*happy sigh* Ahh, they're so adorable.

So! My brother commissioned me to render a photo of him and his wife on their wedding day into a drawing, and here are the fruits of my labor after about 3 days of work. (Okay, it was kinda spread out. But still.)

This was the first time I tried to draw using graphite and Prismacolor pencils. In the past the graphite base sketch would blend with the color and turn it a muddy color, but through carefully erasing the base sketch before filling in with the color I managed to avoid any muddiness this time around. XD

Hence, I am pleased with this picture.

On to other subjects...I'm sure you people have noticed my comment about being busy and distracted on my front page.

Simply put, this week and part of the last I have been working for the farrier again. This usually involves being out all day in the cold and alternately shivering and sweating while pulling shoes/rasping hooves/'finishing' shoes/etc. And it's been awesome.

(Today I was thinking while taking a brief break from wrestling a shoe off, and wondered what exactly I found so awesome about quivering from exertion, dripping with sweat, and hanging onto the feet of cantankerous horses. I honestly don't know what I love so much about it yet. So I'll be getting back to you on that. XD)

The only not-awesome part is the fact that my foot got stepped on by a horse today, and while at the time it didn't hurt toooo bad (okay, I lie, it hurt like the very dickens and made me cry >.<) I was at least able to walk/limp on it with a minimum of pain. But after coming home and taking my boots and socks off I found that it was bruised, scraped, and swollen, and yesterday I could hardly walk on it. Sigh. Occupational hazard, I s'pose. (This morning I CAN walk on it, but I'm wearing slippers to work so I don't put it under any more undue stress)

On a more awesome note, I am now able to pull shoes off of a horse. *pumps fist* In the past three days I've pulled 18 shoes, and consequently my forearms and wrists are dying. But it's a satisfactory sort of dying. :p

Also, yay for shedding. XD This jacket USED to be black...alas for the shedding of winter coats.

So between working for the farrier, at the gym (occasionally--usually when Will is at rehearsals), cleaning houses, and generally being insanely busy I haven't had time to sit down and breathe, much less update here. But the weekend is coming up, and along with it an opportunity to sit and actually relax. Ahh.

But I still love my job. XD

I'm also rather distracted where Mr. G is concerned...we're counting down the days until I go down to Florida. (46 days to go! 8D) To say that I'm looking forward to going is the understatement of the year...I'm going to be there for two weeks, and already we've got so much planned and potentially planned that I have no idea how we're going to get it all done.

So far I've heard plans for going to the beach, attending Barberville (two days, complete with dancing and an insane amount of music), watching movies, going to a county fair, being there for Mr. G's 21st birthday (he sounds so young! *sobs*), going out to eat, visiting a Le Crueset outlet, Easter, ice skating, and more beach.

It's going to be awesome trying to get everything done. *happeh sigh*

Your blissfully happeh hostess,

The Fox

Yes, I am sighing.

Yes, I am happy.

Why am I happy, you ask?

I shall illustrate, with a series of pictures and inadequate descriptions.

I am happy because of this guy.

This insane, fantastic, amazing, crazy, wonderful guy.

(Probably shoulda' warned ya'll that this was going to turn sappy rather quickly. XD)

I'll refrain from peppering you guys with more adjectives than necessary. Suffice to say that Mr. G here and I are officially in a relationship/long-distance thingummy.

Put simply, we like each other. A lot. ^-^

So yeah. That's the path life has taken me at the moment...we used to be a bit more serious, as in asking 'deep' questions and figuring out where we stand politically, spiritually, socially, etc...but since we made it 'official' a week ago we've spent a lot of time talking about whatever and emitting the occasional happeh sigh.

(I must say, I kind of had an inkling at Barberville, but I didn't expect things to get to this point. The guys staying for a week helped a bit with the whole 'we meet again and click' thing.)

So...yeah. Don't think that I'm not excited--I have been more or less in a constant state of spluttering euphoria for several weeks, actually--but it's more of a 'banked' excitement, ready to tear loose at a moment's notice. *happeh sigh*

Er...kind of like this strange individual. Just minus the icicles.

Anyhoo...I figured I should let ya'll on here know, just in case things should get really serious really quickly (as they seem to be getting) and I don't completely blindside everyone. XD

Your deliriously happeh hostess,

Da Fox

Well...not really. They just look old and awesome. XD

I call it...."Rebels in the North"

We took the horse for a ride one of the afternoons--I have pictures in color, but I think they look more like Confederate rebels in sepia. :P

Colletta was very good, I might add--she was very polite and didn't give any problems aside from the occasional trotting when she shouldn't have.

She was supposed to trot here. XD

And within 20 minutes we were all frozen and went inside to huddle around the stove and talk about how fun it was to freeze our tails off. The end.

My laconic-ness is due to the fact that yesterday/last night we had a blizzard and there's is several feet of snow drifted around the house. I'm getting ready to go out and take pictures, and my mind is completely not on the trip.

(Well....in a way it is. But I'll explain that later. ;D)

Your hostess,

The Fox

But first, a quick digression.

When writing a blog post, I always wonder how to present it in accompaniment with the pictures I supply.

Oftentimes, my idea is to tell a story, not necessarily portray the best pictures. But occasionally my perfectionist side squeezes in and starts railing. "By putting up quantity instead of quality, you're compromising your posts!!" it screams in its little squeaky voice. "People aren't going to take your photography seriously if you put the mediocre pictures up too!!"

My quandary is simple: do I post a sequence of pictures, regardless of the mediocrity of some of them, or do I just post the best and highlight the experience? Sometimes I find that just the highlights are enough. But other times the mediocre pictures are necessary to preserve the quality of the post and the story.

Today, I have decided that in some cases quantity does equal quality when trying to tell a story with pictures. So bear with the occasional mediocrity within and enjoy the story, please.

This post displays the Domestic Side of the guys when they were here. Maybe it's just me, but when guys are guests (at least, these guys), they function better when told to do something. Even if it is cooking and washing dishes.

Not to mention they're just hilarious to watch when they're being 'domestic'. XD

This is in their pasty unbaked form...but the biscuits and gravy were AMAZING. *whimpers at the memory*

Another example of being domestic...Obi volunteered (i.e., just did it) to wash dishes for nearly every meal for the first 3-4 days. On the 4th day we found out that he HATES to do dishes, and out of guilt I tried to shoulder him out of the way for at least the preps.

(I practically had to fight him for it too. O.o)

It seems like we washed a lot of dishes while they were there too...but we cooked a lot too, so I guess that time was justified.

And it wasn't boring drudgery either.

Okay, contrary to what it LOOKS like, Will is getting ready to talk. Not sneering at Gabi's back. XD

Okay, enough domesticity! This particular day when Will skipped--er, had an excused absence from school, we drove a couple of towns over to check out the frozen creeks. Mwahaha.

It's an Acevedo sandwich...like an avocado sandwich, but warmer. And less green and squishy. XD

Oh yes. And there was McDonald's.

...I got tired of cooking. XD

I would like to point out that I am in no way responsible for this picture's occupants, other than the fact that they make faces when I point cameras at them.

And they can look semi-normal...sometimes...O.e

And then there was the creek. I have never been here aside from this time (we thought about going to Wildcat but it's technically 'closed' during the winter and we didn't feel like breaking more rules than necessary), so it was quite the interesting tour. Even if some of the ice was a little...uh...creaky.

I think we were trying to sit while waiting for the train that we kept hearing go past...it never did, and we just got annoying wet spots on our jeans. XD

The railroad track is a little ways up the creek--if we went up the wall and kept going for about 20 feet we would have been directly on the tracks.

The icicles were numerous that day...

...and quite large. (For size reference Will is about 5' 10")

But they were nothing compared to...

THE RAILROAD BRIDGE. 8D If we hadn't been living in fear of the eventual train (which, like I said earlier, we kept hearing but never saw) I would have totally gone up and taken pictures of the tracks.

Alas, it was not meant to be...sigh. Someday.

Thus ends the latest post and my feeble attempt to capture even a fraction of everything that happened over that week...

Your hostess,

The Fox

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Yup. They're Floridians all right. XD

Aside from the insanity pictured above (I was JOKING when I said they should run around outside in shorts to see how long they could stand the cold, but noooooo, they had to take me SEROUSLY) they did pretty well with the snow. It would have been better if the stuff was less powdery, but we got four inches so I'm not complaining. Much.

Yes, Gabe. You have snow in your hair. We can see that. XD

After gallivanting around in the snow for a bit (and an EXCELLENT breakfast of biscuits and gravy and lunch of amazing home-made pizza--yes, I'm modest about my cooking, why do you ask? XD) we grabbed a couple of friends and took off for the lake.

I've taken pictures of The Lake before, but none of them were quite as epic as what happened that day.

Pristine...untouched...a gorgeous four-inch snowfall. Me likey.

(This doesn't look like an impressive hill, but once you get going on it it's pretty fun. A toboggan would have been AWESOME though.)

Yay for telephoto lenses....they had to run several hundred feet to get to the top of the hill from the road. XD

The first snow angel!

The second snow angel!

Sledding quickly lost its allure for us after we ran up and down the hill a few times, so we moved out onto the lake and started building snow forts.

(First the guys had to slide around and flop on their bellies and stare down in the ice for about ten minutes, though. I wish I'd had my camera at that point, because it amused me muchly.)

And of course Obi had to go all out. XD The turrets turned out to be a good idea later, when his castle was rushed and he had to use its walls for ammo.

*omdenomnom*

Have I mentioned that all people look kinda like little kids when they build things like sand castles, snow forts, and the like?

It amuseth. It amuseth muchly.

So after nearly an hour of building snow forts, the first blow was struck...

...succeeded by snow shrapnel and more blows...

...and much slipping and tripping and falling.

I was exempt, naturally, because I was handling the camera. Or at least that's what I told everyone. XD

I think everyone got tripped, shoved, or somehow pummeled into the snow at some point or another. And some of us got forcibly pushed and buried in the snow because they were trying to protect their head by curling into a fetal position and covering their face.

What's that? Speaking for experience? Me? Maayyyybeeee.... <.< >.>

Oh, and did I mention it was blasted cold? No? Well, to give you an idea, every so often Obi would let loose with a scream that sounded suspiciously like a dying Nazgul because he had snow shoved up/down/into his coat.

But he had it coming. Filthy instigator. XD

See what I mean?? He's kicking his own brother while he's down!!

And...well, it just went downhill from there. XD

The carnage was immense and widespread when we had finished....the battle had lasted for well over two hours and by the end we were all wet, cold, exhausted, and giddy. I do know that at this point I had a piece of snow lodged halfway between my shoulder blades that was melting very slowly and sending little trickles of chilled water down my back. It was not pleasant...but totally worth it.

Good ol' Stubby, the one-winged angel. XD This was courtesy of Gabe again...because there weren't enough snow angels before. And we needed a unique one. XD

The battle-torn stragglers...I only have one picture of myself at the end too, but it's...um...lost. Just know that my face was red, my ponytail had moved from the back of my head to the side, there were clumps of snow semi-framing my face, and I was very tired.

Then we came home, I collapsed on the couch under a blanket, and didn't get up for three hours. The end.

Your hostess,

The Fox

And they had NO idea what to do with snow.

It was hysterical...but let me start at the beginning.

A couple of weeks after Isaac and Lydi got married, my brother and I were talking back and forth with Lydi's brother's Obi and Gabi. After learning that they had never seen snow in their lives, we said, "Hey! You guys should come up sometime when we have snow! Wouldn't that be AWESOME??"

To which they replied that yes, it would be beastly awesome. Some dates were flung around, we settled on sometime in January, etc etc.

Cut to about a week later. Gabe Lynn and I had been keeping in contact for a bit, and he got me hooked on this game LotrO (Lord of the Rings Online, which I cannot play because my computer started having issues and nearly died after I installed it. ANYWAY.). We had a little thing going where while we played we would talk on the phone and he would give me tips and pointers on how the world worked, etc.

During one of these playing sessions I mentioned that Obi and Gabi were coming up in January and it was going to be amazing. The words seemed to hang a bit awkwardly after I said them out loud, and in the brief silence afterward I blurted, "You can come too, you know!" And before I knew it we had three guys flying up to see us.

Cut to a little over a week ago.

This looks natural but is, in fact, entirely staged. When they first came up the stairs I flung myself at them so hard that I cut Obi's lip (not sure how, and I didn't find out until later O.o) and bruised Gabe's collarbone.

What? I was happy to see 'em. Sheesh.

Also: the floor in the airport was DIZZYING. I felt like I was suffering from vertigo every time I looked down (or watching the beginning credits to the Hitchcock movie Vertigo. THAT'S a weird movie.).

The trip home was...ah...interesting. XD The funniest part was that the guys were drifting in and out of service range for their phones, so every so often someone would say "I HAVE SERVICE!!!" and the other two would scramble to see if they had any messages. It was hilarious.

We picked the guys up around 10:30 in the morning, so by the end of the two-hour drive home there was still plenty of time to explore and show them around the house and pasture and surrounding land.

So eventually we all were in the horse pasture, looking at drifts.

I think Obi grabbed a handful of snow (the dirty kind, no less) and ate it at this point. *shudders* I know the whole peck of dirt thing, but still...it was kinda nasty.

No, he's not kicking the cat. Even though it kinda looks like he is.

There was a lot of fascination with stepping in drifts and checking out the holes left in the snow. Which was understandable.

The disappointing part was that the snow wasn't/isn't the greatest for making snowballs (too powdery), but they made do.

I am so glad I had a camera, because that made me exempt from the snow-throwing (not even snowballs, just flinging armfuls) that ensued within the next five minutes or so.

Okay. Pretend that there was a huge snow-flinging fight and you just missed it. (I have a video, but it's not uploaded yet).

There were no gloves to any of them, so they lasted about 5-7 minutes before we had to go up to the house due to numb appendages.

Which brings us back to.....

......this picture.

Yup. They're Floridians all right. XD

This was before we discovered that Gabe is allergic to the dog. So if they were still here the dog would NOT be practically in his lap. XD

So. Day 1 of the Floridian Invasion ended on a highly successful note with How To Train Your Dragon (the strange part of which none of us could remember the next day what we had seen. I guess it didn't make that much of an impression). The next day the introduction to snow continued in earnest with one of the most epic snowball fights I have ever seen....

Your hostess,

The Fox

Or a semblance thereof..... :/

Still haven't uploaded my pictures to the computer. I'm trying to free up space by burning all my old pictures to CDs so I can print them later, and get my new pictures edited etc etc.

Until I get a REAL update up, with pictures and a synopsis of everything that happened, let me just say that I really thought I was going to make it without crying at all yesterday when the boys left. I mean, I've been with people for a week and felt sad but didn't cry when I left. I was happy that I had met them, and all that fun shtuff.

Yesterday, the moment that the guys were out of my sight, I started crying. And I didn't stop until we got home (a 2-hr drive).

That....seemed like the longest car trip ever. And I prefer not to linger on it. But I felt like I was about to die, and I didn't even know precisely why.

(Well....actually, I do. But I'm not ready to go into all that just yet.)

So...the guys are gone, and while I'm not depressed like I was yesterday I still miss them all terribly. And I'm counting down the days til April rolls around and I can go back. Ze Floridians have stolen my affections, it would seem....XD

Your hostess,

The Fox

*clears throat* Ahem. Hi? Anyone in here?

*echoes*

Well, I'm here to let ya'll know that I have not died, and in fact am alive and well. The guys have been here since Monday, and it has been AMAZING. Purely fantastic. But I've been so busy taking pictures/cooking/driving/taking pictures/talking/watching movies/taking pictures/etc that I haven't been inclined to check in here.

And my computer died, and I just got it back yesterday. That may have had something to do with the lack of updates too. XD

Suffice to say we have been having a great time, and I don't want them to leave...like, EVER. (I had a dream last night about driving them to the airport...it was a very sad dream.)

Anyway. I haven't slept a full night's sleep all week, what with staying up til 1 or later watching movies. It's a huge mistake, but I don't want to go to bed.........sigh.

Pictures will be forthcoming as soon as I can get them on my compy and edited. Until then we have lunch at Fuji's coming up and only two days to cram as much fun stuff into as possible. *rolls up sleeves*

Your hostess,

The Fox

Hoarfrost, for the unaware, is what happens when a night is very foggy and the temperature dips below freezing point. The effect, instead of a heavy dew in the morning, is where ice crystals form and 'stack' on themselves to create a look of icy 'fuzz'.

On a non-scientific point, I just plain love the look. XD

See what I mean? It's just gorgeous.

Well, New Years' Eve was two nights ago. It's kind of strange to know that another year has come to a close...I mean, isn't it always a bit of a strange feeling? As it is, I'm not sure whether to make this a journal that concentrates on 'accomplishments' or whatever for the previous year...that seems kind of cliche. So consider this a ramble more than an actual concentrated journal entry. XD

(This is spider webs, by the way. I thought they looked awesome).

A LOT has changed over the past year. I'm not exactly sure how much I've grown up--I certainly hope I have, but sometimes I wonder how one measures maturity. Is it determined by how well I do a job, relate to people, what I've 'done', what I can potentially do?

I'd like to think I've grown up a bit. I've certainly changed in certain areas--withdrawing and becoming more cautious in some respects while becoming more outgoing and competent in others.

(Yes, that IS rather intentionally vague. I'm not sure how far I'd like to go into that right now.)

My brother has gotten married...I've invited people from out of state to visit (and visited people from out of state about 3 times)...my family has grown by about 15 people...I've finished what I hope will be my last year of school...I've fallen in love (or thought I had) only to be forcibly thrust out of it by the other person...my photography skillz have improved dramatically...

See what I mean about 'accomplishments'? Some of them ring hollow, as if they don't really matter. I go through this every year.

Sigh. Not quite sure what to say after this, except for 'happy new year' and hoping optimistically that the beginning of 2011 will be much better than the beginning of 2010.

(Considering that my siblings-by-choice are coming to visit in 8 days, I don't think I have a whole lot to worry about there. XD)

(This is a clothespin, by the way. Very cool ice effect. *lurves the macro setting*)

Coming up in the long run is the Floridian invasion (sort of like the Texas invasion, but in the winter and with three guys instead of two girls...okay, so there's no similarity whatever. Heh.) in 8 days, going to see Les Miserables with my brother's International club in February, going to see Road to the Horse in February as well, and HOPING to squeeze a trip to Florida in sometime in April. I need to go longer next time. Like...a MONTH. 8D

Or maybe a week and a half. I dunno.

Still optimistically planning and hoping that I get my computer back sometime in the near future (it basically died on New Year's Eve, which made me VERY frustrated),

Your hostess,

The Fox

Since I haven't been drawing hardly at all lately, I am starting a little personal challenge where I take friends and draw their portrait. So far I've got a list of about 13 people that may or may not get completed...

These are not in order of favoritism or whatever. I'm literally drawing names out of a hat to see who I do next--makes it more interesting that way. :P

If you would like the finished product I am more than willing to ship the original. They aren't for sale unless you insist on buying them. ;) Anyway...enjoy the challenge and feel free to suggest yourself or someone...and crack the whip occasionally to keep me going. XD

First challenge: Miss Jean Marie!

Her hair is amazing and insanely time-consuming to draw. There are several things I'm not real happy with here, but I do like how her eyes and hair came out. Nose is a bit too small, mouth seems a bit stark...but oh well. It's just practice. :P

I'm working on the next person now too, but it'll be a surprise. I'm drawing the names out of a hat to keep it more interesting....anyhoo. Have a great night, ya'll, and I'll come back with a 'life' update tomorrow.

Your hostess,

The Fox