Jen of Nunavut

You ain't gettin' my numba, movin' on over to wordpress.

2010-05-11T14:05:00.006-04:00

I really enjoyed blogger during the time I spent here. And frankly I will miss it a little, but I moved on over to Wordpress.

Come check me out here http://jentography.com

You see, when I tried to make another blog with this account, google showed up and told me that I had to put in my cell phone address so they could text me...you know to verify it was me. Except I have NO idea how that would actually verify "me", seeing as I have never previously entered in a cell phone number. And guess what google...you are so not getting my cell phone number. And as some people pointed out, what if I didn't have a cell phone, like many MANY of the folks up north?

I guess it turns out that blogger was concerned I wasn't me and trying to hijack this account with more blogs. Again I have no idea how the cell phone identification would have worked instead of just e-mailing my private e-mail address with some kind of verification. Whatever it's too late now. I had to check out wordpress and lets say I'm pretty impressed.

Goodbye forever Jen of Nuavut & Blogger, Hello spiffy new blog.

For Northern Mommies

2010-01-03T11:55:00.004-05:00

Did you know that cost-co has recently added their baby wipes to the list of things they are shipping for free? You can check it out here. If you haven't tried these wipes, you need to. They have done wonders for Ezri's bum and don't seem to irritate her the way others do. But more importantly all you northern mom's can get months worth of awesome wipes for $30 and free shipping. I'm just excited for you. It doesn't make a difference for me anymore obviously since cost-co is just a hop skip and jump away, but then again maybe I'll take advantage of it so I don't have to endure those irritating crowds and annoying line ups just to your receipt "checked over".

Birthday Cake (babies & doggies eddition)

2009-12-24T23:33:00.008-05:00

Christmas Eve marks the celebration of my first year of being a mother, also it was Ezri's birthday. I have a few photos to share with you of the celebration, but an entire year of motherhood is exhausting and tomorrow is Christmas, so here is a quick bed time story to tide you over until I can write a more detailed post.

The afternoon was filled with cake, family and friends. The little girl received more then a little girl needs for her first birthday. After all the guests had gone, only a single piece of cake remained uneaten. The mother gave into the dog, who sat unmoving, focused on the last remaining piece of cake. The plate was placed on the floor and the mother left the room for only a moment to clean up the left over wrapping paper. When the mother returned to the kitchen, she found the dog and the little girl sitting on the floor sharing that last remaining piece of cake. Here is the conversation that ensued that evening.

Ezri: "That's what I was telling you about earlier. You kept sliding the plate across the floor like that piece of cake was a hockey puck. You had absolutely no control, eating cake is not some kind of game. Here is the answer to your problem, this is a bowl."

Ezri: "You see, the bowl has this nifty edge around it that allows you to push the food into the side for a better grip. Honestly, how did you even survive before me? Clearly your quality of life has improved since I've come along. Yes, yes I'm working on opening the fridge. All in good time. You just keep bringing us those treats you find in the garbage can."

I miss you already

2009-12-09T22:55:00.002-05:00

I miss you, Nunavut. I don't think about how much I miss you during the day time when I'm driving in my car, texting and eating a Big Mac (but not really because texting and driving is illegal in my area, and I'm a perfect citizen). I don't really think I miss you when the weather is warm, I'm wearing a tee-shirt, the grass is still green and it's November. I vaugly remember you when I'm power shopping the mall, online shopping a distant memory, sipping a Starbucks and heading through a self check out.

But late at night, when I'm fast asleep, visions of snowmachines drive through my head. Blizzards, cold and the snow. And I remember how much I hate rain, rain sucks. Then I start dream wondering why it hasn't snowed here yet, this place sucks and I'm never going to snowmachine here!

Then I really, really miss you!

Playing the single parent, and it sucks.

2009-12-02T23:02:00.005-05:00

We recently had my friend Julie come over and take some photos of us in front of my mother's "Bay store entrance" tree (this is what I call her Christmas tree because she does it up like the ones you see at the front of The Bay, you know where all the ornaments match). My tree, which is still not up, normally looks like Christmas barfed all over it, rather then the well thought out, choreographed tree at my mothers house.

This was supposed to be a family portrait, but Nathan was called away for a 3 week work course and I was left a single parent. I didn't really think much of it at first, but now that the 3 weeks are almost over and there are only 2 LONG days until daddy comes home, I am now realizing how ridiculously hard it is for single parents of the world. Now granted I am 6 months pregnant and feeling a little bit of extra burn because my body is hard at work making another person, while I run around, chasing a creature that has just been unleashed to the world walking, with no concept of electricity or stairs. I'm pretty freaking tired. This child also does not like to sit still, or stay in any one place for too long, this also includes mommy's lap. I call her my "free range chicken", because she is constantly on the go and gets very cranky when not left to her own devices. I've got my fingers crossed that the second baby is a little more chilled out. I'm going to start pumping Bob Marley into the womb.

Only 2 more days and the daddy can do all the picking up and lifting. And maybe a diaper too.
You can see more of Julie's exceptional photography here.

Ezri (10 months-ish)

2009-11-07T10:06:00.006-05:00

Ezri is really growing, it's a pretty magical experiance to watch. Also under the law of being a mom, I have to also say that she is so amazing and gorgeous and the cutest ever. But holy toledo. am I ever exhausted! This might have something to do with being 5 months pregnant, but I'm thinking it may also have to do with someone getting up at 5:45am since the time change. Ezri enjoys taking off anything that touches her feet, screeching as loud as she possibly can constantly, standing & walking with something to assist her. Two days ago she took her first steps unassisted, but realized she could reach her destination much faster if crawling. We haven't seen much more on the walking front, but we know it's coming and soon. She is a woman on a mission and has no time to slow any of that down with cuddeling or standing still. She has been too much fun and I'm hoping that one day soon I'll get some energy back so I can keep up with her!

Back of the line

2009-11-05T20:26:00.007-05:00

Just like the south, the north has it's little irritations that you just put up with. Just before I left the north I started letting those little things bug me just a little more then I would normally let myself get away with. I had caught the "grass is greener" syndrome, everything in the south was going to smell like roses. I usually reverse my outlook depending if I'm north or south. I flip flop like that, it's how I roll. Some people might call that flaky. Well since I'm down south for good this time I've reverted back to the north being all peaches and cream and remembering all the irritating things one has to deal with down south. One of them being waiting in line. And if you don't believe me, I'm telling the honest truth, you almost never wait in a line up north, maybe only on hot dog day once a year, who is going to pass up a free hot dog?

I've had the pleasure of waiting in sorts of lines since my return south. Of course there is waiting in line at Tim Horton's. A minor irritation at 8am when the line is busting itself out of the parking lot and into oncoming traffic. But it seems to move along at a reasonable pace.
Then there is the grocery store line when nameless huge chain only pay to have two cashiers on shift when their is clearly need for more. They tell you it's so they can bring you those Delisio's for the low low price of $5 (a mighty drop from the $16 I used to pay for them up north), but I know that since you're only paying your two cashiers pennies an hour to work anyways, you could probably shave a few bucks off of those dripping with fat CEO bonus cheques and get one more employee scanning out my pizzas. I'm entitled to my agression because I worked for said nameless grocery store for 6 years prior to my time up north. I know the deal. That or maybe you can use all that money your shamelessly charging for plastic bags in the name of the environment and then pocketing. I'm just saying.

Then the mother of all line ups, the one it took to get vaccinated for H1N1 in southern Ontario. Please, some of my northern friends pipe in and tell me how long it took you to wait in line to get vaccinated? Well it took me only an hour and half and that's because I got crafty and drove to another smaller city and got in line an hour before the clinic opened. The one I tried to get into (twice!) the night before was 2.5 - 4 hours long. I'm not going to get into the touchy subject of the vaccination itself, all I can say is that I'm sound with my choice of getting if for my pregnant self and 10 month old daughter. Happy I got it, and just in time too, lots of my friends are popping up with H1N1. Meanwhile back to the line up and how panic and lots of people mean waiting in sweaty, stinky school hallways. If Canada wants it's larger popluated areas to get vaccinated, making people who don't really want the vaccine wait in line for 4 hours isn't going to do the trick. Also who's idea was it to shove a bunch of pregnant ladies, kids and immune compromised individuals into tiny, cramped, low ventalated area with hundreds to thousands of other people. I almost turned into a germaphobe, I must have been purrelling every 10 seconds. Everytime someone caughed or sneezed, out came the purell. Then horror of all horrors, some random kid came over to Ezri, took one look at her and then proceed to lick her hand!! Where are we? Lets all share our germs and then get a vaccination, somehow that feels like it cancels it all out.
Here is Ezri being a trooper and waiting in line. At this point we are being told to make sure we have our Health cards ready, because it's soo important and omg where is your health card. I pull out our Nunavut Health cards, the lady doesn't even bother to check our names and tosses them back to us. "I can't scan these". Ontario your so high and mighty with your scan cards (notice how I'll say that until my Ontario health card comes in the mail). I could have been from Mars and still got the vaccination. Lets just hope that I never have to wait in one of these southern panic lines again. I've had about enough of waiting in line.

Is anyone out there?

2009-10-25T21:45:00.008-04:00

Ok so I don't live in Nunavut anymore. So what, I'm still posting. I thought I should do a little better at trying to wrap this up. Not that I really want to stop writing about embarrassing things on the Internet anymore, but really I would be living a fat lie if I kept posting under this website any longer. Maybe I should just change the name to Formerly of Nunavut? Well in any case a new website will be made, but I just moved into a new house, have a baby who is moving faster then the speed of light and am pregnant, so don't expect speediness. I've had a few people, you know all of 5 of my blog fans, complain about not making any posts. So here you are.

Adjusting back down south has been fairly easy, I've found myself plugged back into cellphone and car, the things I lived so easily without up north. I've also been too busy to think much about the adjustment, except for that short time at the end of the day when I feel horridly exhausted and my feet are killing me, I realize it's because there is way too much to do down here. Of course I miss my friends and all the beautiful scenery up north and think of them often. Sometimes I go on the Environment Canada's website and check out the temperatures for back north, like I'm secretly stocking everyone. By now they have lots of snow and down here we have terrible rain and bazaar days with plus 16. But are the Fall colours on the trees ever amazing! I've come to a funny realization that when I lived up north I was ready for Halloween in August and Christmas in September, both Holidays seemed to take exceptional time to actually reach. Everything seems to be in better balance now that there is no snow on the ground, I might actually make it to December without catching myself whistling carols.

Tallinn seems to be making the inside adjustment very well, as it was too hot at first for him to stay outside all day long. Now that it has cooled down he still seems content spending time inside. As long as his days are filled with many trips in the car and visits to Petsmart and Gramy's house. He has also taken up to rummaging through the garbage and shedding like crazy all over my new house, this was one reason having him outside most of the time was ideal. But I do love having his company while he is inside.

This is what has been keeping me so occupied, working on the house and looking after Ezri while Nathan is working. Babies will only stay so happy for so long while parked in one spot. Poor girl wanted to have the run of the place and play with all the tools, nails and paint. Mommy had other ideas, banishing her to baby prison in the exersaucer.
We have been enjoying all the bounty the Fall season provides. Especially not having to pay $40 for a pumpkin, but rather $2.50. This is not the front of my house, I do not live in a shack cabin. Although that would be super cool around Halloween.

Here I'm representing the north wearing my Amauti to a War of 1812 reenactment. Some of the amazingly dressed reenactors where very interested in my jacket, it's funny that I came there to see them dressed up, not the reverse. I tell you this was way more practical then bringing the stroller out onto the battle field.

By the way baby number two is a girl!

The end is near

2009-09-01T21:11:00.004-04:00

The end of my time up north is near. Only 9 days left and I will be a citizen of the south once again. I've been having many mixed feelings over the last few months and days ranging between tears of leaving and utter excitement of returning to the land of retail.

The last few weeks I've been trying to overcome some of the symptoms that bother me during early pregnancy, but as I come into the second trimester, I'm starting to feel better and running out of excuses for not blogging. I still have a few good stories to tell while I'm still a member of the north club, and once I step back through the wardrobe, no one will believe me.

So, only 9 days left to tie up loose ends, pack and say goodbye to everything I've called home over the last 3 years. On one side, I'm convinced we're not leaving and I'm going about business as usual. On the other side, I'm having a melt down trying to cram in as much as possible before we leave because I'm frightened to death that we're never coming back. I'm trying to get out of the house as much as possible and just look at things, you know the way you would look at something on the first day you arrive. I've been here long enough that the scenery has become somewhat second nature to me and I don't want leave taking it for granted. I've also been out a few nights just sitting and watching the northern lights. I'm worried it will be the last chance to see them so brightly. I keep saying to Nathan "we'll come back, right? Maybe at the end of your career?". I just don't want it to be over, forever. I guess we'll just have to sit back and see where life takes us. Hopefully it will include another tour of the north, maybe even another northern territory. What I do know for sure is that the north is in my blood. It doesn't matter how excited I'm to get back to family, friends and Starbucks. I'll always be split in two. It's kind of depressing. This is pretty much how the story goes for most who live up north for any period of time.

Here Ezri is trying to help us get organized for the move.

August Nights

2009-08-20T16:33:00.004-04:00

It's about time I updated this thing. Frankly I'm getting nauseous every time I'm loading my blog and seeing the previous post with the greasy army ration photos. Well I'm actually getting nauseous a lot these days as I find myself pregnant again. Yes, already. It wasn't planned, but we do want two and why not have them both experiance a part of Nunavut, even if baby two is only going to experiance it in my tummy. So here I have been suffering again, almost like a 3 month hangover. Lets just say it's been hard, especially along side having an 8 month old crawling around and putting her hands into everything. I've got two more weeks until I hit the second trimester and I'm counting down the seconds. This is the time I started feeling more like myself with the previous pregnancy.

Meanwhile I've at least been out taking photos. We've just started getting night again and I took the opportunity the last few nights to go out scouting for the northern lights. We've had really clear nights and peaceful weather, the perfect recipe for shooting some photos.Last night I took Morena out along with me, we had a great time. And yes we are wearing Parkas. I guess we both figured we'd be out for a long time and you always dress warmly when you live in Nunavut. Meanwhile, it was so beautiful, that we were unzipping and taking off our Parkas. It does add a more authentic look however along with the northern lights in the background. Morena made her own parka last year, we both started one at the same time. She finished hers in about 10 seconds and I've been struggling with mine all year, it's just almost done. If it wasn't for Meaghan, it would never get finished. That piece of crap I'm giving to my wonderful sister in law Jen, and then had Meaghan make a good parka for me. Actually the parka I helped to make isn't too bad at all because Meaghan helped me through the whole thing, Jen is going to love it. I will post up photos soon.
I just wanted an excuse to wear my hot new parka before moving back south, where I will have to wait until NEXT winter because I will be too fat with baby number two to wear this beautiful piece of artwork.

Romantic candle light dinner with army rations

2009-07-24T08:24:00.008-04:00

When Nathan offered to make dinner the other night, I was so elated that it didn't matter to me what we were going to eat. Somewhere along his busy work day, Nathan had come across some army rations and was so excited that he immediately bust into the ration package to explore it's contents. He had come home with a few options of breakfast, lunch & dinner. They all tried very hard to appear much more extravagant then what the preserved packages inside actually were. This option below was a "Lunch Menu No. 2", Mmm already sounds delicious. Then it goes on to list that it's a "Beef Macaroni Chinese Style", whatever that is. It does sounds like the army came up with that idea, lets just mix whatever is leftover together.

The contents of the ration box below includes:
1 Package of SCRUMPTIOUS beef Macaroni Chinese Style, 1 Package of apple sauce, spoon, salt, pepper, wetnap, Chiclets (yes, the army wants you...to have fresh breath), one Worthers original (thank god, I mean what would you do after dinner if you didn't have a Worthers? Subsequently I passed on my mine because it was in Christmas wrapping), everything you need for tea and coffee, jam, peanut butter, a packet of bread, napkins, juice chrystals, one plastic bag cup used for hot and cold beverages, a chocolate bar (sorry, not shown in photo because someone ate it in the 10 seconds it took to open the package and set up this photo), and lets not forget 1 "How do you rate this meal" survey.

Here Nathan is hard at work with the meal preparation. Packages need to be boiled.

Nathan also made us drinks from the flavored crystal packets in the cups that come along with the rations. Even though we were home, within reasonable reach of real cups, it was important to experience everything. Yes, I drank out of this Ziploc bag below, and yes it was very challenging. Remember though, I'm not complaining, because Nathan prepared everything

I decided to go with spaghetti and meatballs, and can honestly say it wasn't bad. A little like zoodles. The brick of bread there was another story. It just didn't seem right to eat bread that was probably older then Ezri.
Nathan went with a chicken in a sauce and mashed potatoes. The potatoes where a powder to begin with and the instructions noted that you could add in the coffee mate packet to intensify the creaminess. So. Gross. Especially because he didn't mix it up really well and when I went to try a bite (try everything once I say), it was completely powdery.
Found directly under "bread", "Do Not Eat". Exactly. Sure, they mean don't eat the package, I guess in a crunch those army guys get really hungry. My theory is that if your hungry enough to think about eating the package, your probably too hungry to read.After consuming two meals, breakfast & dinner in ration form in one day, Nathan didn't feel so great. That was the end of the rations in our house.

This place is so beautiful

2009-07-23T09:51:00.006-04:00

What you can't see are the HOARDS of mosquitoes! I didn't want to spray the baby with deet, so I sprayed the area she was sitting. I know, not really environmentally friendly to spray a bunch of beautiful flowers with bug spray. We could only shoot in one spot for a few seconds and then we had to move. Although there are numerous quantities of arctic mosquitoes, they are as slow as zombies. This gives you a chance to stand still for a few seconds before you are swarmed, then you can out walk them and be clear for a short time before they catch up again.

These purple flowers are called Dwarf Fireweed, as I learned on Clare's blog yesterday. Here is a closer look.

Almost 7 months

2009-07-16T23:18:00.006-04:00

The summer sun was shinning brightly the other evening, warming up the kitchen while I was feeding Ezri her evening meal. I caught a few shots before the sweet potato ended up all over her face and up her nose.

Polar Bear Swim 2009

2009-07-14T21:16:00.007-04:00

I have made this a yearly event, throwing my semi-naked body into the frigid grasp of the arctic ocean. For no good reason. I've done it 3 times now, missing out only last year because I was about 4 months pregnant and it wouldn't have been the best activity to partake in. You can read about 2007's dip here.

I'm sure it seems not a big deal to you people down south in your comfy warm climate, but first of all it wasn't the warmest day up here and secondly as Meaghan puts it on her blog, "reminder the ice just melted about 2 weeks ago". There is still snow in various areas as well. It's cold and the water is even colder then you can imagine, unless of course you've gone in before, in which case you totally understand me. So yeah, it's brain freeze cold. It is the arctic ocean.The trick here is to "dip", not actually swim. Run in, run out. This time I wore shoes instead of crocs so I didn't have to turn right back around and search for them floating away. This time I used my brain. Get in, get out, don't dally around.
In case you were wondering how cold it was, here is a close up from the photo above. I think our faces say it all, (*insert swear word here*)!It was a good time, I'd do it again. I can't explain why, as the part of my brain that's supposed to make sense of things isn't making the decisions when I'm running into the arctic ocean.

Don't forget to check out Morena 's post about our adventure, as well as Meaghan 's.

Sleep walk.

2009-07-08T23:04:00.005-04:00

I awoke early this morning to the sound of Ezri crying. I had forgotten to turn on the monitor and was jolted awake by the idea that I was hearing her cry from her room, rather then the monitor beside my bed. I jumped straight out of bed and then realized this was not an emergency. Ezri had put herself almost back to sleep immediately, but I was still wide awake. After a visit to the washroom, a BEAMING sun filled visit to the washroom, I took a small peak out the window and saw this:
Some of the stillest water I've seen up here. So I decided at 5am to grab my camera and walk down to the beach. I told Nathan I was going for a walk and he looked at me like I was nuts, rolled over and went back to sleep. I know someone who didn't think it was such a crazy idea. Tallinn was having a blast sniffing every rock and blade of grass from my house to the beach.It was the most calming feeling, there wasn't a sound or even a small breeze. Everyone was asleep tucked in their beds, even the ravens and dogs. It wasn't until a bunch of birds that sounded like ducks and seagulls combined started SCREECHING, breaking the silence that I remembered 3 summers ago around this time of year and hour in the morning there was a bear chilling out on the beach behind our house.

So Tallinn and I booked it back to the house and I went back to bed.

Shots

2009-07-06T22:16:00.009-04:00

Today Ezri went in for her 6 Month shots. I documented the day with the NEW camera Nathan got me for my birthday. New camera you ask? Why do you need another camera? Well, let me explain. Firstly, let me point out that I do have 2 hands, so why not two? Second of all I wanted one of those little point & shoot cameras so I could take movies of Ezri, avoiding possible future incidents of holding my lap top over the bathtub trying to capture bath time. For most people this is the staple camera, for me it's a fun camera. My meat and potatoes camera weighs like 20lbs, so shooting with this 2 gram of a thing is like a party in my hands. Sure the image quality isn't what I'm used to, but I've had a BLAST taking photos today. (for those of you wondering, Kennie, Julie & Aleks it's a Canon powershot sd960)

So like I was saying we went to get Ezri's shots. Fun? Not so much.

To cheer us both up we took a little walk and shop in the Northern store. Ezri was incognito. Incognito from the sun. See what I'm saying about taking fun shots with a camera that doesn't need bulging biceps just to hold. I was able to take this shot with one hand. ONE!Here is also something I can not do with my SLR (easily), it's just too damn heavy. Take a shot of myself from above without risk of camera falling and crushing baby.

After shopping, we started to get a little cranky.Mommy to the rescue with a cookie. Smell that baby crack.Oh yeah, that makes it feel all better.

P.S Announcing another Nunavummiut Blogger. Morena at Babies & Bulldogs. Her little boy Oliver is Ezri's Boyfriend. And her Bulldog Tank is Tallinn's boyfriend. This is yet another CD blog. WE ARE TAKING OVER THE WORLD. Eat dust Arctic Bay! :)

The blogger formerly known as Jen of Nunavut

2009-07-03T15:26:00.004-04:00

As you already know, I'm moving down south and therefore will soon no longer be "Jen of Nunavut", but Jen of MASSIVE city in southern Canada. I will want to continue writing and showcasing my photography. I figure I'm going to (try to) start a business when I get back south and I might as well start up a full fledged website that will allow me to blog and dabble in a photography business. So the question is "what in H.E. double hockey stick do I call it"?

I WANT your opinion. You can either vote on the side or leave me a comment. OR both, any suggestions are welcome.

Oh Sugar!

2009-06-29T12:54:00.008-04:00

For my birthday Nathan and I took out some left over sugar from last year's sealift that had solidified into bricks. We had a bet how many bricks we could shoot through with a single bullet. Nathan won. No surprise.

You can see how solid the sugar actually was. It's too bad the now powdered sugar was unusable. Damn lead.

We then walked about 100 metres and shot at a target.
I hit all my shots on the board. Maybe not in the "important scoring section", but who's counting...it looks like I got an ear or nostril at least. That's worth a pat on the back.It was a good birthday.

Out to sea

2009-06-26T10:28:00.006-04:00

I have to say this is the longest I've seen the ice in the bay stick around. It's almost the end of June and there is still a fair amount left to break up. People are taking advantage of it, using it to cross over to the mainland for fishing, or using it as a jumping off point to take their boats out beluga hunting. The other week a few hunters drove their snow machines down to the edge of the ice, parked them and jumped into their boat to go out hunting. Meanwhile I'm hanging out in my pajama pants on the couch when I notice that the 5 unattended snow machines have broken off and started floating out into open sea. Can you see from this photo below?
How about now?
I was shocked to see that everyone was taking a totally laid back approach. I had watched a few people prepare a boat and go out towards the drifting machines, to only see them head in a totally different direction and disappear. I expect they were going out hunting as well. Morena, Meaghan, Kim and I headed down to the park to catch a better look at the machines floating out to sea. Kim took this photo of the three of us, totally unplanned, wearing our babies, bjorn style.
I was prepared to say goodbye as I could noticeably see the ice moving towards open water.
I guess everyone was so laid back because they knew they would get their machines back and there was no point wasting time worrying or loosing out on hunting. Later that evening the ice came partially back in with the tide and EVERY SINGLE machine was saved (by loading one machine sideways on a fishing boat, driving each one back one by one). It was truley a happy ending.

INTRODUCING a new Nunavummiut blogger. I've mentioned Meaghan a few times on my blog, she writes about raising her beautiful daughter Mercedes and family life in the north.

Celebrations - June 21st

2009-06-23T17:21:00.009-04:00

Two days ago it was Aboriginal day as well as father's day and it was a busy day making sure to celebrate both. The RCMP across the country celebrate Aboriginal day, in Nunavut each detachment throws a community BBQ. Who could pass up hotdogs, hamburgers, games and face painting even if it was cold and snowing. Yes it was also the first day of summer, let me repeat that it was cold and snowing. We all still had a great time. Especially Morena and myself, because we were cozy inside the garage doing the face painting.
Kids and elders alike were playing games, this one where you toss a rock and try to knock off another rock 15 feet in front of you. The prize was a basketball (if only we could have used that to knock over the stone it would have been a little easier). I had scoffed that this would be an easy game until I tried it myself and failed miserably. Over and over.Nathan catching a warm moment inside holding Ezri and giving my back a rest. That baby is getting heavy indeed. I guess their supposed to grow.
Later on in the evening we switched gear and had a "small" campfire out back. My gift to Nathan for Father's Day, letting him burn stuff. Here we are burning last years sealift create. It was in such a blaze that one of the rangers came over in a hurry worried that the Ranger's shed was burning down.
He was pretty pleased with his efforts. I had a few flashes from that movie Backdraft.

The Scoop

2009-06-20T23:32:00.005-04:00

Usually when I disappear for an extended period of blogdom time, there is something going down in the land of Jen. My last large posting absence was related to keeping secrets, secrets about being pregnant. This time (not pregnant) it's news about Nathan getting transferred with his job. The big news is that we are leaving Nunavut, after 3 years. It's seems like this is a common trend with a few of my other favourite Nunavummiut bloggers as well. It's a bummer. It turns out we are heading back to Canada's deep south, back to starbucks and shopping. Maybe it's not all a bummer. I can tell you a piece of me is breaking off and won't be taken back with us south. The good news is that we get to spend the rest of the summer up here before we make our transition back into the hustle. That's right the south, where your hustling or getting hustled. It's one big pimp show down there. We are happy, however that we will be closer with family.This is Nathan and I, June 2006, when we first moved up to Nunavut. Don't say it, we've obviously gained a few pounds these few years. We all know that if your looking to loose weight, you shouldn't fool yourself into thinking the answer is up north where there are no fast food joints. There is plenty of yumminess, and you'll buy it no matter what it costs. Since there is no fast food, I have found myself a better cook, experimenting with many new recipes. I've been eating well these last 3 years.

Coming north and leaving again is a sob story I've seen and heard too many times now. I'm bummed it's my turn, and so soon. Unfortunately and fortunately Nathan's career takes us to many new and exciting places. It's hard to move, no matter where you have been living. As the story goes, when Nathan was starting his career, I told him that I would follow him anywhere, except I jokingly said "Not Toronto or Nunavut!". Turns out I really didn't know what I was talking about (big surprise!), Nunavut was a blast. I just hope that I don't have to learn my lesson about Toronto, too many people.

A lot of other bloggers have started other blogs to document their non-Nunauvt adventures. You can bet I will as well. I am worried however that when I move back down south I will have lost my identity. I will no longer be "Jen of Nunavut", but "Jen of Massive City where Jens are a dime a dozen". I have the entire summer to think about it. So don't think about dropping this blog yet because I still have a whack of adventures left in me.

Midnight

2009-05-25T00:43:00.003-04:00

Snow machines coming home from fishing, crossing the bay back to town.

The belly, the baby & the snowstorm.

2009-05-13T13:43:00.006-04:00

You know how they say the camera can add 10lbs, well for the sake of my sanity, it can also "remove" 10lbs or maybe 30 (even without photoshop). This post-pregnancy weight has really been getting me down. I know that it took a year to gain and I'm going to give myself a year to take it off, but talk about a bummer man. I also don't want to do any radical diets, in fear it may deplete my milk (isn't that the best excuse ever, like I could ever go on a radical diet!). Breastfeeding so far has done absolutely nothing in terms of weight lose. Sure, I haven't been dieting, but I also haven't been over eating. Even with cutting out most treats and not eating after supper, nothing is happening. The worst part, is that evil little piece of junk in my bathroom, the scale. One day I had actually thought I lost a pound, but then I stepped back on 10 seconds later and was up a pound. I don't know what to believe, maybe it's just broken. I think the best place for that evil hunk of crapola, for my sanity and self esteem, is in 1,000 little peices after I've blown it to bits with a shotgun. How empowering! I think I might do this, stand by for that story.

Ezri and I have been playing around with the camera on my laptop. I think she might be a blogger one day. She likes to stare at herself on my computer and has little conversations with her mirror image. This is the way I've been making movies for myself to document her, but I'm finding it very limiting. You don't know how frightening it is to hold your lap top over a bath tub full of water, just so you can capture bath time (you know, so I can show it at her wedding, because I'm evil like that). This calls for a Movie making camera. Any suggestions?

This is what the weather has been like the last week, I took this photo on Mother's day. Every time I pick up the phone and talk to my family down south, it's flowers blooming this and barbecuing that. Well looks at this! I'm torn between telling them to keep it to themselves, or begging for details, so I can live the warm weather through them.

It's been even harder to get out now because of the baby. Nathan goes to work. I stay at home. I could get out to the store, but it's hard to get the baby all bundled up or even get her in my amauti by myself. If I was determined, it would happen. Really it's just that much easier to stay in my pajamas in the warm house. Though I think for my sanity, I need to get out more. Since it isn't warm here and I had this bathing suit that my mom sent, we did a dress up & pretend we're at the beach day (except I didn't dress up, that would have been silly). Why did my mom send a bathing suit to the arctic you ask? Well it's a 9 month suit, and Ezri is 4 months. She thought it would be perfect for this summer when we come down south. Unfortunately she will be unable to wear it at 9months, perhaps it would fit on of her legs by then. But for the meantime, a photo shoot gave us a good reason to try it on.

Box Stompin'

2009-05-12T11:18:00.004-04:00

Well for anyone that thought it was atmospheric pressure that was destroying my food mail (dad), here is finally some clear evidence. I wasn't kidding, the box itself is destroyed also, not just the product inside. Here we finally have clear evidence, two foot prints, one on top of the other. No, it's not a vendetta against me. My neighbours box came completely smashed open also, so much so, my husband described it as "so you could do an entire inventory of everything inside". Nothing was destroyed in the foot stomping box, it was all frozen stuff, so all the products survived. I think I might just cut back on food mail all together, it's really becoming quite a risk. And the prices have really gone up recently. I had a mini heart attack at this weeks bill, and this is coming from a woman who shops in the north. Food prices should rarely scare me these days.

Nunavummiut's Guide To Online Shopping

2009-05-07T09:09:00.005-04:00

Here is another list for all you online shoppers. I have made purchases from most of these places, excluding a few of stores listed under Kids Stuff. Feel free to give your input and add any other sites you shop with in the comments section.

If you are an online company searching for new ideas to attract shoppers, what Nunavummiut want most, free shipping. It's simple, ship for free and we will shop.

As a general rule, do not get the expedited shipping. It's good for nothing. Shipping will happen on it's own time up north, whether you pay more or not. However, what will effect the speed is where your purchase is coming from. If you're on the Baffin side, things from Ontario will reach you faster then from British Columbia. The estimated shipping times in my list below are most accurate for the Baffin area.

Books

Amazon.ca
Shipping: Free over $39
Estimated Time: 2 weeks
Pros: You don't have to be part of any rewards "club" to get the deals. Their items seem to run slightly cheaper then their competitor.
Cons: They do not sell toys like Chapters.

Chapters
Shipping: Free over $39
Estimated Time: 2 weeks
Pros: They sell toys.
Cons: You have to be part of their "Club" to get the discounts. So not cool.

Jen of Nunavut thumbs up goes to Amazon.ca

Drug Stores

Well.ca
Shipping: FREE!!!! Let me say that again FREE!!!
Estimated Time: 1 - 3 weeks
Pros: Super customer service. FREE SHIPPING (listen, this is a big deal in the north!). A wide variety of products. PLUS they actually sell medication unlike London Drugs.
Cons: Not as many non-medication items sold. For example, items I will have to get at their competitor's site: electric razor.

London Drugs
Shipping: $30 for 4.5Kgs (base, meaning you better get 4.5kgs of stuff to make it worth while)
Estimated Time: 2 - 6 weeks (seriously 6 weeks, I'm not kidding)
Pros: This company carries a wide variety of items, food, health items, make-up. Prices are reasonable. They carry seasonable items like Christmas candy & decorations.
Cons: Their Shipping is definately not great. The worst part is that they call themselves a drug store and they do not sell over the counter medication. They show you that they have it in stock, but you can NOT purchase it online. Buying medication online is a big deal for Nunavummiut, it's not available in most small communities, except with a visit to the health centre.

Jen of Nunavut thumbs up goes to Well.ca

Bath & Body

The Body shop
Shipping: $5
Estimated Time: 2 - 3 weeks
Pros: They have all kinds of promotions and sales that you can take advantage of. Their products smell heavenly. Great price for shipping items north.
Cons: To shop you have to find the itty bitty text at the bottom of the page that says "Take me shopping". Seriously it should be more prominent then this. Discounts and free items are only taken off your bill at time of charging credit card. Though they do honor these discounts, it does not seem like it at first when checking out, if feels slightly sketchy.

Lush
Shipping: $8 - $17.50 (2 - 4.5kgs)
Estimated Time: 2-3 weeks
Pros: How do I describe this company other then YUMMY! Website & checkout is user friendly and straight forward.
Cons: Shipping isn't great & they deter you from ordering some "meltable" products in the summer time.

Bath & Body Works
Shipping: $9.99 - $12.99 (Based on how much you spend)
Estimated Time: 2-3 weeks
Pros: YES, they finally sell online! They sell inexpensive hand soaps and body products.
Cons: Prices are in US funds. This company has some overwhelming scented products. It might be better to shop for products down south where you can judge a scent before using the online store.

Jen of Nunavut thumbs up goes to Body Shop!

Kids Stuff

Toys R Us
Shipping: Based on weight when shipping north.
Estimated Time: 2 - 3 weeks
Pros: You can get EVERYTHING a kid needs. The best part is that they sell baby furniture, I got a crib sent up with only $40 shipping!
Cons: Shipping seems inconsistent. Add a pack of batteries in with the crib and some how the shipping charge is $50! Balancing purchase & reasonable shipping is a challenge. You might have to tweak your cart to get the best possible purchase/ship result. The American site has way MORE stuff. Don't get confused about which site your on (.ca or .com). You might end up in tears when you can't buy that particular item for that really cheap price.

Gymboree
Shipping: $10 - $54 (Based sales, but if your spending $1,400 on baby clothing, you have a problem. More likely you're going to spend $10)
Estimated Time: Unknown (meaning I haven't made a purchase with their online store....yet)
Pros: REALLY FREAKING CUTE KIDS CLOTHING and some kids toys. Their bubbles are of the best bubble quality (Yes, I've tested many bubbles, just like a fine wine).
Cons: Their prices are US and their prices are REALLY FREAKING EXPENSIVE.

Others:
Raspberry Kids - I just found this place, shipping is reasonable and there are some totally cute things. If your a mom, you MUST check this Canadian company out!
Scholarschoice - For those kids that like to learn stuff.
Funky Monkey - Cute, but overpriced baby attire, toys and doodads. For those fashion obsessed moms. Shipping is overpriced.

Jen of Nunavut thumbs up goes to Toys R Us

Clothing

Victoria's Secret
Shipping: $14 -24 (Based on Sale)
Estimated Time: 2 - 4 Weeks
Pros: They have a large variety of woman's clothing, in a large variety of sizes. Some good sale items.
Cons: Prices are in US funds, and some of their fashion is questionable 1990's "Fresh Prince" style.

L.L. Bean
Shipping: $5 - $13 (Based on Sale)
Estimated Time: 3 - 4 weeks
Pros: Sell good quality Men & Woman's clothing, shoes, outdoor gear & Luggage.
Cons: Items are in US Funds and are expensive. Some clothing items are "old lady", no one should ever wear tapered pants, and waste lines shouldn't sit above the belly button. Pant buyer beware.

Mark's Work Wearhouse
Shipping: $5
Estimated Time: 2 - 3 weeks
Pros: Reasonably priced, good quality men and woman's apparel. $5 SHIPPING! Canadian shipped, no duty.
Cons: They have a serious lack of selection, some times better, especially during the Christmas months.

Others:
American Eagle - Popular, skinny people fashion.
Buycostume.com - Halloween Costumes.
Eddie Bauer - Men & Woman's preppy and expensive fashion.
La Senza - Canadian, lady's pantaloons.
MXM - Bootylicious plus size woman's clothing, Canadian shipped.

Jen of Nunavut thumbs up goes to Mark's Work Wearhouse!

Photo

Shutterfly
Shipping: Depending on item, price increases with each item.
Estimated Time: 3 - 4 weeks
Pros: They have a wide variety of Photo products to choose from. They have easy to use layouts when creating photobooks.
Cons: Their shipping isn't fantastic and prices are in US funds. Their photo books are not nearly as well priced or done as Blurb.com. Their free shipping is a joke by the way, not for Canadians. No, Canadians must pay.

Cafepress
Shipping: Depending on item, price increases with each item.
Estimated Time: 3 - 4 weeks
Pros: They have more variety when it comes to photo products then Shutterfly. They have a new Canadian site with Canadian pricing (however I'm not sure if shipping is within Canada or US).
Cons: You do not know if you are working on an "out of stock" item until you try to add it to your cart. It's a waste of time designing something that you can not buy. Their travel mugs have been out of stock for a while. I also do not like the quality of their ceramic mug printing.

Zazzel - Photo printing on all sorts of items, I found them when Cafepress was out of stock on travel mugs.
Blurb - Great price & quality photobooks.

Jen of Nunavut thumbs split in the middle Shutterfly & Cafepress, depending on item.

Other

Costco
Shipping: Depending on the item, FREE!
Estimated Time: 2 - 3 weeks
Pros: Some large items ship for FREE!!! They have a wide variety of items that you just can't get anywhere else online.
Cons: You have to be a member to avoid and extra fee at checkout. But really they are amazing so don't even worry about that little extra fee, or just become a member, I did.

Costco.ca ALWAYS get's a thumbs up!

Online Shopping to Avoid (I'm not linking. Seriously, don't bother visiting)

Canadiantire.ca
At the moment I'm not sure exactly what's going on with their website, it doesn't seem like you can purchase anything online. However previously Nunavummiut were excluded COMPLETELY from all shipping deals and promotions. Also when talking with customer service, they had no idea where Nunavut was. Hello your company name is CANADIAN tire, shouldn't you know all of the provinces and territories. Really, there aren't that many.

Futurshop.ca
SERIOUSLY, who researched your shipping costs? Lets pretend that we are in a big city, somewhere in the middle of southern Ontario. Then lets pretend that we live a sneeze away from one of your stores, as do my parents. Why would you give them the options of ground or air? I'm pretty sure no one is going to fly that single DVD across the street, even if we pay $9.27 versus the $1.99 for ground. Now lets take our journey back to Nunavut. If I want that SAME DVD, I am now paying $31.24. For one DVD? Costco will ship me an entire TV stand for FREE and Futureshop wants $31.24 for one DVD. Forget it. Please, if you need CDs and DVDs shop amazon.ca and you can find a full list of electronics at Costco.

A false sense of summer = ice cream headache

2009-05-05T21:53:00.006-04:00

Yeah there's still snow here for all you losers down south enjoying the warm weather. Yep, and that's also the OCEAN, still frozen solid. Still cold. But warm enough that I can go without a hat or mitts...for a few minutes anyways.

Summer Vest Amauti

2009-05-01T12:06:00.004-04:00

I took Ezri down for her 4 month shots yesterday, that's always a bag of fun. She was also weighed and is growing like a weed. Now 18lbs we are past 6 month outfits and going into 9month. I'm wondering when this is going to slow down. So many unused clothing items, it feels like such a waste. At this rate, give her another month and she'll be looking in my closet for something to wear.

It was so warm walking in the amauti yesterday that my back was soaked from sweat and so was Ezri. It was only minus 5 and that's too warm for my amauti. It's time to switch up to something a little lighter. My friend Meaghan makes summer vest amautis and has promised to make me one. Here is one she made, modeling Ezri.

Here is another one Meaghan made, Kim is modeling Oliver, as this vest didn't fit Morena or myself. Meaghan makes the vests different sizes to fit the individual, that's how the baby stays in. This particular vest was way too small for me. As my friend Naomi pointed out, it was just big enough with me wearing it to put a 12 week old fetus in the back. So too small. Kim fit it nicely. If anyone is interested in getting in contact with Meaghan about Summer Vest Amautis, send me an e-mail, or leave your e-mail in the comments section.

Babies and Giraffes, watching the Blue Jays game.

2009-04-24T18:33:00.013-04:00

Ezri: "I really think the Blue Jays have been doing better this season. Their up 12-5 right now. I just really wish they hadn't gotten rid of Reed Johnson last year, I mean what were they thinking? Absolutely nuts!"

Ezri: "If B.J. Ryan doesn't blow it, and Halladay stays off the disabled list, they'll stand a good chance this year."

Ezri: "OMG, the bases are loaded and Vernon Wells is up. I tell you, the way they have been playing this season has had me hanging off the edge of my bumbo."

Ezri: "I see what your saying, Snider is doing alright out in left field."

Ezri: "Hey, hey, I don't like what your implying here. Sure, Snider is cute, but he'll never replace Reed Johnson, I mean COME ON!

Ezri: "OMG, what is he doing? RUN! RUN! FASTER!"

Ezri: "Perhaps I should take a short break in my swing, don't want my blood pressure to get out of control!"

A series of UNFORTUNATE explosions

2009-04-21T12:02:00.008-04:00

This is what it looks like when you open the box. You might have already expected it to look like this when you first pick it up, when something started violently dripping all over your shoe. Or maybe you clued in, because the cardboard just didn't look right, as though it had been saturated with something. The photo below I like to refer to as "when foodmail made creamsicle babies". My milk and oranges juice were lovingly packed into a single bag together, during their journey to me up north. At some point their vessel in which they were transported, must have been violently rassled. Each the orange juice and the milk carton were then "squeezed" and mixed together to create another liquid, a third liquid, a liquid I refer to as "creamsicle babies". Then the "creamsicle babies" unleashed themselves into and onto the rest of the other peaceful items inside the box, before it was delivered to me in the north.

During a separate incident, this is EXACTLY how my milk was when I opened the box. The amazing part was that there must have been at least a litre left inside, untouched. AMAZING.
Then there was this.

And this.
Dear Nameless Airline. I'm positive that it isn't the company I shop from that likes to bust up my food before it gets to me. My question would be how hard does this box get tussled around before items burst? I'm speculating that the tussling around is unnecessary for it's arrival and could possibly be easily avoided? I'm just saying.

Happy Easter

2009-04-12T00:37:00.004-04:00

Who needs fireworks?

2009-04-10T19:05:00.009-04:00

Last night was a memory I want to hold forever. The still, mild arctic air. It's not cold enough to be winter, not warm enough for the snow to be gone. No sound, except the soft crunch of the snow under my feet. The northern lights silently danced in the sky, greens, pinks and whites. The baby is sleeping on my back in the amauti, I can hear her soft small breaths. Nathan is working late and the dishes can wait. All I want to do is stare up at the sky. I hope that in 10 years I can close my eyes and recall this night.
The chicklet asleep. I tell you the amauti has been terribly handy. If I didn't have one I would be stuck inside all the time and photography for me would be dead. Thank goodness for the amauti and photos other then just the baby!

Mommy Fail.

2009-03-29T20:12:00.010-04:00

Tonight I thought it would be a good idea to finally tackle the cradle cap Ezri has been rocking for the past few months. I had read that it would go away on it's own, but it hasn't, so I thought I would be slightly more aggressive. I searched on the internet and found that if you put baby oil, mineral oil or Vaseline on the scalp and let it sit, it would help to lift some of the flakes and then you can just wash it off. The flakes are gently removed that way. I guess I never thought that Vaseline on hair might not be the best idea. After 3 shampoos, it's still there and gooey as ever. Nathan just took one look and said "Well I guess you better google that as well". I guess I better stop googling things, but I did it anyways and found that apparently Vaseline in kids hair is a world wide problem. A lot of mom's have suffered this problem and each one has a home remady. Nathan also has a home remady: Do nothing. And you know what, I'm not going to put any more junk into her hair and just let it work itself out.

She doesn't really seem affected at all, not at all as stressed out as mommy.

The Amauti Tango

2009-03-27T22:24:00.003-04:00

This is me & Ezri getting into the amauti, as requested by Catherine in my comments section. It may look as though I do get her in all by myself, but the truth is I needed a little help from my friend Morena who also did the filming for our feature presentation. We just did some fancy editing to make it seem like I didn't...but if you pretend I didn't need help, that's what it should look like. I have cotton on the inside of the pouch that apparently makes it harder for the baby to slide it, although I have mastered getting her out all by myself. Any northern moms have good tips for getting their babies in solo?

Mother-In-Law

2009-03-27T10:52:00.002-04:00

Thank you so much for coming up north for a month. We woke up this morning and the house just seemed a little empty.

Torture

2009-03-26T15:02:00.001-04:00

Yes I'm a bad mommy, I let my dog eat cheesies and pretzels. But am I not also an amazing trainer, look at that restraint.

Wearing Babies

2009-03-22T14:23:00.008-04:00

Morena, myself and Meaghan got out with babies yesterday. This is really the only way to do it up here. Morena made me a FANTASTIC bunting bag for Ezri, so she stays up straight and slips in better to the back of the amauti. I think everyone that has an amauti needs one of Morena's bunting bags, they are amazing!I'm looking to replace my ties on my amauti and tried making some on my own, but got too lazy. If anyone is interested, have a look at this catalog, they make some pretty awesome ones. I'm going to order mine soon. I'm also in the market for a lighter amauti for summer, but the material at the store is down to bare bones.

Inukshuk?

2009-03-05T15:39:00.003-05:00

Or my friend Morena?

Snowboarding in Nunavut: Doing it the hard way

2009-03-03T22:04:00.014-05:00

We got out on the land snowmobiling yesterday and this time we took out Nathan's snowboard. This is something he has been meaning to try for sometime now. The idea was that I would drive him up the hill on my machine and then he would snowboard down and we would continue this cycle for maximum fun. I however was not going to board. I can not and will not. I like my legs in one piece, in fact I like my entire body that way.

We finally came across an acceptable hill and realize it's just too steep to mobile up. Nathan decided to park his snowmobile half way up and then crawl up the rest of the way. It seemed like an eternity passed as I watched him wade through waste deep snow and then use his board to climb up the rest of the way.
When he got to the top, we proceeded to try and have a muffled conversation about which way he should head down to avoid the mine field of rocks. It was a nerve racking moment while I finally communicated with hand gestures that he need to stay to his right so I could take him home in one piece. Why are men lunatics sometimes? And why do woman get to suffer watching them do insane things?

He finally took off over what seemed like a cliff of snow that was a straight drop. He kept it together for most of the way down and then...
Wiped out. But remember how hard it was to get up the hill because the snow was so loose and powdery?

Well he survived and got back up...
And went down the hill a little more.
At the end of Nathan's trip down the hill, my friend Morena and I drove up to Nathan's machine where we both promptly sunk our machines into the really deep loose snow. Getting them dug out was (insert bad word here) hard. We were wading through thigh deep snow, digging out our machines and doing it all wearing enough puffy clothing we'd put the stay puft marshmallow man to shame. It was -30C outside and I was still sweating.

This next photo might look like a crime scene, but really it's just Nathan taking a nap and Morena INGENIOUSLY rolling herself down the hill, saving herself the pain of wading through the snow. Its defeating walking a few steps and then sinking in to your hip. In the end, we made it out. I hope if anything came of that little adventure, I might have burned a few postpartum calories!

My Amauti

2009-02-17T12:03:00.004-05:00

Here is a better look at my amauti. Right now I'm trying to fiddle with making my own ties (the one that was made for me that goes around my waste is a tiny bit too small). I think it would be fun to experiment with adding some kind of personal touch.

Kara had mentioned that her cats were very interested in her seal skin pelts and here you can see Tallinn is investigating my seal skin Kamiks. He wasn't supposed to be in the photo, but I swear every time someone picks up a camera he some how ends up in the shot like a photo HO! The one positive thing about the kamiks needing to be stored in the freezer (they're not tanned) is that they are out of reach of certain wandering puppies and kitties.

Cup of the Cakes

2009-02-15T11:51:00.003-05:00

For valentines day this year I made some delicious cupcakes, chocolate with pink cream cheese icing. I had a lot of fun doing them, except for the part where I had to carry Ezri around the entire time. Not that I minded having her "help" me make them, but it's hard to see what your working on when there is a 2 month old hanging off your stomach. She was in a cranky mood, perhaps knowing she couldn't actually eat the cupcakes I made, and would only sleep while being carried.

I'd like to think I'm developing my super mom skills!And if you were wondering about my romantic other half, he said for my Valentines day gift this year he would not hassle me about how much my amauti cost and also he cleaned the litter box. Very well appreciated, practical gifts. All and all a pretty awesome Valentines.

And Now for your entertainment...

2009-02-14T11:38:00.005-05:00

When I first got pregnant, my brother Aleks put together this image. He took a photo of a lady in an amauti and photoshoped my face on to it. He also took my baby photo and Nathan's and morphed them together to create the creepy baby in the hood. That is not Ezri. My mom thought it was so cute, she printed it off and stuck it in her wallet. I cringe every time I see this photo...look at my hair.Well I had to take a real life photo and with hair to match. I just got my amauti and check it out how similar it is to Aleks' depiction. He must be able to see into the future. I will get better photos of it soon and with my hair not looking like it's on drugs.

Mini Him

2009-02-09T01:11:00.002-05:00

She may not look like it, but in the world of babies, Ezri is an amazon. This 6 week old is fitting into 6 month old clothing. She has her dad to thank for that.

Mom-mobiling

2009-02-07T13:09:00.003-05:00

I'd been back all of 1 day and I desperately needed to get out on my snowmobile. I have missed half of the season because I was down south having Ezri. I was also hesitant to snowmobile while 8 months pregnant, but I did manage to get out once, very slowly and also not on the back of Nathan's machine because he can tend to be a bit of a maniac. Generally I like to drive my own machine, I feel completely out of control when I'm riding with someone else and find the experiance way less appealing. I'm a woman in charge, I need to have my own ride.

While I was down south I noticed more snowmobiles driving around the country side and also picked up on tracks in farmers fields. I was clearly sick for my machine and drooled every time I saw someone else riding. I could almost say that I had a little tear in my eye every time I caught someone else on a machine. I knew that I needed to get out as soon as I got back, but didn't know when that would happen with Nathan getting back to work and the baby. Thank goodness I was able to sneak in a small, but tasty trip in yesterday. Thank you handy, diaper changing husband, I think I'll keep you around.

The photo is of my friend Morena and myself out on the frozen inlet, you can see town behind us. We are a couple of Snowmobiling Mammas! Morena also left an infant behind at home while we went out, in fact our kidlets are a mere 12 hours apart in age!

It's good to be back.

Big Stress.

2009-02-03T22:00:00.003-05:00

If there is one thing that stresses me out it's packing & flying home after being away from home for a long time. I have been gone for 2 & 1/2 months now (because of the baby). I'm looking forward to returning home, but nothing that falls between getting up tomorrow and 5pm tomorrow. EEEk!

The dog also feels my stress. Although he loves driving in the car, when he sees us packing the suit cases he knows we'll be flying and starts stressing out, panting and drooling. The two of us are a pair really, except I control myself from the drooling.

The worst part is only getting half way home and getting stuck in Iqaluit because of weather, mechanical or mystery reasons (you know like the sky is full of killer bees and we can't see through the cloud so we'll not be making you flight home today, have a nice day). So, tomorrow there is a blizzard in the big I.Q. and I'm almost guaranteeing I'm not going to be sleeping in my own bed tomorrow.

Please everyone in blogdom send your mojo over to the eastern arctic and blow this blizzard outta here!!

Out to Wash

2009-02-01T19:35:00.005-05:00

I think any new mom is freaked out about most things. Everything is new and it doesn't matter how much advise you get the first time you do anything it's frightening. It's no different for the first bath. I recently bought a Baby Spa bath, it's basically an over glorified, expensive plastic bucket (except all the celebrities have one). I tried her in the bathtub and also the sink, involving me using the counter and my chin to squeeze out the shampoo, because I couldn't remove either of my hands for that task. I had to hold her up, if that meant getting soaked & covered in shampoo. The Baby Spa is supposed to help the infant sit up while you wash. However she kept sliding to the side and wanting to take a little dip, of course I didn't let her go under, but sit up by herself she didn't. I'm thinking I will get better use out of it when she is a little larger. The other problem is that I can't take it back to Nunavut. She'll probably be big enough the next time we are down and hopefully baby number 2 will get a lot more use out of it.
Calling all moms: Anyone had to deal with Baby Acne? Do you have any super tips?

Fat Bottom Girl, You Make My Rockin' World Go 'Round!

2009-01-29T12:10:00.005-05:00

I know you're all eager to see more baby photos (not). Nathan reminded me the other day, after telling everyone about something cute Ezri did, that not everyone wants to hear about baby stories. And then I realized oh gawd I'm a mom. So I guess this is going to be another mommy blog, too bad for you.

Aleks (my brother) made up this Warhol-esk photo of shots of Ezri. He had made a movie of her the other night and we are probably going to play at her wedding (because we are evil). Of course I think every face is freaking hilarious, but is that just my mom eyes?

My little Jabba The Hut was weighed a few days ago at the doctors office and she is 11lbs 5ozs! Up 3lbs from her birth weight. I guess that puts her above 95% of the babies in her age/height group. This of course meant that I had to go get her a couple more, larger footie PJammas to last us when we head back north. Oh, Children's Place and Baby Gap, how you give me a shot of sweet adrenaline. The one thing I have learned as a new mommy thus far is that pants look ridiculous and footie Pjammas are really the only way to go in terms of convenience and comfort. I only wish that A) they made them in adult sizes and B) it would be socially acceptable for me to wear them everyday.

*I know I changed my header a few days early, but I didn't want to forget with my lack of brain.

She who occupies my time

2009-01-28T22:06:00.003-05:00

This is my excuse for being a bad blogger. And I don't mind one bit.

We return to the north in a week and I can't wait to get back home. Hopefully my posting will pick up a little when I'm back.

Baby Dr. Evil Demands...

2009-01-15T23:08:00.004-05:00

...that you take part and vote for this years "Nunies" awards for Best Nunavut Blog, Best New Nunavut Blog and Best Post from a Nunavut Blog here.

My Reign of Power is Coming to an End

2009-01-11T09:40:00.003-05:00

Well I've spent one glorious year as Queen of Nunavut...ha ha ahhh I mean champion of Nunavut... I guess that's not right either. My blog won some awesome awards last year called "Nunies" and their time of power is coming to a close. It's a whole new year and a whole lot of other wonderful blogs contending for the awards.

The Nunies blogging awards are the baby of Clare from The House and Other Arctic Musings and although most of us in the Nunavut blogging community agree Clare should take all these titles, he has graciously opted out of being nominated so the rest of us have a chance.

I have left this a little late as this is the last day to submit nominations, but I have good excuses! You can check out how to nominate your favourite Nunavut Blog over here. You can also check out a whack load of fantastic Northern Blogs on my side bar. Don't be fooled they aren't all from the Superior Nunavut community, you'll have to check where they are writing from before you submit a nomination. (I'm just kidding, you know I love all my Northern blogs just the same!)

Someone ate my Cadbury Creme Eggs!

2009-01-09T10:10:00.004-05:00

The only evidence was the nicely emptied box of one of the 3 packs of Creme Eggs, with a few teeth marks. All egg and egg wrapping was nonexistent. I asked Nathan if he had consumed the eggs, because he has been known to gobble them down so fast he has left teeth marks in the box as well. When he denied this accusation, we immediately knew who done it!
Don't worry he is still alive. This is just how Tallinn likes to sleep. The Creme Eggs only gave them some obnoxious gas and no other lasting effects. Just like the Nerds and Sweetarts he was into over Christmas! He didn't like those as much, only spending the time to taste the flavor before spitting them back out onto the carpet. We don't just leave these things out for him, he snipes them and then unwraps them carefully. Sometimes he tries to hide the packaging and it doesn't turn up until days later. We try our best to keep these things away and out of reach and then again sometimes I'll come out and find him standing on his hind legs scoping out things on the kitchen counter. Meanwhile he knows he isn't even allowed in the Kitchen, but that's only a rule to be obeyed under a watchful eye. At least he is enjoying his vacation down south.

Twenty Two Pounds & Dropping (hopefully)

2009-01-08T22:37:00.003-05:00

A Baby Story

2009-01-01T21:01:00.006-05:00

Well it's been just over a week....and I still can't believe I'm responsible for a little person. As you can imagine I haven't had much sleep and although she is just one tiny jelly bean, she has occupied most of my waking hours, which has been pretty much most of the 24 out of a day.

I was still not experiencing any real contractions when we finally arrived at the hospital. We got checked in and you can imagine how busy it was at 5am on Christmas Eve... I felt like we were in some resident Evil video game, no one around and your just waiting for zombies to come out of the rooms and start chasing you. Of course because I wasn't experiencing any kind of discomfort the nurses had us walk around the halls... the empty halls, the ones with possible zombies, to see if that would bring on some contractions. Since that didn't happen and the zombies kept to themselves we took entertainment from an abandoned wheel chair. My sister-in-law Jen raced down the hallway to see how fast she could go, then Nathan and of course then I had to try as well. When we finally got into the delivery room the nurse said I was too jolly to be in labor. Clearly I was having WAY too much of a good time, so they put me on Oxytocin, allowing me to have more consistent and real contractions. At this point I was on my way into a world of pain. A world that I would be rescued from by Captain Epidural.
I had waited a while to see how bad the contractions actually were and finally decided after Nathan was trying to use tickling as pain control that I finally was ready for the Epidural. I recommend it for anyone who is interested. I had a fantastic experience. I was so pain free and in such a calm state that we all stopped to watch Extreme House Makeover in between pushing when it was finally time. Here I am after the epidural, and boy did it feel good.
The whole thing from start to finish took about 12 hours and it felt like it just flew by. I didn't think I'd actually want to see it happening, but finally broke down and asked for a mirror and watched the entire thing, it was incredible (especially because I couldn't feel a thing). It's not anything I could possibly describe... I was one person before and a completely different person the moment the kid popped out.
I have never felt such passionate emotion and love for one tiny little thing. Of course I've spent the last week completely jacked on hormones and can start balling at the drop of a hat. I'm freaked out about everything, is she too hot, too cold, what are the spots on her face, is she eating enough? I have also never felt so content.

Introducing Ezri Eve .E.
Triple E
E Cubed
Tallinn's Sister

We settled on the middle name Eve because she was born on Christmas Eve. It was my sister Jen's suggestion and it jived well, especially because we pretty much didn't have a name up until the point I was in the middle of labor.

Merry Christmas Baby!

2008-12-26T12:01:00.004-05:00

Well that was slightly unexpected.... What an incredible experience! Ezri arrived at 4:50 pm on Christmas Eve, weighing in at a hardy 8lbs 5oz. She decided to wait for her daddy to arrive, my water broke only 2 hours after Nathan arrived from Nunavut at 4am, Christmas Eve. She also decided it was a good time to come, in the middle of a huge snowstorm. My sister in law was the one taking me to the hospital and we couldn't even make it out the drive way there was so much snow. When she tried to open her door, it was stopped by the massive snow accumulation and she ended up first calling my brother in law on her cell phone "Yeah, we haven't even made it out of the driveway!", and then did some crazy acrobats, climbing out the car window! All I could think about was what a birth story this was going to make! After Nathan, my father-in-law and brother-in-law shoveled us out, we promptly got ourselves stuck again 5 ft back on the road. Luckily with the good excuse of labor, a neighbour nudged us out with his massive monster truck. This is all after we watched the plow drive down the road, with it's shovel high in the air...that didn't quite make any sense. I'm assuming the plow was just on an early morning joy ride? Here is Nathan trying to dig us out. More photos & story to come...

37 & half weeks

2008-12-17T18:19:00.004-05:00

These will be some of the last pregnancy belly shots I'm going to get in before the big day comes. I was lucky enough to get my great friend Julie (you all remember the super fantastic photographer) to take some shots. We kept trying to get out and take these photos but Ontario weather is quite schizophrenic and were delayed 3 times. The day previous to these photos the 4 feet of snow was washed away with rain and plus 8 degrees C. Then the day we shot, it was a snap freeze of minus 8 degrees C! All within 24 hours... it started snowing again that evening so it's back to winter wonderland. These photos might look like fall, but let me assure you I was freezing my pregnant belly off. Not to mention the ill effects it had on my boobs. We would stop periodically so I could warm up in my coat and Julie could melt her fingers. I even had to keep her battery warming up against my back in the elastic part of my maternity pants. Yeah, yeah it doesn't compare to Nunavut. But cold is cold! Minus 8 is darn cold on the boobs be you in Nunavut or the southern tropics of Ontario. The shots turned out amazing, displaying a very glamorous side of pregnancy. Tomorrow I might just show you some stretch marks so we don't stray too far away from reality.

The four of us

2008-12-14T22:41:00.002-05:00

These are my parents, Little Girl will be their first grandchild, so they are pretty excited. Arguably the most excited grandparents in history. I figure it's because this time around they are going to get all the fun and excitement of a child, minus all the poop and sass talk they got from their own kids...oh and I made sure they got their full dose of that while I was growing up. I'm in for some real karma pay back.There are only 3 weeks left until my little human addition will be here. Things are starting to become a little uncomfortable, but I still don't have too much to complain about. Everything seems to be pretty normal and on track, except that I don't feel terribly comfortable unless I'm in a completely straight position, bending in any way is hard work. Even sitting in a chair can be a challenge, depending on how the little pretzel inside of me is sitting. So that leaves standing and laying down. Standing is hard, my feet are swollen. Laying down also a challenge, I have horrendous pain if I lay on my back(which your not supposed to do anyways at this point) or side pain laying on my side. Yeah, of course it's all worth it, especially when I get to finally put her in those cup cake patterned, footsie pajamas I bought today. Yep, it's all worth it, until she learns how to back talk.

Meanwhile, I'm still down south patiently waiting for the day when Nathan is supposed to come down. My family has done a wonderful job of keeping me entertained and distracted, but I am still counting every second until he comes down. Mainly because I really need a good foot rub!

Christmas Shopping: Shopping in a store vs. Online

2008-12-11T19:52:00.002-05:00

Now that I'm down south, one advantage to Christmas shopping is the instant gratification you get in a store making a purchase, not like having to wait 10,000 years for it to show up in the mail, the way it shows up north, when ordered online. It takes a little adjustment period for me switching from online to in store shopping... even though I regard myself as an high level experiance shopper (Nathan is nodding his head in agreement right now, whilst crying silently into his wallet). I am a shopping Ninja...but not in the find the deal kind of way. No, more in the stamina, can shop till I drop kind of way. I usually know what to get and where.

Except recently I have been finding it hard in some stores. I have become a little jaded shopping online. If I need a book, I go to amazon, pump in the title of the book and BAM it pops up. In a store...I acutally have to go and look for that book... peruse the isles. I recently became frustrated in Futureshop because I knew the title of the movie I wanted but could not for the life of me find it. I also couldn't find a sales person to help me either. I felt so helpless needing the help of another person to shop, like my ego was taking some kind of hit. All I wanted was for some magical "search box" to appear in front of me so I could type in the movie I wanted and click purchase. Traditional shopping, in a sense is becoming too slow and inconvenient for me.

Did you know that when your in the south things show up in the mail really, REALLY fast? It's kind of weird for me to think that I could be in the south, but prefer to some extent to continue shopping online. Shopping online also adds some sanity into your life after you've spent a Saturday afternoon at Walmart during their extended holiday hours. No one should go to Walmart on a Saturday, let alone during the Christmas season. That is one way to throw a laid back Nunavummiut into an anxiety attack.

You want Photography, I'll give you Photography!

2008-12-02T07:56:00.002-05:00

My friend Julie, who I met spending two amazing, but long years in photography with has started her own blog. This blog demonstrates her incredible talent and bug for traveling, mixed in with some random photos of her cats and daily life. I urge you all to go over and have a look at some of her gorgeous work. You can also read what she has to say, but I guaruntee you'll stick around for the photos! Check it out here "Insert Witty Blog Name Here"

These photos stolen directly from Julie's site. Photo Credit Miss Ju-lie.

Showered With Gifts

2008-11-29T23:02:00.002-05:00

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

2008-11-27T21:26:00.003-05:00

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

2008-11-21T23:56:00.002-05:00

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...

2008-11-15T17:27:00.005-05:00

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!

2008-11-13T18:40:00.006-05:00

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

2008-11-12T20:18:00.006-05:00

Remembrance Day Ceremonies

2008-11-11T14:04:00.002-05:00

Indigo, being wonderful over on South Baffin!

2008-11-09T23:06:00.003-05:00

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

2008-11-08T15:58:00.002-05:00

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.

2008-11-07T15:13:00.005-05:00

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.

It's a beautiful day, eat some snow!

2008-10-30T12:26:00.004-04:00

Pregnant, Halloween & 2 hours to come up with a costume

2008-10-26T16:28:00.005-04:00

And no I would never have had the guts to do this minus there being a 3lbs human being living inside my stomach. This is just another one of those "can get away with while pregnant" things. I've never even worn a bikini in my life.

I was going to sew together a witch's costume for my Halloween party yesterday, but kept messing it up. I threw this together last minute, as you know you have to be crafty in the north. There weren't really any other options of just going out and buying something. I will not be sporting this kind of attire either next Friday while handing out candy, it will just be too cold. Lucky I have another warmer costume handy. I will make sure to post photos of that later on.

Kara sent me Chocolate!

2008-10-24T14:36:00.003-04:00

Ok I went a little crazy, maybe even psychotic when I opened a package of mini Halloween candy bars Kara sent to me in the mail. It's even more special because a box of 50 usually goes for about $18.99 up here. At first I opened the package while I was at work and then started getting possessive when other people started noticing what was inside. Sure I shared a little, then I hid in a dark corner and clenched that bag of chocolate like Gollum from LOTR. The words coming out of my mouth usually are something like don't mess with a pregnant lady and her chocolate, but really I'll admit that this had nothing to do with being pregnant. That's just an excuse, because it's just socially excepted for a pregnant lady to scarf down entire bags of mini Halloween chocolate. Where as it isn't so acceptable for a young lady pre & post pregnancy. I did it anyways, I just didn't talk about it openly.

My wonderful family also sent me a couple of boxes full of a variety of Halloween candy and Halloween paraphernalia, I just didn't take any photos because my candy eating hand is much faster then my picture taking hand. I have a wonderful family though!!

Inside

2008-10-23T12:14:00.004-04:00

During a blizzard, the arctic breed is truley in his element snuggled up next to a kitty on a soft mattress.Then he saw some doggies running free out the window and wanted back outside.

Times, how they change...

2008-10-20T14:29:00.002-04:00

I was saying to Nathan last night that I have no conception of how big my belly is until I look down at it. If I was blind or never had to bend over I don't think I would really be aware of the massive bump out front. Now the back pain is telling enough on it's own, but I still feel like a little person...even though I have been "growing" sans-baby from the first picture to the second. Food is too tasty.

A lot about nothin'

2008-10-18T10:46:00.004-04:00

I had my 28 week check up at the health centre this week and had the pleasure of getting my Rogam shot. I get this shot because Nathan has a positive blood type and I'm O negative (Go universal donor!). The shot is for protecting this baby and all future babies from my body building anti-bodies, potentially attacking the babies like they are some foreign parasite invading my body . The shot is only for RH negative mommies, not actually very common up north because most people up here are RH positive. Nathan jokes that he has the superior blood type, so I made him come to my appointment in the hope that the boredom of sitting around and watching me whine about a needle would be a punishment. Of course he took that opportunity to tell me the whole time that the needle was going to be huge, 18 gage he said ( I don't think he even knows what that is, nor do I really, it just sounds horrible). When I asked how big that was he put his thumb and index together into a circle, indicating that it was going to be the size of an Oreo cookie or something. The nurse was concerned , was I going to have a boy? Because he would feel bad for me if I ended up with one just like Nathan. I said no it's going to be a girl, but I'm sure she is going to be just like her daddy, loving to torment her mommy. My mother also said the shot would be unpleasant, when she had it done 25 years ago it was some massive thing that was injected into her bum. Meanwhile the nurse came back with this tiny little thing that gets injected into my arm. That's one huge Hurray for modern medicine!

Morena and I attended a Penny Sale this week too and bought a few tickets. The idea of a penny sale is that you buy tickets for 25 cents and place them into bags around a table and then wait for a draw to see if you won any of the donated items. We didn't see anything we wanted at the 25 cent table, but the $1 table had a some awesome carvings, prints and a couple of parkas. We were unsuccessful winning anything, but we had a good time anyways.
It snowed all last night and now everything is beautiful. It's like the community got a make-over. I love snow, it hides all the mud and litter on the ground. However when I went to let the dog out this morning in my jammies I got hammered by a shelf of snow hanging over the front door. I felt like I had just walked into a Spy vs. Spy trap. The dog was a little taken aback as well. I must remember to put on a coat next time I got to the door. Also some proper footwear, I was wearing crocks (better then flip flops eh Tina? lol).

October Snow

2008-10-16T17:27:00.007-04:00

It's been snowing a little, but I'm really hoping for a lot more. The best part is that it's finally cold enough that the muddy ground has frozen solid. I can now break out my super cute boots and not worry about getting them dirty. Bless snow and the cold temperatures in Nunavut for not wrecking my expensive Uggs! Tallinn is still shedding his coat from summer and although enjoying the new snow, we are finding him also enjoying being inside more often.
Here I am 7 months along. Everything might look peachy here, but really it's very cold and my jacket no longer does up. I'm now normally wearing a larger sized puff jacket I picked up this summer from Cost-co. I got it in anticipation of a belly busting zipper problem. Meanwhile it's brown, massive and I look like an oversize tootsie roll! I guess that may be appropriate for Halloween.

Nunavummiut Vote 2008

2008-10-15T10:33:00.009-04:00

The Canadian federal election was yesterday....as I'm sure 59% of you are aware of... and you other ones... well apparently it was the worst turn out in our history. Nunavut however didn't have the worst voter turn out in the country, it actually beat Newfoundland/Labrador who came in last place, which I must admit I'm a little surprised about. We also kicked the Northwest territories by a whole 0.8%! Good for us, but seriously why aren't more of us voting? I have to wonder if it was slightly more advertised maybe more would have gone out? I didn't see a single campaign sign and I don't think the conservative party even made it to our community. The only reason I knew the NDP and Liberal representatives made it here was I saw one, that's right ONE liberal pin and started asking around to see if I could get one (only because I would have liked to collect all the parties pins, I also snagged an NDP pin, but nothing from the Conserves or the Greens). I really believe there wasn't enough campaigning done up here, I think a little more hype would have made everyone a little more excited. Not everyone is going to sit around catching details on CBC news world (which I found to be leaning more on one side vs the other). I don't even think some people here even knew there was an election.

Meanwhile I've got my "only in Nunavut" election stories to tell. I received a phone call from my mom the other day reminding me that I have to take TWO, yes TWO pieces of I.D. with me to the polling station come election day. I just laughed and said probably not, but closer to the hour, I decided to take my wallet, crammed full of identification. I show up, get a "what's your name" and a "you can only vote once" and BAM I'm voting. No I.D needed, good ol' Nunavut.

The other wonderful tale of stupidity is definately my fault, but probably only got away with it because of where I was voting (they are a little more sticky about things down south I find). Now at the risk of getting in trouble I'm not going to say I actually did this... I hypothetically brought my camera into the polling station. I might have taken a photo of my blank ballot and also maybe one of me putting my ballot in the box. Apparently you can't do this. I might have told the people running it that I was documenting my voting experiences and they hypothetically didn't say anything or seem to care. That is until we were leaving and Nathan started saying something about how I don't think your allowed to bring cameras into a polling station and blah blah blah...and this lady comes running out and says "you can't take photos inside". O.k., well it's too late now if that's true, I might have already done it. Anyways if I did take photos it wasn't of anyone else or wouldn't have compromised anyones else's vote, it also helped that no one else was in there. I was maybe just dumb enough to take photos of my own unmarked ballot, which apparently is taboo or illegal (I couldn't find anything written about it later, but if anyone knows anything official I wouldn't mind you sharing your knowledge). Anyways it's obvious that if this story is true, I'm not going to be posting any taboo photos. So are some safe and boring images to hold you over.

Here is sweet picture of the outside (outsides are safe). As you can see it has snowed, three cheers for that!

Also hope I'm not breaking any rules with this Pulizter prize winner!

BrAiNs, Zombies Must have eaten my...

2008-10-14T10:13:00.004-04:00

That's why I haven't been posting, yeah that's it, the zombies ate my brains. That or I'm really having a bad case of the pregnancy brain fuzzies. The baby is sucking all the juicy fatty acids away from the think part of my brain, she is my little zombie. If you really think about it, it's kind of freaky. I have an organism living in my body that is sponging off of my brain...it's kind of Halloweeny really.

Meanwhile I have the attention span of a monkey and have no creative juices in me to post anything really interesting. Nathan is even starting to get frustrated that I haven't posted in so long. I eat, I sleep, I wake up screaming bloody murder from leg cramps, eat some more. That's about my life right now, with the occasional other activity, but I can't think of what those are because I have a temporary lobotomy until the baby is born, when I get my fatty acids back.

The other day I went to a community event honoring a woman who is very active with this community. Cheryl has seen to it that this community experiences a wide variety of programs for all ages. Most recently she put together a program to teach youths carving techniques by a few master carvers. All the kids from that program where there to thank her on this day. She has a long list of accomplishments and a few members of the community wanted to let her know how much she is appreciated. Cheryl was given the most amazing carving by the master carvers of the youth carving program, a pair of amazing kamiks by one of the sewing groups and a hat, mitts and parka by the other sewing group. She was stylishly dressed for a blizzard before anyone knew it.

I posted a few photos of the event on facebook and Tina said she liked this photo, so I'm posting it up here. It is pretty cute. Maybe when I see my little zombie all dressed up in the cutest pair of kamiks like this little boy, I'll forgive her for all the brain juice she sucked out of me.
Just a reminder today is ELECTION DAY! DON'T FORGET TO GET OUT AND VOTE!!!!

It's begining to look a lot like Halloween...

2008-10-03T16:45:00.004-04:00

I must be in heaven because our local Northern store produce lady (YO Heather!) ordered the store some Candy Apples. I-ALMOST-DIED! I bought 5 of them. No, I did not eat them all at once. Now she is telling stories of a possible caramel apple delivery.... this is going to be a yummy October!

Rocked by the Flu

2008-09-30T11:37:00.004-04:00

I was hit with a bad Flu bug like a Ninja out of the night two days ago. I had no idea what was happening to me when it started. I was in so much pain I thought I was going into early labor (I'm sure this is an over dramatic thought during a lot of first pregnancies). The pressure and pain was so bad it caused me to end up crumpled on the floor waiting for a moment of relief. This is when my husband found me. Clearly worried, but unable to express his feelings like as is normal, he could only say "I don't know what to do, I don't know what to do". I explained that it was something to do with my stomach, but I wasn't sure what was going on. I finally picked myself up and made it to our bed where I crashed and could only get out "Get me a bucket or a bowl!". Nathan disappeared and all I could hear from down the hall was him mumbling to himself about that he didn't know what kind of bowl, and what kind of bowl was it that I needed? At this point answering him was out of the question, so I thought that he would put two and two together and figure it out. When the poor guy came back with a tiny cereal bowl, I had to explain that I needed something big enough to be sick in. I have to wonder what he thought I was going to do with a cereal bowl? He quickly returned with a MASSIVE pot! Even though I was feeling so ill I had to giggle a little. He was trying so hard to help. The next day he went out to the store to get me soup and Gatorade, even though he hates going to the store by himself. And I was very thankful for him to be around, even if his intuitions are lacking sometimes. In most cases it's your mother who just knows what to do when your sick, and I can see what roll I will be having to fill once the baby arrives. He can teach her baseball.

Coffee Mate

2008-09-25T13:47:00.005-04:00

I was sitting in the office yesterday letting my brain wander and the stale hint of coffee hit my nose. I then began to think about how I had never really come across Coffee Mate until I moved north. If it's one thing the people love up here is their coffee and there always seems to be a jar of Coffee Mate not to far away. I would have never stooped so low in my posh days of living in the south to ever think about trying a milk substitute. I would have rather taken it black, but being up north I, at some point opened my mind to trying new things. It was good, not like having a steamed latte (I mean come on!) but it wasn't so bad either. When that scoop of powder coagulated together in my coffee and then settled like a clump of pancake batter waiting to be mixed together, I at least knew that the coffee would stay the same temperature, unlike when using milk.

However if I can use milk over Coffee Mate, normally I would. Until yesterday that is. I Asked myself why do people up here always use powdered creamer? Ask and ye shall receive. Not long after I was having this conversation with myself I sent Nathan to the store to get me some milk. We had run out and as a pregnant lady I do a lot of milk swigging, sometimes straight from the carton. When Nathan returned from the store, I popped off the lid of the delicious 1 L container, momentarily checking the expiry date (because that's a must up north as well), confirming that October 7th was a very reasonable safety zone and then proceeded to guzzle down a mouth full. And then it hit me, like a sour, curdling truck out of hell.... maybe this is why you might want to use Coffee Mate. Milk no good. You might imagine at this point how good a pregnant lady's gag reflex is and we'll leave it at that.

But has anyone ever seen the commercial for Coffee Mate, where this guy is doing his morning routine and you keep thinking he is going to pour some milk into his coffee, but no they have fooled you he put it into his cereal or the cat's dish? Why would you want to waste your Coffee and put something as low as milk in it? Then he ends up putting Coffee Mate into his cup. That commercial is pretty weak, probably like his coffee. I'm sorry but all milk goes in my tummy, don't be wasting it on the cat!

Chewing Seal and Sewing

2008-09-24T10:16:00.004-04:00

I've been going to sewing classes in the evenings some days. It's always such a great experiance. I tend to get a little bummed out about humanity sometimes because of my husbands line of work and it's really great to take time to remind myself how wonderful human beings really are deep down inside. And it's going to sewing class recently that has reminded me of this.

I can't sew. I can take a photo, I can paint, I can draw, I can play a few instruments, but I can't sew. Worth beans!! The whole idea of making something out of fabric just throws me for a loop, I think it's terribly fascinating beyond my brains capacity. And this is where I run into trouble because Nathan can't sew either and what do you know it every single pair of his work pants have to be hemmed! Last year we ended up taking down south 10 pairs of his work pants just to get them repaired or hemmed and it almost took up an entire suite case, what a waste of space!

Some nights back, a few ladies and myself went down to the sewing class at the community centre just to visit some of the local ladies there and see what they were making. That night some of them had been working on parkas and my eyes just lit up with wonder. I sat there watching amazed trying to put it all together in my head, when the lady in charge came over and said "You know, you can do that"! I said "Aaga" ("no" in Inuktitut)! She then told me about one of the ladies there, who originally had no clue about how to sew and today she is one of the best in the class. I wasn't sure I would be able to create anything, but some how her warm smile was convincing enough for me to dive in full force and now I'm going 3 times a week!

The woman who is running the sewing class, who I call Hopi (because I can't pronounce her full Inuktitut name lol) should win some kind of awesomeness award because she is always in class ready to lend a hand. I haven't seen her working on anything of her own yet because she is constantly running around helping others put together their sewing projects. The other night she blew my mind away when a lady came over wondering the best way to attach a sleeve to the body of her parka. Hopi took the sleeve, turned it inside out and placed it inside the Parka making it much easier to sew on (I'm sure this isn't making any sense, but it did when I saw it happen, you'll just have to trust me). Last night when I was trying to sew something (I'm not going to say what because it's a Christmas present), Hopi stopped and took time, along with another awesome lady to try and fix a problem I was having. Here I am sitting between two Inuit ladies while they are having a conversation in Inuktitut over my project and how to fix it for me. I felt so cared for. I'm also getting a lot of help and support from my also pregnant friend Meaghan, who again I wouldn't be able to produce anything without. Last night she drove all the way home just to get her sewing machine for me to use because all the others were occupied! These crazy wonderful ladies just make your day!

While I was sitting on the floor in class (this is where the most important work gets done), a lady from another class, one that was making tradition Inuit Kamiks came over with a piece of seal. She had been chewing the piece used for the bottom of the foot, the traditional way to soften it up. She propositioned me that since I had good teeth maybe I could spend some time chewing and she could sew up my project. I took one look at her and questioned "but you have good teeth too". She then said "nah, I have dentures". Best looking dentures I'd ever seen. So just for fun I took the piece from her and took one big bite. My mistake, I must not have realized that seal skin pre-chewed is ROCK HARD. As my teeth were zinging from the pain I realized I probably should have used my molars instead of my front teeth. I handed her back her pelt and she giggled. She probably has a good 3 days of solid chewing ahead of her and that's just one foot. Now I realize why they cost so damn much if you are to just buy them. I think I'm just going to stick to sewing for right now.

Waiting

2008-09-21T11:28:00.007-04:00

Like everywhere else in the territory it's been snowing. It's so clean and crisp, especially when accompanied with a cloudless blue sky. I can't wait for the temperatures to drop and the for the rain to be gone for good. It's all just a matter of time.While we are waiting for the baby to arrive we have been working on Tally's manners. We have a few major concerns like "borrowing" food from an unsuspecting toddler or excessively using his massive paw as communication and knocking the baby around. No more people food, no more pawing. HAHAHAHA!!! Apparently Malamutes are stubborn. I have been reading Cesar Milan's book on how to become a pack leader, we have been watching the "Dog Whisperer" and another show called "At The End of My Leash" to hopefully get some insight. A lot of the cases are very similar and we have started implementing some new rules such as "claiming" the kitchen as my territory and off limits to Tallinn. We have also stopped giving him scraps, stopped treating him like a person instead of a dog, not letting him crawl all over me and most importantly trying to give him more exercise and walks. Tallinn is great on walks off leash, but as soon as I put him a leash I immediately turn into a big juicy sled that he can't resist pulling. In my state right now I just don't have the strength to handle that. I really don't know what to do about that and I don't think Cesar Milan is willing to come up to Canada, let alone the arctic. I finally saw a show on this morning called "Downsize My Pet" where really overweight dogs and cats are put on a diet. This morning's episode had a very large Husky who could barely walk, let along pull her owner around on a leash. Then I thought maybe I could just plump my little cupcake up and he would stop pulling? Maybe not.
I'm also desperately waiting for Halloween. The urge to decorate and get in the mood too early is a symptom of living up north because it gets colder earlier. I started feeling the need for Halloween the end of August and have been trying to keep it under control for this long. My mom sent me some Bath & Body Works hand soaps in the mail a couple of days ago (becuase they don't ship in Canada, even though they have stores here...bad, Bad, BAD Bath & Body works, shame on you!). I can hardly contain myself any longer and think I may decorate my house soon! It's time to bust out the scary movies too!

Must Love Dogs

2008-09-14T20:52:00.005-04:00

It snowed today, but it didn't last more then a few minutes. I'm really looking forward to the snow. If it's a choice between cold and muddy or cold and snowy, I pick snow. After the snow was long gone I took Tallinn out for a walk with Tank (the Bull dog), his monkeys, Luna (the Alaskan Malamute) and her monkeys. Luna and Tank are still puppies who enjoy a good rassle.

"Tank, your neck tastes like bacon" CHOMP CHOMP CHOP!!!!
"Luna, your thigh tastes like chicken" CRUNCH CRUNCH CRUNCH!!!!Tallinn is an old man who enjoys investigation, investigation, investigation, drive by rassle, more investigation. He doesn't have too much time to play with the other two because there are miles and miles of untouched tundra to sniff and discarded goose poop that needs attention.

*Speaking of love for our pets, Kristen has just shared this link with me. Make sure your dog doesn't have one of these toys!

White Hairs On My Black Sweater

2008-09-10T15:47:00.007-04:00

At first you thought it was just a cat, then one cat turned into two and now there is talk about another human joining our household. I worry that you will feel left out, as you are our first "child". Seeing as how you already know well the art of attention seeking behavior, I worry what storm you could possibly bring after the new human is born. You are a true Ninja of disaster. You mastered this well as a puppy, and have only refined it to a more subtle variety of destruction after almost 2 1/2 years of age. As I have been reading a little more about your breed, as it seems like you constantly need new training all the time, I am reminded that you are prone to attention seeking and destruction. As if I didn't realize this already about you, these things are pounded like a hammer into the side of my head. I'm also reminded that you are an opportunist, and that you couldn't help yourself last night when you went into the kitchen, even after we have spent the last two weeks trying to train you to stay out, where you helped yourself to the open garbage can. In that moment I had left the kitchen unattended, you seized the left over roast beef pieces I had recently disposed of, even though we have spent the last two years training you that the garbage is out of bounds. When seconds later I had realized what had just transpired, you ran from us, mouth full of partially expired beef, dropping pieces as you escaped, where you ended up under the coffee table pretending to blend in with the wall.
I worry that the destruction is going to get worse. In preparation for this we have kept you inside more frequently to keep an eye on you, as when you are left to you own devices, destruction follows. The kind of destruction that we thought might have gone away from when you were a puppy, like how you chewed our deck apart, we thought that was over. I guess you wanted to wait until the new deck was installed and painted to show us that in fact the deck chewing was not resolved. Now that we have you inside more often to keep you in check, you have found ways of destroying things to show us that you do not approve of being held prisoner inside. You made your message quite clear after I fell asleep on the couch and you found your way into the bedroom, where you proceeded to chew an entire pack of gum....and a candle.
I will still love you even though given the chance you would gladly eat all of my Halloween candy in a heartbeat, even if it's still in a wrapper. I will still keep you even though you try to charge past me to avoid getting towel dried after you have been out in the rain, like maybe this time I will let you into the house completely soaked. You can still live here even though I have one nice black sweater and you find yourself attracted to it like a magnet, crawling next to me on the couch and rubbing your shedding body into me, or sleeping on top of it any chance you get. I hope that even though you are the largest pain in my butt you understand that we would never get rid of you even though there is a new baby coming. I know that's quite a popular move with new parents, but it's not our style. Dogs are for life. We just have some work to do before the baby comes.

Expensive Eats in the North

2008-09-08T17:01:00.003-04:00

Box of Frootloops $15.99 (More like gold encrusted loops!)
Cabbage $7.09

O.K, I get that there are some shipping costs involved. So why then are some items fairly reasonably priced and others are way off the chart, and we are not talking about a difference in weight. How can 6 of the same apples be sold for $3.50 at one store and $8 at another? It just doesn't make sense.

Food Mail* has recently been getting more expensive because of fuel costs and there has even been talks about the Food Mail program being shut down or altered. We don't order every week and sometimes I feel like buying on Food Mail can be even more expensive then buying from the local stores up here. However there just isn't the same selection up here that you can get on Food Mail, especially with fruits and vegetables. And don't get me started about EXPIRATION DATES, the standards up here are not what you would ever dare to compare to any store in the south. I'm sick of buying ridiculously expired dry goods (being that I'm more careful buying expired dairy and produce, sometimes I miss the date on dry goods). I can understand why the stores try to sell off their rotten produce as if nothing is wrong, it's hard to estimate what's going to go bad and what is going to be good, and I know they hold a lot of it in Iqaluit to be randomly shipped. But 3 year expired Oreos, not O.K. I really hope they don't get rid of Food Mail, with all of it's costs and problems, at least I know I'm going to get my dry goods within their recommended lifespan. And my apples & cabbage at a non brain bleeding price.

*Food Mail can be explained here

Gifts for "Tina Kara"

2008-09-07T11:25:00.005-04:00

Two of my favourite bloggers Tina & Kara think I should name the baby Tina Kara or Kara Tina, depending on which one you ask.

Tina from Just below 63 has sent the new baby two awesome onesies, one that says "an Alaskan Malamute is my friend" and the other that says "got snow?" and has an Alaskan Malamute pictured behind it. She also sent an awesome photo card with one of my favourite photos she took. Thanks Tina, you rock!Another one of my favourite northern mommy bloggers Aida from Footprints, has also sent a care package. She sent me a book on breastfeeding and an enormous amount of booby napkins ( I guess one of the joys I get to look forward to are leaky boobs, yey!), a few baby toys and some homemade baby leg warmers! Thanks Aida, I'm glad to know someone is looking out for me and my soon to be leaky boobs :).
Someone had other plans. I wonder who is going to be the jealous one when the baby comes. "What are you talking about a baby? The nice lady sent me the plastic keys!"

Puppy UFC Thursday Nights

2008-09-05T00:51:00.005-04:00

This is Tank, a friends dog. He came over for a visit tonight and the two dogs entertained us. Tank plowed into Tallinn and Tallinn leap frogged over Tank .Drink break. At this point Tallinn thought it would be polite to let his guest drink from his water dish, while he drank from the toilet instead. He was sharing. It's too bad I didn't see it that way... YUCK Tallinn! Isn't Tank cute? I think he might need a napkin.

Northern Pregnancy

2008-09-02T20:18:00.006-04:00

Being pregnant in the north leaves a lot to be desired....like not being able to crush late night McDonald's cravings. Or not knowing when your prenatal appointments are going to be until the day before or the morning of your appointment, or keeping your pregnancy any kind of secret for the first 3 months. However there are few things that have been extremely pleasant about it, such as just walking into the health centre whenever I feel like it and harassing some of my favourite nurses and getting immediate care. I had the pleasure of doing a few of my appointments down south last month and was totally confused when I walked into what seemed like a pre-waiting waiting room. My simple northern brain almost had a melt down of confusion when a nice lady informed me I had to take a ticket (like the kind you take at the deli counter to see who's next) and wait. So in that respect it's so much nicer just walking right into my local health centre and yelling out "Yo Nurse such in such, I need this done or this to talk to you about", with out having to advance through a plethora of waiting rooms.

I would have to say the most disruptive part about being a pregnant lady living in the north is that my community only has a health centre, meaning I have to hike it out of town to deliver. All pregnant ladies must leave their communities and family's behind and head over to the larger communities that have hospitals, in my case I would have to go to Iqaluit. I must leave my community an ENTIRE MONTH before my due date and and would potentially live in Iqaluit, alone. What makes this seem even more appealing is that they call this time period confinement. How delightful.

Well there is no way that I'm going to live by myself for over an entire month, especially in my last month of pregnancy. Who is going to give me back rubs? We have made the choice that I will leave the north 6 weeks before the due date and live down south with my family. This will be extremely hard being away from Nathan, but at least in this situation I will be with my family and not sitting alone in empty Iqaluit hotel room for an entire month. My heart really does go out to all the ladies in Nunavut that have to go through this, they must be hard core mommas. Granted some of them have family or friends living in the big city, a lot of them are all by themselves.

Since I'm leaving 6 weeks before and such a distance away Nathan is at risk of missing the birth more so then if I was staying in Iqaluit, but this is a chance we are willing to take. At least if I do go into early labor, I will have my sister-in-law, mother-in law and mother. We also had to get special permission to make sure that Nathan could get time off preceding the due date so we would have a better chance of him being there. Now at this point all we can do is hope, hope that I don't go into early labor and have to get medi-vacd out of the community or hope that nothing goes wrong with the pregnancy and also have to get medi-vacd out. And if all goes well, we have to hope that Nathan will indeed make the birth. But that's a ways off and there is no sense in spending time worrying about something you can't control. Like many things in the north, you just have to ride the wave.

In other news, I weighed myself today on my bathroom scale. I have been warned not to do this, but curiosity got the better of me and I was horribly shocked for it. I won't be doing that again unless I need to cure the hiccups or something. Here is a photo of me back in Nunavut, as you can see two large icebergs in the distance (these are the ones Matt over at M&M Dorset Newbies has been out shooting). I'm 22 weeks along here and if you think I'm not freezing my butt off because I'm in a t-shirt, your wrong. It's all of 5 degrees right now, I just took my coat off for the belly factor in the photo.

Back again, back again, jiggidy jig

2008-08-27T12:12:00.005-04:00

We've been back up north for just under a week and things have been very hectic as we had our entire sealift waiting inside the house ready to be unpacked. We also had to wait a few days for the rest of our luggage to show up because we had two excess pieces and nameless airline was apparently full of crap (in many ways). This is the time of year when everyone is moving up north. The airline rep even asked us if we were moving. I'm like sure with 4 suite cases, a gun and a pack & play, that's all we need to start a new life in the north. Little did she know that when we did move up we had TWENTY excess pieces! Plus some other junk we had sent up later. 4 pieces of luggage can barely fit my personal clothing, let alone Nathans.

Everyone on this day flying with nameless airline, was traveling with oversized luggage, so there was a massive line up that threatened tardiness. We have to stop by oversized because we travel with the dog and they have to swab the cage for all those explosives that Tallinn likes to carry around. My complaint, is it necessary for everyone traveling north to have to pack with Rubber Maid? Especially when your stuff is in a small container, why not save yourself the trouble of waiting in another line and shove that jazz into a suite case so the air line doesn't send you to the oversized line? I guess it's the only way northerners like to travel. I prefer personally to use a suite case, it gets the job done and I don't have to unravel 10 thousand metres of tape if I need in.

I guess waiting in an extra line doesn't matter anyways in future, because Nathan and I vow to show up at the airport 10 hours earlier when we start traveling with the baby. The whole idea of traveling with the dog, dog kennel, 4 suite cases, stroller, car seat, baby, carry-ons gives me a little seizure every time I think about it. Usually Nathan is dragging a cart, pushing one, and I have the dog and am also pushing a cart. How exactly do we add the baby to all that?

It's nice to be back home and even nicer we made it in one day. We must have hit the lottery this time, a lot of flights have recently been canceled because of fog. The weather here is fairly chilly, and it threatens to snow soon. I'm very happy I went ahead and bought myself a cost-co winter jacket that is belly friendly, I even wore it last night. Then I bent over and tore the zipper. I'm growing by the minute.

To keep her boyfriends at bay...

2008-08-19T08:54:00.002-04:00

Here I am at 20 weeks, really starting to bust a gut. This is my sister in law's side by side, something appropriate for when my daughter starts dating. We went out to the my sister and brother in law's property out in the country and tried out the new beast. It packed quite a punch.
Did anyone ever saw the episode of L.A ink where a granddaughter tattooed her gun toting grandmother on her arm? I hope this picture inspires, maybe my grandchildren won't push me around at least.

More Heat

2008-08-18T09:05:00.005-04:00

I wasn't kidding when I said it was hot on our trip to the states. It was 45 degrees when we came out of the KC Royals ball game into the parking lot! I hope I never see a day like that again. The heat was clearly making the the half drunken ball game watchers irritated too because as we were leaving the parking lot, the guy in front of us cut off a rather large white truck that apparently wasn't a good idea. The lady driving in the truck took the insult like the other driver had just run over her first born. I have never seen a woman spit venom quite like that. The shirtless man that came out of the passengers door of the white truck to further tell off the other vehicle was also a novelty. He wasn't wearing any socks or shoes either. Perhaps this is how they roll in Tennessee? It was a true ball game experiance. The very next day a massive brawl broke out on the ball diamond amongst the same teams we had seen. I kept thinking it was the heat. If they only played baseball in Nunavut, no one would get so upset. Everyone could just chill out.
Fun activity while in the states, join a gun club. I know, I know this sounds really bad. But it was fun and no you can't buy any of the guns and bring them back to Canada. All we did was rent some from the club and use them to shoot that day. Here my mother and I are bonding over handguns. She shot most of the guns that day, even a few of the "holy Jesus, throw you off of your feet" guns and we are really proud of her.
I finally got my Mcdonalds and then I got some more.....and then more (not on the same day at least).

It's a girl...

2008-08-08T00:55:00.001-04:00

Nathan wins the bet and gets full gloating rights for the rest of my life. She is already Daddy's little girl.

Another Belly Shot

2008-08-02T09:46:00.004-04:00

It's just way too hot down here for a pregnant lady who normally lives in the north. We have experienced a few days of 30 plus degrees and I'm not exaggerating when I say I feel like I'm on fire. This is a shot of me somewhere in the middle of 17 weeks. The belly has started popping out, but I'm not feeling any flutterings of any kind yet. I still feel like I'm in that in between stage where someone will look at you and not automatically think your pregnant, but that you should probably stop eating all those cheeseburgers. I try to mentally send them signals telling them I'm pregnant, but really I think I am just a crazy person with body issues.

A Journey of a Thousand Restaurants

2008-07-31T09:27:00.005-04:00

Nathan, my parents and myself are down in the states on a little road trip. I would have to continuously drive around my Nunavut community for 3 years straight to cover the millage we did in two days getting down here. Needless to say now that I have been feeling better in the second trimester all I want to do is eat and oh boy there too many places down here to help me out with that. Yesterday we visited a WWI memorial museum that was spectacular and finished off the day with some shopping (how every good day should wind down really).

This is the first thing I purchased for the baby while in the states. It's funny how I'm so south and in such a warm place, but I am still finding little hints of Nunavut. This author traveled to Nunavut, mainly Pang and Iqaluit and fashioned the story of the Three Little Bears around the Inuit Culture. I was so excited when I found this I almost peed my pants, and of course no one else in the book store understood at all. All the little animals in this book are wearing amuantis and the artwork is pretty nice. I hope I can find some more books like this for my future kidlets. It's just a shame I never saw any of these kinds of books floating around while I was working at the primary school back north. I'm almost half tempted to go back and get another one for those kid

In the land of Mcdonald's

2008-07-27T22:57:00.002-04:00

We arrived safely to Ottawa and made our way down to try and catch the last of the Blue Jay's game we were supposed to see but were delayed by certain flights. Nathan caught the last 10minuets (we had booked one of those rooms that looks over the field) and I got to start back into my year off of driving right in down town Toronto! I am still alive. Nathan did go see another game the next day, so it wasn't too much of a disappointment.
I had an ultrasound done today, but couldn't find out if it was a girl or a boy because the baby was being difficult (truly Nathan's child). The baby was laying with it's legs extended and almost at it's head, almost like chilling in a hammock (again Nathan's child). The most important part is that we could see the baby was alive and more importantly there was only ONE baby!

Tomorrow we head down to Kansas City, Missouri with my parents for a road trip and I will pretty much be without a computer for the most part. I promise to take some photos of the yummy foods I will be consuming for Tina and any other northerner deprived.

Welcome to Beautiful Iqaluit

2008-07-25T09:51:00.007-04:00

Heading out on yet another adventure to the south, a certain nameless airline had mechanical issues (again!) and we missed our connecting flight, getting stuck in Iqaluit. At first I was pretty bummed out, we were going to miss a few planned things down south, spending the time in Iqaluit instead. I was also upset that I had to wait yet another day to taste sweet glorious McDonald's. It all worked out in the end because we met up with Jaime from Nunavut Newbie, who has now made her home here in Iqaluit. Originally she lived in Rankin Inlet, so I never thought we'd meet her. Iqaluit has been experiencing super mild and lovely weather so it has been a nice stay and am glad we had this time to experiance just a bit more of beautiful Nunavut. Jaime, being the super awesome person that she is, offered to take us on the grand tour and we got to see it all. Here we are posing for only a 1 second in between trying to escape the absolute HOARDS of mosquitoes! I learned my lesson after this shot, trying to smile with my mouth open, ended up with some yummy squitoes in my mouth.
A good time was had, and I feel so much better about having missed our flight. Now I'm off to do a little Iqaluit shopping before we catch our flight to Ottawa.

Rain means.....

2008-07-24T06:32:00.005-04:00

Sleeping inside.
Muddy paw prints trailing around the house that would put the
Family Circus Comics to shame.
Helping mommy cook.

Belly

2008-07-21T23:46:00.005-04:00

Ok Kara and Tina, are you happy? Seeing my Jelly Belly on the internet? This is me at 15 weeks. Apparently ladies who haven't had babies before shouldn't really be showing. But this isn't just fat anymore, something is going on down there.

I'm trying not to feel bad that my belly is larger then the books say it should be. Especially now because I just received a very fun book (thanks Indigo!), written in the 1940's that gives me an interesting look into what was acceptable with pregnancy in that era. At one point it recommends that I should keep my cigarette consumption down to only 10 a day now that I am pregnant (for new readers I don't smoke, I just find this funny). I already have trouble breathing because pregnancy increases blood level to supply more oxygen to the baby. I can't imagine what 10 smokes a day would do to those ladies back in the 1940s! They wouldn't be able to walk a flight of stairs! Anyways I'm going to take everything written in a book with a grain a salt from now on. God knows what people 60 years from now are going to say when they look back on the books we wrote about pregnancy in this day and age.

Foreshadowing?

2008-07-18T10:47:00.002-04:00

My dad just found this photo while cleaning out the basement. I hope this doesn't mean I'm having triplets. Nathan just looked at this photo and gave a disgusted look. And I said yeah I know triplets, and then he said no WHAT ARE YOU WEARING?

While no one else is blogging...I will

2008-07-16T22:53:00.003-04:00

I was reading Kara's blog and she has come up with a distraction to help me stop obsessing over Mcdonalds. Little did she know that tonight I HAVE EATEN A QUARTER POUNDER WITH CHEESE brought up fresh (made yesterday and still oh so good lol) from Ottawa. The new member here has arrived and his wonderful wife brought me and Nathan a Quarter pounder as a little gift. Originally I had opened the bag, saw two quarter pounders and cried a tear, you have brought me TWO quarter pounders, then I was informed that I was supposed to share lol.

Anyways back to Kara's idea. She was tagged in a chain to blog about a certain topic. This topic being your spouse has to list 3 things he/she knows about you. And then your supposed to end your post with some random assortment of letters, which I'm going to skip out on. Nathan being a difficult person could not except the boundaries of this activity and gave me such answers as:

1. You are wearing a pink sweatshirt

2. You have Eyes

3. You are sitting on the couch

So I asked him to be a little more serious and he can't if I don't explain to him exactly what it is that I want. Well then aren't I answering for you then? He doesn't understand, he has given his answers, shouldn't that be sufficient?

And then I thought OMG I'm married to my DAD!! When I was a little girl in grade school I would have silly assignments about getting to know your parents. One question in particular used to drive me nuts "what's your dad's favourite colour?" in which he would reply "but I like all the colours" and then I would say (now in my adult head) "yes but I'm in grade two so could you not make this so complicated and just pick one colour?" and then he would say "But what if I didn't have a favourite colour?". Why does this have to be so complicated?

So I am going to play this game and list three things about myself that are slightly more interesting then what I'm wearing and where I'm sitting.

1. I check my e-mail, blogs and facebook way more then a normal person should. I would say at least 10 times at day... AT LEAST....I won't tell you the most, that would just be embarrassing.

2. I hate the sound of someone rubbing their hands over carpet, it makes me cringe like nails on a chalk board.

3. I am a closet messy person. I don't tidy or clean until I know someone is coming over. That way they have no idea how lazy I am and I can still be lazy most of the time. My new slogan is
"A clean house is the sign of a wasted life"!

There you have it 3 stupid and random things. Since I have now changed the name of the game and have removed the uncooperative spouse from the mix, I'm going to tag:

Kennie from TALES FROM THE ARCTIC
Jaime from NUNAVUT NEWBIE

and spouse optional
Matt from CAPE DORSET NEWBIES
Clair from THE HOUSE & OTHER ARCTIC MUSINGS

Hopefully this will give me more to read about as I check to see if there are new posts way too much.

Dog Days of Summer

2008-07-14T22:14:00.004-04:00

It was a hot day, a gorgeous, sunny, hot day. Ok it was only 16 degrees, but up here that's top heat. We were feeling it too, the heat made all of us groggy and tricked us into some daytime snoozing.

We had our front steps repaired today, so Mr. Tally Bear was stuck inside for most of the day. You can imagine he didn't appreciate that much and made my life difficult for it. Tallinn likes to be outside. I can think of no place (other then petsmart) where he would want to be indoors over out. The other night we were watching the Dog Whisperer and they were saying they have a law in California where if your dog is chained up for more then 3 hours a day outside then you can be fined or serve up to 6 months in jail. All I can say is thank god I live in Nunavut! Tallinn would drive me insane, he doesn't want to be inside! I can see how that law can protect a lot of dogs, but it would also put a lot of Alaskan Malamute owners in jail. Here is a rare shot of Tallinn napping, in between moving like a ninja sampling both the garbage and cat food. Everyone else joined the nap train too.