Clothed With Scarlet

Yesterday, my sister and her family arrived. I have not seen her since I have been in the hospital. Actually, I was quite emotional when I saw all of them. I remember calling all of them from the hospital and talking to my nephews before my procedure but I was pretty heavily medicated. Seeing them was just one more reminder of God's amazing love for me and how He never let go of me. I stand in awe of that and I hope you know He will never let go of you.

Enjoy your Sunday today whatever you may be doing. We are celebrating Kimmy's birthday and playing on the lake and then I'm going to try to cook her dinner (oh my stars, can you feel my hives breaking out already?....I mean I'm cooking Kimmy and Kathy dinner and they both have a cooking blog on top of their usual blog...Oy Vay...Kristi can you feel my pain? lol Anyone?) Well, if dinner doesn't come out wonderful, I know the ice cream cake I made from scratch will be a good dessert! lol
And I can make good coffee....they like that. Hopefully, they'll be too tired from the lake to notice the food!

God bless you today! As you look at the pictures on the video, if you are in a stormy season of life....look especially hard at how tightly Jesus is holding you. He will not let go! Praise Him!

Caution! This post is going to be all over the board, I'm afraid. I'm sorry I missed Blue Monday. I had to be at the cardiologist's office first thing in the morning and after being there for a bit, seems I came home and slept the day away. So since I'm beginning with that, let me update you. The doctor says what happened with me is an anomoly. The nurse practitioner actually said she has never seen notes like mine written in a diagnostic report before. There was actually 3 things written as possibilities of what could have happened but it really had them all stumped. They have come to this final conclusion: I had 4 arteries that were 100% blocked and they created their own bypass into my heart wall thereby foregoing any surgery the doctors would have to do. Praise the Lord!!! However, I do have some blocked arteries. I did not get this from the initial call from the doctor. It's apparently why I'm still in pain in my chest. The blockages are small and they believe they can maintain them with medicine. They are putting me on 3 medicines right now. One is to lower my bad cholesterol which is great for a person without coronary artery disease (it is 110)...but since I am now diagnosed with this disease they want my goal HDL (I think that's the one) at 70.

They ran an EKG when I was in the office. My heart was sporadic, at best. I could no longer feel it out of rhythm and this becomes a scary thing. I've always known when I was out of rhythm and could tell when to lay down and take an aspirin, etc. So now I have nitroglycerin to take in the event the 'needle' sensation comes back. I kind of laughed and said I would have to be dying because that thing threw me into the most horrific set of migraines in the hospital...but they said I have to have it...so I'm being obedient. I broke down in the office and asked them if the fatigue and the pain in my chest is now normal. I didn't mean to but told them if I knew it was normal, I wouldn't be so scared....but not knowing, had me somewhat frightened. They say it is normal for now but are hoping the medicine will alleviate it and give me periods of rest. So that's it and I'm still clinging to the Psalm that the Lord gave me a while back....I trust Him. He is faithful. I'm resting in Him and He is going to strengthen my heart! Amen!

Now on to other stuff. Good stuff. Oh but first.....thank you, dear sisters for praying for me! I don't want to forget that. Your encouragement has overwhelmed me. Lisa Shaw even had a sister come over who didn't know me while she was away and leave a prayer on my blog...I was so touched I could only praise the Lord all the more! This realm of blog land has created quite an impact in my life. Truly, when I thought I couldn't trust people anymore and sat down at a computer because it was safe and couldn't 'hurt' me...God brought along the most amazing gift in all of you! I am truly humbled by His great love. Oh boy, here come the tears again.

Here is proof!!! Here is my family and two other blogging families loving on each other on the 4th of July. You know what....I love these people. We all love the Lord. They care about me. We all pray together. And although I have tried many a time to hold that Kimmy at arms length, she just keeps on hugging me tight! Our families blend so beautifully together. There is approximately a two hour trek between us that we joyfully make to see each other. Now, ready for our fourth of July funfest?

This is Kelster (my future daughter in law...you know, if Kimmy and I have anything to say about the arrangement! lol) and Josh. Gosh, they are so cute, even if I do say so myself.

This is me and Kelster. They had just gone to the beach. I had just woken up from a happy nap. Can you stand how cute she is?

This is Kimmy @ Homesteaders Heart, Kathy @ Blessed Beyond Imagination and me. The humidity was doing it's best to kill our hairdo....uh, yep, it was winning! lol But it couldn't kill our smiles. Love those girls!

This is Josh and Kelster throwing tomahawks. Yes, tomahawks and knives. I would say it's a 4th of July thing at Kimmy's house but if you saw how proficient she is at throwing those things, you'd know it's up all the time and it's a fairly routine event! lol And that's Jeffrey too. He and Jay were playing croquet. He stays pretty close to Jay and Brody stays pretty close to me when we are there. We love those boys. They are so sweet!

This is Kathy and her beloved, Mike. Me, Josh and Kelster. We thought the tree was lonely. lol WE NEEDED SOME SHADE!

Kelster and Josh laughing at Kimmy and I and how awesome we are??? I don't know what they are laughing at...but I'm sure it was Kimmy and how funny she is...or it may have been when she was being carried off my a mosquito!

This is Brody. He loves to share with me what he is doing. I think he is too precious for words. When it got late and they were so tired he crawled up on my lap and asked me where his cup was and I asked him what color it was and he said 'blue'....so I looked around and only saw a red cup and said "I only see a red one" and his eyes lit up and he ran after it smiling. You would have thought I found the moon for him. Ahhhh....so sweet!

When I was in the hospital, my son came up to the hospital one day and said "Mom, I wrote you a song"....and he played it for me. It was the most beautiful song to me because it came from his heart. With a little bit of coaxing, we got him to play it that night for everyone...he didn't have his guitar so he had to play it on Kelster's pink one. Very few men can pull that off....but Josh is one of them! It was great. Before the night was over, Brad has his guitar, Josh had Kelsters, Kelsey had Jeffreys and Jason had some bongos and we were worshipping our King together. It was awesome!

My friends, thank you for sticking with me through this long post. And thank you for sticking with me through being sporadic in visiting you and getting back with comments. I know you are so merciful and graceful to me. I'm just feeling a little overwhelmed but I'm keeping your comments and bit by bit I'm trying to get back to each one of you! I love you so!

Until I get to you personally......May the Lord bless each of you and shine so brightly upon you! And great big hugs from me to you!