Porch

This is my favorite spot on the front porch. The plant on the table is the home to the mama bird and her nest of 5 eggs.

After I accidentally scared the mama out of her nest ( see previous post), I got a photo of a couple of the eggs in her nest.

Never leave the door open...

when you are watering plants that have bird's nests in them! I was putting a little water in the plant on the front porch that is housing a mama bird and 5 eggs and it startled the mama (even though I was very careful and not near the nest!) and she promptly flew into the house, via the front door I'd left standing open! She checked out the dining room and the living room and finally flew back outside. She never made a peep in the house but the instant she got outside, you could hear her sassing me for a country mile!

YUMMY!

I went to a Stampin' Up! class last weekend and the gal served the yummiest cheese dip and it's SO simple! I made some last night and served it over taco salads but it's awesome to eat it with just taco/tortilla chips!
Recipe:

1 can Hormel chili without beans
2 bricks cream cheese, 8 oz. each, cut into pieces

Melt ingredients over low heat in a saucepan on the stove, or you can put into a crock pot on low. Stir well and serve!

YUM!

Our adopted soldier!

Last week, there was an article in our newspaper about a program called "Soldier's Angel...May No Soldier Go Unloved". I decided to check it out online, read about it and we decided to "adopt" a soldier! I just did this last night and today, we received our soldier's info! His name is Robert and he is in Afghanistan.
I'm SO excited! If you'd like to adopt a deployed soldier or just want to read about the program, go here: http://www.soldiersangels.com/
We may never hear back from our soldier, but if we do, I'll be sure to post it here!

My poor pool

Every night, we have raccoons in our back yard around the pool. I've been afraid one would stand up on the side of our pool and puncture it or something. Well, something has happened! All the water is gone, save for a few inches! Wah!! It isn't the hoses or the pump. Don't know what has happened but I'm bummed!

Peterson Creek Primitives feature

My home and business have been featured in a Primitive Blog! You can check it out here:

http://eweniquetreasures.blogspot.com/2007/06/wednesday-inspirations-620.html

Lazy Saturday

I guess we're going to be really lazy two days in a row! lol It's nearly 3 PM and we're both still in our p.j.'s. It's raining a nice, steady gentle rain that we so desperately need. I tried to sit in the rocking chair on the front porch and go through some cookbooks, but with the breeze, I froze and had to come in. It's so chilly out!
Right next to the rocking chair on the porch is a small table with a potted flower. I went out the other day to see dirt all over the table and on the porch right around the table. I investigated and found a bird's nest in the potted plant with one egg in it! I looked in the nest last night and there are 5 eggs now.

Lazy Friday

We've finally got our pool set up and nearly ready to go. We have rusty well water, so we always have to do a special treatment to the water once we have the pool filled up. We put this white powdery stuff in the pool that costs $27 a bottle (yikes!) and the rust in the water clings to the white stuff and it all floats to the bottom of the pool and stays there until we vacuum it out. So, I vacuumed the pool floor tonight while Fred fixed a tiny leak on the filter hose. I wish someone would come out this far to fill our pool with nice clean water annually, but no one will come out this far. In the community we used to live in, the volunteer fire dept. comes and fills your pool for a small fee.
Two days ago, I started the heavy bleeding again. After still no response from my DR, the onset of the bleeding prompted me to contact the administrator of my DR's office building yesterday. Within 90 minutes, I had a personal phone call from the DR yesterday and by this morning I had a call with an appointment scheduled with a specialist. The bummy part is the OB/GYN appt. is on my anniversary...July 3! Oh well.

For those of you not aware of all the problems I've been having concerning the DR's office, this is the letter I sent him on June 8:

June 8, 2007
Dear Dr. XXXXX,
I am writing to express my concern and feelings about what I feel is a lack of care by your nurse, Tonya.
I had a uterine biopsy in your office on May 9. By that point, I had been bleeding off and on for 2 months and had possibly even suffered a miscarriage. I was told the biopsy results would be back in a week’s time.
After not hearing from your office for 9-10 days following the test, I began calling and left messages with the various ladies who answer the phone, asking for someone to call me concerning the test results. No one returned my calls. In hind sight, I guess the test results weren’t in, but I think someone should have returned my calls to let me know that. When you are sick and waiting on biopsy results, the wait is very hard.
Four days after the test, on Sunday, May 13 I had to go to the ER for uncontrollable uterine bleeding. Dr. Sowers was on call and directed us to BMH. I was bleeding out an overnight pad every hour. I was put on Provera, 20 MG for 10 days and instructed four times by the ER NP to call you the first thing the following morning. I called at 9:25 AM on Monday, May 14. I spoke directly to Tonya. She promised to talk with you, see if you wanted me to do anything different then call me back that day. I’ve never heard from her concerning this and do not know if she told you I went to the ER. I bled so strongly that week that I wore two overnight pads at a time inside a Depends undergarment and slept on a shower curtain liner.
Twenty days after the test, I once again spoke with a phone operator. She was very sympathetic and said that she was sure someone would have already called with the test results and stated that I must have missed the call. She said, “I promise someone will call you back today.” I waited by the phone until 11 PM and no one returned my call.
The next day, my husband called Tonya and left her message, asking her about the results. She called him back immediately at his pharmacy and tried to give him the results. He prompted her to call me and tell me the results herself. She told him the results had come in at 9 PM the night before but she didn’t want to call that late. I wish Fred had told her I’d waited by the phone until 11:00. I told Tonya that I was still feeling very poorly. She said she would “sit down with Dr. XXXX tonight” and call me back the following day. Two or three weeks later, I’m still waiting to hear from her. The ER NP told me to go to a OB/GYN. I asked Tonya if you wanted me to come back in or if I needed to go to an OB/GYN. That is one of the things she was to ask you and let me know and I still have no answers.
I am, in no means, trying to cause trouble. I just feel like you aren’t aware of everything that has happened. I was so sick in May that I didn’t know if I would make it. I felt like Tonya didn’t care and I still have no resolution to the bleeding. I’m not sleeping and I’m dealing with the hormonal fallout of Provera and whatever else is wrong hormonally. I’m still spotting off and on.
I don’t know what else to do and I don’t know how else to reach you. I realize I am only one of hundreds of patients and I’m not asking for special treatment.
I cannot return to Balanced Life, the ladies gym, until I have a release from your office. I can’t get anyone to call me back so that I can talk to them about this as well.
Thank you for your time.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
When I never heard back from the DR, I figured my letter had been intercepted by someone in his office, as we are friends with this DR and know without a doubt that he would've contacted me right away.
When I spoke on the phone with him yesterday, I could tell he wasn't in a position to speak freely, but he assured me we would talk again soon. So, we'll see. At least I'm going to the specialist now. Not sure what will happen as the consensus seems to be that the bleeding is hormonally induced due to my ovarian disease and the treatment for this is birth control pills, which I cannot take because I get blood clots. Sigh.

On a good note, after working 10 straight days, Fred had today off as well as Sat. & Sun., so I'm excited about that! Being sick, I slept 18 hours last night and he slept a lot too, so we didn't get much done today! We had lunch at Applebee's...I had the Bistro Steak sandwich on a Ciabatta and it was YUMMY!! I also took some stuff to the consignment shop, bought some stuff while there and that about sums up our day today! lol

My latest creations

These cards are a few of my latest creations, which you can find for sale on my web site at www.PetersonCreekPrimitives.com

Cell Phone vs. Bible

Cell Phone vs. Bible

I wonder what would happen if we treated our Bible like we treat our cell phones.
What if we carried it around in our purses or pockets
What if we turned back to go get it if we forgot it
What if we flipped through it several times a day
What if we used it to receive messages from the text
What if we treated it like we couldn't live without it
What if we gave it to kids as gifts
What if we used it as we traveled
What if we used it in case of an emergency
What if we upgraded it to get the latest version
Something to make you say hmmmmm, and where is my Bible?

Outreach Experience

My hubby summed up Saturday's experience in two words: Culture Shock.

Our outreach group sat up in a small field just a couple blocks north of downtown Muncie. We were at the site of an elementary school that had long ago been torn down. We were smack dab in the middle of a fairly poor neighborhood. Unsupervised children in the streets.

We grilled hotdogs on a tiny table top grill. We offered chips, snacks and cold drinks, for free, with the hot dogs. We lost count of how many hot dogs we gave out. Our pastor and another man walked the neighborhood streets, handing out our church cards and inviting people to come over to our little group for a hot dog. Entire families came. Poor, tired and sad looking families. Some wanted to talk a lot, some didn't talk at all and didn't lift their heads. Some came back two or three times, still clearly hungry. Some were really dirty. Some were crippled. Some wanted prayer right then. There were people covered in piercings and tattoos. I heard one of our group say, "That pregnant lady we just served, isn't she that prostitute that we talked to before?"

Wow.

My husband, who has never lived in town, was shocked just being in a neighborhood with close houses and the streets full of kids and people and traffic. Both of us are shy people and taking that first step to talking to someone is hard for both of us. But, the Bible says that we must offer our coat to someone who is cold, a cup of cold water to someone who is thirsty and that when we do it to the least in this world, we've done it to Him. And, that's all I need to know to take that first step in talking to someone that I might not be able to relate to, but that I know need Him.

Today in East Central Indiana....

....It's hotter than blue blazes, whatever that means! LOL
It's 93* with 50 MPH wind. Kind of feels like a desert around here. I SO want my swimming pool put up, but it's out in the shed, with Sammie the Snake. lol
I've been making goodies tonight. We're going to do an outreach Saturday afternoon in the inner city parks in Muncie. We'll be setting up a grill, offering free hotdogs, chips, drinks and snacks to any one who wants some. Our youth group has done this before and say it's very eye-opening. They met people that said what we were giving them to eat was all they would eat for that day. That is so sad. Muncie has quite a homeless population and it's heart breaking. Anyway, this will be Fred and my first time doing this and I'm so excited! We'll be having a special service at church Friday night to learn more about this type of outreach and to pray for our efforts on Saturday.
I'll keep you posted!

Pay it forward

This letter to the editor was in our local paper on Monday. I think it is worth sharing!

"On May 29, I experienced something that has never happened to me before. I was at Wal-Mart on McGalliard with my significant other, our son, my sister-in-law and her new baby. We were at the checkout line when a young woman came up to us and asked us if she could pay for our groceries. We were speechless and really did not know what to say. We asked what the catch was. and she explained she was being nice. She walked up and paid $136 and some change for our items. She handed us the receipt and walked away. We knew her name because it was on the receipt, Danielle Wright.
Danielle started "pay it forward" that day. We went to lunch and bought the two people behind us lunch. They in return, told us that they would buy someone's lunch tomorrow. When we got home we told our two older boys what had happened and that the stranger had actually bought them two shirts. The boys went next door and mowed the neighbors yard. We talked to the neighbor later and told him why we did it and he thanked us because his mower was broken. He was in the process of fixing the mower and told us that he was going to mow his neighbors, yard the next day while they were on their honeymoon.
If someone presents you with a Random Act of Kindness, thank them and pass it on. This was an experience that we will never forget."

How awesome is that?? The Muncie newspaper tends to print, in my opinion, lots of negative stories and to see this in the paper really got to me!
Tonight, we were at Wal-mart picking up some things for our church's youth group. Fred was paying and I wandered down to a check-out several aisles over to talk to a friend. There was a man in that aisle in one of those motorized wheelchairs. He was trying to get all his groceries out of the big basket on front of the wheelchair. Without even thinking, I asked if I could help him and he accepted. I put all his groceries on the belt for him and then loaded them all back into his basket. He thanked me over and over. Right then, Fred walked over and it turns out that he knew the guy I'd been helping! He is one of Fred's patients at the pharmacy. He shook Fred's hand and told him what a help I'd been. Walking out, Fred told me what a nice man that guy was and that he'd been given a hard row to hoe, as far as health problems and wasn't very well.
It wasn't a big thing, not like paying $136 for someone's groceries, but it feels so good to help someone out.
I challenge you to do the same...Today!! I'd love to hear your stories too!