He's off to the Cayman Islands

Each year the Northwest Company participates in the Canadian Diabetes Marathon. It is a 21 km 1/2 marathon. Each year staff members have the option of applying for this to participate. Each person has to raise 3000.00 of their own money, and the company will contribute 3000.00 to cover the expenses. Rob decided for the first time this year to apply and was accepted! We are currently fundraising for him. We have had 1 Mother's Day basket that raised almost 550.00, a bbq that raised just over 300.00 and yesterday we did a bake sale that raised over 100.00. The generosity of this community and our friends and family both near and far is just amazing. We currently have a framed poster that we are selling tickets on at the store (which we will ship for free if someone from away wants to buy tickets!). You can also support online if you choose. If you wish, you can follow the link HERE and put in Rob's name (Rob Schwartz). That will also be counted towards his fundraising. The picture you ask? Well it's this one:

Oh, and thanks Chandra for reminding me.  If you use this link and put in Rob's name, it comes up that he is in Toronto.  It was set up by head office so everyone, regardless of what province they are in, comes up Toronto.

Happy Mother's Day

Maiden voyage in the boat.  We loved every minute of it.

Just makes me think

I wouldn't say that I am an overly religious person.  I do have my beliefs, and I don't like to push them on other people.  I know I have blogged about this before, but today is the anniversary of my very close friend's nephew's death.  He took his life the day Joe was born.  I like to think that as the two souls passed, one leaving one coming here, that they made an agreement to one day lead us here.  I feel like we were meant to come here, and today more than ever confirms why.

Happy 6th birthday

6 years. I really can't believe he is 6 years old. It seems like it was just yesterday I was wondering what the hell I did to deserve this (well, that is a LITTLE harsh. I was a bit of a rotten teenager and I'm sure I wasn't the angelic baby I would like to think I was and Karma really is a bitch). Well, it was all great AFTER the croup finished and took away the screaming monster and gave us a beautiful little smiling boy (and let's face it, we deserved all those smiles after the 6 months of sleepness nights and wondering what it would take to make him JUST STOP CRYING). Happy birthday little man.  We all love you very very much.

May 11, 2006

May 9, 2012

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.

Speaking of compromises.....

I just finished reading Tawny's blog and she was talking about compromise. There are a few people who still don't know, so I am telling you now and explaining the why. We had originally planned to drive back to Halifax this summer, to bring the motorcycle and bring back my blanket chest (which I will still get out here someday). This was all based on Rob getting 4 weeks vacation to do this, as it takes the better part of a week to drive there each way. We also ordered our passports so we could drive down through the states to make it more of an adventure. Well, unfortunately Rob was NOT able to get the 4 weeks like we were hoping (he is only entitled to 3 weeks per year), so we have had to cancel the trip. 3 weeks is just not enough time to drive to Halifax and back. We would be spending more time in the truck than we would actually spend there. That just isn't a good plan, and since it is so so close to summer plane tickets for the 4 of us are astronomical (think more than 4000.00 in plane fare ALONE). That's not counting renting a vehicle, and we have to eat and have some spending money. That's just waaaay more than we budgeted and saved for. As much as I love our family, it has taken us much too long to get out of debt to jump headfirst back into it. So our vacation as been postponed. We knew the boys would be dissapointed when we told them we were not going, and since he does have vacation approved already for the summer, we decided that we would finally take a family vacation, just the 4 of us. So we are going here:

Obviously, when we go there in July there won't be snow.... hopefully. The kitchen. Look at those walls!

The view from the loft bedroom, over looking the livingroom.

This is a horse ranch in southern Alberta. It is close enough to drive to, and we are staying there for a week. We are only 2 hours from Banff (yea baby we're going!!), an hour away from Calgary and an hour away from Drumheller. Lots of day trips planned, and of course when staying on a horse ranch at the foot of the Rocky Mountains, we do a day of horse back riding! As much as I miss my family in Nova Scotia and am heartsick that I won't see them for another year (with the exception of Hubby #2 who is coming in October, the inlaws who are coming in November and my mom who is coming for Christmas), this makes it a little easier. And of course, there is always Skype.

Future hell raisers of the North

It's that time of year again

It is finally warming up here in town. The temperature is hovering around the -10ish area, which is fantastic for here. The ice road will soon be melting, so this weekend is the last weekend I will use it. Better safe than sorry, right? Oh gracious, someone help me. I'm blogging about the weather.

I am somewhat known in this community as "the woman who makes wedding invitations". I was asked by a couple in town to make an invitation for their wedding. It turns out that she wanted 2 invitations, one for her family to keep, and one for "everyone else". Her hubby to be is an avid hunter, and she wanted "a deer or a moose on the invitation". This is what I came up with, and they both loved it. Damn, I'm good. Rob's only comment is that I should have used a "bigger deer", but the only other pictures I had of bigger deer than this one were dead ones. Somehow I didn't think that would be appropriate. :)

How I spent my week off

This week here in Saskatchewan we have been on Winter Break. That means I have been off work all week. We have had a very quiet week here at home. The boys decided that their doors needed signs. Joey's door. He wrote all the signs himself. There was one that said "No Colbys Allowed" but luckily that one came down.

Colby's door. Simple and to the point.

See the brown outline on the floor? I decided to clean the oven with Extra Strong Oven cleaner. It cleaned the oven great, but the overspray RUINED my floor! Never in my life have ever I had to protect the floor. I read the directions on the side of the can and it actually says to line the floor with newspaper. Luckily we are being renovated very soon and a new floor is coming. We tried SOS pads, Spray Nine and even paint thinner! Nothing takes that shit off!

Happy blogoversary to me

8 years and 2 days ago I started ths blog. Holy hannah time to start printing this baby!

Ramone

Everytime we drive by this car, Joey says it looks like Ramone from Cars. It breaks my heart how many beautiful cars are just left in the woods to die. I see a calendar in my near future. I am sure I have 12 vehicles by now that I have photographed.

This really never gets old

Slightly tweaked to bring out details and removal of ass end of truck. :)

The Prince is travelling!

If you don't know already how crazy I really am, I'm going to solidify it for you. I found a stuffed red eyed tree frog that we called Prince Naveen. I wanted him to be a travelling frog and now he is. My goal is to get him to as many places as possible. I just want people to have fun with him the way we did. And of course, he went to the Yukon and is having a blast! Check him out on my side bar. You know you want to. Seriously. Go now. Stop reading. GO!

Oh my......

I am a huge fan of the reality show The V.oic.e. I love the concept behind the show, and since I am a HUGE Blake Shelton fan, it made it a lot easier to watch. Now that the second season is on, I find there is a new Adam in my life. I didn't really know who Adam Levine was before the show. Yes, I knew his music, but never truly appreciated the package that voice came out of. And boy, it's a yummy looking package, don't ya think??

Gotta love Sackville people

Sackville, Nova Scotia is where I grew up. For as long as I can remember, my dad would spend his spare time at the Sackville Arena, home of the Jr. B Blazers. Dad went from being a fan, to well respected member of the club. He travelled everywhere with the team, never missed a game, even if it meant travelling 4 hours to see it. Mom washed and repaired the jerseys, my brother helped with the equipment, my sister sang the canadian anthem at the home games, and I sold tickets at the door and the 50/50. When dad started working at arena, he continued to do as much as he could with the club. When he died, (which was a Friday), the following Monday was a home game for the Blazers and they had a moment of silence for him at the game. On his obituary, it was requested in lieu of flowers, donations could be made to the club. He loved it that much. So, when Joey started hockey here, I really had a bit of a hard time with it. This is something Dad should have been here to see. I don't think that way very often, but this is one of those times that it really really hit me that he's not here and he should be. Both Joey and Alan are in hockey this year, and I know he's watching and is very proud. The hockey here in town is, well, it's a small town. Coaches are volunteers and are stretched very thin. It is not unusal for a practice to not have a coach. The pre-novice this year only have 3 players, Joey and 2 other boys in his class. Unfortunately the interest just isn't here in this town for hockey as it used to be, and these guys are getting in on the very end of it. I don't see a lot of hockey in Joe's future, not if we are here. It's just not going to happen. Anywho, back to the jersey story. I emailed the current coach of the Sackville Blazers, who I know quite well and was coaching when my dad was still alive. I explained the hockey (or lack of) situation here, and told him that the little boys here don't even have jerseys. I asked him if there was any way to get a little jersey for Joe of the Blazers. I offered to pay for it if this was something that could be done. I received an email last week, asking me what number I wanted on it and where to mail it. Since Joe is a Sydney Crosby fan, 87 was the only number I could think of. And this is what showed up in the mail yesterday. I am going to enlarge this picture and mail it back to the coach, and when I go back there this summer I am going to visit him to say thank you in person.

I miss you Dad, but I know you're very proud right now.

Where did my baby go?

Yep, those are my kids, racing around the yard on quads. Joey is now big enough to ride the mini quad. Damn why are my kids growing up so fast??

Happy birthday Dad

Today (well technically yesterday if you look at the date this posted, but as I am typing this it is still January 31st for another 40 minutes) my dad would have been 59. We would have joked that in one year he would turn the big 6-0, and we would probably be planning a big birthday party. When he turned 50, we rented plastic penguins and had them on his front lawn. For his 60th I would have strung big ugly panties and bras and we would have laughed. Instead, I had a little moment and sent my happy birthdays to heaven, when I hope he is celebrating with a great game of crib with my grandparents. My sister on the other hand burnt a lemon meringue pie and ate lifesavers for supper. To each his own. :)

Taking a break

No, don't worry. It's from from blogging. It's from photography. I have all but stopped taking pictures in town. I initially stopped taking pictures because the unit that I was using is no longer available, which means I had no place to do indoor photography. I found that I was really busy with photography with the months leading up to Christmas, so much that when I was asked why I wasn't posting pictures of my own kids I was ashamed to admit I hadn't taken any. So I packed my camera away for a while. I used it when my inlaws were here for Christmas, and I hadn't touched it until the other day when the northern lights were out. I honestly had to go looking for my camera, because I couldn't remember where I had put it. I found I really enjoyed taking pictures of the lights, something up to this point I have never been able to do. My camera is really sophicasticated, with more bells and whistles than I ever thought I would use. But now I have decided to take my photography in a new direction. I had downloaded an amazing app showing all the ins and outs of my camera, and have spent the last couple nights curled up reading it. Hopefully by the time the summer comes I will be more knowledgable with this camera because we will be driving across Canada again and through the states. I also want to aggressively start a postcard business, and I'm hoping with more shots like the last northern lights one I did will help me get that going!

This was a shot I took just before Christmas during a family shoot I did for a friend. I forgot all about it until I was cleaning up my picture folder.