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, after spending WAY too much time this morning in photochop, only to realize that I just simply no longer have the design mojo, I opted for this template. Cute, no? I was tired of the dark grayishness. We have enough of the gloom with the weather. :)

I slept with the window open last night. I was nice. This morning, it started snowing and it has yet to stop. I am not sure how much we are supposed to get. My weather thingy on my phone said little accumulation, and the Pittsburgh station said 3 to 4 inches. Oy. It IS pretty and I really don't mind it all that much. But when Mother Nature starts peppering your weeks with gorgeous, sunny, 60 degree days and then goes the way of the nut bin with this stuff again? Meh. Makes me a wee grouchy.

T seems to be a bit more himself today, so hoping we can Wii later and actually, maybe..have some FUN for once.

And with that, I am out. I need to go stand by the heater. My extremities are frozen.

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. :)

That is an icicle that is hanging off of the front porch roof. It goes all the way to the ground. I am starting to get concerned because it is causing the gutter a lot of stress. We tried to break it, whacking at it with random stuff before it got this big, and we could not make even the slightest dent in it. I am thinking of running a garden hose from the bathroom sink, out through the window to the roof, and just let the hot water flow. LOL. I am not sure what else to do. At this rate, it will still be there in June.

Notice that the Christmas lights are still up. That is only because they are encased in ice. Next year, they get hung underneath the overhang! It is making me crazy that we cannot get them down. Argh.

The snow has been unrelenting. It sure is pretty though. M went out to play today. The two things that she REALLY wanted to do? Sled and build a fort. Neither of which she was able to do. She plunked her sled down, and promptly sank into the deep snow. She tried and tried again, to no avail.

I told her that it was just too deep. So she decided to move on to fort building. That did not fare well either, as the snow was very light and powder-like. This made for a very unhappy Pea.
*sigh*

She got mad at me because I could not make the snow better for her to make a fort. Ugh. All I could do was bring her inside and give her cake and hot chocolate. Then we read some books, painted, played a game or two and made dinner. We were outside for about an hour and it tuckered her out.

I really wish that she would sleep in. But I am sure that she will be waking me up around 7 a.m., so it is off to dreamland for me!!

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!

Two pictures today.

I needed to run to town today to get some things at Wally World. M was outside playing. I had been shoveling the back stairs (ugh) and the sun came out and there were big puffy clouds in the sky.
So, I shoveled. And it damned near killed me. So I said to T "let her play for a bit, I am running to the store."

I got into the car, and drove down the road and through our teensy little town. As I got the the road to head on out of town, I could not believe what I was seeing... I went from sunshine, to this in about 2.5 minutes..



UNREAL. You can barely see the mountain just across the river. It was coming down all heavy and crazy. I thought about turning around and heading home and then decided just to suck it up and go on. It was just a squall, and moved along rather quickly though, thankfully.

This second picture was taken yesterday as we played out in the snow. M had decided that she wanted to build a fort. So she marched on past us, went to the porch upstairs and came back down dragging the shovel behind her. T and I were laughing so hard. She was so determined to shovel some snow. We ended up being the shovelers, giving her a rather large mound of snow with which to forge her a fort. I LOVE her determination. She does not let ANYONE tell her that she cannot do something. :)