Wednesday, January 30, 2008

One week down!

Matt has been gone for one week today. It has gone pretty quickly! I have been here taking care of the circus at my folks place- 5 cats, 2 dogs, the boy and my dad. My mom has been down on Vancouver Island visiting her folks and will be back on Friday. I am looking forward to the company!

It is really peaceful out here. My parents live on 320 acres 50km from Dawson Creek. It is nice to look out my windows and just see trees and snow instead of my neighbours and their skidoo graveyard. It is feeling a bit like Nunavut though! The temperature has been around -40 for the few days. Inside with the wood furnace and wood cookstove I am nice and toasty!

Hunter is wonderful company and keeps me pretty entertained. He is finally loving bath time and has learned to splash instead of scream. So we are having baths every night. My moms new kittens play with him... well I guess they use him more like a wiggly piece of furniture. Hunter loves to pet.. errr grab them! But they don't attack him too bad for it.

Hunter has been saying dadadadada all week long. And when he gets really pissy he screams it. I think he is hoping that dad will come and rescue him soon! He is also doing something so cute it makes me giggle everytime he does it. Whenever I burp him on my shoulder, he reaches out and whacks at me with an open hand too. I guess he is trying to burp me!

I have volunteered to go into the elementary school that I attended as a kid to do a presentation on Nunavut next Tuesday. I think it is going to be a riot!! People that I went there with now have their own kids in the school. It is still just as small as when I went there. 45 kids in kindergarden through to grade 7.

I wish I could attach some pictures here, but that will have to wait until I get myself to town. I hope to go in next week and do some emailing and upload some pictures. And yes, my email for some reason won't work. I can read your emails, so please keep them coming!! But when I reply, all people can read is the subject line.

And congratulations to Jen and Jackie on the Nunies!! I am looking foward to reading your acceptance speeches.

Monday, January 21, 2008

Damn email!

My folks have dial up internet! Arggg!! It is slooooww. And for some reason when I send an email in Hotmail the subject line comes through, but no email! I was just trying to let everyone know that I am waiting here at my folks place for the next month. Matt is going to work earlier than expected and there wasn't enough time to get moved into the new house. He is now working three weeks on and three weeks off. He should get back here around the 16th of February and we will haul everything to Faro then.

So with this super duper slow internet I will disapear off the face of the planet for quite a while!

Saturday, January 19, 2008

You want him to start work when??

We arrived safe and sounds at my folks place after leaving Kugluktuk on Monday. We shopped for two days to find all of the stuff I hadn't ordered on boxing day. We had the trailer all packed and we were ready to drive up north to take ownership of our new home on the 22nd. And then Matt asks me to check his email to see if his new employer had sent any information. Well they did. They want him to start work on the 23rd. Well that just isn't enough time to get into our new house, unload everything we bought, and then drive him into Whitehorse to catch the plane over to the NWT for work. Solution? Hunter and I are going to live at my folks place for the next month!! I haven't lived at home in 10 years! So this should be pretty interesting! Matt's new employer is going to fly him out of Grande Prairie and he is headed to an oil site north of Norman Wells for three weeks. I am sure Hunter is going to enjoy his extended vacation with his Grandparents, but I think I am going to go nuts waiting that extra month to get into my new house!

Now I have lots of time to visit with my Dawson Creek Buddies (hi Curries!!)

So if anyone wants to visit, please do! I am at my folks place until the middle of February!

Monday, January 14, 2008

Well it is 2:30am.

We were just woken by an unbelievably drunk retard who nearly banged our door in. That literally scared the shit out of me.

All of the sadness that I had about leaving is seriously gone. Replaced with excitement for my new town with nil crime rate.

I love our RCMP.

Sunday, January 13, 2008

Our Last Night

This is it! We are leaving Nunavut tomorrow and headed to the Yukon. Exciting times ahead I tell you.

We have had a great last couple of days. Our house has been full of friends visiting and we have made the rounds around town to say our goodbyes. Last night we had a great party up here; the house was pretty busy until after midnight. It has been hard to say goodbye to the amazing friends we have made here. Tomorrow out at the airport is going to be tough. I think I will probably just bawl my eyes out.

Kugluktuk was good to us. We will always have fond memories of our time here. It is where we bought our first house, had our first child, shot our first caribou.... so many firsts! Everyone we pass on the street says it is too soon for us to leave, but we are ready for the new jobs, house and life ahead of us. We are leaving with memories and stories galore.

Thank you to all of the friends we made while we lived here in Nunavut. We felt blessed to have you all in our lives.

Updates will follow as soon as we get settled. We should arrive in Faro on the 22nd. And don't worry- we will keep blogging!


love Kara, Matthew and baby Hunter

Friday, January 11, 2008

Best Friday Ever

So now you are wondering- why is this the Best Friday Ever?

Well first, the boy slept most of the night. Second, we went for bannock at the Health Centre. Third, all of the jars of jam I made last night all sealed (pictures to follow soon). Fourth, one of my favorite elders in town came running out of her house as we walked by and gave Hunter a cute pair of slippers. Fifth, we are going out for supper tonight with a great RCMP family. Sixth, we got word from the lawyers that all of our ducks are in a row for the house selling/buying. And now for the big number 7.....

Today is our last mortgage payment!! But Kara, you ask... aren't you buying a new home? Well yes, but guess what! We are paying cash for it! That is right! No more mortgage payments! We will own this new house outright and I am so proud. We have worked hard since getting out of University to pay off our huge (seriously huge, as in 6 digits) student loans. So my husband has been out of school since 2001, and myself since 2003 and we have done it. Paid off our students loans, paid off our first house and bought our second house.

Now let me tell you more about our new house. It is huge. 2300 square feet, 6 bedrooms, 2 full bathrooms, attached garage, huge yard, wood fireplace, laminate flooring, ceramic tile.... Oh my it just has everything! Can you tell I am just a wee bit excited?

Living room:


Kitchen: (I am looking forward to renovating this one day!)


Downstairs:


My walk in closet in master bedroom:


Master Bedroom:


Main entrance:


Two person soaker tub in the upstairs bathroom (this sold me on the house!)


Downstairs bathroom:


Cute husband!


Our backyard. There is a playground down there!


Road our house is on:


The house!!

Wednesday, January 09, 2008

Faro

Here is a great picture of our new town!

Now you see why I am so excited to get there?

Sleep

Hunter is sleeping great. Me? Well not so much! I think I am just too excited for the move, which is only in 5 days. I have been up since 2am and it is just past 6 now. But at least I was productive. I did some editing for my new job and returned some emails.

Yesterday was Matt's last day of work and he was pretty happy about it. They had a cake for him and I went down too. He is really looking forward to the move and new employment. I think we have everything in place for the big day. It looks like both house deals are going through without a hitch (knock on wood)! Everything that we ordered for the new house on boxing day is showing up down south, just waiting for us to pick it up. I have insured the new truck and the quad trailer, lined up utilities, canceled the utilities up here, arranged hotels, signed lawyers papers.... and a million other things. I still have a long to-do list though!

The next five days are full of visiting. We have been invited out for a few suppers between now and when we leave. We are also having a big shin-dig at our place on Saturday night to say good-bye to everyone. I am sure that will be a hoot. I am going to miss so many people from Kugluktuk. Hopefully a few of them will make it to the Yukon sometime for a visit.

It is hard to believe how fast the 2 and a half years went up here. And the two years before that in the NWT. So we are off to the last Territory!

Anyone have any good advice for travelling with kitties? We drugged them to fly up here and it was horrible. The one cat got so cold I thought she was going to die, and the other one couldn't move, but meowed the entire trip. I don't think we are going to drug them this time, but if you have advice to pass along, please do! You know, I am wondering if these are the first kitties to live in all three territories!

And for your cute baby picture of the day, here is Hunter in his Roughriders outfit he got from our friends Ian and Angie down in Saskatoon.

Monday, January 07, 2008

Birthday Wishes!

Happy Birthday to fellow blogger Tina!

We hope you have a great day today!

Sunday, January 06, 2008

Family Pictures

It finally warmed up enough today to go out and get some nice family pictures. It was only -17C with a windchill of -26C. That is the warmest it has been I think since early November!

Our friend, Amanda, walked up the hill with us to get some pictures with this inukshuk. Thanks Amanda! Now I have been playing with iphoto to tweak all of the pictures. Here are the best ones:






This one is my favorite!


Daddy's Little Boy:


The boy wasn't too happy to come out of his nice warm little home!

Arctic Sushi!

Well actually, it was just my attempt at a California roll. It turned out pretty good for my first try! I saw a post from Open Head Space last year and decided that I needed to give it a try. There wasn't much in town for filling so I only had cucumber. But the best part was the smoked char that I put in it! We smoked and froze a bunch of fish this summer and that was the last of our char. I definitely need to get a better knife for cutting though!


Are we bad parents....

For doing this?