The Ice Storm

It started Friday afternoon. We were expecting friends for dinner, so I loaded up the kids and we ran to Wal Mart to pick up a few things. I had heard the forcast, and the ice storm warning that was supposed to last until Sunday night, but the forcast has been wrong before. When we went into Wal Mart, it was chilly and raining, but not slick. The store was a zoo - the canned food aisle looked like a bomb had gone off, the milk was almost all gone, I couldn't find ice melt anywhere. There were people and carts everywhere. School had let our early, and I'm sure a lot of people were leaving work early too. At one point, I heard then page overheard for employees to retrieve more carts from the corrals outside - there were none left in the store and there were customers waiting. All the registers were open, and each one was at least three carts deep. I've never seen our WalMart this insane - not even at Christmas. We got lucky, and moved pretty quickly through the checkout. We left the store about 45 minutes after we entered, and there was an inch of icy slush in the parking lot and it was raining ice. The lot was slick as snot, and I got the kids and the groceries and the kids in the car as quickly as I could. We saw several accidents in the short time it took us to get home. We canceled with our friends and Shannon came home early. He stopped to air up a tire and ended up helping out a teenager who had spun out and crossed the median on her way to work.

On Saturday, it stopped for a bit. We hung out at home, attempted to keep it tidy, and made cookies. It started up again late in the afternoon. We went to Mom and Dad's for dinner (China Palace!) and ended up spending the night. The car was iced over and their road hadn't been graded yet. We decided just to not bother trying to get home in the cold and the dark. We got up the next morning and had breakfast with them, then headed home. It rained pretty much all day, and the temperature hovered just above freezing. The January TEC was taking place this weekend in Jeff at Immaculate Conception, and Shannon and I were doing music for the mass and Hoot on Sunday night. We went and played, and Dad came and helped watch the kids. We headed home about 8:30. As we said goodnight to Dad, Madeleine said, "Night Grandpa. See you in the morning!" We explained to her that while we would see Grandpa soon, it wouldn't be the next morning. Well, evidently she was speaking prophesy, because when we got home, we realized that there were NO lights on in our neighborhood. The huge billboards on the highway were dark, as were the security lights at the storage unit across the street, and there were no lights on in any of the homes. When we pulled up and tried to open the garage door, we discovered that indeed, we had lost power. So I ran inside to grab some diapers and a change of clothes, and to make sure Homer was well fed and all set while Shannon called my parents. We head back to Mom and Dad's to spend the night once again. Shannon ran home in the morning early after he woke up, and the power had returned.

With all of these goings-on this weekend, the biggest news is that Noah rolled over for the first time! He did it reaching for their bizzare blinking toy at my parents' house on Sunday morning. He did it again about an hour ago, trying to eat the case that Madeleine's bristle blocks came in.

Since I started this post yesterday, we've lost power again. I woke up this morning at 0130 to feed Noah and noticed that the clocks were out and the furnance wasn't blowing. I had Shannon set the alarm clock on his phone so I would make it to my transport staff meeting on time, threw a couple more blankets on the bed and the baby and went back to sleep. Shannon was uneasy about the cold (it was 3 degrees when I left for my meeting at 7am) and not having heat, and didn't fall asleep again until the power came back, which was about 0230 judging by the clocks.

Today, it's bright and sunny, and bittterly cold. As I drove home from Columbia after my meeting, my car said it was 8 degrees. The ice is beautiful on the trees and fences, but the back roads are still patchy and the drive to and from Columbia was sketchy at times. I don't have any good ice storm pictures, so I'll post some cute pictures of my kids.

Noah, flush with victory moments after he rolled from back to belly for the first time

Madeleine playing with one of her favorite Christmas presents:
a box of dress up clothes she calls her Princess Clothes

Madeleine took this of me and Noah

Cute bundled up kiddos

Baby Puck

is due today! No word yet from Chicago. We are waiting anxiously to meet her! If my lucky labor shirt was still lucky, I'd overnight it to Becca. The effects, however, were sadly temporary ("Mee mee mee mee mee mee", and only worked for me with Madeleine. If I were my husband or my brother, I'd turn this into some crack about the Cubs, but I'm nicer than they are, so I won't.

Four months with Noah

Can't remember what it was like without him. He had his 4 month checkup last week and did great, even with the 5 immunizations he had to get. He's 14lbs 12 oz, 25.5 " long, and his head circumference is 42 cm. Everything's in the 50th %tile except his length, which is in the 75th %tile. That explains why his legs outgrow his sleepers so quickly. He's hitting all the developmental things for a 4-5 month old pretty well. We're waiting for him to roll over from tummy to back or back to tummy, but that could be any day now. He's rolling from side to side easily, and often turns 360 degrees around when he's lying on his back playing under the baby gym. He's been laughing, gurgling, and groaning for a while now, but just these last couple of days, he's figured out that he can screech. It's a pretty interesting sound, at times sounding like a mountain lion, and other times like Steven Tyler.

Willy, nilly, silly old...

Me: Hey Madeleine, what's this guy's name?
Madeleine: Winnie the Poop!

More Christmas Photos

Noah and Shannon get festive with our Christmas cracker party hats

Shannon pulls Madeleine around Mom and Dad's front yard in the wagon Santa brought (yes, Shannon is still wearing the Christmas cracker party hat)

The morning after: We stayed at the Cerneka Christmas until 11pm, and but we still didn't get to bed until close to 1am because Shannon went out to find cold medicine for Madeleine so she could get some sleep. This was taken at about 10am on Dec 26, after I finally pried myself out of bed. I had worked the 22nd, 23rd, and 24th, and had been up for more than 36 hours when I finally got to go to bed. Christmas was a long long day for everybody.

Madeleine and cousin Nathan rocking out to Grandma C's Millenium Santa, who wears a tuxedo and sings Kool and the Gang's "Celebration" with Y2k verses

Noah really digs the bouncy seat. We got it out for him for the first time last week, and he loves to bounce and spin while Shannon sings and plays guitar for him and Madeleine.

Next up: New Year's Eve pictures! Stay tuned.

Happy New Year!

Well, our holiday season is over, and is going out with a whimper. And a sneeze. And a cough. And a fever. We're all sick with Madeleine's cold (I actually have the flu as well) so our New Year's Eve was kind of a bust. But I think the Ramsay New Year's Eve Party was as great a sucess as it ever is. I tried, but I couldn't make it past 10 pm and went to bed with the kids that night.
Overall, it was a good holiday. What I am most proud of is actually getting my Christmas cards out this year. I honestly tried last year, bought cards, ordered wallet-sized prints of our family portrait. I got the cards assmbled and signed, but ran out of steam before I could get them addressed and in the mail. I was so tired, I barely had the energy to finish my shopping and wrap gifts. It turns out, I was tired for a very good reason. I was pregnant with Noah, and that's how our 2006 began. It was another wonderful, hilarious, challenging, and adventurous year:

- Shannon's Mom's 60th birthday party
-Oddwalk busier than ever going to(among other places I'm sure I'm forgetting): Lubbock TX, San Diego CA, Beaumont TX, Ogdensburg NY, Sioux City IA, Las Vegas NV, plus mutliple appearances at the Shrine in Belleville and in Jefferson City
-Camping with a few of our ministry friends at Mark Twain Lake State Park
-Our 3rd anniversary dinner at the Melting Pot with Orin and Erin
-The announcement of our niece-to-be, expected to arrive soon (due Jan 11)
-Our weeklong vacation at the beach with Clan Ramsay
-Oddwalk recording and releasing a new CD
-The Cardinals winning the World Series!
-Traveling, with both the kids, to Las Vegas for the National Conference on Catholic Youth Ministry
-Christpower and Young Neighbors STL for Shannon
-Following the Farmers' Chinese odessey and welcoming Ava Therese FuBin Farmer
-Welcoming fresh-from-God Cerneka family members Sammy Driscoll, Molly Distler and Griffin Leahy
-Welcoming fresh-from-God friends Craig Willmann, Ava Reeser, Caedmon Farmer, and Jacob Smith
-Our first (and sadly only for the summer) visit to new Busch Stadium to watch a Cubs-Cards game
-My craziest transport ever: meeting a county ambulance on the side of Highway 63 to pick up and resucsitate a 27 weeker that had delivered in the ambulance on the way to the hospital
-Madeleine's daily discovery of language (you can say "Dolphin?" I didn't even know you knew what a dolphin was!"), the emergence of her sense of humor (knock knock! who's there? orin. orin who?), and her budding independence (No! I do it 'self!)

The two most signifcant events of this year occured this summer, with weeks of one another. We lost my grandmother Dorothy Haxton on July 2 to her four year battle with lung cancer. Our Gammer was fun and funny, smart, amazingly creative, generous, ornery and at times a little insane. I find myself thinking of her often, and miss her very much.

Four weeks later, we brought Noah Matthew into the world. Aside from the four miserable months of "morning sickness" (morning my butt), it was a healthy and easy pregnancy. I delieverd him safely on August 29 after a few short hours of labor, with Shannon and my dear, wonderful friend Katy Korte at my sides. My Noah-Boy totally rocks, with his one dimple, his chubby cheeks and round belly, his sweet, easy smile, his crinkly little green eyes (like mine) and big ol' round noggin (like Dad's).

God is so good. Blessings abound, and I can't hardly wait to see what 2007 holds for us, our family and our friends.

I'll never miss TAL again!

My awesome husband gave me a nano for Christmas. It has taken me an hour, because, though the device is relatively simple and easy to use, there is still a bit of a learning curve, especially for those of us not entirely used to dealing with Mac. But here I am, listening to my first download: a podcast of This American Life, in my opinon, the best radio program around today. Our local public radio station broadcasts it on Sundays starting at 10 am, and I usually miss it because I'm either sleeping for work or at church. When I do get to listen, I rarely get to hear a whole act, and I never get to hear an entire show. I adore Sarah Vowell and dearly wish I had her gift for storytelling and essay writing. She is a frequent contibutor to TAL.

I should be cleaning my house and doing laundry, but between work and visiting for the holiday, I haven't been able to play with any of my Christmas presents. Other stuff I downloaded:
-iTunes Originals: Barenaked Ladies (whole album)
-32 Flavors Ani Difranco (original studio recording)
-A Little Less Conversation Elvis Presley (JXL Radio Remix)
-All Night Long (All Night) Lionel Richie
-Copacabana Barry Manilow
-Don't Stop Til You Get Enough Michael Jackson
-Will You Be There Michael Jackson
-Ice Ice Baby Vanilla Ice
-One Night In Bangkok Murray Head (I LOVE this song! It was the first thing I bought after downloading TAL)
-Sweet Caroline Neil Diamond
-The Devil Went Down to Georgia Charlie Daniels Band

Finally mostly healthy again

Hello! I haven't been able to blog for two weeks due to the holidays and working. The whole family got hit with Madeleine's cold (thanks initially to the Way of Lights Children's Village) and I had the flu over New Year's. Poor Noah was the last of us to get the cold, and then he had his four month check up and immunizations (5 of them!) on top. Then the iBook got called to duty this weekend when Oddwalk went to Waco, and I'm not about to attempt to use dial-up to post photos. So here we are! I'm going to post a couple of entries I wrote over the last week or so and didn't have a chance to finish, and then I'll put up a bunch of pics from Christmas and some from New Year's. I was seriously out of commission on New Year's Eve, so I didn't get but a couple pictures from Mom and Dad's party.

Merry Christmas!

Well, it was an insane couple of days, but we had a nice Christmas. I worked Christmas Eve and Shannon and the kids went to Mass with my parents and spent the night at their house. My brother Christopher and his wife Maggie also spent the night. I raced home in the morning (thankfully, there were no late transports) to have Christmas morning with my family. After dinner, we left for Belleville to have Christmas night with the extended Cerneka family. We spent the night with Shannon's mom and had a Christmas dinner and gift exchange with his immediate family last night. Then we loaded up and drove home this morning. Madeleine is experiencing her first cold, and we've been chasing her runny nose and cough all over creation, but it hasn't really seemed to slow her down much. She had fun Christmas morning until about halfway through opening presents, and then she said, "I done presents." and tried to run off. Here are a few pictures. I'll put more up later.

Happy Christmas Eve!

I swear Madeleine was in a good mood. She climbed right up on Santa's lap and chatted away with him, until it came time to take the picture. Nothing Mom or I could do could get her to smile. We looked like idiots, "Madeleine! Smile Madeleine! Hi!" Sheesh. Here are some other photos from our Santa hat pictures for the Christmas cards:






Merry Christmas!

You so totally rock, Squirt!

He's going home! Merry Christmas, Jacob!

In A Huff

I can't see a thing with this blast shield down!

I have a job where, among other things, I get to fly in a helicopter. I love it. It's pretty cool. Unfortunately, I don't really look all that when I do my job. I wear men's pants, because I couldn't find EMT pants in a women's cut, that are unflatteringly high-waisted. They are not terribly comfortable, but they have lots of neat pockets and they are warm in the wintertime and at 3500 feet. And a tucked-in polo shirt, also men's. And then there's this:



Word.

Inked Up

A New Friend

Many of you know our friends Jamie and Lesley, and that they had a baby due in January. Well, Jacob decided to come out to play early, and just to make it that much more interesting, he decided to come during that nasty storm last week. They are blogging about their new son and his progress here. Please keep this little family in your prayers.

Vegas, Baby!

We're back, and we all survived. Evidently, we missed the storm of the decade. We left Wednesday morning, and the snowstorm arrived Thursday night. We did get to experience a little of it when we got into St. Louis at 10 o'clock at night on Sunday, as it took Shannon 45 minutes to chip clear the iced-over snow off the windshield of the Intrepid. My awesome parents had shoved out our driveway and a path to our front door, through the 18 inches of snow, so when we actually reached our home at 1 am, we were able to just walk right in. My mom also tidied our living room and kitchen, so it was a pleasant surprise to come home to.

Las Vegas and the travel to and from was certainly an adventure. We had a direct flight to Vegas on Wednesday, and the kids did great on the way there. The Sit N Stroll performed nicely (the wheels got stuck once or twice in the up position), and all our luggage, including the baby bucket and Shannon's guitar, which we had gate-checked, reached Las Vegas with the rest of us safely.

The conference was successful for Oddwalk, in spite of an attempt on Shannon's life by Quiznos' guacamole. On Friday, I left my ailing husband with Orin and my young children with strangers (Ladies and Gentlemen, Wife & Mother of the Year!) to run the Strip with Erin H. We hit the nickel and penny slots hard (you know how we roll), at least until we got a couple free drinks. Then we ate at the Aladdin and saw BNL at the Aladdin theater. Their show, as always, kicked booty. Afterwards, we made our way back down the Strip, stopping at the Paris and Bellagio to try their slots and free drinks. When we got back, everyone was sleeping. Shannon was starting to recover, and the kids had been good for the babysitters, who weren't really strangers.

Madeleine, inspite of her best efforts, did not destroy our room at the Riv. She did manage to scribble in crayon on the bottom drawer of the tv cabinet and flush a bar of soap down the toilet, however. She also got a ton of swag at the exhibit hall, including a backback, a kangaroo, three koalas, a deck of cards, two bendy man toys, a dvd, numerous pens and stickers, and a ton of candy.

The trip home was a little more difficult. We had to change planes in Salt Lake City and ended up hiking what felt like five miles with the guitar, the baby in the sling, the toddler in the stroller, the baby bucket, two diaper bags and my purse to our new concourse and new gate. The kids were crankier and fussier on the flight from SLC to STL, but we survived. I have found on this trip that people are generally very kind and sympathetic to those traveling with kids. It goes a long way, too, if you people see you making an effort to keep your kids calm and under control. It goes even farther, though, if your kids are exceptionally cute and charming - if, for instance your 3 month smiles at everybody and your two year old tells knock knock jokes without punchlines.

So here are some photos from our trip:

Madeleine on the plane, ready to go!

Hanging out at the booth

Dance with me Noah!

Noah-boy

Cheese! (she does this wierd thing with her face when she says cheese)

Oddwalk's performance on Saturday night:

I'm huge! (MST3K, anyone?)

Keytar hero? Erin must be so proud.