A small prayer .....

Dear Lord ---
Thank you so much for my cats, Tai Chi and Blueberry. They are so sweet. Their loving eyes gaze up at me. They follow me whereever I go all day and then guard me at night. Thank you for my family. Though it is small, it is loving. My brother is a sincere and honorable man. He cares deeply about things and tries his best to love God and care for his family. My sister-in-law is the sister I always wanted. She loves animals and is a sensitive soul. My mother has given me the love of animals, humour, intelligence and so much more... (on a side note -- can you please heal her, physically, Lord, from the ills affecting her body).
Thank you for my friends (In RL, online and on SL). Again, though they are few, they are loyal. They care and they listen and they share. They allow me to help them as well. They give me hugs over the computer even tho we live far apart. Thank you for my Helper, Jennifer. Even though she doesn't always make it over here on the days she has said she would, at least she is VERY good at calling and letting me know -- and when she DOES make it here -- we get a long well and get a fair amount of work done ...and that is very much helping to lift my depression.
Thank you for me having a roof over my head, food in my cupboards, heat at night. Thank you for the SNOW we had this year, and for the rain that waters the trees and my soul. THANK YOU, Lord, for giving me the talent to draw/paint/etc. The things I have created have brought some pleasure into other's lives as well .... and I live for the joy of creating. Thank you for the ability to sing. Even though no one hears me, it gives me great pleasure to sing melodies and harmonies with the Beatles music and so many others. (Lately I have had so much fun singing along with their angellic voices on the "Beatles Anthology" accapella version of "BECAUSE" .... Hearing their beautiful harmonies on that song, without any instruments, surround me in the car takes my breath away!) *(Try it some time - it is truly amazing!!!)*
Thank you, Lord, for my health. It could be better but it could also be worse, so I am glad for where it is. Thank you for the Internet, and computers and for my being able to participate in this amazing world of inter-racial/cultural/country etc connection, unprecedented at any other time in history. May the togetherness it encourages save humanity, and this planet.
Thank you, Lord, for the Grateful heart I woke up with this morning, and the desire to write down this little prayer of thanks.

May whomever reads this blog feel equally blessed for all the little miracles in their lives.

I woke up to SNOW today!!!!

Whoo hooooo!!!!! I love it!!! Unfortunately, it is beginning to melt and we will be getting rain to wash all the pretty snow away -- DARN! But I STILL LOVE it!!!! It is sooooo pretty!!!! I stood out in it (of course) I wish it would last even though it would mean being trapped at home.... but oh well. It still is sooo neat to wake up to!

:-)

Darn, why does it always seem to be this way?

I found a helper (or I thought I did) ....We had maybe three days over the past few weeks where we worked pretty well and got some things done. I even dared to make an appointment with someone to replace my broken garbage disposal because I figured that at the rate we were going, the kitchen, etc would be clean enough for him to work by the time he came this week (or so I was hoping). But the new helper has cancelled the last 3 or 4 times we have tried to set up -- including TODAY (Mondays were supposed to be our guarenteed working days even if the other days didn't work out!) :-(
I understand her reasons, her kids have been sick, and I realize and understand that family must take precidence. But it still makes it hard over on this end. When she came for the very first interview she lied to me about having her kids living with her. (They were in foster care, but she didn't want to let me know that cuz she was afraid that I would judge her about that.... I don't think I would have ....) I mention this not because of the kids being in foster care, (she has them back now anyway) but because of how good she was at lying! She had me totally fooled, she was very smooth with it! (I am not good at lying, myself) So, of course, now I am wondering if I am being lied to again. I hope not. I have told her that if she feels she can no longer work for me, just let me know, so I can start looking again for another helper.... I admit, I am sooo tired of looking for helpers, and then thinking I have found a good one, only to find that, for whatever reason, it is not working out again. :-(
I find the looking/hiring process to be FAR harder than all the work we have to do cleaning! I don't necc want to start looking AGAIN! :-(
Anyway, I am just complaining in here to be able to vent a bit. Of course, I want her family/kids to be healthy and to get over the cold/flu problems that have been affecting them.

I finally put my new rainbow "Boho" dress up at my store on SL

For a long time I was avoiding any "work" and just "7 Seas" fishing a lot! (bad me) lolol BOY do I have to go thru my inventory and start deleting things -- I have WAYYYYYY tooo many inventory items. (Sounds like my apt in real life!)
Jennifer, the lady who has been helping me with my apt, may have to move in 2 months. :-( Darn it!!! Seems like every time I find a good helper == I end up having to lose him/her.
:-( Knowing she may be leaving soon, I definitely want to have her come over and help as often as possible before she has to go -- but unfortunately, that doesn't seem to be working either. She cancelled again this week. :-( I am not blaming her - she had a good reason to cancel - but I sure HOPE that we can get a lot of work done before she has to move away, and darn, I will miss her cuz I like her as a friend as well as a helper.

Long Power Outage- UGH

The Helper - Jennifer, - came again, yesterday (Saturday) and we worked for 6 long hours. All day we had AWFUL cold, powerful East winds here, - blowing right thru my apt even when everything was closed (I have awful insulation), making it sooo cold! When we were almost finished for the day, the power went out leaving us both in darkness. I hoped that it would come right back on again (*as it usually does) but this time it stayed out :-( And didn't come on again for over 20 hours! (ugh)

It made the night very cold (*even with extra clothes, extra sheets, two quilts and two cats in bed with me! LOL) And, of course, I was unable to use the sleep apnea machine - which made it almost impossible to sleep. :-( Everytime I woke up (practically every hour on the hour) I kept praying for the power to come on again. It didn't come on again 'til 1 or 2 pm the next day (today) I knew I liked my electricity, but it really IS amazing (and upsetting) how dependent I am upon it. :-( I would not make a good caveman/gal. (I also enjoy indoor plumbing! lol)

At least on Friday night in SL, I felt inspired to do a new Rainbow gradient Bohemian dress outfit! I think it turned out pretty nice. It sure was a LOT of work doing the top for it! I made it a bit different this time -- now there will be a seperate sheer shirt beneath the fancy jacket with golden metallic decorations on it. I don't have a picture yet of it with the sheer shirt, but at least I have a pic of it with the fancy, gold decorated jacket. I think it is a pretty one!

:-)

This is soooo neat!!!

http://www.jacquielawson.com/viewcard.asp?code=1560479383964&source=jl999

This artist is SOOOOOO talented. I have seen her cards online before -- usually with a labrador retriever dog. I love these card/animations! I wish I could do stuff like this!

A helper finally came on Tuesday ....

After a lot of disappointments -- a helper finally came this past Tuesday, to help me with my messy apt. I believe in working alongside helpers so I worked REALLY hard and got very tired. After 5 hours and 45 mins, she left and I ate something (having not eaten all day -= not good -- ooops) and I laid down to rest a bit at 8 pm. Next thing I knew -- it was 3 AM!!! I had totally zonked! After watching two specials on "The History of India" on our local PBS station at 5 am, I went BACK to sleep and slept til 4 pm! (Sheesh!) (I guess I really wore myself out on Tuesday)
We got a nice amount done but I have A LOT LOT LOT more work to do, unfortunately. (My apt is so disorganized and such a mess) Fortunately, the helper is not afraid of my apt and says she has seen a lot worse, so I hope she continues to be able to come and help out. The more we progress, the harder it will be because then it will get into having to make serious decisions about things to throw out and/or give to Goodwill. I gave some nice things already but I have a LOT more I need to give away.
At least we got the front part of my car clean, too, so now I can have passengers again! (grins) Since it is often too difficult for me to bring heavy things in from the car -- I often just bring in the cold things that need to be refrigerated and then I leave the heavy things in the car -- making it hard to have passengers if the things build up too much. If this helper will be able to make it permanent, then, hopefully, I will be able to have things STAY neat instead of things getting messy again like an ocean tide. (grins)
Thank you, all of you who have prayed for me to find a good helper -- As I say == I sure hope that this one proves to be more reliable and lasts. :-)

Some more nice pics

Hatching a Dragon egg ...............












Walking over a rainbow .....




In Marx's Garden....







At beautiful falls with Solari.......

HAPPY NEW YEARs!!!!

It's been awhile since I have blogged. Been awhile since I have been online at all, and definately has been awhile since I have been on SL. I am not sure why I haven't wanted to get on SL lately but I am sure it is just a phase I am going thru.

Still, I was looking thru some of Aurora's fave SL pics from the past year and have found some nice pictures that hold special memories for me. Here is one of Danaeah and I riding in her air balloon! That was fun! :-)

And here is a fun one of Hacker and I at Greenies with a large cat! (giggles) (That is such a neat sim, I highly reccommend it)

It is lots of fun going thru pictures of the past year and reminiscing a bit.
Anyway == I hope you all had a WONDERFUL New Year's celebration and I wish us all a happy and healthy 2009. :-)