Loving that my girl likes being outside! On the way to the store yesterday, she was noticing all of the little water falls that pop up all over the place when we have heavy rain. So I decided to stop where I knew there was a bigger one so she could check it out. There are some old limestone caves there as well and she made a beeline for them! She thought they were the coolest things EVER. I always thought so too when I was a kid.










When I was able to drag her from the caves, we went to check out the waterfall. It had started to rain and the wind had picked up, so she wanted to go back into the caves! Haha. I was able to snap a quick pic and then it was back to the car! She was mad.. and she informed that I HAVE to take her back to the caves someday, with a flashlight so she can see the dark places. :)




I really cannot wait to take her camping and exploring! She is just going to love it when we can get out and actually do things with her! And we will have just as much fun!

There are so many places around here that I simply cannot wait to take my family too. Blackwater Falls State Park is one of those places. It is pretty no matter the season.

Here it is in August:



And here it is in February:


We are nature lovers, so spending the day in the area hiking and stuff is right up our alley. I cannot wait!

Now if Mother Nature would quit playing games...
After several wonderful days in the 50s and 60s.. here it is this afternoon:


Yeah. She be funny, huh? Pfft. LOL

It IS pretty. And I love watching the snow fall. At this point though, I already have my shorts and Birks at the ready.. so.. let us get a move on with the spring thing already!!

So, I am not so good at keeping up with the old blog. Sorry.

I had recently scanned a bunch of photos. And then T's step-mom sent us a TON of his baby pictures. Oy. Good LORD he was cute. *sigh* I am not gonna lie. I want another baby. Now, before everyone starts falling off of their chairs, I am not going to actually DO that. Just sayin'. I always wanted M to have a sibling and it just kinda stinks that things have gone the way that they have.

Anyway, I came across this one photo of T and OMG.. haha.. See for yourself...


That is T and his paternal grammy, and the pea and I on Christmas morning of 2006. They are roughly the same age in these photos. And people say she looks like me? NOT. LOL

Then, I came across this next photo. It is an old Polaroid. It has faded and changed to wonky colors and I did my best to fix it in Photochop.. however, my photo editing skillz are limited. What I wanted to convey with this photo, is the look on my dad's face. I saw this pic and CRACKED up, because I could just envision the scene.


My dad is out there trying to cut up fire wood, and my moms yelling at him to look at her. He in turn looks at her like "Dammit woman! WHAT do you want?? Can you not see I am trying to cut some damned wood??" Hahaa. It just made me smile.. and made me miss him even more than I already do. *sigh*
Also? If you look closely, the ever-present smoke is dangling out of his mouth, and he needs a hair cut. He looks a bit like a koala in this photo. LOL!

M is still sick. She has a cough that just will NOT quit. I have not slept through the night in about 3 weeks and it is wearing on me. I get an hour here, two hours there. UGH. NOT good for what I need to be getting done. I am going to sleep in her room for the next few nights, with medicine at the ready, tissues and a drink, and hope that I can get her what she needs without going into the kitchen and needing to put on a light and schlepping up and down the stairs 3 or 4 times. Because once I go through all of that, I am awake.

We are going to the Docs today. Hoping to get some answers...

I have spent some time recently going through old photos. I came to the realization that I am missing a HUGE box of photos and mementos from about the time I was 11, til I was about 15 or 16. I am crushed. I believe the box was left behind at our old house, and I am pretty sure that the place has been emptied out by now. Not that I could do anything about it either way, now that the mortgage company has secured the house. *sigh*

Ah well. Anyway, I was scanning in some photos when I came across this one:





LOL. One day Joyce and I were at the beach. This guy walked up, and I swear to GOD he stood there, just like that, not moving a muscle, for what seemed like FOREVER. He had J and I cracking up. He looked like a statue. He literally stayed like that for a good hour. So J snapped this pic of him. We bring him up often in conversations because it was just too funny. I guess yah had to be there, so trust me, it was funny. :P

I miss my life in Florida. I miss Joyce and Peggy and 'my people' ... I miss Lin and going to the gym. I miss my MOM. But, I am finally settling into a good routine here and hoping that spring brings renewed energies and new opportunities for all of us..

Until next time....

All in all we ended up with about 10 inches or so, I would guess. This morning, we got another 3 or 4 inches. It is very beautiful. I do not mind it much, but I AM counting the days til spring. This place is so beautiful in the spring and summer. I cannot wait!

We have real grass here! I cannot wait to be able to run around in the yard with no shoes on!!
The grass in FL is prickly and hard and WEIRD. Won't miss that!!

Missing my brother today. He has chosen to remove himself from our lives and we do not really know why. It is a bummer.. today is his birthday. Happy Birthday Bro.. I miss you...

It snowed a little bit today. ;)

That would be M using her sled as a shovel. That child was determined to build a fort. I need to find one of those block igloo maker things so we can make a REAL fort the next time we get a good snow. *sigh* I love her. :)

Where do I begin? Ugh.

These are the stairs leading down to where we park. Or, leading from where we park up to the house. :P

In this photo, you can see the rock wall in major disarray, the gutter hanging off of the back of the house, the un-tilled garden mess to the left there. A few things that you cannot see, are the toppled-over grape arbor which causes me GREAT distress. I do NOT want to lose that thing. The stairs are crumbling and need massive repair. The windows need replacing...

The yard needs LOTS of work. I think we are just going to clear it all out, turn up the dirt, and leave it til fall, then I will plant some bulbs and leave it be. The house itself needs a good power wash. Too bad that whore sold our pressure washer. Grr.

I am not sure HOW the grape arbor is going to get fixed. It is not something that T and I can handle.. we have NO idea what we are doing. The garden just needs to be tilled and raked over, we can burn all of the crap in there. I guess I need to do some gardening research because I have no idea when to plant what. LOL.

Of course, we do not have a tiller, so that should be interesting.

The sheds down back need to go as well. One is about to fall down, the other is in ok condition, but will look odd as heck once the other one is torn down. (can you say BONFIRES?)

I am starting to feel overwhelmed. T says he will help with all of this stuff, but really? I do not see it happening. *sigh*

p.s. Notice that a few windows are open? LOL. It was 45 degrees that day. We were having a heat wave! :)

Ok, so I slacked for a few days. There is not much to photograph when you are stuck in the house.
It started snowing again yesterday afternoon. T and I were in the next town over. We got home in just enough time to get M off of the bus. I had some laundry to do so I kept sweeping my way down stairs. When I awoke this morning, I was sorta shocked at how much accumulation there was.

For the first time since yesterday, it has stopped snowing. I need to go out and shovel now.

Here is what I awoke to this morning, around 7 a.m.




And this, was taken just about 10 minutes ago out the kitchen window. It has gone from near white out conditions to just a few rogue flurries here and there.





People keep asking me if I am ready to go back to FL yet. I love it here. I always have. I spent my life in a climate just like this. I had only spent 12 years in FL. Sure, it is nice to not have to deal with the snow. But I have always loved it. When I was in FL and would see everyone complaining about the snow and the cold, I was always a bit jealous, as I really missed it!

Anyway, I have to go shovel....

Someone needs to teach this kid of mine what SLEEPING IN means. Seven a.m. and she was waking me up. Grrrr. The first two things she asked for was cake and to go outside and play in the snow, neither of which are going to happen until after lunch. LOL.

There is a LOT of snow out there. I am only shoveling to the apartment downstairs and that is IT. It is still coming down hard. Sometimes, I cannot see the top of the mountain! I am hoping my neighbor comes by on his 4 wheeler to plow the sidewalk like he did the other day. That saved me some work!

I can smell the cake. I hope that I can wait til after lunch! Hahaa!!
I have some pics on my camera, but I just do not feel like dealing with it right now. I think I am gonna go plop on the couch. I will wake T at 8:30 and then I think I am making waffles for breakfast. mmmm.
I have to get the pics off of the camera before we go outside. I do not have a memory card yet and it can only hold 10 photos without the card.

Awrighty then, to the couch I go!

One of the things I have always loved about this place, is how the fog comes up off of the river. I used to love sitting outside in the early mornings with my coffee, watching the bands of fog rise and lift slowly towards the sky.

Year in Review!

It has been a LONG year, yet it has sped by at ludicrous speed. Does that make sense? Most of you know the deal. Living with my mom, needing to somehow get back on our feet. We now find ourselves in WV, in my grandparents old house. We are settled in nicely. M is in school. T is working, I am trudging away with school. I love it here. Being here feels normal and right for me. T is still adjusting, but doing very well.

So I have to apologize. I promised everyone I would blog regularly, and I don't. You can thank Facebook for that! Hah. I am going to try to post each day (ha!) and I would like to post a picture a day too. I have attempted this before, and failed miserably, but we shall see how it goes. I have also decided that it has been way too long since I had my very own blog design, so I am thinking that is something that I need to do as well. I just use templates because they are easy peasy, and my creativity went out the door years ago.

So, some photos, yes?

We moved up here the day before Halloween. M was a witch, courtesy of my friend Penny, who brought the costume up for us to use!




We got to spend lots of time outside when we first got here. The weather was PERFECT!

















Then, we got our first snow!! M was just LOVING it!!








Then, it snowed again. And again. Aaand again. :)








Our humble abode...





Our neighbors... LOL.





Before we knew it, Christmas was upon us! We had Christmas Eve here, and Christmas day we were lazy. We went to my cousins for dinner. It was a really good few days, although I REALLY miss my mommy...


We also got legal. :)




Awww...





M and her cousins...



Petie and T ...






M got a sled from Santa. Best thing EVER. She had SO much fun!




She is such a ham, no?





And that is about where we are. Rebuilding. Living. Being happy. Adjusting.
So, blogging and photo daily..? Hah.. we shall see.

Happy New Year!!