HALLOWEEN

My kids are still into trick-or-treating. As I noted to her, I figure that you are only a kid once so you may as well enjoy it to the limit. When I read Sonya's blog it reminded me of when our kids were little. We would take them out and when we got home we would put all their candy into a communal pile and then divide it all into piles of chocolate bars, suckers, etc. This was before Brian found out about his chocolate allergy and there was always a handy bowl of little halloween chocolate bars. Now, however, they greedily hoard all their candy and I politely ask for something if I have a craving. I guess it really is better for the waistline!

This year they carved pumpkins again. Here they are for your enjoyment:

Josh did a great job on his bat.

Naomi's ghost was also great.

RIP - typical of Hannah's sense of humour'.

They still enjoy picking out their costumes and dressing up. This year I didn't have time to sew anything, so the kids were left to their own devices to find costumes. Even when it is -15, they still bundle up and out they go. I usually make a big pot of hot chocolate and any kids that are walking are welcome to come in and warm up with some hot chocolate.

Josh dressed up as "smile"(rather than "scream")

Naomi wanted to be a vampire, but without going to too much effort. I managed to convince her to open her mouth and show the vampire teeth.

I'm not sure what Hannah was, but she looked great as always.

I wanted to get pictures of them with all their friends before they headed off, but Josh and his friends left before I was prepared. I did, however, manage to get a picture of the girls. I think they were meeting up with more friends on the way. Actually when we got home from work today there were 10 teenagers in our house.

I was expecting to have close to 80 kids come, but we ended up with about 56. That meant extra candy for my kids. I always love seeing the kids come all dressed up, especially the ones that I work with at school. They are so excited when they come to my house.

Anyways, that was our halloween. I hope you all had a great time.

ANOTHER TRIP TO WHITEHORSE

Well, we just returned from another trip to Whitehorse. It was hectic as always. Between orthodontist appointments, hair appointments and shopping it was crazy. I actually ended up completely forgetting about my hair appointment. I will just have to go when I return to Whitehorse in 3 weeks. The girls had their hair done - beautiful like usual. We didn't do any great shopping - basically just food and halloween stuff. I was determined not to run around like crazy which is what I have had to do for the past 5 or 6 trips in. On Friday we took the kids bowling. This is always great fun. Hannah decided to pass and she stayed at the hotel with Oscar. We played the first game individually - I won, of course. Then the second game, Brian decided to play Naomi and I against him and Josh. I know you will not be surprised that the girls won by a landslide. As always it never matters who wins, we had a great time. Driving there and back was through definite winter conditions, but nothing too bad. It is always great to get home again. I think we were all struggling with restless leg syndrome after 4 1/2 hours in the truck.

ENJOYING THE T.V.

O.k. So, we have been away from the world of entertainment for approximately 3 years. Now that I have returned I already know that I am still a hopeless CSI addict. The difference now is that my kids are also enjoying the show along with me. I do have one question however: WHO WAS THE BLIND MAN WHO THOUGHT NICK SHOULD HAVE A MUSTACHE?????

Brian and I were both wondering if that was for real. Ewwwwww.

(Edit: I just found out that this was an old rerun. Thank goodness. I hope the mustache is gone for good.)

Something else that we have greatly enjoyed is the advertising. Last night we discovered that they have created a new"illness" and have pills you can take to correct it. This "illness" is "restless leg syndrome". As soon as the ad came on Brian said "Hey, they just made that up and then came up with a prescription for people to take." Of course, I immediately said "No, it's real. I have it. Can you please order me some meds." On the ad it starts with a woman sitting on a couch trying to rest her "restless legs". However, once she takes the meds she is free to cuddle with her significant other (husband maybe?). Brian figures he is just holding her up because she is so weak from all the pills side effects - nausea, vomiting, diarhea. I just hope that they are married because once those side effects kick in, not many men would put up with someone vomiting on them. Maybe marriage will keep him around longer.

Anyways, we came up with a great episode for CSI. Here it is:

This man and his wife are sitting on the couch. She obviously suffers from restless leg syndrome. She hasn't taken her meds for a while. So, while they are sitting there suddenly her restless leg shoots up and she kicks him really hard in the head. He jumps up off the couch in rage and while he is doing so he trips and stumbles over the coffee table. He careens around the room trying to regain his balance, but then he falls and when he is going down he hits his head on a shelf. He is now lying on the floor, dead.Unfortunately for both of them, he also caught the edge of a book that was perched on said shelf. This book flies off the shelf and hits a loaded gun that is sitting on the coffee table. The gun goes off and shoots his wife who has innocently been sitting on the couch watching her husband careen around the room. We now have two dead bodies and no signs of B & E. Try and follow that scenario through mustache adorned Nick!

RED GREEN COMES TO VISIT

Well, we are finally living in the light! We have been waiting for Jay, our electrician, to come back to Ross to finish off some wiring for us. Finally I was talking to the school secretary and mentioned this to her and she let me know that she has a friend who is living in town and is an excellent electrician. So, to make a long story a little shorter, he came to our house. Can you imagine my surprise when I open the door to this guy who looks just like Red Green? I was very polite and didn't say anything. Anyways, he hooked up the lights in our back porch and outside the back door, and he also got our lights in the kitchen and dining room working. Considering that we are heading toward the darkest part of the year, it is a great relief to have this done.

On another note, we are a town of quite a few celebrities. Besides Red Green. The intermediate curriculum consultant who comes to Brians class looks like Mr. Rogers. Everytime we talk about him the kids all ask "you mean Mr. Rogers?" Then there is the high school teacher, Mr. Keating, aka Mr. Bean. I am not lying when I say he looks like him. It's actually kind of freaky. At least in his case he knows it, and kids bug him about it all the time. Oh yes, and, as Sonya kindly mentioned, who can forget Elvis Presley. This is the man who was told by aliens that he was THE Elvis Presley. He is even in the book "The Yukon's Most Colourful Characters." He really thinks he is Elvis. He runs for government. He ran in the last election - he was going to win and then become appointed Minister of Justice. Then he was going to offer himself an official apology. This is because he has been forbidden to file any more lawsuits due to the fact that he was overwhelming the system. LOL. No town is complete without their own Elvis, don't you agree?

BIRTHDAY PICS

I had a great day yesterday, in spite of the fact that I had to work. Brian and the kids treated me like royalty. They made a delicious dinner - baked ham, scalloped potatos and broccoli puff. And Josh made a wonderful cake.

After supper they presented me with their gifts. Brian had already bought me a new blender and is buying me some new mocassins. The girls bought me this foot spa - of course we all had to try it out. And Josh is in the midst of making me a beaded bracelet.

What is that about??? Where did all those candles come from?

Of course, there was no way I was getting away with just a token candle - there had to be 40.

This has nothing to do with my birthday, but Hannah and Jedine wanted me to post a picture of the first snowman of the year. This was taken on Saturday - the day I thought the snow would just turn into a slushy mess. Well, that didn't happen - it just continued to snow all day, but it was a very wet snow so Brian and I were soaked because we had to work outside in it.

My Birthday

What else is there to say! I certainly don't feel it!

And you will all get here to the land of wisdom eventually. Some sooner than others (Jo)!

A LITTLE BIT OF EVERYTHING

1. Yesterday Naomi practiced her parallel parking again. She will be parking like a pro in no time at all. Notice the fancy setup I talked about previously.

Oscar would dearly love to be in on the action. Everytime someone goes out in the truck he just about goes ballistic. He loves to go for a ride. However, he can't go with Naomi because he always wants to sit on her knee and look out the window. We did take him one day when she was driving around town. Whenever we passed a dog he looked down at them and you could just tell he felt like a king! Finally bigger than them.

2. Who knew I had married such a versatile man.

Brian started driving the ambulance yesterday. He has been talking about it for a while. Then yesterday after school, Tim, the main driver, needed a babysitter while he took a call. So I babysat his 4 kids and he took Brian with him. Of course he got to operate the siren, every boy's dream. They were just transporting a patient from the hospital to the medivac plane so there was no emergency medical measures needed. But it was exciting for him anyways.

3. A House of Teenagers.

It seems to me that every weekend I go to bed and the house is still crammed with teenagers. Last night was no exception. When I went to bed we still had 7 teenagers at our house. This morning there are 6. They are all really great kids and we love having them around. When we moved here this is what we wanted, although sometimes I wonder what I was thinking. No, just kidding. We wanted our house to be a place where the kids could hang out with their friends since we knew it would be a safe place for them. I am really proud of my kids, they have chosen excellent friends and aren't giving me any cause to worry about them. I couldn't ask for a better experience being the parent of teenagers.

4. Feeding my addictions.

My mother-in-law has joined the ranks of addiction feeders! Yesterday I was very surprised to get the mail and find the following:

I wasn't surprised at the card, but the book! I had a good laugh anyways, and will greatly enjoy doing the puzzles. We still haven't got our satellite dish, so I have plenty of time. Actually I still do puzzles or read while I watch t.v. anyways. Thanks, Mom.

5. A Winter Wonderland

Last night I was sitting on the couch at around 7:00 and looked at the mountains across the river. There were some very heavy clouds rolling in. A little while later the kids came in and were very excited because it was snowing.

This is what we woke up to this morning:

Upon closer inspection, I discovered that there are about 2" of snow and it is very wet. It is still snowing, but will soon turn to rain and become one big ugly mess out there. Oh well, the first snow of the year is always so beautiful.

PARALLEL PARKING

Today was an interesting day for Naomi. After school I took her out and she began learning how to parallel park. As you will know if you drive, it can be difficult. So, since there are not a lot of places (actually none) in Ross where you parallel park, I did what my own Dad did for me. I set up a couple of sawhorses and a board at the side to be the "curb". Of course, I had to show her what to do first, so I completed a perfect parallel park. However, as I was doing this I quickly realized that due to vastness of the truck you couldn't see the sawhorses. So, I grabbed to boards and nailed them to the side, then tied pink tape around the top. Then it was Naomi's turn. I was very glad she only hit the other "cars" (aka sawhorses) twice. She ended up doing 3 great parks, then she had enough. One of her teachers wants to show her and her friend how to drive a standard. She's pretty nervous about it. But I say go for it, it is a valuable skill. I'll let you know how it goes.

MORE BUILDING PROJECTS GETTING COMPLETED...

Some of you may be wondering what has happened to me - I haven't posted much recently. I've just been too busy. We are getting settled into the house, but there are a number of jobs that needed to be completed before winter sets in (which, by the way, is fast approaching here). So, we've been coming home after school every day and working.

Here I am working on the wood cutting assembly (I don't know what else to call it.).

Aaahhhhhh, the finished product - loaded with wood ready to be cut.

Another project we have been working on is the woodshed. We finally finished in on Monday morning. Just imagine it being filled up with wood...if only it magically filled itself. Right now we are storing some extra lumber in it. Plus, we have now cut up about 3 weeks supply of wood. so, it is looking pretty good. We had some beautiful weather to get all this accomplished. The only problem was cold hands - there is so much frost in the mornings that the wood is really cold. Wearing gloves only seems to hinder sometimes, so we just pull our sleeves over our hands when we have to carry wood. Oh well, now we just have to cut up wood and I can wear gloves for that - good thing too, it's getting pretty cold. Today we also tackled the garbage left by the previous owner. We want to park our truck in the back of our house, but all along side of the driveway was junk that he had been collecting since the dinosaurs roamed the earth. So, we dragged it all over to the other pile we had of stuff cleared from the shed. Now he basically has all his treasures (and I use the term very loosely), stored in one spot. If they aren't gone by spring, they will be taken to the dump. Good news though, he was over on Saturday morning and took his freezer - at least I don't have to worry about backing the truck into it anymore since it was also along the driveway path.

Anyways, here is the finished shed (except for the doors - they will come after our next trip to Whitehorse.)

Well on top of all this building I had to think about Thanksgiving dinner. So, Sunday I got up and made 2 batches of bread and 3 apple pies. I would have taken pictures of all, but couldn't leave anything out long for fear of it mysteriously disappearing. Earlier in the week I had made 4 pumpkin pies. Can you believe that in my freezer I now have 5 loaves of bread (I made 8), and 1 apple crumble pie????? Well, we had a delicious turkey dinner and collapsed onto the couch. It's holidays like this that I really miss having family close by. I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving. Love you and miss you lots.

SATELLITE DISH???

Sometimes things occur in our lives that cause us to think about things. Tonight was the season premiere of Rick Mercer's Report. Call me a diehard CBC fan, but this is one of my favourite shows. I guess you have to appreciate satire to enjoy it. So, in preparation for the show Brian had to make sure that we were getting decent reception. I'm not sure how he came up with this, but this was literally the only way to get any reception on the tv. Naomi and I had a good laugh over this. Brian took it all in good humour, and was just thankful it was only a half hour show.

Anyway, the reason for watching in Josh's room is because we decided to splurge on a new t.v., but we are now waiting for a satellite dish (gasps of shock). Here is a picture of our newest addition. We wanted something that would sit under the window and wouldn't take over the living room. It has a beautiful picture for movies. We can't wait to get our dish and enter the world of entertainment again.