My sweet Sophia is 14!

My sweet Sophia turned 14 yesterday. She and I had a great day of shopping and eating lunch together yesterday. It is such a delight to see what a beautiful, kind, intelligent young woman of God she has become. I can't wait to see what the Lord has planned for her life.

We came home to a pizza party with friends and family last night. It was a great time and we so enjoyed celebrating Sophia.

Here she is being my model for a shawl for my etsy shop. I know that shawl sold because she wore it so elegantly.



Isn't she just beautiful? And she has such a heart for the Lord. I am blessed to have her in my life.

In Christ's Love,
Peg

We are so very blessed...

My girls (and us) are so loved upon by our families. The girls got tons of stuff yesterday and we were able to spend the day together as a family. The big present was a Wii from my inlaws. That totally blew us away. We had never thought to be able to give them something so nice - what a blessing. The girls were so excited.

The best blessing though was just being together and everyone having a good time together.

God is good all the time.

In Christ's Sacrificing love,
Peg

Divinity ...

It's not what you think it is. My sister wife Amy gave me a bag full of pecan divinity tonight. Delish! She didn't think so but it is good enough I ate two pieces and then came home and ate three more. I'm a tad sick to my stomach from the sugar rush but man is it good. There is nothing like good candy made by a southern cook.

Wish you were here to eat some of this and save me from myself. Merry Christmas!

In Christ's Sweet Love,
Peg

So I didn't snap her in two but I wanted to...

Or how the Lord slapped his hand over my mouth and grabbed me around the waist to restrain me:

I went for my cardiologist appointment today. And it is a good thing this SVT can't kill me because I was nearly given a heart attack by the nurse.

I have this thing about doctor's office scales. I don't WANT TO KNOW! DON'T TELL ME! Truly! So I get on them backwards while saying "Don't tell me what I weigh - I don't want to know." Now in the almost three years I've been doing this I have never had a nurse tell me. Well there's always a first. Today was it. This little snippet of a thing (I swear to you she was no bigger than my Emma is) not only tells me but says what I weigh loud enough for the people waiting in the waiting room to hear.

And did I mention my beloved was standing right there? Now don't get me wrong - he knows about what I weigh but let's not advertise it to the world and all. I got off the scale, looked at this little thing I could have snapped in two pieces and said "What part of "Don't tell me" did you not understand?" She still did not understand why I was upset.

Now, least you think I'm in denial about my weight let me tell you my reasoning behind this practice of stepping on the scales backwards. I have a scale. A very nice Weight Watchers scale that tells me to the ounce what I weigh. It is the only scale I am concerned about knowing the numbers of. I do not like to use the doctors office scales numbers because they are ALWAYS, yes that is ALWAYS, different than what my scale says at home. And never in my favor! Seriously, my family doctor's scale is 14 lbs. different. That's 14 lbs. more than mine says. How depressing is that?

So since I know my scale at home is fine and will reflect a gain or loss for me I really don't need to know what their scale says. It only sends me into depression. And leaves me feeling all huge and everything.

The doctor (tiny little thing that she is) apologized profusely and then asked me if I had considered losing some weight. That is the point where the Lord grabbed me round the waist and held me firm so I wouldn't be on the news this evening. God is good. Even when I wanted to trounce them both. Little tiny twits!

The end result: I won't die from this SVT and I may end up having a "procedure" that is not surgery but I'm not going to die or keel over. I'm just fat. Or so the nurse and the doctor both tell me.

In Christ's Tight Grip,

Peg

Girlfriends are a necessary gift every woman needs.

I was privileged to get to spend the bulk of the weekend with my girlfriends. We went to a Christmas party that involved at least five states and 17 women.

I had two of the 17 spend the weekend at my house. We laughed and talked until after midnight on Friday, and finally went to bed when Michael reminded us we were going to be getting up in just a few short hours.

We got up at 5:30 and left my house at 6:45 to head to my friend Anne's house. We had a quick, delicious breakfast at her house and then all 7 of us piled into the big white van aka the Fun Bus!

In the blink of an eye we were in North Carolina at our friend Julie's beautiful home eating, talking, laughing and even crying a few times (sorry about that girls - you know talking about my babies always does me in). Oh and did I mention we ate - oh did we ever eat! Delicious each and every thing I tried. Boy can my friends cook!

I got to see some friends I've not seen in a while and meet some new friends that I've known for some time but not yet met. God is good and in the details. Got to find out the Fun bus does not like muddy spots - thank the Lord for not having to push. ;0) We had such conversation and laughter for many hours and then turned around and in the blink of another eye we were back at Anne's dropping people off and heading back to La Geron.

I was telling a friend at church this morning about my day and realized that I was driving 10 hours out of the day yesterday. It sure didn't seem like it was 10 hours. I haven't laughed that hard in so long and am so blessed to know such great people. And all of this has been possible because of one little conversation my sweet Sophia started 4 years ago this next week. What a blessing and what a gift.

So when was the last time you spent a few hours laughing with a girlfriend or a room full of your girl friends? Make sure you take time for those relationships. God is in them and in the details of them. He wants us to love on each other by laughing, eating with and encouraging each other. I truly believe He delights in the laughter of his people enjoying each other's company.

In Christ's Love,
Peg

Update on my heart issues...

I go to the cardiologist on Monday at 4:15. We'll see what she says. I finally had to call my girlfriend who is also my general practitioner to get her to make the appointment for me. Thankfully she was ready and willing to do that for me. And I'm going to get to see a woman too! Which is always my preference simply because she knows how I feel (or should ;)).

The first cardiologist they wanted me to see evidently doesn't allow appointments to be made for him unless he's physically in the building. Difficult to see the man when he was out until Wednesday.

In the meantime as I wait to see the cardiologist I've had one more incident with my heart racing - thankfully it stopped after about an hour. I was ready to go to the ER and it stopped while I was waiting on the girls to finish eating their breakfast. I am still wiped out by mid-afternoon so obviously something is going on as a result of the long time I waited last week. I hope the cardiologist can give us some insight to what we can do about that. And tell me when I can get on the treadmill again.

So interesting week we've had here at La Geron. My girls are great and I'm thankful they are independent and able girls. I've cooked nary a meal all week and they've helped with tons of stuff. I don't know what I'd have done without their help this week. God is good all the time.

In Christ's Love,
Peg

The Heart is a funny thing...

It amazes me how the Lord designed our bodies so that each part does it's part. I was having some issues with my heart - physically - not spiritually - yesterday. My heart started racing very fast - like 221/bpm fast - on Tuesday night.

Well, I've been there before so I followed the advice of the dr. I'd seen last about it and tried all the tricks to get it to settle down. And then I thought I'd wait it out - according to the dr. I saw last time that was ok to do for up to 3 days as long as I wasn't uncomfortable.

Yeah, turns out that was not very good advice. I should have gone in Tuesday night. As it was when I finally went in to the ER I was still beating at 221/bpm and it had been doing that rate for over 12 hours. The ER doctor said it was like I'd been running around the block for 12 hours non-stop. Not really a good thing evidently. ;)

I truly wasn't feeling badly at all until I actually saw my face in the mirror and realized I was white as a sheet. My girls were all hovering around me - worried. And my beloved was worried but willing to let me call the shots for a bit longer. When I talked to my friend/family doctor she told me to get to the ER now.

As I said I've been there before and I really was trying to avoid two things - the first was the shot of Adenosine which stops your heart - feels like you've been kicked in the chest by a very big mule - and the second thing was of course the ER bill.

I hate paying those high ER bills and after the year we've had with medical things I really did not want to add to our load. My beloved looked at me and told me he wasn't worried about the money - he was worried about my health! I love that man. He just wanted my heart to be working correctly.

So today we are praising the Lord for many things but here's a few big ones:

That He has made our heart so perfectly able to do it's job - if it's not hindered by a short in the wiring which is evidently what I have going on.

That family and friends drop everything to come to our aide in the form of staying with the girls, taking them to dance, and feeding them.

For my beloved - he is always so calm (he gets that from his mother) in crisis situations. And that he Loves me so very much.

For my heart - that it's doing what it's supposed to today

For ER personnel - and for drugs that work even when it feels just awful for those few seconds.

For cardiologists - I'll be seeing one this time about this SVT.

And for my sweet girls who love on me and pray for me during these times

For the three years it's been since I had the last incident.

And for the Lord - who is in my heart and soul giving me the secure knowledge of where I'd be if my heart stopped working completely.

Again, though, the heart is a funny thing - it is made perfectly by the One who does not make mistakes.

In Christ's Miraculous love,
Peg