All is right in the world

Just a quick post to let you know that nothing unexpected happened today.  Neither the FJ nor the household stuff showed up.  It took them 0.5 seconds at (airline) cargo to say that nothing had arrived for us.  They didn't really care whether it was a car or not...  And the "moving guy's" van is still in the shop.  But he'll call around noon tomorrow.

So, any bets on which arrives first?

Catch up time!

Windy and cold...

On the 17th it was cold.  I didn't feel the cold, though, as we didn't go outside that day.  Not even for playgroup.  I looked outside and cancelled anything that involved opening the door!  These are taken between 8:30AM and 9:30AM:

This is what the weather network had to say about the whole thing:

I was surprised to see that it only felt like -18.  It looked a whole lot colder than that!  For something pleasant, though, the Christmas cactus that I bought here (and it seemed like a heck of a deal for $9) got its first (and so far, only) open bloom that day.

In other news....

Late last week a had a conversation with our "moving guy."  I say this in quotes because I've never actually seen him move anything, but he seems to be the owner/guy-in-charge of the company.  If anyone really is in charge.

We covered a few things.  We reviewed the fact that, no, in fact we do not have all our stuff.  We discussed where our stuff might be.  He informed me that the next step was for him to do a walkthrough of the airline's warehouse, then start a claim.  That was pretty much it.  I was left with a lot of questions:  Who starts a claim?  Are the pieces gone forever?  Will he actually walk through the warehouse?  Does he know what he's looking for?  How can he miss a very large orange sled?  Can we do a walkthrough after?  (Well, I was thinking me, actually....  No offense, but men can never seem to find anything!)

In the same day I had the brilliant idea of contacting the company that was shipping our vehicle here and letting them know our new phone number.  Four phone calls later I found out two things.  One, nobody was interested in humouring me by even pretending to take our phone number.  Two, our car has been sitting at a tow truck compound waiting for us to pick it up. 

Tow truck guy: "Oh, it's been sitting here waiting for you to pick it up"

Me: "It's what?"

Tow truck guy: "Well, we don't drive it to you, you know"

Me: (fake laugh) "Yeah, well the ice isn't quite that frozen yet anyway"

Tow truck guy: "Huh?"

Me: (realizing he's not joking) "Um, it has to get on a plane to get to Iqaluit"

Tow truck guy: "Oh, is that what this means about (airline's name) Cargo?"

Me: "Yeah"

Tow truck guy: "We'll drop it off there first thing in the morning."

Me: "Do you need our phone number to give to them?"

Tow truck guy: "Nah."

Click

Sure enough, the airline called in the morning to say they had it and that it might arrive Saturday, but probably Monday or Tuesday.  It's Tuesday night now, and unless it's hiding somewhere (you should all know that's impossible) it isn't here yet.  Colour me surprised!  But since they called, somebody somewhere listened to the voicemail I left.  That's not something that I would usually consider possible, but it just has to be!

Back to the movers...

I called the movers today.  Because I have an IQ over 10, I could tell that he hadn't even thought about us.  His suggestion was that we just go ahead and file a claim for our stuff.  I said, "So, we don't know where it is?"  To which he replied that he didn't have it.  I asked him how the walkthrough went and "do we know what we're looking for?"  Boxes with the number of course.  "Yeah, but the big orange sled, size of boxes, that sort of thing?"  He'd have to get the file out for that....  Anyway, I explained that I really would rather have our stuff because from what I'd heard, we wouldn't get any money until our other stuff came out of storage, and I really didn't want to put out that kind of cash.  And then I asked if the next step was to contact the people on our end.  And he said he'd check it out some more and get back to me.  Now, understand, I've heard that before.  So you know how amazed I was that when we got back from checking the mail, etc, there was a message from him saying that the pieces had been found.  Holy smokes!  First of all, he called me.  Secondly, they found the stuff!  Of course, it can't be delivered until tomorrow because the van was in the shop until 5.  Phew, at least some things are right with the world!  So if - big if - our stuff comes tomorrow, we'll see what may actually have accidentally gone to storage and what made it here.  And which arrives first, the car (remember they thought we'd be all disappointed that it wouldn't get here until WAY after our household effects?) or my pots and pans.

Family time....

One of the bonuses of not being able to go anywhere is that we get to spend a lot of time just hanging out as a family.  Nobody's rushing anywhere and our biggest foray into the outside world is to check the mail or go FJ hunting.

Logan is feeling better now, and as such is much less of a mommy-suck.  In fact the little stinker has developed a giggle that is definitely only for Daddy.  It is the cutest thing!  I am slightly jealous...

Both boys are back to sleeping through the night.  Hooray!  Liam still gets up before the rest of us, but is content to get his cereal and milk out of the fridge and eat, then play with his moonsand, or crawl into our bed for a cuddle.  He and Daddy have gotten into the routine of doing the cereal thing together.  Mommy appreciates the extra sleep and doesn't fall for that.

And I think that's about it for tonight!  I got some class stuff done beforehand, but now it's time for bed.  In case you're wondering why so long between posts, I usually only sit down to do this when there's extra time after the kids are sleeping.  Take care out there!

Some pics of our house

Our house is starting to feel a bit more like home. Having most of our stuff sure helps! It's some evil joke that one of the four pieces still to come is a box with my pots and pans in it.  We're almost ready to start putting up pictures and other homey things.

The living room (from the stairs)

From the kitchen to the living room

The front door is to the left of the TV

From the living room to the kitchen

Around the corner past the closet is the furnace room and other bathroom

The upstairs bathroom

Where did we put our sealift order? In our hall closets, of course!

The first is in the dining room, the second is at the top of the stairs and the third is outside the upstairs bathroom.  I didn't take pictures of under the stairs, but that's where the pop and juice and chips are.  And that is what (hopefully!) a year's worth of food looks like.

Buying and Selling

First, Craig wanted me to post pictures of our (his) two purchases.  I had lots of opportunities when I went out for wings with some girls Wednesday night, but I didn't want to buy the first things I saw, and I didn't know what a good price was.  The artists come right to Craig's office, though, and offer better prices there.

A walrus: the tusks are caribou

A Sandy polar bear (I guess everybody knows what that is...)

Then the selling part....  Our playgroup is selling tickets as a fundraiser.  1st prize is airfare for two from Iqaluit to Ottawa.  That's worth about $1850.  The other prizes seem quite nice, also....  Tickets are $10 each or 5 for $40.  If you're interested, you can email me, or if you don't have the email address, leave a comment (that I won't post on the Internet, lol...)

Clipper time!

My first order from Sears arrived last Thursday.  In it was a set of hair clippers.  Which meant that Thursday night, we rented 101 Dalmations (Liam's puppy movie) and had our first at home salon day.  And if you've seen recent pics of the boys, you know it was long overdue!  We haven't taken them for the usual screaming ordeal at the barber because Craig was told kids' haircuts are $40.  Each.  The deluxe clipper set from Sears was $53.99.  We've already made it worth the money!  Even if we have to rent a movie each time ($5), it's still worth it.

More pictures...

The boys making funny faces after story time:

The boys at playgroup: playing and doing their craft:

Some scenery

Here are some pictures I took today on our way to playgroup:

Frobisher Bay from the school near our house:

Iqaluit from the school near our house:

New construction in Iqaluit:

On the way to Apex:

Frobisher Bay, with Apex in foreground

The ice forming in the bay

I will try to post some pictures of the kids next....  they don't sit still as well, though....

What's been happening lately?

The boys and I have been keeping busy going to the Parents & Tots group, which we call "playgroup."  That's three mornings a week, so by the time we get home, have lunch, get Logan a nap... it's dark and we're getting ready for supper.  We aren't feeling bored yet, so no need to find other activities - although they are out there.  I'm saving library story time and gymnastics for when time isn't flying by anymore

Craig's at work tonight.  He should be home around 5, but more than likely it will be 7.  Tomorrow is the start of days off for him - and of course, he'll spend most of tomorrow sleeping.  He's hoping to get out on a caribou hunt Wednesday or Thursday.  Those who know him can only imagine how excited he is about this!

We had our first Arctic char tonight.  A guy at Craig's work gave us two.  He caught them yesterday and we had the first one tonight.  The other is in the freezer.  Very yummy - a lot like the lake trout that Craig used to catch, which is what we had anticipated.

We now have our TV, microwave and deep freezer, along with a couple of other boxes.  The moon sand arrived, thank goodness.  The other 30 pieces were supposed to arrive Saturday.  Who knows when we'll seen them!  I'd really like the rest of my kitchen stuff.  Please?  Like one more pot?  A microwavable measuring cup?  And my lemon zester peeler thing travelled all this way to break the first time I used it here.

As we settle in here, I am beginning to notice differences.  However, probably a lot like if we has moved to northern SK.  The one thing that bothers me the most is the way kids are taken in vehicles.  Having spent all of my life putting seatbelts on myself, then my kids, seeing kids with none on sort of bothers me.  I swear we are the only vehicle with car seats.  Today I saw a mother take her six year old on her lap in the driver's seat (with a winter coat on, the daughter's head was above the mother's and I'm sure the hood made it impossible for her to see) and let her "help" steer as they back out of their parking spot, and, I assume, all the way home.  Regardless of the danger they are both in, I certainly don't want to meet them at a slippery intersection - putting me and my family in danger.  Now, as incensed as I am, I imagine in a year (or a month) it won't even phase me!

The boys have been asking some tough questions.  We went to get our grocery order at the airport, and I told them the plane had brought the food.  Then Logan said "Plane?  Home?"  And then my heart broke.  And on the way home they had a conversation in the back seat about going "home" and not going "home" and questions about when we'd go back to our old house.  Why does Craig always get to be at work when these things happen?!!  I think the newness is wearing off, and along with it the excitement.

Now I have promised myself to get back into gear and get working on my course.  So here I go!  I have taken some more pictures, hope to post them soon!

A quick note....I also got Liam on the list for preschool next September.  I found out when we got here that they only take 16 and there were 30-some names on the list last year.  No waiting list for us though; the lady said they weren't quite full yet.

Trick or Treat!

It was the night they've been waiting for - they finally got to wear their costumes for the real thing!  It felt a bit like Trick or Treating at Christmas time, but we went most of the way down the block. Then Liam declared we had enough and could go home.  It was a long way when you have all those stairs at each door!  Especially for Mom, who by the end was carrying one kid up and two kids down (one at a time: for those counting, that's four trips for each house.)  We had around 500 kids in 2 hours.  Thank goodness the candy came in the stuff the movers brought!  Fortunately it seems that everybody only gives out one "treat" per kid (feels kinda cheap, but when there's that many kids...) so we have about 10 suckers left over.  It was unbelievable... the door hardly closed!  The fire truck came down our street with lights on and the firefighters handed out candy, along with EMS.

Earlier in the day the kids went to the Moms & Tots group and we had a party there, too.  I am Hallowe'ened out!

Tomorrow, we'll finish unpacked the boxes we got today.  It's sort of coming piecemeal....  50 boxes here, 7 there.....  And nothing REALLY important like the TV, the other two thirds of the kitchen stuff, the linens!  And I know Craig can't wait for the snowmobile to get here!  Fingers crossed for tomorrow.