Marshmallow's Movin' on Up??

A very exciting thing happened this week. It snowed. I know - those of you in the Northeast are saying, "Ok... so it snows all the time!" Not here. We've waited YEARS for this day to come. Before we moved it seemed like there were snow days every week. The office was closed and we (Stephen and I) were two of the very few people that could continue to work even though the office was closed. Raleigh would get two inches and the office would close. Meanwhile I'd be going outside, shoveling or snowblowing (ahem) 32".

So yesterday, it finally snowed. Imagine our surprise. We'd been saying. "It's not going to snow. It never snows here." All day. Although, I did encourage those around me to wear their PJs inside out and backwards. You do know that's how snow comes right?! Enough people have to wear their PJs inside out and backwards to bring on the storm. Apparently, my power of persuasion got enough people to do it, and thus, we got snow. I know. A miracle, right?! (Hogwash on the cold front, meets wet front, meets... BLEH!! PJs inside out and backwards.)

As is the standard in Raleigh, the schools closed at the mere thought of snow. They were closed by 10pm on Monday evening. The first flake hadn't fallen. I'd say I waited and waited and waited by the window for the first flake, but I'd be fibbing. I went to bed. I went to bed and didn't even check outside before I called the office emergency line at 6:05 to see if I could sleep in! Excellent news... The office was working on a 2 hour delay. Hm. Is daycare open?? I called at 7. Yes. It is.

Ok, so here's where events of the past haunt me. The first year we lived here there was an ice storm. I say ice storm rather loosely. The real issue was too many dopey people rushing out of work at again.. the mere THOUGHT of something happening. As a result the salt trucks didn't have a chance to put down sand, salt, or whatever they spread and thus we were the laughing stock of the country. We live 20 minutes from our office (at the most) and it took us 8 hours to get home. It was like Armageddon. One of our friends called us from a gas station/convenience store and was convinced she wasn't making it home alive. People were buying beer at the gas station, opening it and drinking it right there. I guess, figuring, if they were going to die, they'd die drunk. Welcome to NC.

Ok. So why does this haunt me? What if we went to work and the same thing happened. And I couldn't get to Katherine?! So the decision was made to work from home. And so we did. Katherine was a trooper. She played for a bit in the snow (more to come on that) played in her jumper, took naps, watched the fire, and cuddled when she cared to. She also helped me type on occassion. Mr Jesse got a few instant messages that had him responding... Huh??? Sorry, that wasn't me. That was Katherine... Oops. She loves the computer. Shocking, right?!

Before we got started on the whole "working" thing (which by the way the office eventually closed), I decided I would put on the oh so cute snowsuit I'd gotten for Katherine this summer (for $4... bargain, right!? YEAH) and take her outside. Before I got her into the suit, she wanted to test it out. By eating it. Just one hand of it. But enough that it was full of slobber. Right on.

Into the snowsuit she went. She looked like a stay puff marshmallow. ADORABLE!!!!! Ya just wanted to squeeze her!!! Of course, I had to take her to Stephen (who was in training upstairs in the office by this point). He ate her. Or tried to. :)

Outside we went. We first just looked around. She didn't seem impressed. Then we went to test just standing in the snow. Hm. No tears. Not really excited. But no tears. Then I sat her in it. Marshmallow just sat there. Looking from side to side. I immediately took a picture with my cell phone and sent it to some of the family. One response was "OMG, it's Ralphi's little brother!!!" (Jaclyn) EXACTLY what she looked like. She was just scoping things out. I fed her a little snow. Don't worry. It was clean. :) She liked it. Refreshing I think she thought. Then we tried to make a snow angel. Before you judge I swear she was bundled better than an eskimo!!!! Anyway, that lasted all of about 15 seconds. Enough for me to get two pictures. An angel, we did not make. *sigh* Oh well.

Inside we went then to get warm again. Stephen had built an amazingly toasty fire that we sat beside and played for a bit. Then it was time to get to work... and so we did. You see, our company gives us all laptops so in the event we can't get to work due to inclement weather or some other such reason... we can still work.

We did take a break around 11:45am to watch the inauguration. I don't think Katherine was all that impressed. She yelled the whole time. Screeched really. I don't know who she voted for, she wouldn't show me her ballot, but I'm thinking... maybe it wasn't Obama?!?! Or could it be that she was just so excited "for change" that she was yelling "Go Obama!" I guess we'll never know.

Stephen went outside to shovel after the snow stopped falling (around 2pm). We got approximately 5" or so where we live. Impressive for a place that doesn't get snow... and for a city that only has I think it's 3 plows. Seriously. For those that don't know, when we lived in Easton we bought a snowblower. We bought it after a snowstorm that brought 32" with 6ft drifts. I was home alone during said snowstorm. I'll remind you all... I'm not 6ft. 5'3" maybe... but certaintly not 6". :P

We only got to use the snowblower um, maybe, twice that year. Not because it didn't snow, but rather because the snowblower had an unfortunate accident. Ok. I might have had something to do with it. Poor Marty. Our neighbor. I think I gave him a heart attack that day. Picture it... 2004-ish... snowing... 6ft drifts... me with a brand spanking new snowblower that I insisted we buy because I wasn't shoveling another storm by myself. Staring at our snowblower in awe, I tried to start it. Hm. I have no idea what I'm doing. Marty comes to help. He gets it started for me. weeeee this is cool!!! I start to head down the driveway. Then I look left. To where the snow is "blowing" out of the snowblower. What's THAT? Huh. Looks like... newspaper??... It was at precisely that moment that the snowblower siezed. Just stopped. Curious. I can probably fix this. It is probably at this point that Marty looks up because he hears the snowblower stop. I'm now sitting on the ground trying to figure out what to do. I stick my hand up in the turny things of the blower... Marty SCREAMS: NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO. Yeah. That's when I think I gave him a little heart attack. Apparently you're not supposed to stick your hand UP the snowblower with the "sparkplug" still on/attached/working, whatever. Huh. I'll add, I didn't know where the plug of sparks was to remove it, or turn it off. But alas, Marty assisted. By the end of our inspection the snowblower was, um, kaput. Inoperable. This is where MY panic began. Oh my goodness I just broke the $500 snowblower that I insisted Stephen buy. Eeeeek. Good news is, he took it well. Didn't cry or yell. Whew. I did tell him over the phone, when he was 800 miles away. :) Something you can all learn from my experience: When newspaper dries in a snowblower's blady things, it turns to a consistency much like concrete. Bad. Bad. Bad. Seriously. Bad. It had to wait for spring, and all of the neighborhood men to circle the beast to figure out how to unmangle my masterpiece. The cure? Drano. It eats EVERYTHING. Even newspaper from a snowblower. :) .... That summer we moved to NC. And we brought the beast with us since Stephen never had a chance to use it.

Now... 2009 Stephen's in our shed and looks at the snowblower and thinks... If it starts on the first button push.. It's fate!! I'm going to use it. 4 years later it starts on the first button push. It had been waiting longingly to be used. Neighborhood men, women and children came to watch the beast at work. Stephen did the whole block. I'm not certain but he may have done the street too. A proud moment it was for him. The beast was working... moving snow... and he was "driving" it. This is a memorable day. :)

In other news... We received a note in our diaper bag on Monday evening. Rather big news. The note indicated that Katherine is ready to "move up" to the next room at Daycare. The Waddler room. OH MY!!! My baby is like Weezie. She's movin on up. Stephen and I started at the note in awe. I see the other babies in her classroom every day so I know she's the oldest... but still. Moving up?? So soon? Will Ms Shawn, Ms Lisa and Ms Donna be coming with her?! I'm told no. No, they won't be. She'll be getting new teachers. Eeeek. What's to come of us?! When is this "event" going to take place. February 2nd, the note said. The week before (next week) she'll start spending part of the day in the waddler room. *deep breath* Everything WILL be okay. She'll be just fine. I take some measure of comfort in knowing her friends are already there. She's the last of her group (she was the youngest) to move over. Jacob, Ava... both over there. I know she misses her friends so she'll enjoy seeing them again. She and Ava bonded. And Jacob and she were making "eyes" at each other for months.

I'd been pretty remiss in posting picture for the last few weeks. No worries, I've caught up. On the left under the picture links section there are all new photos from 1/7/09 through present. Below is a link to the snow pictures from yesterday.

http://picasaweb.google.com/daleksza/SNOWDAY#

I have some videos I took with my cell phone of our time in the snow. I'm trying something new with posting videos to the page. There's a link along the left side of the page. The resolution isn't great, but have patience while I work on figuring it out. :)