Halloween!

I don't know how popular we are this year; we gave out toothbrushes and fruit leather! We had over 200 kids come to the door this year which is more than our other two years here. Hunter lasted about 3 minutes in his costume, but it was long enough to take some cute pictures!

Moose in the headlights impression:

Oh Mommy, I sure taste good!

Okay- you two are just pissing me off. Get me out of this thing!!!

Ooohhhhh.... and what is this.....

Must get it to mouth:

Tragedy in Kugluktuk

From CBC.ca/north:

Woman dies in Kugluktuk snowmobiling accident
Husband crawled for six hours in blowing snow to find help, RCMP say


A woman in Kugluktuk, Nunavut, died Saturday night after the snowmobile she and her husband were riding on fell through river ice.
Local RCMP say Mary Jean and Jeffrey Hopkins were snowmobiling along a trail across the Coppermine River, about one kilometre outside of the hamlet, around 7:30 p.m. MT on Saturday.
"He had been travelling on the snowmobile with his wife, and the two became disorientated in the weather with some blowing snow, and they veered off the trail," detachment commander Sgt. Chris Bewsher told CBC News on Monday.
"Doing so, they came close to an open patch of water and their snowmobile subsequently broke through the ice."
The temperature in Kugluktuk Saturday evening hovered near -9 C but felt like -17 C with the wind chill, according to Environment Canada. Visibility was at about 24 kilometres.
Bewsher said Jeffrey Hopkins tried to rescue his wife by rolling on the ice to get close to her, but hypothermia set in.
"He had difficulty walking and subsequently had to crawl back from the scene of the accident to the community — which is a distance of maybe two kilometres — on his hands, by dragging his body," Bewsher said.
"It took him approximately five or six hours to do that, at which point, when he got close to the community, he was able to yell for help and somebody came to his rescue."
RCMP and a Kugluktuk search and rescue crew found the body of Mary Jean Hopkins on Sunday morning. Jeffrey Hopkins was sent by medevac to Edmonton for treatment of advanced hypothermia and frostbite.
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Matthew and I have been here for almost two and a half years and Matthew especially has had to deal with a lot of deaths. When we sat down and tried to remember them all, we were well over 20 and knew that we were forgetting some. We are finding it is really taking its toll on us. Last year one of my students at the college committed suicide. And two other students lost their partners to suicide. I don't have it half as bad as my husband and I still find it difficult to deal with. I know there are deaths whether natural/accidental/suicide wherever you are, but here when you know everyone it is very hard.

Our thoughts and prayers right now are with Jeff and the children.

Odds and Ends

Well I never thought time at home could pass so quickly. I have always either been in school or working. I starting working outside of my parents home when I was 13 on another farm. The longest I went unemployed was when we moved here and I didn't have a job for 5 weeks. I worked every summer, part time during high school, and many times I picked up work while in University doing marking. It has been a bit of adjustment getting used to being home. I am definately not bored, or feeling useless. I think it is just getting used to a new schedule in life! I have to say that I am very happy that my boy is a morning baby. I love mornings and he is up early. We have the best play time before his morning nap. Being a mom is very rewarding and I do looking forward to making another wee-spawn- hopefully a wee-spawnette

Here are a couple of random pictures from this week:


Hunter talking to Daddy while jumping in the jolly jumper:

This is the view outside of our house through part of our neighbours yard. They have a beautiful dog who loves the view from the top of his dog house. We have gotten more snow since this was taken.

Hunter is fascinated with the fish tank. We can sit there together and watch the fish for at least half an hour:

Now speaking of fish.... There has been a lot of tragedy on that front. I have gone from tonnes of fish down to 6. I took the female guppies out since they were being over-sexed. They lived in another small tank until they had their babies and recovered. During that time, all of the male guppies died!! I guess they thought with no women their lives weren't worth living and they didn't want to be gay. I put the females back in the tank and kept the babies in the small tank. Well all of the large females died. The would swim at the top of the tank for a few days and their tails would get droopy, then they would not swim well and eventually get stuck on the filter intake. The same symptoms have occured in all of my Mollies. I put the babies in the tank when I thought they were large enough, but no and they were eaten by everyone else. The tank is clear, the water is good, the live plants are flourishing....... SO WHAT IS GOING ON!!!

All that is left in the tank is: 2 placostamus, 1 zebra daniol (or something like that), 2 small female guppies, and one dying molly. We are going to Edmonton in November and I am going to buy some more fish. Any suggestions on ones that won't sex each other to death?

When good toys go bad.....

Hunter was entertaining himself under his little play gym and was kicking at it quite vigorously when one arm of it collapsed! It was so funny. His eyes grew huge as his dangly toys attacked him on the ground. What an event!

UHT, How I Love Thee...

Alright Pav- this post is for you!!

I have had the worst luck with milk up here. Seriously. I really don't even like milk. Cereal and baking- that is it. But I always seem to get spoiled milk.

The first time I ordered milk on foodmail the boys at first air came to my house to drop off my boxes and they hand me a box that is gushing milk out the bottom onto my door step. It was summer and my steps smelled like rotten milk all week. And milk at the stores.... I buy my thing of milk, bring it home and it last two days and is bad. And I usually discover it is bad after I pour it on my cereal. It never lasts to its due date. Or it is bad as soon as I open it! Especially in summer. So I took to opening the milk at the store and smelling it. Even if it smelled good it never seemed to last for long.

So I have only been buying UHT milk. UHT stands for ultra-high temperature, it comes in tetra packs, and it is good for months. So when you open it, it isn't rotten! Hurray!

Here is my tetra pack of milk:

And check out that due date! February 2008! So it can sit on my shelf until I need it!

Four Months Old!

Our Wee-Spawn is growing! Can you believe he is four months old already? He is so long that he is wearing 6-9month outfits. So far he isn't much of a butterball baby because he is putting all of his energy into growing lenthwise.

Hunter at four months old:

A baby in Carhartts. Does it get any cuter than that?

I think my boy is like a mini Mike Holmes!

Here is the boy chatting with his stuffed dog. This was actually Matts dog when he was a kid.

Meeting a Blogger!

On Monday we got another welcome surprise! The first was the plebiscite happening and passing. The second was getting to meet another blogger! Jennifer from North of Nain was in town for work and took me up on an offer to stop in. We had a great visit in the afternoon and it felt like I was catching up with an old friend! She then came back that evening to meet my other half and they had a great bullshit session. It was fun to meet someone that I read about!

A Worrisome Statistic

I read yesterday that we had a 51% turnout for the plebiscite. That isn't what worries me. What does is that 51% turn out is 360 persons over the age of 18. That means that in Kugluktuk there are just over 700 persons over the age of 18. There is a total population in Kugluktuk around 1400. That means there are around 700 children here. I wonder how this community will deal with such a young population. What will the community be like in 10 years?

Yogurt!

This summer when I was out shopping I bought myself a present- my own yogurt maker! I made some last night and it turned out so good.

Here is my morning snack today- homemade yogurt with homemade blackberry syrup. Yummm!

More Hunter

And since I haven't put up any pictures of Hunter here in a few days- here is your fix!

Our little thumb-sucking-wonderboy!

Hiding in the laundry basket!

Can he get any cuter? What a great smile!

By the way- if you missed the special last night on the alcohol problems in Kugluktuk and what the kids here are doing about it click here and watch the video on the CBC.

Looks like it's a go!

Well good news folks!

Rumour has it tonight that the plebiscite has passed with a 66% yes vote to have a liquor committee in Kugluktuk to restrict the flow of alcohol. I hope that this will have a positive impact on my community and that we will see change. There was a comment on my last post stating that the young generation here is the one that will bring on change and I agree.

For those who saw tonights special on CBC the National please share your thoughts. I was very impressed with the show. So many times over shows paint an all to rosy picture of the Arctic and do not show the true issues. The special tonight did a good job of showing the some of the problems here in Kugluktuk. I do wish the CBC had talked a bit more about the social problems here in town. I was dissapointed that there was no mention about the drug and gambling addictions here in town that are destroying families as well. I usually do not discuss any of these problems on our blog because we want to share the positive in our lives. But I would like to to hear from those of you in other communities or those of you from the south.

I just hope that there is change in town. It is needed.

Watch the news on Monday!

Hey Everyone!

Watch CBC the National on Monday night. They are doing a special on the social problems here in Kugluktuk. It should be interesting!

Wholly Visitors Batman!

Yesterday I put in a new site meter thanks to the help of Lucy from Life in YK Delta! My old meter was not working properly. I didn't think I was getting that many visitors to the site, but since yesterday morning I have gotten over 140 to the site! Now half of those might be from Tina at Just Below 63 seeing if I have posted anything new yet! hehehe So who are the rest of you?!?

I have a question for you camera people out there. I have a canon rebel xt and I am wondering how to take better pictures inside my house of Hunter. If you have any tips, please pass them on.

And talk about a growing boy! Hunter is just shy of 4 months old and he is already over 25 inches long. Pretty hard to measure a wiggly boy though!

Oh so true....

The whole time I was pregnant, I refered to the fetus as "Wee-Spawn". It made me laugh anytime I said it.

My sister-in-law sent us this diaper shirt. How perfect!

16 Weeks Old

Hunter is now a 16 weeks old! I have no other stats on the kid. We don't have our next appointment until sometime in November. I put him on the kitchen scale the other day it is looks like he is over 15lbs though! I think he was taking a bit of a growth spurt last week and was up between 3 and 5 times a night to eat. And then last night some relief! He was asleep by 9pm, woke up for 20 minutes around 2am to eat, and then got up for the morning at just after 8. What a great night!

He is doing a lot of new things as well. He loves sucking his thumb and I can hear him sucking his little heart out in his crib when I am in our bedroom. He has just started giggling as well. This week I put a pair of socks on him that have rattles built in and he went crazy kicking and flailing his arms and legs to listen to the rattling! Hunter can roll from side to side, but he has yet to make it over to his tummy. I think that might happen soon though. Blowing spit bubbles keeps him entertained for quite a few minutes at a time too. We set up his jolly jumper this weekend and he danced around in it and seemed to enjoy it!

Other than our boy, there is nothing much new going on! Matthew hung a new door for our house with the help of some friends. We had an evening out with an RCMP member and his family and we have had a few visitors here in the last week.

I am looking forward to voting in a local plebesite. There is a vote to control the amount of liquor coming into town through the use a liquor board. Hopefully it passes and some change happens in this community.

And only 5 and a half weeks until we take a short trip out. We are going to Edmonton just for a week break. We will do some shopping and visit some friends. There had been a seat sale on in the spring and I booked these tickets then. It should be a nice trip!


Hunter at 16 weeks sitting in Dads chair:

Hunter in his Jolly Jumper for the first time! Look at all of the chain needed to get it to the ceiling! We have 12 foot vaulted ceilings that make the house seem so big!

Enjoying the Jolly Jumper!

Mommy's kitchen helper!

*sorry Tina! I will try and post more often!! lol :)

Stat counter

Can anyone out there give me idiot proof directions for installing a new stat counter on here? The one I have is not working properly!

Thanks!

Dear Granny and Grandpa Hunter...

Dear Granny and Grandpa Hunter:

I really miss you. I am all ready for hunting season in my camouflage overalls. Too bad you are so far away and I can't help you this year. Maybe next hunting season.

But at least I got a moose! Maybe you will as lucky as me later in the season.

I miss you all very much. Good luck with the rest of hunting camp.

Love baby Hunter

Blizzard, Turkey and Friends

We had a wonderful long weekend! Winter is definitely here though. We had snow and wind all weekend and it finally blew itself up into a blizzard all day yesterday. My poor husband wanted to install our new exterior door this weekend. No such luck! The weather is supposed to improve this week so hopefully we get them up, otherwise they might have to wait until spring.

On Sunday we joined a bunch of friends for a couples night! It was such a blast. We played rummoli for pennies and ate snacks all evening. Hunter fell asleep right away and slept on our friends bed. He didn't even wake up when I packed him up and drove the quad home. What a good little man!

Then on Monday we had a great group of people over here for a turkey dinner. It was a lovely evening and we all ate until we thought we would burst! A splendid weekend all around.

This is early on in the blizzard. Our house gets some spectacular drifts around it during winter.

This picture is from about 3 in the afternoon and at points we could barely see out the window. I love a good blizzard:

And here is the 20lb turkey just before hitting the oven:

And here is the turkey after! We had already carved up half when I remembered to get a picture. I think this is my best turkey ever!

Here I am with Hunter on his first Thanksgiving:

Here is everyone enjoying our dinner together. Hunter sat in his Bumbo on the table for the whole supper! Someone suggested that we should get a lazy susan for the centre of the table and put him on that! I think that would be hilarious!

After supper Hunter got some quality time with friends! He is really looking intently at his zebra here!

Having fun with more friends!

Snazzy New Look

Thanks Rob from "Just Below 63" for helping me get this snazzy new look! He also reminded me that the adventures are not just for Matt and I anymore, so Hunter was added to the title. How could we have forgotten about him!

New Bloggers

I just added a few new northern bloggers to my sidebar. Go and check them out! Port town ghosts has hilarious videos of her Ookpik doing crazy things- a must see! I cannot believe how many northern bloggers there are. When I started our blog there were only a handful to read. Now to check them all out takes a bit of time! Good thing Hunter has naps so I can play on the computer.

Cute Pictures

Of course we are taking about a million pictures a day. Here are a couple cute ones from this week.

Sleepy boy!


Hunter in his hoody towel, "hey mom, where are you?"

More Family Pictures

I thought it was neat to see the family resemblances between our son and our family. I was able to find some more family pictures:


Here is Hunters Great, Great Grandfather Elijah holding Hunters Great Uncle Bill and the girl would have been his Great Aunt Carol but she actually passed away as a child.

Here is Hunters Great Grandfather Hugh, Great Uncle Allan (baby) and Great Uncle Frank. I cannot get over how long my Grandpa's hair is in the picture!! That seems odd for this time- this picture is from 1916 or 1917. And poor Uncle Allan in the dress! That must have been normal then because we have a lot of pictures of the baby boys dressed like this.

And the best for last!! Here is Matthew as a baby! What a grin!

Definately a Hunter

My maiden name was Hunter and we got quite a few giggles when we announced our sons name! Since then we have been told by a few family members that "he sure looks like a Hunter". Well here is proof! My fathers sister, Holly, sent me a picture of her as a baby, sitting on her older sisters lap. I think that they definately look alike as babies! What do you think?