XP we've missed you!

When we originally bought a new computer before we moved here, we had multiple issues and returned it. We had originally bought an Xpolio, which was horrible. When we went back to Staples, they exchanged it for an HP, which we love. The only thing we didn't love and actually grew to dispise was Vista. It came to the point that we decided to remove Vista and put XP back on the computer. Well, unfortunately this became more of an issue than we realized. I have come to find out that this HP computer was built to only run Vista, similar to cell phones being made for specific companies. This is why when we tried to switch one program for another we ran into a wall. We found a guy in Yellowknife who runs a computer company out of his home. When I spoke to him yesterday and described the problem, he told me it was something he has been doing a lot of and if I could bring it into Yellowknife and leave it with him for a couple hours I would be able to take it back home with me. WOO HOO! So, I packed the boys up in the truck and we headed off to "the Knife". Poor Colby has come to hate this drive, and it really is boring. He has a bag that he keeps packed for when we go to the city, which has his portable DVD player, his movies, his Gameboy, and we add snacks. This guy, Dave Bowles of Bowco Computer Services, was fantastic. I had the camera with me, and I took pictures of the highway to show people why we hate the drive. It was a bit difficult taking pictures and driving, but I did it and didn't drive off the road! I took the pictures on the way in, and of course didn't have the camera out on the way back. And, as Murphy's Law would have it, there was a black bear on the side of the road on the way home. I initially thought it was a wolf as it was on all 4's, so I said to Colby "Hea buddy, look it's a ..... BEAR! HOLY CRAP IT'S A BEAR!" It was a little too close to the side of the road for me to feel comfortable turning around to get a picture, but I'll make sure the next time we're going in (which will be whatever day Rob is off this week as we have to get the car insurance switched over) I will have my camera on my lap!

I couldn't resist this picture. These people have been here for a week because I remember seeing it the last time we went to the city. It's lliterally on the side of the road. The licence plate on this car is Quebec. Enough said.

If you look closely, you'll see the big pile of dirt being pushed around. This is how resurfacing is done.

The road being resurfaced.

This is what the majority of the highway looks like. This is why the hour long drive feels so long.

If you look down the road, you'll see the "waves". This is what the highway is like, and feels really bumpy at 80-90 km/hr.

See where the dirt ends and the pavement starts? Within a week the dirt will start to look like the pavement. It's still rough, but not nearly as muddy and slippery in the rain.

Happy 2nd Anniversary

Can you believe it's been 2 years already? Happy Anniversary guys. We miss you!

Taken last night

Only my hubby!

I took these for Jody, who, like me, loves Joey's feet! There are times I just love to sit and look at them, they are so different from mine and Colby's.

Shooting hoops with Daddy! He was able to make a few baskets himself! I love this picture. I see why my kids are so photogenic!

My little man is getting bigger by the day!

I NEED HELP!!! not for the obvious...thanks...

Hey there everyone. I have made another boo boo...I am in the process of removing vista and installing XP on the computer. However, the recovery portion of vista is still on the hard drive and it is not allowing me to format the entire hard drive. I have a 320g drive and it is only allowing me to format 131g of it. Is there something I can do to format the entire drive? It is partitioned somewhere but I have no idea where to look. Let me know if you have any advice... Thanks! Rob

So, Who is reading our blog???

Hey there all! I was reading through the blog and I came to a realization that there are people out there reading the blog but not commenting. Thats cool, no one NEEDS to comment, I was hoping that if you do read our blog, that you post a comment on this post letting us know who you are. Your initials would be fine. This is just out of curiosity, nothing more. Just curious who all of you stalkers are keeping tabs on us! Just kidding.

Tough Love Update

For those of you who have been asking, I thought I would give a quick update on "tough love in the Schwartz house". He hasn't starved to death, and we have been making baby steps. I nearly welled up (oh, let's be honest I did) when I was bbqing hot dogs the other night for supper (for ALL of us) and Colby says "Mommy, put lots of sauce on mine". I believe for a quick moment the world stopped turning. AND HE ATE THEM. Not the chicken hot dogs that he is used to (Which I found at my new favorite place, Extra Foods, which is the same as Superstore back home) but regular hot dogs. And last night he ate a big plate of ribs. PLUS, although he didn't like it, he ate one spoonful of rice. Our new rule at the table is the 1 Bite Rule. He has to try one big bite, and then if he doesn't like it, he doesn't have to eat it. But that only applies to something new. If it's something I know he likes but he just decides that he doesn't want it, that rule doesn't apply. We don't fight nearly as much about food, and although he still asks me what we're eating for supper at breakfast time, it's doesn't seem to be that big of a deal. Here's hoping this works. Rob and I just need to keep a united front when it comes to this. Keep your fingers crossed!

Happy Anniversary (tomorrow)

Can you believe it's been 9 years??? Where does the time go?

Happy Anniversay Adam & Genevieve. We miss you very much!

There is "Cookie Monster" and then there is......

This is the Church, this is the steeple....

Again another skyline picture

This is Adrian...aka "The Mexican" I love the sunlight reflecting back

This one is cool, the clouds seem to converge on the house in the Center.

Northern friends question

This is a question for my "Northern Blogger" friends, or anyone who may have one. I'm wondering if anyone is familiar or has "Skype" service? We have a guy here helping out at the store for a week who is a self proclaimed "computer geek" and showed us his "Skype" phone. It runs off a wireless router (which we have) and the service, according to the website, is UNLIMITED LONG DISTANCE to anywhere within the US and Canada. The service is 29.95 for 12 months or 8.95 for 3 months. 9.00 for 3 months of UNLIMITED long distance? I used his phone last night when he was here and called Kassie, and the reception was just like talking on a normal phone. Just wondering if anyone else either has one or has used one. I'm ready to run into Yellowknife on Wednesday and pay out the 200.00 for the phone, because in what we pay in LD as there is no LD package on this phone, it will pay for itself within 3 months. We don't use a lot of LD from the house as we use the web cam A LOT, but it would be nice to have a nice clear connection, and stretch out on the couch to chat, and not worry about how much the LD is going to be. Every call we make from here that is not calling the store is LD, so this would save us a HUGE amount of money. Just looking for some feedback.

Caught him in a good mood!

The power has been on and off here all day, and this morning I thought it would be a perfect opportunity to try to get some new pictures of Colby. I told him to do whatever he wanted, so this is him "flying"!

Blogger Help...

I was wondering if there is anyone out there that can tell me how to change the background on our blog to show one of our Northern Photos. Either the entire background or just the top of the blog where the title is. Thanks everyone.. Hope there is someone out there who is brilliant enuf!

The Boo Boo....

Well, for those of you regular viewers, you probably read the post awhile back about the time I tried to cut the tip of my thumb off with my table saw..Well, I had another accident. This time at work. We were rushing trying to unload a trailer so they could make it back to catch the ferry crossing the Mackenzie river. The trailer was refrigerated and the floor was quite slippery. I was pulling on the pallet jack attempting to dislodge a freezer container from it's wedged in position when I slipped and fell on my ass. Aside from bruising the ego a little and scaring the DM who thought I had run over my foot, I didn't feel anything was wrong so I got up and grabbed the jack and attempted once again to dislodge the piece of s&%t. When someone mentioned that I was bleeding, I looked down and saw the same thing. As I turned my arm over I saw this very nice gash in my right arm. It was about 3-4" long and the widest point was almost 1" wide. I was quite shocked. So, off to the nurses station. The nurses station is quite nice and they treat you like gold in there. I was stitched up by one of the male nurses who it turns out, is from Nfld. He offered to take me fishing next week with him and his buddies before he goes back to the Rock to marry his girl. oh yeah..back to the arm...I ended up with stitches, 7 to be exact. He told me that there would be a scar more than likely, I told him that I didn't care, chicks dig scars! Well, that's it..I think I'll post a picture at some point...just to gross you all out..Not that bad really.. Bye for now!

Not my usual type of post

I am currently sitting on the couch, about 10 feet away from the computer using the laptop. There is a new guy here for the week working with the Northern, and he brought his wireless router. We let him set it up on our computer so he could use his laptop next door where he is staying. Since we have the card for our laptop also, seemed a shame to waste it!

I am really hoping someone can give me some advice. I don't normally use the blog for venting or complaining about issues we are having here. I like to use the blog for keeping everyone updated on how we are doing, and of course, putting lots of pictures of the kids. I am almost at the end of my rope with an ongoing struggle we are having with Colby. For all who know him personally, they will know exactly how fussy an eater he is. It's beyond maddening. I have done many google searches for advice with no luck. We have tried everything, and I mean EVERYTHING to get this child to eat. Colby has a very limited range of foods he will eat, and to get him to try anything new is beyond maddening. He wants to eat the same food over and over, which of course leads him to becoming sick of it. It's a bit of a challenge getting specific types of food up here, which has led to dinner time fights. We have tried everything under the sun to encourage this child to eat different foods. Rewards charts. Bribing. Threatening. Punishment. Forcing him to stay at the table until he's done. Not addressing it at all. The problem with this up here is that food is very expensive, and even though we have a food allowance, it's very upsetting to be throwing out food. We are now trying "tough love", which so far is very difficult. Colby is the strongest willed child I have ever met. He just doesn't care what we do. If he decides he doesn't want it, he just won't eat it, regardless of the consequences. We have taken things away such as his gameboy, playstation, allowing him to go outside, etc and none of it mattered. He is completly fine with going to bed hungry, or going to bed early. I'm truly at a loss. I don't watch a lot of TV throughout the daytime, but of all shows that stick in my head, Dr. Phil said something on one of his shows about fussy eaters that I keep thinking about. He said "kids will not starve to death, they will eat paintchips if need be, don't worry about them starving when using tough love". Colby needs to learn that when supper is cooked, that is the only option he has. I am the first to admit that I have been guilty of making supper for us, and something that I know Colby will eat for him. I am really tired of making 2 different meals for supper each night. I am now really seeing it because Joey refuses to eat jar baby food, and eats what Rob and I do. So now, supper time is something for Rob, Joey and I, and then something for Colby, which is silly. I would never make something that I know he doesn't like, but he has to learn that supper meals are not negotiable. There was never an option when I was growing up about supper, we ate whatever was made at supper time. I will admit, there were meals that I choked down that I refuse to eat now (fish sticks and canned spaghetti comes to mind) but, I ate it. It was either that or go hungry. How the hell do I do that? Colby tends to get very distressed when it comes to meal time, and I am trying to get him away from that. He has been getting up over the past week, and one of the first questions he has is what are we going to have for lunch and supper today? I know some of you are thinking "well, a great idea for that is to plan out meal time so he knows what he will be eating". Been there, done that. If he knows what I am planning, then he becomes more stressed out and will work himself up for the whole day about supper. I never wondered as a kid what we were having for supper and if I was going to like it. Supper was not a big deal. I need to get Colby to that point, I'm just not sure how to do it. I would love any suggestions anyone has. I'm out. I've surfed hours on the internet and have reverted to reading child books (something I HATE) for ideas, but none of them worked. Anyone have the number to Nanny 911?

Adventuring around town

The boys and I went over to the Assembly tonight, as it was just too hot to stay in the house.

I loved this woman. It's almost 30 degrees here but she's keeping her jacket firmly closed!

This is the shot that I've wanted to take since I moved here. I love looking at the faces of the elderly women when they smile, it lights up their face. This shot was taken with the zoom lens so she didn't know I was taking it. She was smiling at Colby talking to Joey in his stroller.

I went to Yellowknife yesterday to get some stuff for the store (that is another post all together) and I drove THIS truck. Ford F250. By far the biggest vehicle I have ever driven. I"M IN LOVE!

He finally kept a hat on! And yes to those who recognize it, this is Colby's hat!

The kids here love to jump off the bridge. The first time I saw this my heart nearly stopped. I found out from one of them that there is a 12 ft drop in the middle. The river doesn't look wide enough to support a jump from this height! This is the bridge that connects the Island we live on to the mainland. This is the view of the Assembly from my doorstep, with the zoom lens. Just some candids I took today at lunch time.

For those of you wondering, I have not sold Colby to the locals. He is at a point in his life that he does not like to have his picture taken, so most of the pictures I try to take of him are of the palm of his hand. I am trying though!

Oopsy!

For the life of me I couldn't figure out why there were no comments on Joey's haircut. I then realized that I had accidently turned on some sort of "comment modification" thing. Well, that's off now. I'm glad everyone likes his hair! And, after talking to Dad today I found out I have a new "daily reader" that I didn't know about.. HI AUNT ROSEMARY!

WTF? Who knew we'd need AC up here!

I must admit, being like a lot of people from "down south", I didn't think it would get all that hot up here. Of course, you think "Northwest Territories, must be cold!" It got up to 28 degrees here yesterday. I know that doesn't sound all that bad to people from back home, but the big difference up here is NO salt water. No cool breeze off the water. Damn it's hot! And, with the practically all day sun, there's not much break from it. Rob called me yesterday from work and asked me if I "minded" going into Yellowknife to pick up a couple air conditioners, one for this house and one for the managers. HELL NO, I said. I had the bright idea to call into Yellowknife before leaving, as it is quite a drive if there were no air conditioners. There was only 1 left in Yellowknife! Off the kids and I went, as there was an air conditioner already at the store for one of the houses. It was a nice afternoon run for the boys and I, to get a break from the heat. Of course, since we were in there, we dropped in to the Co Op and stocked up on Minute Maid Raspberry Concentrated juice (Colby's favorite), Fraser Farm Meatballs and, of course, Birch Beer! The air conditioner is currently in our bedroom window, and we finally were able to sleep last night with the comforter back on the bed! It's a small window air conditoner, but as there is a great breeze throughout the day from the front door and the back window which run in a straight line, it's not so bad in the house.

There is an Assembly going on here all this week, with many people coming and staying in the community. From what I understand, it will be assemblies all through the day, with lots of entertainment throughout the evening. The Northern is stocked to the roof with supplies in preparation for this, and Rob, David and Connie all are preparing for a long week. The store is normally open from 9-8 throughout the week, but this week until Thursday the store will be open from 9-10 everyday. I don't expect to see much of Rob this week, except at the store! I'm hoping to get some great pictures.

Speaking of pictures, and this may excite my "Northern Blogger" friends more than anyone else, but I found out yesterday that www.superstore.ca will ship pictures to your door for a fee of only 2.99! I ordered a bunch of pictures online yesterday of the kids that I have taken, as I want to put a few up on the walls. I was going to have them delivered to the Superstore back home and get Mom to mail them for me, but when I realized how cheap it was for me to have them sent directly, I chose that option instead! I have tried many times to upload them to the WalMart site and pick them up in Yellowknife, but that site is horrible to work with and keeps crashing! I ordered 55 pictures, and it was still a flat rate of 2.99!

Oh, and did I mention that I cut Joey's hair? He still has really bad cradle cap on his head, and this should help clear it up. I was also tired of people around here asking me what my little girl's name was. I know my in-laws and my sister in law are going to be less than impressed, as I often joked that I was going to cut his hair the same way that I cut Rob's and Colby's, but.. I'm up here and they're down there, and they can't be mad forever, can they? :)

Hop in the truck, we're going to the city!

We went into Yellowknife today. I felt like the country bunkins "all excited to go to the Wal-Mart". It was nice to get out for the day. We started at McDonald's, where we met up with Brad for lunch, and then on a tour of Yellowknife as Brad as the tour guide. For anyone who knows me, I love finding great deals at yard sales and more recently on line. There is an online website here called YKTrader, which is an online bargin hunter. I have been looking for a high chair for Joey, but didn't want to pay a lot of money. Mom and Dad sent up a booster seat for the table for him, which worked, but wasn't safe enough for me to walk away from him while he was in it. Well, a post went on a week ago by a woman who was GIVING AWAY her high chair! I was quick to email her, and she was kind enough to hang onto it for me until today. We told Brad her address, and he assured us that he knew where it was. We parked outside house 48, which was her house number, and I was very dissapointed when no one answered the door. I rang the bell, knocked on the door, walked around to the back (this woman assured me she would be home all day when I called her this morning). Then I hear "Oh wait, we're on the wrong street". THANKS BRAD. Luckily no one was home! LOL. Off we went around the corner to the right house, and I got my high chair. We then proceeded to an art store called "Something of the Midnight Sun" (Help me out Christine, I can't remember the name). From there, off to a Tackle and Bait Shop where Rob nearly needed a quiet moment by himself, and then to Wal-Mart. From there, we went to the Co-Op, which is similar to Sobey's back home. BUT.. they sell PINEAPPLE POP AND BIRCH BEER! For anyone who does not know what this is (and shame on you!) it's the most amazing pop on the planet and made in Newfoundland! You can buy it in Newfie Stores which is where I bought it in Halifax, but in a local grocery market! Right next to Zest Mustard Pickles! I'M IN HEAVEN! We also bought Fraser's Meat Balls for Colby, not something we can get in here. We also bought fresh bbq steaks and a roast. The Northern Store's meats are all frozen, so it will be really nice to bbq some fresh steaks tomorrow night! It was an exhausting day, as it is an hour each way travelling, but well worth it!

And yet more pictures

These pictures couldn't have been timed better if I tried. I had just walked outside to take pictures of the sunset and this trio sailed under the bridge I was standing on. I would have loved to have been in the canoe with them. This is my defination of peaceful.

Not that pretty, but this is the front view of our house. The huge white tank is the gas holding tank for the gas station. Obviously up here you can't bury the tanks underground like back home! Notice the 2 satellite dishes? Internet and Bell Express Vu.

This is the back of the house, which is the door we use.

I just couldn't resist this picture.

There is a "Spiritual Week Celebration" all week here. This is about 10 minutes off the main road down a dirt road. This is from a small spot Rob found. The terrain up here is amazing. Just another view of the tents, but it shows you how much it is in the woods.

This is the church that was set up. It was a very moving ceremony.