~HAPPY PINK SATURDAY - Just To Make You Smile~

Since we've only been back from our Spring Get-a-way for a couple of days I haven't really had much time to put my pictures together for PINK SATURDAY!  Soo...I decided until I can return to normal (eek...whatever that is!) I would share with you a tiny bit of muse in hopes of giving each of you a great big smile!

I hope you'll pop on over to Miss Beverly's place where you'll find her precious bloggie "HOW SWEET THE SOUND".  Lots of fabulous PINK over there that no doubt will uplift and inspire you!

All the quotes you find below were written by little children.  All are precious and will stir your soul if you let them.

Blessings to each of you for a LOVELY PINK DAY.  It's soooo good to be back home!  I missed you!

Love to you...

~STANDIN' ON THE CORNER IN WINSLOW~

My hubby and I returned late last night from a sweet little Spring get-a-way.  We enjoyed some fabulous R & R and truly had the most wonderful time while zig-zagging our way through a few South Western States!!!

Since we were away from home over Easter Sunday we attended church with an old college friend at a pretty little place in Flagstaff, Arizona.  The music was lovely and the service was beautiful.  My guy almost always wears a suit to church (or at least a dress jacket), but "Flag" is sooo laid-back that he felt much better in a pullover...

Aside from FINALLY visiting the Grand Canyon (I'll show pics of that next week) we goofed about while stopping over in Winslow, Arizona, too.  Winslow, of course, was made famous by the old Eagle's song "Take It Easy" which was written by Jackson Browne and Glen Frey. 

   Not too sure just WHAT I was expecting, but Winslow is nothing like I pictured it to be in my mind.  The Interstate (I-40) successfully detoured the Old Route 66 traveler and much of the town seems to have died away.  There were lots of closed businesses and empty store fronts...kinda sad!

The painted mural and the bronze statue were a sight to behold though...  The mural was painted by muralist, John Pugh, and the statue was designed by sculptor, Ron Adamson.  Stopping off in Winslow was well worth our time and it was fun acting light-hearted and silly!

 Even though my Mr. AGPMan and I had a wonderful time gallivanting around in the West, pulling back into the driveway of our La Chaumière de Briarwood made the two of us swoon with joy!  

~~HOME SWEET HOME~~

(Truly 'Nothing Bettah'!!!)

I'm going to spend some time visiting around and hopscotching about to see what you've all been up to while I've been away.  If I can pull myself together I'll see you tomorrow for PINK SATURDAY!  I also have a fun new GIVEAWAY for you and that will finally begin this coming Monday!

Blessings and love to you all...golly I missed you!

Love to you~

~DON'T I GETTA GO? LEAVING ON A JET PLANE~

~YOU'RE NOT LEAVING ME~ARE YOU?"

My Mr. AGPMan and I leave this morning for a little Spring Get-A-Way!  Although our trip was planned in January I wasn't sure until a few days ago if we were going to actually get to go.  I will be back in about a week and I'm sure I'll have more pictures of our trip than you care to see...

 ~SAY IT ISN'T SO!~

Now~even though are daughter, Adrienne, and her hubby will be staying at our home and caring for my little doggie, Mollie (The Molinator!), I must admit I just hate leaving her behind.  She is a 4.5 pound fur-ball of high maintenance energy and she's my 24/7 shadow.  She is eight years old now and I am most certainly her favorite human.

 ~PLEASE TAKE ME!~

If you are a pet-lover you can imagine how it broke my heart to see my beautiful little friend perched safely inside my suitcase.  She would NOT budge...  She knew were were leaving her behind and wasn't going to even allow that!

Gosh...I thought leaving my children on their first day of Kindergarten was tough...WAHHHHHHHHHH! I seriously think I'm gettin' old here!

I'll be missing you while I'm away...  But, given the fact my hubby begins some schooling next month this will be our only chance to escape for quite some time!  Have fun enjoying Spring...I'll be back soon!

Love to you...

 PS:  My A Gathering Place website is on hiatus while I'm away!

~~OKLAHOMA CITY BOMBING ANNIVERSARY~~ We'll Remember For Always

 I love to write about happy things.  Things about love, life, faith and family.  Although there are beautiful things all around us there is also a great deal of ugliness in our world.  If at all possible I try and not focus upon it.  Instead I try my best to think on the positive things that God has blessed us with.  

However, today my beloved State of Oklahoma, the place I've called home for nearly twenty-five years, marks the sixteenth anniversary of one of the worst attacks ever made upon American ground.  And so~ I just can't let the day pass without acknowledging it and the people who lived to tell our story of resilience and survival...

 The Oklahoma City bombing was a bomb attack on the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in downtown Oklahoma City on April 19, 1995.  It was the most destructive act of terrorism on American soil until the September 11, 2001 attacks. The Oklahoma blast claimed 168 lives, including 19 children under the age of 6, and injured more than 680 people. The blast destroyed or damaged 324 buildings within a sixteen-block radius, destroyed or burned 86 cars, and shattered glass in 258 nearby buildings.The bomb was estimated to have caused at least $652 million worth of damage.  Extensive rescue efforts were undertaken by local, state, federal, and worldwide agencies in the wake of the bombing, and substantial donations were received from across the country. The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) activated eleven of its Urban Search and Rescue Task Forces, consisting of 665 rescue workers who assisted in rescue and recovery operations.

Please make time to pray for Oklahoma and her people today.  Healing is still taking place in the hearts of those who survived and there isn't one of us who will ever forget our profound loss...

Blessings today for a day lived in peace.

Love to you...

~~~~FRENCH DOOR MAKEOVER CONTINUES~~~~ All This Hammering Is Giving Me A Headache

 ~LEFT WINDOW REMOVED~

OK Peeps!  If you been following our window redo (which is actually part of what will eventually be a total kitchen makeover!) you know our side windows came in this past week! You can read about that here!  If you'd like to go back and catch up on the other posts where we removed a window seat, etc., you can read about that part here and here!

Now..when you have construction going on everything turns into a big fat mess! :(  Bah!  Now as excited as I am to have this latest project ovahhhhhhh it actually has been very interesting to watch.  I'm just over-the-moon happy that I'm not the one actually doing the work.

 ~OUTSIDE VIEW~

I have to admit though I did duck out of the house for the majority of the day on Saturday for a day of shopping with my favorite girl in the world (that would be my daughter, Adrienne...clothes, clothes, and more clothes)!  YUMMO!!!  Truth be told I just couldn't handle all that hammering and banging!

 ~ORIGINAL BACK DOOR REMOVED~

 ~EEE GADS...WHAT A MESS~

 ~CLOSING UP THE OLD BACK ENTRY~

 ~MY GUY SURVEYING HIS WORK~

(Yes...it was fabulous)

 

 ~A REALLY BIG JOB~

Now...I know just by a quick glance you won't be able to tell the one thing that took literally HOURS for my Mr. AGPMan to do...can you see it?  Any guesses?

Well...see that little plug-in on the wall (lower left corner)?  If you scroll up to the first picture you'll see it wasn't there.  It had originally been under the window (where the French Doors are now) and by law/code we had to have one right near that spot.  This meant moving lots of electrical stuff (up and over the door, ceiling and inside the roof)...what a nightmare!

~WORKING WAY PAST DARK~

I finally headed off to bed once everything was secure~I couldn't keep my eyes open any longer!  I sorta thought the removal of the old center window and replacing it with French Doors and then installing new side windows wouldn't be that big a deal!

BUT WHAT DO I KNOW?

I Paint and Sew!

 I DON'T DO CONSTRUCTION!

~MORNING SHOT~

Since this is a work-day for the hubster guess who gets to clean all the debris up?  Yep...that would be me!  But, this girl isn't complaining!  No-Sir-Ree!  After seeing how exhausted my guy was after all the work it's the least I can do!

The second window won't be installed for a few days as least.  Trim work needs to be installed on the outside to further secure the house and the old entry needs to be insulated and sheet-rocked and a piece of the original paneling in the house (it's the very old and fabulous stuff) will be removed from another wall (one that is coming out) and placed over the old doorway to match the existing wall.  This is going to take a lot of work...and time!

I'm not EVEN going to venture a guess how much all this work would have cost us!  I'm sure a working-crew of 4 or 5 super-experienced construction workers could have done everything much faster than my Mr. AGPMan.  But...knowing the blood, sweat and tears (yep...there were some!) he put into it has made this latest project all the more special to me!  No doubt the re-do price would have certainly cost us some super-duper-big-bucks!

And there you have it!

THE HAMMERING CONTINUES...MORE SOON!

Love to you this beautiful Spring day...

~~~~~THOUGHTS ON A SUNDAY MORNING~~~~~ I Worship You, Lord

I worship you Lord! You did not enter your holy city Jerusalem on the back of a war horse, but humbly and on a donkey. You knew that you were surrounded by murderers, yet you came in peace, and by your sacrifice you would utterly conquer death before the week had passed.

You, oh Lord, are blessed and worthy of my praise. You have saved your people. I say, "You are my king!"

  They took palm branches and went out to meet him, shouting, "Hosanna! Blessed is he

who comes in the name of the Lord! Blessed is the King of Israel!

John 12:13

~~*~~

Blessings to you as you honor the King of Kings this Palm Sunday...

~~~~~~~~WITH MOTHER IN MIND~~~~~~~~ More Sweet Sachets For You

Good Morning Peeps...

Happy Pink Saturday to all of you!  Thank you to Miss Beverly of HOW SWEET THE SOUND for hosting our fun little party week after week!  Check out the other participants when you have time.  You are sure to be MORE than inspired!

I've been super-duper busy this week working in my studio and barely had a moment to breathe.  My Mr. AGPMan and I are going to do some "estate saleing" this morning so I'm getting ready to head out the door!  I'll be sure to show you the great finds we uncover later this week!  OK?

In the meantime I'm uploading a few of the latest Sachet Pillows and Hangers offered up on my A Gathering Place website!  I hope you enjoy the preview!

Blessings for a lovely weekend!

Love to you...

~PINK ROSE BEAUTY and a ITTY BITTY MORE on WEIGHT~

 

~DAINTY and EVER SWEET~

Every year at Easter my beautiful Mother blesses me with something special.  Of all the things she has ever gifted me with the things she has created with her own two hands remain my favorite.  Yesterday I received one of these precious Cross Bookmarks in the mail from her.  Not only is my Momma crazy-talented...she has NEVER FAILED EVEN ONCE to remember me for a holiday OR to send me a Thank-You note for something I've done for her (and I don't mean an email note...I mean a real HAND-WRITTEN one!).

~TINY PINK ROSE~

Anyway~for as long as I can remember my Mom has worked her magic with a crochet needle.  She has made more gorgeous baby sweaters and baby bib and bottle-cover combos than I can tell you and except for a handful of times when I BEGGED her to make a few for me to sell on eBay (years ago!), she's always given them away for free.

 ~PRECIOUS BABY BIB~

(I Know...It's Fabulous!)

She's made them for my friends and family...her grandchildren and even her great grandchildren!  Hope you don't mind me bragging on her a bit...  If you've forgotten what she looks like here's a little picture of her when she was about 30 years old...

~HOW SHE LOOKS IN MY HEART~

Now...if you read my little bloggie very much you know I've been on Weight Watchers since late December.  The time came to truly GET SERIOUS about my health and begin to take care of my one and only heart!  I've decided that working to reduce one's size (for whatever the reason...heath, appearance, etc.) is almost always a GOOD THING!  Right?

 ~TIME TO GET SERIOUS~

Well...it's also just plain hard!  Seems to me it takes so little effort to pack on the pounds (who doesn't love great food???) and sooo much work to take them back off again!

When I visited my primary Doctor last December (you can read more about it here) I almost fainted when I read what was on the scale and my big "AHHH HAHHH" moment was when I realized I weighed only ten pounds less than I did when I was 9 months pregnant with both my children...

And so...since the 28th of December I've been on Weight Watchers and BY GOLLY was I determined to do it right this time!  As of today I've lost 32.5 pounds and that means I'm now 10.5 pounds away from my goal weight of 132.  My guy has now lost 22 big ones since mid January (and much more that that if you go a few years back!).

 ~WEIGHTING FOR CHANGE~

The two of us are feeling great and now that our eating habits have changed for the BETTAH we can't help but wonder how it was we were able to consume sooo much unhealthy food...and for sooo long!  Now...if your quick with the math you'll easily figure out that I started out weighing over 170 pounds.  I'm only 5'4" and do I even need to tell you that was WAAAAYYYYY too much!?

Don't mean to keep harping on this topic...it really isn't what my bloggie is all about.  Still...just can't help but think that so many of you out there are dealing with the same issues as my Mr. AGPMan and I (I have your emails as evidence!).  If we can do this then sooo can you!  Weight Watchers is a fabulous life-changing-program and their new Points Plus System is amazing!

"Has it been hard to lose the weight?" you ask?  Yep!  It has been!!  Change is almost always hard.  But...it IS possible!

YOU CAN DO IT!

YOU CAN!

I promise to show pics of the two of us once we hit our goal weight!  Probably will be in June or July or close to it!

Blessings to you for an awesome Thursday!

Thinking of you all with love~