Here it is February and my Pet sitting is starting to stir up. Had a job last month and I have two this month, actually three but my hubby is taking care of a neighbors cat for me while I am gone. Once the warm weather slides in I will be getting more jobs.

As for my other businesses, the art biz has not produced any money is months and months so I guess for the time being I will consider it to be a hobby. Now I am not talking about something I do once in a while, I will be drawing and pencil painting continuously and sending samples out to liscensing companies and getting them in stores around here, and selling on my etsy shop (www.aheartofmersea.etsy.com), I am
also gathering some of my favorite works to create an artbook. We'll see how this goes.

And now I am working for Arbonne International as a consultant. I do shows at peoples houses and gather more shows and consultants beneath me. I have been studying a lot so I can know what I am talking about. I decided to sell the products because they are really great! The products are botanically based and are produced here in America! Haven't had a show yet because I am still learning but will begin
soon.

I have a new pet project now: crocheting prayer lapghans and shawls to be given to charities. I am now part of a group that has been doing this since the early 80's. I am checking into making donations to CHKD for the children in the cancer ward. I joined a month ago and have created two lapghans, and almost enough granny squares for two more lapghans. If anyone would be interested in joining me in this endeaver let me know... this is the perfect way to bless someone who could use some uplifting and to receive blessings yourself.

I have also found another charity: "www.chemoangels.net" Here you are given a cancer patient who is going through chemo and you send a card or letter to them while they are going through chemo, you can also send them a little gift once in a while (between $2-$10). This isn't a penpal group but sometimes that could evolve.

Doing things to help others is a great way to get your eyes off yourself and your problems and helping others who need some care. Even though we know we will reap blessings from helping others, I think the real blessing is knowing I am helping someone else feel loved and cared for.

I just got back from taking one of our foster dogs to the Vet for a check of her eye. Pebbles came to us with cherry eye and we had it removed, unfortunately it came back. The doc said the only thing left to do is re-operate and that doesn't mean it will stay gone. He recommended that we just leave it be.

With all that done, we can now transfer her to another foster home. We have one in mind, there is another foster home that has a beagle mix and she is real shy so we are thinking that if they take Pebbles to foster, she will help the shy baby come out of her shell.

I ran out this noon time and got the partical perm. One thing I hate about going to beauticians is that no one can ever fix my hair the way I do. It is pretty simple: curl the hair, pick it out, curl the pieces that are rebellious then cement it in place! LOL You should see some of the hair dos they have created! Today was hysterical: the top of my hair was a rectangular mass of tintsy tiny curls which made it look like I had a strange looking mohawk! you should have seen the looks I got! I came home, plugged in my curling rod and within a few minutes my hair looked semi normal... it will take a few days for the perm to relax then I may go back and get her to shape it.

Last night to hear the weather forecast you would have thought we were going to have a major snow storm! and yet... they said we could get between 1 and 3 inches while other places will get nine - well, that covered all the bases! LOL Such heavy snow we had! Invisible snow! I really had to be watching for that invisible black ice! Ha. Right now it is snowing what I call hamster dandruff... you know, you can barely see it but it is there!

Well, I have several things I need to do: 1) Write to a penpal or two; 2) begin again on my picture that I mussed up last night. 3) Take down some notes for that great american novel I've been contemplating writing.

Hey, there goes 5 big snow flakes! Quick, close down the city! Bwwwwwwwwaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh...............

I meant to scan in the outlined sketch but I forgot. I have come down with some weird kind of illness.... could be a cold but right now I am not having the cold symptoms I was having yesterday- anyways, my head is all fogged up.

We had some excitement in the neighborhood last night which is very unusual for our neighborhood. Until the city decided to put the new Light Rail system straight across the front of our neighborhood no one knew we were there! Since then that is beginning to change. As we were beginning our Dog walk at 10 pm, I saw a cop car start to pull onto our street, stop, back out, then head down another street. When we came to the end of the street there was the cop car sitting at the corner. I waved at them as they took off. Turning the corner I saw a man standing in his yard. I commented that looks like we are having some excitement in the neighborhood. The man started talking but I realized that he was talking into a cell phone so I left. I heard him hollering into his phone about some woman and his talk became more and more angry and high pitched. I'm thinking great, we'd best get home quick! At that point our dogs all began to act spazy so I knew something was up! As we were heading down the last street before reaching home, two dogs appeared out of nowhere and jumped the dogs my husband had. (Remeber we have two dogs recovering form surgy and we need to be very careful concerning them.) Both of us charged those dogs hollering and they backed up. Then they headed for the two dogs I had. Well, I took the handle of the (roll-up) dog leash and smacked the smaller dog that kept coming after my set of dogs- smacked him good so he and his buddy ran off. Under normal circumstances we catch the dogs and find their owners (this comes from working with a no-kill dog rescue) but since we didn't recognize the dogs (we know a lot of the neighborhood dogs) so we were on red alert! I only smacked the dog because I didn't know the dog and he was going towards one of the injured dogs. I smacked him a couple of times on his side and not his head, just enough to let him know that he would be in trouble of he kept on. He didn't and he and his buddy ran off.

I am so glad that the Arbonne Team meeting was canceled last night because I would have been good for nothing! Unfortunately yet fortunately the show I had scheduled for this evening has been postponed... remember, I am ill. We will schedule for March/April.

I had a hard time sleeping last night! It took me a while to get drowsy then I would pop in and out of sleep. I was having a hard time breathing and what was really weird, (this shows you how weird a night of sleep I had, I kept waking up thinking I smelt the scent of pot being smoked! Now where did that come from? Kinda made me nervous since that guy down the street saw who we were, I'd never seen him before. (Since the beginning of the Light Rail construction we are seeing people who we've never seen before, especially during afternoons and nights.) Maybe it was an unconscious thing since I had read an article about Mike Phelps smoking pot.

Now I am up (in body, don't know where my head is!LOL) I was planning on getting a particial perm yesterday but I felt horrible so if I begin to feel a little better maybe I will see if I can find a beautician who will do as I tell her to do!

Hmmm, I feel like I am ready for a nap!

I have been working out on my elyptical for weeks now and yes, this particular machine of mine kicks my butt! On Thursday I decided to go for a run outside, ran (slowly with some walking in there) 3 miles. Love the runners high! Friday I took a run but only ran 1.5 miles because I stopped to talk with a neighbor, I was too cold to go on. Now I am having symptoms of shin splints or myalfasia pain syndrome, or Fibro. The shins hurt to touch them, sometimes my shins feel like they are spasming, and at night I am experiencing RLS (maybe, not sure... I've had RLS in the past and the symptoms are similar but the shins hurt!).

I am contemplating going to the pool but I am thinking I may just let my legs rest today. I didn't exercize yesterday and they still hurt. Maybe this is something that will take a few days to overcome.

I finally started a new picture! For the longest time I could just sit down, put pencil to paper, then sit back and enjoy the process. I hate it when I have blocks like I just went through!