Big Fat Snowflakes

Growing up, my best friend's name was Jenny. Jenny and I were about as opposite as you could possibly imagine. She, blonde. Moi, dark. She non-sporty. Moi, sporty. She, quiet. Me, not so much. She was shy and reserved and let's just say I was probably the opposite. She lived in the country, I lived in the city {Okay, let's call it like it is. It was a very small town, but in comparison to the country it was sort of like a city.}

But we had the best friendship. When we got tired of each other one of us would hop on our bike and ride home. So there. And, as opposite as we were, we were still best friends. We loved sneaking into her brother's side of the upstairs - this cool room complete with Rick Springfield music AND a pool table. {or was it ping pong?}

We laugh about the fact that our mothers were about as opposite as they could get, too, and yet their were dear, dear friends. {And still are} Growing up, Jenny was terrified of my mom {she was a yeller, that Mae Emma was, but her bark was bigger than her bite.} And her mom, Aunt Dolly, was as gentle as could be. Just this sweet little tea drinking Canadian lady! We would roller skate in their house - yes IN their house, because, well, we wanted to, and Aunt Dolly never said no. How's that for a dream.

Jenny called on Friday night to let me know that our other dear friend, Cindy, had a death in her family - her brother Clayton. So sad. Left behind kids and sisters that loved him dearly. That is a family that has been hit with hardships; makes me wanna cry. After we talked about that and wished we could do more to help Cindy during this hardship, we ended up talking about our childhood.

Our dream childhood! Jenny lived on a farm - with woods, and a open fields, and a pond across the highway, and just about more fun that you could possibly shake a stick at. We reminisced at length about the fact that we had ponies. We played country fair, complete with numbers on our backs. She had "Black Beauty" and mine was "Scamper." We fed them sugar cubes and Uncle Dean made us brush them constantly. We were never bored. We had the great outdoors as our playground. We really did have a sweet childhood.

I wish you knew Jenny. She's fun and silly and we hadn't talked in close to two years but we picked right up and laughed about the fact that she hates the Internet and I hate the phone so it's no wonder we never talk. We talked about how we're loving our 40s; we feel like we're getting comfortable in our own skin. And speaking of skin, she's become skinny. As in like under 110 pounds skinny. I wish I had some pictures of us as kids because, well, let's just say we might have had some awkward years, complete with curly perms gone awry. But here she is in all her 40s hotness: {She emailed the picture and I can't figure out how to make it big like the others. Rats.}

Ah, I love that girl. Too many memories to count.

So here's my connection to 'Big Fat Snowflakes,' the title of this post. In talking with Jenny it just made me miss Canada. She mentioned how she goes snowshoeing almost every single day and just loves it - through the woods, down to the lake. She's actually enjoying winter. And I have to say, I've really enjoyed the last week of winter. The blizzard, described by my friend Becky as if we were inside a snow globe with the snow swirly around outside. I love that description!

So Sunday I was inspired, by none other than Julie, to take my camera outside and get some winter shots. So Monday, just a day later, I made it happen. I'm so glad I did. I found myself giddy with delight, as if a child, trying to capture the snowflakes falling all over the place. The kids were grumpy but for a brief moment in time I locked them in the car and said, "Don't snow on my parade! I'm going to get some good shots." {Please don't tell the cops - I really was only 2 feet from the car but it seemed like I just walked wistfully away from the chaos in my car, didn't it?}

So here are just a few of my faves from yesterday:

Here's to Jenny, a lifelong friend. A childhood friend. And a friend that never reads my blog because she hates the internet. =) I might just call her up and tell her to dial up and see what she thinks!