Favourite 10 Things

As Christa suggested, here are 10 of my favourite things (in random order):

1. The beach. I love spending time on the beach - walking, having fires, or just simply sitting to enjoy the view and listen to the wind and waves.

2. Our king-sized bed. It's wonderful to be able to stretch out in it - especially when you have to share it with a toddler. I do, however, hate the fact that bedding for it is so expensive. I desperately want a new bedding set but currently can't find one I really like in my price range.

3. The paint colour in my living room. It's called Garden Path by Benjamin Moore and I absolutely love it.

4. The floating shelves above my couch. Luckily they came with the house. The previous owner custom made them and was nice enough to leave them for me.

5. Our Inuit Art - 16 carvings and 11 prints. Unfortunately you can't really see the carvings that on displayed in the shelves. If my camera was working properly I would have taken a much nicer picture but this one will have to do.

6. Snowmobiling.


7. Summertime. After living in Iqaluit for seven years, it's nice to be able to enjoy a real summer.


8. My orange Columbia sweatshirt. It's so comfy and warm - perfect for wearing during the cooler weather.

9. Roasting marshmallows - or roasting anything really. Everything tastes better roasted over a fire on the beach.


10. The view from my front door - and all that comes with living near the water. The smell of the salt water mingled with the smell of wood smoke, and the sounds of waves crashing on the beach and seagulls squacking overhead.

Quote of the day:

"It's true that we don't know what we've got until we lose it, but it's also true that we don't know what we've been missing until it arrives." Unknown

Monday, Monday

Arrgh, I hate Mondays! Yes, even though I am currently out of work, I still hate Mondays. Perhaps now it's because it signifies the beginning of the work week - a work week in which I am not participating in at this time. At least the hubby is working though, which is a major positive. Luckily, as his contract ended last week for the winter, another one came fast on the horizon. It's only until the middle of July but there is a chance that it could lead to a permanent position and hey, it's work for right now and we can't complain about that. I have also been offered a new job but unfortunately due to the nature of the position, the whole hiring procedure is a little complicated and time consuming, leaving me with no real idea of when I'll actually be starting.

Though things are starting to look slightly more positive than they did a couple of months ago, we still have one more item in the works that could help make life a whole lot easier for us. I don't want to get my hopes up because I'll be extremely discouraged if it all doesn't work out. Plus, it's simply my nature to think the worst - if there's one thing I've been taught over the years is that if it can go wrong, it will go wrong. Pessimistic, I know but I have rarely been proved wrong and very little has happened over the last year to show me otherwise. So, I'll just sit here on pins and needles until I get the news.

Quote of the day:
"A pessimist is one who feels bad when he feels good for fear he'll feel worst when he feels better." Unknown

Copy Cat

I know, I know - I've sorely neglected my blog in the last couple of months but I have my reasons. My mood hasn't been the best lately and to be honest, I'm so tired of putting on a happy face for those around me that I just didn't have the strength to bring that false positivity to the blog - still don't. So since I'm not really in the mood to get into all that right now, I figured that I'd just do something a little different and pretty much take a page out of Stephanie's blog (especially since it's seems as though everyone is either pregnant or has a new baby.)

My First Pregnancy...and hopefully not my last.

1. Was your first pregnancy planned? Yes

2. Were you married at the time? Yes

3. What were your reactions? Excited, nervous

4. How old were you? 27 but turned 28 before giving birth

5. How did you find out you were pregnant? Took a home pregnancy test...well I actually took three before I believed the results.

6. Who did you tell first? Actually I told my friend Kathleen because the hubby was at work and I needed a second opinion on the test results. What can I say, I didn't actually believe what I was seeing.

7. Did you want to find out the sex? Yes and luckily, in Iqaluit they tell you.

8. Due Date? December 18, 2006

9. Did you have morning sickness? No, not at all.

10. What did you crave? Lots - it was never consistant. BLTs until the thought of eating meat grossed me out and lots of fruit.

11. Who/what irritated you the most? My boss - he was an arse!

12. What was the sex of your first child? A boy

13. Did you wish you were having the opposite sex of what you were having? No

14. How many pounds did you gain? 10 - Yeah, I know, go ahead and say it - Bitch!

15. Did you have a baby shower? Yes, but I wasn't in attendance. I was in Iqaluit and Mom had one for me in Newfoundland - go figure!

16. Was it a surprise or did you know? I knew

17. Did you have any complications during pregnancy? No, just lots and lots of heartburn

18. Where did you give birth? Baffin Regional Hospital, Iqaluit, Nunavut

19. How many hours were you in labour? 18 hours total with 9 hours of serious pain and 4 hours of pushing. I was ten days over due and went through three induction procedures before it was all over.

20. Who drove you to the hospital? The hubby

21. Who watched you give birth? Besides the doctor, two nurses and an intern, only the hubby was in the birthing room with me. My parents patiently waited in the family room.

22. Was it a natural birth or c-section? Natural

23. Did you take any pain medication? Yes, several shots of fentinol (sp?)

24. How much did your child weigh? 8 lbs 5 oz

25. When was your child actually born? December 29, 2006 at 3:53 am

26. What did you name your child? Joshua Steadman James Payne. It's too long of a name, I know. But, since the pain of childbirth was still fresh in my mind, I insisted that he was going to be the only child passing through my loins and wanted him to bear the names of both of his grandfathers.

27. How old is your first born today? 27 months

Quote of the day:
"A baby is something you carry inside you for nine months, in your arms for three years, and in your heart until the day you die." Mary Mason

In Desperate Need of Organization

I try and keep my house clean and tidy, and considering that I have a two year old running around, I think I do a pretty good job of it. However, there are definitely a couple of areas in my house that could definitely benefit from some attention.

The Hall Closet
Full of coats and winter gear, this closet still has summer items mingling with the winter ones. I never seem to get around to putting the out of season items away and now there's just one big mess in the closet. It's all topped off with a bunch of the hubby's damn ball caps. What is it with men and ball caps anyway?

Bedroom Closets
Yes, all of them. The spare bedroom closet is full of scrap booking supplies, a box that I still haven't unpacked, a box of clothes that's too small for the little guy and just about anything else I need to shove out of sight.

The little guy's closet has clothes, of course, either too big, just right and too small. I really need to get that sorted through again. And, it also holds lots of stuffed animals - too many stuffed animals.

The master bedroom closet is the absolute worst. I cringe at the thought of trying to do something with it....but it has to be done. Clothes that just has to go, personal papers in disarray, books, cosmetics, shoes....Yes, my closet is in complete chaos.

The Junk Cupboard
Most kitchens have a junk drawer, well I have a whole cupboard dedicated to the junk I absently collect. It's not that I have so much cabinet space that the junk can have a whole cubbie all to its own, I'm just lazy and don't really want to deal with it.

So that's it, I've put my housekeeping horror out there and I'm hoping that this is the motivation I need to get my ass in gear and straighten it out.

Quote of the Day:
"I'm not going to vacuum until Sears makes one you can ride on." Roseanne Barr

Unemployed - Week 4

Holy crap! I'm officially into my fourth week of not working and to be quite honest, I'm still not sure how I feel about it. I go through moments of extreme joy because I'm able to spend my days with the little guy, to moments of extreme stress when thinking about the future economy, and that leads to feelings of deep regret for being stupid enough to leave Iqaluit and the job security we had there..., and then there are the times when I feel really lonely - at least during the weeks that the hubby is at work. But hey, who am I to complain, at least he has a job right now.

There's not a whole lot happening here during the weeks that the hubby is away. I usually stay holed up in the house, only going out if I really have to. I haven't been feeling especially sociable these past few weeks and figure if people really want to see me, well they know where I am. Besides I hate the questions that come with living in a small town - most people have heard that I have been recently laid off and tend to question why or those who haven't heard are simply curious as to why I'm not at work - both scenarios require me to give some sort of explanation and to be quite frank, I just don't have the patience left in me to be polite about it anymore.

My days are now filled with lots of children's television programming (Playhouse Disney is the channel of choice in our house), toy cars, lots and lots of children's books (the current favourite is one about a little boy named Michael whose learning to use the potty), trying to get little guy to sit on his own potty and part with his beloved "ba" (bottle), and the best part of all - lots of hugs from the little guy. Add the challenge of trying to get a two year old toddler to eat, keep his clothes on, keep him from climbing up on the counter, and so on....Well, my days are kept pretty busy.

Quote of the Day:
"If you can't be a good example, then you'll just have to be a horrible warning." Catherine Aird

Hello New Year

Wow! I can barely believe that it's been two weeks since I've posted anything. Things have been very different for me these days. I've been somewhat busy with the holidays and I'm readjusting to being a stay at home mom once again. Hopefully, now that the holidays have passed, I can start getting everything back to normal (whatever that is.)

My holidays were pretty good and fairly quiet. Santa made it to our house this year and left lots of presents for the little guy. So much that it was impossible to keep the living room clean for a week. It wasn't until I finally took down the tree that it felt like my house was fit to inhabit again.

Along with New Year's, the little guy turned two this past week. We didn't have a huge party or anything, just family. I feel that he's still too young to really understand what's actually going on and I am determined to avoid birthday parties until he does develop an understanding. Call me cruel but I absolutely HATE birthday parties, I have always hated them. Even when I was a little kid, I didn't like going to them and I didn't like having them....and it's probably borderline cruelity for me to hope that the little guy turns out like me.

Since the hubby had to head back to work on December 29, New Year's Eve was pretty uneventful for the little guy and me. We were actually in bed long before everyone rung in the New Year. And, since I don't believe in whole New Year's Resolution b.s, I didn't make any. I see no reason to make silly promises to change myself in someway that I will probably never keep.

Anyway, here's hoping that you all had a great holiday and a happy new year so far.

Quote of the Day:
" New Year's Day - Now is the accepted time to make your regular annual good resolutions. Next week you can begin paving hell with them as usual." Mark Twain

Merry Christmas To The Elders

I am finding myself missing Iqaluit a bit this Christmas. I especially miss some of the Christmas activities that I would help organize at work, with my favourite being the Elder's Christmas Party we would throw. Even though I worked (and managed for a time) the Unikkaarvik Visitor Centre, part of our mandate was to serve the local community. Every year we apply for a cultural program grant from one of the government departments and we would organize a year long program - one part focused towards the youth of the community, the other focused towards the elders. But, not just any elders, we focused our program specifically towards the elders who were residing in the constant care facility. Unfortunately these elders do not get to socialize all that often simply because of their state of health and their immobility - especially during the winter months. Although elders are reveered in Inuit Society, sadly it is quite often that once entering this facility, some elders are forgotten....

So every Christmas, we would take a huge chunk of our funding and spend it on our elders. We would buy each elder at the facility Christmas gifts, mixing well needed stuff with fun stuff. We would have food brought in by a local catering company and we would spend the afternoon with them - usually Christmas Eve. It has to be one of the most heart touching experiences I have ever had, especially at Christmas. To see the look of pure joy on the elders faces as they opened their gifts, shared their meal, and shared their stories (even in a different language) is something that I will never forget and will always look back on fondly whenever I think of Christmas in Iqaluit.

Quote of the Day:
"Christmas gift suggestions: To you enemy - forgiveness. To an opponent - tolerance. To a friend - your heart. To a customer - service. To all - charity. To every child - a good example. To yourself - respect." Oren Arnold