My house has more stuff in it then yesturday!!

As the title says "My house has more stuff it in then yesturday". We finally received some of our household goods - 14/43! We were expecting and hopeing that we would have received all 43 boxes yesturday but we were wrong! Our stuff got bumped the last minute; considering all the people on the plane it doesn't surprise me, and I'm surprised we got what we did when we did! It was like Christmas! a smaller version of what is to come, but it was fun nonetheless - we bought so much stuff prior to moving that I couldn't remember all that we had.

There was a few funny moments and memories that came from opening our box of books "Drunken purchases from Vancouver's Chapters". I actually came out of that purchase with Twilight & New Moon and A hardcover Celtic Book (Thanks Lisa for the review of Twilight and the bookcard to buy it!! - I will tell you when I finish; although I'm sure I will have to purchase the next two when I'm down in March, or maybe before!)

Although, the more we thought about it yesturday, we are very glad that we did not receive all our goods at once, I couldn't imagine 43 boxes in my house, and then trying to find homes for everything while we were onloading. We basically got everything organized except for the pile of "important papers" on the table and what is on the bed/dresser in "Hughie's room.

Not alot to report from the community, except we are going to the trenches...or the ballot box. The first week of December we are going to vote! Vote on whether or not to turn Kugaaruk from a Dry Alcohol Community to a community where it is Restricted. Which means, that you would have to face a Liquor board (table of men) that decide whether or not you are allowed to bring liquor into the community. Needless to say, (and this may come as a surprise) is that I'm voting NO to changing the community. The Inuit, from what I hear and was told can't hold their liquor; and it takes very minimal amounts for them to become quite intoxicated - which at the end of the day isn't good for our RCMP! I enjoy a good drink of white wine or a beer during the weekend but at the expense of this community it isn't worth it.

In one more week I have highspeed internet again!! Although, I'm hoping to be done Christmas shopping before then, so we will have our 2GB last longer than 2 weeks!

I hope everyone is keeping warm and enjoying the Christmas season! Let the Christmas Shows BEGIN!!

Picture Box..Check them out!

Blasted internet - I will update pictures when I have a better connection, until then check out my facebook page for pictures that I posted of Kugaaruk & Vancouver Vacation photos.

Darkness overshadows the light

Here I am sitting at my computer at 8:30pm and I realize that we've been under a darkened sky for almost 7 hours - 7 hours! Before long we will have no sunlight and 24 hours of complete darkness. Seems to me I may have to get a nightlight or a one of those miner hats...anyone know where I can purchase one?

Not alot to report since my last exciting news - WOOHOO NEPHEW! - we finally received our foodmail, and we have since started adding to a new list. I think this one will be a large order, both from Sunspun & M&M meats. It is best to order this now as I'm sure things will start to pile up in the month of December for the rest of the community.

I have officially started Christmas shopping, I didn't realize how many places don't ship to Canada - Gap, Banana Republic, Old Navy...just to name a few - however with that being said, there are still a good handful of places that will ship anywhere in Canada - Futureshop, Roots, Chapters and a few American companies - hopefully I will get all my shopping done in time, but I'm not sure - - still waiting for my EI to kick in, I "should" hopefully hear something this week but I'm not holding my breath. If I recall the last time I had applied for EI I waited almost a full month to hear anything.

I'm not sure how long I will be able to maintain this unemployment, I'm starting to go a bit crazy now it is -35 with windchill so that kinda takes away going for long afternoon walks to pass the time; hopefully H will get the gym equipment together and then I can boot away the boring blues by rocking out on the Ellipitcal Machine and Treadmill...anything to get the endorphn's running.
Although those blues may be chased away this week - APPARENTLY our stuff arrived in Yellowknife on Friday. This would mean that we may get something, a box or two..or maybe it all, in the coming week! It seems like it has been a long time without our stuff; when in retrospect it has only been ~18 days...

We "finally" have our bell express vu hooked up, so I can watch my usual Food Network and Greys Anatomy - speaking of which, I'm not sure I'm a huge fan of what they are doing to Izzy on Greys; now don't get me wrong I'm a huge fan of DENNY!! and I'm VERY VERY happy to see him again, but I'm not a fan of making Izzy look like a Kook..maybe like the rumours say, this is her way out at the end of the season when her contract is up; or maybe they are officially finalizing Denny's story line by doing this...
Just a though Denny said " I'm here for you, Izzy Stevens" Does anyone think that possibly sounds like they are going to kill off Izzy this season - Denny is here to take Izzy to the otherside - HEY I know, I have way to much time on my hand - but it may be justifiable.

Well, I best bundle up and take Chakotay and Sekaya out for their nightly snow romp. I'll updated soon

Nephew!

Attention, can I have your Attention PLEASE!

I have a new 9lb 2.5 oz Nephew
Dawson (unknown middle name) Price

Congrats Amy & Mark

As dawn turns into dusk

I'm sitting here at my kitchen table - looking at my window at the sky, I hardly saw the sun today - it didn't hardly rise, and if it did the cloud were keeping it at bay. The sun has started to set, it is 1:14pm - by the time 3:00 rolls around we will be in total evening darkness - maybe tonight I will see another showing of the Northern Lights - I will attempt to get a photo of them in the near future.

Our stuff still hasen't arrived, although our first M&M meat foodmail order has, so we now have FOOD! - our Sunspun order should hopefully arrive tomorrow - 6 loaves of bread, 4 containers of yogurt, potatoes carrots and RITZ crackers! We have raided the relief quarters for pots, pans and a tea/coffee kettle so we are managing quite fine - although I will be happy when our PS3, Television and all my candles and decorational pieces arrive - I'm not a fan of looking at a bland house!

The weather is starting to get a tad bit chillier - gone is the windchill but that has not stopped the weather from getting colder all on its own - apparently there is no stopping the barometer when it gets good and going. I hate to say it, I'm actually looking forward to our first blizzard (only after all our stuff is here though!). I always look forward to the first major snowfall - not only does it make things feel more christmasy - but to clean up my yard...Two dogs + snow = YELLOW!

H had his first crazy day on Friday - starting with taking a "drinking" complaint at 7:30 in the morning - and things just componded from there - I managed to keep myself busy that day with helping Maurice (the past Corporal - now Sargent) clean his house - not that is was dirty!
I'm actually enjoying my time to myself - I'm sure it will start to get a little annoying as the time goes on but for now just relaxing and doing dishes/washes and hanging with my dogs has kept me quite content. However, Im going to be filling out an application to substitute at the local school - where from what I hear, they sorely need someone that is able to substitute even know there is already a list that I will be added to.

Til next time my readers

Turning back the hourglass

November 2nd, 2008

Have you ever just felt something that just curled your toes, made you smile without so much as an after thought....well on October 31st, 2008 I felt just that. I landed in Kugaaruk,NU with just a slight apprehension but with no weight on my shoulders - sure there was some nerves and the definite need for a hot shower (it was -25 with windchill) but I didn't feel like the odd woman out. But let me back up....

On Monday, October 27th, 2008 the packers showed up bright and early in the morning -and in 4 hours they had all our possessions packed up in multiple brown boxes.
It felt weird sleeping in a house surronded by boxes larger in both size and width that I am...I'm glad my pups were at Seneca; they don't do well with major upheavel.
On Tuesday, October 28th, 2008 three beefy looking guys show up with a nice size United truck and managed to fit all our items into it, in one nice little package. We walked around our empty house - and saw.... MOUNDS OF DOG HAIR!! - and we went off to the hotel; Selkirk Inn.

At this point and time, I was starting to feel the pressure - it almost seemed like we were fighting an uphill battle and we were pushed down two steps for every one that we took. Everytime we completed a task (Selling the car, truck...making sure our flights were booked correctly; and after H being on the phone for almost an hour with the Amex people we finally had permission from all three airlines to take our pups!...Noteworthy: Aircanada sucks Ass when it comes to travelling with pets... WestJet ONLY FOLKS) it seemed like two more would pop up. I'm not sure if that was all in my head..or it was from the greasy amount of gross disqusting food that we were eatting, since we were in a hotel.

October 30th - MOVING DAY, today was by far our busiest day of them all - I woke up with a million butterflies - nice pretty ones...but still butterflies; I think the hardest part of the day was just relinquishing control of my pups to the airline, you hear so many bad things about flying dogs. I was worried about Chakotay; my oldest - he has some seperation anxiety and well, he doesn't do well with change..Sekaya is a seasoned pro, she has been kennel trained for for a good couple of months but she has a bit of David Blane in her - she can escape from the most hightech contraption if and when she wants too.

So we arrive at the airport with about 2 hours to kill; and in roll'd Chakotay and Sekaya - although we would have definitely heard Chakotay if we didnt see him, not a happy husky!! I was never a big fan of WestJet and their happy go lucky additude, even at 7am in the morning...but they way they treated our pups when we were checking them in, and when we put them thru security made me have a huge change of heart!. Waiting to get on the plane was a huge test of my emotions, worried about my dogs getting loose on the tar mats to having someone drop their kennels, or just forgetting the mound of luggage we had checked; the way our schedule was that we couldn't have one glitch or we were messed up all the way to Kugaaruk. I know I was driving H crazy paceing back and forth from the big window to our seats numerous times just waiting to see my pups get loaded.
As messed up as it sounds, when I saw them getting on the plane I could have broken down in tears, and I'm not sure if that was from relief or from fear - our first leg of our adventure has begun.

I wish I could say that something exciting happened from our flight thru Edmonton, however it was pretty uneventful - I guess that is what everyone wishes for - there was a bit of turbulance and that was it - some diet coke and some bitsnbites and we were on our way into Yellowknife.

Landing in Yellowknife, I was not sure what to expect and what did I see...... SNOW and SNOW PLOWS!! I was in udder shock, when we left Winnipeg only hours before it was +14 sunny and warm - we got ourselves landed without to much fuss and into the terminal; All along, H and I attended to grab a Cab to the Super 8 where we were staying for the night until our 10:45am flight the following morning, unfortunately our goodluck up to this point was starting to fizzle...Not a cab on that would take pups and/or didn't have a VAN that would have the room. So it was getting on to about 11pm, and I will admit I was moody cranky and starting to get a little frazzled and worried that I would have had to spend the night in the Yellowknife Airport. H went off to the Super 8 with all our luggage with full intentions to knocking on every door to find someone with the means to bring us to the hotel for the night. While he was gone, a guy name TED came into the airport, " I was sent to help you, how can I get you to where you are going" apparently, although
at this time I wasen't aware, he is the owner of TED TAXI'S - me being the ever aware mountie's wife I was in full..."Don't trust anyone" mode. When H arrived back and he spoke to Ted we finally decided to put our trust in him and he was going to offer to pick us up in his cube van. Once again I stay'd behind with our pups while H went off with this seemingly nice guy to pick up the cube van. Although I would have never expected to see what I saw when he came back, TED offered H his own truck for the night and for the morning to drive our dogs back to the airport!! What a guy and we will forever be indebt to him for the hospitality and kindness he offered to seemingly two unknown travellers stuck in the airport for the night, I felt like our luck was back in our favor.

A semi-goodnight sleep and we were back to the airport via Ted's truck. We arrived 2 hours before our flight was due to take off and was able to book the pups and our luggage with little fanfare, apparently piling on luggage in the North is expected - we arrived to Gjoa Haven almost 3 hours from take off, head some strong headwinds - Gjoa (Joe) Haven was my first taste of northern life, some friendly people and some stares, although I didn't feel like I was an outsider as most of the looks were just from curiousity. It was a quick turnaround and when we boarded our plan again Hughie and I realized we were the only TWO passengers, a couple of snacks and lots of photo's later (Check out my facebook page in the near future, once I get some internet here at home I'll post them) we were told we were about to land in Kugaaruk...dang butterflies.....

I don't remember my initial thought when we landed in Kugaaruk, but I do remember a grin breaking the surface and feeling like I stepped off the plane to my home. After a quick
meet and great with Fish and Pyatt (relief member) we were off to grab the pups off the luggage truck! MY DOGS!! They seem'd very pissed at this point, and cold..(-25 with wind
chill at this point). We took the short route home, all the while chatting it up with Fish and Pyatt - Our home loomed in the distance, home...the place that I will call home
for the next two years had this comfy quality to it; 1100 square feet with warming colors and warming furnace!! As I got settled and unpacked the house Fish and Pyatt swiped Hughie for an hour and a bit to get the lay of the land.

That evening, Hallowe'en. I had the chance to greet about 50 kids at my door - we haven't had the opportunity to celebrate trick or treating in the last couple of years, as all our houses were off the tnt path. After treating was over, the community had a costume contest at the Hamlet Office's gym - we arrived to a few stares and curiousty but before long we had kids coming up to us "What is your name" and kidding around about the Vancouver Anucks (My first inuit word "Anucks" means POOP!!)

We have been here now 4 days and I'm enjoying my time here, it is light out about 8am and here I am sitting here typing my blog at 3:30 in the afternoon and it is pitch
black outside - the sun was starting to set about 1pm when H was heading back to work after his lunch break.
I hope you have all enjoyed this long overview of my adventure; I have another one to tell - my trip that my favorite person in the world surprised me with the weekend prior
to us moving. I woke up on the 25th with H saying "Do you trust me...go get dressed"! But that is another adventure, one I will tell in the next post.