Showered With Gifts

One benefit of being down south is getting lavished with my mothers party throwing talents. She went over the top for her first Granddaughter today, we had about 30 guests at the shower. she made many delectable snacks such as gourmet carrot cake cupcakes, with baby blue birds made of icing on the top. I figure this child won't need a single thing for the entire first year of her life.

Now I almost feel prepared for this little one coming along, we even have the first name, Ezri (ez-Ree), but are still missing a middle name. Nathan thinks he is picking, but perhaps I can give him some ideas. Anyone have any suggestions on a normal middle name that would go well with Ezri?

The Arctic Breed; In his natural habitat

Something has been happening to my little snowman recently, we have been catching him sleeping on things that are warm...and more shockingly inside. He never used to sit still while inside, always wanted back outside the moment he came in. Recently, in his apparently "I'm turning into an old man" phase we have found him in such places as the middle of our bed, feet under the duvet and head gently resting on Nathan's pillow. Or on the couch, curled into a relaxing ball. I finally broke down and gave him a blanket for his Kennel in our room. He uses it as a pillow, resting his head, while holding the balled up blanket with his front paws. He finally sees the importance of a blanket other then tearing it up into little pieces of batting.

Right now he is home with Nathan in the arctic keeping him from getting lonely, while I'm down south. Apparently he was confused when I left and waited, sleeping at the front door. He is going to be happy to see me again...for all of 10 seconds, until his puppy brain resets.

Beached Tootsie Roll

I was going to say Beached Whale...but really I look more like a juicy, fat Tootsie Roll with that Jacket on. I was trying to pose on the ice for a belly shot and ended up just slipping around like a turtle on her back. It really was amusing for my sister-in-law Jen to watch.

I have safely made it out of the north for my Confinement period, where I'm within driving distance of a hospital and Mcdonalds. Two things every prego lady needs. Poor Nathan is still up north for an entire month and the whole thing just bums me out. On one hand I will be enjoying my family, the shopping and dinning out and on the other hand I would love nothing more then to be tucked away in my northern home with my favourite person. It seems like forever until I will return, and when I do my life is going to be a lot different.

Good Things Come to Those Who Wait...

Good things comes to those who wait, even if they didn't have a choice about wanting to wait or not and even if they grumbled about waiting the entire time! But I survived and my family finally arrived last night. I even got my food mail and the box of Halloween candy that I ordered 6 weeks ago...you know so it would be here for Halloween. Apparently whoever deals with Canada post thought it should go into the "it can wait pile" because I can see by the little airport sticker that it arrived in Iqaluit on October 22, you know like 4 weeks ago. Apparently it only took that extra little bit of time to make it the one hour flight over here, because Canada post is a priority and all. Now I have a truck load of candies and mini chocolate bars to deal with before I leave on Thursday for the south. I guess I could just leave them to console Nathan for the entire month he is up here without me, but I'm probably going to be evil and pack as many as I can back. Plus I have my family to share them with.
We got out for a nice walk and snowmobile ride this morning, enough time to throughly freeze us through to last the entire day. I think the Little Girl enjoyed it very much as she "danced" around around to the sound of the snowmobile.

Northern Airline Heartbreak....once again!

Nameless northern airline strikes again at being crappy. Tonight I sing the northern airline blues once again, like I have done so many times in the past, like all northerners have sung at some point. Two airlines fly into my community but I usually fly with one in particular, but really both airlines are clones of eachother and both run up the same amount of irritation with their customers. Still, most of you know which airline I am speaking of when the blood vessels in my eyes pop and I grind my teeth together.

Why am I so upset in particular today? Well my sister-in-law, brother-in-law and their oldest son were supposed to be sitting, relaxing on my couch all of 24 hours ago and will not reach said couch destination until tomorrow at 4pm (fingers crossed).

Their story starts off in Ottawa, being stranded because of a mechanical issue. Mechanical issues happen, so do weather ones, especially up north, understandably. Today after finally making it into Iqaluit, my family were unable to fly the rest of the way into our community because of "weather issues". The flight has been canceled right out. After clarification I find out that the weather issues are not coming out of Iqaluit, but in fact with regards to landing in our community. Understandably there is less flight equipment here, many times we have been stranded because of fog and visibility to the runway. Today the flight was canceled here because of our apparently horrendous weather conditions. Lets all take a look now at the terrible weather conditions we were suffering from today in my community.

Remarkably bad, blue sky and sunshine, I can understand why they would cancel the flight... even though other nameless airline landed this afternoon. Would wind possibly be a factor in todays cancellation? No, not at a whopping 9 km/hr, it was a gentle kiss on the cheek. It was seriously a gorgeous day out today. I had made mention of that to my husband as we took the dog out to the park for a leisurely walk this morning, before we even knew the flight had been canceled.

Meanwhile Nameless Airline in Iqaluit did not want to pay to put my family up in Iqaluit, as it was a weather issue and not mechanical. My most amazingly convincing sister-in-law pointed out that if it hadn't been for the mechanical issue the previous day they would be at their destination already, as their connecting flight successfully made it in last night (not on time though, what a shock). Thankfully they relented and are paying for their accommodations tonight.

The last shred of hope I have is that they get in tomorrow on the only scheduled flight, because they don't come in on the weekends and they only fly scheduled flights. Thus meaning if they cancel a flight, they don't just make up a new one, you just get bumped (hopefully) onto the next scheduled flight. That is also of course if their are no rogue snowflakes over here, that would be another absolute cancellation for sure! BTW I have seen both airlines land in blizzards and less then ideal (A LOT LESS ideal then today) weather many, many times. Sometimes it feels like they just cancel because they are not in the mood to run a flight out here. And landing/take off times are suggestion only, what is time schedule really?

If I sound a little bitter it's only because I'm hormonal and Nameless Airline has prevented this pregnant lady from A)Receiving her Food Mail today and B) Receiving her much anticipated loved ones for the second day in a row! Not to mention this happens every aggravating time I want something off the plane, fly with or have family flying in on this airline. It's a little exasperating the kazillionth time.

I can only hope they redeem themselves tomorrow with the arrival of food and family.

it's warm inside

Remembrance Day Ceremonies

Indigo, being wonderful over on South Baffin!

Indigo strikes again! Could she be the next Santa? Queen of the solstice! Check over here to see what other November Miracles Indigo has been creating on the other side of Northern Canada.Little Girl thanks you Indigo for the copious amounts of beautiful (non-pink always nice) girly clothing you sent her! She will be stylish her entire first year!! AND LOOK AT THE SHOES OMG!!! And thanks for thinking of mom and the wonderful booby cream! I love that my northern friends think about the safety of my boobs! Little Girl's mommy is sending you a thank you in the form of something hand made as well, just nothing as fantastic as Kara's booties lol.

Honorary Auntie

When I was growing up I had but one Auntie and didn't see too much of her. However, I always had woman in my life that I would prefix Aunt in front of. These were people who might not have even been related to me but were still considered aunts to me. Even though our little girl will have more real aunts then I ever did, she will still have some honorary Aunts too. We aren't doing the whole god-parent thing, but there still are people I would like to honor as important figures in Little Girl's life. My friend Julie is one of them. Now what is the roll of an honorary Auntie? Well their job is to spoil and enjoy their nieces and nephews without any of the crappy jobs like changing diapers or having to discipline them.

My good friend Julie from down south is someone that I am still very close with even though we live so far apart. Julie recently went to NYC and the only present she brought back was for Little Girl. She said that she looked into getting some Manolo Blahnik shoes for her, but didn't see any baby sizes. She said if she puts away money in a fund for every year that Little Girl is growing up, she might have enough for a pair by the time she is 20. Tallinn is modeling the gift Auntie Julie bought Little Girl. Julie is also Tallinn's Auntie, so he had no problem helping me out with this photo.

Brain no go.

I guess I should be getting to posting up here on the blog. Really though I can barely string together a a sentence let alone a thought to save my life. I really should be eating more Omega 3's!

Well what is there to catch up on. I'm leaving the north in 2 weeks for my confinement period, meaning time spent stuffing my face with Mcdonalds and within driving distance of a hospital. We have finally come up with a contending Name, but I don't have Nathan's signature on a contract yet, so it might still change. It only took blood, sweat and many tears to come up with a name and I'm hoping we can stick with it. Now onto a middle name...eek! The little girl has been kicking lots and I'm really starting to get excited to meet her, just not about the whole birthing thing. Something that has to happen, but I don't have to be happy about it.

My sister-in-law, brother-in-law and their oldest son are coming up next Wednesday for week. They are flying back with me, it just worked out that way, good thing too because I might need my sister to do some yelling if the person in front of me puts their seat down on the plane. I normally hate when people put their seat down, not only because I can't put down my table, but because the back of their head is usually in my face and that's just too close. I really don't need to know what kind of shampoo anyone else is using or lack there of. This time however, I am going to say something if it happens, seeing as I have a good excuse, but will probably have to borrow my sister-in-law's assertiveness to make that happen. I know no one will mess around with this pregnant lady when she's on the team.

Meanwhile my Halloween candy I ordered a month ago from London Drugs has not made an appearance! And I know it's not their fault. Canada post said the last time they scanned in the box was in Montreal almost 3 weeks ago...meaning it's sitting in Iqaluit collecting dust. Iqaluit is the like the big white dryer that absorbs socks like a black hole. Good bye little package, I thought we would have had a good time on Halloween with those fake eyelashes and Halloween goodies, I guess it's not meant to be. Bah! I don't know really what's to blame about the mail system up here, but I could send a box across the world 3 times over before anything gets to me up here. Boxes are also always ALWAYS smooshed, bashed and torn. I know it's all isolated and stuff up here, but I'm sure I would get better service living at the top of the Himalayas!

It's pretty cold here now. I called my in-laws yesterday down south and they were out on their deck enjoying some warm weather, while I snuggled into 20 blankets because it was snowing and so cold outside the ocean was freezing up in front of my eyes. I even saw some crazy driving his quad out on the newly sheeted ice. The other issue is the whole "fall back", while most of the country isn't suffering, it's now starting to get dark here at 2:30. But I guess I can't complain, I will be south in 2 weeks. I just don't feel ready to leave my home and Nathan behind for a month. I don't know if all the Quarter pounders in the world can console me.