Deadly icicles

When I saw these icicles hanging off our balcony this morning I just had to laugh, because it reminded me of this clip from The Office:

Seriously though, these icicles are like daggers! Paul and I decided that an icicle would make the perfect murder weapon...the evidence just melts away when you are done with the crime.

Check out this one that I broke off the balcony:

2 feet long!! yowza!

Addie was terrified of it. It took me forever to get her close enough to it so I could take a picture.

Struck a nerve?

I guess I struck a nerve with my recent post about my irritation with bratty children. I think, perhaps, those who responded with indignation may have misunderstood slightly what I was trying to say (or maybe I just didn't articulate very well!)

So, yes, I DO get annoyed with children. Frequently. I am not overly patient and I don't have kids and so I tend to have a pretty low tolerance for children who are obnoxious and loud. Perhaps I am not meant for motherhood. Not everyone is, you know...

I guess my irritation comes when parents tolerate bad behavior in their kids and expect everyone around them to tolerate it as well.

Letting a toddler scream and kick the back of the pew repeatedly in church is just plain rude. Feeding your kid snacks all through church and letting them turn the kneelers into a race track for their cars is disrespectful. You can't tell me that a kid who has to be constantly entertained for the entire hour during a church service is getting anything out of being there. Meanwhile, all the people sitting around them are distracted from their time of worship.

I agree 100% that you should attend church as a family. I think that kids should be expected to attend from a young age - BUT I disagree that I should be expected to just look the other way and smile when I can't even hear the priest over little Johnny's chattering, screaming, or pew kicking.

There was a time period during my little brother's "terrible two" era, that my parents attended two different masses, so that one could stay home with my brother. The alternative? Go to mass as a family, sit in the cry room with my brother who was all over the place, and get absolutely nothing out of the service because you spend the entire time disciplining or trying to keep him from bothering everyone around us. Did this cause a massive break down in our family unit because we didn't all go to mass together for a few months? No. What it DID do was allow each of my parents to fully enjoy and get more out of their hour of worship - which, in turn, gave them them grace they needed to get through another week and be better spouses and parents.

I guess my point is this: obviously kids are going to misbehave. I get that. I grew up with a little brother who was "that kid" The one people stared at because he was throwing a fit. But my parents did everything in their power to keep him from disturbing people around us - especially in church. My beef is with the parents who are completely apathetic or ignorant of how their child's behavior may be affecting other people.

I did it!

Never in my life have I used a snow shovel. In fact, as I mentioned previously, we don't even own one. We searched for one all week but everywhere we went they were sold out.

Thankfully, our next door neighbor let me borrow his, and I set out to shovel the walk way up to our front door.

Addie was a little confused about the wall of snow that wasn't there before:

"Mom, I'm not sure I can get up there..."

"I did it!!"

Flash forward about half an hour...and there is a path cleared all the way to the sidewalk.

You can see the steps now! woohoo :)

Awww, you like me!

I've been given a couple of blog awards recently and I just wanted to give a HUGE {thank you} to my fabulous bloggy friends for thinking of me!

First, I received the Best Blog award a few weeks ago from Semper Wifey

The rules for this blog award are as follows:
1. To accept the award, you must post it on your blog with the name of the person who has granted you the award, and a link to their blog.
2. Pass the award on to approximately 10 other blogs that you recently discovered, and think are great!
3. Contact the bloggers to let them know they have been chosen for this award.

And so I pass this award onto the following five blogs that I have recently discovered :)

Duoly Noted

So about what I said...

Food pointers anonymous

love from texas

Little Rhody Girl

My second award came from JG over at Perpetual Newlyweds

This is called The Bogart.
It means you're really going places, Baby.
You'll still be blogging about your great adventures 10 years from now,
and I'll still be reading them.

The Rules:
Link back to the blogger who sent you the award.
Post where you would like to be in 10 years.
Pass this on to 10 other special bloggers.

So this is where I cheat just a bit...both of my awards say to pass along to 10 other bloggers, but I'm doing 10 blogs total...so, umm...to the bloggy president or whatever, hope that is okay.

Okay, so where would I like to be in 10 years?

I'm sure NO ONE would be surprised to hear that in 10 years I'd like to be in Texas, hopefully in a house, and hopefully with at least one or two kids. I'd like to still be a NICU nurse and maybe be working at Texas Children's part time or per diem, just to keep my skills up ;)

And I would like to bestow this award on the following fantastic blogs who I think will truly still be around sharing their adventures with us 10 years from now!

New Girl on Post

Windowboxes and Weissbier

Full Circle

Not so SAHM

Ever-changing life

Those who aren't bloggers can't understand the friendships that are made in the bloggy world, but I am definitely grateful for the amazing people I've met and "met" via this fun little blogosphere. :)

Addie in the snow

Snowed in

Well the great blizzard hit last night. All is still well for me - no loss of electricity or anything crazy like that. Paul even made it to work this morning, but only because he has a 4x4 truck.

Here are a few pics I took this morning when I got up.

There are three steps leading up to our front door...

Addie was not so sure about it at first...

But then she ventured out...keeping only to the top step of our porch :)

See the cars buried in snow? Thankfully mine and Paul's were tucked safely in our garage :)

Looking for a volunteer :)

In trying to get my etsy shop off the ground, I'm looking for someone (or a couple of someones) who might want to host a giveaway on their blog :)

If you are interested, just send me an email via the button at the top of my blog telling me why you would like to host a giveaway! :)

Hunkering down

Is it wrong to say that I'm excited about the impending "winter storm" that is heading our way?

I have never really been part of a winter storm before...even living in Germany for three years. We had snow occasionally, but I think the most I ever saw was maybe 4-5 inches.

They are predicting 18-20 inches of snow here tonight and tomorrow

But seriously, you would think they were predicting some sort of ice age that will engulf our houses in huge glacier-like ice blocks preventing anyone from leaving their homes for weeks on end. I went to the commissary yesterday to get some milk and GOOD GRIEF I have never seen so many people freaking out in a grocery story.

My first tip off that it was going to be a nightmare was that I had to wait in a LINE just to get a shopping cart. I should have just left at that point.

I went straight back to the milk section only to find it completely picked over with only a few gallons left. There was a line of people probably 50 deep waiting for who knows what. The line was seriously wrapped around the entire perimeter of the store. REALLY?!?!

That is when I left my cart in the middle of an aisle and got the heck out of there.

I stopped at a regular grocery store near my house and there was much less hysteria. It was getting a bit crowded but they had milk galore, so I stocked up and headed home.

I feel prepared - the only thing we don't have is a snow shovel. Spent all week going from store to store in search of a shovel and of course they are all sold out.

My only concern is Addie...if there is some massive blizzard going on outside, how do I get her to do her business?

Anyhow...I'm gearing up for a few days of hot chocolate, sewing, and movie watching. woohoo!

Is this what a mom feels like?

As a non-mother, I tend to get easily annoyed with obnoxious kids at the grocery store or really anywhere in public. I can't STAND it when kids scream or, like yesterday, when the mom just completely ignores the kid as he is banging his feet against a box in their cart - basically filling the entire store with an irritating drum solo.

Same thing happened in church last weekend. This kid was sitting on the back of the pew kicking his heels repeatedly on the wooden seat. This was in the basilica, no less...during a quiet part of the mass, and trust me the acoustics are amazing in there, so the kid was able to produce a VERY loud drumming noise that made a pretty impressive echo. Seriously? I mean, it is CHURCH.

Anyhow...where am I going with all this?

I just dropped Addie off at the groomer, and the second we walked in she climbed up my chest and gripped my shoulder for dear life. She started shaking vigorously. She doesn't get nervous like that at the vet...just the groomer. And the weird part is that we had never been to this groomer before, so she didn't even know the building.

Anyhow. She was visibly nervous and as I sat down to fill our our little information card, she promptly threw up on the floor and then on me. As soon as the floor was cleaned of her puke, she walked a few steps to the left and pooped on the floor. AAARRRGH!! I was mortified.

The groomer people were, of course, super nice about it and didn't seem bothered in the least. I mean, I'm sure it happens all the time...

But still, I was so embarrassed...and also so sad that Addie was THAT nervous. :(

Anyhow...back to my original question. It made me feel slightly sympathetic toward moms whose kids do embarrassing things in public. Granted, there is NO excuse for letting your kid bang out a drum solo in CHURCH...but I suppose there are other scenarios where the mom feels JUST as mortified that her kid is acting crazy in public :)

**************

update on Joshua - he came out of surgery well! This surgery was actually just to put electrodes INTO his brain so that they can pinpoint what part of his brain is causing the seizures. So right now they are basically just waiting for him to have seizures that can be recorded by the electrodes so they can go in and remove the part of the brain causing the problem.

Can you spare a prayer?

I posted about a year ago about one of my friends from Germany whose precious little boy, Joshua, was found to have a brain tumor.

Well today he is having brain surgery to remove part of his brain that is causing him to have seizures.

Could you lift up a prayer for Josh and his family today?

"Dear Heavenly Father, I just want to lift up Josh and his whole family to you today. I pray that you will guide the hands of the surgeons and give them the strength and wisdom to perform a safe and effective surgery. I pray that you will put your hand on Josh throughout the surgery to keep him strong. I ask that you comfort Josh's parents as they wait today for the surgery's completion. I pray for fast recovery for Josh and that he will finally be free from seizures. All this I ask in Jesus' name. AMEN!"