Black Lake, Around Town...

One of the more interesting buildings around town, and the newest. This is the state of the art School that no one attends. I guess the attendance rate is about 60% or less. This is my humble abode. This is the best side, actually looks nice from this angle. I could show you the back, but then you would think I was living in a chicken shack on a farm. I saw this old VW buried in snow in Stoney Rapids. Made for a pretty nice picture I think. This is the sign as you are leaving Stoney Rapids. There is about a 20 min drive between the two towns. Black Lake is a First Nation Reserve as you can tell by the sign, Stoney Rapids is not.

New pictures for Daddy

Joey's new portable high chair. Will be much easier to travel with this one, it folds down. Colby's school vest. His teacher gave it to him today as a goodbye present.

His teacher also gave him a t-shirt with all the names of the kids in his class.

This is Joey dancing to " Pop Goes My Heart" from Music and Lyrics.

Happy Birthday Connie

Happy Birthday Connie, we miss you.

By far the funniest 5 minutes of my day

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r5R8gSgedh4 I can't get it to post properly so you'll have to follow the link. Thanks to Missing The Rock for this great laugh!

I've created a monster

I am almost ashamed to admit this, but part of me is secretly thrilled. I have always been a creature of habit, and because of this so are my kids. Joey and I have a morning routine which consists of getting Colby off to school, having a 2nd cup of coffee and just "waking up". I normally put on a movie for noise as I start to get our day going. The mornings typically consisted of kids shows like "The Doodlebops" and "Clifford". There was a time that the movie "Barnyard" was repeated over and over, and "I'm smooshy" will forever make my family laugh. (If you've seen the movie, you'll understand. Joey still does it). When Joey does down for his nap, I put on a movie and do "my stuff" (housework etc). I am the type of person who can watch a movie over and over. Music and Lyrics is my new favorite. It's just a feel good movie, and because of it I am now in love more than ever with Hugh Grant. This has now become Joey's favorite movie, and he squeals with delight when the movie starts and "Pop Goes My Heart" starts. He now knows how to use the remote and can put it on himself (it's recorded on the PVR). If you haven't seen it, it's worth the rental.

We Won!

I am beyond excited to say that we won!! on Nunavut Nonsense. I would like to thank all of you that took the time to vote! And for those who didn't see it (shame on you!) here is our winning submission for "The 5 Best things about living in the North:

Submitted by Rob & Tina of Just Below 63

1. Canada Goose jackets and Sorel boots are the hottest fashion

2. I can say things like "It's warmed up to -35"

3. It's the only place you can drive for 10 minutes before you tires warm up enough to feel like wheels instead of squares

4. Excuses such as " I'm drunk, I'm still drunk, I'm hungover" are acceptable reasons for not going to work

5. Most of my close friends are now people I blog with and have never met

I'll post a picture of our prize when I get it. It is going to be dropped off to us when we get to Hay River by Indigo. It's a carving and it will be our first one!

Stoney Rapids Saskatchewan

This is the Northern Store in Stoney Rapids, just 20 mins away. The inside is very nice.

My Wheels for the week. A very abused, poorly serviced 2001 Silverado 2500 HD. More to come...this takes forever...

We miss you Daddy

I apologize in advance for the quality of the pictures. Rob took the good camera and I'm using the "Colby Cam".

Am I a rotten person?

I'm sitting here watching Opr.ah of all things. Drew Barrymore is on, (who I love) and she is talking about the World Food Programme where they give money for food programs for kids in Africa. I'm all for helping others, I really am. Drew Barrymore gave 1 million dollars of her own money to this program. Here's my problem with all of this, and judge me if you will. But if there are kids all around you going hungry, which is a problem everywhere, why would you give all your support to another country? Now, before everyone gets up in arms, let me explain my point. There are many places in Canada where kids to go school, go all day and then go to bed hungry. There are many programs here in Canada to help combat this. If I was a multi-millionaire like Ms. Drew, I personally would look to help those around me before/while looking further over the horizon. If everyone in that position did this, we would all live in a better place and there would not be the child hunger crisis we have right now. Now, I'm not saying that organizations like World Food Programme are wrong for supporting 3rd world nations, I think it's fabulous. I just feel that sometimes more emphasis seems to be put on helping other children and not helping our own.

Black Lake Saskatchewan

So far this is all I have had time to do..more to follow!

Just for you Sheet Nazi

And I'm not fixin' the corners!

Woo Hoo I have a badge!

Amy is my new hero. I LOVE her. NWT Bloggers is up and rolling!!! You just gotta check out the site! I have new blogs to read, like I don't spend enough time on here as it is!

Messenger help

I'm at my wits end with MSN Messenger tonight. I keep getting the error

We are unable to sign you into Windows Live Messenger, possibly because of a problem with your internet connection. Please try again later. Error Code 80072475.

I have followed their troubleshooting steps (deleting temporary files, unhooking router) and I even went as far as uninstalling and reinstalling the program. Nothing works. And, to top it all off, there is the Handgame Tournament in town this weekend so all the LD lines are blocked and I can't call out. Can someone help me fix this?

The Snow Castle is open

The Snow Castle officially opens today. it is days like this that I really hate living this far out from the city. Rob and I will be taking the boys to the Snow Castle on the Monday after he comes back. HERE is the official site of the castle if you want to see what it's all about. They are too much of a handful for me to take the boys on my own, and frankly I hate heading into the city by myself with the boys. The drive itself is alright, but to get in there and have no where to go except Wal-Mart or the grocery store is a pain. It's very tiring taking the kids in and out of the truck by myself. Joey is too big but yet still too small for almost everything, and is very heavy to carry. Rob comes back on the 13th but doesn't come in until 10pm that night. I'm debating on going in to get him with the kids, because they will sleep anyways, but it sucks to wait in the truck with them until his plane comes in. Hea Megan, want some out of town visitors? :)

1 sleep down, 13 to go

Rob left yesterday for 2 weeks. He is right now in Black Lake, SK doing a relief for a manager who is going to the manager's conference in Winnipeg next week. It's strange to be here by myself at night. I hear every creak the house makes. And there is a hand game tournament in town this weekend, and of course Rob has the camera. We really need 2 cameras.

As I'm sure most of you all now know, we have been transferred to Hay River. Rob will be finishing his training there before we are transferred again to our "permanent" location. Everyone is telling us how much we are going to love Hay River. The manager that is currently there has been there for 5 years, which is almost a record for this company. It is also good for me, because when Rob goes to Fort Ware in May it will be a bigger town with more things to do with the boys.

I'm not one to normally follow the news, and even less likely to comment on what I see here. But there is something I really need to blog about. Did the media NOT think it was a bad idea to report that Prince Harry is serving in the war, and then take it one step further and show video and pictures of him and his comrads??? Really people, why not just paint him in neon colors with a big arrow over his head that says "kidnap and torture me, I'm royalty". I feel really bad for him. He's obviously trying to do what he feels strongly about by serving his country, and some dumb reporter thought it would be a good idea to blow the "blackout" and release this information. Dumbass deserves to be tarred and feathered.

On the Road Again....

Hey Y'all! Seeing as how I am sitting here in the airport doing nuthin....I thought I would do Tina's job for her. She seems to be slacking of. No post in almost 2 days! Just thought I would bring up something I find really strange...an airport as small as Saskatoon has FREE wireless internet, and airports like EDMONTON do not. I would think that with the amount of traffic through Edmonton, you would have FREE wireless, if the small airports can offer it, why can't the others?? Something silly and small, but with the amount of travelers it would be nice, not everyone wants to pay $10.00 for internet for an hour or two... Well, nothing much else to say other than I miss my Wife and Kids already and it is going to be a long 2 weeks. Later all!

Naturally Me!

Blogshare

I volunteered to participate in a "blog share" where you post anonymously on someone else's blog. I haven't posted anything about this because I wanted it to be a surprise to all who read. Here is a list of all the blogs that have participated this year. I plan on sitting down over the next few days when Rob is gone and looking through them all. You never know who or what you'll find.

http://www.the-adventures-of-shelagh.blogspot.com

http://aliceblogs.blogspot.com

http://alyndabear.com

http://andyouknow.wordpress.com

http://brightyellowworld.com

http://dailytannenbaum.com

http://duwaxloolu.blogspot.com

http://elise.blogs.com

http://www.everythingilikecausescancer.blogspot.com

http://facedown.wordpress.com

http://frettingthesmallstuff.typepad.com

http://forthelongrun.blogspot.com

http://galootshootpage.blogspot.com

http://grantednull.blogspot.com

http://grumpyfrump.blogspot.com

http://www.lawyerish.com

http://trudie-lifeafterac.blogspot.com

http://www.lizgwiz.blogspot.com

http://www.malfeasance-courtney.blogspot.com

http://mammaren.wordpress.com

http://www.museonvacation.blogspot.com

http://javaliterally.blogspot.com

http://nancypearlwannabe.com

http://www.whatyouthinkitis.blogspot.com

http://onenewduck.blogspot.com

http://rankin-inlet.blogspot.com

http://www.redredwhine.com

http://stevemegan.blogspot.com

http://thereluctantblogger66.blogspot.com

http://sassattack.blogspot.com

http://www.saunteringsoul.blogspot.com

http://sparklingcipher.blogspot.com

http://stefanie-says.blogspot.com

http://3carnations.blogspot.com

http://tracyoutloud.blogspot.com

http://www.waywayup.blogspot.com

Welcome to Blogshare - A post by Anonymous

I was a really naïve kid. Reeeeeeeeeally naïve. Growing up in Smalltown, U.S.A., the world seemed an almost boring place, a place where very few things could possibly happen to you. My mom and I didn’t have The Talk (ahem… you know which Talk I mean) until I was well into middle school. And there were certain… um… aspects of boy-girl “relations” that we didn’t ever discuss. Period. It was the summer prior to my freshman year of college, and I was enjoying the last few days of togetherness with my two all-time best friends. They were the two best-looking guys in my high school, the irony of which never escaped me, their awkward-looking compatriot. We did everything together: hiking, swimming, making rice krispies treats. Having been friends since before puberty, we had (and still have) one of those precious male-female friendships free of any sexual tension whatsoever. The day in question, we set out for the movies. The Blair Witch Project had just come out, and we were excited to see this new-fangled cinematography. Ever-economical, we pooled our resources to purchase an extra-large popcorn and an extra-large soda. We picked a row in the theater, right smack in the middle, and sat down. Matty, who sat in the center, was charged with holding the soda. The popcorn we passed. Mid-movie, I realized that I was thirsty from all the salty popcorn. I looked over at Matty to ascertain the location of the soda… which he had elected to put between his legs. Enter mental dilemma: How To Remove The Soda From My Best Friend’s Crotch. Well, I thought about it. And I thought some more. And I came to the conclusion that there was simply no elegant way to do it. So I did the only logical thing. I leaned over and drank from the straw as the soda sat in his lap. Let me give you a moment to visualize this. Got it? Uh-huh. And people, I took a nice, loooooong drink of that soda. And I casually looked up. To see Matty’s horrified face staring down at me. And Nick’s horrified face staring at both of us. I sat back up, cheeks burning, ignoring the chuckles behind us. We never talked about it again. I don’t generally share this story as The Most Embarrassing Moment Of My Life. Because really, how would you react if someone told you about the time they accidentally went down on their best friend in a movie theater? Yeah, that’s what I thought.

More mail!

I could just eat him sometimes he's soo cute! He's really growing into a little man.

He's definately male. He can't walk without having the remote in his hand.

The boys opening their packages from Connie and David. Notice how intent Colby is on opening his package, and then take a look at Joey.

Again, Joey shows his true colors. Going right for the chocolate. He's definately mine.

At this point, the package is totally forgotten about.

" WHAT DO YOU MEAN I CAN'T EAT ALL THE CHOCOLATE?! GIMME IT BACK IT'S MINE!" "THE GIFTS WERE FOR ME AND NO ONE SAID I HAD TO OPEN THE GIFT BEFORE THE CHOCOLATES! YOU'RE A MEAN MOMMY! WAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH! IF DAVID WAS HERE HE'D MAKE YOU GIVE ME THE CHOCOLATES BACK! GIMME THE PHONE!"

On the road again

So... can anyone tell me anything about what it will be like to live in Hay River? Can I still do guarding shifts at the RCMP there??

Silly things

I'm sitting here on the couch wondering what to post about. Isn't it funny how certain things instantly bring back memories of people in your life? For example:

1. Cadbury Cream Eggs and Rockets Halloween candies instantly remind me of Adam Read.
2. "When in doubt, wash it out" is a silly saying that Mary Lou always said when we worked together at Therapeutic Services in St. John's. There is a fair amount of laundry involved in a physiotherapy clinic (towels) and I made a comment one day that I wasn't sure if a towel was used or not. She said that to me, and for some reason it stuck.
3. "I'm done like toast". I heard this on TV not to long ago, and I don't even remember what show it was on. I stopped whatever I was doing and stared at the TV. Dad said this all time, and ironically these were the last words Dad spoke.
4. The use of the word "chummy" will forever get the immediate reaction of "the storage unit?" thanks to my sister.
5. "Guess what?" will forever in my house by followed by "Chicken Butt", again because of my sister.

Finally some pictures

I have been really sick the past few days and haven't even had the camera out of the bag. I took these earlier today. These two are growing like weeds!

NWT Bloggers

I missed a fair amount of reading when Mom was here, and as I was catching up on Megan's blog yesterday I found THIS POST. (I'm sorry I missed it Megan). She got me thinking. There are a lot of Northern blogs I follow, some more faithfully than others. But all of the blogs with the exception of 2 (Megan and Curtis) are in Nunavut. I will admit, I was jealous of the Nunies, and wished there was something like that for NWT. Megan had a great idea with attempting to compile a list of NWT blogs. I updated my side bar with NWT blogs she mentioned, but if any of you read blogs from NWT that are not on this list I would love to know about them. What do you think Megan, can we get a blog roll going? There is nothing I love more than to stumble upon a blog with pictures of places that I recognize, so I'd love to know if there are more of us here locally.

Why do we make a Schedule anyway?????

So, the way I see it is that there are a select few people in town that need money and want to work. Everyone else simply wants money, and if they HAVE to work to get it, so be it, but it's on THEIR terms. Ed, the store manager, and I continually have conversations about how the staff are dictating the schedule. Not all the staff mind you but the majority work when they want, how much they want and really pay no mind to the schedule. Now, I know what you are thinking. That is the way it is up here. Ok, I can see that. Does that mean we have to stand up and bend over for it? I don't believe that we have to. There are other ways, there HAS to be. Where is Dr. Phil when you need him. I like to think, I know shocking isn't it! No seriously, I believe that there is a way to motivate everyone. The key is to find that one thing in everyone. I know you can't win with everyone but I know that when it is eventually my turn to run my own store I hope that I am blessed with understanding and driven workers or that I am able to motivate my staff to enjoy their job and come to work because they like their job, AND money. I know you have heard us talking before about the excuses we hear about not wanting to come in to work, I just keep hearing them, and they keep getting better. It's now to the point where I have my office supervisor complaining that her counterpart is consistently late coming in and only comes in when she wants to. Now, my office supervisor, shows up at least 30 mins late for her shift EVERYday and works less than the REQUIRED 35 hours a week as a FULL TIME MANAGEMENT associate. So when you have a member of management who is continually late or not coming in for one reason or another, the old "lead by Example" adage comes into play. It starts the snowball effect where what is good for the goose yadda..yaddda...yaddda.... I think out of about 15 people on staff, 2 are reliable enough to show up everyday and relatively on time. I am in a position right now that I can sit back and listen to what is going on and what is being said to and amongst the staff, which I will take with me to use as I see fit to understand and motivate where possible. Well, I am scheduled to work tomorrow at 8:00 am.. I should go to bed. 10:30 am comes awful early... ;)

Lunar Eclipse Tonight Folks

Tonight is the Lunar Eclipse. According to the Nasa Website, this will be the last time we will see this for at least the next 3 years. We will have the tripod and camera ready to go. In our time zone, (mountain) it should start around 8:00PM and last for about an hour. I'm hoping to see lots of pictures on blogs tomorrow! Hea, maybe that should be a new challenge on Nunavut Nonesense Jen! *wink*

The Next Nunavut Nonsense Challenge

So the next challenge has been sprung! We have been asked to provide 5 of our favourite things that we love and are unique to the North. We are asking all of our loyal readers to check out our entry HERE at Nunavut Nonsense and vote!

To Italy and back

When Valentina was pregnant with Lilyan, I mailed her a package from here containing among other things a jar of IWK Buttocks Cream. It is an OTC cream that was created by the IWK Children’s Health Center and the best diaper rash cream on the planet. I mailed this package to her last August and she informed me that customs confiscated the package and refused to allow it in due to the “medication”. I was extremely disappointed as they wouldn’t take the cream out and give her the rest of it. She was told that the entire package would be returned to me. I totally forgot about it until Rob came home with the mail last Wednesday and here was the package! So I figure at this point since Val and I will be in Halifax the same time in June (YEA!!) I will hand deliver it to her then.

Out for a Sunday drive

The snow banks are a lot softer than I expected.. Lots of fun. No I didn't run the truck off the road.

This is a back road past Edzo, just out for a drive.

A view of Rae from the Winter road to Whati.

My boys

The future "Michelin Man"

Unfortunately this inukshuk met his untimely death right after this picture was taken when Colby stepped forward and it took out it's left arm with his right shoulder.

"IT'S THIS DEEP!"

Connie and David

I was walking into the Northern yesterday morning with Rob and he looked at me and said “Good Morning Connie” and right back to him I said “Morning David”. We both chuckled, and I smile now that I think about it. For those who don’t know, David and Connie were the managers here at this location when we first arrived and really helped us adjust to the company. They treated us like we were family, but I secretly think they only tolerated Rob and I because they were in love with the kids. Colby thought the world of Connie, and you could just tell Joey thought David was right up there with Poppy and Puppa. Rob asked me to come over with him to the store this morning to help him with opening because Ed was still in town due to mechanical issues with the store van (which I call the Mystery Machine). As we were walking in, we both thought at the same time that we were doing exactly what David and Connie had done hundreds of times, gone to work together to open the store. I can only hope that when Rob ends up with his own store, we can be as good at it as they are.

Sorry folks!

First of all, I would like to apologize to all of you that frequent the blog that I have not been posting this week. This has been a crazy week for all of us. I have been trying to get in as many hours as I can working while Mom is here. I know to some of you from back home that sounds like a mean thing for me to do, but let me explain the difference up here. Because of where we live, any sort of entertaining through the daytime is limited to the interior of my house. It’s not like we can run out and “see the sights” throughout the daytime. I live in “the bush”, 1 hour away from any sort of city-type civilization. I asked Mom before she got up here if she would mind if i left her through the daytime with Joey while Colby was in school so I could work substituting. She has been having a great time with Joey, getting in some quality Joey-Nanny time. This is something she didn’t get a lot of when we lived back home because it was shortly after returning back to work that we moved up here. The difference with Colby and Joey is that for the first few years before Colby entered pre-school he spent time with Mom and Dad when Rob and I were working. She was able to spend a few hours everyday with Colby,but this was not the case for Joey. I worked 4 out of the first days she was here, and then the extreme cold weather hit. Our temperatures were in the low -40s for almost 2 weeks. Because of that I lost a full week at the school because none of the kids were going to school, and I wasn’t about to send Colby out in -45 weather. I have also in this time started working at the Gasbar for Rob. (I can see you shaking your head David). Rob is having a hell of a time getting people to work the gas bar. This is a little convenience store / 4 pump gas bar owned by the Northern that is beside our house. It kills me when it doesn’t open because someone either doesn’t feel like working / has decided to go to Yellowknife / just too drunk to come to work. So I have been going over in the mornings to open it up. It is a very busy place when it’s open. Also, in the midsts of all this, I approached the RCMP here in town to see if they need guards. This is something I was recently made aware of, and is in desperate need of in this community. The whole job consists of sitting in a small office (which is where I am now), and watching a prisoner on closed circuit. They encourage you to bring a laptop / DVD player to pass the time. The catch is that you are always on call, as they never know when they will have someone in a holding cell. The purpose of me being here is to make sure they don’t hurt themselves and are still breathing. This is my 3rd shift here so far. Idealy I will be able to keep this up when Mom goes back and work night shifts. It’s 20.00 /hr to sit on my butt and read or watch movies. Welcome to the North Folks!

More mail for Colby

Jen promised Colby a prize when he submitted his poem to Nunavut Nonesense. He got it in the mail yesterday and was thrilled! Pictures of tattoos to follow! THANKS JEN!

Thanks Gramma and Puppa!

"Hea look, cards!"

"Dear Colby...." he read the entire card to us.

"A JOURNAL!" This is what he was most excited about, even more than the chocolates. He already has letters written in it.

"Look, Joey's favorite snacks!"

Morning artwork

I used the end of a wooden spoon to scrape the letters in.

Just a few more

Rob, Ed and I went into Yellowknife yesterday and drove up the ice road. I wanted to know where it went and we ended up in a little community named Dettah. It's a cute little community similar to ours. We also drove by this ice castle which is being constructed in the middle of the lake. There is a big festival in March, and according to the men building this there will be a wedding held in this castle. There will also be a small cafe inside. I can't wait. Hopefully Rob will be home as he is going to Black Lake, SK for the first 2 weeks of March. I joked with Ed that if Rob's not home, he and I will go in with the kids. The funny thing is that it's not really a joke and will probably happen.

You should be ashamed!

Ok, any back to the future fans out there? This is a shot I have always wanted to try, and it actually turned out. Can you say 88MPH?? Mom was beside herself with excitment when the lights were out in full swing. We couldn't have her going home without a picture of her with them! Rob told me that I should be ashamed of myself for having pictures for almost 24 hours and not posting them. I told him because of his comments and making me feel guilty for not posting, I would not tell anyone that I did not take these pictures and continue to get credit for his growing photography skills. :)

For Jackie

Jackie asked me in a comment on her blog who Lenny was. Take a walk down memory lane here to remember Lenny, who is still loved now as much as he was then. And yes, I'm still that mean at times.

Happy Birthday Uncle Lloyd

Happy birthday to the man to takes the title "Uncle" very seriously. Lots of love from the top of the world.

Thanks David and Connie!

Guess what Mom found in the freezer when she was helping me organize? We added some cream cheese icing that I also found in the freezer leftover from a carrot cake I made and mom said it was "some good". I'll take her word for it.

New challenge!

Nunavut Nonesense is having another photo challenge! Rob won the last one with his "Summer in Winter" and we'd like to make it 2 for 2. Head over to Nunavut Nonesense and vote for Joe!