ICE!!!!!!

So here in St. Louis there are some great things happening...like snow!  Love the snow...it's great!  You can go out side and play in it, build a fort, throw snowballs, crunch it under your feet, and put it down someones coat so they are frozen to the bone.  So I am a fan of winter and snow and almost all things that come from it.  I love Christmas, I love the Holiday spirit, I even love all the things I have to do during the season (like shop, even though usually I don't like shopping in general.)  BUT one thing I do NOT like about winter is ICE!!!! 

I didn't mind it so much until a few years back there was this horrendous ice storm that hit Springfield, IL, where I was working and going to school.  I lived in a town that was about 45 min away and I had class that evening.  I had class at 6:30 and so I waited in my office until word was finally sent out that classes were canceled due to the weather…that was at 6!  So I hurried up and got out to my car.  Once outside I was pelted with ice, not snow, not rain, not little pellets, huge balls of horrible shards of ice.  If that wasn’t bad enough I still had to scrape off my car and while in the parking lot I saw many students (I worked at that college and I felt like it was my responsibility to always be helpful) who didn’t have a scraper and who were trying to open their car doors by using there gloves and books and all sorts of other miscellaneous items to pry open their door and scrap off their windows so they could drive away.  So I saved the day. 

Being awesome and helping many students, I did a happy dance and went back to my car.  Only to find out I was the only person left in the parking lot, and my car still wasn’t ready for me to drive.  About a half hour after that I was in my car and I finally got a good look at myself in the mirror…it wasn’t pretty…I had gashes on my face from where the ice balls had hit me and my gloves were torn from where the ice had hit them…so I started slowly going down the road hoping to make it home to my nice warm house and into my nice warm bed. 

That’s when I saw it…all the truckers on the interstate were coming off the roads…ALL of them!  This NEVER happens.  So I called my mom (I’m a mammas girl and when things are bad I call her) and she told me to pull of into a hotel nearby.  So I did.  I got a room, went across the street to grab some food, and sat in my nice heated room watching TV until around 10…THEN the power went off…I went to the front desk to ask for some more blankets and to see when the power would be turned back on.  The lady told me she didn’t know about the power, but the blanket situation was a no go too.  The man in front of me got the last blanket.  So I was stuck in a hotel with the power out with ice balls hitting my window.  I went back to my hotel room…which was quickly turning cold, and hurried under the blankets. 

I woke up around 3a.m. shivering and I could see my breath.  All I could think was “I’m going to die in a hotel by freezing to death”.  I could see my obituary now…”Happy Dance died in a hotel room, by freezing to death during the ice storm…she helped too many students and when the power went out she was the last person to ask for a blanket at the hotel…please make denotations to the polar bear foundation, she would have wanted to save them as well.”  So I had one of two options…lie there and die…or get up and try and find away to survive.  This is life and death here people!  So I got up off the bed and went into the bathroom and I got all of the towels, my winter coat, my gloves, and the made a burrito out of all the covers on the bed and put all of the things I had gathered on top of the covers.  I then buried inside of the burrito I had made with my gloves on and the covers pulled up over my face and went to sleep. 

When I awoke there was a bright light shining in my face.  I thought I had died, and this was heaven.  I got up and realized I hadn’t died and I had made it through the night!  ALSO I had POWER!!! :)  I got ready for the day and skipped down the steps to get some breakfast in the lobby.  I was happy to be alive and to have power.  Then I looked outside.  It was nothing but ice!  How was I suppose to get home?  But first off how was I suppose to open my car doors when they were frozen shut by the ice? 

I got to thinking…hot water melts ice…there was a coffee pot brewing hot water for hot tea and hot coca.  I decided to fill up a bucket I borrowed from the hotel to poor on my car to get it open, start the car and then head home.  So that is what I did…three buckets later, my car door would open, five more buckets later my car tires were deiced…well sort of, and two hours later my car was deiced enough for me to get back on the road and head home.  That 45 minute drive from the hotel to my hometown took three hours. There were cars in the ditch and power outages in every other town. 

When I reached home, I hugged my mom (hey, I thought I was a goner the night before), went downstairs to my bedroom, and went to sleep. 

Now that I am in St. Louis (south of my hometown) I figured not so much ice to deal with…wrong…Ice Pellets in the afternoon until tomorrow…well I better get some hot water boiling so I can deice my tires.  Hopefully there will be no ice balls or truckers going off the interstate.  Wish me luck…this might make for an interesting drive.
This last picture is of me, tonight, trying to get away from the ice pellets, early prediction!

My Nephews 11th Birthday

Yesterday was my nephews birthday.  He turned 11!  That’s right at age 12 I was an Aunt and I took (and still do take) the job very seriously.  Anyway he lives in South Carolina and we don’t get to see my sister or my nephews that often. So it stinks when we don’t get to see them on important days, like birthdays. 

Anyway, I got to thinking about the first time I ever met my nephew.  At that point he was almost 6 months old and I was super excited to finally meet him.  My sister brought this little buddle of joy into our hotel room and sat him on the bed.  After fusing with him for awhile I asked if I could pick him up.  After getting the “OK” I knelt down beside the bed and picked him up out of the car seat.  I held him out from me and looked him in the eye…and that’s when it happened.  He threw up all over me!  It was GROSS!  I put him back down in the car seat and ran into the bathroom…all the while my family was laughing in the other room.  I came out with a new shirt on and tried this all over again.  This time I had a washcloth on my shoulder and I held him to me.  I don’t think if any other child would have done that, that I would have ever picked them up again…but even though my nephew ended up throwing up on me around 16 times that visit, we were there for around 4 or 5 days– mostly just spit up, but still it’s just gross – I still ended up falling for that little guy.  He is the one who stole my heart first and I can’t believe he is already 11.  He has gotten so big and has matured so much, and since that first visit, he hasn’t thrown up on me since. I am proud to have the nephews I have, even if they spit up on me!

and now my really sloppy and horrible rendition of my nephews and my first meeting...enjoy :)

There you have it...how my nephew and I first met :)

My dogs face!

This is my dog Bella...this is her face....She looks like the Predator off Alien vs. Predator.  Umm it's really weird.  She does very random things all the time.  Keep a look out for updates about her and from her world.  P.S. even though her face is weird...she is my baby girl and one of the best puppies in the whole world!  (even though she is 3 and does bad things sometimes)

http://www.scaleworkshop.com/gallery/predatorcw_1.htm

Hello...do you have a happy dance?

HELLO WORLD!  This is my blog and you can call me Happy Dance.  I am a weird and awkward person out in the world, just like all of you weird and awkward people reading this.  I would like to tell you a little bit more about myself, why I actually decided to write this blog, and tell you why I choose the name Happy Dance.

So my "name" is Happy Dance, and as you can probably tell, I love to dance.  I have been dancing my way through college...no like seriously taking ballroom dance classes, not playing around during college courses.  It has been the one hobby I have found that I don't think I could live without.  I wake up wanting to dance, and even when I am down I still have a nudge inside my brain telling me to get up off my butt and shake it (or at least swing dance).  I went all the way through college and achieved my Masters of Education in Higher Education Administration last May, and now I work as an Academic Advisor.  I LOVE what I do, and also can't wait to go to work in the morning.  I take college education very seriously, but also with a little dose of fun thrown in just for kicks.  Right now there are a few focuses of mine outside of my love of dancing and work and they are cooking, playing with my baby girl (Bella, my dog), being with my awesome boyfriend (G), and losing weight (since I started my job I have lost over 25lbs - so since June).  I LOVE Christmas time with all the snow and hot chocolate and family gatherings.  When I am tired I am cranky and when I am not tired I am not cranky...well usually.  I have lived in St. Louis for only 2 years but I am starting to fall for this city.  There are so many free things to do...which on my budget, is AWESOME!  I am originally from a very small town - only had 200 people in my high school...and that was 5 small towns put together - so big city living can be overwhelming to me at times.  I say words like "darn tooting" and "conniption"(did I spell that right?) and people look at me weird here in STL, but back home I fit right in.  OH and don’t' be surprised if every now and again...ok all the time...I will throw in a "Ya'll".  Even though I am not from the South this is a perfectly good and wholesome word to use when talking about a group of people. 

Why did I decide to write this blog:  I have always loved to write, but am afraid to do so sometimes, due to my dyslexia.  I have had dyslexia ever since I was little, and had training for it growing up.  I was told by guidance counselors throughout my whole life that I wouldn't make it to college...well umm did that...so yeah they were wrong.  I love that I have had such great support throughout my life to get me through all that.  I have only just begun telling people outside of REALLY close family and friends about my dyslexia because I now know I can help others with the diagnoses.  Again there will be misspellings and horrible grammar mistakes throughout this blog...if you don't like that, you aren't going to like this blog.  I also decided to write this blog because I think I just might be an interesting person...that's right...I'm not boring...well on somedays I'm not boring (that's more like it).  SO I figured if I'm not that boring...then maybe a blog would be a great way to share my unboringness (oh yeah and I also like to make up my own words...see so unboring right there!)

Why did I choose the name Happy Dance for this blog:  Because I really do think that life is a dance that we waltz, swing, rumba, and tango through.  There are highs and lows, and huge steps and small steps, and great music for any occasion.  With just one dance you can change the world...that's how I see life...with just one small thing you can change the world.  So whether that small thing be a smile or a laugh it changed the world somehow.