My Life Is A Country Western Song

Well hello there!  I've missed you all out there in blogland.  You won't believe what's been going on with me the last few weeks.....

First, my car broke.....

Then my iPhone broke......

Then I found out my cat has a large mass in her lungs (that was the last thing I mentioned before I "disappeared" for a while).  The specialist says it's a 50/50 chance it's lung cancer.  The only course of action is just to wait and watch and re-check her in a few months.  But I'll happily take that news and I'll happily take the 50/50 chance because at first it looked like there was a 100% chance it was bad news.  So 50/50 was like winning the lottery!

Then I got in a fender bender when I borrowed Col. Sew Fab's truck to do errands because my car was in the shop.  And FYI......it was 100% the other person's fault.  But more importantly no one was hurt.  But sadly my first thought after the big thud in the Hobby Lobby parking lot was "That was NOT my fault!"  Oh yeah.....if you're wondering, there's only a small dent in the bumper of the truck - no major damage.  Woo hoo! 

Then I ran 8 miles on Sunday, September 30.  That's the farthest I've even ran, thank you very much!  I had been training for my own little personal half marathon that I had scheduled for Saturday, October 20.  Have I ever mentioned that I'm a runner?  I fell in love with the sport about a year ago.  I used to love power walking and then I quit for several years and then I gained a few pounds....and then we went to Napa on vacation last year and I gained a few more pounds so I started walking again.  But one day I decided that walking was too slow and boring so I started running just to see what that was like and we (running and I) fell in love.  And all those pounds went bye-bye!

Anyway.....where was I?  Oh yeah.....I was well on my way to being ready for my "Run Bunny Run Half Marathon" when I came down with a cough, fever and body aches the day after my record breaking 8 mile run.  And that was around the point that Col. Sew Fab told me that my life had become a country western song - LOL!  But it gets better!  That was also the week that his family was coming to town to visit because his HUGE Colonel promotion party was the following weekend.  Talk about a bad time to get super sick!  

Soooo.....my little phlegm filled self carried on as best as I could and still managed to make FOUR homemade desserts for the party (we had caterers doing the rest of the food) and clean the house and do the party decorations all while entertaining his family and running my own business.   Yeah....I rock if I do say so myself!

And this is what Emma, my assistant hostess looked like at the start of the huge party.....

And this is what Emma looked like the day after the party.....

I thought those photos did a better job than words ever could of conveying how we all felt the day after the party!

And do you remember how I was on that kick to become a more organized,  efficient and productive person a few weeks ago?  Well, now that I'm starting to feeling better after TWO FLIPPIN WEEKS of being sick I'm getting back to it!  I'm still going through all the old magazines and keeping the daily log (sooooo beneficial) and I've got some great books to read and I'm taking a couple of awesome online classes (A creative business class by Kelly Rae Roberts and Adobe Illustrator with Laura Coyle) and I'm ready to take on the world again....I think.....

And I've got to tell you the Adobe Illustrator story before I go.....

Col. Sew Fab and I were enjoying cocktail hour in the hot tub a few nights ago (a.k.a. "The Think Tank") when the following conversation happened....or it happened kind of, sort of, a little bit like this......

Me:  "I wish I knew how to do my own graphics for my website and blog and other future crafty projects that might involve surface pattern design."

Col. Sew Fab:  "You DO have Adobe Illustrator on your computer.  It's been there for years."

Me:  "What's that?"

Col. Sew Fab:  Facepalm.  "It's what graphic artists use to make their artwork.  And you have it.  It's exactly what you're looking for."

Me:  "Wow!"  

Felt kind of stupid.....but also felt like I had just won the lottery again!  (The cat story was the 1st "lottery win."  I've never actually won the real lottery).

Soooo.....I immediately started searching for some online classes and I'm now learning Adobe Illustrator.  And all I can say is....WOW!  It's such an amazing program!!!  All I can do right now is make squares and rectangles and circles and fill them in with different colors but I already feel like a creative genius!

So here's my big question.....what else don't I know about?  I didn't know about running or Adobe Illustrator a year ago.  I also didn't know about Bento boxes before Pinterest existed.  So what else don't I know about?  Are there any other books or blogs or classes or things out there I should know about?  Anything about business or organization or motivation or surface pattern design???  Tell me everything you know!!!

Hugs,
Jenny

P.S.  The "Run Bunny Run Half Marathon" has been re-scheduled for the Saturday before Thanksgiving.  That gives me a month to finish training.  And it also gives me the opportunity to pre-burn off the calories I'm going to eat on Thanksgiving!

P.S. #2  Thank you SOOOO much to everyone for their kind words about Daisy in my last post.  And I'm sorry if I scared anyone with that post.  I just want to make it clear that screaming in the middle of the night IS NOT a sign of lung cancer in cats.  Lung cancer is EXTREMELY rare in cats so don't you worry your pretty little head with those thoughts!  But you should always get your kitty checked out by the vet if you're worried about anything that they're doing!