adjustment layer effects keyframes stopped working in specific file (Adobe Premiere Elements 2018)

Sorry if this issue has been posted before but this is extremely annoing.  I've searched all over the internet and haven't found any answers.

Anyways, I have a project file I'm working on.  Old adjustment layers are working exactly as they should, but when I add a new adjustment layer and add an effect (guassian blur for instance) the problem arises.  The effect appears as it should without keyframes but as soon as I add some keyframes to very the effect with time it goes heywire.  The variations in the effect have no relation to the placed keyframes.  For example, I want a scene to gradually blur as it fades out, so I set a keyframe 2 seconds from the end of the clip to 0 blur effect and ramp up to 50 at the end.  When I play the timeline, instead of starting at zero and ramping up to 50, it seems to start at 50 and go backwards to zero.  It's almost like the .prel file is corrupt.  I'd like to know how to fix the file as I'd rather throw my computer out the window than completely start over on my project.