Or, otherwise known as What Country Kids/Young Adults Do When We Have A Blizzard.

DIG TUNNELS, OF COURSE!! 8D

Okay. So I was asked by some very good friends of mine if I wanted to go out to their place and tunnel last week. Since they live out in the country, the blizzard that dropped almost 2 feet of snow had the perfect opportunity to blow and form wonderful drifts and piles.

This was Brandy Hall. But since it was in the driveway, Brandy Hall was a lost venture from the start and eventually was collapsed after the driveway was plowed.

Poor Brandy Hall...what might have been. *places hand over heart*

They had a pretty good start on it, too. Sigh.

We did not carve into this drift...it seemed much too sculpted and lovely to do that. So we just looked at it. XD

I brought my dog along, because he was going stir-crazy in the house, and he had an absolute blast racing around with my friends' dogs.

Then he discovered chickens and nearly killed one.

Twice.

Then he was tied up to a tree and barked his fool head off for the remainder of the visit. -.-

Someday he will be taught not to chase/attempt to murder chickens. But not on a blizzard day.

My friend E is about 5'2". (Feel free to correct me, E.) So the drifts were pretty massive, all things considered.

Ladybug...*sigh* She didn't understand the concept of staying off the roof. XD

E's tunnel...

...my tunnel...

(I would like to clarify that this picture does not do it justice. It went back at least 5 feet, and had the beginnings of two tunnels going off to the left and right that made it about 8 feet across. Such a lovely tunnel... *sniff*)

...and the beginnings of E's momma's tunnel!

These were going to be highly elaborate affairs, with 'painted' walls (using dyed water to spray the walls to color them AND make a layer of ice for solidity), tunnels running parallel to the drift wall, windows, the whole nine yards. But I was never able to get back out there, and the snow has long since melted.

Oh, what might have been... *sadness*

The dogs are sitting on my friends' driveway...there was about 3 feet of snow just there. Fortunately the wind slicing across the prairie made some sort of crust on the snow, and we were able to walk on top of it for the most part. I felt like a well-bundled Legolas.

Freshly plowed streets....

I would like to apologize for the lack of updates recently, by the way. Between work, friends, Skyping with Mr. G, and planning for spring/gardening I haven't had much time to work on anything picture- or blog-related. But I'm hoping to change that presently...

Your 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

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

Yes, it's here, folks...Christmas Eve. I had the day off, and have taken full advantage of it.

Actually, I spent most of the morning lazing about and sewing. I had bought a men's flannel shirt, size XXXL, and sized it down so it would fit me. It took much cutting, sewing, darting, and similar alterations, but it finally fits me. And while it's not the greatest looking shirt, it's COMFY. And that's all that matters. :P

ALSO IT'S SNOWING. When I woke up I looked outside immediately, because they were calling for snow last night. But there was no snow when I awoke. Cue sighing and complaining and carrying on...but by 10 AM it had started snowing and now, at 8 PM, it's still falling. Mweeheehee.... 8D

And it's wet, heavy snow....SNOWMEN. SNOWBALL FIGHTS. SLEDDING (even though we don't have any sleds). AAAAHHHHHH.

Javert has been rather thrilled...he likes to run madly around in circles and throw snow around. Weird dog... XD

The Converse have seen three seasons so far...they hold up pretty well in inclement weather. And they've probably seen more miles than any shoe should. XD

*sigh* I love snow. Have I mentioned that already? XD

Lights on outside...

...presents under the tree...

...bokeh around the tree...it's been a great Christmas Eve.

Merry Christmas to everyone who may stumble across this site, and God bless in the next days and year to come.

Your hostess,

The Fox

I would like to start this off that insomnia usually doesn't happen to me. I'm usually a very good sleeper and stay asleep without waking up more than once in the night.

However, a combination of pain and taking too much Ibuprofen on an empty stomach (NOT a good idea, for those who might have not tried it before) has had me awake since 3 AM, and no amount of tossing, turning, drinking water, playing movies in my mind, writing in my journal, or playing songs in my head has helped. Which is why I'm up at 5:15 AM, writing this.

Let's just say that my mind does strange things when it doesn't want to sleep.

On a side note, only 32 more days until the brothers visit! XD (Gabe is listed as my brother on Facebook too, so he's under the umbrella of 'sibling by choice'.) Today is Obi's 21st birthday...it finally snowed with some accumulation last night (and it's blowing all over the place)...the tea I'm drinking now is very good (something called 'Passionfruit' from Starbucks? It's got hibiscus, cinnamon, and anise in it to list a few), and I saw the musical version of 'A Christmas Carol' last night.

I'm ashamed to admit it, but before now I don't think I've ever seen 'A Christmas Carol' in its entirety. I mean, sure, I know the basic premise and all that, but haven't read the book or seen any of the versions (except for the Muppet version, and I was maybe 3 or 4 at the time).

I got chills last night. And it was just a school production! I didn't expect the parts with Marley and the spirits to be quite so chilling...eesh. But it was REALLY good.

Okay....rambling....Rhonda Vincent visited my town last week, so I have a post in the making about that. Mwahahaha...until next time, I say adieu.

Your hostess,

The Fox