I think I got poison ivy! Yippee!

When I bought my house I fell in love with the back yard, which resembles a small forest (very small). One of the things that really made me happy was that the owners said that they just "left it natural", which to me meant, no more yard work! Cause in Cali, a large part of my free time was spent in watering the lawn, tending to the fruit trees, weeding. Well, in reality "no yard work" would mean that my beautiful back yard here in Charlotte would be overgrown and hideous. I must admit that the work is minimal but on Friday morning I just couldn't stand the overgrowth and I set out to do some weeding. Well, the bottom line is that by Friday afternoon I had a nice smattering of itchy bumps on one arm. Now, why, you ask, would my blog title state, "Yippee!", and the answer is because I'm almost 50 years old and I'm re-living my youth! Probably last time I had poison ivy was summer camp as a very young girl. Of course my dad will be shaking his head in despair with me, since every nature trip we've ever had he's tried to train me on what poison ivy looks like. And he did warn me that he found some poison ivy in my side yard, but I've got to be hard headed. I just plunged in there with a short sleeve shirt on. Duh.

I rode my bike to the pharmacy to get some anti-itch stuff and ended up talking to a lovely 83 year old gentleman at the pharmacy. He just lost his wife of 58 years. Of course I asked him if he had a pet, for a photo shoot, but he didn't. Oh well!

Speaking of pet shoots, the magazine is with the designer for the second clean up and then we're off to the printers. I can't wait to see the reaction to the second magazine. We ran out of the first very fast. Everywhere we put it, it flew off the shelves. I also heard from the Mayor's assistant that a lot of people have mentioned to him that they've seen him on the cover.

Getting ready for the third magazine. It will be our holiday extravaganza. Should be HOT!

Here are some photos from Dale Newman's birthday, and a surprise. The painting in the photo was painted by my grandmother (mom's mom) and was delivered as a surprise to me by Bob Bornman, my father's college roommate and life long friend of our family. When I touched it I could feel energy, just a little, but I think Bella Abrams is happy to be represented in Charlotte.

Tomorrow's a new day. Tomorrow will bring new adventures to share with you. Everyday is a blessing, everyday I will try to visualize peace, not only for myself but for everyone I love, and those living in turmoil.