A Little Bit of This, And A Little Bit of That...

There's a lot I want to talk about in today's post, and I'm already feeling like I'm going to forget things. My brain is feeling pretty fuzzy these past few days, and I'm pretty sure it's because I'm just not getting enough sleep. I find the 24 hour daylight is really affecting the kids and I lately. Even setting the tone for night just doesn't seem to be doing it. It's like they know that it went from light to dark in the house too quickly and Seb has been getting really confused with his sense of time. (Soph may be as well, but she can't verbalize it as well) When Phil and I put the kids down at night, Seb will go to bed and then he usually wakes up a couple of hours later and thinks it's time to carry on with his day, and today when I put him down to nap he was like "Mom, it's nine o'clock eh? It's bed time." Which means that he's got his days and nights a little confused. However, I'm equally confused because I don't think I've been to bed before midnight other than last night and I wake up in pitch black and have to go deal with a kid in the middle of the night and my living room is bright and you can see the sun trying to get through the curtains. I still think 24 hour daylight is better than the 24 hour darkness that is headed our way this winter, but it definitely confuses the system. 

One of my favourite things here as of lately is walking to and from work. I absolutely LOVE being outside and have made friends with some of the dogs that sleep and spend their days outside - especially on my street. There's a a row of houses a few down from mine and every morning on my way to work I take a few minutes to give them all rubs and say good morning.

 It feels like a mini-hike every morning because there's no pavement anywhere and because of the dust and dirty ground, I am usually sporting my hiking boots. So the fresh air, my backpack, and hikers make it feel like a mini hike to work. 

Everyday, I'm still blown away by how nice people are. I was walking to work yesterday morning with a tray full of leftover cupcakes from my birthday Monday, and it was a little trickier than I had anticipated because the cupcakes were too big for the slots and this lady who I've never seen before, pulled over and offered me a ride to work. She didn't know me at all, but saw me walking slowly and steadily and just offered me a ride. There are not many people out there that would do that; but here, people are just like that. 

Like I mentioned in the previous paragraph, Monday was my first Arctic birthday, and it was such a great day. The nurses threw me a little surprise birthday party and got me a cake. One of the nurses who's become my lunch buddy was nice enough to wish me a happy 15th birthday party over what he thought was the PA system of the hospital, but it turned out he punched in the wrong numbers and ended up wishing some man in one of the government buildings a happy birthday instead. After my day at work, I headed home and had a wonderful potluck style dinner with our close friends and had such a great time! I even got to open our "June" bottle of wine. Yes, that's right, we bought 12 bottles of wine before we came up and have designated months for them. It was amazing how hard it hit me. I had 2 sips and my legs started to feel super warm and I quickly decided to stop. The last thing I wanted to do was get drunk on my birthday, make a fool of myself, and then feel awful at work the next day. Everyone brought such great food and I was more than happy to supply cupcakes and cake. One of the girlfriends of Phil's colleagues is celebrating her birthday Friday, so we decided to have a joint birthday party since she's leaving town Friday to go back home for a month, so she came Sunday night and got a lesson in decorating and helped out with the production of our birthday cupcakes. It was so nice to have some company and someone to help to get them all done. It is by far the most expensive and time consuming craft I've taken to, especially since everything has to be gluten and dairy free and I make everything from scratch.  It was probably the most simple birthday party I've ever had, and yet it definitely fell into one of my favourites. And to all of you who sent me wonderful birthday wishes, thank you so much! 

Another crazy thing I've decided to do is go back to school! I swear I do this every couple of years, but I'm hoping this schooling and the work afterward will satisfy me enough to never go back again. I've enrolled with Thompson River's University to start my nursing degree. I've done a few courses already when I did my Medical Office Administration program that I'm hoping will transfer over, but my plan is to do as much of it as possible through distance education and when we are finally done our posting in the North, I will finish my program in Kamloops. The school is probably the easiest school I've ever dealt with, and even though I'm studying from afar, you have the option of doing your courses online or you can have them send you the books and you just submit your work via email. So in July I will be starting the summer semester and I will be starting at a very slow pace. I'm just going to take one course a semester until we make our next move to Iqaluit and then I will pick up the pace. It'll be easier because the kids will be a little bit older. Right now, I just want to get my head back into school mode so I think one course is plenty. I've got a lot of time before we're out of the North, so I can pace myself for the time being. 

Phil managed to get a trip out today to Yellowknife for some work stuff and when opportunities like this come up through his work, everybody is sort of crossing their fingers that they get to go. A trip like this is an opportunity to pack empty suitcases and fill them up with fresh produce, cheaper groceries and other things you may need (like a garbage can that never made it). It also gives someone like Phil, an opportunity to hit up Canadian Tire (his second wife) and take a look around. Yellowknife trips are another example of how people here look out for each other. When someone is going to Yellowknife they let people know and ask for lists so that they can pick up things other families might need. Like last week one of the guys Phil works with went and filled up an entire suitcase full of Rice Cakes, gluten free/dairy free snacks, and gluten free bread. It was awesome. The suitcase was packed full and he got our stuff more than half off what we would've paid for. He paid something like $1.92 for a bag of Rice Cakes, whereas here, they are $6.00! The other cool part, is unlike flying with someone like Air Canada, or West Jet where you're limited by weight and baggage, flying around here you can have more bags and it's a 70 lbs limit. It's really catered to people who want to stock up when they can. 

So tonight the kids and I are hanging out on our own, and I closed the blinds at 6:30 and gave them dinner in a dark living room and started winding them down really early and read them TONS of stories. It is now 9:00 and they have been in bed for a half hour, haven't come out and I'm hoping will sleep well tonight.

The nanny hunt still continues and is feeling a little depressing at this point. I haven't heard back from the people I messaged (so much for being interest in "any city in Canada") and the only person who showed interest in my job posting, I'm pretty sure was the dumbest person I've ever communicated with. She said she was interested in the posting because the family she was working for was moving to Edmonton and she didn't want to move with them, and her profile said she wasn't willing to relocate and when I brought this up to her she said that no she didn't want to move, and no matter how many times I tried to point out to her that we were not in Ontario, that we were in fact, in the Arctic, she kept saying ya, it's fine, I want to be a live-in nanny, I just don't want to move that far. So I stopped communicating with her in fear of having a brain aneurism from her stupidity. So I press on...

 Canada Day is coming up this weekend and Phil is partaking in a golf tournament at our golf course - it's called "Many Pebbles Golf Course" meaning, don't use nice clubs, don't expect grass, and spot the flags amongst the pebbles. Hahah! The kids and I will be spending time with a girlfriend of mine and her cousin, checking out the festivities around town and I'm looking forward to taking pictures of some of the local drum dancers and the music and stuff. I have a huge batch of pictures to upload, but by the time I get home from work each night, the last thing I want to see is my computer. I'll try and get them up this weekend. I think that's all for now?...

Until next time...

Christmas in June

This past week has been like my birthday and Christmas all wrapped into one. At work I was given a new monitor, mouse and chair; I got my new Nunavut driver's license, (unfortunately, my last name was spelled "Pagues") I got some really good stones delivered that I had ordered from Etsy a while back and then we got our stuff.

I was starting to feel pretty impatient about not having our things. Phil has been living here for the past 5 months on his own with the bare essentials, and although, his things were new and nice and we had what we needed, it just didn't feel quite like home. I could tell that the kids were getting tired of playing with the same cars and books day in and day out, and there's only so much walking you can do in this place. Not to mention, up until about a week ago, Seb was still telling me how he didn't like this home, and I knew if he saw some of his bigger trucks and had HIS blanket, he would start to settle in. We found out Sunday that our stuff had arrived, but that it would take a few days to get a team together to deliver our things (which I mentioned in my previous blog I believe?) Anyways, it was set to arrive Tuesday morning and I couldn't wait. They said it would be here between 10 and 10:30. I decided it would be best if I went to work that day and would leave once Phil called me to tell me they had arrived, as he had the day off and was home with the kids. Well, 10:30 turned into 12:30 and it wasn't until 3:00 that I finally got the call that our stuff was coming (and this was after angry phone calls to the moving company from Phil had taken place). I walked home from work and checked off the inventory as they brought in boxes and kept wondering to myself what would be missing and what would be broken? It's pretty expected in any move, but there is a special reputation about a Northern move and having your things sit at the hanger of the airport overnight and people scavenging your belongings. After bringing in all the boxes, there were 6 on the list that were missing - and after some investigative work the 6 had been narrowed down to 2. Like I said in my previous blog, things I was missing the most were my vacuum, mop, garbage can and the kids blankets. Well, my mop was bent in half, the vacuum was missing until the end of the unpacking, the garbage can was a no-show and I was just really grateful that the kids blankets showed up. One thing that went missing though was my years' supply of personal hygiene products (i.e. shampoo, conditioner, gel, hairspray, soap, face cleansers and creams; my flat-iron, my shower curtain, washroom garbage can, and the kids bath toys.) Such an expensive loss to me - and it's not like I use regular cleaning stuff that I could just go to the store and grab a couple of the over-priced ones. I use organic, toxic free, paraben and sulphate free cleaning products - not the most popular thing here. It's not the end of the world as our broken items like our crock-pot and my full-length mirror and the missing contents will all be replaced, but still. I only packed enough of my hygiene stuff to get me through a couple of months and it will be a while before I get paid from work or we get reimbursed the amount that was lost in the move, so I'm going to have to get creative.

Another really interesting thing is that we sold what we felt were all our worldly possessions before we got here - but as we unpacked, we both felt like it was just way too much stuff! I was already making lists in my head as to what I could sell. It says a lot about how much stuff we buy and really could do without. As happy as I am to have my books (my books make anywhere feel like home) and I'm happy to have the kids toys and blankets, and things they've made their own in their short time on this earth, I would be very happy to get rid of at least half of it and be happy with the little bit we do own. I find this place to be full of healthy reminders. :)

In other news, work is still going great. My crew are doing better every day and I've been really grateful for the compliments I've received from some of the nurses at the health centre. This morning I was in the kitchen and one of the nurses I took a liking to the instant I saw her, tracked me down in the kitchen and told me that she had done a number of rotations at this health centre and every time it was such a headache, but that these past two weeks have been the most pleasant time she's had here and she feels as though there is so much more organization in the front and so much more communication. She said that I was a true asset to the clinic and a real gem. I felt like a geek because I wanted to cry. haha!

The weather here has been phenomenal! The sun is so warm and bright, but the air is so fresh (other than the days where they are emptying peoples' sewage tanks and you're almost gagging on the smell of human waste). It's become really beautiful here. The ground is dry enough to walk on with runners or hikers and the ice melting on the ocean is crystal blue; the river is starting to break through the snow which means Char season is just around the corner. I realized that when we were living in the city I got so comfortable with the idea of my anonymity and I think that's why I've been dealing with this feeling of being more and more shy as I get older. But here, there's nowhere to hide and people expect you to wave and say hello, and everybody knows each others names and you can live one of two ways. You can either be well-behaved, polite and social without creating a poor reputation for yourself; or you can keep to yourself, be unfriendly, and have inappropriate outbursts, leaving people with nothing positive to say about you. I choose option A. I'm still dumb-founded by how nice people are here. I've had the opportunity to have a few meetings at work with some well-respected locals working in the government and felt so honoured that as I shook their hand to properly introduce myself they pulled me in and gave me an Inuit kiss, which is a little something like this: (put on your imagination hat for a second) it starts by ending up cheek to cheek but then imagine that you had placed your cheek on someone and then you were going to proceed to sniff the entire length of their cheek. It's quick, but it's like a cheek rub/sniff. It's really cute.

Also, in my last post I forgot to mention the status on our daycare life. Phil and I opted out on the idea of daycare. I just had this awful heart-wrenching feeling the day before they were supposed to go and was so grateful at how supportive Phil was. We asked a very good friend of ours if she would mind for the time being until she started her new job to watch the kids at our place and we would search for a nanny who would be willing to come and live with us. Anyways, there is possibly another mountie's wife in town who is on mat leave from having twins and she was willing to watch the kids once our other friend started work, and we will hunt at a feverish pace for a nanny. It will be weird having someone come to live with us, but it will only be a short time since we won't need them in Iqaluit and it will be a great opportunity for them as well as a big financial bonus. So cross your fingers we find someone soon.

Anyways, this 24 hour daylight is killing my internal clock. It's late, I need sleep, SOOOOOO.....


Until next time...

Back to Basics

I'm having a problem. I have so much to say, I don't really know where to start?

This past week has been crazy in the most peaceful way. (If you can make sense of that.)
I guess I'll start with the biggest topic - WORK.
Yes, I started my job last Monday and it was... well... different. For those of you living outside Nunavut, anything you think is required to create a working environment, just swipe it from your thought process right now. It may help you better understand my experience. To back-track a little, let me start by telling you what I do. I got hired through the Government of Nunavut to be second in charge of our health centre, otherwise known as our mini-hospital. (and yes, I went to school to be able to do this job) :) We call it a health centre because even though it has two floors, a fully functioning maternity ward, a mini emergency department and specialist clinics running in it - it's not really big enough to be considered a hospital. Any major emergencies get medi-vac'd out to YellowKnife, but for the most part, we just take care of it. My first day at work was so interesting. I came in at 8:30 and was pleasantly greeted by everyone, and walked into my office only to find that the cupboards were all open with things falling out of them, there were papers all over my desk, boxes of crap in the corner and then these weird inboxes filled with paper that for all I knew, could've been there for years.
Project number 1 - clean office. Then I went in search for my supervisor, (I still don't know where her office is?) and when I tracked her down in the hallway, I proceeded to ask her who was training me. I got this "Ummm...what?" look from her and then she responded by saying "What do you mean?...You can just do whatever you want." This response may excite some of you, but for me, in a new town, unsure of how things really run, I would rather have a higher power that I'm supposed to report to. I still think that if I'm working for the government there must be weekly, bi-weekly, and monthly reports that I need to hand in. Anyways... I realized pretty quickly that she would not be my most valuable resource - so that's when I came up with Project number 2 - introduce myself to every staff member and get a feel for what they do, what some of the common problems are and what the person before me was doing. It gave me a good chance to sit and talk with everyone, see who I could trust to give me real answers and not just that, but get a good feel for the main team I would be managing which is the admitting staff. I could see their lack of motivation and their frustration from the second they came into work that morning. This worried me, because I figured I had one chance to reach out to them and if I screwed it up, the rest of my days in the hospital would be doomed. Project number 3 - observe very closely from my office all the happenings in the front; staff's behaviour toward one another, patients, and medical staff; secondly, go through every inch of paperwork in my office to see if I can find any treasures from the lady that was here before me. This final task was the most successful because what I learned was that the lady who did the job before worked as a casual, coming and going every few months, and she was an ogre. Even the notes in her book were mean. It didn't take long for me to figure out that these guys had been crapped on frequently, had loads of changes thrown at them, and then had no supervision to follow-through and make sure the changes worked. Not to mention, every change she had implemented infantilized them. I went home that night and felt pretty down. I knew what I wanted to do, but I didn't want to rush it or find out that I had read the whole thing wrong, and it's pretty common here to have staff not show up for work on a regular basis. The key is to be over-staffed just in case. I must've really been going through all of this in my head while I was sleeping because I woke up at 1:30am with an idea. I sighed a big breath of relief, and wished really hard that it would work and went back to sleep.
That morning I let a couple hours pass to make sure I was on the right track and then I pulled up my email. I sent out a team email thanking everyone for being so welcoming and warm to me, and stated how I noticed that there clearly had been a lot of people in my position before who were coming in and making changes and then leaving; and informed them that I recognized how confusing and frustrating that must be for them. Then I proceeded to let them know that I planned on being here for a long period of time, and wanted their feedback as to what they like most, what they want to see change and any ideas they may have to make the working environment a better one. I let them know that my background was medical and they could ask any medical question they wanted and that I had been in their position before, doing their job and understood just how hectic it can be.
Well. 5 minutes after the email was sent, they were knocking on my door, asking questions, wanting to learn. I'm not sure why people who are put in a place of authority seem to always forget those simple rules - be kind, allow your employees to feel like they are part of the process, and listen to what they have to say. All this to say, that by the end of the week, they were asking for projects, training me in their positions, signing contracts to become permanent, full-time employees as oppose to casual employees. It's funny, because in a city setting, the stress of all the to-do's seem to cloud people's judgment about slowing down and taking the time to get to know your staff and find their strengths. Whereas here, life just moves so much slower, that you know that for the most part there's always tomorrow to finish up something that you couldn't get to.

In other news, the kids and I went for a walk earlier in the week, and came across this cute little husky puppy that decided to happily join us on our trek. However, within minutes of him joining us this super shaggy, huge dog came out and had clearly broken free as the rope that was holding him to some stationed post was all frayed and trailing behind him. As soon as he saw us he stopped and stared like he was ready to attack. (again my protective mama-bear hat went on) I stood waiting to do whatever I'd have to do, but the puppy jumped in front of me and was pushing me back and then he charged the other dog taking a chunk out of him until he ran off. I was so grateful for the little guy and his instinct to protect us even though he didn't know us; and what was even sweeter was that he walked us all the way back to our house until we got to the steps and then just left. Even Sophia, who's petrified of dogs, kept saying "nice puppy" and had no problem with him. Every morning when I walk to work, I hope that I'll run into him to give him a little snuggle.

Today was my first ever time heading out to get groceries with a quad. It was so fun putting my pack on my back and gearing up for a nice ride in the fresh air, and then getting to the store needing a week's worth of fresh food and having to cleverly figure out how it was all going to fit in my pack. All in all, it was very successful and made me feel that much more rugged living in the North. :)

The melting has continued like crazy. The lake in our backyard is fully visible and the earth back there is amazing. It's all mossy and rocky and so different from anything I've ever walked on. Even spending summers in the Rockies, I've yet to see anything like this. It's pretty neat. I'll take pictures.

And lastly for this blog, our stuff has arrived. I never realized how much I would miss my stuff, but after having sold almost everything we own and keeping only the bare essentials, I realized that I really do miss my vacuum, mop, garbage cans, and the kids blankets. There's obviously other valuables coming like my awesome kitchen stuff, the kids bigger toys, and some new little gifts that I'll think they'll absolutely love. Anyways, any day now it'll get delivered, and I will finally be able to really make this place feel like home. I will post pics of our place after that.

Thanks for tuning into my very long blog tonight. I know I missed tons of stuff, but this is what came to mind.

Until next time....

The Great Outdoors

This week has been an assortment of events...

Wednesday was not my finest. The kids were total hooligans, I had one vacuum blow up on me, and one break on me; Sophia emptied the water from the tray of one of our humidifiers all over the floor, and on one of those days where a glass of wine would've been great - we had no corkscrew to open the wine we had shipped up. All in all, I was very happy to have Wednesday behind me. 

The rest of the week was great though. I had some really good visits with friends, I got to check out the health centre I'll be managing and got to do some solo exploring around my town. 

One of the things I'm finding the most interesting about this place, is that everyone I've talked to that has been here for quite some time, have left Cambridge Bay at some point, attempted life back in the city and within 6 months retreated back to life in a smaller community. A few have come back here, and a few were somewhere smaller before, went back to the city and ended up heading out this way. It says a lot about our primitive desires and what we truly want when all the conveniences are taken away from us. I'm reading this great book right now called "Your Brain On Nature". It's part of the David Suzuki reading club and I have not been disappointed in this title. It talks a lot about how before our medical system became corrupt through pharmaceutical companies and funding to offer doctors more money that medical professionals actually used to prescribe outdoor retreats to people as a way of healing all kinds of illnesses. Nowadays, places like this cost an arm and a leg, and are common places of retreat to the rich and famous. Before, these places were funded for medical treatment, but because they couldn't get any solid scientific numbers on the effects it was having on people, they were quickly pulled from the medical world and that was when we were introduced to our first anti-anxiety and antidepressant pills. It irritates me so much to think we were headed on the right track and then pulled away from it because they couldn't get solid numbers on the research -and of course, it wasn't a money maker. It's also unfortunate because doctors could still prescribe a walk outside, and it wouldn't cost them or their patient anything except for some good mental health to be outside (and I don't mean on the sidewalk) and would help solve a plethora of health problems. I have found in my week here that the solitude and fresh air have been better than any outdoor spa I've gone to. I was able to take a walk in my backyard yesterday and enjoy the mossy ground beneath me and a lake that has appeared almost out of nowhere in a matter of days. For those of you on Facebook, if you saw my snow-filled backyard pictures, I can tell you it doesn't look like that anymore. There is still a lot of snow, but there is also a lake and this beautiful land to walk on. It instantly reminded me of my summer in the Rockies when I'd go hiking and just be submerged in nature - minus the trees of course. (Yes, there are no trees here) But it says so much about why people find their way back here. 

I also got a chance to go quadding yesterday and scope out the land that way. For those of you that don't know what it is, think of a motorbike with 4 wheels that can go off-road. It was so cool to cruise around town and head down by the water and the airport with the wind in my face and really see things. Phil also took the quad out yesterday and headed toward Mount Pelly, which is our little mountain in town, and as you head out that way you pass the graveyard (now, stop reading if you get queazy), but he said there was a bucket of fish just a ways out from the graveyard to motivate the wild animals to take that instead of digging up the bodies to eat. We also took a drive in the police truck with Phil this morning to get the kids out and head out that way so I could see where we would be doing our fishing this summer and on our way back there was a caribou head just hanging out on the side of the road. No body attached, just the head. Clearly someone didn't need it, or hasn't met my dad who enjoys the tongue of the caribou. I have to say though, if I saw something like that in Ottawa, I would've been grossed out because I would've instantly thought that someone had killed and wasted the animal, but I know here everything gets used, except maybe the head in this instance, but people hunt to eat and dress themselves so seeing "road-kill" didn't have the same effect on me. 

The kids and I got a chance to visit the daycare and see where they will be spending 10 days a month of their lives. All the kids and staff were really friendly, however, my kids just aren't as quick to warm up to people. They're always friendly, but they know when we're checking something out that involves Phil or I leaving them for hours at a time - and they didn't seem too happy. Soph did much better than Seb, but he just seems so much more overwhelmed by everything here. I'm finding that to be my biggest challenge out here is dealing with his adjustment. I'm really hoping our stuff gets here soon, so that he has his blanket and toys and just all of our stuff so he realizes that this really is home. All in good time though. 

Anyways, that's the news for now. Keep your eyes open for more pictures on Facebook. 

Until next time...

Dukes Of Hazzard

Today was Phil's first day of work and the kids and I happened to have a vehicle to get out and explore.
The melt here right now is crazy and everything is so muddy - it's impossible to stay clean. As soon as I got in the truck and turned it on, the theme song from "Dukes of Hazzard" came on and it couldn't have been more appropriate. And yes, the radio station here plays a WIDE variety of music. The roads have major pot-holes, most of them are filled with water and because there's no paved roads, it makes for a muddy mess. There's also no such thing as car-seats here, so Seb sat in the back of the truck and Soph sat in the passenger seat so I could at least get a seat-belt on her and that's how we've been doing it since we got here. (I'm really looking forward to getting our new Escape here in September) One of the rules of the road here are to wave to any passer-by's. Phil told me about this before I got here. He said he just drove with his hand on top of the steering wheel all the time, because he would wave to someone every minute. I kind of thought he was exaggerating until we got here and saw it for myself. You wave to people walking on the street, you wave to people in the car at the stop sign, in parking lots, in front of you... I was on the road for 5 minutes and decided to follow Phil's instructions and keep my hand on top of the wheel.

We made our way over to the library which was such a bonus because Seb has been having a lot of ups and downs. One minute he's doing great and the next minute he's asking to go home. This is a new thing in the last 24 hours, but I feel so bad for him. A regular thing for us back in Ottawa was to go to the library and pick out a bag full of books. As soon as he pulled out the first book, he lit up and was so happy! The library is attached to the local high school and apparently having two young kids in there attracts a lot of attention. One minute we were quietly minding our business and the next there were a bunch of kids in the isle with us asking questions and picking up the kids. Seb and Soph seemed confused but fine with it, so I let it go, but then one kid started walking away with Seb and I turned around and Soph was in a wicker basket being picked up and started freaking out. So I put on "mama-bear" boots and gathered my kids and laid down some ground rules. Everyone complied, but it definitely made me feel like long visits at the library might not be the best idea right off the bat.

I also got to meet one of the other "wives" and was so happy that we got along right away. She was such a sweetie and is someone I would feel lucky to meet back home (wherever that is???) Either way, I'm glad she's around, because good girlfriends are hard to come by. I'm still so baffled at how friendly people are here. So far I've met three girls here and they've all been so sweet and supportive in their own way and I love how relaxed they are. I've always been such a fan of community-based living and people working together to support one another and that really seems to be the way things are around here.

We also got to stop by Phil's work and take a look around. The gym I'll be using is in his office, and I wanted to take a look at my new workout digs. I can't wait to get moving again. I feel like it's been months! The kids were so happy to see their papa at work and play with his flashlight and sticky notes.

All this to say, we've been here 5 days now and we're still alive. The weather is awesome (yes, even with the snow) - there's no humidity here and a light sweater is pretty much all you need. Bogs are a must as well. I'm hoping Seb will adjust and be happy. He's so much more sensitive than Soph and it takes him longer for everything. I just hope the kiddies we meet tomorrow morning are nice and he finds someone to make friends with. Soph on the other hand, seems to love everyone and doesn't care who they are, she just wants to hold their hand and give them a big hug around the leg.

Until next time...

Growing Accustomed

Apparently, posting pictures on my blog is not something worth doing. It took nearly an hour to upload 3 pictures out of 9. If you're interested in seeing pictures, hopefully you're one of my friends on Facebook, because it looks like this will be the only place I post my photos. *Sigh... Northern Living :)

I've been here three days now, and there is something to be said about the passing of time here. Every morning I wake up and don't feel any real pressure to get anything done. I look at the clock and it'll be 9:00 am and then what feels like minutes later it has somehow become into noon. And honestly, if I hadn't looked at my calendar, I wouldn't have even been able to tell you how many days I've been here for. I feel like every day I decompress a little bit more. People are friendly here. It doesn't matter who you pass - they wave and smile, and no one looks like they're rushing frantically to get something done, they're just sort of... getting it done.

The kids are finally calming down as well. They seem to really love the house and the big open space to play. Soph colours and reads and Seb just rolls his trucks around and seems to think everything is the funniest thing he's ever seen.

I had the pleasure of having dinner with one of the girls Phil made friends with in his time alone here and it's always so nice to hear that someone has come out here with the intention of being here only a short while, and somehow years have passed and they call themselves a "lifer" even though they joke about being in denial about what they just said aloud. I also had an opportunity to meet one of the teen boys that moved here with his parents and enjoyed getting his perspective on life in the North as a teenager, and he was quite the academic. I don't know whether it was his up-bringing or a behaviour that has come about  from living such a unique life; but his patience with the kids and his maturity spoke volumes to me about the positive aspects to a life outside of the hustle and bustle of city limits.

Some crazy things about being out here:

A 12 pack of water - $43.99!!!
A small (and I mean small) bunch of Asparagus - $19.99 Apparently this is a good price for it right now.

The sun is literally so bright off the snow that looking out my window at the horizon with no shades caused white fog hazes over my eyes. Clearly snow blindness is the biggest risk here at this time. (at least for my family)

Yesterday we took a tour around town and drove down by the water's edge and the ocean was covered in snow and ice. Today we drove by again, because we had dinner at a house overlooking the water, and the melt was crazy. There was so much water rearing it's head and people were still ski-doing on it. I would've been way too scared to be out on the water with one of those machines right now. It was melting so fast, you could literally see the changes from the time we started dinner to the time we left.

Some adjustments have been:

Our water is delivered to us, so this means we have to use it sparingly. We don't get tiny amounts to the point we can't really do anything, but showers need to be short, laundry is better timed with water delivery days and our sewage gets cleaned as well so we live by the saying "If it's yellow let it mellow, if it's brown let it drown". There's no recycling here, no composting (however, people are interested in trying), and I can see how if you didn't make friends and have social events you could go crazy and become a total hermit.

All in all, things are really good though, and I look forward to seeing how the rest of our days unfold. Monday, Phil goes back to work and we have no vehicle, and Tuesday, the kids and I are going to check out the daycare. It should make for an interesting week.

Until next time...

The Past Week

Monday, we arrived in Edmonton, Alberta and I swear the city is ridden with explosive diarrhea! Every public washroom I used had a woman in it who seemed to be dying. I don't know what people eat there, but I think a diet overhaul is in need.

Edmonton was such a busy week. We met with my parents and stayed in a hotel and tried to have a mini-vacation while we ran the last of our errands and spent even more money. It's funny how every big city pretty much looks the same. Other than the time change and the strictly English street signs, it was like being in Ottawa. In a way it was almost discouraging because Edmonton was supposed to be phase 1 in this big change in our lives, and I got there and there wasn't much that was different. Typical box stores and franchised restaurants. I think this is why I've never really been a "city girl". I absolutely loved Ottawa, but nothing beats passing through some small town where every store is unique and independently owned. (getting off topic...)

Before I go on, I also want to point out the fact that I have never met as many helpful people as I did in the airport. The first morning we were due to leave Ottawa we had 9 pieces of luggage, two car-seats, two strollers, and 4 carry-ons. The whole week before I kept going over the logistics of how this was going to work; but the morning of, thanks to my sister-in-law, we managed to get everyone in to the airport (it took a couple trips mind you), but this mass amount of luggage attracted enough people working for Air Canada, that they opened a separate line just for us and helped us with all of our luggage and sped us through the process. When we got off in Edmonton, my dad ended up coming to the rescue and yesterday when we left Edmonton the people from Canadian North Airlines, were so much help that Phil was able to leave while I checked us all in so he could return our rental van and bring our shipping boxes to the cargo wing. A lot of random acts of kindness happened during our trip to give us a hand. So a big thank you needs to go out to all the random people we encountered that helped us along the way.

Yesterday we had three flights. Our first flight was from Edmonton to YellowKnife. It was gorgeous there. Lots of water and trees and fresh air, and it was so hot. I couldn't believe how warm it was when we got off. I remember thinking "Ok. It's warm here - Cambridge Bay is looking promising." Our next flight we landed in Kugluktuk, Nunavut. Landing here was quite a shock to the system. First off, the runway is gravel... In case that's not clear enough for you, think of it this way - a large plane, going super fast and trying to break on a gravel road = scary landing. When we got off the plane it was windy, had snow on the ground and the airport was the size of a small construction trailer. (I'll post pictures later)

Next, was our flight to Cambridge Bay. It was a quick 40 minute flight and the kids crashed, which made for a nice quiet ride. Mind you, they were good on all the flights. I was surprised by how much snow was on the ground. I was warned in advance that there would be lots of snow, but it was like I went back to January in Ottawa. (without all the humidity) I can honestly say I felt shell-shocked. I got into the airport and met one of Phil's colleagues that was bringing a prisoner to the airport for a flight out of town, I met his other colleague who drove us home in a police truck, and a lady, her husband and daughter who moved here for a two year teaching stint - that was 15 years ago. We got out of the airport and started our short drive home. There were no street signs, which will make for an interesting time when I need to get myself home or to someone else's house for a get together, and when we pulled up to our house our stairs were blocked by a big snow mound and the floor of our garage was pure ice. Our house, however, is really nice. It's a three bedroom bungalow with 20 foot ceilings, 3 huge bedrooms, an ensuite off our room and a huge bathroom for the kids. The kitchen has loads of storage space, and an island in the middle with an extra sink. It definitely needs a little bit of a woman's touch, but with some respect to our weight restriction, since we'll have to obey it leaving just like we had to coming in.

Today we're getting out to get health cards and a driver's license for me which should give me a chance to see the town more. It definitely is 24 hour daylight and it's really pretty and easy to set the nigh time tone for the kids, but even looking out my window is hard on the eyes, so when I wanted a really good view yesterday I put on my shades. Anyways, I'll post pictures soon and share more about this crazy new reality.

Until next time...