Showered With Gifts

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

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

The Arctic Breed; In his natural habitat

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

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

Beached Tootsie Roll

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

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

Good Things Come to Those Who Wait...

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

Northern Airline Heartbreak....once again!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

it's warm inside

Remembrance Day Ceremonies

Indigo, being wonderful over on South Baffin!

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

Honorary Auntie

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

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

Brain no go.

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

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

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

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

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

It's a beautiful day, eat some snow!

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

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!

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

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...

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'

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

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

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...

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...

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!