Message from Dad

I'm the first to admit I'm not an overly religious person. I have my beliefs but do not inforce them on people around me. I have been on a bit of an emotional rollercoaster the past couple of days, and I'm sure it's just the time of year. Many things lately have been reminding me of Dad, in both good and bad ways. I know my mom and my sister have been feeling the same way. I was sitting here this afternoon with Rob watching a movie when I happened to look outside. It's been cloudy today and we haven't seen the sun. This is what I saw when I looked out. I know if I stopped and over analyzed it, I would come to the realization that it's a trick of the sun setting through the clouds. But I'm going to take it for what I believe it is.

CBC News

I looked out my window today and saw a reporter and a camera person from CBC News taping a segment from here. I'm not sure what it's about, but I'm thinking it may be because of the new Youth Centre that is opening in the old Northern Building. They were filming from my front yard, and from the old Northern. So, if anyone sees it on the CBC news tonight about a new Youth Centre in Behchoko, you'll see my house! You'll see the view I get from my kitchen window, the new diesel tank beside my house and the Pathfinder! (Hea Jackie, do you know if this does appear on the CBC Northbeat, will the segment be available online?)

Just for Nanny

Joey's best friend

IT'S NOT WORKING! "Mommy, I know it's in that closet, I want my best friend back!"

I've created a monster. This is "Lenny", the cordless broom I bought to make my life easier. Well, as you can see, it has become Joey's new best friend. The battery on Lenny only lasts for 30 minutes, which is normally more than enough charge to give me a week of use, seeing it doesn't normally take 30 minutes to clean the floor, unless you're a toddler.

Santa Claus Dogrib style

Taken tonight at his school. He couldn't understand why Santa looked "different". I told him that Santa has many elves that help him out, and this is what the elves look like up here. He was more than content with that, and even wanted to "thank" the elf when we were leaving for doing such a great job at playing Santa!

I was also talking to the school secretary tonight who was telling me what a great kid Colby is (like I didn't already know this). She said he comes in the office every morning to say good morning to her and tell her the temperature, as this is something he loves to look at when he first gets up. She also told me that the school has morning prayers and when he got back from Nova Scotia he went into the office and asked her if they could add "poppy" to their morning prayer. It was all I could do not to cry right there on the spot, but of course I'm a little weepy now typing this. My kid really is a jewel.

Happy Birthday Mr. December!

Happy birthday to the man, who without knowing the impact a small gesture would make, brought a great smile and laugh to an otherwise dark day. Now, where are my matches? I have a fire to set!

Setting up the tree

Balancing act

I am still learning the balancing act of dressing for the North. The past weekend it hovered between -35 and -45, and in my mind that's just too damn cold to go outside. Today is a balmy -26, and with the sun beating through my livingroom window it's quite toasty in here. Therein lies the problem. It's so warm in my house, that to dress to go outside by the time I get the baby ready and me ready I'm sweating. When we get outside we're comfortable, and then when we step into either the school or the Northern, you can't peel the layers off fast enough. But, you have to wear all the layers to go outside. A tricky balancing act, but I'm catching on. I think I will have to finally stop wearing my crocs outside. Although they have good traction, even the warm wooly socks can't keep my feet warm in them anymore!

I can see my sister doing this

Oh. My. Goodness. That is all I can say. This is what I found when I should have been doing something productive, like laundry or getting changed out of my pjs. I don't remember how I ended up on this blog, but I'm going to visiting it more often! Check it out here.

Pictures from NS that I only just now downloaded

Birthday kisses for Auntie. His shirt says "If you think I'm cute you should see my Aunt" Guess which one is my god daughter?! Uncle Lloyd's way of sneaking a peek at the girls birthday presents. Colby, Joey, Kira and Rebecca Joey and Kassie playing with a whoopie cushin WTF? My sister has boobs?? Ahhh, that explains it. Only in NS can you hang out clothes to dry on November 17.

Where we all went to dinner. Joey and Uncle Clar. I know I posted this before but they are just too cute all dressed up. Only my kid would chew on a rose. I love this. Look at Colby.

The Yellowknife airport. This is what happens when my sister does her own laundry. Only my sister. We call this the "Raisin Sweater". Joey seems to be thinking "You're nucking futs if you think you're getting this phone".

Ebay...

Has anyone set up an ebay seller account? What is involved and what is your opinion on selling things on ebay? Tina and I are looking into it and we are looking for help. Thanks

Thanks Dawn

Dawn did this on her blog and I loved it. I did this last year for the boys and forgot all about it until I saw her blog the other day. For a good laugh click here

Dad's Eulogy

It is my privilege today to say a few words to celebrate the life of a wonderful person, our brother, Madeline’s devoted husband, Tina, BJ, and Kassie"s adoring father and a "Poppy" that was idolized by Colby, Joey and Allen.

With Brian, his wife, his family, the little town of Hr Main and his friends came 1st: a close 2nd were the Toronto Maple Leafs and the Toronto Blue Jays. He loved life and loved being involved with everything he loved... A good example of that was being involved with and volunteering with the Sackville Blazers - he put his heart and soul into doing the best job as equipment manager that he possibly do. His dream job was working at the Sackville Arena where he was lovingly know at the "Zamboni Man" and a good perk was that he got to all the hockey games free.

He never forgot the small town of Hr Main, where her grew up - the highlight of his day was to read the Evening Telegram on line, he knew who died, got married, had babies, got divorced before this family who lived in NFLD. His body may have moved to Nova Scotia 30 years ago but his heart and soul never left the ROCK.

Brian's life was for Madeline, Tina, BJ and Kassie. Madeline is an extension of Brian-we never refer to just one of them, their names were always linked - it was always - have to talked to Brian and Madeline lately or what are Brian and Madeline up to these days? They were not only husband and wife but best friends.

Brian touched so many people - there are many, many people who are honored to call him friend. They loved his sense of humor and fun loving ways - you could not be down or depressed if Brian was around, some how he would get a laugh out of you or a smile - that was just a part of his nature.

The last month has been like a roller-coaster for the family. Everything was happening so fast but Brian never gave up hope. He accepted that he had a serious condition but was ready to do whatever had to be done to fix it. During the brief time that a lung transplant was a possibility, he always kept a very positive and hopeful attitude and right to the end he fought to keep hope alive. Even though he did not give up hope he still wanted to be prepared for "the worst case scenario" - his main concern was for Madeline. He wanted to know that she would be alright and she assured him that she would. He also wanted to be assured that his final wishes would be carried out. He wanted his final resting place to be in Hr Main where his mother, father and brother Joe are resting and this is already in place to happen in June.

The greatest gift passed on to Brian from our Father is the ability to be the greatest "Poppy" he could possibly be. Colby was his pride and joy for 4 years then came Joey and Allan whom he loved equally. He was so proud of them and I know the he will live on through them.

On a personal note from myself, my sister Renie and my brothers Mike and Clar- he was our brother, we loved him and he will be sadly missed.

Mom fowarded this to me yesterday. This is the eulogy that my aunts and uncles wrote for dad. Due to (in my opinion) crazy new rules at our church, they were not allowed to read it in the church, so a lot of people didn't get to hear this.

Pay it Forward

The following is mostly plagiarized from OMG's blog, because I am feeling lazy today:

I am participating in a Pay It Forward "exchange" that OMG is doing (You can follow the links all the way back to it's origin to see all the people who will benefit!) I will be performing a few not so random acts of kindness. Here are the rules: I will send a handmade gift to the first 3 people who leave a Comment on my blog requesting to join this PIF exchange, and who make the same pledge on their own blogs . I don’t know what that gift will be yet and you may not receive it tomorrow or next week, but you will receive it in the next year. So, you will need to email me your real address.

I don't normally do this sort of stuff but it sounds fun and I'd like to try it. Here's hoping more people want to try it also!

Ferry, What Ferry??

So as I was planning my day yesterday waiting for the manager to come in wand decided the first thing that I was going to do was call and find out what time the truck was going to show up. We receive a truck every Wednesday and Friday which is how we get all of our stock. I decided I would check the managers email to see if there was anything important that needed to be addressed. I learn that the ferry crossing the Mackenzie River near Fort Providence is unable to cross due to an ice dam farther up the river causing the water level to drop too low. Uh oh.. No truck..Welcome to the north. This is not abnormal for here. The ferry usually runs right up until the ice road is ready. During the winter they make an ice road accross the river to allow the trucks to come and go after the river freezes completely over. They are now waiting for the ice dam to clear so that they can resume the ferry crossing, but until they do, looks like The Northwest Company will be relying on Air Buffalo to get our stock in. We will be waiting everyday to see if we get a truck or not. All of our stock comes out of Edmonton and then trucked up here. Now, they are going to ship it to Hay River and then fly it in. Air Buffalo is lucking out here! Well I hope things free up soon, we are all out of Pork Neckbones and we might as well be out of bread, milk and eggs. People are not happy! Nothing we can do but wait! Anyone have a spare stick of Dynamite??

Old Soul

I've always said that Colby has what my grandmother called and "old soul". There's more to this kid than meets the eye, and he's wise beyond his years. Anyone who has spent time with Colby can attest to this. When he first started school, he kept telling me about a kid in his school named David (I've changed the name). He said David kept picking on him and all the other kids. I reached out to the school to find out that David is in Grade 6 and has a severe case of FAS (Fetal Alcohol Syndrome), which in him causes severe behaviorial issues. David has an attendant with him at school to help control him. The school is trying to educate the kids at a young age the dangers of drinking while pregnant. I know this because when Colby was initially telling me about David, he said "I know why David is bad. He's bad because when he was in his mommy's belly she drank alcohol which hurt his brain". Not bad for a kid who's 6 to comprehend this. He kept telling me how everyone hated David, which contributes to his behaviorial problems. I told Colby that it is never right to hate people for something they can't control, and maybe all David needs is someone to be nice to him. Colby appeared to brush this off, and I didn't want to push it any further, seeing as David is probably 5-6 years older than Colby. Colby and I were sitting down talking last night when he told me all out of the blue

"You were right Mommy. I was nice to David and now he's my friend and he doesn't pick on me anymore. I'm going to tell my friends at school that if they are nice to David he will be friends with them to and won't pick on them. Now when I get on the bus David looks at me and says "my friend"." It was all I could do to hold back the tears. My son is really special and has a beautiful heart. There's more to this kid than meets the eye.

I see why teachers are paid so much in the North

Yesterday I did my first day at subbing at the school. I had a class of Grade 7 girls. There were 13 girls in the class. For the most part, it was "alright", and I use this term very loosely. As with all the kids here, if they don't like what you are saying they totally ignore you. I have a REAL problem with someone ignoring me when I speak to them. It is certainly a different world up here. At lunch time yesterday I was sitting the class by myself wondering if the money was really worth it. At this point I'm still not sure. It's really hard to try and instruct a class who doesn't want to be there and has no problem either being boldly rude to your face, or totally disrespecting you. I ended up treating them as I would treat a class of kids Colby's age, and I really didn't expect I would have to do that with grade 7. I'm tempted to tell the school that I will only sub if they need someone either in the office or the library, but that will really limit the amount of times I will be there. I'm going to surf around different job banks tonight to see if there is anything I can do from home when the kids are in bed or for the 3 hours every day that Joey is down for his nap. I had a home typing business when we lived back home where I would type legal letters for 2 physiotherapy clinics and email them back the letters. If I could find a place that recorded their letters and sent them to me as WAV files, I could do the same from here. Anyone have any suggestions for a good place to start looking for work from home?

Joey spent the day in daycare yesterday. It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. I guess he would cry for a while, then he would play for a while, then remember he was supposed to be crying, and cry again. He took an hour nap in a swing which totally amazed me. I couldn't find a picture of the swing they used, but this is the closest that gives you the idea. The swings in the daycare are suspended from the ceiling at chest height and are lined with flannel blankets. They swaddle the kids and slowly rock them to sleep. Pauline at the daycare said he seemed to really like it because when he woke he didn't cry, he just laid there for a while in it. If nothing else, this daycare will help him get used to the idea of daycare, so when we move and I go to work with Rob it won't be such a transition for him, in case the next daycare isn't as patient as this one.

How to dress to walk to work at -37

I love adobe

I took this picture just before I went to NS and played around with some cool effects I found in Adobe.

November 25, 1994

13 years ago today, a super cute guy that I was dating told me he didn't want to date anyone else but me, and wanted to know if I felt the same. Now, 2 kids and 10 years of marriage later, he still give me butterflies when he comes home. Guess I made the right decision.