I Swear

I swear what I am about to tell you is the 100% truth. I swear it on a stack of bibles. I know it's going to seem unbelievable to you, given what you've been reading about on my blog all summer. I can hardly believe it myself.

To be perfectly honest, I think I'm finally starting to fall apart from the stress of everything that's happened. First Muriel, then Doug's boss getting fired, and then the Mpls bridge collapse last week.....it's so much for the psyche to handle all at once. One of my very good blogger friends (hi Colleen!) last week told me she thinks I've been handling all of it with such strength and poise. I laughed and told her I was just putting on a happy face for my blog cuz I didn't want you guys to know how hard it's been for me, dealing with everything. Blogs, especially creative blogs, are supposed to be "happy places". I'm quite certain this blog has not been a very happy place this summer.

With that said, do you want to know what's finally put me over the edge?

I found out yesterday afternoon that MY mom is having an angiogram tomorrow, and my dad's stress test last week is indicating problems as well!




Remember all the troubles my mom has had since back this spring when they thought she had a blood clot in her heart? That proved negative. Then they thought it was asthma, but that wasn't right either. Then they wanted to do a sleep test on her and those tests finally indicated her oxygen levels were dropping to like 70% at least twice per night (which if you were awake and that happened, you'd be screaming that you couldn't breathe). Since then, she's been using a CPAP machine at night to help. But the sleep dr. wanted her to see a cardiologist because he was thinking she might have pulmonary hypertension. So she saw the cardio dr. last week and an angiogram is what she needs. I can't tell you what the dr. thinks is wrong with my mom's heart cuz I don't know the name of it (I'll find out more tomorrow), but they'll try and get things figured out tomorrow via the angiogram. Since they will already be in there, they'll also check her arteries for blockage. As far as my dad goes, his dr. is on vacation so he doesn't have the full details of what's wrong with him at this point. Hopefully he'll hear from the doc today. My mom told me sort of what it was, but I've never heard of it before. His test might be indicating that he's got more blockage in the arteries. He had a double bypass 10 years ago.

My stomach hurts and my heart hurts from this latest news. My mom didn't even want to tell me about her deal because we already had so much going on with Muriel. I understand her thinking on that, but she's my mom, I WANT AND NEED to know what's happening to her. Isn't she a sweetie? She never thinks of herself. I know she's so scared though. I think she sees what's happened to Muriel and gets worried it could happen to her too. So I hear a fear in her voice more than I've ever heard it before. And trust me, my mom's had lots of surgeries. This one is different though. I will definitely be at the hospital tomorrow for moral support.

So there you have it. More drama with a CAPITAL "D" at Heartfelt Greetings today. I feel like I'm dumping on you guys and taking away from why you come to my blog in the first place, for creative inspiration. I know I haven't provided much inspiration this summer through all of this. In fact, you guys have been the ones inspiring ME to be strong and positive throughout this journey. And for that, I thank you! Just hang in there a little bit longer with me and I promise we'll get back on track soon.

So your visit to my blog today isn't a total downer for you, here's a card to get your creative juices flowing....I adore black, red and cream together! I was in such a mood this weekend to keep making a bunch of cards using this color combo. I used up the paper until it was just about gone, which is not normal for me! Want to know about the happy mistake I made on this card? Obviously, I stamped the floral image on a piece of Very Vanilla paper. I wanted to stamp a sentiment vertically on the piece, but when I did it, I stamped the sentiment badly..half on, half off. Whoops. I didn't want to throw the whole thing away, so I thought I'd just cut around the image, just on one side, to remove the bad sentiment. Then I matted it on a piece of Real Red cardstock, and stamped the sentiment again, on the red cardstock! Love how it turned out!!! I think it looks so cool now! I'll have to try this little "happy mistake" again!

Hugs,
Amy