Sale at Southern Comfort Scraps

Hey Y'all!
Just a quick note to let you know that we are all okay and I will be back to update you on the 'Ya Ya Teenhood' visit!  We are having such a great time together.

We are having a 4th of July sale at Southern Comfort Scraps plus a new collab 'True Blue' which all starts on July 1st and runs through July 5th.  The sale is almost storewide and is 50% Off!  Check out the collab which is free if you spend $5 in the store or you can purchase this extra large kit for $5:

Have a wonderful Independence Day in the USA and great weekend for the rest of the world! I will get back to you ASAP.

Hugs,

Just when you think . . .

. . . that things are getting better, the bottom drops out of your bucket.  My mom used to tell me it is because you are not supposed to count your chickens before they hatch.  Kim’s divorce is final, Joshua has graduated with honors from elementary school, Tabitha is coming to visit, I have a shop in which to sell my designs, and most of all: Kim’s health has been really good for the past 8 months (relatively speaking).  Well that is what we thought.  She went to Wake Forest on Monday to participate in the gasteoparesis study and they had her drink too many carbs and she wound up in the hospital and went through ten hours of diarrhea, nausea, and out of whack blood sugar counts. While she was there they ran some routine tests of her blood and urine which showed some cause for alarm because her creatin level in the blood was too high, and they wanted her to see a specialist about her kidneys immediately.  It just so happened that she already had an appointment for today with a specialist because when she had to have that blood transfusion a couple of weeks ago her primary doctor didn’t like her lab results either.  Kim just called with the results of her specialist appointment.  On a scale of 1 to 5, 5 being the worst and dialysis is needed, Kim’s creatin levels in the blood and urine put her at a 3. She is anemic (thus the transfusion) because the kidneys are not doing their job of supplying whatever it is you need to make blood in your bone marrow.  What they are going to do for the present is put her on high blood pressure meds (she is already on low blood pressure meds) and hormone therapy to try and combat the kidney failure.  She first has to do one of those 24 hour collection cycles and get them to the lab and the specialist will take it from there and figure out what type of meds and how much she should be taking. Then we will pray even harder (if that’s possible) that things will get better or at least not get worse.

I know that I am a pessimist, always have been because every time I start to feel comfortable and maybe even happy about something, things go bad.  That’s my experience with everything from husbands and lovers, to home purchases, to missing a sale at the grocery store, to picking the wrong line at MacDonald’s, and my children’s’ health; every single time, things go bad.  I pray, I plead my case(s) to whomever is in charge, I try and be optimistic but I end up divorced, then finding and losing the love of my life, living in a house that wasn’t built correctly and causes all kinds of problems and expenses, and having my children suffer ill health to the point of it wrecking their lives and the lives of those who care about them.  And I know I am whining, but damn, does everything have to go bad for Kim?  Can she not have some peace for a little while?  She was just told this week, by her ex-husband, that he’s not going to pay for Joshua’s meds for the summer; he needs to have some spending money so he can ‘have a life.’  Enough! Do you see why I periodically feel like not living anymore?  It is just so hard to face the day sometimes and the nights are a bitch.  I have friends to talk this over with but they cannot solve the problems or even make me or Kim feel better. What’s the use?

This and That

Hello Y’All.  Well I am back from a week of non-stop drama!  

 

First, my granddaughter, Suzy, was in labor from early Monday morning until late afternoon Friday when she finally delivered my great grandson Gavin Bentlee Marlin.  We were all counting the contractions, worrying that Gavin was in distress because he had been in ‘position’ for so very long, and wondering why the doctors didn’t think Suzy should be hospitalized in case of major complications.  She went to the ER at least 3 times and they sent her home; frustration seemed to be her major problem as the contractions didn’t seem to bother her-ever! When the little fellow showed up he weighed in at 7 pounds 2 ounces and 19 ¾ inches long, which is a pretty good size for such a young mother.  Both he and Suzy are doing fine, in fact she has gone back and finished her final exams and is home for the summer.  Gavin has lots of dark brown hair and right now his eyes seem to be grey (but I know they will change soon) and he has the sweetest little round head.  I thought for sure that his head would be misshapen because of the long labor but he’s perfect. 

Gavin Bentlee Marlin

Not yet 24 hours old!

While Suzy was having Gavin, I was in a dental surgery suite having a tooth removed.  It went really well and I felt that I was going to do much better than I ever did when I had out my wisdom teeth. Not!  It turns out that I was allergic or sensitive to the antibiotic I was given.  At first I thought I was having a heart attack because my jaw, chest, back, and arms went into some sort of spasm that mimicked a heart attack!  When I realized that swallowing, even my own saliva, was causing the pain and that it wasn’t my heart I was somewhat relieved but honestly the pain just wouldn’t go away since swallowing is an involuntary reaction to moisture in the mouth.  This went on for days, which seemed like weeks since I was not eating or drinking, before we checked out the side effects of the antibiotic which proved to be the culprit; I thought it was my acid reflux going into high gear and it never occurred to me that an antibiotic could cause so much pain.  For those of you who are sensitive to medication the name of the medicine is Clindamycin.

When I started feeling better I had to get right to work on my digital designs since my shop hardly has anything in it at all so I was working at least ten hours a day.  This past Thursday my grandson, Joshua, graduated from grade school!  It seems like just yesterday he was an infant and now he is going into middle school.  Be still my heart . . . I think I am going to suffer empty nest syndrome worst than my daughter will.  Joshua has got to be the sweetest, most loving, grandson anyone could ever have.  You should see him with his new nephew, he cannot leave him alone for any length of time and is constantly kissing and baby talking to him.

Here is the preview for some frames I finished late last night; I hope to have more done by tonight.  I want to finish up on the July store collaboration so I can complete a kit I began last month that is called ‘Good morning, Sunshine!’

Purchase Here!

Here is a preview of my Doodle Bug Brushes:

 

 

I hope y’all continue to have a wonderful weekend and pray for all the animals and people who have been displaced by the wild fires in the western United States and for all those folks around the world who are suffering from the warfare that seems to be popping up all over the globe.

Quick Page Freebie!

Here's the freebie I promised, a quick page I made with my OceanSide kit; personal use only.  Hope you like it!

Click HERE for 4Shared  or HERE for MediaFire

If you'd like the kit just drop by my shop at Southern Comfort Scraps.

Hugs,
Liv

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