How Do I Suspend A Thread From Inside Itself? vb.net 2005

Dear Experts:

I am making a loading screen that flashes while the rest of my application loads. So, I was thinking that I would use system.threading.thread to accomplish this, as I've successfully used this before to handle a file download meter when asyncrously downloading a file. Well, since I had a thread for the meter that part was running syncrously... So. This is the code I've got so far.

My issue is that I want the thread to put itself to sleep or pause for some length of time between blinks. Obviously I need to tell the thread to sleep from itself, not my program, because it must continue to execute code while the meter is frozen. If I use my.application.doevents inside the loop which is the sub which is the thread I'm afraid that the application will cease execution during that time and not my other thread.

'Global
Dim myThread As System.Threading.Thread

'Main Loading Sub
Private Sub Main_Load(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles MyBase.Load
        flagFormLoading = True
        Me.Cursor = System.Windows.Forms.Cursors.WaitCursor
        Me.fldDoing.Text = "Loading.."

        'Handle Loading Button
        Me.btnLoading.Visible = True
        myThread = New System.Threading.Thread(AddressOf Flash_BtnLoading)
        myThread.Start()
        '...Other things load...
End Sub

'This is my Thread, it runs seperately from the rest of the program
Private Sub Flash_BtnLoading()
        With Me.btnLoading
            Do
                If .Visible = False Then Exit Sub
                .BackColor = IIf(.BackColor = Color.MintCream, Color.MediumSpringGreen, Color.MintCream)
                Dim timeThen = DateAdd(DateInterval.Second, 1, Now())
                Do
                  myThread.sleep(200) 'Doesn't Work! Gives me an error
                Loop Until Now() > timeThen
            Loop While .Visible = True
        End With
    End Sub

So the other thing I was thinking was to use: My.Application.DoEvents instead of myThread.Sleep(200) but I don't think this is the right approach either. What is the best way to pause a thread in the manner I'm trying to do?

THANKS Experts! ~Michael