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.

I LOVE this town

What makes this so much better is Joey was with me watching the lights. We have made many sacrifices over the past 5 years, but nights where my son and I can watch the Northern Lights dance make it all worth it.

Vacation time is booked!

We are driving back to Halifax this summer. I must admit I am super excited. We (and when I say we I mean Rob) bought a motorcycle last summer. Huh you say? Well, it looks like this:

We bought this for a steal (honestly, for about 1/5th of what we would have paid for the equivelant bike on the east coast). And before you ask, there this NOTHING wrong with it. It runs like a top. We decided we would buy this bike as an investment. We also decided that it is not feasible to keep this bike here, as we never know where we could be transferred. So, before we bought this bike we talked to my brother about storing this for us. We told him that he could use it, as long as he maintained it. He said this: We figure if we ever need to sell the bike, we can sell it on the east coast and have a tidy sum of money. So, we are going to be driving back to Halifax during the middle of July. I already know that a friend of mine who looks like this: Is also going to be in Halifax this summer, so I am really hoping that we can hook up. This is really exciting for me because she lives in Italy! I really want to see her little princess and my little prince together again! And of course, since we are driving through Ontario on the way back, I am really hoping we can detour so we can finally meet 2 little girls that look like this: I am currently in the process of trying to fill out the paperwork for our passports so we can drive through the states on the way there, so right now I look like this: But it will all be worth it. So for now, as it is currently -stupid outside right now, I'm going to be like a friend of mine, and spend the evening like this: But before I can do that, we made donairs for supper, which of course look like this: Have a good night everyone! And, if you're going to be in Halifax during the end of July, let me know!

My rant

Alright, I promised those who saw it on FB a rant. I'm not nearly as worked up about it as I was last night, and I would have blogged last night but honestly I spend more time on the Ipad than I do at a computer and I can't really type on there. I am getting REALLY TIRED of society pushing weight loss on people. There, I said it. All you see on FB lately is "want to lose weight?" "Come join the 90 day challenge" and all you see on TV lately is commercials for "Jenny", "WW" whatever. If you want to lose weight, fine, do it. But STOP telling me I have to. I read many blogs online, and that seems to be most all are talking about. (Except you Kara, your story is different). Why can't people be fat AND happy? My kids love me, my husband adores me, my preschoolers don't care what I look like. For the most part, I eat healthy. You say I'm not healthy? Well, I'm in control of my own destiny. You think you're going to live longer than I am because you are skinny and I'm not? Skinny people die just as much as fat people. That's the one thing people cannot control. I'm a firm believer of when your time is up, it's up. You can't change that. So you might as well be happy. I will admit, I was obsessed with weight loss when I lived in the south. It's a totally different mentality here. In this community, people who haven't seem each other for a while don't greet each other with "boy, you look good, did you lose weight?" People here accept you for whatever package you come in. If you choose to change it, you are complimented. BUT, there is not the pressure that you would feel in other places to lose weight and keep it off. Not one person in the community that I live in is doing this "90 day challenge" crap. I don't need to spend 250.00 for powdered shakes and diet pills. If I want to lose weight, I will change my eating habits and physical activity level. If I want to spend the day playing video games with my kids when it's warm and sunny out, well I'm going to do it. I'm spending time with my kids. Would I go to the gym 6 days a week if I lived in the south? No freakin' way. No offence to those of you who do, but if I want to exercise I would rather do it by getting outside and playing with my kids. Or going for a walk with my husband. Or better yet, going for a walk with my Ipod. I HATE this time of year because weight loss is always a new year's resolution for people and society tries to monopolize on it. I wish people could just be happy with who they are. You don't see that much anymore. There, I've said it. *steps down off soapbox*.

Prince Naveen

Sometime last year i found a stuffed red eye tree frog at a 2nd hand store. My sister has always been a huge fan of tree frogs, so much that she has a tattoo of one on her back. My original plan for him was that he would travel back and forth between us and we would take pictures with him in different places. Well, it started out all right but we both dropped the ball on it. I took the prince with us when we went to halifax with us this summer and tried it again. I told his story to the twins, and even went as far as to buy his travel journal and start his first entry. I even made a blog about him to help follow his travels. I promised rebecca that I would start his adventure when I got back to Saskatchewan. Time got away from me and the prince remained in my house. When my mother in law was here last week she mentioned that Rebecca keeps looking at the blog to see if it has started. So, he is en route somewhere. If he ends up in your mailbox, please play along. My goal is to see how far i can get him to travel. For details and to see what he has been up to so far, check out his blog, its listed on my blog roll, The Adventures Of Prince Naveen. If you want to play, either leave a comment here on or his blog. You dont need to have kids to play, just a good sense of adventure and be willing to have fun.

Happy New Year 2012

Happy New Year everyone. What a year it has been. I would love to do a monthly play by play like Jody did, but I'm not that organized to remember. This has been a great year for my family, both immediate and extended. We had a fantastic trip to Nova Scotia last summer, with many memories made and lots and lots of pictures taken. I am not one for new years resolutions, but I have made some promises to myself that I plan on keeping. I have seriously dropped the ball on keeping a relationship with a special little girl in my life, that I made a promise to myself that I would change that. I plan on writing lots and lots of letters this year, and I am hoping that through this I can build the relationship that I want to be there. This coming year is going to be a great one. We have another trip planned to Nova Scotia this summer, but this time we will be driving back. I really need to get my arse in gear to get our passports, as we plan on driving down through the states. Colby really wants to see New York, so we thought, well, why not? It's on the way, kind of. I am thrilled that the same time we are there Valentina will also be there with her family, and her and I have a "secret outing" planned that I am just thrilled about. I also just found out that Jenn and David will also be there with their adorable Caelan, so I finally get to meet him. I will be meeting up with them in Digby, as there is a woman there named Jolene who is also a lifelong friend of Jenn's that I got to know when we stood in Jenn's wedding together. There is a joke between us about a girl named "Cindy", and of course when she found out I will be in NS the same time as Jenn she joked about me bringing Cindy along. Rob's parents were here for Christmas, and are already talking about when they come back next fall for hunting season. Our friends Adam and Genevieve are also toying with the idea of coming out here, which would thrill me to no end. Our house will be renovated this summer, which I can't wait for. Mom will be moving to NL sometime this year, as soon as her house sells, which means she will also be able to come visit us more often. Happy New Year all. Be good to each other.

Merry Christmas

I have been keeping a secret since April. My in laws decided last year that they wanted to come spend Christmas with us and they didn't want to tell the boys. We (and when I say "we" I mean me) suggested to also keep Rob in the dark about this also. There has been many phone calls back and forth as the time got closer, trying to keep Rob in the dark. It ALMOST worked. I had to tell Rob the night before they got here that they were coming. I had made up a lie to convince him to take an extra day off work, as this would have been the last day his parents were here. HE decided to take my lie (that I wanted to take the boys out of town for the night) and turn it into a work trip and bring back supplies for his store. He was actually quite proud of this and was going to confirm with a distribution centre that we would be in the city at the beginning of the week to bring an order back for the store. Of course, I couldn't let him make this confirmation as in fact were NOT going out of town. We did keep the secret from the boys, and boy were they surprised to see their grandparents pull in the driveway! The only thing I regret (and I know you will be shocked by this) is that I didnt have my camera ready to catch their reactions.

Unfortunately these next pictures are backwards, but frankly I'm tired and I don't want to change the order.

A typical Schwartz Family picture. People in this community are very generous. We received ALL these trays of goodies from people in town. I LOVE it here. My mother in law was just astonished by it all. It seemed every 10 minutes someone was coming to the door with a tray for us. My christmas coffee.

We bought Colby and Ipod Touch. He has wanted one for the past few years but we felt he was now responsible enough for one.

Waiting impatiently for me to put the camera away so they could open presents.

Throwing colored reindeer food so the reindeers would know where we live.

The traditional Christmas eve "Twas the Night Before Christmas". Jean started this in 2001 when Colby was just a month old. Since we have lived in the north this tradition has been kept alive via webcam. It's the first time the boys have been on THIS side of the webcam.

Christmas eve seafood chowder. Our friends from across the street came over to share it with us. There was just one small bowlful left when we were done.

Reading stories on the Ipad.

Walking outside with Puppa. For some reason Joey kept falling over into the snowbank.

Baking with Gramma. We were making Maids of Honour, which is a cookie that Rob's grandmother always made and I love them. I have never been able to make them right so I asked Jean to make them so I could see how they were done. Unfortunately somehow between us talking and Joey "helping" we quadripuled the butter (it called for 1/2 cup and we put 2 cups) so they ended up as Maids of Honor Crumble instead of individual cookies. It only took a couple of hours of soaking the mini muffins tins to get them to come clean. Although my new clean oven it's so clean anymore!

The best book E.V.E.R

If you have children, or know someone who has small children, buy them this book. This is BY FAR the best book I have ever read. Joey and I have read this book many times, and Joey has read it many times on his own. It is an amazing idea for a book. It promotes imagination and it's a truly magical book. I can't wait to sneak it to work on Monday to share it with my preschoolers.