July Already?!

How can that be possible? This year feels like it is flying by. Every January I always feel like there is so much time ahead of me. So many possibilities. And then July comes and I find myself slightly winded and wondering where all that time went? Brace yourselves. It's a long post today.

Well, Happy Canada Day to those of you out there celebrating! And happy July to the rest of us! There is a big reason why this is one of my favorite months of the year.... The Tour de France! I love watching this every year. I love the chivalry involved, the tactics, and believe it or not, it's really excited to watch. Especially the mountain stages. And this year, Team Asatana is back and looking really strong. Even if you aren't into cycling, I know you've heard of Lance Armstrong. The tour starts on July 4th, so the countdown is on! I'm not a huge Twitter fan, but I've had a lot of fun following his twitters and Levi Leipheimer's as well. Levi's promised to keep us updated on 'peloton chatter' this year! heee

I have a random card to show you today. I woke up with purple on the brain and needed to work with it while it was there. I was cruising through some blogs last night and stumbled across this card by Becky Oehlers. I love how she layered the bitty dots and bitty box papers to create a new dp. I just had to do that too! So, I whipped out my purples and got to it.

I also used my new nestabilities flower die to create the focal image. I stamped on each of them with Polka Dot Basics and Text Style, crumpled them, sponged the edges, and sewed them together with a big bow and some twine.

I think this card is going to end up being sent to my bf Heather whom just got a brand new dream-job! I'm so excited for her. She just started this last week and definitely hit the ground running! I'm definitely wishing her the best.

I've been attending the Wednesday morning Women's Bible study at my church for the last few weeks. I normally go on Tuesday night, but they are replaying the Beth Moore study on the book of Daniel on Wednesdays and I really wanted to listen to them all again and take even more detailed notes. Things set in more permanently on the second run through. This morning, we happened to be on Daniel chapter 6: The Lion's Den. Such an intense chapter and so much that we can take from it and apply to our own lives. Her message this morning I think was aimed at me. She spent some time talking about developing "holy habits," especially when in a time of crisis, emergency, or uncertainty. Well, I think I'm there. Between being laid-off from my teaching position for the last four years, and now with my arm... I have to admit that I had begun to feel frustrated and "anxious about tomorrow." I know, especially with my job, that God will provide and take care of me, in His timing. I have no doubts. And, honestly, as tragic and difficult as it was to leave my job on June 4th and walk away from good friends that I love to work with, my "job" was the least of my worries. I know that God's in control of that.

But yesterday I had another doctor's appointment with my orthopedist for my arm. Now I feel like I've just been slammed again. If you didn't know, two months ago I fell at work and fractured a bone at my elbow. I've been in physical therapy for three weeks now relearning how to straighten and bend my arm, grip things, and build up the muscles that atrophied while in a sling for a month. Everything in that department is going really well. I touched my left shoulder with my left hand for the first time in two months a few days ago, and my arm is definitely straightening out.... Almost there! But the scary thing is that I still can't grasp things. I am lacking some serious strength in my pinkie and ring finger. They move, but they don't follow directions. They feel half-asleep and constantly tingly. I also have some significant pain in the back of my arm from the ulnar nerve (cubital tunnel syndrome is what this whole thing's called). The pain isn't going away and is starting to get really old. Not to mention the numb fingers.

Yesterday, I voiced to my doctor my concerns about the pain and numbness. After some oh-so-fun tweaking of the nerve, he decided to order a nerve conduction test for my arm. He explained to me that basically, somewhere along the nerve's path it's being pinched and messages either aren't being received in my pinkie or they are significantly delayed. The nerve conduction test will hopefully reveal where the pinch is and how slowly the messages are travelling. He then went on to say that if it's too slow, the next step is to operate and relocate the nerve to a new location where it will be free of the pinch.

That's where I stopped, and began to feel the stress. Operate? Huh? This is where I hear Beth Moore's voice in the back of my head, and I hear scripture telling me that if God takes care of the birds of the field, of course he takes care of me! I know.... I know. It's just hard sometimes to take things from your head and place them in your heart. I know that the doctor is working to help me improve and he's doing all he can to find out what's wrong. But my "panic button" has definitely been pressed. I'm just ready for all of this to be over. I wish I could blink and be healed and move on. But I know, and keep reminding myself, that God is in control. That he works together for good, and he cares for me. That if I place my trust in Him, allow him to take charge, everything will work out the way it needs to. Really, I have no control over any of this other than to keep working on strengthening the things that I can.

Well, enough out of me for today. Thank you for allowing me to ramble on with the thoughts that are swirling inside of my head. Sometimes writing things is really therapeutic and helps me process how I am really feeling.

Here's the card... finally!
Supplies-
Stamps- PTI: Polka Dot Basics, Text Style, Wishing You
Paper- Plum Pudding, Whisper White, Bitty Dots dp, Bitty Box dp
Accessories- nestabilities, sponge, button, twine, SU scallop edge punch