Happy Birthday Adelle

Our beautiful god-daughter is celebrating her birthday tomorrow. I can't believe how fast the time goes. Hopefully we will get to see her when we are there.

Pics from today

It doesn't get much cuter than this.

Colby's class performing a song at his assembly this morning. Colby is front row 3rd from the right. Colby flying his home made kite.

The very first picture from the "Joey cam" that wasn't his thumb.

I just don't get it

I'm going to start right off the bat stating that I'm sure by the end of this post there will be people upset and offended. But this is something that bothers me greatly and since this is mine and Rob's blog I have the right to speak my mind.

I have been following a story out of Halifax about 2 fishermen that went missing and were unfortunately found yesterday. An investigation is underway as to the cause of their sinking vessel. Here's my problem. The way it was reported in the paper. Well, not so much the story, but the picture that is attached to the story, which is on the front page of the paper. It's a picture of the rescue team carrying the body of the son (it was a father/son tragedy) IN A BODY BAG. For the love of all that is holy. There have been many pictures over the past couple of days of the search vessels and the rescue / recovery team. Could they not have used one of those pictures? There are many comments online about it, everyone with the same opinion as I. There is a "moderator's note" attached to one of the comments that says

Moderator's note: Editors, not reporters, choose the photographs that appear with stories, as well as write the headlines

Does that excuse it? Hell no. So, if I am intrepreting this right, it's not the reporter to blame, but the editor. Was the editor there on scene WITH the reporter and photograher when these pictures were taken? Nope. Someone had to take the picture and submit it. I think it's shameful. Not only does this family have to deal with the tragedy of losing 2 loved ones at the same time, a father and a son, but they need to be slapped in the face with this!? What a way to remember a family member.

As I said in the beginning, I know there are many people who read this that are involved either directly or indirectly with journalism up here. I mean no offense to anyone in particular. I just think photographs like this on the front cover of a major newspaper is not only inappropriate but shameful and morally wrong.

Tip Of The Day

Since Tina has slacked off, I will post the tip of the day. This just happens to be one of my favorites.

YOU ONLY NEED TWO TOOLS IN LIFE - WD-40 AND DUCT TAPE. IF IT DOESN'T MOVE AND SHOULD, USE THE WD-40. IF IT SHOULDN'T MOVE AND DOES, USE THE DUCT TAPE.

NUFF SAID!

La Poule Maboule

Poor Colby can't even be in a play at school without Joey trying to join him. That's Joe in the hat.

My little sheep. He ended up being in the play twice because the kid who was to play the sheep didn't show up. Since his french teacher is also our neighbour, she bribed him with rocks from her garden if he would stand in. Anyone who knows Colby knows his love for rocks.

Colby and Mme. Chasse.

For a kid who hadn't spoken french before we moved here in April, he has done amazing. He's on par with the rest of the kids in his class who have had french class all year. I believe when we go to Crosse he will also be able to take french class.

For Kennie

THE PENGUINS ARE GOING TO WIN THE CUP!

Whatcha Drinkin??

Poor Colby has a constant shadow.

My latest laugh

I read a blog daily that I don't have listed on my side bar. The writer of this blog takes great strides to protect her identity for their own personal reasons, and I respect that. Unlike me, I just don't care who knows who I am. (For simplicity sake I'm going to call this blogger Ivy.) I put enough pics on the blog that if you passed me on the street and we lived in the same community you'd probably recognize me, or at least one or both of my kids. Anyways, Ivy made a post about how foolish people can be when talking to dogs. Ivy said a person she is friends with talks to her dog in a high pitched tone and chases her dog around trying to pet it. When Ivy asked her why she does this, she said "to make sure the dog doesn't bite". And this was her followup.

Oh yeah, because she's such a biter. She's a vicious animal all right. She's a wanted fugitive in 22 states and registered as a lethal weapon with the RCMP. She's not just gonna bite you, she's gonna rip your arm off and have it mounted above the fireplace. With all the other ripped-off arms and legs. We have a whole postal worker above the fireplace, sure we do. Well, it's not whole, but all the pieces are there. 74 pieces. Cost a fortune at the taxidermist.

I nearly peed my pants laughing. Great witted humor like this is hard to find. And it needed to be shared. I hope you don't mind Ivy.

(And as to why I named her Ivy. I saw a picture of her and she immediately reminded me of the character Uma Thurman played in one of the Bat-Man movies. The Ivy character. Book worm, timid sort of girl that you knew under the quiet demeanor was someone who would seriously kick some ass.)

Welcome to Hay River!

From today's CBC News:

Police in Hay River, N.W.T., are looking for suspects in a string of vandalism incidents that took place over the weekend.

RCMP said vandals took trash cans and rocks to Diamond Jenness Secondary School, breaking six windows.

They also broke a couple of windows at Princess Alexandra School, as well as damaging several parked cars, police said.

"It was a series of events .… I guess the highlight is the six windows getting smashed out at the high school here," Const. Tyler Reid told CBC News on Monday.

"It was all around the school. There was no single area in the school that was targetted. It was more or less all the way around the building, some windows were smashed out."

Reid said police are interviewing two youth suspects Monday.

However, police believe more than two people were involved.

This is foolish. What they didn't mention is that these "kids" also flipped over a 4 wheeler in front of the high rise in town. I'm not sure why the "highlight" is the windows in the school. Damage to personal property to me would be higher on the list than the school, where funding is available to fix that stuff. But that's just me.

Colby cam strikes again!

This picture is the first time I've ever really noticed that Joe and I have the exact same eye color. You can just see Joe's eye color in his squinty face.

Pictures from yesterday

Colby is very proud of his new shirt. He also has it in red.

This is where I normally find Joe. In the closet, playing with Rob's tools, "fixing" the thingie on the bottom of the door.

Not all it's cracked up to be

I've been in a really sour mood all day and I hope it doesn't come through here to much. It's 11:15PM, and I'm sitting here listening to Joey through the monitor. Colby had a head cold a few days ago and now Joe has it. He's not sleeping very well and I'm sure he's going to end up in my bed with me before the night is out. And, I'm also listening to my neighbours next door fu*cking around with their broken bbq! AT 11:15!! They KNOW I have small kids, and they KNOW that they are right under their window. I'm having a real hard time keeping a grip on who I now refer to as Triple T (Trailer Trash Tina) as she wants to go outside and kick some french ass. But, seeing as it is Colby's french teacher I'm holding her back. If they wake Joey I'm going out.

And, since I'm on my soap box here, can someone PLEASE tell me why no one in Hay River picks up after their dogs?! There is a large field behind my house that everyone on this street walks their dogs to and lets them shit here. This is where I was letting Colby and Joey play, until we found this out. I actually watched a woman right outside my window this morning with her dog. I was standing there, she saw me, AND SMILED AT ME as her dog was shitting right outside. I gave her the dirtiest look and shook my head as I walked away. No doubt it's a teacher in his school, since they all seem to live around me.

Speaking of this wonderful little piece of surburbia I live in, yesterday they decided to have a fire drill in our complex. Yes, you read that right, a FIRE DRILL. What is this, elementary school? Oh wait, that's who lives around us. It was almost comical. I'm sorry, if my house is on fire, you can trust that I'm grabbing my kids and heading for the door. I really don't need to practice that. And I promise, I will leave my doorstep and run as far away from the fire as I can. And honestly, the best part is when the organizer of all this decided it was time to "have the fire" she ran through our parking lot yelling

"THERE'S A FIRE IN UNIT 4! THERE'S A FIRE IN UNIT FOUR! SOMEONE CALL THE FIRE DEPARTMENT!"

I was honestly waiting for someone in the neighbourhood to hear her and think it was real. Wouldv'e served her right to see the REAL fire department show up in all their lights and glory.

I'm going to bed. G'night all.

Oh, and just for those who need a good laugh, like I needed one today, here's the second Life Lesson from my FIL.

If you hit it with a hammer and it doesn't fix it, you have an electrical problem.

Happy Birthday Skipper

Recruiting them young at the Northern. (Did anyone else notice the box of Tim Horton's donuts in the backround?)

And to think, this time last year you were just getting back to Rae and we were just about to arrive. How quickly time flies!

Happy Birthday David. See you in 3 weeks!

Thought of the day

We received this hilarious email from my FIL (Father -In Law) and thought that I would share it. But, I'm not going to share it all at once. I'm going to break it up into "Thought of the Day". There's enough to keep going for a while.

With that being said.....

Avoid cutting yourself when slicing vegetables by getting someone else to hold the vegetables while you chop.

Colby cam

"Bring that camera any closer and I'll make you eat it"

We Miss You Daddy!

"Hi Daddy!"

HOCKEY FIGHT!

Our perspectives

Joey loves the Doodlebops. If you don't have kids or spend any time around them, or just lost the remote and were too lazy to change the channel, this will make no sense to you. This show comes on at 7:30 at which time I have not had my first coffee. They are so sugary sweet it's almost sickening. The only thing that gets me through sitting with Joe watching this over and over (thanks to satellite TV it's on 4 times during the morning) is knowing what "Rooney" looks like under all that blue make-up. :)

I wasn't going to bring this up here

Blog competition gone bad

Cheaters send in hundreds of votes for NWT bloggers

by Laura Power Northern News Services NWT

What started as a friendly competition between NWT bloggers ended early because of a few cheaters, according to Megan Holsapple, who started the online contest. "I didn't want it to end that way," she said. "I just saw it as a fun little project that people could enjoy and feel proud of."

Three bloggers in each of the two categories – best blog and best post – were competing for the NWT's first blog awards last month. When the voting began, Holsapple said it was obvious by the amount of votes coming in that a few people out there were cheating.

"Most of it was happening from outside the NWT," she said. "I'm not sure if they thought I wouldn't know, but seriously, when you're placing a hundred votes in an hour it's kind of obvious."

She said she could tell it wasn't the bloggers doing it for themselves. "They were both kind of appalled at the fact that people were cheating for them," she said.

None of her readers cheated for her.

"It does tell you something that so many people thought it was important enough to cheat," she said. "I think the people who went to the contest site definitely found new blogs they haven't found before and that was really the ultimate goal... it's sort of a sneaky way to say 'oh look, here's Phil in Inuvik. He's got this awesome photo blog.'

Even before the awards, the new NWT blogging community has become a popular site for writers, photographers and readers. Some bloggers use their pages to post scenic and otherwise interesting photos while others write about their lives and families. Holsapple, one of the community's most active bloggers, writes under a couple of guises. The first is her personal blog, Reflections in the snow-covered hills, which she often uses to rant about grammar and journalism-related issues. The other is a sarcastic blog full of religious references called Flame of God.

One of her posts from her personal blog was nominated in the best post category along with posts by Eclectic Blogsand Inuvik Photos. Those two were also nominated in the best blog category along with one called Just Below 63.

"We've got so many great writers and so many great photographers," said Holsapple. In the end, she decided to simply call a tie for both categories because of the cheating. If the blogging community goes ahead with another competition, she said the winners would be picked in a way that makes cheating impossible. Next time, she plans to have people judge categories instead of relying on votes.

This appeared in yesterday's newpaper. I was given the heads up by Megan when I saw she had commented on her blog that she had spoken to a reporter about this. I admit, I probably wouldn't have done this, but that is her perogative and I respect her for that. I was shocked when I opened the paper today and saw that this was a full page in the paper with a big bold title. Seriously, was this really newsworthy? I really think this journalist was desperate for a story.

I haven't really commented on the outcome of the NWT Blog awards. It ended up being called off a few hours early due to the influx of votes towards the end. It was determined by Megan that someone in Halifax was trying to rig the competition for us and someone in Quebec was rigging it for Phil. When she emailed me about it before the contest was over, I told her I didn't know who it was, and to this day I still don't. It is unfortunate that it ended this way, with the contest not playing out until the end. It was quite fun to watch to see who was "in the lead". It made me feel quite honored that so many people were voting for our blog.

And, to the person in Halifax who sat in front of their computer and voted for us, according to Megan's calculations, "over 100 times in an hour", we love you, and would love to know who you are. Thanks for the boost of confidence for the blog!

Happy Birthday Puppa

I'm sorry I can't find a picture, all our are packed right now. But we'll see you in 2 weeks and 2 days! Lots of love from Colby and Joey (and Rob and Tina too)

Attached to the bottom of an email I received from my father in law

With all the sadness and trauma going on in the world at the moment, it is worth reflecting on the death of a very important person, which almost went unnoticed last week.

Larry LaPrise, the man that wrote 'The Hokie Pokey' died peacefully at the age of 93. The most traumatic part for his family was getting him into the coffin. They put his left leg in. And then the trouble started.

Shut up, you know it's funny. The more you think about it, the funnier it gets. I'm still laughing.

These two should have been brothers!

I stole these pictures off Kelly's blog. This is my nephew Alan, who is 5 months younger than Joey. He could be Colby's mini -me!

Around the house and more

Joey's new favorite pass time. He actually walks in them quite well.

A while ago there was the NWT Best Blog competition, and Rob won for Best / Funniest Northern story. I received his "prize" in the mail late last week from Indigo. There was also a little extra suprise of the caribou pin, which is made from caribou antler. Thank you so much Indigo! It will be proudly displayed in our new house.

Poor Colby can't get a moment's peace anymore with Joey around.

Pictures for Daddy

Colby borrowed a neighbour's bike and taught himself how to ride. We have a bike waiting for him in Halifax when we get there!

This is what happens when you buy waterguns. This little fountain is in my next door neighbour's yard.

Miss my boys!!!

Hey teen how about a pic of me and the boys??

Too funny

I was surfing around my morning blogs and was looking at Val's. Colby was behind me (he has no school today) and I told him that we will be meeting Val in Halifax when we get there (in 2 weeks and 6 days but who's counting). Although we have never met, I feel like Val and I have been friends forever.

While chatting with Colby, I asked him if he remembered a post that Val did for him about her car. He didn't remember so I jumped back in the archives of her blog and found it right away, by fluke. The post was from October 2006 and in the comments it was mentioned by Jody (who first "introduced" us) that we should all meet in Halifax. At the time, I was still living there and as they both have family there it didn't seem like that big of a stretch.

After we were transferred to the North, a meeting like this was furthest from my mind. What are the odds of us being in Halifax on vacation at the same time, seeing as I am way up here and she is in Italy. Well, by sheer coincidence, she is going to be in Halifax when we are in 3 weeks! What are the chances! We already have a "date" planned for the first day I arrive (did I mention 2 weeks and 6 days). I can't wait! This vacation actually works out quite funny that way. Not only do we get to meet Val, Mike and little Lily, the managers from the Northern store we were first at are travelling to NL during our vacation and have stop overs in Halifax both going there and coming back! They arrive the day after I get back from NL and leave the day before we leave Halifax. Their stop overs are a couple hours on each side. They told us they really want to see the boys, and if we want we can come along also. :) It's just crazy the way things work out sometimes.

I got nothin'

Really. I have nothing to post about, but I'm feeling very guilty that there has not been a post since Monday. I read everyone else's blogs everyday, and realize I can't critize anyone else for not updating their blogs (JEN!). Though, in my defense, it has only been since THIS Monday for me and a week for her! :)

All our boxes are now on their way to Ile-A-La Crosse. My house is pretty empty right now. I've cleaned the oven (no real big feat there I admit, not very hard to press the "clean" button) and today I cleaned out the fridge. And still 3 weeks to go.

Colby has finally started to make friends in the neighbourhood, of course 3 weeks before we move. I only realized 2 days ago that on the other side of the complex we live in in the middle of a cluster of houses there is a public playground. It is totally shielded on all sides by backyards, but fenced in just the same. It's completely off the road and all the people in the houses have kids and keep an eye on the playground. One of Colby's little buddies even loaned him a bike, as we don't have one here for him. Poor little bugger can't drive a 2 wheeler yet, but he's getting closer everyday. He takes in the parkinglot of the complex before everyone comes home with their cars and practices. We have a bike waiting for him at mom's house back home so hopefully by the time we get there he should be able to ride it!

What's a birthday without a cake?

Although we have decided for obvious reasons to wait until we are in Nova Scotia to have a party for Joey, I couldn't let his birthday go without at least making him a cake. Colby really wanted to take the pictures, so I set up the tripod and him go. What you don't see are the other 60 pictures of Joey that Colby took, all in the same pose. And they say I'm a shutter bug!

MADD TV Ad

I found Joey's language!

My baby is 2

I can't believe how quickly time flies. My little miracle child, the child that we were not suppose to be able to have, turns 2 today. He is growing into his own personality, and is becoming more independant by the day. He's Colby shadow, which is a good and bad thing all at the same time. I look at him and wonder sometimes where this little boy has come from, because that is what he is. He looks so much like Colby, but is the polar opposite. Where Colby is easy going, Joey has a fierce stubborn streak that can only come from his father's side, because the Powers are the most easy going group of people you will every meet. *grin*. And, like his brother, his smile starts at his eyes at lights up a room.

Happy Mother's Day

This is what I received for Mother's Day. The card from Colby is actually a book they made called "Why I Love My Mom". It's priceless.

So, Happy Mommy's Day to all of you Mommys, Nannys, Grammas, "Just found out I'm gonna be a Mommy" and "Just about to be a Mommy as soon as this kid decides to come out".

Playing around today

A few more of the boats