll see.



There are more pictures to share from the housewarming ....

however ... it looks like we're going to be snowed in ...and I'll have plenty of time for blogging and I have a teenaged son begging for the computer ...so, for now, I will surrender to him.

Enjoy the pictures!

Prayer for a Fruitful Home

Prayer For A Fruitful Home
By Peggikaye Eagler

Every Morning as we begin our day,
May Godly Love guide each word we say.

Regardless of what the day may bring,
May Joy be the song that our hearts sing.

When trials threaten to overwhelm,
May God’s Peace be at our hearts helm.

When time is flying and money tight,
May Patience reign instead of fright.

Help us to always put others ahead,
May we remember, by Kindness be led.

No matter what we see in those around,
May Goodness in our lives abound.

When in dark times, we may not see the way,
May Your call to Faithfulness be our stay.

When life around seems to make us stumble,
May Your Gentleness keep us humble.

And finally Lord, but not the least,
May Self Control rule, in famine or feast.

Galatians 5:22&23

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Dedicated to the Habitat for Humanity Class, May 2004.

Here, home, happy

Well, except for a few things that are left in the storage shed and in the stored in the back room ... we are in the new house. Mostly unpacked too. Not quite ...about 75%.

Exhausted. I've been sick. That's not helping.

I have so much to say ... and no words to say it in. Besides, it's almost dinner ... and since, we now have a dining room table, and we all sit together ... I can't just type through dinner ... so. I just wanted to pop on and say I'm back to the blogging world. I will try to up date tomorrow.

Scarcity of Blogging

Pearls and Dreams

Well ... the next week or so, my blogging may get a bit scarce. This is my last night in the old house ... as tomorrow night, is our first night in our new house. YEA!!!!!!!!!!!

Ironically, it is also the birthday of both my husband and I. (no, we didn't plan it that way ...until my son said something about 20 minutes ago, we'd forgotten what tomorrow was as far as aging was concerned).

Happy birthday to us!

We were supposed to go out for a birthday dinner at Cowboy Sharkies ...but I seriously doubt we will ... we will be moving.

It will probably be this weekend before we are fully out of this house, but we move into the new house tomorrow and the new house has no phone line, nor any other way to get computer access ... and well ...when we're here ...we'll be packing. We'll be living in our home.

It will be ever so nice to be warm.

See you soon.

shock ... devestation ...

Today, my pastor preached a wonderful sermon. One of his best.

When it was over ... he came down from the stage and on the stairs he said what an honor it is to be in the ministry ... to be at all the births, the weddings all the celebrations in life and to even be at the funerals ... I started to get a bit 'oozy' at this point and then thought ..nah ... it's Thanksgiving ...he's just saying how thankful he is ...

Then he said that when he got here 10 years ago the teenagers were just nosed kids ... (ooozy again ...nooooo he's been here 10 years! That's it!)

No, wait .....

He resigned. Just like that ... a few sentences then he gave his resignation. In a few weeks ... he'll be gone.

He and his wife are leaving not only our church, but the ministry.

It's a shame. In my book, Friday Fellowship, that is coming out, in October, which is minister appreciation month, I write a poem about ministers and how they are special ...and the devotional is how they are leaving the ministry in droves ...and how ... we as their flock don't do enough to prevent that ... how ironic, that now ...as my book is about to come out ...my pastor, who I've loved and prayed for so much ...who I wrote the poem for, is resigning.

My heart is breaking, I've worked closely with his wife for 7 years. My ministry partner is going. I am not sure that the new worship pastor will need 'a Peggi'. That's my title "a Peggi". We've never given what I do a title ... the teacher's in our worship team have just deamed it 'a Peggi' and wished they had 'a Peggi' for their classroom. Carla is sure that a new minister will need me more than she does, but I'm not foolish enough to assume that ...everyone is different. Different people do things differently. Of coarse, I'm available and willing ... but ...not presumptious. I don't sing anymore, my voice is gone. So, with Randy and Carla leaving, I may be loosing my place of worship.

This means, that our little church .. our struggling little church, that has limped along so painfully without a youth pastor for the last several months ...is now down a senior pastor, a worship pastor and a youth pastor. Leaving us with a support pastor (who's been praying about leaving for well over a year) and a children's pastor ...who, I've wondered for well over 6 months if she's on her way out. She's so very tired.

Our church secretary is recoverying from Breast Cancer and has been the secretary for something like 25 years ... will she stay?

What will happen from here ... only God knows. Thank God that he does.

Party is over :)

Happy sigh ...

The house warming is finally over. It was a wonderful time.

We weren't sure how we were going to do the gifts, but we had planned on letting a few people get there, and our hostess get things settled in before we started to open ... but my mom got there and just started to insist that we get hers opened right then and there. Oh well ... it was a come and go ... so ... might as well ... after I got over the annoyance of her not paying any attention to the fact that she'd just walked in and pushed her way into the center of attention ... I got over it and started to open the gifts. Her gifts, were really beautiful ... but what was most touching is that she and my father went in together to buy the gifts! Considering that they've been divorced since I was born (literally) it is quite remarkable. I've never had a gift from both my mother and my father before.
To me, this was quite important, she kept trying to push to the fact that she picked out the gifts with my sister Debbie ... to me ... they were important that it was from her and my dad. Ahh ... my mom ...
What they got for me was some absolutely beautiful paintings for our house.

I also got the bedroom set that I wanted, and several other things that I will post in another post. When my nephew sends pictures I will try to give a more detailed post of this is what we got.

My most treasured things ... were ... the framed art from my parents ... and a really special painting from my dear friend Wanda ...from Wanda's Wings !!! Oh my gosh you bloggers! It was BEAUTIFUL!!! I am so touched by how wonderful it is! I was hoping to get a Wanda original ...and I'd seen how talented she was. I didn't realize that she was THAT good ... and she had it beautifully framed too!! The other things that I had asked for on my registry that were major decorating center pieces for the house ... a mat for the kitchen that was what picked the whole house color theme .. a shower curtain in the bathroom and the bedroom set ... were all chosen!

Also, the kids ministry at church bought us the programmable coffee maker! YEA MAN!

The funny thing ... most of the wrapping paper ... in purple ... of coarse.

The party itself ...decorated rather elegantly in the beautiful fall colors that I like so much.

More ...when I can think more clearly and have pictures to share.

The Honesty of Children

I was stopping at the store to pick up some cold relief medicine ... so I could feel a little better. I've caught a nasty cold. It might be allergies flaring from packing and such. Either way, it's not good and it's pulled the rug right out from under me.
I feel like a skunk in the middle of the road that's been ran over.

I'm standing in line, and I'm thinking about just how happy I am in life right now.

My new house. My new marriage. My kids ... as much as they drive me nuts ... I've really got great kids. Benjamin is 14, almost 15 ...and all that comes with ... but he really is a good kid. In the grand scheme of things ... my kids ... are really terrific kids.

So I'm standing there and the song "I'm on the top of the world looking out on creation ..." hits me ... and I smile.

Well ... I'm sick.

And this little girl walks by

and she's about 4 or 5. Might be kindergarten ...maybe k4 age ... and she says to her mommy ....

Look at the cranky old lady mommy ... why isn't she happy?

The mom ... was mortified at how loud the little girl said it.

I was looking around for the cranky old lady.

There was only one lady around ... me.

YIKES ...

I paid for my stuff and walked out to the car ...looked into the mirror ... and saw the cranky old woman ... yep ... I look like the skunk that's been ran over in the middle of the road ...

ACHOO!

Sign of Surprise, Thank You

Pearls and Dreams

A while back, I had someone ask to be my myspace friend. It was someone who owned a business in Broken Arrow. They own a business who puts up signs and flags for surprises ...parties and such in the Broken Arrow and Tulsa area.

The idea intrigued me. I thought it might be a kind of cool way to say thank you to the volunteers who helped to build my house. So, I asked for a price quote.

Rather than giving me a price quote ...the business contacted Habitat and asked if they could donate this service for the key ceremony!!!!!!

It was such a kind gesture! I wanted to not only say thank you to them for doing it, but make sure that I posted pictures of the signs at the key ceremony as a way of showing just what they did for us.

So, Sign of Surprise, thank you SO much for doing this for us on Sunday. It was absolutely wonderful and I hope you get a few calls because of it!

I'm not me?

Pearls and Dreams

I found this last night. According to this ... I don't exist.

HowManyOfMe.com

There are: 0 people with my name in the U.S.A. How many have your name?

FAQ - Frequently Asked Questions.

Q: Why isn't my name on the list?

The list of names from the census bureau isn't complete. For privacy reasons, names with relatively few responses were not included in the list. We used this data to create this site. Our site can only be as good as the data we have to work with.


Around 1 out of every 10 people will have a last name not on the list.
Around 1 out of every 10 people will have a first name not on the list.
Using the same statistical fallacy this site is known for, that means about 81% of people will have both names on the list. In a mathematical coup our scientists have determined from this information that about 19% of people will have either one or both names missing from the list.


"I think it's important not to take it as a rejection of you personally."
Gabriel Caine -- Diggstown.

On the proof that I do exist ... one of the church's that helped to build my house has pictures of yesterday's ceremony up. I thought I'd send the link.

When my nephew sends the pictures he took, I will send those along.
Now, we have the housewarming to look forward to on Saturday. People keep telling me they know what they're going to get me now ... curiosity is about to kill the cat!

I guess I've waited this long for the house, I can wait a few more days for the gifts lol

Dreams come true

We own a home ... the house key is truly precious metal! I don't know how many people were there. Quite a few.

It was a really neat time with everyone giving credit to God and prayers. I think, my face actually hurts from smiling ...but I'm still smiling!

Afterwards, we were given a living room set by a few couples in our church. I knew we were getting some living room furniture, but didn't quite know what to expect ... they did perfect! I found a picture and posted below what they bought for us! They'd asked me about what our needs and wants were. I told them that Don really needed a recliner, and there wasn't room for both a recliner and loveseat. I'd rather see him get the recliner than have the normal couch & loveseat set. Well, they decided that wasn't good enough and got us a loveseat that reclines in both seats, and a couch that reclines on both ends!!! So the couch and love seat has FOUR recliners!!!!

Diane and I had talked about how Don really wanted leather and I REALLY didn't want leather. I didn't mind the look, but I can't stand how cold it is in the winter and how you stick to it in the summer. So, they got this beautiful suede that looks like a brushed leather!!!

The color, a beautiful olive green! We couldn't have picked better if we'd tried!!!
So now the moving starts!!!

We were given a computer, a $75 gift certificate from Albertsons, a beautiful family Bible and a tool chest. The lady who lives in the Habitat house just down the street from mine presented us with the Bible and tool chest. She is a wonderful lady that I met at my classmate's building ... and she prayed WITH me that I would get into Broken Arrow ...and that regardless of the complications that all the pathways would open up ... it was a very special moment for both of us. She specifically had prayed the whole year that we'd get the particular lot we did ..she wanted us as neighbors.

We now have a solid house as well as a home.
Pk

nerves

You know, it's almost midnight, I have a huge day in my life tomorrow ... I should be sleeping. I'm not. I'm a nervous wreck. I hardly slept last night. I worked hard today ...what I could between back spasms (not normal for me).


I have to give a speech tomorrow on what homeownership means to me. A short one. Not sure I can do the speech part ... or the short part. I start to try to plan out what I'm going to say and I start to have a panic attack. This, is not good. I plan on having the worship team pray for me in the morning.


My heart broke this afternoon. I was getting very angry at my son, Benjamin, because he wouldn't help with the packing. It was one thing for him to stall and not do what we needed him to do. I know his hand is still a bit sore as well as his asthma acts up ...not to mention the step by step directions ... gets him confused ...it definitely crosses over into his learning disabilities. So, I kind of expected some kind of fall out at the packing stage. What I didn't expect was for him to get into MY way and be rude about it. He wouldn't get out of my way ...he was going to be on the computer ...period. I told him no, I had to be in front of the desk and he couldn't be on the computer at that time. He became very angry with me and with vileness spit out at me a verbal lashing I wasn't prepared for coming from my own son! "Why? Why NOW?! " I told him in a rather tightly formed tone of voice, barely controlled "because I am PACKING SON!" and he even more angry let it fly "Why bother?! They're not going to give us the house anyway!" He threw the chair down and ran to my room. Oh my! Oh my baby!

The poor kiddo, he's going through all of this and not expecting any of it to really be real? No wonder he's acting up so much! I gave him a hug and let him rest in my room and watch tv before we talked about his disrespect and the truth vs feelings and such. It's so hard for kids raised in poverty to see a step forward as something that is really going to happen to them.

Our Twitch is in the cat hospital tonight. He'll be home tomorrow. He's not happy with us having left him there for 2 days having given him surgery. But he's doing just fine. He's being rather rude to his care givers though. not aggressive, just hissing and loud meowing. But when they pick him up, he's perfectly relaxed. He keeps trying to climb under the towel in the cage. I told her that's ok, he does that at home. So they said they may get him another one to hide under.


Well my friends ... we are at 15.5 hours and counting at this point ... and I guess I should get some sleep. Or at least try to. I've checked the Target registry as much as I can and people are either ...not buying off the registry ...not buying anything ... or the registry takes time to get it registered. Because there are only 4 items marked off. The housewarming is next Saturday. So, some people could be going and buying it and not marking it off at the register so it's not being marked off. Or, they may just be waiting. Some people may just be buying what they want to buy us ...forget the registry. I did notice that the my bedroom set that I wanted sooooo badly is marked fullfilled. So I'll have a nice elegant bedroom :) ok ... talk to you after the Key Ceremony. Iheard that Reba was supposed to be in town for part of the Tulsa Centenial Celebration ...wouldn't that be cool if she gave me my key??? LOL ... just a laugh ... lol Reba crashes key ceremony! Hey! I'd rather her do it than Oprah crash a wedding!!!

48 hours and counting

We are on count down at this point. Everything we do in this house seems to be on a "we don't have to do this very many more times...." Every afternoon, the boys and I watch the reruns of the Reba show. They show the Reba/Habitat/whirpool commercial. Everytime they show it, I get teary eyed ... and each day ...the tears get bigger. When Reba says that a key is precious metal ... oh my goodness ... it might be a sappy commerical ...but to me ...it's soo true.

I found a website for one of the churches that had been taking pictures from start to finish. I think, this picture, says it all.


Thank you Heritage United Methodist church in Broken Arrow for putting up those pictures!!

Tonight is small group ... I'm even comparing that with my new house. Next time, we'll have to drive from Broken Arrow and it won't be so close! Isn't that cool? :D

Tonight's small group we're going to discuss Worship. I'm going to be teaching the youth group, high schoolers this time. So, I'm going to get some feed back from small group to use in my lesson ... some benchmark ideas.

I hope Sunday's weather is better than today. It's kind of dreary ...windy, cold. Icky. I don't know if it's rained or not. I took a long nap because my body responded to the cold front that swooped down over us. We were in the 80's the last 2 days.

Wednesday, I went into church and had to face my biggest fear ...actually, it's not a fear. It's a phobia. It's beyond fear into irrational fear. Which, would be a phobia, Right?

I walked into church (Wanda, stop laughing at me) and I let out a loud scream, and jumped, and then ..according to Wanda, I started to dance. I did not stop shaking until I went to bed that night.

What caused the reaction ... a snake. There was a HUGE SNAKE IN THE DOORWAY of the church ... HUGE I TELL YA! ok, so it was about a foot long and the thickness of a pencil ... but hey ... black and white stripes ... uglier than sin!!!!

I stepped on the thing. I guess, from what Wanda said, I made it mad. It danced as much as I did. One of our male praise and worship leaders, who's worked very hard on our house, was walking in behind us, and he saved us from torture worse than death.
He threw the thing back into the grass ... ewww.

What was worse ..driving down the expressway on Thursday ...going to therapy, I notice that the consruction crew is looking at the highway and pointing. Word of advice. If there is something that catches the attention of a construction crew ..and you have an unrational fear ...don't look ...
in the middle of the expressway ..slithering along the road was ... truly a LARGE snake! EEEEEEEEEWWWWWWWWWWW

Two times in 24 hours.

It's NOVEMBER! We live in the CITY ... why are these creatures tormenting me! I don't care if it was 85 degree's outside ... ACK!!!!!!!!!!

ewwie ick!

Sigh my babies

Pearls and Dreams

free kittens Three kittens, two females, one male. Approximately 15 weeks old. We're moving and can't take them with us. We own... Nationwide ads

Let me take you on a tour.

Come right on in ... oh wait ...first I have to check the mail ...



Okay ... let's walk on up the driveway to the house. I hope you really enjoy the house. We've worked really hard to get the house, and a lot of people have worked really hard to build it with us, for us.



Come on in ... The storm door, was something I'll never forget being put together! It took a WHOLE day! It's made by Pella. You'd think storm doors that are that expensive would be a little less complicated!



First, we come to the kitchen. I can't believe I have so many cabinets and drawers! Where I am now, I have ONE drawer and ONE cabinet!!!

No longer will we have to 'store' our skillets on the stove when not in use.
Across from the kitchen, is the living room. We had the choice of an 8 foot wall at the door, but it was just for decoration and to devide the room. I liked the openess of the space ... I think it makes the house look bigger. The carpet, is called Adobe.



Oh, and while professionals lay the carpet, my husband and son laid the kitchen and hallway lenolium. I think he did a beautiful job!
Let's go down the hallway to the rest of the house. First, take a look at the lighting fixtures ...




The bathroom is there at the end of the hallway, no pictures though. Not sure why. Maybe at the key ceremony.

Take a left here, and you see my utility room and side door. They call it a 'mudroom' and 'mudroom door'. It's one of my favorite features about the house!!

My laundry area has been IN my kitchen for the last 17 years, the 5 years before that, it was in a laundromat! UGH!!! I can't wait to have it out of the kitchen.
The door to the left, is the hot water heater and the doors to the right is the utility closet.

Back to the main hallway and to the bedrooms,


This one is Samuel's, but they all are similar, the master is a bit bigger and has a ceiling fan.
Let's take our coffee to the porch and we can enjoy the view oh, and you can see the pretty flowers that they planted for us.


These are the pink Knockout Roses.

I do hope you enjoyed the tour. Come again!

Happy Sigh

The house is done. Flowers and all.

The gardners came today. We didn't have the normal Habitat flower people. The flowers were done by a flower company that one of the churches that sponsored the house. This, was a good thing, it means mine is different than all the other habitat houses . (Read this as: NO PURPLE FLOWERS!)

We have 3 rose bushes ... called Knockout Roses (pink) on one side
Boxwoods and Nandina's in front
and Japanese Yews on the other side.
Yellow pansies on one corner.

Just beautiful!

As soon as Stephen sends me the pictures, I will send the pictures!

Sigh.

Blogversary

Pearls and Dreams

Yesterday, I visited my friend Moof's blog. It was her first blogversary. It got me thinking that my blog versary was coming up soon. So, I thought I'd look up when mine was. I thought, I might want to mention it. Surprise! It was November 3rd! My Second Blogversary!

I thought I would take this moment to reflect back and answer a couple of questions. One question I get by email (usually from strangers who visit, but never comment) is :
Why do you collect elephants?

You know, no one, who's ever known me, has ever asked me that question. So when I got the blog, and I started to get emails asking me that question, it really started to nag at me. I needed an ANSWER. I was 13 when I started my collection. I have some pretty unique elephants, my favorite, being one I got for my 40th birthday shortly after starting this blog ...from a friend, it's made out of shark cartilege.


So, I started to think...why elephants, I'm facinated with elephants as a creature. Not just the figurines. Then, while reading to a child one day ... the answer came to me ... good old Dr. Suess.
I meant what I said
And I said what I meant....
An elephant's faithful
One hundred per cent!

So, there is the answer .. I collect them, because elephants are faithful. 100%

In the last 2 years, I have shared about my step father's life, his death, and the love we've shared.
In the early days of this blog, I particapated in some blog writers "rounds" called Blogger Idol. It really got me started with Blogging.

Soon, I ran into Grand Rounds. It had just started shortly before. I've met, and continue to meet a whole lot of new bloggers through the weekly posting of Grand Rounds.

I was in the middle of working towards my goal of getting a house through Habitat for Humanity. At the time, the goal seemed unreachable. 450 hours of sweat equity to even begin to build. 500 to ownership. Impossible for someone like me. It was exausting, and I did not think I could do it. And ... now ... we've gone from ... the hours ahead to even get there ... to a lot ....


To a home that will be ready tomorrow!




And ours ... in just nine more days!

I've watched my boys go from kids, to young men.



I've posted about my cats and my health, my faith and my love for worship music. I've posted about my childhood battles that I don't even talk verbally about and I've posted about my eating disorder.

I think though, if I had to choose the the topic that touched me the most that I've posted about ... it would be ... my marriage. I hesitated to post about how bad things were before, and yet, I did. I was trying to reach out and not hide how bad things were anymore.

I didn't realize that shortly things were going to take a dramatic turn for the miraculous ... and had I not shared the dark ..the light would not have seemed nearly as bright.

So, thank you all for coming along my journey with me. I hope you all will keep riding along with me for some more. I can't wait to see where the road takes me ... especially after I move into my new house and get my book published. I have the feeling, it's going to feel like a whole new life.

Book Meme I can live with ...

Pearls and Dreams

Artemis had this on her site, I thought it was really an interesting meme ... so, I picked it up. I'm not going to tag anyone, so go ahead and feel safe to read on. However ... I challenge you ... to forge ahead and join the meme on your own.

Here are the instructions ...
Here are the rules and my selection:

1. Grab the nearest book.
2. Open the book to page 123.
3. Find the fifth sentence.
4. Post the text of the next four sentences on your blog, along with these instructions.
5. Don't you dare dig for that "cool" or "intellectual" book in your closet! I know you were thinking about it! Just pick up whatever is closest!

"You've tried that too? Just when I realized it was impossible, I also realized that it was not at all what I was wanting to do.
I sat down and held her tight little tummy against my chest. She began to relax."

Max Lucado's No Wonder They Call Him Savior

A few sentences later ... his 3 week old baby girl fell asleep inspite of the tummy ache.
What had he tried to do? To hold her, comfort her while getting stuff done with the other hand.

I had something happen this week that unsettled me. An email out of the blue ..from my childhood. I won't go into details, but, it caused a rather tumultuous tornado inside my spirit to errupt.

I went to church Wednesday night and in worship team practice we worked on a new song that we've been learning ... I blogged about it a while back ...STILL ... and again, I was reminded that God was still God ..and I just needed to be still and know that he's in charge.


Hide me now,
Under Your wings
Cover me,
With in Your mighty hand
When the oceans rise and thunders roar

I will soar with You, above the storm

Father, You are King over the flood

I will be still and know You are God
Find rest my soul
In Christ alone
Know His power
In quietness and trust
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It's funny ... when I was flailing about, like an infant with a tummy ache, my heavenly Father took time out to hold me close to His heart ... let me hear his heartbeat ... and soon, I began to relax. It's not the first time, it won't be the last. But what a relief to know ... He will always be there, to get me through the storm ..and hold me close.

He doesn't have to hold me while answering the phone, he doesn't have to write a blog while holding me. He doesn't have to feed the dog, or cat while he's holding me. When my heart is hurting ...and I'm in a panic ... He holds me, close, under his Wing ... and gives me rest.

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