I'm tired of the negative comments

I have been a little testy today, so something that happened earlier really just set my kettle boiling.  There is a woman here in town who loves to bash the Northern publically whenever she can.  Too high of prices, taking advantage of poor aboriginal people, wonk, wonk wonk.  Most of the time, I can just laugh it off and let it go.  For those of you who don't know, my husband is the manager of the Northern store here in town.  We are a small Metis community where the Northern is the main source of groceries and large ticket items.  The next place you can go to shop (and we are fortunate as a lot of Northern stores are in Fly in communities where you do not have the option to drive) is 2.5 hours away. Yes, the prices at the Northern are high.  A lot of it is shipping costs.  You can blame one or another, but at the end of the day, it's a business.  If you don't like it, don't shop there.  Spend 5 hours round trip to buy cheese 2.00 cheaper.  The part that bothers me the most is that I see this woman in this store ALL the time.  Either don't shop there, or shut up about it.  The Northern does a lot of good in communities also, but no one seems to recognize that.  The Northern raises MILLIONS of dollars for the Canadian Diabetes Association.  Rob donates constantly to functions around town, more than he should sometimes.  The Northern is also a job to a staff of 15, who otherwise wouldn't be working. Grrr.
But now for some amazingly amazing news.  Rob has been selected to participate in a marathon this December for the Canadian Diabetes Association in.. wait for it.... THE CAYMAN ISLANDS.  Bastard!!  I'm very proud of him.  He has a fundraising goal of $4000.00, because whatever he raises the Northwest Company will MATCH dollar for dollar!  So we are both on a very serious weight loss / exercise regime.  Which I suppose is why I'm soo testy today.  Sugar withdraw is a BITCH!

April Highlights

I sit here, wondering what to type, so I will show you what has been going on in my life through pictures, as usual.

I had been approached by a local business in town to help them with some redecorating.  I'm not sure if this is going to happen now but since I enlarged a few of my pictures and framed them,  they look really good in my livingroom.  Now all I have to do is convince my husband that the walls need to be painted.

Brian is the son of the first friend I met here, 4 years ago.  We joke that when these guys graduate the picture slideshow of their live is going to be 5 hours long!  These 2 have grown up together over the past 4 years, as Brian just lives literally across the street.

We went to Saskatoon last weekend and while we were waiting for the 5th wheel rails to be removed from our truck we played in the parking lot.  It's amazing when hand held games are put down the fun you can have trying to balance on a curb, and then trying to keep your balance when someone (like your evil grinning father) keeps trying to push you off.

A shooting we will go

The weather is finally warming up here and after almost a week of all of us being sick we had to get out of the house. Rob recently bought a .22 that he SAID was for the boys to learn to shoot. Yes, you read that right, my husband is now buying firearms with the purpose of teaching our children to shoot. This is something that never would have happened had we not moved to the north. I love that we live in a place where we can teach our children how to use firearms safely. They are growing up respecting guns, not afraid of them. There is a sandpit just outside town that we can safely use for target practice. I will admit, I also took a turn shooting the gun and it was really fun. Hopefully we will get a few more hours out there this weekend shooting it!

One proud daddy!

He's a natural. No my friends, that is NOT a toy. That is a real .22 that my child is holding.

See that little dot on the top of my hill? That's my kid.

Same picture, zoomed in.

Once we got home, the puddle in the backyard was just screaming to be jumped in. I will admit, Joe didn't want to splash at first and I wasn't having ANY of that foolishness. So, like any good mom / preschool teacher I did what I do best... I junped in first and splashed him.

He's trying to run away from splashing. So I just walked on the water and splashed him. Hmmm, you didn't know I walked on water? Well, I AM awesome you know.

It didn't take him long to enjoy it.