I’m so excited!! This weekend is my 5th wedding anniversary. And the hubby picked a perfect gift for me… he’s going to bring me to see Wicked on Broadway this weekend. I’ve been obsessing about that musical ever since some friends and my mother-in-law introduced me to the soundtrack. I love music, and I love to sing. I used to sing on stage with my father when I was a little girl, in fact. I sing now… for probably hours a day, along with music. I think I have a decent, but untrained, voice. So music has always been a big part of my life, and I love music with heart. Well, that’s exactly what Wicked is. Music with heart…. and a storyline.

“Wicked” is the story of the Wicked Witch of the West, from the Wizard of Oz. It details her life, and what led her to become … well, the Wicked Witch that we saw her as in the Technicolor movie all those years ago. It turns out that she and Glinda (The Good Witch of the North) knew each other at school, and were even friends! This is based on a book by Gregory Maguire, which I’ve only read a little of (in this case, I’m wanting to see the musical before I read the book - with movies and books it’s usually the opposite for me!), but looks to be really brilliant. Here’s an overview of the official synopsis: ” Long before Dorothy dropped in, two other girls meet in the Land of Oz. One, born with emerald-green skin, is smart, fiery and misunderstood. The other is beautiful, ambitious and very popular. How these two unlikely friends end up as the Wicked Witch of the West and Glinda the Good Witch makes for the most spellbinding new musical in years.”

Anyway, the hubby made a lucky guess or actually has some brains up there in that sweet little head of his (probably a little of both), and this is going to be my best Anniversary gift so far! I’ll be gone until the 4th. I’m going to bring him to Ellis Island (he’s been to NY plenty of times, but never to Ellis Island, which I find absolutely fascinating), and we’re gonna go check out some of the museums and fun stuff about town together, since we’ve both been to NYC, but never together.

Hope that everyone has a great 4th of July (if you’re here with me in the USA, that is!) and a great weekend! I’ll have my laptop with me for emails and whatnot, but I’ll probably be pretty lazy about checking it.

I truly hope that the rest of the year does not keep up at the same pace that these first three months have had for me. I think my head may explode.

First, I had that sinus surgery scheduled for January. It was postponed, but not until the morning of my surgery. So, I went through all the emotional turmoil with that. In February, I actually HAD the sinus surgery. In the end of February, I had Joey’s birthday (my hubby), and we planned a whole little party for that with his mother and step-dad, who came up to visit for the occasion. Ice cream cake and all!

Not a week later, we got a phone call from Joey’s mother that Wally, her husband and Joey’s step-dad, had a heart attack and was in the hospital. We dropped everything and drove the 2 1/2 hours down there to be with them. (Later on, I noticed that we so literally “dropped everything” we were doing that I found a cooked TV dinner in the microwave that my hubby had started and never got to eat.)

The next few weeks were a blur. I really couldn’t tell you what day was what, but I remember the course of events perfectly. Wally had been one of the few people (less than 3-5%) who was suffering from something called Atrial Fibrillation before the age of 65. They had been in the middle of taking steps to help correct it, even though doctors insisted that it was not “immediately life threatening.” Wally would say “Well, it isn’t their heart.” Atrial Fib is a condition where your heart beats irregularly, and sometimes goes into periods of much faster heart rhythms than is normal.

So, four days after my hubby’s birthday, Wally’s heart flipped out of the Atrial Fib heightened heartbeat condition, and simply didn’t start again. They got him to the hospital as quickly as was possible, but it was simply too late. His brain hadn’t been getting oxygen for too long - probably from even before he passed out, doctors told us.

For three agonizing days, we waited. Apparently, after this kind of an accident, 3 days is a fairly accurate amount of time to help you judge how much brain activity will be recovered. In other words, how Wally was in 3 days was basically how he was going to remain for the rest of his life.

Those 3 days came and went so very slowly. They checked his brain waves each day, and weren’t telling us anything about them. I assume that they were waiting until the end of the 3 day period, which is probably wise… but it was agony for us. On the third day, we were told that Wally’s chances of any kind of recovery were as close to 0% as you can get.

The decision was made to pull him off life support, and we waited. They moved him to a wonderful Hospice that was in one wing of the hospital, where all of his family that was there (myself, Joey, Kathy - Joey’s mother, Jeft & Jeremy - Wally’s sons) could stay in the hospital room with him 24 hours a day. And that’s just what we did. We had 2 dogs that needed to be taken care of, as well, and so I would make trips back and forth to the house to let them out 3 times a day. I made trips to get cappuccinos and the occasional dinner for everyone, as well - they call me “Errand Girl!” I didn’t mind… it was the least I could do.

I only knew Wally for a short 6 years, but it was long enough for me to learn what a great and selfless guy he was. He (& Kathy) made me feel like a member of their family more than I could have ever hoped from my in-laws. I hope he knew how much I had grown to love him in those 6 years. I’m sure he did.

Now, back to the busy topic… 2 days after I had gone down to be with Kathy & Wally in the hospital, I had to drive back up here to Dothan. My ICL surgery was coming up, and I had to have the pre-procedure done. (I couldn’t reschedule the surgery, because two of us were getting it done at the same time and one being done was dependent on the other… not to mention that the company that makes the lenses for the surgery were flying into town for the surgeries!) Basically, they had to poke small holes in my eyes with lasers to help keep the pressure in my eyes how they should be once the lenses were implanted.

So, I left my husband with them at the hospital and drove back up here. I had it done, and then had to go back the next day for a checkup, and then I could - finally! - drive back down to be with Joey & Kathy and the rest of the family that had arrived down there.

Wally passed away on March 4th, 2007. We had the Memorial Service that Wednesday (it was beautiful!), my husband and I drove back home that night, and the next day I had ICL surgery on my left eye. The next day I had ICL surgery on my right eye (I’ll be posting more on my experiences with the ICL surgery soon - it’s amazing!).

Kathy is staying with us. We didn’t want her to have to be alone at home quite yet. She’s doing a wonderful job with all this, all things considered. I’m worried about her going back this Sunday, but I’m sure that Wally will be with her to help her through those initial lonely times. I can’t even imagine what that would be like, to go through having to readjust yourself to living alone after having been married to someone for over 20 years.

Wally was only 56 years old.

We love you, Wally.

My husband posted his words from Wally’s memorial service in his blog. You can find it here:

http://shimerdla.com/2007/03/07/memorial-service-for-walter-armentrout/

Had to go out of town rather suddenly last weekend, and I just wanted to let everyone know that I’m not entirely sure when I’ll be back.  We had a family emergency (these things come in 3’s, right? - so this BETTER be it for a while!), and it may be another week or so… there’s really just no way of knowing.  So, if I don’t respond to questions here on the blog or to emails, that’s why!

I have my ICL eye surgery this week, too - the 8th and the 9th.  What a busy year this has been so far! But the recovery on that is pretty quick.   I already had the pre-surgical steps done… the one where they poke holes in your eyes with lasers.  Sounds fun, eh?  ;)  It wasn’t so bad, just a bad time for all this to be happening… but with the Staar Surgical team flying in to watch over this surgery (since it’s the first one being done at this clinic), I just can’t cancel it.

Ah well. Thanks to everyone for the wonderful comments!  I hope you are all doing well, and I should be back soon!

Not sleeping so much tonight, so I thought I’d make an update. Mind you, I slept enough last week to make me just not quite as sleepy as usual these last few nights.

So, I finally got all of the “packing” taken off my nose the other day, and wow! I’ve never breathed like this in my life. It’s wonderful. My nose doesn’t really look like the same nose anymore, though - but that’s not a bad thing! I mean, I had this surgery done for health reasons - in fact, the military paid for it completely because it was something that *needed* to be done. But, my nose was also a tad crooked looking (even though most people didn’t notice it except in photos or if I mentioned it), so it’s kind of nice to have a normal nose on top of all that.

A huge thank you to all the well-wishers that commented on my last blog about going in for the surgery. I appreciate it a great deal.

And now, down to the nitty gritty. I’ve released a new brush set, first off. Web bullets, or mini-designs for any manner of things. I’ve used them to create a few web dividers, and I’ve also used them in scrapbooking-type accents… they have any number of uses, really. There’s also an image pack available for anyone that would rather use them as GIFs.

Go Now to the Downloads Page

Whoah! In going there, you may also notice that the brushes website has been redesigned. This is something I’ve been needing to do for a while. I got tons of compliments on how “pretty” and “well designed” the website was, but it was just needing an update so badly that I couldn’t stand it any longer. It was one of my first website designs, and it stuck around the longest because I liked it so much. But, it had waaaay too many images that had to load on each page, making it slow… I was using php incorrectly when I made it (even though it worked), making those pages even slower… and it was designed using tables and archaic html. So yeah, it needed that redesign badly.Hopefully everyone’s not too unhappy with the new one, though, as basic-ish as it may be. It now “fits” with my artwork website, as well - the same basic layout ideas, etc - so that I could have a menu going back and forth between the two and not feel like I was redirecting them to what LOOKED like another site, because of the drastic design changes. Still going to do a bit of work with this one, adding that same menu idea somewhere up near the top, for easier navigation between the three sites.Anyway, still doing some finishing touches on and off, but if you notice any bad links or anything not loading correctly, please let me know!

So, tomorrow at 9:15am, I am scheduled to have a Septoplasty.  What’s a septoplasty, you ask?  Well, how nice of you to ask!  My nose is crooked.  Not so much on the outside, although it’s fairly visible in photos… but the inside is all screwed up.  I mean, the damn thing curves like a question mark.  So, that’s part one of my surgery tomorrow.

Part two is to remove a nasal polyp.  What’s a nasal polyp, you ask?  My, aren’t we the interested and studious reader!  What? You’re NOT interested, you say? You’re just being polite?  Oh well, … I suppose that’s really the best I could hope for anyway.  AHEM.  A nasal polyp, my dear friends, is a big mass of ickyness that formed in my nose because of the aforementioned crookedness, combined with my allergies.  I won’t go into it more than that, although I know you’re just DYING to know more about this wonderful sounding polyp thing.

The whole polyp idea already disturbed my husband enough so that he had nightmares about it being some sentient creature, as if it would crawl out of my nose late at night, crawl over to him and sit on his chest… breathing down at him noisily.  (Okay, so a polyp can’t breathe - but it can’t crawl either, so I’m taking some creative license here.)  And then, the instant that he would wake up, it would jump up into the air, cackling maniacally, and dive down into HIS nose and take root.  We made jokes about the damn polyp “getting him” for weeks.

Easily amused, I know.  Odd… I also know.  We’re an odd family, full of creative juices.  I’m an artist, he’s a writer.  So between the two of us, we can come up with some interesting stuff.

Anyway, just an update to let everyone know why they wouldn’t be hearing from me for a bit.  I doubt I’ll be wanting to do many tutorials or brush sets while recovering.

But no worries! I’ll be back with more Photoshop fun soon enough!