It's been awhile.....

Yikes - 3 months is a lot to catch up on.

I'm not even sure where to start.  It's almost to the point where I thought maybe I should just cut my loses and move on.  Then I realised that this has also not only turned into a journal of sorts for me.  Since I have horrendous memory - I should likely keep on top of this because if it gets too out of hand I really won't remember.  But this has also become a great way to keep family and friends up to date with what we've been up to.  It's not nearly as great as receiving a good ol' fashion letter in the mail - but it works.  Also - since just a few months ago I sent out pictures that I intended to send out a YEAR ago.....well - I better get back into this blog.

There is simply too much "stuff" to play catch up on.  I have to admit that this is my third attempt to write this.  I'm having a tough time getting back on the waggon.  I tried to upload a bunch of pictures a few days ago and figured that once the pictures were up - the stories would come.  Part way through the download the power went out.  Bye bye upload.  That was the second attempt.  I took it as a sign to try again another day.

Today is another day.  Attempt number 3.  Lets see how this goes.

So for the record today is May 10th.  I'll use that as challenge to myself to get this posted before the end of the day.  Well see how that pans out.

May 10 looks vastly different here in our world than what you are seeing in your world.  I know because I'm seeing all the pictures on Facebook.  You guys are killing me!  Some of you are going for walks in the park with your spring jackets and sunglasses.  Others are jumping in your backyard pools, without a wetsuit on.   My mother keeps talking about how she is spending hours out in the garden. 

We just had another blizzard.

What more is there to say about that?  Last week was really nice.  Sure there was still lots of snow and it was below zero but it tricked me into thinking that Spring was coming.  We went for walks with just our winter jackets on (no snow pants) and our sun glasses.  Snow blindness is a crazy thing.  It hurts.   All that white is really, really bright. 

Fast forward to this week and we have a blizzard which seemed to be the beginning of the gloom.  The clouds seemed to have found their spot - right over top of our little town.  The forecast shows sun in about 3 days.  Not that I'm counting.

I'm still trying to get out for a walk everyday.  It is starting to get a little tougher to push the stroller.  The snow is getting more damp and is packing like a snowball around the tires.  N wants to walk parts of the walk and pick up snow balls along the way.  He's discovered that snow is fun to eat.  He hauls the same big chunk of snow with him for the whole walk and then says "bye bye" to it when I biff it off the steps as we come in.

On our walk around town yesterday I was on a treasure hunt of sorts.  I heard that there were a couple bears hanging up around town.  A grizzly and a polar bear.  The polar was an easy find.  Once I spotted it I realised that if I looked a little closer out my kitchen window I could have found it.  I'll blame that on snow blindness.  I searched all FOUR streets (feel free to laugh now) for the grizzly  but I didn't find it.  They must have taken him down before I made my way around.  I did find a few other things.  I found a seal fur stretching in a much more elaborate fashion than mine.  I stapled mine to a wall - this one looked quite advanced.  Kind of like a seal skin inside a dream catcher.  I did try to take a picture.....my camera is dead.  There were also a few remnant's of geese which have been back for about a week.  I thought once the geese were back I'd see them.  I haven't seen a live one yet.  I hear they are all out at Egg Island and that they are early this year. 

So this would have been the first grizzly of the year and it was the 7th polar bear.  Not sure what to say about that so I think I will just leave it alone. 

Lets see if these pictures inspire me to write a bit more:

There is an ice rink plowed out on the bay.  Out walking one day N spotted a few kids down there playing hockey, and he was off.  Him and the puppy that picked up along our route.  Once we were down there N loved it.  I would have loved it more if he was in bubble wrap.  I use to love skating but now all I see is the potential danger.  I'll have to get bubble wrap.

Excitement on the bay.  One morning we woke up to this.  It plowed out the snowmobile race track.  N thought it was pretty fun to watch it go around.  I thought it was very nice of him to plow out a new walking path for me.  I forgot to take the wind into account and when I did walk around it it was a major workout because the majority of the path was blown in. 

Here is almost every single truck in town down at the races.

We went sledding one day with a few friends. Going down was a blast, coming back up, OMG!  With a tube and 2 year it was a tad crazy.  I went down twice - R went down twice and we each took N once.  That hill is steep!!!  The first time I went I went with my eyes closed.  I was pretty sure I was going to flip but I didn't.  I did end up way out on the ice and had to hike for 15 minutes to get back up, but it was fun.  The second time I went with N on my lap.  That time I was concentrating so much on holding onto him that I forgot to hold my butt up and bottomed out.  OUCH.    N had a ball!

Easter

Well this picture pretty much sums it up.  We were sledding the night before and apparently I was not the only one who was tired out.  N slept until after 10:00 am!!!!  R and I were sitting in the living room surrounded by eggs looking at each and wondering if we should wake him up.  Once he was up he was good to go.  It was fun watching him.

Athena likes chocolate too....

Here are a few pictures of how a 2 year old has fun and causes his Mom a little stress, and a few giggles that I tried to hide.

I know you'll all be shocked that a 2 year ever gets into stuff - especially my 2 yr old.  So here's a little proof of the "fun" he has.

I guess he didn't want to wait for me to get him juice....

I was actually impressed with the amount he got into the water bottle (that he found in our trash bin), but I would have been more impressed he missed the couch entirely.  I bet he like this juice much more than his normal "juice".  Which is water with a just a little juice.  He likely thought he found the best juice EVER!!!

N also found the cake decorating kit - with the icing coloring.....surprisingly enough it washed off fairly easy.  He only had green hands for a day or two,

There's a new bird in N's flock and is he ever pleased with the new member!!!

So there we have it.  I guess it kind of is like riding a bike after all.  Once you get going.....

To the boat

Happy Monday Everyone!

R asked me this morning if I was going to do one more post before vacation.  Honestly I hadn't planned on it because I didn't think I had taken any pictures during the past week.  WOW - my memory is seriously lacking!  I need to double up on my fish oil intake!

I forgot all about our hike out to the boat.  Now if only I could remember the name of "the boat".  I'll have to google it and post it in here later.  I'm thinking The Roger, or The Albert............hmmmm - I wonder how close I am.  Regardless - what a great day that was and a nice little adventure.

This is a nice way to start the week.

The obvious thing to look at in this picture are the flowers.  Yes, your seeing that right.  Fresh flowers in Paulatuk, in the WINTER.  The Northern manager brought up fresh flowers for Valentines Day.  R brought them home and they are so beautiful.  I always use to have fresh flowers in the house in YK - but I have never had the opportunity up here....I like it alot.  I asked R if anyone else had bought any.  No.  He said one lady said "flowers, I don't know what to do with flowers".   I hope other people bought them - if we are the only ones they'll never fly them up again. 

Anyway - the thing I was actually taking a picture of was the shadow on the wall.  Shadows are fun - especially at 9:00 AM - which means not only is it light at 9, but it's sunny.  LOVE IT!

I have tried to take a few pictures of the boats and their winter storage locations, but the pictures just didn't turn out.  It makes me chuckle because I know people down South spend hours preparing their boats for winter - draining all the liquid out of them - covering them up and placing them somewhere out of the elements......



Here are some pictures of "the boat" that we hiked out to last weekend.  Four us decided to hike out to the little black spot in the bay which we had been told was a stranded boat.  We started out with a bit of nerves because somebody had cautioned us about cracks in the ice.  I REALLY didn't want to fall down some crack in the Arctic Ocean.  It became clear pretty quickly that it was going to be safe - so on we marched.  It looked like it was WAY out there.  I thought we would be walking forever.  Once it started to get closer it got close quick.  Maybe because we could actually see something more than a dot we walked a little quicker.

Once we reached it, it was really neat.  The boat was alot smaller than I thought it was going to be.  You can see in some of the pictures that it really isn't that big, especially given that this boat was used to transport people to residential school.  I really should do a little more research on this because I honestly don't know much - other than what it looks like.  Heck, I don't even know it's name.   Now that I've been there I have more questions.  How many people were on this little boat?  How long did they stay on it?  How long was it stuck out there before the people were rescued?  How long has it been out there?

Hmmm - I'm feeling awfully uninformed.  I'll have to get the information and fill in the blanks later. 



I know I am biased, but seriously - N is the cutest little boy!

He has this little police car that he cruises around in, one day he decided to take passengers with him.  Given that his giant dog is in backwards, I'm glad he has 14 more years to figure out a little more about this whole driving gig ; )



Bundled up and heading out for a walk, with owl.   I guess he decided to share the experience with him or her too.  He has started telling me every sort of animal is either "mama" or "dada".  Initially I thought he was trying to tell me that I was an owl.  Interesting.  I have since figured out that he has figured out that animals have Mom's and Dads, so he'll point to all of them and either say "mama" or "dada" and I say, "oh, that's a mommy owl", and he says "yeah".  It's a fun game we have going on......at least I know that he doesn't really think I'm an owl, hippo, worm, polar bear, whale, horse....you get the point.



The sky was on fire this week.  This is around 6 pm. 

This made me chuckle.  He lined all his birds up so they could look out the window one morning.  That kid is so stinking cute.  Have to say - those birds have a great view!

I guess that's it for today.  This time tomorrow we'll be in Inuvik on out way to Halifax and then Mexico.  Vacation has come quick again!  We get back at the end of March and then we don't plan on leaving again until October.  I can't wait to experience another summer in Paulatuk - it is so wonderful.  I guess we need to get out of this -40 weather first.

So Halifax here we come - that is after we hit seven airports -

Paulatuk

Inuvik

Normen Wells

Yellowknife

Edmonton

Toronto

Halifax

Oh - let the fun begin!!!

B

B = black out, blizzard, I mean local blowing snow and black garbage bags.   I guess that properly sums up the last few weeks.  B.

How should I describe life in the great white North during the past few weeks....

WEIRD

I found that blogging is similar to exercising.  Once your actually doing it your good to go...it's just getting to doing it.  I always sit down and wonder "what am I going to write about" but I always find myself with more to say than I even knew.  It certainly helps that when I look at the pictures that I've taken over the past week or so that all the stories that go along with them come back. 

As you'll see, some of the memories of the past 2 weeks are better than others - but I'm sure eventually we'll look back at the pictures and laugh about it.  It likely won't be while we still have to shovel out our kitchen....

Do you notice anything different about this picture?

Look at the smoke from the chimneys.

This is a great way to tell the weather.  While we lived in Ft. McPherson a friend and I took our daily walk.  At the time we only had dial-up Internet so trying to get the actual weather forecast was a pain.  We quickly realised that you could pretty accurately tell the temperature from how the smoke was coming out of the chimneys. 

Straight up meant is was pretty warm out.

Diagonal meant it was cooler.

Horizontal meant, bundle up...it's cold.

Little trick of the trades ; )

We had theft at the house.  To be specific, the barge room.  Good thing he is a darn cute little thief and giggles as he's tearing out with a container of Pringles and a grin from ear to ear.

Remember in my last post how I was so impressed that we didn't loose power during the blizzard.  I guess I should have knocked on wood.  One of the loaders hit a power pole while clearing out snow from that blizzard.  So there was a planned power outage to replace the damaged pole.  No big deal.  It was scheduled to last from 1 - 3.  I knew enough to know it would not go exactly as planned so when the power went off at 1:30 I wasn't shocked and expected it to be off for the next few hours.  I didn't think it was bad at all - N went down for his nap and I took the opportunity to sew some on the seal mitts I'm making for N.  It was actually nice, for the first 2 hours. 

N napped and I was sewing away, sewing  very slowly.  I'm not an expert by any means but I thought I was doing pretty well considering.  I had all the stitches nice and tight and kept checking to make sure it looked good.  I was impressing myself!  I managed to finish one side and let me tell you by the end of that my fingers were sore.  Seal skin is tough and sewing with sinew instead of thread means you really have to pull and tug each stitch to tighten it.  My needle was too small and kept ending up at a 90 degree angle so I'd try to straighten it out every so often. 

N woke up - it was getting a little chilly in the house now - it was -40 outside after all.  We read a bunch of books as we were cuddled up on the couch.  It was getting dark outside so I lit a few candles and N and I went on an adventure with our flashlights. 

R came home from work a little after 5.  He had spoken with the guys working on the pole and they thought it would be another half hour or so.  We all bundled up in our hoodies and waited for the power to come on.  For whatever reason I was starving, and as we all know, when you can't have something that's when you want it the most.  I settled for triscuits and the boys ate Pringles....shocking.

Around 6:00 it started getting cold.  The dogs were even making the rounds wondering what was going on.  Here is a picture I took of town.  It was cold and dark but I could see the guy up the pole and I knew he wanted the power to be on just as much as I did.

The power came on right around 6:30.  So our 2 hour scheduled power outage ended up being 5 hrs. 

Red sky at night, sailors delight.  Red sky in morning, sailors take warning.

I read the weather report to R one night because the next day was calling for winds of 120 km and local blowing snow.  The next morning - the morning that I took this picture, R called me from work to tell me that there was going to wind gusts of 120 km.   Can we say busted!  He really isn't infatuated with everything I say : )

It started out as a calm day - and as the day progressed, it kept getting more and more windy.  By that night our house was shaking.  I kept thinking about people telling us to have our parka's close.  I decided that if the roof was going to come off I wouldn't have time to get my jacket and boots on anyway so I should just get to sleep.  Easier said than done.  I couldn't believe the wind. 

This was not classified as a blizzard.  The weather reports called it "local blowing snow" and the locals called it "a big blow".  I call it insane.  All the snow that was already down just got moved around.  If you looked straight up you could see blue sky but if you looked right in front of you, you could not see anything.  All of the neighbours houses disappeared again.  It is odd to say the least.

When we woke up we had to shovel out our kitchen.  Evidently the door to the back deck is not sealed well.  There was literally a snow bank in the kitchen.  We shovelled it out and sealed up the door the best we could.

There are eight towels there and still snow came in.  If you look out the window you can see all the snow has blown off the deck which I guess was a good thing.

The "big blow" lasted for an entire 24 hours.  When things calmed down and the loaders and dozers had made their way around town clearing out paths we took a trip to see what town looked like with all it's rearranged snow.

Isn't that nuts!  This was just snow that was already here.  It just moved.  There were tunnel type spots on the road.  That truck is a F-250, it's not little. 

There was one truck in town that didn't make out so well.  It got buried.  Seriously!  Totally buried.  I talked to the lady the other day and I was laughing about it, a little more than she was.  She said they went to bed that night and woke up and the truck was gone.  It just got dug out a few days ago and surprisingly enough come out with only a few minor injuries....well I guess a bumper is a little more than minor, but considering what could have happened, I guess it was minor.

This past week-end we started having really nice weather.  Usually when I check online for the temperature and I see a warmer temp. and makes me nervous.  I use to get excited and when the "warm" day came the windchill would be a killer.  If the forecast said it was going to be -10 that sounds awesome (well to us it does), but when the day rolls around, it might be -10 with a windchill of -33.  That just ruins it.  Last weekend though it started to get warm and people started to come out of hibernation.  You could look out the window and see kids playing on the snow hills and people walking up and down the street.  It's really nice.

Early this week N and I went to playschool.  Once there the teachers decided to take advantage of the nice weather and we all put our gear on to head out sledding.  I figured we'd be sledding on our bums.  I was kind right.......on our bums with a twist.

Oh yah - stylish I know, but boy oh boy those kids had a blast.  We put big black garbage bags on them and off they went. 

Oh - any my mitts that I was so impressed with myself about.  I took them to playschool with me and and showed them to one of the ladies who promptly told me "we have to take them apart".  I sort of thought she was joking, but I wasn't sure because she was not laughing.

She wasn't joking.

I sewed one of the pieces on backwards.  Uh huh.  So my sewing with my 90 degree angle needle was all for not.  I'm still looking for the silver lining in that one.  I guess I'll know better next time.   The worst part is I kept checking it trying to visualise it and make sure I had it the right way.  Some people are just naturals - me.....not so much.

Once they are finished I'll post a picture - they will be beautiful, and wait until you see the mukluks....they are so nice.  I may just have to make myself a pair.

The moon never ceases to amaze me