Day 5: Favorite food

I really had to think about this one. I was raised to eat "whatever is put on your plate" so being picky was never part of my vocabulary. And, as someone who has struggled with my weight my entire life, food has always been a comfort for me. So, for this challenge I decided to think of it this way: What food do I miss the most from the East Coast? The answer is a donair. We have made them here and they are ALMOST as good, but not quite. There's nothing better than a donair delivered from Jessy's Pizza in Sackville. I can just smell it now. This is one of the first things I endulge on when I travel back east.

Day 4: Favorite book

I can't pick just one book, because the entire series is just one big book to me. I have read them many, many times and right now am up to (again) book 6.

Day 3: Favorite musician

This blog challenge is going to be harder than I thought. I really had to think about who my favorite musician was, because I like a wide variety of music. I listen Dr. Hook to Ozzy Osbourne to Meatloaf to Sara Brightman, and everything in between. But right now my IPad is full of Pink Music. There isn't a song of hers I don't like, and really the performance she did (where this picture came from) solidified my love for her.

Day 2: Favorite movie

This was a hard one for me, as I have many favorite movies. This one reminds me of my Dad, which is why it's my favorite. There is one scene in this movie that makes me cry EVERY time (for a hint, see yesterday's post). I remember when I was still living in Nova Scotia this movie was on one of the movie channels. My dad called me (as he was watching it, he was a HUGE Jennifer Lopez fan) just as Richard Gere was coming up the escalator. It was a long standing joke between us because he knew everytime I saw it I would cry. Now I have to go watch it again.

Everybody's doing it

Everyone these days seem to be getting back on the blogging train by doing a 30 day challenge. So I'm going to jump on. You should too. The Thirty Day Challenge.

Day 1: One Favorite Actor.

This was a hard one for me. I have many favorite actors, but to just pick one would have to be Richard Gere. This is my favorite scene from one of my favorite movies of all time. I'm sure that will be a post for another day.

My amazing friends

With the passing of Rob's grandmother, we were scrambling to figure out, well honestly, how we were going to get him there. We had just bought 4 plane tickets for Nova Scotia for us for June, and for anyone who has travelled knows, buying a plane ticket to fly the next day is brutally expensive. Anyone who knows me in real life knows that I stress over money, even if there is more than enough to go around I will still worry about running out. I check our bank account more times than is really necessary, just to make sure I know exactly what is in there at all times. (This I believe comes from when we lived well beyond our means earlier in our lives, being naiive about credit and budgets). Yes, a little more information than I should probably share, but really, who hasn't maxed out a credit card (or two, or three...) at some point in their lives? Anyway..... since moving to the North and not having a mortgage, we have been super smart about our finances, and because of our living situation we have been able to clear off more debt in the 4 years we have been here than honestly I thought possible. We live quite frugally to do this and it is paying off. We now save to buy the things we want, and with some great finds have been able to buy some of the things we normally would never have been able to($300.00 for a skidoo, really who WOULDN'T pass that up??). Frugal is one thing, but we (ahem *I*) have also learned that you have to also enjoy life. With this being said, when Rob got his call that his grandmother had passed, we both knew that I would somehow find the available funds to buy that ticket. I vented to a close friend of mine about this, and joked with her "Don't suppose you have an extra $1100.00 laying around, do ya?". She called me an hour later at work, telling me that it wasn't much, but her and her husband were able to scrape together $600.00 if we wanted to borrow it. I bawled. Here is a family who are living day to day, but willing to give us all the savings and available cash they have right now (they are saving for an out of town medical trip, and yes they are Metis, having lived in this community their entire lives). I really have amazing friends in this community, and now more than ever I feel like we belong. We have never been made to feel like the "white people" in town, and when people ask me what it is like to live in an aboriginal community, I tell them it's like we've always lived here.

This summarizes our last week

SCHWARTZ, Mary Alice – 85, of Hubbards, passed away March 23, 2011 surrounded by her loving family. Mary was born in Burgeo, NL to the late Bertha and Benjamin Green. At 14, she left Burgeo for the big city of Montreal and later moved to Halifax, where she met her sweetheart, Bernie.

She was a member of the Loyal Hubbards Union Lodge and Queen’s Lodge of Past Grands, St. Luke’s ACW, and Hubbards Ladies Auxiliary. She spent many years preparing mouth-watering meals at the Hubbards Shore Club. A devout Blue Jays fan, she was an avid quilter and knitter and loved bingo and darts—and was a force to be reckoned with at cards.

Mary was predeceased by her husband of 57 years, Bernie, in 2001. She is survived by her daughters Rosemary (Jim) Grant of Dartmouth, Debra (Trena) Cornish of Brampton, Ontario; sons David (Pat) Schwartz and Gary (Pam) Schwartz of Trenton, Ontario and Donald (Jean) Schwartz of Timberlea; 10 grandchildren, and 8 great-grandchildren. She is survived by her brothers Henry (Carol), Morris (Barb), and Don, and sisters, Harriet (Harold) and Joyce. She was predeceased by her sister, Eva, brothers, Edward and Lester, and a sister in infancy, Dora.

Visitation will be from 2-4 and 7-9 on Friday, March 25th and the funeral service will be 11am Saturday, March 26th— both at the Ronald A. Walker Funeral Home in Hubbards—with Reverend Mike Conrad officiating, assisted by Reverend Judie Lafford. Interment will follow in the Pine Hill cemetery, Hubbards. In lieu of flowers, donations can be made in Mary’s memory to St. Luke’s Anglican Church, Hubbards, or the Canadian Lung Association.

Very special thanks to the compassionate nurses at the VG Palliative Care unit and the staff at Melville Lodge and Melville Gardens.

Rob's grandmother has been a big part of our lives. She always remembered to send cards, and was very active in everyone's lives. I first met here when Rob and I first started dating, shortly after I lost my grandmother. She has never referred to me as anything but her "granddaughter". Rob will be flying back there tonight to be with his family for the funeral. We miss you Nan.

Happy Birthday Scott

This adorable little man turned 1 today. In my heart I was there celebrating with him. Him and I will party it up when I get there in July!

Happy birthday Bone

My sister brought up a stuffed moose when she came to visit. It is a Webkinz, and Joey loves it. He is a master of the webkinz site, and he carries this moose that he has named Bone EVERYWHERE with him. He decided that today was Bone's birthday, and of course what is a birthday without a cake!

Super decorating skills!

He insisted the "W" for Webkinz had to be there, and he copied the colors from the Webkinz symbol on the Moose. Of course there was testing of the icing. Many, many times.

So proud. He had to feed Bone some of his birthday cake!

Skiing

How we spent the weekend. I love this town.

My incredibly stunningly beautiful sister

This isn't fun anymore

It isn't nearly as fun as I thought it would be to summarize our trip. Here's the end of it. We spent a week in Winnipeg, with Rob going to meetings through the day and me remembering what it is like to relax. I spent lots of time designing some new photoshop templates, took lots of hot baths and enjoyed napping in the afternoons.I met some great people, developed a taste for raspberry vodka and long island ice tea, and spent some great evenings with Rob going out on dates. From Winnipeg we flew back to Saskatoon to pick up our truck and drive to Edmonton. We spent a great night in Edmonton, and then drove the next day to Jasper. Although we only spent one night there, it was worth it. Actually, in retrospect we spent more time travelling than we did in any one spot, but the time alone in the truck just talking is what I will treasure most. I really am a lucky girl to be married for as long as I have to such a great guy. And now, the pictures. :) Our room in Jasper. We were told we would have a balcony with a view. What they didn't tell us is that the view was of the building behind us.

The rest of the room made up for the shitty view.

We walked all over Jasper, going in and out of little stores. Of course I couldn't walk into this store without walking out with something, or 4 somethings. And yes, they tasted as good as they looked.

I had to get out the zoom lens and play around a bit. These pics were all taken from the truck.

Elk on the runaway of a tiny airport.

Mountain goats just hang on out the road to say hello.

At one point the mountains were in every direction we looked.

I think I'm going to play with this picture at a later date.

The pictures really don't do it justice.

Yes, I admit I was slightly tempted. Good thing I wasn't driving.

Tim Hortons with the Rocky Mountains in the backround. My personal heaven.

My first glimpse of the Rocky Mountains.

My sister dancing in her trap door jammies. I saw this in Jasper and just knew she had to have them.

Part 2

So we get up the next morning at 6 am and head out on the roads. I would be lying if I said I was not scared, but thankfully the roads were snow covered and full of traction. We arrived at the airport in loads of time. Rob and I were not able to get on the same flight, so he left 4 hours before I did. Luckily I had my sisters phone and amused myself by taking pictures with it. I arrived in winnipeg 8 pm that mint, and surprise surprise it was storming. I shared a cab with a very wealthy woman named Marilyn and after a ride through what I would think was the richest part of Winnipeg I arrived at the hotel. I spent a very relaxing week at the hotel, enjoying sleeping in and doing a lot of computer stuff I never have time to do. I met some great people, met up with some that I haven't seen in years (like my pool boy) and gained a new appreciation for raspberry vodka and seven up. I met a few people that I hope to meet up with again, and even fabricated a story with a girl named Tamar about us being life partners. It was really a great time and I hope I get the opportunity to go back again next year. Stay tuned for more...

Part 1

This post has been super long overdue, so get comfy. Rob and I decided last year when he came from his annual manager's conference that I would go with him. It would be the first time in.. well ever that Rob and I went on vacation by ourselves. We arranged for Kassie to fly up and stay with the boys while we were gone. I went to pick Kass up on Thursday January 30th. Joey and I left 6am that morning, because remember folks it takes 5 hours just to get to the airport from my house, and her plane arrived at 11Am. It was a beautiful drive in, and Joey and I made it just as she arrived. We grabbed some lunch and headed straight back, as I wanted to be able to show her around town before it got dark. We made excellent time coming back, and I was sure we would make it home by supper. On the way, we saw a rainbow. We started chatting about rainbows and realized it wasn't just a single rainbow, but a complete double rainbow. It looked liked this:

Just after this, I noticed there was an accident on the highway and pressed my brakes to slow down. Then nearly shit a brick when I slipped and slid all over the road. You guessed it, I was on black ice. Luckily I was able to get the truck back under control. I had just passed a sand truck and pulled over to wait for it to pass, but it never showed up. Of course I was in an area with no cell service, so I put on my brave face and got back on the road. 130kms and over 2 hours later we came to the end of the highway from hell and arrived at the turn off for the ice road to my community. I breathed a huge sigh of relief and turned onto the bush road to get to the ice (for you Southerners and you Chris a bush road is a road cut through the woods that leads to the lake which we drive over to get to our community). No sooner did I have my sigh of relief that I slid off the road and into a snowbank. I was beyond pissed, and of course in the woods there is very little cell coverage. I tried to call Rob but I did not have service. At this point I'm in tears, more of frusteration than anything else. I got a hold of Rob and told him I slid off the road and for him to come pull us out. Every car that passed me stopped to make sure we were ok, but they couldn't really stop to help either because if they did they would also be stuck. And of COURSE I slid off at the top of a hill, so no one could really stop either. Luckily a very sweet man and his wife turned around when they saw me. He tried to stop beside me but slid right past me (he had a tow rope and was going to pull me out). He got out of his truck and told me to put it in 4 wheel drive, which should drive it out. I told him it WAS in 4H and I couldn't move. He told me to put it in 4L, but by this time I was so frazzled I kept screwing it up. And God love him, he said "Want me to do that for you? " And he jumped in the truck, put it in 4L and drove it out of the bank. I started to freak again because he nearly slid right into his own truck, but managed to recover it. I then stayed right in front of me until I met up with Rob. We made it back to the house, where I burst into tears like a blubbering idiot and couldn't stop. Great welcoming for my sister right?? All I could think about is that Rob and I had plane tickets to fly out the next day, so we had to leave the house at 6AM the following morning. I had no idea how I was going to get up the nerve to drive BACK over those roads, in the dark no less.

To be continued.........

My latest adventure

6 more sleeps!!!

Our vacation is quickly arriving. We have been making lists of things to remember, things for Kassie to know about the boys, things we need to buy, things we are going to do.... oh the lists are endless. I would be lying if I said I was not the slightest bit anxious, as this will be the longest that we will ever be away from the boys. I have been updating the laptop with all my photoshop programs and templates, and have lots of plans on how I will be spending my days. I have lots of templates that I want to complete, so when I get home I can expand my photography business with photoshop extras, such as wedding invitations (I've just been contracted to design an invitation for a wedding I will be photographing in August), graduation cards, etc. At least if I had the templates completed and printed, people could look through them and decide which one they want. I also spent the day restoring an old photograph of an elder here in town when she was a teenager. I really enjoyed doing it, and I think will be offering this service here in town as well. I started a "piggy bank" at christmas time for my dream camera (Currently the Canon 7D which retails in the area of $2000.00 with the new lens I want with it) and all the money I make from photography will be going in this bank. I have 2 weddings booked for this summer and both couples have asked if they could pay me in advance, so those 2 alone will be over 1/2 of the funds I need. Plus I have already been booked for one session on the day of the high school graduation so I'm hoping by the end of this summer I will have the camera. I have no real reason for upgrading, the camera I have more than suits my needs. It's just not fast enough. My current camera (Canon Xsi) only shoots 3 frames per second, and the 7d shoots 8 frames per second, so it obviously has a faster processor. And it looks cooler. And I want it. So the only way I can justify getting it is if I save all my extra money for it. I even sealed the bank closed with glue so I won't be tempted to dip into it.

One day my pretty, you will be mine.

Our honeymoon.. 12 years late

When Rob and I got married, we were young and money was tight. We paid for the entire wedding ourselves, and as we were living in Newfoundland at the time we decided not to go on a honeymoon and went back to Nova Scotia for a visit. We always said that we would eventually take a vacation for just the two of us, but as we all know life gets in the way and this became less and less of a priority. Rob, as a manager of the Northern store, is required to attend a week long conference each year in Winnipeg along with every other manager in the Northwest Company. We talked after he got home last year that I would go with him this year, and after the conference take a few extra days and do a mini vacation for just us. Honestly I didn't know if this would happen, because well, things always have a way of coming up and changing plans. I am THRILLED to say I can finally share with you our travel plans, because flights have been booked, approval has been obtained for me from work and hotel rooms have been reserved. I will be going with Rob in 2 weeks (on the 28th) to Winnipeg for a week, and after that we will fly back to Saskatoon and drive to Edmonton. After that, we're heading here:

JASPER! I have never seen the Rocky mountains, and although we did talk about heading somewhere warm I thought it would be a shame to leave the country to sit on a beach when there is beautiful scenery pretty much in our backyard that we have never seen, and it's close enough that we can drive there in less than a day from Edmonton. After Jasper we will head back home, probably stopping somewhere halfway between there and here, so I can at least spend one day with my sister before she goes back. So in total we will be gone 2 weeks, and my sister will be coming up to stay with the boys. They are super excited to get her for 2 weeks all to themselves, and I know she feels the same.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

To my best friend and the best wife in the whole world!

This is my 16th time celebrating my hunny's birthday and it still doesn't get old!

She is the very best Mother, Wife, Daughter and Friend a person could ever have!

We love you Tina and hope you have a great day!

1957 Chevy

It's amazing what you find in the back woods of the Northern Saskatchewan.

It's that time of year again

Ford tough, even on ice.

OMG he's on a crack in the ice.

Then of course I had to step on it and take a picture of my boot.

It's that time of year again. The time of year that we save 47kms on our trips out of town by travelling "as the crow flies". Of course, when we cross the ice we still all take off our seat belts, because let's face it, we ARE driving on frozen water.