Living in Yellowknife

Happy Due Date (40 weeks!)

2011-11-24T04:22:00.000-07:00

Yep, it's 3:45am, and I'm up (again) in the middle of the night. I have been experiencing this insomnia for a number of months now. My eyes just pop open around 2am or so, like clockwork, and I can't seem to get back to sleep for about 2 hours. Sarah said eating a banana might help, so here goes. A friend up here said maybe the baby will get used to me being up at this time, and subsequently sleep during this period (as I guess babies tend to sleep while their parents are awake?). Anyway, I check Facebook, do a little online shopping, and write in my blog. I would read, but Rachel is fascinated with my book light and keeps taking it. I guess I could set myself up in the living room, but I find my arms and hands get numb holding the book (extra fluid causing temporary carpal tunnel) and it's not as warm as reading in bed. Although here I sit in the cold kitchen, typing at my tiny alcove desk (my new office, now that the spare room has become the baby's room).

It has been a good pregnancy (aside from the increasing number of complaints, most of them physical), but no sign of the little bean yet. I finished my job(s) about 2 weeks ago, so the first week was a little boring, since I didn't know what to do with myself. This second week has gone by really fast. I've been doing some xmas shopping, getting appts in, and visiting and resting a lot. The bassinett is ready, clothes are washed, hospital bag is packed and plans are set for dropping Rachel at a friends when we need to go to the hospital. Now we wait. Rachel was 11 days overdue, but I'd really like to avoid that again if possible. I definitely have been a lot more active this pregnancy, and people say I look "great", as though they are surprised that someone who is 9 months pregnant should look this way. I'll try to take a 40-week picture and upload it.

After having been through a pregnancy in the heat of summer, it's interesting to have a "winter" baby. And yes, we are definitely experiencing winter, with snow and -20 degrees for a few weeks already. I have found that a simple winter coat is all I need, although I still get cold. The main problem has been boots. I can't fit into my beloved Mukluks, which are steadfastedly slip-proof, and my Sorels are like snowmobile boots - big and bulky, and also hard to manouver into. I have been wearing a pair of running shoes that have no grip, but that I can slip into without having to bend over to tie the laces. Terrible I know. Who wants to slip at 9 months? I found a pair of rubber grips that slip onto shoes, so I have started to wear those. They are no good once you are inside a store, but for now, they will do.

Yesterday I met some moms for coffee who are also on mat leave. I had that same sense of being new to town, like I did when Rachel was born. Of course, by now I know lots of people in town, so of course, we had run into each other before: one had a daughter who was in the same Montessori daycare as Rachel last year, and the other was a volunteer with Moms, Boobs and Babies. It's just weird trying to get into the "mat leave" group. Not sure I really need or want to, although I say that now. I remember how desperate I was to meet other moms when Rachel was little. There seem to be some activities I can get myself involved in that I didn't know about, so having some connections is a good thing. For example, there is the cross country ski club, where a group of moms trade babysitting for 1/2 hour of skiing. There is a field house where you can borrow a stroller and use the indoor track to push the baby around. And there are a few other activities such as baby yoga or Salsa Babies dance class.

I do miss work, so it will be interesting to adapt to being a full-time mom again. I think I will appreciate mat leave a bit more this time. It is hard to imagine a new family member joining our little threesome. We have been just us for so long. Rachel is being patient, but I think she is feeling anxious, and has been swinging from wanting total independence from us to acting out in a babyish way. Poor thing, I think she will need a little extra TLC from us once the baby arrives. It's an interesting age, 5 1/2, to have a new baby in the family. Old enough to understand, but young enough that she might feel some jealousy.

Okay, maybe I can get myself back to sleep now. Stay tuned!

Vacation Day (and 37 weeks!)

2011-11-04T08:08:00.000-07:00

I'm enjoying a day off today. I was scheduled for a three-day course called Emergency Nursing Pediatric Course, but it got cancelled, and that is just fine with me. I would have been sitting at the hospital for today, Saturday and Sunday, and not even getting paid for it.

I'm 37 weeks this week, which some argue is term. From what I recall, I think it's 38-42 weeks. So I have another 1-5 weeks to go. My last week of work is next week, and I've been pretty busy, although not picking up as many extra shifts as I did in August and September. I find I need the weekends to rest. Otherwise pregnancy going well. I am starting to puff up again, as I did with Rachel in the last month, so my ankles are cankles, and I need help getting my feet in boots. Because we had a huge snowstorm all day yesterday and last night, and the snow is here to stay. It's kind of nice and cosy, and it was a good day to stay home and read library books.

Halloween was fun, Rachel was a witch (pics to follow), and Shane took her out for over an hour, even with a windchill of -15. I planned to give out candy by myself, but three of my friends from school came by to hang out, so I opened a bottle of wine (for them of course), and we had a great visit while kids stopped by the house. Next year I want Rachel to go out with a friend or two, because I think she'll have more fun.

We have made no headway getting ready for the new baby. Our back room is still a storage room, and we ordered a bassinet that won't arrive for another few weeks. Today might be a good day to get a bit organized, even to pack a hospital bag or something. I think we have just been working so hard these last few months, that thinking about anything extra at the end of the day is too exhausting. Plus this time around we have an active 5-year-old who needs a little extra attention these days. I think she is starting to feel the excitement of the end of the pregnancy, and has been acting out a little more. Or maybe she is just five years old. Every single thing is a struggle. Getting dressed, bedtime, waking up, getting picked up. Life is even busier for her because we also take her to skating and swimming, which she loves.

Other than work, that is about it for us. The year has flown by, I can't believe it's November already. Here are some belly shots...although I don't usually like taking them, I thought it would be good to have a few on file.

Darn! These are tiny. Double click them to make them bigger. I don't feel like re-exporting them.

Little Miss Forgetful (and 30 weeks)

2011-09-17T20:06:00.000-07:00

Above are Rachel's pics from dance class. I write more about them below...but having some technical difficulties. See how tall she is? And those are Vandewater shoulders if I ever saw any...She's the one at the back on the far left...they all kinda look the same to me.

Rachel and I have spent the summer reading through the Mr. Men and Little Miss books. We had a fairly good collection, but once we reached the end of our stash, we began buying up the ones we didn't have. Each Friday I would bring home two books, and hide them for Rachel to find. It was our little summer routine, and in the meantime, our collection has grown.

As you can see, I'm at 30 weeks now, and I find the "baby brain" or "pregnancy brain" has started to kick in. Silly things like walking into a room and forgetting why I went there, or going to the store for three things, and forgetting two of them. Also, one day I was in the passenger seat clicking the lock button and getting angry at Shane because the windows weren't rolling down. Wrong button. Weird stuff like that. Rachel has noticed, anyway, and when I asked her the same question (not having remembered the answer to it the first time, she called me "Miss Forgetful". Yep, that about describes it.

Of course, in trying to find a picture of Little Miss Forgetful, I realize she doesn't exist! It's little miss scatterbrain. There is a Mr. Forgetful, incidentally.

Rachel thinks I should dress up as this Little Miss for Halloween:

It's because of the belly of course, not because I happen to be, um, greedy.

Rachel started kindergarten two weeks ago, and absolutely loves it. She loves taking the bus, her teachers, the school activities, and she seems to be making lots of friends. It is such a nice change from her last year, when we had to drag her to Montessori daycare every day. I didn't realize how much of a stress it was on me until I see how little I worry about her while I am at work, knowing that she is happy all day.

We also signed her up for the after school program, which I was worried would be a very long day for her. Instead, it also seems to be going well. The kids get a snack, then go outside to play in the playground until we pick her up, usually only about half an hour to an hour after school ends. A lot of her friends from Montessori or who are a year older are in the program, so she gets to play with a different group of kids.

We had a bit of trouble with the bus during her first week of school. The first day, she was all excited to walk to the bus stop by herself, so Shane and I watched from the deck while she walked over. We saw the bus pull up and all the kids get on except Rachel. She was struggling with her backpack, then just as she approached the bus, the driver closed the doors. I guess he didn't see her at first. Then he opened the doors again, and she climbed on. At the end of the day, Shane and I decided to meet her at the school to make sure she would know what to do for the after-school program, and it was good that we did, because as we arrived at the end of the day, Rachel was lined up with the other kids to take the bus back home! If we hadn't arrived, we would have missed her and she would have ended up at our house. We sorted that out, and met the after-school coordinators.

The next day, Rachel wouldn't take the bus. She wouldn't clearly tell us why not, but it came out that the bus doors closing in front of her scared her. I learned that a young girl who babysits and lives near us also takes the bus, so we had her watch Rachel for an hour, and tell Rachel about how fun the bus was. The next day, Rachel went to the stop, met the girl, and climbed on the bus with no problem. Now she loves heading over the bus stop every morning before 8am. How nice not to have to drag her out of bed...she is so eager to go, that I have to make sure she eats breakfast.

Work is going well for me. Very busy, and with my afore-mentioned forgetfulness, I am finding it a bit of a struggle to stay focused on work. I just feel like I have a million little things I should be doing. My contract at the Dept was extended until I go on mat leave, and I am doing a smaller number of hours at the hospital, but still getting called regularly. I have found that I am involved in quite a large project at the Dept, and taking time off to take shifts is not only disruptive to the work I am trying to do, but also exhausting. Part of me wishes I hadn't accepted BOTH jobs, but on the other hand the experience is almost worth more than the pay. Almost.

The pregnancy has been going well too. The baby, our little guy, kicks tons, and keeps me up most nights. I've gained about 25 lbs, not too bad. My ankles are cankles by the end of the day, and my hands feel a bit puffy, but so far not too bad. My hair is wild, curly, and super-thick, and I hate it. I am getting it cut next week, and I definitely need some colour too. Sleeping hasn't been fun, as I can't seem to get comfortable, and I have wicked heartburn this time around. It is hard to think that I still have another two months to go, and be getting bigger all the time. I have been starting to think about when I will stop working...I know lots of moms-to-be who work until the day before, but I don't know if I can push myself to do that. Certainly I will try, but I have to remember that this pregnancy is six years later, and I am that much older. On the other hand, I didn't work the last 12 weeks with the last pregnancy, and I was bored. I may as well be earning some money and experience while we wait for the new arrival.

I've been really lax with organizing baby things as well. We haven't set up the crib, I have no bassinett, no swing, no change table. I was hoping to borrow or buy second-hand, but I haven't had a chance to start emailing. The baby room is not yet a baby room, as we have nowhere to put anything. I think we will really start noticing the size of the house once the baby arrives. If I can at least get a bassinett, then the baby will likely stay with us for a few months, and we can sort out the spare room in time. Forget painting and decorating...I'll have to spruce up the grey walls with some pictures or something.

We have been doing some fall cleaning of the house, which is so satisfying. Today we had the carpets professionally cleaned (although that red-coloured pop I let Rachel have ONE time, that spilled all over the middle of the living room floor...didn't come out. Guess the coffee table will have to cover that one). I also spent a good portion of the morning (while the carpets were drying) washing windows and screens. Even though our road is paved now, there is still a lot of construction, and I was amazed at how much better I can see through the windows now that they have all the buildup of dust removed. It's like I rubbed my eyes or something. But it was tiring, and I feel a bit sore now. I find my stamina is not quite as good, and by the end of the day I am heaving myself around. Another reason why it is nice to have my office job.

The weather has been fantastic, for September. We've just finished a warm sunny week, which by this time of year, is usually around 10 degrees C and rainy. I think it was 18 C today.

I have some pics of Rachel from her dance class, but I'm having some trouble adding them to the blog...we'll try again. Considering I paid $35 for them, I am pretty disappointed. The colour is off (even on the scan you can tell) and take a look at the group photo. The kids are all shifting around. But I guess that's five-year-olds for you. (okay, they posted at the top). And now I can't even cut and paste this paragraph to go up there, and I can't get the photos down here. Ugh.

Shane is ending an era of his life by leaving Northwestel and joining a large engineering and construction firm that has offices worldwide. He is looking forward to the change, but has been with telecommunications for over 10 years, so this is a big step.

Busy Life (and 26 weeks!)

2011-08-18T18:01:00.002-07:00

I thought I'd tell you a bit about what it's like to be me these days. I am balancing two jobs, both of which I love, and let me tell you, it's been a long time since I have enjoyed working. It is very gratifying to slog through four more years of school and end up with a good job that lets me apply all the new knowledge I have gained in class. That being said, I am struggling to make time for both of them. Luckily they both knew I was applying for the other position, and both my supervisors have been very generous with flexible times for me to work. It helps that they are friends with each other outside of work, too.

I was about 6 weeks into my first job (as Nursing Consultant) when I started work at my new job (RN at the hospital). I was quite nervous, because while one job is office-y (and I have lots of experience at that), the other is quite different. Plus I'm sure everyone has heard about my less-than-pleasant experiences as a student in the hospital so I was understandably gun-shy about walking back into an environment like that. However, I had three great shifts, oriented by nurses who were supportive, encouraging, and complimentary. I got some great feedback that was forwarded to me by my supervisor, so I feel like I have made a first good impression.

However great my jobs are going, I have to keep reminding myself that I am expecting a baby in a few short months, and I have to watch my energy, as well as my safety. I have a lot of patients who are on "isolation", which means I have to gown, glove, and mask-up before I go into their rooms. And someone is always mopping a floor somewhere, so as I waddle around off-balance, I have to remind myself that it's easy to slip.

At the office, I have a much easier time of it. I sit myself in a comfy chair in front of a computer, and spend 7.5 hours using my brain. "I'm being paid to think," says one of my co-workers. Or, what she said was, "I'm being paid to work from my neck up." (She's a nurse, too). Strangely, I often feel more stiff after a day in the chair than when I run around for 12 hours at the hospital. And I eat. Today I was crunching on caramel-covered popcorn surrepticiously from a little bowl at my desk, trying not to let the Dietician who sits in the next office hear me. How ironic is that. I hope she never looks in my filing cabinet drawer, which is not filled, as you might think, with files, but with snacks. Some good, but most are "hiding" snacks like chocolate-covered almonds, chips, or peanuts.

Actually, right now I pretty much eat all day. I bring two sandwiches (one a peanut butter and honey, the other a liverwurst and cucumber sandwich lately), a banana, a sliced cucumber (yes, a whole one. Each day), several other kinds of fruit, like peaches, cherries, blueberries. And juice. And lots of water and herbal tea. (which means lots of bathroom breaks too).

So, you must be saying, how much weight have you gained with all this food? Well, yes, it's true the doctor only wanted me to gain 25lbs with this pregnancy, and I think I am just about there now, with another three months to go. So I guess I should be cutting back on the chocolate almonds. I suspect, however, that they are keeping me from falling asleep in the afternoon.

Because, ah, coffee. I have drastically cut down my intake for the little babe, but I do miss it. Every day. Now I drink half-caf, add lots of milk, and limit it to two cups in the morning. I was reading that in the second and third trimesters, the mother's body does not metabolize caffeine as quickly as it used to, so it takes longer to get eliminated from the body. Now would be a good time for me to switch to decaf, or better yet, get off coffee altogether.

I'm sure you are wondering what I do with my "brain" job, sitting in front of the computer all day. (Not that nursing in the hospital isn't a brain job too, it really is, making decisions all day, ensuring your patient is safe, that the medications are correct. It's actually physically and mentally draining).

So both jobs have challenges. I hope to work to make at least the 600 hours needed for mat leave federal benefits (I am at 302 now), and then we'll see how long I can work comfortably. Of course, as time goes on, the desk job starts to sound ideal. There's just so much THINKING in it, and my brain gets tired, or I feel a little scattered, which makes it more exhausting than working in a hospital.

Okay, this post was a little meandering. I think I just wanted to get some of my thoughts out. And what better way than to post them publicly?

Oh, I just finished a great book, "The Checklist Manifesto" by Atul Gawande. It's written very much in the same way as Malcolm Gladwell. Mark would like it, I bet.

Have a great weekend!

Happy August! (and 23 weeks)

2011-08-01T18:41:00.000-07:00

Summer is just flying by. Although it's been two weeks since my last post, I don't have much to report. Just happen to have a little time at the end of a three-day weekend.

What Rachel is up to:

Had her pre-kindergarten screening at Public Health. She was very excited to go, even to get the shot, but at the last minute started to get nervous and wanted to sit on my lap. The nurse wanted this anyway, since I had to hold Rachel's elbow steady. Rachel said, "Ow, that HURTS!" and started to cry but recovered quickly when she got to choose her bandaid. I returned her to day camp and she told everyone she met that she had her needle. It's hard to believe how many vaccinations we went through when she was little, and this was the first one since she was 18-months old. I guess we'll be going through all that again soon.

She speaks very well, and we have noticed that she speaks LIKE us. The other day, she was talking about something, and said, "For example, ..." I've never heard a five-year-old start a sentence with "for example,"

She asks for the meanings of lots of words now. Like "sensitive" and "unfortunately" and "attitude". Sometimes it's hard to define words that we use every day.

So Shane was on a four-day trip to to site inspections on NorthwesTel towers. He had to drive all the way to Fort Nelson, BC, and stop along the way to take pictures of, well, towers. Here are some exciting shots:

Some of the roads he had to travel on to get to the towers got a little rugged.

He also had to take the ferry across the river. This ferry is beside the new bridge that is currently under construction. Once done, the bridge will prevent Yellowknife from being "isolated". Right now, when the ferry is "out" in early spring and early winter because of ice flow, we are isolated. Wheeled vehicles can't travel with no ferry, and the river is not yet frozen to create the "ice road". It usually means shelves are a bit more bare, and if you see things like diapers and detergent, you tend to stock up. The ferry can be out for up to five weeks. It also means we are paid "isolation pay", an added couple of bucks an hour for the privilege of living in a remote community.

However, once the bridge is finished, we will no longer be isolated and will likely lose our Northern Living Allowance and any accompanying tax benefits. Durn. But it will be nice to know we can leave whenever we want. I think I've got all this right. Correct me if I'm wrong.

ALmost done.

John Theodore just arrived back home from Dubai and brought Rachel her own camel. John and Georgette are moving back to Halifax after three years. I thought Johnny would like to see a camel's life in Yellowknife. Yes, I know I'm just being silly. Who takes the time to do stuff like this?

Rachel and I spent one of our weekend nights doing "crafts". We pulled out her easel and I was on one side with the chalkboard, while she drew on the other side. Before we erased everything, we took a few photos to remember our outstanding talent.

Mine is a drawing of our house, and Dad, Me (with belly) and Rachel watching the Northern Lights. Beside us is Brian's house with him outside with his dogs. Rachel still talks about our neighbours, who have recently moved away. We will miss them, and Maggie and Dallas too!

You may have heard that the Royal Couple was in Yellowknife for a couple of days. It was an awesome opportunity to see them, because there were only a few thousand people waiting for them, rather than tens of thousands, like in Calgary. I worked that day, but went down on my lunch hour to see what I could see. This was about as close as I got, but you can see them if you look closely.

Here is an enlargement. They are beside the guy's arm. Some of my friends got there early and were right up at the front. They got to shake hands and talk to the couple, and have some awesome photos. It was kind of a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. I kind of wish I'd made an effort and brought Rachel down too. They were apparently really easy to talk to, and many people I know had an up-close interaction with them. I kept thinking: That's Diana's son! I followed her life quite closely when I was younger. I even remember her wedding in 1980.

close-up

Our new playground has been a blessing and curse. Rachel loves it and runs over there every chance she gets. I don't mind her going when there are kids there, but when she's alone, I usually go and sit with her. They put up a monkey bar set that is too tall for most five-year-olds, so guess who ends up lifting her up to it every time. At least I draw the line at lifting other kids. Also, once she was out there and ran into one of the metal poles. I was in the house, and heard her bloodcurdling scream, so I ran out. Of course there were other moms there tending to her, but I felt guilty for not being out there. And one of the moms ended up being my new boss, also a nurse, so I was even a little more embarrassed.

Also, I find sometimes I don't feel that social, but as soon as I'm out there, I end up chatting with everyone. I guess that's Yellowknife, but sometimes I long for anonymity, just so I can finish a chapter of the book I have brought along. Ah, well. Summer is over soon enough, and the playground will once again be deserted until spring. We've already started to have some of the rainy, colder weather that August brings.

Pregnancy going well, just getting some tests done next week, including the glucose tolerance test and some bloodwork because I'm Rh-negative. More appts to come, it's so nice to get paid to go to all these appts.

Yellowknife Desert

2011-07-16T19:40:00.000-07:00

What a beautiful Yellowknife summer we are having. The weather has been warm, sunny, and breezy. It's also been a super-busy summer. I graduated, as you know, then wrote the Canadian nurses' exam.

Last week I found out I passed, so have just received my permanent registration as a Registered Nurse in Northwest Territories and Nunavut. Vanessa Vandewater, RN! What a lot of work and support from my family to get to this point.

I've been working for a few weeks on a casual contract as a Nursing Consultant with the Dept of Health and Social Services, and Friday I just found out that I got a relief nursing job at the hospital, too. I am hoping to balance both, at least until my contract is up, so we'll see how that goes. My supervisors are supportive and want to help me out in any way possible.

Also, I'm 21 weeks pregnant and we just found out we're having a boy! Very exciting. I've posted some pictures, since it's been awhile, although I normally don't post preggy pictures, as I am gaining weight furiously.

Here is the new playground behind our house. Rachel races out there at every opportunity, and I don't worry about her. Sometimes I join her, sometimes I just watch from the window. There are always a ton of kids and/or parents. Love Love Love.

We went to the sand pits today after dinner. Fun! A teen hangout, but lots of room for us to explore. Who knew there was a desert in the north?

The sand was (mostly) beautiful and soft. I want to come back tomorrow and scoop some for a little sand pit of our own. Oops, did I say that out loud? I don't know if we're allowed to take the sand. But I might just put a big Tupperware bin in the back of the truck anyway. And a shovel.

Four wheel drive and new tires made all the difference.

Requisite side-view pregnant photo. 21 weeks.

On our way back we stopped at The Sign to get Rachel her own Yellowknife picture.

Update

2011-06-10T09:10:00.002-07:00

I realize that I post a lot about myself. But I often forget about the other members of the family, and I am sure some of you like to know what is new with them. Lately I have been trying to remember some of the funny/interesting things that Rachel does. I have to remember to record them somehow or I will forget.

What Rachel is up to:

Still mispronounces things, like "live room" for living room, and "threef" for third.

Still having trouble using "th" and says things like "free" for "three". I think it's more of a habit, now, because she CAN pronounce the "th" sound.

Instead of saying "the", she says "thr". As in, "Thr tree has leaves." I think it has to do with one of her teacher's accents. It's kind of funny.

Tells us interesting facts, such as the difference between wasps and bees

Is obsessed with seals and dolphins. Has now lost two stuffed seals (both named "Sealy") to her huge distress. Have not been able to find either, although we have turned our small house upside down. We recently bought a dolphin "Dolphia", who I hope stays with us a bit longer.

Decided yesterday to create a "fire pile". Let me explain. She felt that if we had a fire in the house, it would be a good idea for her to have all of her favourite things piled by the front door to make it easier to bring them outside in case of an emergency. So we have a pile of toys, books, clothing, baby blankets, shoes, hair accessories etc. sitting by the door. I wonder if she'll notice if the pile is cleaned up by the time she arrives home.

Had her kindergarten orientation yesterday. I thought she would love it, but she seemed a little overwhelmed. She received a t-shirt, "Class of 2024". I think the other kids were feeling the same way. When the teachers took a picture of the kids at the end of the orientation, none of them were smiling, despite the numerous, "Say cheese!" requests. However, we have chosen a small, friendly school, and I got a good feeling from the teachers and the other students. I'm sure it will be a big adjustment, even though Rachel has been in Montessori daycare all year. This is big-kid school!

Has lots of questions about money and buying things. Thinks if you need more money you just go to the bank and they give you more. Trying to understand why Daddy has to go to work every day.

Has her birthday party planned out. I have tried to accomodate some of her wishes but cannot plan a party "on a stage where everyone sings "Break, break your heart"". Instead we will try to keep the costs low by having a "home" party with just a few friends. She wants a "water fairy" party, so I will attempt to find some Tinker Bell Fairy stuff, and plan a few fairy-themed games. I've gone online and found some fun ideas. Hopefully we can have an outside party at the end of June.

Tries to convince me that she is really turning six, not five.

Likes to climb on rocks. We have a nice trail by our house, and we go and get some exercise on the rocky part of the trail. Which is good since she has become a bit obsessed with Toopy and Binoo, a cartoon that she says she can watch all day long, over and over.
Fights daily for her independence. She is now allowed to go check the mail, and takes my key ring to unlock the super box at the corner of the street. Can walk to her friend's house by herself.

Fights daily about what to wear. ALWAYS underdresses. Wants summer dresses when it's +5. No coats after April, sweaters only, nevermind the temp. Won't wear socks, or only wears socks that mismatch. Wants fancy shoes to go to the playground or to walk on the rocks, instead of runners. It's a constant, constant struggle and no amount of cajoling, bribing, yelling, or bargaining seems to work.

Wants a puppy. Runs outside to greet the neighbour's dogs whenever she sees them. Talks about having a "dog party" where all the dog owners in the neighbourhood are invited to our house, with their dogs. Asks every single dog owner she passes if she can pet their dog. Acts like a dog with a high-pitched bark. Walks like a dog on all fours. Tells us daily that she wants a "Beagle". Plays daily with her stuffed dogs: "Puppy", "Inuvik Puppy", and "White Puppy".

Faithfully waters her garden. She has planted bean seeds, peach seeds and avocado pits. Checks daily to see if they have started growing.

DONE!

2011-06-01T19:15:00.000-07:00

As of today, I am officially done nursing school!

I wrote the Canadian Registered Nurses Exam, which started at 8:30am sharp this morning. I walked to the school, to clear my head, and also to make sure that I got there on time. The exam was four hours long and I had 200 questions to complete. I have been studying for the past two weeks at home, but of course, have been preparing for this exam for the last four years. It wasn't too bad. I will find out the results (PASS/NO PASS) in about 6 weeks.

In the meantime I have my temporary license, which means I can call myself a nurse, just not a Registered Nurse. I can also call myself a Graduate Nurse. It's a bit strange. I have spent so many hours being a student, and suddenly, tonight...I have no homework.

So I am taking the night off, then the job hunt starts tomorrow. I would love to have another summer off, but on the other hand, I am eager to start working. In Yellowknife, there is a benefit and a drawback to being one of only 18 nursing grads. There are fewer of us looking for work, but also fewer jobs that we are fighting, ahem, I mean, competing for.

Otherwise, the fam is doing well. We have all just gotten over what I suspect was the flu. Rachel and I were stuffy, headache, sore throat for about a week, and Shane is just getting over it now. The weather is nice and warm, and dry, which means no bugs. Well, of course there are bugs, it's Yellowknife, but they are not preventing us from going outside...yet. We are expecting a thunder storm tonight, which is rare, and I can see the clouds starting to roll in. The wind is picking up quite a bit too. Rachel and her friend are outside with umbrellas, waiting for the rain.

We still haven't landscaped, and it doesn't look like it will happen this summer. We have a plot of land beside us that will eventually be a community garden, but until the community organizes itself, it's just a sand pit. Which is kid heaven, in case you didn't know. All weekend Rachel was outside with various kids from the neighbourhood, using our hose and some gardening tools to dig holes and pile up dirt into little mounds.

We haven't planned our next camping trip, did I mention the first one? It was way too cold, but we had a great night. We just need a bigger tent and some air mattresses. It's perfect weather now, not too hot or buggy. The only thing is that the dryness means a strict fire ban, so no campfire. Isn't that the whole point of camping? So we still need a family tent and some sort of Coleman stove in case we can't have a fire.

Rachel has one more month of school, then we have her booked into day camps for July, on the hope that I will be working. She is ready to be done school, and is already planning her birthday party. She wants a home party, which is more work for me, but inexpensive, and I can keep the numbers of kids down. I think I can handle five kids, and if the weather's nice, it will be an "outside" party. We have some lovely greenspace behind the house, and although the grass is still coming up, I'm sure we can find some games for the kids to play while they wait for cake.

Ack! Just read the updated forecast: rain AND snow. Will we ever get a break?

Three Shifts, One Paper, and One Performance Appraisal. Oh, and One Exam

2011-05-09T07:52:00.000-07:00

I should be spending today writing my paper, because I have two days off before I start my last three shifts. But here I sit, blogging instead.

We had our graduation ceremony on Saturday morning, which was quite nice. I likely won't be going to the real convocation at University of Victoria in November so this was kind of my only recognition of completion of the program. There were 63 grads, 18 of which were Nursing degree candidates. Although I didn't win any nursing awards, I had several college faculty come up to me afterwards to let me know that I had been a candidate for a couple of them. That was nice.

In the evening we had a formal dinner and dance, organized by my classmates. It was good too, mostly a chance to see some of my class that I probably won't see much of after graduation. I had a chance to talk to a lot of the instructors, and they had lots of nice things to say. I was chosen the "Most Likely to Become a Nurse Researcher". There were lots of categories, but I think I got slotted into this one because of my research project on research assistants, as well as my placement at the Dept of Health. Many of the instructors commented that they expect to see my name in print in future nursing research articles, which I think is a compliment.

This is the grad evening. My instructor, Pertice is on the left, then students Soura and Stephanie, instructor Betty Ann, student Ashley, and me. Gwen is the only other friend missing in this photo. These were my closest friends during the program.

Here is Gwen:

The weather is starting to finally change for the better. We have a high of +13 today, and the snow is just about gone. Shane and I were exhausted yesterday after our busy Saturday, but I managed to drag myself outside to enjoy the fresh air. Rachel and I took a long hike behind the house, reminding me why I love Yellowknife...I walk outside, and I am in the woods. We found the old trail way back behind the house, and although there is lots of future construction planned behind there, we found lots of puddles to investigate and 'mountains' to climb. Rachel got a soaker, but was distracted by the appearance of a friendly retriever. There are NO bugs right now, making it the BEST time to be outside and walking around. I promised myself to get out at least once a day, until the black flies arrive.

I also had a great conversation with a new neighbour who is building a house across the street. She has four children, one of which is a little girl a year older than Rachel. Actually, their boys were playing in the mud in our yard, and I could see their boots sinking deeper and deeper into the guck from my view from the window. Pretty soon, they couldn't pull their boots out of the mud, and they were getting upset. One of them pushed the other one over, and the only reason he didn't fall into the mud was that his boots were too deep to allow him to tip over. Rachel and I put our rainboots on and I went to rescue them. Their parents, working on the house across the street, had heard their yells, and came over to help, but I was the only adult with rainboots on. It was actually kind of funny.

Anyway, they seem like a great family, and Rachel has been invited over anytime.Okay, back to the paper...

Seven. More. Shifts. Not That I'm Counting.

2011-04-28T16:16:00.002-07:00

I keep thinking to myself, I can do it. I can do it. I actually enjoy the time when I am there, but when I'm home I dread the anticipation. I think it's because you are never sure what is going on there until you arrive at the unit. Is it totally quiet? Are there three women labouring in the back? But I am doing tons of skills and starting to do things independently, so my preceptor and I have developed a good relationship. I have a midterm coming up, then a paper (I think I'll write about postpartum pain management).

I have a combination of day and night shifts, which is good and bad. The last set of shifts I worked was three nights in a row, which is about my limit. I am allowed to take four shifts in a row, but I have been able to avoid it, and I think that suits me just fine. So I get home from my third night, and I sleep until 3pm in the afternoon. Strangely, this is called a day 'off' for me, although if the shift was a day shift, the night I would spend in bed would not be considered time 'off'. Today was a real day off, and I cleaned the house top to bottom, and had a good rest. I seem to be able to catch up on the sleep that I miss when I am working, so I am actually prepared for my shift tomorrow, which is another night. I have the morning to do errands, then I'll try to get a nap in before I start at 7pm.

Next week is kind of exciting. I have a hair appt, then a makeup session, then a grad photo sitting. Then I have a ceremonial 'tea' with my teachers and classmates. Then on Saturday commencement and that evening the party. Because of the fundraising support I engaged in (baking for four bake sales), I don't have to pay for my tickets! The girls in the class did an amazing job of fundraising, we brought in tons of money for the party, and they have decorations, prizes and everything. I did not have the energy to do more than bake a few cookies.

As I write, Rachel is at a friend's house, a little girl around the corner. I have been trying to cultivate some friendships with the girls in the neighbourhood, and have gotten to know two of the moms quite well. We just found out another girl from Rachel's class has moved in around the corner, so there is another potential play date. Since Christmas I have been trying to invite the kids over, but wasn't receiving any reciprocal invitations, which was the whole point! Can't I get a little break for a bit, instead of being the one always hosting? Thank goodness the mom I was talking to yesterday mentioned that Rachel is welcome to come over any time. So what did I do as soon as we got home today? I sent her over! I, always the anxious parent, watched anxiously as Rachel walked up the sidewalk, crossed the street (by herself), and went around the corner to the little girl's house. She is just coming back now, and is very upset that her friend walked her home, because she wanted to walk herself home. I think she is ready to be more independent, but it's hard to let go. We are really looking forward to the warmer weather, because there are TONS of kids in the neighbourhood, and lots of kids means that more parents are out and about.

Otherwise, Rachel seems to be getting pretty tired of school. She keeps asking for a day off, and hopefully, in the next few weeks, I'll be able to keep her home here and there. We have her signed up for Montessori next year, but I think she's had enough of the work stations and system they use. I think she needs a regular kindergarten, and most parents we know are sending their children to J.H. Sissons, which is french immersion. I think she will like it, and she will know most of the kids already. The only problem is that registration is over, so I have to try to squeeze her in now. Most of the parents tell me this is not a problem. Ah, Yellowknife and small populations.

Eleven More Shifts, Eleven More Shifts

2011-04-21T17:19:00.000-07:00

That is my mantra as I count down the number of practice shifts I need to complete to finish this final semester. As I look on Facebook, I see the status posts of the other students in my class. They are all along the same lines: "Five more shifts...five more shifts..." Or "Can't wait for May 7!" (that is our graduation night).

I can't say I'm not enjoying the shifts themselves. Well, actually, I don't really look forward to them. I am trying to assimilate all the information I have learned in the last four years, and apply it to what is going on that day at the unit. The hard part for me is that I have had five shifts so far, all nights. I don't know if it's just been a lot of them, but I found them really exhausting. I would only get about 4-5 hours sleep between them, so by the last one, I was really quite grumpy. The plus side of nights are that you can get what they call a "quiet" night, so all the patients were sleeping, and no new babies were born. That was almost as hard as the busy nights, because the time just drags. But it does give me time to catch up on review, or do some homework.

I've started studying for the big exam, the Canadian Registered Nurses Exam, which every nursing student must pass before they can be considered a "Registered Nurse". I have lots of review to do, but I feel confident that over the next few weeks I'll be able to cover a lot. I took the sample test without studying and did alright on it, so I know the knowledge is there, I just have to fine tune it a little.

On May 6 I am going to be part of a pinning ceremony, which is arranged by the faculty of the college. It is where we receive our pins from the college to signify graduation from that school. Then the following morning is Aurora College's convocation at the Explorer Hotel; Rachel and Shane can attend and I think there are some awards. I guess the valedictorian is announced, although that person is elected by the class, and I didn't hear anything about nominations. Does that mean I should count myself out? Durn.

Then on May 7 in the evening is our "grad". Some of the girls in my class are getting so excited about it. They come up to me and gush, "You should see my dress!" Which makes me realize I don't have a dress, nor shoes. I did remember to make a hair appointment the day before, thank goodness. Guess I'll pull out the Reitmans rayon dress I wore to the last wedding I went to. I'm not sure why I don't have the same enthusiasm about "Grad". Is it because I've been to many, many, many of these before? But it should be fun. Shane and I are getting a sitter, a new girl from across the street. I hope she can stay out til at least midnight. I hope I can last until at least midnight. The last time Shane and I went out we met four other couples for drinks, then dinner, THEN everyone wanted to go dancing. We were like, um, we just spent the last FIVE HOURS with you, we're tired! And they were all disappointed with us. So I'm not thinking my grad will be a super late night for us.

My last day of shifts should be May 19. I had to beg another nurse to take me for a few shifts while my preceptor goes on holiday for two weeks in the middle of my placement. Otherwise my shifts would take until May 29 to complete. So the nurse agreed, so I have a second preceptor for four shifts. She is an experienced Labour and Delivery nurse so I should get some more good experience on those days. Or nights, I should say. All nights. I feel like about three-quarters of my shifts will be nights. Just looking at my schedule, I see that yes, 12/16 of my shifts are nights. Three quarters exactly!

Well, time to get ready for bed. Early day tomorrow! Shift number 6...

Oh and here are some photos. I had trouble adding them last time:

I wanted to provide a copy of Rachel's recent writing skills. She came home from school, asked me to draw a bear, then with my help, she wrote the above sentences:

The bear is a mammals
The bear is a virtebrac (vertebrate)
The bear is a carnivore

She learned all that in class. I don't correct her spelling, thinking that if she is phonetically sounding out words to write, she can master the correct spelling later on.

The above picture is Rachel with my Mogli. I got this puppet/doll/monkey? when I was about 8 years old, and I have been moving this bag of old stuffed animals around with me for years. Rachel took a great liking to this thing, so we washed it and she thinks it's the greatest. It's very strange to see my daughter playing with toys that I used to love.

The above picture is a self-portrait. Rachel figured out that in a dark room, our camera takes its sweet time to click as it tries to capture the light in the room. So she sets up her scene with stuffed animals, clicks the camera shutter, then jumps in front in time for a photo. When I downloaded our photos I found about 30 like this. I was wondering what was keeping her so quiet in the living room that day.

First Night Shift

2011-04-10T18:36:00.000-07:00

On Friday night I worked my first night shift ever - 7pm to 8am. I tried to nap during the day before the shift, but of course I was nervous, and ended up napping for about 2 hours. This meant that I got 2 hours sleep in approximately 24 hours, since of course I was awake all day Friday, then all night. I was about 3 hours into my shift when my preceptor had to go home sick, so I followed around another nurse for the rest of the night. She was in Labour and Delivery (L&D), which I don't have a lot of experience in, so I mostly observed. Oh, and gave a shot of morphine here and there. Yep, labouring moms can get morphine! My personal recommendation so far is to have Fentanyl. It is given IV, and when I watched one mom get it to help with the pain of contractions, she just laid her head back and sighed, the pain relief was that fast. It clears the system more quickly than morphine, but is about 20 times stronger than morphine. It doesn't harm the fetus in utero, but if the delivery happens soon after the dose, the baby often has a decrease in respiratory function, and may need some drugs to reverse the effect. I didn't see any deliveries that night, but lots of labour and interventions. I did watch an epidural, and assisted the anesthesiologist. Very interesting!

I was doing fine through the night, and took lots of breaks with the nurses on down time, but at 4am something happened. I hit what the nurses refer to as "The Wall". It comes on really suddenly, and you are doing fine, but just bam! you are exhausted. Looking in the mirror I was getting bleary-eyed, and the other nurses looked exactly the same as me. We had a break around 5am, and many of the nurses eat a bigger meal then. I got lots of advice about how to prepare and recover from night shifts, but I don't think I'm a big fan.

I got home around 8am, took a shower, and tried to fall asleep. Of course Rachel and Shane were just getting up, so there was a lot of movement around the house. In addition, even though I slept in the back room with the blackout shades, there was still just too much light. A nurse told me to buy a safety blanket, those thin foil-y ones, for a couple of bucks, and it will take out the light completely. I'm buying one before my next shift for sure. I finally fell asleep, but woke again around 1pm because Rachel kept coming into the room to tell me stuff. At one point I heard Shane yell to her to leave me to sleep, but she replied, "Oh Dad, it's okay, don't worry about it." And then she came into the room again.

The worst part was not the fatigue, but the tired headache that started on the night shift and lasted all the next day. Night shifts are probably fine if you are single, but with a family and on the weekend, they are debilitating. It took me an entire day to recover, so it hardly becomes a day off at all, because you can't do much. Thank goodness Shane cooked and cleaned on Saturday, and I spent my time colouring with Rachel, our new favourite pastime. Quiet and easy, we just print off colouring pages from the internet and pull out our pencil crayons and markers. We can colour like this for over an hour.

My next shift (day) was just cancelled, so I'll be back on Tuesday night for three consecutive nights. Oh, and I have a presentation to do with the first year nursing students between my second and third shifts. It will be a long week. 15 shifts to go!

The bonus of night shifts? I believe you get paid a little bit more, and there is much less busy-ness. No admin staff or managers around, and the only docs are on call. Of course on Obstetrics there can be lots going on at 3am (as there was on the shift I was on), but sometimes my classmates struggle to keep themselves busy, especially if all the patients are sleeping.

Five Long Years (that have flown by)

2011-04-01T20:59:00.001-07:00

(sorry about the formatting, this is like my third time posting!)

And it's been five long years
Since I've seen your loving eyes
The girl has grown
She sees right through my thin disguise
You know I still love you
You knew I'd never change
And it's been five long years and I love you
Just the same
-Colin James, "Five Long Years"

That's the song that's been running through my head this past week as we reached our five-year anniversary living in Yellowknife. It's hard to believe we arrived here exactly five years ago today. We moved into a company apartment for a week, then a hotel/apartment for another week. Our house closed on April 7, and I think our moving truck arrived from Toronto on April 9.

I have had a bit of a break between semesters. My experience at the Department of Health and Social Services was amazing. It was difficult in the sense that neither my preceptor nor I were really sure what I would be doing there, but I was able to develop a leadership initiative that has turned out to be a valid issue in the NWT, and may be recognized nationally as well. I created a position statement on the importance of quality relationships between nurses and nursing students, which lead to healthier workplace environments and improved client health outcomes. Although my course ended several weeks ago, I have continued to present my position statement to "stakeholders" and I am currently looking at turning it into a resolution that can be adopted by the nursing association of the NWT/Nunavut when they have their AGM in May. So I am still quite busy with it. I've included the draft copy below for your reading entertainment.

I think the reason it is so successful is that I have had a huge amount of support from my preceptor, who is the Chief Nursing Officer of the NWT. If I was indimidated by his title when I first started working with him, I am certainly over that, but still have a lot of awe for him and his leadership and passion to promote the nurses' voice. He has definitely taken me under his wing, and I have met a lot of really important people in nursing through him.

I have been home with Rachel for her March break the last two weeks, which has been nice although it's a challenge to keep her busy. My hours with the Dept were Mon-Fri, but I was still quite exhausted by the end of the semester, so some time off has been perfect. I completed over 380 hours there (and still counting...) and I am preparing for my next and last placement on Obstetrics. I have to complete at least 190 hours to make my grand total of 600, and even though I am looking forward to this placement, I am very much going to be counting down the shifts. So 16 12-hour shifts to go.

The snow here is finally, finally, starting to melt. The temp hovers around zero, so we might get some meltage one day, then it all freezes the next. The 'warm' weather means that we are in a constant battle with Rachel to wear her coat and boots. She seems to think that a sweater, skirt and knee high socks (with the concession of a rabbit-fur hat) are just fine, and more often than not she wins the argument and wears just that. So if you see a four-year-old playing in the snow with bare legs and a fur hat, that's our girl.

We've done our usual winter activities: visited the SnowKing Castle (not even one photo this year, partly because our photos are the same every year, but also because our camera seems to have finally died...in cold weather, the new batteries are just sucked dry in about 2 minutes). We had a winter campfire on the first warm day in March, which was quite fun, roasting hot dogs and marshmallows. The Caribou Carnival was cancelled this year due to lack of participation (no volunteers). I have been pretty happy with my non-volunteer status this year...I'm so busy and I have experienced a lot less stress than when I am juggling home, school and extra-curricular stuff. Unfortunately, the Moms, Boobs and Babies group is struggling with a lack of volunteers too, as well as a lack of good leadership, it sounds like. It's hard not to agree to helping out, but I do believe that new moms will take up the slack as needed. I feel so removed from breastfeeding that I don't know how much support I could still offer anyway. Here is the position statement (still a draft, but getting closer to completion):

Northern Nursing Leadership Forum (NLF)
and

Nursing Students of the NWT

Joint Position Statement on Quality Relationships
between Nursing Professionals and Nursing Students

We strongly believe in the importance of quality relationships between nursing professionals and nursing students. We commit to ensuring these partnerships are positive, collaborative, reciprocal and sincere. Promoting a culture of respect in healthcare practice leads to healthy workplace environments and improved client outcomes.

As nursing professionals, we commit to:

• recognizing the important role of nurse professionals in the facilitation and support of nursing education
• engaging as mentors, guides, and positive role models as part of everyday nursing practice
• valuing students for the enthusiasm, knowledge and motivation they bring to the workplace
• providing timely and constructive feedback to nursing students and novice nurses

As nursing students, we commit to:

• valuing nursing professionals for their knowledge and expertise
• identifying and communicating our learning needs and level of competency, with the understanding that quality patient care is a priority
• engaging in practice with a positive attitude towards learning
• requesting constructive feedback from nursing professionals, to enhance our Nursing Practice and work towards goal attainment

Together, we commit to:

• promoting environments that contribute to optimal health and healing outcomes for clients
• promoting environments that exemplify knowledge expansion and professional growth
• collaborating and developing solutions to resolve differences that occur within the team environment
• providing culturally competent care to clients and families and creating greater cultural awareness when knowledge deficits present

Quality relationships
• encourage intra-professional collaboration of knowledge and ideas
• strengthen a team approach to healthcare
• result in healthy workplace environments in healthcare
• lead to increased quality of care for clients
• promote a supportive culture of learning in the nursing practice environment
• enhance the transition from student, to graduate nurse, to experienced nurse
• increase clinical skill development for both nursing professionals and nursing students
• contribute positively to sharing of information and enhanced awareness and utilization of best nursing practices

Background & Significance

Promoting ethical relationships in the workplace is the responsibility of all members of the nursing profession (Canadian Nurses’ Association (CNA), 2008). While nursing professionals provide mentoring and guidance, nursing students are responsible for communicating clearly their learning goals in order to meet the standards of care that match their level of experience. Developing these relationships between nursing professionals and nursing students lead to improved collaboration and trust, and ultimately result in safe, competent, compassionate and ethical care for clients (CNA, 2008). Promoting a “climate of learning” (Baumann, 2007, p. 22) encourages organizations, nurse leaders, and individuals to support educational development and mutual knowledge sharing. Students benefit from a positive practice environment with increased confidence and enthusiasm, while nurses benefit through ongoing development of leadership competencies and professional growth.

Support in the Workplace

As with most new environments, effectively socializing into the organizational culture of a workplace can strengthen an employee’s commitment to that organization (Pangman & Pangman, 2010). Developing quality relationships is crucial at this time, because the process relies on mentoring and guidance from experienced nurses (Casey, Fink, Krugman, & Probst, 2004). It is widely recognized that the transition from nursing student to professional nurse can be challenging, with a major stressor being a perceived lack of support in the workplace (Boychuk Duchscher & Cowin, 2006; Laschinger, Finegan, & Wilk, 2009; Thomas & Burk, 2009). The reality is that if new nurses feel unsupported at this critical learning stage, they often leave their place of employment, or may leave the profession entirely (Advisory Committee on Health Human Resources (ACHHR), 2002). Becoming both a resource and a role model for nursing students is a way for nursing professionals to ease the transition for nursing students and demonstrate both responsibility and accountability in their practice (RNANT/NU, 2006).

Quality Care

No less important are the implications for clients on collaborative relationships between health professionals. The International Council of Nurses (2010) states that “patients and the public have the right to the highest performance from health care professionals and this can only be achieved in a workplace that enables and sustains a motivated well-prepared workforce” (para. 3). Research indicates that there is a direct correlation to the quality of nursing practice environments and positive health outcomes for clients (Armstrong, Laschinger, & Wong, 2009; Laschinger & Leiter, 2006). The code of ethics guides both nurses and nursing students to ensure that the health and well-being of their clients are considered as the first priority in their practice (CNA, 2008). Collaborative relationships and increased autonomy for nurses in practice result in direct positive effects on patient safety outcomes (Laschinger & Leiter, 2006). The basic principles of quality client care are achieved when healthcare professionals advocate for positive nursing practice environments.

Nurse Leadership

Nursing leadership is about advocacy and action and nursing professionals and nursing students are in an ideal position to promote leadership initiatives (CNA, 2009). One way to do this is to support positive practice environments (Ferguson & Day, 2007). Nurses who are included in decision-making are able to contribute innovative ideas and build upon the existing strengths of their work environment (Richer, Ritchie, & Marchionni, 2009). This results in feelings of empowerment for nurses, which is a sense of control over one’s environment, both personally and professionally (Pangman & Pangman, 2010). Empowered nurses recognize the value of their expertise, which enhances relationships with other healthcare colleagues (Canadian Health Services Research Foundation (CHSRF), 2006; Pangman & Pangman, 2010).

Support from Canadian Organizations

Many organizations have addressed the importance of healthy workplace environments. Organizational leaders across Canada are beginning to understand the implications of a healthy workplace and in recent years have developed strategies to address these issues.

International Council of Nurses (2010) created a Positive Practice Environments Campaign in 2009 to address the importance of quality workplaces for nurses. By raising awareness and identifying best practices they encourage strategies to enhance nursing practice environments.

Accreditation Canada (2010) recently developed a Required Organizational Practice (ROP) component to address workplace violence prevention and ensure healthier workplace environments.

Health Canada (2007) identified core values that a workplace community should possess, including honest and effective communication, resulting in an environment of learning and innovation.

Registered Nurses’ Association of Ontario (2006) believes that a healthy workplace is the responsibility of the both the nursing profession collectively as well as individually. To support this, RNAO developed guidelines for healthy work environments for nursing teams. The document provides evidence-informed best practices to ensure healthy workplaces for nurses and other health professionals.

Department of Health and Social Services (DHSS) in the Northwest Territories aims to achieve optimal work environments in healthcare workplaces for all health professionals. The DHSS made a commitment to develop initiatives for healthier healthcare work environments as outlined by the Quality Worklife Quality Healthcare Collaborative (Canadian Council on Health Services Accreditation (CCHSA), 2007).

Moving Forward

Several strategies are recommended:

Individual

• Be responsible and accountable for nursing practice, fostering a culture of respect for team members
• Develop personal empowerment strategies to support quality relationships. Possess a positive attitude; be flexible and willing to negotiate (Pangman & Pangman, 2010).

Organizational

• Ensure funding for professional development programs for nursing professionals, novice nurses, and nursing students to enhance learning and develop competencies in practice. Programs may include continuing education and mentoring.

Societal

• Support nursing leadership by giving voice to the value of nurses’ work in practice, in politics, and in public.

Acknowledgements
The position statement was developed under the leadership of NLF with the support of nursing professionals and nursing students across the NWT.

References

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Registered Nurses’ Association of the Northwest Territories and Nunavut (RNANT/NU). (2006). Standards of Nursing Practice for Registered Nurses. Yellowknife, Canada. Author.

Registered Nurses’ Association of Ontario (RNAO). (2006). Healthy work environments best practice guidelines: Collaborative practice among nursing teams. In RNAO Nursing Best Practice Guidelines Program. Ontario, Canada: Author.

Richer M.C., Ritchie, J. & Marchionni, C. (2009). ‘If we can’t do more, let’s do it differently!’: Using appreciative inquiry to promote innovative ideas for better health care work environments. Journal of Nursing Management, 17, 947-955. doi: 10.1111/j.1365-2834.2009.01022.x

Thomas, S. P., & Burk, R. (2009). Junior nursing students’ experiences of vertical violence during clinical rotations. Nursing Outlook, 57, 226-231. doi:10.1016/j.outlook.2008.08.004

Also See:

Canadian Association of Schools of Nursing (CASN). (2005). Position statement: Clinical/practice nursing education. Ottawa, Canada: Author.

Canadian Nurses’ Association (CNA). (2009). Position statement: Nursing leadership. Ottawa, Canada: Author.

Canadian Nurses’ Association (CNA) and Canadian Federation of Nurses’ Unions (CFNU). (2006). Joint position statement: Practice environments: Maximizing client, nurse and system outcomes. Ottawa, Canada: Authors.

Canadian Nurses’ Association (CNA) and Canadian Federation of Nurses’ Unions (CFNU). (2006). Joint position statement: Workplace violence. Ottawa, Canada: Authors.

Registered Nurses’ Association of Ontario (RNAO). (2008). Position statement: Violence against nurses: “Zero” tolerance for violence against nurses and nursing students. Ontario, Canada: Author.

Happy New Year

2011-01-11T17:10:00.000-07:00

First post of 2011. We are getting back into routine. Rachel, thankfully, started back at school this week. She was getting bored at home and I was getting tired of playing Barbies all day. There is just not enough to do up here, especially when the weather is chilly. I started investigating which little friends might be able to come over for a parent-free playdate. I like parent-free, because Rachel is occupied and I can still go about my usual stuff (house cleaning, homework, or just picking up a book with a cup of coffee, things I can't do when Rachel is home and needs attention)

We have started her back at dance on Saturday mornings, and soccer on Sunday. Swimming lessons start next Saturday. And STILL she is constantly clamouring for attention. The plight of the only child, I guess. Weekends can be long. We took a drive to Prelude Territorial Park yesterday, just to get out of the house, and it was a bright sunny day. Rachel napped in the car, which was SO nice! I forgot how much I missed her afternoon naps.

I went out for a girls' night last night, just hanging out at a friend's house with a few of the girls in the class I have become very close to. We are all starting to realize that our four years together is coming to an end. Of my group, only a small number are staying in Yellowknife to hopefully find nursing jobs. Others are going to Inuvik, Fort Simpson, and BC. I think I will miss these girls a lot. They helped me get through the last four years, which could be really challenging at times, and often made me question why exactly I was doing this.

I'm not done yet though. I start the countdown for my 600 required hours of practice. This week and next we are in orientation at the school, and I start my first rotation on January 18. I have chosen not to work in the hospital for the first segment, a decision I am still struggling with. Instead I am working for the Department of Health and Social Services. My preceptor sounds fabulous and is in a high management position, so I will learn lots about policy and change. But this term is meant to be for consolidation of skills. So for the second semester (approximately April and May), I will be working in Obstetrics, on shift work. I think because of my personal situation (family, being an older student), I was less willing to do 12-hour day and night shifts for the next 5 months. Even in September, when we were choosing our placements, I was looking for one rotation that had hours similar to Rachel's daycare. But I will experience the night shift stuff before graduation, which is important.

Anyway, I have had several chats with my preceptor, and there are lots of opportunities for leadership projects, and maybe even some travel to smaller communities. I will also be working independently here and there, which suits me just fine, as I am "self-directed" according to my instructors.

So that will take me to probably the end of May. We will have a "pinning ceremony" in May, which signifies the graduation from Aurora College. My commencement will be in Victoria, BC in November. I have started studying for the Canadian Registered Nurses Exam in June, which will give me the lovely "R.N." initials after my name.

But first I need to successfully complete the semester, which is a PASS/NO PASS. Despite this, I still have a number of assignments to complete, and of course lots of reading and prep. Being in clinical practice is very exhausting because we are working, but also learning. It's not like a job that just ends when the shift is over. I remember this from my time in Inuvik. My instructor warned me that I would get very tired. When you are on shift, you are trying to do your job, but also trying to remember everything you learned in class. In addition, you are trying to integrate yourself into the team. Unfortunately, many experienced nurses can be resentful or downright mean to the students, so we flounder around trying to get up to speed, fit in socially, and pass our course.

All this to say my class and I are rather anxious. I can see it in the wide-eyed looks we are giving each other as we go over the course curriculum. So for me, it becomes doubly important to have friends in the group that I can share these anxieties with. It helps me hugely to know that I am not alone in the way I feel. Our instructors have been great, they have a lot of confidence in us, and are starting to treat us like equals. It's actually kind of fun to be a senior!

Hmmm, yes, I seem to notice that I am talking quite a bit about myself in this post. So what else is new, you ask? Shane found a way to print our entire blog (over 250 entries) into a book format. It could be pretty pricey, but there are a number of companies out there that will do this service for you. As we are coming to the end of my schooling here, and Rachel comes up to her 5th birthday (well, soonish), I think we may decide to bring the blog to a close. I will still have a number of posts over the next few months of course, but sometimes I have been remiss in posting regularly, and that may be a sign that it is time to wrap things up here. Not wrap up blogging completely! But maybe wrap up "Living in Yellowknife". I could start a new one: "Living in ..." who knows?

I haven't posted many photos lately, but I have a few of Rachel's drawings I wanted to share.

This first one is mixed media. She used flower stickers to enhance her drawing.

Next is a picture of Rachel on stage (see the stage lights across the top). She is dancing in front of an audience, who are all sitting on chairs.

I like this one for several reasons. She has written her name very neatly, the couple on the left are holding hands, and there are two mermaids on the right (notice their green tails). Her women all have dresses now, and her men have straight-across eyebrows.

Rachel is learning reading and math at Montessori now, and I am amazed at her ability and interest to learn. She will stop me when we are reading and say, "You just said "six". Where is it on the page? Oh, there it is!" She writes "cat" and "mat", and is using lowercase printing. She loves to play games with numbers, like starting with "one plus one" and moving up to "ten plus ten". We are really impressed with Montessori and her teachers, who are kind and give Rachel lots of attention. There are quite a few younger kids in her class, so I think Montessori suits her well, as it is independent learning (with guidance of course). So the class doesn't learn all the same things. We have to register Rachel for kindergarten in February, and we were considering several "normal" kindergartens, but recently we have begun to wonder if she will do better to continue in the Montessori stream for a few more years. She loves going, and often wants us to pick her up at the very end of the day, so she can play with her friends during free time after 3:30pm.

I'll collect some of our recent photos and get them on the blog. Because of Facebook, I find I don't tend to post too many. But we have some nice ones from Christmas, etc.

Holiday Hupdate

2010-12-22T20:03:00.000-07:00

Goodness it's been a while since I've posted.

Let's see, I'll try to type after 2 1/2 glasses of wine. And a space bar that is notbehaving.

Exams done. Semester done. Grades good. Tired Yes. Feelings of Accomplishment Yes.

Rachel is home for the holidays and we are struggling to find activities to fill the day. She is in constant motion, and I can only play "Barbies" for about 20 minutes at a time.

Best ever: Mom and Dad are here for Christmas! When we decided to stay in YK for the holidays, they abandoned the traditional Toronto Christmas for the first time in what, 35 years? to come spend it with us. So far meals have been fabulous, lots of wine and one or two walks in -20 weather. Some shopping, although I am shocked that the shelves are starting to empty even before Christmas. Like, I was in a bookstore, and I asked about some new releases, and she said, well, things are getting a bit thin these days. I was thinking, but Christmas is still a week away! So better hope that most of my shopping is done, or expect some toothpaste or something as a gift.

Rachel is practicing her "R"s and "th"s. I was writing a whole post about how she mispronounces certain words consistently, like "free" for "three" and "Wachel" for "Rachel". Anyway, she is becoming more conscious of her words and is doing a great job. Now she says "Thursday" instead of "Firzday". She has gone a bit too far though and says "Thriday" now instead of "Friday". Hey, I'll take it.

We have our tree up, a sad little thing from President's Choice last year, for about $30. You get your money's worth, as I've already chipped two of the "legs" on the tree, and it is leaning slightly toward the window. But from outside you can hardly tell. We have a few nice decorations and a few cheap ones that are about 10 years old, and take up way too much space in our closets for 11 1/2 months of the year, so I think we will be tossing them out with the tree at the end of the season.

We are hoping to take the parents to see some northern lights, so we are going to try and do that on Christmas Eve. The really good lights come out late at night, around midnight, so we'll see if we can stay up that late. The winter aurora are really something to see, so we will make a true effort.

Okay, Rachel is now on my lap, so must sign off. Will post pics when I can.

Signing over to Rachel:

HJV CJHJIGY,VC JJ;'V GCKJGBILNBJKLIJLVCHH CFGLJGHGVBFCHVBXGBGBJMJHNGHHHBJHCHFJHUFVJJOIOFT6 HHJGYHVCGBCDHYGFDSWGZARDFGYGHIIUDGHJF

The Post of Procrastination

2010-10-27T20:49:00.000-07:00

I have four textbook chapters to read before tomorrow morning, I have two major papers due in a month, one poster presention with no topic yet chosen, and a research project that hasn't even begun because I don't have anyone to interview. Oh, and an abstract to write because my field guide thinks my project might be good enough to present at a yearly conference in Vancouver.

And yet, here I write instead of doing all of the above. It's just that there are a few things I wanted to post before my tired brain loses the information forever.

What I am up to:

See Above.

What Shane is up to:

Workin'
Volunteering with the city council Task Force Committee doin' stuff

What Rachel is up to:

Picks out her own outfits every day. She likes to have a different pattern for every piece, so leopard-print tights, flower skirt and polka dot top. She gets lots of compliments at school and revels in them.

Wants to be a teacher, a nurse, a babysitter, and most recently, a mermaid-ologist (she meant marine biologist)

Can balance on one foot as a flamingo, and as a "slork". She wouldn't let us correct her on that one.

Refers to one of her female teachers as a boy because "he" has short hair.

Has an excellent vocabulary but it is hilarious listening to her put it together. When she refers to a "third" item, like first, second, third, she says "threef"

Wears clothes to bed instead of pajamas because her mother told her the story of the little boys whose mommy had so much trouble getting them ready in time for school in the morning that she simply put them to bed with their clothes on for the next day. In the morning, boom! They were already dressed. (Mom, you told me this story. Was it one of your friends?) Anyway, Rachel LOVED the idea of going to bed with clothes on. Well, it's better than freezing, I guess.

Still makes us dance in circles around her at dinnertime. Now that we are both tired of being short-order cooks, we are issuing ultimatums: sit and eat with us, stay in the living room with no dinner while WE eat, or go to your room if you are going to be upset. I tell ya, dinnertime is my most hated time of day. We're all tired, she is tired and hungry, but refuses nearly everything I put in front of her, except maybe pancakes. So we go through this entire charade, and she stomps off to her room or whatever. Ultimately she returns hungry, then she moves her chair beside mine, and she eats. Sheesh! I am open to suggestions although I must warn you we have tried nearly everything. This ultimatum thing seems to work, and it forces her to eat OUR meal. Which is never anything fancy! We're talking chicken or beef and vegetables, sometimes pasta.
Sorry. Bit of a rant there.

okay, okay. I'll go do my readings for tomorrow. Sheesh.

Application to Graduate and other October Things

2010-10-05T15:40:00.000-07:00

Yes, I realize it is OCTOBER. It has been a long time since I have posted. Well, there has been a lot going on! Rachel, Shane and I arrived home from Toronto at the beginning of September, and jumped right into school and work. I am now in 4th year Nursing, with an expected graduation date of June, 2011. (Commencement in November). I am taking a full course load that includes Leadership and Research courses, which are heavy in content and assignments. I'll have to blog separately about my research project, which is in the hands of the Ethics Committee as I write. The research process is fascinating and I would love to continue with it in the future. That would be graduate school, but maybe I'll work for a little while first. I have class until December, then I will be in clinical placements from January to May. I am just working with my instructor to find some placements.

It was nice to return to Yellowknife. The weather is beautiful this time of year, and we have been outside bike riding or kite-flying as much as possible. We usually have permanent snow on the ground by Halloween, which I know is only a few weeks away, so I am trying to get Rachel outside as much as possible.

Rachel is back at Montessori, and is doing pretty well. She was struggling the first few weeks, not wanting to go, and also being sick with a cold and pink eye. I kept her home for a few days last week, and this week she seems more enthusiastic. There are a lot of new kids in her class this year, and many of them are quite young: 2.5 to 3 years old. I am starting to meet a few of the parents, and there seem to be some slightly older girls who will be going to kindergarten in the fall, so hopefully there will be some potential friends in that mix.

The road that we live on was finally, finally, finally paved! We even have a sidewalk. It makes bike riding that much more fun.

This is the view of our house, our paved road, and the landscaped area behind our house (a new park). There will be a playground WAY at the back, near that white house.

This is me in the park area, looking back towards our house.

Rachel wanted a picture of her beside the garbage can.

...and then a picture of ME beside the garbage can...

another shot of the park and our house...isn't it nice? We have lived with piles of dirt for 5 years.

Rachel posed us on the path

...don't forget a picture of Dad beside the garbage can.

Some landscaping near our house.

And thanks to Auntie Jaimmie, Rachel has a princess curtain over her bed now! We installed it on the weekend. She loves to play in it, but finds it a bit scary at night, so we have a simple hook that makes it easy to put up and take down.

Summer in the City

2010-07-29T05:04:00.003-07:00

Not sure how well this post will work, as I'm using full-size images. Well, as you may know, Rachel and I are spending our summer in Toronto. It's been a whirlwind of visiting and summer activities, which is a nice change from our quiet Yellowknife life. We actually have to book in "quiet" days, so we don't get exhausted. I am almost used to the traffic (constant and everywhere, every day), and my highway driving skills have returned. I haven't even been shopping yet, although I am ready to hire a babysitter so I can spend a few hours in Yorkdale. Here are a few pics of our last two weeks:

Cousins after bathtime

Thea's new 'do

Who says you need a birthday to have a birthday cake? First trip on the subway for Rachel, second for Thea

Outside Sarah and Mark's home

Adrienne with little Jack, a cousin of Rachel's

Another cousin: Madeleine with Rachel

Another cousin! Austin with Auntie Ashley

I love Austin's face

Yard Update

2010-07-11T19:06:00.000-07:00

Okay, I admit, it's not all that thrilling. But just wait until there's a playground sprouting up from all that dirt! I went behind our house for some photos. They only seem to illustrate the boxy-ness of our home, but oh well.

View of our house (on left) from the far end of the greenspace Note the derth of green or trees. I am standing on a trail that leads further behind me into the woods. We have all this space behind us, kind of like a big backyard. In fact, I do feel like it's my personal backyard that is being landscaped.

Back view of our house and yard, which only reaches to the shed. Rather, the shed is the leftmost boundary of our property, if that makes sense. You might notice that the left window is blocked out with foil, an effective blackout agent. We still have mostly daylight all night, although I notice it was a bit darker the other night when I stayed up late to watch Juno. (love that movie).

Side view of new trees behind our shed. All the dark dirt is the fill that they put in as our property was about three feet higher than the greenspace. Yes, I know it's a bit of a joke to call it "greenspace", but that's what it says on the plans.

Who doesn't love a photo of a rainbow? This is the view off the side of our deck. The road in front of us was built last year, and there will be houses all behind that lamppost. I am hoping they keep the trees at the left of the picture, because our living room window looks out onto most of it. I believe some of that is still considered the greenspace. In fact, all the land up to the trees is greenspace, and will be adjacent to our house.

Shane and Rachel washing the car. Rachel in her Sunday best of course.

Road Trip to High Level, Alberta

2010-07-04T09:06:00.000-07:00

On a whim, and knowing we had four days of "home time" ahead of us because of Canada Day weekend, we decided to drive to High Level, Alberta. It's approximately 800 kms south of Yellowknife, so about a six hour drive. It was a lot of fun, but six hours of adult driving equals about eight or nine hours of driving with a child. We had multiple stops for pee and poo breaks. Also smoke breaks, stretch breaks and snack breaks. Shane drove the entire trip, and I was happy to be a passenger. Unfortunately, the shotgun position meant that I was also the gopher, the flight attendant, the nurse, the chef and the waitress. My neck and left arm are actually still sore from all the reaching behind me I had to do on our long trip. My thoughts about the next trip is that I will a) sit in the back with Rachel or b) move her carseat so it is behind Shane and not me. I can't tell you how many "Mommy, look at me!" I had to investigate before my back and neck started screaming at me. But. It was a fun trip, nice to get out of Yellowknife for a couple of days.

Fresh and ready for the trip!

Our first stop to the Twin Falls. It rained most of the day, but we played in the park and had a quick lunch. It was a good break from all the driving.

View of the falls.

A nice couple took our family shot.

I said to Shane when I saw this photo, "Why wouldn't you ask me to take a step to my left? Then the sign wouldn't be obstructed by my big head!"

Smartest idea ever: Get a hotel with a pool, and better yet, a waterslide! Even Shane and I went down it. I should have taken a photo, it was 20 feet high, and dark, fast and scary. Rachel loved it.

Our water baby.

A better, unobstructed view of this sign, and bonus, a rare family shot too.

Alexandria Falls, pretty impressive, and scary to be right at the edge.

The gorge below the falls.

Did I mention the bison? Tons of bison on the way down and back. It was exciting to watch for them at first, but after about 50, even Rachel wouldn't look up when we passed them.

Baby bison! Cutest things ever.

Our stereo stopped working a few days before the trip and the spare part didn't come in on time. Hence, no music for the 16 hours we spent in the car. Yeah, that pretty much sucked.

Hard to tell in this photo, but there is a swarm of blackflies outside the window. It always took a few minutes for them to find us, so if we had to stop for a pee break, we tried to jump out as fast as we could. Unfortunately, on the trip home, we had about 5 pee breaks. I would unhook Rachel from the carseat, blast out of my seat, pull her out and slam the doors fast so no bugs would get in, and try to run to the outhouse as fast as possible. I think we saw every outhouse from Yellowknife to High Level. Not sure if Rachel really had to go or if she just wanted a break from sitting in her seat.

In terms of wildlife we saw a swan, a fox, loads of bison, cranes, a huge owl that glided in front of the car, then alongside us (amazing bird), a hawk. We went to a pet store in High Level and ALMOST brought home a kitten. I kinda wish we had now, since they are hard to come by here in town.

A long, fun trip that was surprisingly relaxing. I think it did us good to get out of Yellowknife for a bit, as it can get a bit claustrophobic when there is no where really to drive to. Lots of people drive to Edmonton and I always thought we could do it quite easily, but I can see it taking about three days. The drive is beautiful but there are miles and miles of nothing but a two-lane highway (no shoulders even to stop, so emergency bathroom breaks were not always possible). Lots of stubby trees that gradually grew taller and taller, and more deciduous as we drove south.

Backyard Developments

2010-06-29T18:09:00.000-07:00

We had a quiet day on June 27, Rachel's real birthday. She and I made a rainbow cake using food colouring and we iced it with 7-minute frosting. Note to Sarah and Mom: I have a way better, way easier recipe than that old one on pg. 41 of that ancient cookbook. All you need for this is egg whites, sugar and water. The other one called for corn syrup, cream of tartar and a bunch of other weird ingredients. Then Rachel and I went to the pool for the afternoon. In all, a nice day. Quite muggy and hot, which is hard to bear in our house, as very few homes up here have a/c. The pool was a nice way to cool down, but it costs $8 a visit, so we'll have to get some kind of family pass for the summer.

In other news, the greenspace behind our house is being developed. While still not "green", there are a few changes. They have brought in a number of trees that are being planted, and they are grading the land so that our house will not really be on a hill anymore, subject to constant erosion.

In this photo you can see that our house is kind of higher up than the space beside us. This was taken a few weeks ago.

Initial photos from a few weeks ago

Bringing in the trees

Starting work a few weeks ago

Photo from today. It's doesn't look that different, but there is a lot more dirt that they have dumped and spread around.

Our shed, tipping a little

View from the road. They added those big rocks, which I think will be fun to climb on when all is said and done. I will have to take some from behind the house, because you can't really see what they have done from here. But it's looking better every day.

June Update and a Party

2010-06-20T08:03:00.000-07:00

I've been back in Yellowknife for over a week now, and it feels like I never left! Truly, the time in Inuvik was, as my mother says, a "blip" in the timeline of my life. I passed third year with flying colours, have made the honour role again, and things are looking good for fourth year. I am looking for summer employment, rare for me, since I usually have something lined up way in advance. But this time between school and job has been really nice. Last summer was extremely stressful, and I was quite exhausted before school even started in September.

We're getting ready for a busy weekend. Today is Rachel's "friend" party. We have booked the pool from 2-4pm, ordered a huge Ariel The Mermaid Cake, and prepared amazing loot bags, because, as one mom told me, "it's all about the loot bags". I think it's a major issue for Rachel, as she has been asking me if I have put the loot bags together. She made sure there were 'boy' and 'girl' loot bags, and made me remove one item from the 'boy' loot bag that she thought was too girly.

We have RSVPs from 15 kids, but every time I go to pick up Rachel from school, I run into another parent who says, "I forgot to RSVP, but we're coming!" I have no idea how many will actually show, but I made 19 loot bags just in case. For the cake, we decided to order a cupcake cake. It's 36 cupcakes all lined up and iced together to look like one cake. I think it will be easier to serve.

Also this weekend we noticed a carnival being put up with rides and games! I have never seen anything like this in Yellowknife so we are all excited to check it out. It's a long weekend for us, National Aboriginal Day being on Monday, so there are lots of activities for us to do. I remember going to a carnival with my dad one night at the North Park Plaza, and the excitement of all the rides and cotton candy and prizes was one that I'll never forget, even at five years old. I'm hoping we will have a chance to go. As there is no darkness here right now, the glow of the flashing lights will be lost, but hopefully we will have a chance to go on some of the rickety, heart-stopping rides. I'm always a little wary of rides that fold up and drive away, but the ones we saw looked pretty tame.

The other news is that the greenspace behind our house is being developed, finally! We have had big excavators grumbling and roaring in the backyard for over a week, levelling the ground and preparing for a playground and a community garden! I heard rumours that those things will be installed this summer, which is great for us. Imagine having a playground in our own backyard! It means there will be kids around all the time, but I think this is great. It's good for Rachel and good for the neighbourhood. I've been taking some day-by-day photos to monitor the progress.

Later that day...

Well the party was a huge success. We had 14 kids or so (I lost count) and they splashed and swam in the pool for an hour. I was shocked and impressed to see Rachel run into the pool, then dive under the water, and surface several feet away. She is a swimmer now! Not only that, she was jumping off the side with her friends and then put her lifejacket on and swam out into the deep end. My mouth was dropping open the entire time. Her last session of swimming lessons, most of which I missed because I was in Inuvik, have really advanced her skills. She is ready for cottage swimming for sure!

We bought fruit and veggies trays, I made guacamole, and we had chips and salsa and the cake, and that was perfect. I wish we could have gone onto the sundeck, but it was a bit windy and we thought the kids might get cold. Rachel got a bunch of great gifts, like Barbies, crafts, and clothes.

"Ariel" Cake. It was made of cupcakes, which is SO smart! And almost all of it was eaten.

Opening presents at the party was a bit chaotic, but I'm glad we did it. We had snacks, sang Happy Birthday, and opened gifts in under an hour.

We had the pool mostly to ourselves, because it was a long weekend and there were other activities going on in the city. Bonus!

Week 5 - Inuvik

2010-06-06T17:27:00.000-07:00

Two more shifts and I am done! Wow, what a stretch. I feel like I have been able to accomplish a lot, mostly that I can do a nursing placement away from my comfort zone of Yellowknife, and still be successful. I shouldn't count my chickens and all that just yet, but my nursing preceptors have been very happy with me, and my instructor says the feedback is all very good. If I can maintain my practice professionally and skillfully for the next 2 days, I will be happily on a plane home to the 'Knife.

It was a great week. I was quite busy and actually had an opportunity to travel to Tsiigehtchic, a community of about 100 people. It's an hour and a half up river and the highway, the Dempster, is pretty much dirt road. We had to take a ferry, and the river waters were really rough and moving fast. The ferry couldn't go straight across, it had to curve way upstream, and drift back down towards us. I took some Blackberry pics, because I left the camera in YK on my visit, but I haven't figured out how to transfer them to internet. Check Facebook, though. They are there.

There are a lot of things I wanted to do but haven't yet. I wanted to go to mass in the Igloo Church this morning. Didn't. I want to visit the Inuvialuit Corporate Group, because they apparently sell local crafts at cost. So the price you pay is what the artist earns. I may have a chance to pop in the day I leave, but that is pushing it a little.

I still have homework to pull together before my performance appraisal next week. I'd like to do it up here, so I can relax and enjoy time with my fam when I get home. But it's already Sunday night and I only just handed in a paper I have been working on all weekend.

Three more sleeps! Yayy!

Yellowknife - Week 4 Semester Break

2010-05-30T06:47:00.002-07:00

Well, it was a self-prescribed break for me. The nice thing about being in 3rd year is that we are mandated to complete 190 hours of clinical time, but we have a few extra weeks to do it. So I noticed that a couple of my classmates have done the same thing...take a long weekend, etc. One girl bought a house with her husband in BC, then returned to clinical. That gives me the impression that things are wrapping up with school! Buying houses and starting to plan for a year from now. Exciting!

I flew home from Inuvik on Wednesday, with a stopover in Norman Wells. What a pretty community! It had mountain ranges all around it, and the whole place was green and lush (Inuvik was still brown and dry when I left). I also had a chance to view the treeline, because I guess it dips down and reappears. There are plenty of trees in Inuvik, then none for a while south, then lush again in Norman Wells. I will have to look at a map to be sure. But no trees makes the landscape look very barren. Very tundra-y.

What an amazing moment to meet Rachel and Shane at the airport. I had been holding it together really well during my stay in Inuvik, but as soon as the plane touched down in Yellowknife, I got very emotional. Rachel looked amazing, with a gorgeous haircut and definitely a few inches taller.

I kept her home with me on Thursday and Friday, and we did some errands and just hung around the house.

Painting a life-size image of Rachel, traced onto brown paper

I bought some topsoil, and we made a tiny garden in our front yard. You can see we still haven't landscaped. The good news is that the city is leveling out the land beside our house (with a playground planned right behind us!) and they have also promised that our road will be paved this summer, so after that we can think about fixing up our lawn.

It looks a bit like a grave, now that I think about it.

I like this photo

Always with the posin'

Yesterday we took a family trip to Cameron Falls, about 45 minutes drive from Yellowknife. Rachel posed beside an Inukshuk...

Then accidentally knocked it over. Oops.

Whew, found another one right away to pose beside.

A gorgeous view of the valley where the falls are located. Notice the pose Rachel assumed.

A picture of Mommy and Daddy

And the falls! We hiked 1.5km in and Rachel walked all the way, up and down hills with lots of rocky paths. She did really well. She was a bit tired on the way back, but we will do it again for sure. It was a perfect weekend, the first warm one in Yellowknife, and no bugs yet! I bet next weekend will be a different story.

I leave again this morning at 10:25am. I hate to go, it's going to be hard, but at least this time I know what I'm going to. It should be a good week at Public Health. I will be immunizing, going on some home visits, doing some Well Woman and STI clinics. The staff are amazing, all very nice and happy to have me there as they are two staff short (my preceptor and another nurse are away for 2 weeks), so I have been given more responsibility for the clinics, which suits me just fine.

So ten more sleeps and I'll be back in Yellowknife. Rachel is fine with me going, I know she misses me, but it's been an adventure for her and Daddy. And me, actually.

Inuvik - Week 3

2010-05-23T16:52:00.000-07:00

Only three more nights until I fly home for four days to visit Rachel and Shane! It has been a quick few weeks up here, but I miss them both so much. I had a good, busy week , doing pre-kindergarten screening for 4 and 5-year-olds before they start school. My role was to test vision and screening, which was a lot of fun. It was also a bit disconcerting, because the majority of the kids (probably about 95%) don't know their alphabet yet. When they enter kindergarten, it's expected that they haven't learned their letters, and are taught them then. I was a bit shocked because not only has Rachel been able to identify hers for over a year (maybe more?) she can even spell her name. So imagine then, me trying to use an eye chart with the letters H, O, T, and V. It's a simplified chart, but most of the time I had to get the child to point to a card he was holding when I pointed to the letter on the wall.

Also, my preceptor had to fly home to Ontario for an emergency, as her mother is not well, so she left quite suddenly on Friday. She felt quite bad, but I have been getting along great with her, so I was sorry to see her go too. The other nurse I have been working with has also just left on vacation, so there are a minimal number of nurses left. I have been paired with a new one, a homecare nurse, so hopefully I will be able to do some new things. As it turns out, this will not be much of a week, because tomorrow is a holiday (and NOTHING is open) and I leave on Wednesday at noon, so I will really only be spending a day with my new preceptor until I return the following week. It's not a big deal, it just feels like I am starting over again.

I have my midterm discussion with my instructor on Tuesday, and a bunch of documents to hand in tomorrow, but I am feeling pretty confident about my skills and how I am doing. My instructor has to evaluate us from Yellowknife, so she relies on what I say, plus what the preceptor says. So far the preceptor had a glowing report for me, so I just have to market myself well in my 15-minute phone call with her.

My photos are all screwy on the blog...I had trouble getting them loaded here, but last night Karianne and I decided to go for a walk at 11pm. It's really hard to fall asleep in the sunshine, and it's quite warm by that time of day. So we walked to the hospital, then followed the highway towards the airport until we came to the end (or beginning) of the Dempster Highway. This highway leads all the way to Alaska. We took a few photos by the big sign. We also took a picture of ourselves with the Midnight Sun behind us.

Midnight Sun

Yes, this is a picture of a dead goose. There are four kitchens in the residence and we have become friendly with some of the students downstairs. One lady, Vera, is about 55, and told us one day how she was walking along the highway with her rifle, and bang! Caught herself a goose for dinner. I did know it was goose hunting season, but I didn't realize that she was going to pluck and clean it in her kitchen. She had another one in the communal freezer. It was unusual and kinda neat to meet someone who hunts her own food, even while away at college.

Otherwise, I've been going to the gym here and there, and taking long walks. The days go by fast, but they are quiet. I miss the lovely chatter of my almost four-year-old. Three more sleeps!

Inuvik - Week 2

2010-05-16T16:22:00.004-07:00

End of week 2 in Inuvik. The time really is going by quickly, although I am missing Yellowknife quite a bit. I had a really busy week, with work all day at Public Health, then evening classes for pre natal at night. I actually got to teach a segment on progressive relaxation. It went okay, I don't mind speaking in front of a group, but my segment got pushed to the end of the class, so I felt rushed. And rushing relaxation doesn't really work that well. Ah, well.

This week coming up I have pre-kindergarten screening for all the 5-year olds who are starting school in September. It's held each year at Public Health, and there are 6 different stations that the children move to, with little passports. I will be doing hearing and vision screening and maybe some physical assessments. Everything is on hold for the week, while we assess over 50 future students. I am looking forward to it, but I'm also a little nervous, because if there is one thing I have noticed at PH (public health), it is that the nurses are FAST. I think the idea is that you don't let the children see the needle before they get poked, so they have to draw up the vaccine, switch the needle, swab the site and jab! really fast. I can do an accurate injection, but my speed is just not there. I have maybe done 100 deltoid intramuscular injections in my lifetime, while these nurses have done thousands. So we'll see if I can "practice" this week.

I have a few assignments due tomorrow, so I have spent most of my weekend working on those. The weather has warmed up and Karianne and I went for a long walk last night, from about 9:30pm to 11pm. The sun was still shining brightly. All the photos below are from last night so you can see how bright it is.

Me at the church again

In front of the elementary school, which will be torn down soon because a new one is being built on a different site. It kind of reminds me of a residential school

Karianne and I. We were trying to get a picture of the river behind us. Oops.

The Mackenzie river. Everyone waits for "breakup," which is when the ice breaks apart and flows down the river to the ocean. Apparently it used to be quite a spectacle, worth heading down to the river to see, but because of warmer temps, the break up is more subtle, with the ice just melting away from the side of the riverbed.

Standing on a highway. There are mountains in the distance, which makes for a nice skyline. Yellowknife is quite flat in comparison. I realize I am wearing the same outfit as last week, black coat and brown pants. Sorry for the monotony.

Rows of houses with adjoining utilidores running behind them.

It was Nurses' Week this past week, I hope you all remembered. No one else really did, although we got these nice bags. One doctor brought us some chocolate, of which I ate too much and now I have a bunch of cankers. Yeah, Happy Nurses' Week.

I am flying home to Yellowknife on May 26 for 4 days, then back up again for another 6 shifts. I told Rachel, "ten more sleeps" before I saw her, and she countered with, "how about seven?" It will be a nice chance to visit Shane and Rachel and I will be ready for it, but it does extend my stay up here once I return. I just think I couldn't do another three solid weeks. We'll see. Next week will be very busy, and then there is a long weekend, so who knows?

Inuvik - Week One

2010-05-09T16:45:00.001-07:00

Goodness, I have been having some real computer issues up here. I thought I would have no difficulty getting internet access and being able to Skype, Blog, Facebook, etc., but I should have known better. I AM living only 100km from the Beaufort Sea on the Arctic Ocean.

So here I am in Inuvik. It's quite cold up here, and snows every day (flurries), so I am glad I brought my winter coat. I had also brought along a summer skirt and sandals in case we went out. I laugh at the the thought that I would actually wear those items.

The above photo is me and Rachel at the airport, just before we boarded. I was trying to be calm, but I would burst out into tears, and I had a real feeling of just wanting to cancel the whole trip. I knew I had a flight booked home in three weeks (of the six) but even three weeks is a long time. I think going into the unknown was hard, but leaving Rachel was even harder. My friend and classmate Karianne is with me, we flew up together, and that helped a lot on the trip up there.

One of Shane's co-workers kindly picked us up at the airport with our huge bags (packing for a month is hard!) and drove us to the college residence. This is the residence from the outside, just built last year:

This is a picture of the shared kitchen. There are about 3 other women/girls who share it with us. It's quite nice.

This is a picture of me standing outside the Inuvik hospital. It has about 50 beds, a long term care facility, a boarding home for people from small communities who have to come and stay for medical reasons. The boarding home is upstairs at the hospital, and it's called "Transient". I don't really like the name. Reminds me of hobos.

Me posing in front of the college. It took a really long time to upload these, so I apologize for having two of the college. I actually like pictures of buildings. I will try to put myself in more of them, to make them interesting. I should have become an architect. Haha, too late now.

Again, some buildings, houses actually. But aren't they cute? They are called "Smartie Box" homes and I have already been inside on on a client visit. They are a landmark of Inuvik, quite famous I think.

This is the Aurora College campus. It is simply a gorgeous building, all beech wood and glass inside. I will take some photos. Yep, Architect or Interior Designer, that's what I shoulda done.

This is in the Public Health office. I will be independently running clinics by the end of this semester. The clinics includ Well Child, Well Woman, and STI clinic.

This is Karianne sitting on a Utilidore. Because Inuvik sits on permafrost, no one has basements. Nobody has underground plumbing, either. So all the heat, water and sewage flow to and from these big pipes into homes. They are everywhere! Some are high enough that you can walk under them, this was low enough to walk over. Can you imagine what happens if someone hits one with a car or one is damaged by a construction crew? Total chaos. Anyway, they are pretty darn ugly.

This is the famous "Igloo Church" that is another landmark in the town. It's quite stunning. We are going to go inside next week and go right up to the top. I will try to get a better picture of the "igloo-ness" of the building. Again with the buildings, I know.

As I have mentioned, my internet access is sporadic and I am limited to library time until I can figure out how to rent internet services for my time here. I did walk around town on Saturday to find the two data stores, but hey, surprise, they are only open M-F. I am finding small town/community a bit frustrating, as I will blog in future weeks. The pace is SO slow, and this is me talking from Yellowknife. No one is in a rush, or stressed. At 12pm sharp, zoom, everyone is out the door for lunch so fast, I am often still putting on my shoes while the next-to-last person waits impatiently for me so they can lock the door. Same thing at 5pm. In the morning, we start at 8:30am, but I am always waiting outside for someone to arrive and open up the unit. I think I really need my own key.
Anyway, it should be a great experience, but of course I am nervous and trying to apply all my skills, practice them, and cope with living away from my family. But a week has gone by already, so that is encouraging! Will write more soon,
V

Why I Love Wal-Mart

2010-04-30T08:46:00.000-07:00

Wal-Mart is my refuge from small town insanity.

I didn't always love Wal-Mart. When I lived in Toronto, I hated it. Especially the one at Keele and Lawrence. It was the former Woolco, and it is (or was, not sure if it's still there), a dingy, dark and claustrophobic place to shop. It was depressing, full of people who really, really couldn't afford to shop elsewhere. I saw blatant shoplifting while I stood in line to pay for my purchases, and no one cared.

Then Shane and I found a new Wal-Mart down by Keele and St. Clair. Big, wide aisles, and lots of merchandise. Yet it still felt kind of awful shopping there, like Wal-Mart was this giant monster, gobbling up local stores. All you had to do was watch one of those documentaries about how bad Wal-Mart was for the economy. (Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price, Capitalism: A Love Story, Wal-Mart: The Poster Child for Globalization Gone Awry)

Then we moved up here. When Rachel was a baby, I would go to Wal-Mart for an afternoon excursion. It was a place out of the sun (or snow) to roll my baby around in her stroller and look at things. When she was a toddler, I brought her there to run the aisles. As recently as Christmastime, Rachel and I would go in the evenings before bedtime to practice riding on the tricycles they had on display.

Wal-Mart suddenly became the place that had everything. Need a nightgown? Wal-Mart! Want to buy a DVD? Wal-Mart! Prescription filled? Need anything, anything at all? Yes, Wal-Mart! A few friends of mine pretended to boycott it, but I realized that labour issues in China notwithstanding, I needed Wal-Mart.

And now I talk about Wal-Mart for another reason. Having lived in a small town for four years now, I tend to run into people I know pretty much every day. Initially this was a bit of a novelty, because in Toronto, I could spend an entire day downtown or at Eaton Centre and not speak to one person for the whole trip. In fact, I would rarely even see someone I knew. Don't get me wrong, I do like meeting up with old playgroup moms, or classmates. Less so old bosses, mean nurses, ex-friends, etc. But some days I am just not having a "social" day. Some days I just want to get my errands done, get back in the car and go home. I want a bit o' privacy. And I have learned that Wal-Mart is where I get that anonymity. Sure, I might run into someone, but the store is so big, and there are always lots of people there, so socializing tends to be minimal. The best part? You can pretend to be in there rushing around on a quick errand, or you can browse through each section slowly. And no one cares! The salespeople don't care if you've been there for an hour - or two! And it's not like the grocery store where there is only food to look at. Basically, one can hide in Wal-Mart.

I love it more than the mall, which has more and more empty stores and a haircutting place that "won't cut little girl's hair," which I found out after waiting in plain view of the hairdresser for 20 minutes with my daughter. The hairdresser said, "I didn't realize she was a girl. We only cut boys' hair," as my pink-tutued, long haired daughter danced and sang around our legs.

Where else than Wal-Mart can my daughter play with toys in the toy section, bouncing balls around and trying out the electronic stuff while no one approaches us? I spent 45 minutes in the toy section once.

Sometimes I miss the anonymity of Toronto. Sometimes I am not dressed my best, or I haven't put on full makeup. I just want to be incognito.

Inuvik, Northwest Territories

2010-04-24T11:27:00.000-07:00

So, Inuvik is at the top of the green area (with a little airplane - airport, bonus), while Yellowknife is at the north side of the big lake (Great Slave).

Well, it's almost official: I am going to Inuvik for the month of May to complete my CPE III, which stands for Consolidated Practice Experience (III). It is the third term of third year, and I am required to complete 190 hours of clinical experience. As many of you know, I was trying to find a placement in Toronto. Although I had some good leads, nothing materialized in time. Then I was scheduled to stay in Yellowknife (I had requested the Surgery unit), but one day I learned about a bursary that was still available to northern students who wanted to go to rural and remote areas of Canada for practical experience. I applied, thinking I was too late, and received it! It covers the cost of the flight, my accommodation and a per diem.

I say almost because things can change on short notice, as I have discovered this year. But my instructor emailed me to tell me I have someone who is willing to let me follow them in practice, and my flight is booked, so things are looking pretty concrete.

Some big decisions had to be made, the biggest of course was leaving Shane and Rachel in Yellowknife for an extended period of time. This has not been an easy decision to think about. But Rachel and Shane are resilient and will have a chance to really spend some quality time together. I am excited for them. I am also excited for me. I think it will be a real challenge to be on my own for an extended period of time, be in a new practice environment, and see if I can manage without my family for awhile. I don't plan to stay away the entire time - it's a two-hour flight north of Yellowknife, so I plan to pop back as needed.

Details are still to come, but it looks like I will have a preceptor in Public Health. This is really the area I hope to work eventually, so it is a good stepping stone. From my instructors here in Yellowknife I have heard nothing but fabulous comments about the Beaufort Delta Health Authority. Inuvik is located south of the Beaufort Sea, very close to the border of the Northwest Territories and the Yukon. Yes, they have trees. There is also a highway that runs from Alaska, so it is actually not as isolated as Yellowknife. The residents there tend to be long-term, and less transient than Yellowknife, so it's a welcoming community. It's hard to see on the map, but there are some smaller communities nearby that I might have a chance to visit, such as Tiisigehchic (I love saying it, TS-SIG-I-CHECK).

A nice bonus is that one of my classmates and friends is also going, so I will not be alone. Our flight is booked for May 2, with orientation May 3 and start date May 4, but we are not sure of our departure dates yet from Inuvik.

We moved a new dresser into Rachel's room (yes, we know the pile of clothing on the old change table wasn't the most organized way to display her clothes). So now she has all these drawers and no way to really tell what's in them. Because she dresses herself independently, I decided to print pictures of the items in the drawer, so she knows where her underwear is, etc. Next I will print the word and stick it on, because she is really starting to pick up letters and their sounds and I bet will start to be able to read words very soon. Rachel and I coloured and cut out the images, and stuck them on the dressers.

Then Rachel decided to brand her dresser drawers with her name. She knows all the letters of her name, but not exactly the order. Yet.

I know I shouldn't encourage writing on furniture, but it's just crayon. Plus I don't want to squelch her writing aspirations. Interestingly, the letter "C" is the hardest for her to write.

Happy Birthday and What's New

2010-04-12T07:57:00.005-07:00

Big hugs and kisses to my Dad today!

Love you lots!

Whew, a little breathing space. I have been madly struggling to finish two presentations, papers, final appraisals, preparation for 3rd term clinical placement, studying for exams. It's been a very busy term compared to Fall, but it's nearly done! My 3rd term ends mid-June, then I'll have a "break" for two months. I quote "break" because I have to find a summer job. Then back to school for my final Fall term, in 4th year. Amazing how fast it has gone by. But if the textbooks and binders full of notes are any indication of the amount of material that I have had to ingest, then my brain must be overflowing now.

Here is what we've been up to, amidst the chaos:

Easter morning: presents and an egg hunt! Rachel later told us it was "her best Easter ever."

A Skype call with uncles and aunties (and grandparents and extended family) later in the day was a great way to connect with family. I find I miss everyone so much more on holidays. :-(

Rachel wore her Christmas dress from Granma to school. She has been dressing more and more fancy these days. One morning she wanted to wear a party dress (with crinoline and everything). We argued about it, then let her go. When I arrived at school, I saw that ALL the other girls were in full party regalia. It seemed as though they had planned it the day before, but of course Rachel hadn't told me any of this.

From "Chirp" magazine, we followed the instructions to build a car. She tested it out, and drives it to the "dentist" every night, parking it outside the bathroom door while the "dentist" (me) brushes her teeth. Then she drives it back to her room for stories.

Yes, she is bare-bottomed. In fact, it's hard to take photos of her around the house most days, because there is a derth of clothing on her. (there, I used the word correctly that time, Sare)

I remembered that I used to play "turtle" when I was little. I would get a pillow and my mom would tie it on my back with one of my dad's belts. So here we are, one generation later.

Almost four-year-olds

2010-04-12T06:07:00.000-07:00

I just had to add one more thing to my post today...

Rachel is at the age where she pretty much verbalizes every thought that goes through her head. It's very cute as you really get to know what she is thinking. Unfortunately, she has reached that embarrassing stage where she will tell anybody anything. You moms know what I am talking about. Your child starts to talk and inwardly you start to cringe, getting ready to redirect your child's line of thinking, or better yet, laugh off the comment in the way of "oh, she's just making it up!"

This story is not an embarrassing one, it just describes Rachel's thought process-to-conversation. Yesterday I took Rachel to the library for a couple of hours. We walked; it was a gorgeous day and I always bring the stroller in case she starts to get tired. It's a fairly long walk, about 20-25 minutes, along the Niven trail, then on the sidewalks downtown. Anyway, I digress. There ended up being a couple of young girls at the library, with their fathers. Rachel was playing on some beanbags around a corner of bookcases, so I could hear her but not see her. I wandered away a few rows to look at books for me and I heard the following running commentary, uninterrupted, by my daughter to one of the fathers:

"My mom wants to have another baby, you know. It will take a long time, but she wants another baby."
Then:
"My mom's name is Vanessa Vandewater" (although the way Rachel pronounces it sounds more like, "Binessa Binderwater"). "Her middle name is Lee. Her whole name is Binessa Lee Binderwater. My middle name is Gwen. My name is Rachel Gwen Riley, but people call me Rachel." The dad didn't comment, and I was glad I didn't have to say or do anything.

Part of me has relaxed a little bit. So what if Rachel tells people I want another baby? (Although the reality is that Rachel is the one who wants another baby).

The other thing I am noticing is the grown-up-ness that is occurring in my not-even-four-year-old. When she greeted one of her friends yesterday, she said, "Like what I'm wearing, Anna?" And put her hand on her waist, no joke, and stuck her hip out with one hand on her hair, twirling around.

And one day she came home from school, saying, "Sage said I'm not her best friend." She was quite upset. And so was I! Can it be starting already? Before I thought about it, I said, "Well, you just tell her you don't need her to be your best friend anyway," which Shane admonished me for saying. But you know? That is something I wish I had had the nerve to say when I was faced with these issues at school. Girls can be so mean. Anyway, the best I can do is instill a sense of strong self-worth in my child, so that silly comments like that aren't taken seriously.

Birthdays and Dogsleds and Teddy Bears

2010-03-20T16:36:00.001-07:00

First of all, a big Happy Birthday to Carla and Linda, Rachel's Nonna and Granma, who both turned 61 today! I can never get over the coincidence that both Shane's mom and mine have the same birthday.

Love you both and big hugs and kisses!

Today was the Caribou Carnival. Yes, these photos probably look familiar to you, as you would have seen them last year, and the year before...and the year before. But, hey, there's not a lot to do up here and the scenery doesn't change much from October to April. So, yes, we popped by to watch the start of the dog races. The noise level leading up the start of the race is really high, filled with barking dogs and nosy observers like us, with cameras. Rachel refused to wear snowpants and of course was chilled as soon as we got onto the ice, so I brought along a blanket, which she wrapped herself in immediately. I felt like saying, I Told You So, but then I realized...she's three. It's my job as mom to insist on certain things, such as snowpants in minus 16 weather. Lesson learned.

Behind the dog trucks, looking at the dogs before the race

Frantic dogs sitting by their truck

Sled ready to go, dogs need to be held by several group members. They are so eager to start pulling and very strong. (the dogs, I mean)

Finding a good spot to watch the race

Later, we popped in at the Teddy Bear Hospital, run every year by Aurora College student nurses and other healthcare volunteers. Rachel was right into it this year. We brought along "Big Ted" who was renamed "Frog" for this event. I don't know, either.

We got free toothbrushes, a free digital thermometer, stickers galore, crayons and lots of colouring books. It was well-run (I volunteered last year, but due to my "Don't Join Anything" motto, I declined this year), and lots of fun for us.

SnowKing Castle IV

2010-03-14T08:53:00.000-07:00

This was our fourth year visiting the castle. As I mentioned, the weather has been very warm, about 0 or +1, so we noticed that the castle had big cracks in it, and was a bit saggy in places, something we had never seen before. I was reading an article in the paper in which the SnowKing was commenting on this. He was saying that like ice, snow is always moving. It makes sense when you think that snow and ice are just a different form of water, a fluid. So the shifting, while not dangerous, was a bit disconcerting. The entranceway you see below, was dark and small, and with a lineup of people, I actually felt a bit claustrophobic until you entered the castle in the open-air courtyard inside. There was a slide that Rachel loved last year, but it was still under construction, and probably wouldn't have worked too well anyway, given the warmer temperature. I guess I was a little disappointed this year. However, in the front area, some kids were building a snow-fort with chunks of snow, so when we left the castle, Rachel helped carry blocks of snow for nearly an hour. A good way to tire her out.

Entranceway to castle

NWT flag

Sliding in front of the castle

The outdoor sugar shack

Yesterday was a beautfiful day, some of my favourite winter weather up here. We packed a lunch, bought some firewood and headed to Yellowknife River for a camp out. We were there for over 3 hours, and we only left because I didn't wear the right boots and my toes started to get cold. It was nice to be outside, and we all got a bit of sun on our faces.

Our campsite

There is a new playground at the site, which will be a LOT more fun when there isn't two feet of snow covering it up.

This is a photo for Wumpa. He bought us a flower bulb kit, and as soon as we had some sunlight in the kitchen, we planted the bulbs. Total success! These flowers have been growing crazily, you can almost watch them grow. Thanks, Wumpa, it's been so fun!

Iqaluit (i-KAL-oo-it)

2010-03-06T13:18:00.000-07:00

Shane just arrived home from Iqaluit, Nunavut, where he spent all of last week. It's located north and east of here, right on the ocean. It has a population of about 9000 and is the capital of Nunavut. He was really lucky to get an opportunity to go to another northern community. It's very expensive to travel by air (well, air is the only option), about $1800 return from Yellowknife. These are places that we would not travel to on our own budget, but it is an experience to visit them. Food security is a major issue for communities in the North (if I may add a bit of community health nursing into this blog), and Shane was reading out some of the prices in the grocery store. 4L of milk = $12.09, dozen eggs = $8.39, 2L Pepsi = $6.57, Breyer's ice cream = $14.39. Cigarettes, interestingly, cost the same as in Yellowknife. Since many traditions have been lost over the last 50 or so years, such as hunting and trapping, people are left to buy the food available at the store. And of course, the most inexpensive food is stuff that is long lasting on the shelf...often junk food. No wonder the health outcomes of many people in the north is considered the lowest in Canada.

Rachel and I are on March break. For the next two weeks, Rachel will be going back to the dayhome, and she is uber-excited to see her old friends. So it will be a nice break for her. I'm glad, because as much as I'd like to keep her home with me during MY March break (which is one week long), I have three papers to finish and I was worried that I would run out of time. Besides, I find she gets a bit bored at home. She needs her quiet time here, which she gets, but after a couple of days it's great if she has some kids to play with. It's just not much of a break for me. Last year we went to Toronto for the break, and it was a nice opportunity to get out of Yellowknife in the middle of winter. Maybe we'll watch out for some seat sales and fly to Edmonton for the weekend...

I was a parent volunteer yesterday when the school took Rachel and her class to the toboggan hills for some sledding. It reminded me of when my mom used to come along on trips. Rachel thought it was just the greatest, to be at school AND have her mom to run over to whenever she wanted. She kept telling the kids, "This is MY mom, not yours!" There were actually a bunch of dads there too, and thank goodness, because with two classes of 15 kids, each with a sled, and little legs walking for 10 minutes each way, we needed lots of grown-ups to help. Then we all came back to the school and the tired kids (and teachers and parents) had hot chocolate with a scoop of vanilla ice cream dropped in. The look of delight on the kids' faces was hilarious. Hot chocolate AND ice cream?

Rachel and I picked up Shane at the airport and we've all been enjoying the warmer weather here this weekend. It's been about zero or just above all week and the snow is starting to melt. It's about a month early...these temps don't usually occur until the end of March. But, hey, I'm not complaining. We are heading out this afternoon to our annual visit to the Snowking Castle. Yep, photos to come...pretty much same as last year...and the year before. We're coming up to the end of our 4th year up here.

VandeRiley update:

2010-02-14T20:51:00.000-07:00

The weeks just seem to fly by.

Let's see, what's a-happenin' up here:

I know I keep mentioning how busy I am, but I really do have about two assignments due every week, with little 'informal' ones thrown in for, I don't know, fun, I guess. Some are interesting: I just handed in a "quilt" assignment. I had to write a paper about a community strength (I wrote about Health Literacy), and then create a quilt square to represent my topic. I LURVE this kind of stuff usually, because I am so crafty, but I had so little time to work on it, so it took the fun out of it. Nonetheless, I bought a bunch of fabric paint, stripped down Rachel and newspapered the table, chair and floor, and let her go nuts on my quilt square. Then I stenciled the alphabet over top to represent 'literacy'.
Here it is:

I really struggled with the paper, though, despite the simple topic. So that just got handed in, we'll see how it does.

I am also completing a community assignment for school. My partner and I had to find a population in town (we chose foster families), and learn how to "assess" this population by working with a local agency. Hmmm, not sure if I'm allowed to even talk about this here, as there are a lot of confidentiality issues. Well, anyway, it's been hours and hours of work, both research and preparing a proposal to submit to the foster family agency. Very good experience, I could actually see myself doing community assessments in the future, but pretty mentally exhausting. Add to it someone as introverted as myself and you can see why it's so hard to go out and meet the key people I need to include in this project.

What's new with Rachel:
Well, some of you may have heard that we made the heart-wrenching decision to take her out of the dayhome she has been at for 2.5 years, and put her into the Montessori program here in town. It was a very emotional couple of weeks for me...I couldn't even write about it. She was very happy at her dayhome and we hadn't made any big changes in our routine since I started school. This has been a big adjustment, partly because I was sad to leave a good situation, where Rachel was comfotable, and put her into the unknown. A few girls in my class had also made remarks about Montessori, like, "They don't PLAY, you know, they WORK." and that it was really strict. The bottom line I felt was that Rachel should be happy. If I could see that she was not enjoying the experience, I planned to pull her out pronto.

For those of you new to the philosophy of Montessori, here it is:

In 1907, Dr. Maria Montessori developed an educational model based on her observations of how children learn. She observed that children have “natural learning tendencies” and when placed in an environment with developmental materials, they engage in learning activities of their own choice. Under the guidance of a formally trained Montessori teacher, children in a Montessori classroom learn by making discoveries with the materials. They cultivate concentration, motivation, self-discipline and a love of learning.
The Montessori classroom is a “prepared environment” where the child is free to discover, learn and understand concepts that
develop the lifelong learner.
The materials,scientifically developed by Montessori, are arranged by subject on child-size shelves and invite the child to interact with them. Through this interaction with the materials, classmates and adults children are able to reach their intellectual, emotional, spiritual and physical potential.

Happily, she IS happy! The first few days were hard, with big tears in the morning. But at the end of the day she would come bounding over to me or Shane when we went to pick her up, with a big smile on her face. On the car ride home she would be bubbly and chatty, and that would last until bedtime, where she would go to sleep quite quickly. It's been two weeks, and so far so good. She still asks about her dayhome, and we are hoping to send her there for March Break and perhaps the summer, but otherwise, I think it has been a good decision. It's definitely more work on my part, as now I need to make lunch every morning, and I will be expected to contribute volunteer hours (25 a year) plus a TON of fundraising for the non-profit school. Anyone interested in: Purdy's Chocolate, Scholastic books, tubs of cookie dough and bread mixes? Before you shop for these items (and many, many others that we have to fundraise for), check with me first!

What's new with Shane:

Shane has been busy doing several jobs over the past few weeks, most recently managing the renovation and office move of many Northwestel employees. He wears a hardhat, safety vest and goggles. Here he is, mugging for Rachel as she took the pictures:

Uh oh! Man down.

Watching The Tale of Despereaux. She was a baby in her 'crib' in case you were wondering.

Rachel in her new swimsuit. She is a "Sea Turtle", soon to graduate to "Salamander"

This is an outfit that was made for her by my grandmother's friend before she was born. (Rachel, not my grandmother). It finally fits! I took a picture so Great-Grandma can show her friend Antoinette. I think Thea has the same one?

Bangs finally growing out.

One final note: I have been experimenting with pizza dough recipes and believe I can now say EUREKA!

Basic Pizza Dough

1 pkg (2.5 tsp) active dry yeast
About 1 3/4 cups unbleached all-purpose flour, plus additional for kneading and dredging
3/4 cup warm water
1 1/2 tsps salt
1 1/2 tsps olive oil

Make the dough and let it rise:
Stir together yeast, 1 tbsp flour, 1/4 cup warm water in a measuring cup and let stand until surface appears creamy, about 5 mins. (If mixture doesn't appear creamy, discard and start over)

Stir together 1 1/4 cups flour and salt in a large bowl. Add yeast mixture, oil, and remaining 1/2 cup of warm water and stir until smooth. Stir in enough of remaining flour (about 1/ cup) so dough comes away from sides of bowl.(the dough will be wetter than other pizza doughs you will have made).

Knead dough on a dry surface with lightly floured hands (reflour hands when dough becomes too sticky) until smooth, soft, and elastic, about 8 minutes. Form into 1 ball if baking pizza. Put on a lightly floured surface and generously dust with flour. Loosely cover with plastic wrap and let rise in a warm draft-free place until doubled in size, about 1 1/4 hours.

Do not punch down dough. Carefully dredge dough in a bowl of flour to coat and transfer to dry work surface. Holding one edge of dough in the air with both hands and letting bottom touch work surface, carefully move hands around edge of dough (like turning a steering wheel), allowing weight of dough to stretch round to roughly ten inches.

I baked the pizza on the lowest rack at 450 F and it was super. I also liberally drizzled olive oil over the pizza, adding to its amazing-ness.

Enjoy!

Bread Cookies and Magic Apples

2010-01-26T21:01:00.001-07:00

This is a grumpy time of year. January is no fun, and February hasn't even arrived yet (sorry, Jennifer). Luckily the weather hasn't been too bad over the last few weeks, although it must have been about -22 today. I walk to school and back each day, which is good exercise but because Shane works across town now, it's my only option. In the past I used to have the option to take the car from downtown, but no more. So I arrive at school icy and kinda sweaty (a bad combination). Then, as I warm up, I actually start to get chilled. Once I start walking back home I am already cold, and I can't seem to warm up for the rest of the day.

School is very, very busy. I have a grand community assignment that will take until April and stresses me out to no end. Then many smaller, almost daily assignments, from presenting journal articles to facilitating classes, to papers and exams. It won't really end until mid-April. March break isn't so much a break as a few hours without class. I guess that's third year! It's hard to imagine I have only these next few months, then a clinical practice, then class in Sept-Dec and then in Jan I start my long-haul 4 month placement in the areas of my choice. Then the Canadian Registered Nurses Exam! Nearly there.

What else is new:
We are really struggling with Rachel's eating habits. She seems to get very upset around dinnertime (probably from hunger) and will often throw a tantrum and refuse to come to the table. "I don't like dinner!" she yells. Because we have a rule that we all sit down together at dinner, even if someone is not eating, this can cause even more trauma. Strangely though, I heard her say one day, "I don't want dinner, I just want snacks!" So the next day when dinner was ready, I said nonchalantly, "Rachel, there are some snacks at the table for you." She came happily to the table, sat down with us, and ate her "snacks." Yes, it was just dinner to you or me. Semantics!

This is how I get her to eat other things:

One day she was fussing over chicken. "Fine!" I said, "Let's eat dinner with toothpicks tonight!" So we did. We stabbed each stir-fried vegetable and tiny piece of chicken with a toothpick. It took awhile, but hey, it's what goes in that counts, not how!

The apples in our house are "magic". I slice them up with my handy Pampered Chef apple-slicer and each one turns her into a different animal. Who knew?

Rachel often is a "bunny." This is great when you are trying to get your child to eat carrots, because that's what bunnies eat, but did you know that bunnies also eat apples, and pork? Little Bunny kept coming back for pork roast bits before hopping away. Caution: it's hard to play bunny and NOT hop. We had to practice hopping AFTER the food was swallowed.

I found an excellent book called "Feeding Your Child for Lifelong Health" There are lots of tips about feeding the age range of 3-6 years. The best advice is to "be creative". In this book is a recipe for Oatmeal Bread (or Oatmeal Pizza Dough, even better!) I will post the recipe, it's awesomely awesome.
So I roll out a portion of the dough and Rachel makes cookie cutter shapes. Then we bake them on a sheet for about 15 minutes and voila! Bread Cookies. They are healthy, they look like cookies, and they taste like warm pita bread. How smart am I?
Oooo! And tonight we made the dough into shapes, then made them into pizzas. It was way more fun for her to say, "Look! I just bit off the teddy bear's leg!"

Another trick is to let Rachel choose her own noodles. This gives her the impression that she is choosing her own dinner - I mean "snack." Lately she loves the cylinder noodles. They take a long time to cook, but they are great with a simple tomato sauce.

Choice is really important. I let her choose: apples or applesauce? Again, she is happy because SHE made the choice. Sheesh.

Sandwiches are fairly new for us. Rachel will ask for a "meat sandwich, pickles, no lettuce and NO crusts!" I oblige. I also make egg sandwiches, either a fried egg or egg salad. She seems to like both.

There are always "French pancakes" which can be French Toast or Pancakes. I soak the bread good and long in the eggs, so she consumes as much of the egg as possible.

The other thing I have to do is make everything a game. During dinner, the forkful of food might be a hot air balloon that is about to crash! but wait, it will land safely in, you guessed it, Rachel's mouth. I don't mind doing this, but my own dinner gets cold. I find she wants me to feed her more often and I wonder if this is because she is still having difficulty with forks.

I also think that a plateful of food is overwhelming, and often it is better to put only one type of food in front of her at a time. The healthiest, blandest food first, I have learned. If you put bread in front of her, forget it, that is all she will eat.

Other new stuff:

Rachel is just coming out with the funniest phrases these days. Here are a few (you may have seen them on Facebook):

"Wow, that party was complicated. Complicated means 'really fun'!"

"Daddy, my fingers are falling into my glass of waterrrrr!" To which Shane replied, "Rachel, don't stick your fingers in your water glass."

"When I toot, that means I FARTED!" (I was like, Ah! Where did she learn that?")

She is also very into our fish these days, but not in the way you think. Because the tank is against the wall that divides the living room from her bedroom, I cautioned her about banging on the wall because it was scaring the fish. She was fascinated that the fish could hear her, and so now every night I have to "be" the fish's voices, while Rachel knocks on the bedroom wall and carries on a conversation with them. The conversations are pretty involved, and she and the fish are now fast friends. There is "Pleco" the Plecostomus, Mr. and Mrs. Catfish (pretty self-explanatory), and the three "Tetras."

We had some warmer weather to spend outside one Saturday morning. Digging a cave.

The bears rest in their new home.

My walk to school. Oooh, I feel chilled already. Ah, I shouldn't complain. What a gorgeous way to start and end the day.

HNY!

2010-01-03T17:01:00.000-07:00

Happy 2010!

Is it "Twenty-Ten" or "Two Thousand Ten"?

We had a wonderful Christmas back home in Toronto. Rachel was super on the plane, our best trip with her yet. She was fascinated by the plane ride and was easily distractable with her many packed activities. However, we did use every single activity I had available to her, so the plane ride ended none too soon. She coloured, played with stickers, watched a show on the in-seat video, watched Dora videos on the iPod touch, played games on the iPod Touch, went to the bathroom (twice), ate all her snacks, read stories with me, sat on my lap, looked out the window. She also lowered her tray, then raised her tray, then lowered her tray, then raised her tray. I don't think the person in front of us was too pleased. She did some cute things too:

As the plane was taking off from Yellowknife Airport, she yelled out, "One, Two, Three, Four, Five, Six, Seven, Eight, Nine, Ten...Blast off!"

We brought the umbrella stroller with us, which saved us. Not only could she sit in it when she was tired during our layover, but we could pile our coats and bags on it, too. We arrived very late in Toronto (12:30am) because our original flight had been completely rescheduled. My parents thankfully came to get us, and we all tried to get in a decent night's sleep.

We visited aunts, uncles, cousins, great-grandmothers, and all the grandparents. We didn't get a chance to see friends (again) but Shane and I went out for my birthday (35th, yikes) and it was nice not to have to worry about a babysitter (because of all the family available, I mean).

Christmas morning with a roaring fire. Very cosy.

Showing off her new tiara and bracelet from Auntie Erin and Auntie Ashley.

Rachel had lots of time to play with Thea, who is just five months older. For the first time, they really PLAYED together. I could just sit in the living room while they made up game after game. I miss that already! It was so nice to have a playmate for Rachel.

Thea and Rachel. Rachel is wearing her new red dress, also from Erin and Ashley. Thea is in full Princess regalia.

Notice the high heels. Thank goodness for Auntie Sarah's foresight. She bought two pairs.

Singing "Jingle Bells" with Nonna.

We came home at a good time, having spent 11 days away. We went to see the fireworks here in Yellowknife at 9:30pm and they were spectacular. The last few days we have been mostly house-bound, with the odd trip to the pool or the museum. The weather is freezing, and I haven't been able to stay warm. We are putting up some plastic sheeting in some of the colder rooms to help retain the heat. I found my sheepskin slippers so that's been helping. I forgot that when your feet are cold, the rest of you feels cold too. Going out is miserable, having to warm up the car, and dress fully head to toe just to get some groceries. I think we were all a little beat when we got back, and it's hard to find the energy to get up and out.

We've watched a few movies, including Julie and Julia (loved it), Bruno (hated it), Angels and Demons (fell asleep, but I saw the potential), and Lord of the Rings (again). I am coming down with a cold (again) and will try to take it easy for a few days before class starts. Rachel is off to daycare tomorrow after a two-week hiatus. I think she is climbing the walls here, so it will be a nice change.

We had plans to have coffee at one of my nurse-friend's home today and I was planning to bring Rachel, but just before we left the house, she called to cancel. I was SO disappointed, one because I just wanted to hang out somewhere else for awhile, and two because now what was I going to do with Rachel all afternoon? I decided on the Museum, and thank God, there were two moms already there with their daughters, all of whom I knew somewhat. Rachel had a blast with the other three-year-old, a five and six-year old. The five-year-old even took Rachel to the bathroom for me! I will have to exercise my social skills and contact a few more moms I've lost touch with, or it's going to be a very long winter. We are considering swimming lessons on Saturday mornings, or a family swim pass (or both), and the dance lessons are still an option. I am more concerned about finding activities for the weekend (dance is scheduled for Friday nights, yuk).

cough

2009-12-11T09:02:00.000-07:00

I am ill. Malaise, sick, feeling bleh. I seem to have picked up Rachel's cough that she has had for several weeks, and my body has turned it into something not too pretty. I have a productive cough that hurts my chest and head, and as of yesterday my throat started to feel irritated. Yes, I'm asking for sympathy. But I am not surprised, as it's been a hectic last few weeks, getting in major papers, a video skills assignment, and an upcoming exam week. Oh, and performance appraisals.

So I have called in sick to my last day on Obstetrics, thus missing out on being in labour and delivery, and a group lunch afterwards. But I need the day to rest, and, if truth be told, to study for Monday's exam. I find I can't get much done on the weekend, and this weekend in particular we are attending TWO Christmas parties, for one of which we've secured a babysitter...whoo! First sitter in about 6 months.

Otherwise I can't believe the term is wrapping up so quickly. It has gone by in a flash, and I am looking forward to next term, which focuses on community work (rather than hospital) so it will be a nice change not to have to be in clinical at 7am two days a week.

We put up our tree. We weren't going to get one, since we will be in Toronto for the holidays (plus we paid upwards of $80 for a real tree last year) but we found a deal on a little artificial and it has been so much fun to have Rachel involved in decorating it. She used all ALL our decorations on the tree, and is still looking for more. She studies it every day, moves some decorations around, and talks about Christmas Eve. I don't think she remembers very much from last year so it will be interesting to see what happens. She definitely remembers her stocking though. I think I will have to bring it from our place. It was handmade by our neighbour Jen and it's huge...Rachel could fit inside it. All the more presents to stuff it with I guess.

Otherwise we are struggling with -40 c temps these days. I had to walk home from the hospital yesterday (Shane said, "I can't believe you walked home!" although I don't know why he questioned it, since he had the car all day). I was actually fine, despite my *cough* being sick. I just wish I had put another layer on my legs. I had longjohns but I needed snowpants. Strangely, I think they are in Toronto...Ah, well, it's time for a new pair anyway. The parka is still great, I just put up the fur hood and it protects my face. There were people JOGGING on the trail yesterday. With a -58C windchill! Crazy. Oh, and the shortest day of the year is approaching. It's disconcerting to be in total darkness until about 9:30am (or later), see the blessed sun for a couple of hours, then have to turn on the lights in the house by about 3pm. It's cosy, but if you want to get out for a bit of a walk, you want to do it before the streetlights come on. Especially with my black jogging pants and black parka. Shane has actually given me one of those flourescent vests just in case I am caught walking along the highway in the pitch blackness.

*******

This is an older post from several weeks ago...
I had Rachel for the day on Sunday, so after Wal-Mart and McDonalds, we ended up at the Museum for a presentation for kids called, "Through the Eyes of a Doll". Each child was to bring their favourite doll to show and there would be crafts, etc.

Knowing about this show in advance, I had asked Rachel to choose a doll. She chose, instead, "Puppy" a small stuffed animal stolen (I mean borrowed) from her daycare. Since she "borrowed" it, it has been a constant item in Rachel's arms. Woe to us if "Puppy" is not to be found at bedtime. This little critter also goes by the name of "Woofie" or "Roofie" (I can't tell which name is correct because Wachel can't sound out her R's yet.

So, Puppy came into the Museum with us. There were, true to Yellowknife attendance, not many kids with dolls. One group of girls, aged 8ish, were sitting around with their Maplelea dolls (http://www.maplelea.com/). We had been looking at getting one for Rachel for Christmas, so I got to see them up close. "But they're REALLLLY expensive!" said one little girl to me. "About one hundred dollars!" Good to know. Rachel sat down with the older girls, fascinated by them moreso than the dolls.

Moments later, an elderly lady pulled up a chair to the girls and the presentation started. Unfortunately, Rachel was situated right at the lady's knees, and I knew that she would not be able to stay in one place for very long. The lady, an Elder, (a term of respect for older Aboriginal people in the North), had a handmade doll in her hands, sewn from caribou hide and rabbit fur. She began to talk of being a child and learning to sew from her mother. She said to the girls, "So I see that everyone has brought a doll today!" and Rachel yells out, "Yeah! And I brought Puppy! This is Puppy! He's from Tasha's house but I brought him home!" She waves Puppy up at the woman.

I was sitting behind the group of girls and pondering what to do next. I didn't want to squelch my daughter's exuberance, and this WAS a children's event. Eh, I figured, she is her own person and good for her for being confident enough to share. Being such a shy child myself, I was happy to see her interacting with the older girls and the mothers at the event. Later I was talking to a mother of a two-year-old, whose daughter had spent the morning at church leap-frogging up and down the aisle during the sermon. What to do?

Sure enough, Rachel got tired of the Elder's story, and stood up. Right in front. Then she slowly turned around in a circle, looking for me. Once she found me at the back of the group, she made her way through the girls sitting on the carpet. She sat on my lap, started rummaging around in my purse and found her Happy Meal toy, a My Little Pony in a plastic package. She started waving it around, asking me to open it for her. Then she turned to a mom next to me, and said, "I got this from Old MacDonalds!" The mom smiled at the way Rachel said McDonald's. Then Rachel started singing, "E-I-E-I-O!" very loudly.

By this point (thank goodness) the Elder was wrapping up her story. She asked, "Does anyone have any questions?" and immediately Rachel's hand shot straight into the air, "OOOH! I do!" I had no idea what to expect. I didn't even know she knew how to raise her hand for questions. "Ummmm, this is my Puppy, and he is from Tasha's and he is Dacota's but I didn't give him back to Dacota...." Everyone is smiling and the elder is saying, "Tasha....hmmm," like she is trying to understand.

I think I realized today that kids will be kids, and you can't force them not to be, well, kids! Why has it taken me so long to figure this out? I was surprised to receive an invitation back the next weekend, when it will be another family event. This invite was offered as Rachel was using a very old (read: expensive), handmade birch bark basket as a bed for Puppy. She wedged poor Puppy so deep inside, I hadn't realized he was there. When I went to give the basket back to its owner, Rachel said, "Mommm! Puppy is sleeping!" and I looked to find him jammed down into the basket.

Wash Your Hands!

2009-12-04T09:08:00.001-07:00

I'm going back for my last day at the school, so I should have a few more of these by the end of the day.

When I discuss hand sanitizer, I start talking about an ingredient in it that can dry out your hands if you use it all the time. "Ooooh, I know!" says a grade 2 student. "Is it wine?"

"So what supplies do we need to wash our hands?"
One boy puts up his hand. "Hands?"

Then there is a little girl in grade one who is sitting near my feet. As I am presenting, she shifts closer and closer to me until I notice she is playing with my shoes. By the end of the presentation, she is lifting my feet off the floor, one by one. In another class, kids are sitting in front of us in desks. As we talk, the desks mysteriously move closer and closer to the front of the class, until one little boy's desk is practically on my lap. We had to ask them to shift backwards several times during the 25 minute presentation.

But, Mom!

2009-11-22T09:12:00.002-07:00

I think I might already have a teenager in the house. She uses the phrase, "But, MOMMMMM!" all the time.

Here are some leftover Halloween photos, taken by Rachel's daycare. These are the children at the dayhome. They are all little boys, which I think makes for an interesting day for Rachel. That being said, I am always happy to have little girls over for her to play with, because the quality of the play changes. Unfortunately, we don't know very many little girls, and several have moved away over the last few months. Two of the kids in this photo aren't there anymore, so it's quite a small group of the same kids that have been there for a long time. This is great for us, because we have gotten to know the parents well, and the kids are very comfortable with each other. Rachel has been at this dayhome for over two years already, I can't believe how the time flies.

And like Jennifer's blog (www.hussicots.blogspot.com) we also had a small-town Santa Claus Parade. We realized it's the fourth one we've been in Yellowknife for, which really makes us think that time goes by really quickly! The parade was the usual, but this year we stood on the main street, so we saw lots of families we knew and could hang out and talk. Last year we had stayed towards the end of the parade, just before it ended in a parking lot, and found that it was a bit lonely. Also the paraders were a little tired of waving, and usually there were no more free candy canes. Anyway, hanging out by the post office is the place to be!

Snow Angels in the snow bank in the street.

Here comes the Parade!

True Yellowknife-style parade...on truck bed flats

A better view on Dad's shoulders. Whenever a police siren came on, she imitated the sound. "Woooo-oooo, Woooo-ooo" much to the delight of the other parade-watchers.

And the big man himself.

Instead of going to the hospital this week, I have been teaching handwashing to elementary school children. It is about a 20 minute presentation, and my partner and I use fun activities like a spray bottle with water to imitate how far droplets shoot out of your nose if you sneeze without covering up with your arm. We teach about the "T-zone" which means do not touch your eyes, nose and mouth with your hands, which helps to prevent the spread of "germs". We even have fake germs, visible only under a black light, which kids think is the coolest. So far we have taught kindergarten and grade 1, 2, and 3. Next week it is 3 and 4. It's quite an art to teach a room full of rowdy kids, and the best part is what they talk about. In one class I mentioned hand sanitizer and discussed how the alcohol in it can dry out your hands, so be careful of using it all the time. One of the kids put up her hand and started talking about her parents going camping with a lot of beer. We realized afterward that using the word "alcohol" had triggered that comment. One group of grade 2's asked what was the difference between bacteria and viruses, and I fumbled through an answer that probably made no sense to them at all. I knew once I said "microorganisms" that I had lost them. So you have to tailor your words to the ages you are speaking to.

With the younger kids, any comment we made could suddenly send them off on a tangent. For example, my partner mentioned the importance of washing your hands after playing with pets. Then EVERY hand went up to tell us about their pet, or their grandmother's pet, or how many dogs they had at home. For another group, in order to get volunteers, we asked who had just had a birthday. All the hands shot up again, this time to tell us when their birthday was, or their grandmother's birthday, or how old they were. It was actually quite funny. The best was when we would ask a question, choose a raised hand to answer, and the answer would be a completely different topic. Like they had raised their hand only because they felt like being chosen. "So, WHY do we wash our hands?" "Um, this one time, I was on my bike, and I FELL."

We asked, "What do we need to wash our hands?" thinking of soap, water etc. One boy put up his hand and said, "Dirt."

Anyway, truly an enjoyable experience.

Today we have a birthday party that Rachel has been talking about ALL week. Even last night, at 2:30am, when she woke up with a cough, she was telling me about the party today. It is 9am (the party is at 2pm) and she is already dressed for it, with a packed knapsack, and is impatiently waiting to go.

Oh, and as one of our afternoon activities (now that she is not napping any more) Rachel and I are going to make a bird feeder. Any ideas of a cheap, effective feeder to have on our deck so we can watch the birds this winter?

Group as a Metafor

2009-11-12T17:26:00.000-07:00

More about the title later. I just decided I have to get a new post up quick, because we have so moved beyond Halloween by this point. It was, as Janis points out, only a mere 12 days ago, but once it's gone we're way onto other things such as Remembrance Day and then Christmas!

First some photos! The Olympic torch came through Yellowknife last week and look who got to hold it! Shane was a big part of the events that occurred the night of the torch ceremony and the company had a tent up. There were lots of giveaways, a maple sugar shack and lots of snow. I insisted on dragging Rachel to it after daycare but she was too tired and refused to wear her snowpants so she got cold. Then I couldn't find parking ( I know! In Yellowknife!) and I had to walk a fair distance from the car to the celebration. Rachel of course refused to walk, so I ended up carrying her the last 100 meters or so. 35-40lbs of three-year-old does my back no favours. Anyway, we said hi to Shane and then headed back to the car (she walked with no problems BACK to the car of course, even picking dried flowers along the way. Sheesh).

And here comes the snow. It snowed (as it usually does in November) for a night, a day and another night before tapering off for a day or two. It's quite beautiful and cosy, but I forgot about the shoveling, the melted snow I step in on the kitchen floor, the hats and mitts that are always going missing.

The snow wasn't quite the right consistency for a snowman, so we made a Mr. Snow Lump. We even put a carrot as his nose, but the next morning, a black and grey fox came by and dug it up!

Now that it's snowed again, you can't even tell where Mr. Snow Lump was. I took the opportunity to shovel snow against the house, as I have heard that it keeps the warmth in better, making it better insulated. Also, our house is on flats, above the ground, so I figure we just won't have the cold wind whistling under us. I will monitor the house temp and give updates as events warrant.

So, Group as a Metaphor. Yes, another school presentation. I should have consulted my blog followers because my group-for-the-term had to come up with a metaphor that described us and then present it to the class. Oh, yes, and include the class in a group activity. I was the only one who came up with a couple of ideas, one of them being, "Our group is a puzzle becoming a picture" we had the class split into groups and finish puzzles (mostly Dora and Toy Story, courtesy of Rachel's toy box). Then we described how we are like pieces of a puzzle, coming together to a common goal, a picture. It was a great presentation except for two disastrous issues. One was that another group had come up with the identical theme, right down to pasting up a group picture that was made into a puzzle. Gah! What are the chances? Theirs was different enough but it took away from the uniqueness of ours. The other goof was that the group member who offered to make our metaphor banner misspelled "puzzle"! So as I am putting up our banner, about to start our presentation, I see, "Our group is a puzzel, becoming a picture" Come ON! I think we lost marks for that one. How embarrassing is that?

Anyway, that was the only presentation, and now i just have to work on a paper that is due next week. And I will be teaching handwashing to kindergarten to Grade 5 for the next few weeks. Won't that be fun? I have to find some good resources. I figure the young kids would like a story or something, like about a princess who doesn't wash her hands.

Rachel is doing well, although I think her afternoon naps are at an end. We have not been able to get her to sleep until past 10pm some nights. She says, "I just can't sleep!" and if I let her leave a light on, she plays in her room for hours after I have said goodnight. So we don't nap her on weekends, and then I can usually have her fast asleep before 8pm. I will miss the quiet time of the afternoon, but it is worth it to have a bit of an evening. I still need to fit homework in there somewhere!

Happy Halloween!

2009-11-01T08:21:00.001-07:00

Our pumpkin. Rachel drew the mouth on and I carved it.

I can't believe this was our fourth Halloween in Yellowknife! Because we have had such a busy week with the H1N1 mass immunization clinic (the biggest ever in the NWT), we hadn't had much time to think about preparing for Halloween.

As third-year students we were asked to assist with the clinic, and it was so fun! People were saying it was really organized. The NWT had enough vaccines for every person in the North, approximately 40,000 doses. This is likely because of our large Aboriginal population, who are more at risk of catching H1N1 and being more sick with it. Teams of nurses are flying to every community (some of which only have about 350 people). In Yellowknife, we took over a gym at our Multiplex arena and had stations set up to register people, tables to give the shot and a waiting area afterwards. People were funneled through with great efficiency. We were about 16 students helping out. We greeted people, answered questions, observed for adverse effects, drew up the vaccine into syringes and best of all, admiistered the vaccine! It was great to put our skills to use. Even though we don't have the experience of the public health nurses, we have given IM (intramuscular) injections at the hospital, just not at the level that the clinic demanded. I myself probably gave over 40 shots, and you can imagine what a PH nurse was giving over the course of the week.

Best of all, I gave Shane his vaccine! It was fun for me to have him see what I've been up to all these years in Nursing School. I think I impressed him and he said it didn't even hurt. :-) I wish someone had taken a picture. I may never have an opportunity to poke him with a needle again.

The clinic was open from Mon-Sat. On the first day over 1,600 vaccines were administered. It was about the same each day, and as students we were there for two days, Thurs and Fri. On Friday we brought Rachel after her daycare Halloween party, and she was so good. We didn't make a big deal of it and didn't tell her why she had to sit on Daddy's lap. The nurse was also pretty nonchalant about it, and boom! Needle in and Rachel didn't even flinch. She didn't cry either. Good girl. The dose for kids under 9 is only a one-time half dose, so it takes no time to inject it. And the needle gauge (the width of the needle) is so high (or narrow), that many people hardly felt the poke.

Rachel was undecided about what to be for Halloween, but ended up being a ballerina. Her babysitter gave us a hand-me-down tutu that Rachel wears most of the time, so it was natural that she just stick with that. The only problem is that ballerinas and -10 C temps don't go very well together. So once we put on a sweater, extra socks, snowpants, winter coat, scarf, hat and mitts, she didn't look much like a ballerina. I had pink wings for her to wear over her coat, but she refused. Ah, well. SHE knew she was a ballerina, and that's what mattered.

She loved going out to houses. We stayed on our street and visited about 7 or 8 homes. It's kind of nice seeing who your neighbours are. We decorated our house with our Christmas lights (yep, they're up!) and some paintings of pumpkins that Rachel and I did last week. I love giving out candy, so when we came back I stayed by the door until about 8:30pm. I figure we had about 25 kids.

We let Rachel eat whatever she wanted from her bag, then she decided she'd had enough. This morning she doesn't seem too interested in the candy, thank goodness. It's hard enough having an energetic three-year-old running around WITHOUT the added sugar.

We have quite a bit of our own candy left over, but I bought stuff we don't usually eat such as chips, so hopefully I can bring it into class for them to demolish it.

At bedtime, Rachel was not ready to take off her ballerina costume. So we just put pajamas on top. As parents of a preschooler, you have to pick your battles. This was not one of them we had the energy to argue for.

Pajamas on TOP of costume

As you can see, still LOTS of energy at 9pm

Thanklegiving

2009-10-20T20:45:00.000-07:00

I sprained my ankle yesterday. I had just started walking to school again, and I made it there in the morning sans probleme. On my way back, I was actually thinking to myself how slippery the rocks/snow combination was and how awful it would be to break my leg while I was in nursing school. There is a girl I know who had to drop out of the program for a semester because she broke her arm and couldn't do nursing stuff, or that's what I had heard. So anyway, I'm walking along and I turned my ankle. I actually heard a cracking sound (not bone). Gross, I know, but it made me yell out a swear word, and I was literally frozen in place with the pain. I actually felt nauseous. Unfortunately, this is the same darn ankle I keep twisting. I have probably sprained/twisted it four or five times now, so I bet all those tendons and ligaments in there are used to it by now.

Because I've been through this before, I knew that I could manage to walk home. I was so, so tempted to call Shane to come find me on the trail, but I managed to hobble out to the street and back home. It swelled up, of course, and is still swollen today, but the pain is much less. I just have to be careful not too sprain it again before it heals. I remember I sprained this ankle while at Outward Bound when I was 18, and my leader told me to just keep walking on it, that that would be the best way for it to heal. None of this elevated, no pressure on it stuff. Anyway, what a pain. Literally.

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend because my parents flew up to Yellowknife to visit! It was SOOOOO nice to have family around for a holiday, and it snowed and was cosy and lovely in the house all weekend. We just lazed around, went for walks, drank tons of coffee and visited. Super. Super time.

Nonna and Rachel making apple pie

Shaking pink sugar crystals onto pie. Always pink.

Playing in the pumpkins at the grocery store with another pink-clad kid.

Thanksgiving dinner

Me and Dad standing in front of Latham Island (in background)

Rachel with my Jeanne Lottie purse. Her favourite accessory of course.

Argh. Is it me or can't I figure out this new Blogger update? I can't seem to load these last few pics. And why can I only load one at a time? And why can't I cut and paste them like I could before?

Oh well. I just wanted to add a picture of Rachel in her new snowsuit. Her snowpants fit perfectly and we went out one night after dinner to play in the 2 inches of snow that is on the ground. See Janis? I used inches here! It just comes naturally sometimes (speaking to my American reader and good friend from Oxford University, 1995). I am amazed at how much more mobile Rachel is this winter. She is steady on her feet and can manage with the heavy layers of boots, snowpants, mitts etc. I think we'll be playing outside much more this year. And thank goodness. It's mid-October and snowing and this will last until the end of April. Oh well, we'll manage! (she says, bravely).

I spoke too soon

2009-10-08T17:35:00.002-07:00

Yup. Snow.

The ground is all a-froze and it actually stayed on the ground, enough to cause slips and near-miss car accidents. Gah! I was hoping we had a few weeks left.

On the plus side, we may have a White Thanksgiving, which is extra special because Carla and Don will be here! Yay! Can't wait to see you!

Weekend Update

2009-10-04T09:16:00.001-07:00

The weather has started to turn and we are in our rainy, cold season. If the temp dips any lower, this WILL be snow. I remember last year we had a snowfall at the end of September.

I signed Rachel up for several "creation station" classes at the local Multiplex, through the City of Yellowknife Recreation Centre. Two weeks ago was "Australian Outback" theme and last weekend was "Wild West". I thought the kids would be dressing up and running around, but it's a long table with chairs which 3-5 year-olds sit at for an hour to colour, glue and sparkle an array of themed items. It's parent-free, so Shane and I were thinking this would be a good way to give Rachel some time on the weekend on her own, and us to get grocery shopping done. Not sure about any of you moms out there, but we are finding shopping with a three-year-old increasingly stressful. Too big to be "cute" now when she roars through the aisles, we see more annoyed looks by other childless shoppers when her little cart narrowly misses theirs.

Anyway, Creation Station: So we dropped her off for the first class and popped out for errands. We returned early and peeked at her through the doors. She was sitting at the table colouring, but she had this looong face on, and at some points I thought she looked about to cry. I nearly ran in and grabbed her but she seemed to be managing. When we picked her up she had a whole bunch of colouring papers. In the car, however, she seemed down, so when we asked her what the class was like, she said, "The other kids could write their names, but I didn't know how to write my name." Apparently most of the other kids were around 5 years old, and Rachel immediately picked up on the difference in age. She also said that she couldn't colour very well. My heart broke, of course, but I realized the big difference that a year or two makes for a 3-year-old.

The next weekend we went to the class, and she didn't want me to leave. There were younger kids at this "Wild West" themed class, around 3 years old, and they didn't want their moms to leave either. One mom finally just left the room, and the sounds of her son's wailing continued while the rest of us tried to make our kids have fun. Finally Rachel just put her coat on and said, "I'm going now." I left with her. Ah, well. The class was $10. I think if there were a bunch of kids she knew (and in Yellowknife the chances of that are pretty good), she might have stayed for the entire class. If I were to put myself in her shoes, I wouldn't have wanted to stay either. So we went swimming instead, and had much more fun.
Yesterday I volunteered for the National Breastfeeding Challenge. It's a yearly event, sponsored by the government and Moms, Boobs & Babies, of which I am co-chair. It took a lot of organizing and time, and although I wasn't the coordinator, I had to emcee and set up and take down the event. Also bake some banana bread and cookies (which were called, by the way, 'the best cookies ever' by the people who gobbled them up. Recipe available upon request ;-)) OKAY I CAVED AND POSTED THE RECIPE BELOW.

The event went well, we raised a lot of money through our silent auction (thank goodness! It means less tupperware sales I have to do through the year...yes that's right, I'm fundraising with Tupperware this year...just let me know if you're interested!)

It's hard to volunteer and harder to recruit volunteers who are willing to commit. As usual, there are those that leave early, or don't show up. But then we have the last-minute volunteers who stick around to the bitter end, and I am continually surprised and grateful that we have people like that willing to help out.
Of course I come home exhausted and Shane is exhausted because you-know-who has given him a run for his money. So it's hard on us as a family when I volunteer (see my "don't-join-anything" policy from a previous post). But I do feel a sense of accomplishment, so I guess that's why we do it.

School is in full swing and we are a few weeks away from midterms. I am super-busy and doing more projects such as convening one of our classes (basically I am the teacher and need to plan the class FOR my class. That's on Tuesday). Then I work at the hospital two days a week (for school) and I will be teaching handwashing to elementary schools in a few weeks. There is more leadership involved this year which is great, but busy.

This is what we've been up to:

Rachel has discovered "Dippy Toast". How much is too much? It's on the menu daily these days.

Have to stop for a bit, R is climbing up my arms to sit and type too.

Paper Bag Princess

Chirp Magazine's idea: Trace your child onto paper and have her draw clothes on. It was kind of fun!

Dress Up. Those are my pleather high-heel boots she's got on.

You should see her when she wears the boots...and nothing else. It's ridiculous.

Shoe-style change: Pot lids.

Taken this morning. Learning to use the mouse. She can play her own computer games on www.treehousetv.com. There are matching games, and practice with the mouse, and dress up games. She uses the mouse like an expert.

Notice how dark the house is. It's about 8:30am and the sun is still trying to decide if it wants to come up. Add another cloudy day and we feel like we live in a cave.

Best Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe ever!

2009-10-03T09:23:00.002-07:00

Steve's Chocolate Chip Cookies

2 sticks butter (1 cup)
1.5 cup dark brown sugar
2 eggs
2 tsp vanilla
2.5 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 lb chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 375 F.

Cream butter, sugar until well mixed.
Add eggs and vanilla.
Add flour and baking soda. Mix well.
Add chocolate chips. If you want, add more.

Make big, thick cookies on lightly greased sheet (this is optional, I don't grease the sheet). I also find they don't spread very much, so you can place them closer together.

Reduce temp to 350 F and bake for 10 minutes.

I make my cookies smaller, more bite-size, and find that works very well. They freeze well, but if you leave them out you should eat them within 2 days. I doubt they will last that long.

Ah, September!

2009-09-09T21:54:00.000-07:00

Rachel and I went up to Prelude by ourselves a few weekends ago, as Shane needed some "quiet time" after my trip to Edmonton.

I went to Edmonton, Alberta to meet Sarah, who flew in from Toronto. Totally fun! We met at the airport and spent the next few days exploring the grand city. It was awesome to have a visit, and to travel on my own for a bit. We have to decide on the next city to meet next year.

No pictures of Edmonton, unfortunately, but here is our Mommy-Daughter Prelude Hike:

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Okay, having a bit o' trouble with the new Blogger format, but we will see if this post works. This is what we've been up to over the past few weeks. Pictures may accompany some of the activities.

Mommy and Rachel self-portrait

"Mommy, take a picture of me being a plamingo" (Flamingo)

Getting hot on the hike, so Rachel started to take off her clothes. We got to the back to the car before any other clothing was discarded.

This past long weekend, I decided we needed to get out of Yellowknife, so we went for a drive towards Fort Providence. This is the road that would continue down to Edmonton. Our only road "outta here" to be more specific. We thought we might see some wood bison on the way, but no luck. We drove for about an hour and found a lovely little day park called North Arm. We stopped to look at Great Slave Lake, with its big waves. We brought a cold picnic lunch, but as we were sitting down, another young family was just packing up and left some embers burning at their campsite. Ever resourceful, we waited until they drove away, then rekindled the embers to make ourselves a little campfire, using twigs and old pieces of half-burned wood. It really warmed us up, as we were quite chilled from the wind off the lake. What a treat it was to sit around a fire that we hadn't planned on. It was a great break from being cooped up at home in Yellowknife, where there isn't that much to do on the weekends.

Here are some pictures:

During our drive, we noticed a land formation that rose quite steeply out of the pretty flat wooded landscape. On top was a big radio tower. Seeing a road that appeared to lead up the hill, we turned in to follow it up to the top. Now, you have to remember that outside Yellowknife, there is NOTHING. It's kind of like driving up the 400 in the more remote parts, except there is no small town or gas station coming up in 32 kms. It's just miles and miles of trees and rock. And forget about cell phone reception. No bars whatsoever. So it was with some trepidation that we climbed this rocky road. I kept thinking, what if we get a flat? Can I walk back out to the main road and hope that someone decides to drive by?

We made it to the top, of course, and to our surprise there was already a truck there, with a few teenagers. It figures I thought we were going somewhere remote and it's a local kids' hangout. We hung around for a bit and enjoyed the view. What we didn't realize until we were on the road was that this was where a major forest fire had occurred the previous summer. It was quite amazing to see a burned forest a year later. I took some artistic shots of the regrowth of the forest:

Those rocks have been bleached white by the heat of the fire. They are everywhere throughout the forest.

Flowers growing out of the charred wood and ground.

Here is a picture of a dump fire that occurred on the weekend. Rachel was looking out her bedroom window and said, "Why are those clouds black?" She was the first one to notice. It looks pretty close to our house, but the city dump is actually quite far away. The fire burned for 12 hours before 24 firefighters got it under control. The costs are coming in at over $100,000 and they think it was caused by a stray cigarette. Pity.

Conversations with a three-year-old:

"Mommy, you be the Puppy Mommy, and I'll be the Puppy Girl."
"Okay. But Rachel, it's dinnertime."
"NO! I'm Puppy Girl"
"Okay, Puppy Girl, it's dinnertime."
"Okay, Puppy Mommy."

"Mommy, that lamp is in a different place."
"Yes, I moved it last night so I could read better."
"Can you move it back please?"

Rachel says, "Bemember" instead of Remember and will run up to us saying, "Special Belivery!" There are a few more words that now start with "B".

She is very particular about small things. Her pajama bottoms always have to match her tops, which often means frantic searching through laundry baskets so she will actually put her jammies on.

She can't wait to go to school.

What's new with me:
I have started my third year of Nursing. It's been a bit bumpy, with the usual beginning of school issues etc. I forgot, for example, to go get my TB skin test from Public Health. All my other immunizations are up to date, I guess I just thought this one was too. Anyway, because Public Health is so busy with H1N1 season, they couldn't get me in for another 2 weeks. When I spoke to my instructor about this, she said i would have to miss up to four clinical days while I waited for the results, and I would not be able to care for any patients. It was very upsetting because in reality we should not miss more than 2 shifts at the hospital. I stressed about it all night, then after class today I went to Public Health and one of the nurses there was kind enough to listen to my plight and arranged an appointment for me this afternoon. I feel a huge sense of relief, but also anger at myself for causing more unnecessary stress.

I am also the co-President of Moms, Boobs and Babies again this year. We had our first board meeting tonight, which I had to arrange and plan. It went quite well, mostly planning for the upcoming Breastfeeding Challenge that I will be volunteering at. We also have to ensure that we leave enough funds for the organization for next year, so fundraising is an issue for us as well. Since I will gleefully be giving up my spot next June, I want to do well in the group this year, but want to make sure I leave a strong and financially sound group too. But the added work that I end up doing eats into my time with my family, with school and my personal time. I should not have taken on this added work this year, and although it does look good on a resume, it's not worth the added stress I feel when I think about it. So my motto for myself this year is, "Don't Join Anything." I just have to remind myself of it when someone comes up with another volunteer activity for me. I have also considered, "Don't Say Yes to Anything," as a second alternative motto. I think this might preserve my sanity this year.

The course I have are interesting. They are Relational Practice (which is all about learning to facilitate meetings, and group work), Health & Healing (working with clients with particular health issues: this week: hyperthyroidism) and Lab and Nursing Practice. It's not a huge course load but lots of tests and two major papers. Also, I have to apply to the University of Victoria to be accepted in January, and I am running around collecting things like criminal record checks and HIGH SCHOOL transcripts. Gah, that was like 17 years ago! Add a few bursary and scholarship applications that I am struggling to submit and I am feeling pretty busy these days.

Otherwise, Shane and I had a lovely 7-year anniversary yesterday. Dinner and movie to follow, once we decide who our babysitter is for the year. Have a good week!

Smattering of Summer

2009-08-16T20:22:00.004-07:00

I was looking at some of our photos from last summer and I had almost forgotten our trauma with Rachel's thumb. Last summer she somehow (we never really figured out what happened) pulled her thumbnail right out of the nail bed. We took her to Emergency, where the doctor told us that the nail just might never grow back. I was really upset, images of my daughter on her first date, trying to live with a thumb that had no nail. It was very stressful. Luckily, the nail grew back completely and looks as good as new. The growing-back process took about 8 weeks. We documented it every week, and the pics now are a bit gross. We had to change the dressing every day, which was an ordeal because Rachel would scream when she saw her thumb uncovered. To this day, if she hurts her finger, she tries to hide it from us because she doesn't want us to put a band-aid on it. She basically wore a bandage on her thumb for months until we were convinced that it would not get infected. Our concern was that when and if the nail did grow back, it would be deformed, especially if an infection started. It's upsetting that even though this happened a year ago, it still sticks in her memory. Anyway, all is good with the nail now. Here is a picture of it a year ago, starting to grow back (not for the faint-hearted):

This next picture might look icky, but it's just red marker. Rachel decided to "paint her toenails and fingernails". And, as it turns out, many other parts of her body as well. She even had marker on her shoulders, UNDER her shirt, when I got her ready for bathtime.

Some shots taken while chatting on the phone. This call to Gramma, who is in Saskatchewan, visiting new cousin Austin, born last week. Rachel is quite chatty, but not on demand.

The weather is starting to turn. Already. I feel like we just started wearing sandals and now we're back to socks again. I barely had time to put away the mittens, and now I pack them in our bag when we go to the park, because the wind is getting colder every day. At least the dang bugs seem to be gone. They were pretty bad this summer, and made being outside quite miserable.

I had Rachel pose on our front "lawn". We promised ourselves that we would landscape this summer, but the cost to even just get the ground in front of the house leveled was too rich for us this year, so we just let nature take its course. It looks awful by Ontario standards, but since most of our neighbours lawns look just like this, we don't feel so bad. Maybe next spring...

Fishies

2009-08-07T13:24:00.005-07:00

Okay, I know fish aren't the most exciting topic of note. BUT. I found that setting up a tank from beginning to end has really made me realize that this is a fun hobby. Start small! Borrow or get a second-hand tank! I know you can buy aquarium kits but they are about $200 for everything you see here on this post. So we adopted Jen's fish last week, and they are managing fairly well with not too much stress. We have a pleco, two catfish, and two Tetras. I noticed that the pleco and catfish tend to hide all day, and even in the dark rarely come out. So Rachel dutifully fed the fish she could not see. She got bored very quickly, and frankly, it was no fun to sit and watch an empty tank. The two Tetras just meandered around the tank. No fun. So yesterday Rachel and I went to the pet store and bought six more Neon Tetras. Now our tank is hopping! The new Tetras are like children, exploring and chasing each other around the tank. The calm quiet of our tank is gone. I can now sit and watch the goings-on of all the fish.

I am still learning the basics of having a fish tank however. At the pet store I told the guy I needed a replacement filter-thingy for my filter. "What kind of filter do you have?" he asked. I stared at him blankly. "What's the name brand?" he tried. I shrugged slowly. "It's black?" I said, thinking that would be enough infomation. (It's not.) So I left without a replacement filter, but I think I may replace the whole contraption if the fish hobby continues.

Yellowknife Summer Stuff

2009-07-29T17:00:00.004-07:00

In order to get Rachel to enjoy bathtime (and hairwash days) we have been teaching her to do more of the washing-up herself. She was so proud of herself when I gave her the shampoo and let her suds up her hair. Even though I still help a bit, she does a really good job.

We had a really beautiful rainbow one evening (as I saw that Carol also did in North Bay!) Because Rachel and I had just finished reading A Rainbow of My Own by Don Freeman (he wrote the Corduroy books), we got Rachel out of bed to see it. She was just falling asleep, and seemed a bit disoriented but was thrilled to see the real rainbow. As we brought her back inside, she said, "Is it morning-time?" She went back to sleep with no problem, though.

On the weekend we went to the horse show to watch the riders manage their horses. I'm always very impressed because you can hardly see what the riders are saying or doing, and suddenly the horse starts walking backwards, or cantering or whatever. There were children on the three that were being judged while we were there. The youngest, a girl of nine, was on a tooting pony who was apparently 17-years-old. It almost seemed harder to manage the little grumpy, farting pony than some of the calmer, better-looking horses, but what do I know? I do know that Rachel could start lessons at age 4. I just don't know if I am that committed to continuing lessons (I'm not much of a horse-person). The bugs were awful there, even the horses had bug-shirts on. These are the only photos we took. While we were on our way out, Rachel wanted to play in the sandy driveway. You might remember some of our photos from last year...

This is a nice bright photo of Rachel

Last year...

This morning Rachel and I were playing Hide and Seek. I hid in our bedroom, and Rachel came looking for me. "Daddy, have you seen Mommy?" she said to Shane. "She has dark brown hair. Actually it's chocolate brown hair." Then she seemed to forget about finding me, because she kept talking. "MY hair is golden. Golden blonde." I imagined her tossing it over her shoulder as she said that.

All I Wanna Do is Dance, Dance, Dance

2009-07-23T09:26:00.002-07:00

We attended the wedding of a classmate of mine this weekend. Initially Shane and I RSVP'd just ourselves, but my friend called me to encourage us to bring Rachel. I also wanted Rachel to see a wedding, plus we don't do very much together socially as a family, so we brought her to the church and also to the reception.

The church was difficult. Even though we sat at the back, it was a long time for a three-year-old to sit still. In retrospect I would have left her at home, but we always have babysitting issues here. On the other hand, it was a good experience for her to learn to sit still and be quiet. Luckily there were other children making noise too, so that was okay.

At the reception dinner we sat with the other families with young kids. When dancing started Rachel was so excited and flew to the dance floor. She didn't even need us with her, and often pushed us away from her so she could twirl etc. A little 5-year-old boy even twirled her around as well, which was cute. We didn't get that on film, though. Daddy took her out to the dance floor and it was very cute to see the two of them together.

Rachel is wearing the purple and white party dress.

Photo Essay of My Route to Work

2009-07-16T14:15:00.005-07:00

Since May I have been riding my bike to the hospital...first for my clinical practice semester, now for my summer job. Every morning, I get on my bike and think that I am so lucky to have such a beautiful ride to work. I have been wanting to capture the trip for my readers, so here it is, in full technicolor.

The ride takes about 15-20 minutes each way, and no, I have not lost any weight since I started this. However, my legs muscles are strong and I no longer feel like I am dying after one of the many hills I hit both on the way to the hospital, and back again. My trusty bike is a Supercycle (you may remember my beautiful Kona CinderKone was stolen just about a year ago). For $100 bucks, this Supercycle has already paid for itself. Plus I don't really care if it gets stolen.

Here is my ride each morning, starting around 6:30am:

Here is my bike, waiting patiently for me:

Riding down the street to the highway. Yup, still a dirt road.

The only stretch of highway I have to travel on. This is looking towards downtown Yellowknife. Little or no traffic at this time of day.

I cut away from the highway and begin to travel past the Museum and towards the Frame Lake Trail. This is the start of the trail from my end.

View of Frame Lake. Wayyyy off in the distance is the first glimpse of the hospital.

The Trail. No traffic, a few dog walkers, a few joggers. Everyone says good morning to each other.

Getting closer to the hospital. (It's the reddish orange building on the left. The red and white building is a Staples.

A park along the Trail. We sometimes stop here, the swings are really good.

View of the lake, now from the other side. In the winter I can cut straight across the ice here to end up where I started with the rows of flags.

View from a bridge, just before I head up a series of hills. These are the hills that make me sweat just before I arrive.

And here we are: Stanton Territorial Hospital, Yellowknife.

Oh, and here is a picture of Rachel. Her bangs are so long but she refuses to let us cut them, or wear her hair up. So I say, "We can cut them or you can wear an elastic?" She so far chooses elastic, although she pulls it out after a few minutes.

Three Years Old!

2009-06-28T10:01:00.007-07:00

I find myself doing the exact same thing my mother does to me every year on my birthday. It's a little speech that starts out, "I remember the day you were born..." and it's a story about some aspect of my birth. I actually did this yesterday to Rachel. She has been SO excited about her birthday that she has been talking about it for months. Every time we go to the store, she will point to treats, or birthday party supplies and say, "Let's get this for my birfday!" So by the time her birthday did roll around, she was a little overwhelmed with the gifts, the excitement and the treats. While she was having a little meltdown (of which there have been many over the past few days), I cuddled her up and told her my "I remember" story. I think she liked it, and it cheered her up. My advice to parents of toddlers is not to ramp up the excitement of a birthday too much. I found once we stopped talking about it and just carried through with our plans, we had a happier little girl and enjoyed the day more.

Here are our photos:

From Gramma, "Pinkalicious". We've read it about 10 times already. A real favourite for the girl who loves pink (and cupcakes)

Playing with the stamp set from Auntie Erin

Trying out the "make your own jewelry box" from Auntie Ashley

Opening the book of poems from Auntie Sarah, Uncle Mark and Thea

Trying on the new princess dress, wand and crown from Nonna and Wumpa

We had the birthday party at Prelude Lake, at a campsite. It had a playground behind it, so there was lots of room for the kids to run around. A beautiful day, but quite buggy.

Trying to get a smiling photo. Stay still for a moment, Rachel!

Okay, just look at the camera for a second...

Okay, look at Mommy!

Smile! Can you smile? No more faces, okay?

Favourite pastime. She can swing for hours

Friends Enzo and Lizzie anxiously awaiting the cake

Opening gifts

Birthday present from Mommy and Daddy

Done Diddily Done!

2009-06-14T19:58:00.002-07:00

I'm halfway through the Nursing program. Hard to believe. I remember last September I was a little bummed because I felt the whole second year stretching out in front of me. But second year flew by and now, here I am, on the brink of completion of 50% of the program.

I finished up my week, had a nice celebratory lunch with my classmates and teachers, then a celebratory party at a classmate's house. We went to a birthday party on the beach yesterday morning at 10am (I love parties for three-year-olds...they are so accommodating for naptime in the afternoon). I have been limiting naps to one hour in the afternoon because of Rachel's sleep schedule. She was up at 5am on Saturday morning again, so I think her extended afternoon naps (sometimes 3 hours) are interfering with her nights. They never used to before. With our extra time freed up in the afternoon, we went swimming at the pool.

Today we had another birthday party, this one a nursing friend of mine. She has an adult-size trampoline in her yard, and I had to drag Rachel away from it. There were older kids there, but they were great with Rachel. This friend also had a dog, 2 cats, two huge fish tanks and a lizard, so needless to say there was lots to do and look at.

We had our Moms, Boobs and Babies AGM this week that I had to plan and facilitate. I was acclaimed again this year as Co-chair President of the organization, which I am fine with. I think I can make some better changes this year, now that I have a bit more understanding of what we need to keep the group functioning and keeping funds coming in. We are going to do some fundraising and some of the ideas floating around sound really neat. Someone suggested a "family dance" which takes place in the afternoon, with a DJ etc. Apparently the kids have a great time. It would be perfect for up here, when the weather is bad and there is no place to go.

It's a big responsibility I've taken on to do this again, and I am a little worried about my time. But I have a good team of people in the group, so hopefully we can work together well. It's really good experience for me to do this, and gives me a role in the community, as well as keeps me updated on what new moms are up to in the city.

I get a short break before I start working (for $$, yay!) so I am going to get a few things organized in the house. We are hoping to have a yard sale next weekend, and we have a guest bedroom full of stuff, so that is this week's task. It's very popular to go "garage saling" on Saturday morning up here. People pick up their Tim's coffee and drive around the neighbourhood. We could put an ad in the paper but we might just be better off setting out our stuff at 7:30am and see who drives by. I'm tempted to let the other houses on our street know about our plan, because a street-wide sale attracts a lot of attention. Hmmm, we'll see.

Have a good week!

Four More Days of School and Heart Beeps

2009-06-07T19:12:00.005-07:00

Still no battery for the camera so I have no interesting photos from last week. But here's what's been going on:

I spent three days of my clinical practice at home while the hospital decided what to do about containing the spread of H1N1 (Swine Flu). Finally it was made clear that students would be able to return to finish our semester, which now consisted of 5 more days at the hospital. We were given some information about the flu, and from what has been explained, it sounds like the media have taken it on as much more of a serious situation. Not to say that it isn't. But it IS the flu, and unfortunately, chances are we all might catch it. It's very contagious, so of course prevention is key (handwashing etc.) but the symptoms in most cases have been mild.

What worries me a bit is that although we may see it start to fade a bit, once flu season hits again in October it may be back again, and this time with more moderate or even severe symptoms. So even though we may not have a vaccine for it by October, GET YOUR FLU SHOT! Studies have shown that even when we miss the mark in terms of defending against the right strain, flu vaccinations have kept many, many people healthy.

So, while I am at the hospital I do all the things my grandmother keeps telling us to do: wash hands before eating, don't touch doorknobs or handrails (high use areas) and if you have touched them, don't touch your mouth, nose or eyes, as the virus gets in through the mucous membranes. Yucky, I know, but who wants to spend a week on their back, missing work and/or school, and potentially infecting everyone around them. I KNOW you all have cared for sick babies and kids, and it's no fun.

Okay, that was my nurse-speech.
I am very, very, very happy to be finishing up my rotation and third semester of second year. I don't want to get too excited, but I am just one week away from being HALFWAY DONE! Quite a feeling of accomplishment, but I still have a long way to go.

We had a nice weekend, the weather was sunny, still not very warm, but there was a sense that spring is here. We kept Rachel home Thursday and Friday and visited some moms and kids we hadn't seen for awhile.

Saturday we went to Jen, Thomas and Ava's for dinner and Jen took some great photos (so I shouldn't say I don't have any this week). We sat out on their deck and Rachel and Ava drove their strollers and babies up and down the rock face that the deck butts up against. "Stay away from the edge!" was the common shout throughout the evening.

At the bottom of the "mountain", Jen and Thomas' backyard. I forgot to mention Rachel was in full Princess attire: crown, princess dress with crinoline, and jewellry. We were also so smart to bring Rachel's matching stroller over, with an extra baby, just in case.

The girls were so pretty in their dresses. Jen sewed Ava's herself

Strollin' up the mountain

Rachel had a rough start to the morning today. She refused to wear a diaper last night, and me, not wanting to squelch her potty training initiative, put a couple of puddle pads under her sheets and let her be. Of course at 5:15am this morning, Rachel is yelling for me because she actually DID require a diaper last night, and is cold and wet this morning. So we had an early morning bath, and washed up her sheets. I know it seems a little mean to let it happen, but in a way I need her to understand what happens when she can't yet wake up to pee, or hold her pee until the morning.

Then, later in the morning while Shane was showering and I had run to her room to get clothes for the day, Rachel was brushing her teeth in our bathroom, using a chair to stand on. I heard a huge crash, then Shane yelling for me. Rachel had somehow tipped the chair backward and crashed to the floor. She was frightened and had a scrape and a bruise or two, but more traumatized by the incident. She totaled the chair too. It was a good-quality wooden chair with arms, and we will have to throw it out, it was so splintered and damaged. It made me realize how hard she must have hit the floor. She was tired from the early morning, and upset from the chair incident, so she fell asleep at 10:30 for 90 minutes. I fell asleep again too. As much as I should be used to my 5am wake-ups, it's still pretty early. When she woke up she seemed much better, and we took a walk to the museum. Rachel actually walked most of the way home, collecting dandelions for Dad, and walked with them hidden behind her back for most of the trip, so "Daddy will be surprised." We also stopped to look at the ducks in the water, and listen to the birds chirping. It was a great feeling, being outside with the wind and the sun after so many months indoors and cold.

A funny story:

We have a toy doctor's kit with a blood pressure cuff. It has that little air pump on it that kind of looks like the pump on a perfume bottle:

Anyway, Rachel uses the toy cuff, and the toy stethoscope, to listen to our "heart beeps". When I first heard her say that I was crying with laughter. Tonight, we were reading a story about a dog who puts on perfume (using the bottle above), and Rachel suddenly says, "heart beeps". I didn't know what she was referring to until she pointed out the little pump on the perfume bottle.

Have a good week!

Happy Birthday Carol!

2009-06-01T16:36:00.002-07:00

Happy Birthday to you,
Happy Birthday to you,
Happy Birthday dear Carol,
Happy Birthday to you!

Pigs and Apples

2009-06-01T08:15:00.008-07:00

We have confirmation of 2 cases of swine flu (H1N1 virus) up here now, our first cases. This has directly affected me and my semester. First, here is the related article, dated Friday, May 29, 2009:

Nunavut has its first confirmed case of swine flu caused by the H1N1 influenza virus.

The territory's Health Department announced Friday that a person was being treated for a respiratory illness outside Nunavut when diagnosed with swine flu.

The department would not release the name of the patient, or where in Nunavut the patient is from, citing the need to protect that person and his or her family.

Dr. Isaac Sobol, the territory's chief medical officer of health, said the patient did not travel to Mexico or the United States. He added it's now impossible to pinpoint where the patient contracted the H1N1 virus because it is so widespread.

Sobol warned that swine flu may have been in Nunavut for some time already.

"If someone is infected with the virus and isn't really sick, they might not even go to a health centre. So yes, that's entirely possible," he said Friday.

"That's why in our briefing, we mentioned this is our first lab-confirmed case."

Health officials say they're prepared for any additional cases to come up in Nunavut. Anyone with flu-like symptoms is being urged to stay home, rest and drink plenty of fluids.

Should symptoms escalate, patients should go to their local health centre or see a doctor.

The Yukon confirmed its first case of swine flu earlier this month. The Northwest Territories is the only northern territory with no reported cases to date.

Sobol said it is odd to see any influenza activity at this time of year.

Canada's swine flu case count has jumped nearly 20 per cent since Wednesday, largely due to a rise in cases in Ontario, according to the Public Health Agency of Canada. The count in Ontario rose by 131 cases to 626.

The agency says there were 1,336 cases in nine provinces and two territories and two deaths as of Friday.
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/north/story/2009/05/29/nunavut-swine-flu.html

Interestingly, it doesn't say that the two cases confirmed are now at the Yellowknife Stanton Hospital, so I don't know if that is yet common knowledge. Apparently it should be, because the information I received was not considered confidential, and truly, this wouldn't be a secret anyway.

Unfortunately, because of the two cases, the hospital has prohibited visitors and students during this time. What this means for me is that I received a call from my instructor on the weekend to say that my semester has been cut short, and that I am not to return to the hospital. It was a bit of a shock, because after all, we are nurses (in training), and you would think that we could be of assistance. But because we are in a learning role, and not staff, there are liability issues. Anyway, I am home today while the instructors meet to figure out what to do. We had two more weeks of clinical practice, so I may be short about 50 hours, unless the time is made up later in the year. On the other hand, up here we generally get more hospital experience than a lot of nursing schools down south, so the time may not be so important.

It's hard to wait around today to find out what is going on. Since I will be working at the hospital this summer anyway, it doesn't affect me too much. I could even start work earlier. The concern is managing the spread of the disease, and with a little one at home, I want to be extra cautious. Handwashing everyone! It is the best way to prevent the spread of the infection. I think I already have "nurse's hands", dry, chapped, always needing hand cream, from all the soap and washing.

In other news:

Our camera battery needs to be replaced so I don't have any updated photos. Instead I have a little treat I've been saving for just such a situation as a photo-drought.

Here's the story:

When I was in kindergarten I drew a picture in class and my teacher dictated what I wanted it to say. It was a photo of me with "ten apples up on top". When I was older I found the drawing and for the life of me could not figure out what posessed me as a 4-year-old to draw such a weird concept. Why would I draw myself with apples on my head?

Then, just recently, I took a book out of the library for Rachel, called "Ten Apples up on Top" by Dr. Seuss. As we read the story, I realized that this was where my younger self's inspiration came from!

And here is my original artwork:

I just noticed the fingers on my drawing. I remember I used to draw the fingers up and down the arms, because there wasn't enough room on the hand.

I also wrote that I had a striped shirt on. I remember the shirt very clearly, and it is this one (below). I wore it all the time.

Just for interest. is there any resemblance? We are nearly the same age in these photos. Actually, I may be closer to age 5 here. Not sure if this is Junior or Senior Kindergarten.

Picture Post

2009-05-24T21:28:00.001-07:00

We had a "mini" party for Ava, who missed her flight to Cambridge Bay on her birthday because of her ear infection. Instead, she and Jen came over for a barbecue and some birthday cupcakes.

Waiting ever-so-patiently for the cupcakes

Here they come!

Rachel knows the drill: blow!

Ready to eat. Clothing, by the way, was optional at this party.

Jen giving Ava some encouragement to blow out her candles. Poor little girl still wasn't feeling well.

We couldn't make it to Ashley's baby shower, but we heard it was lots of fun! Here are some pics from my mom's Blackberry:

Ashley, you look gorgeous! So amazing to see you with your bump!

Snails, Swim, and Snow

2009-05-17T19:04:00.003-07:00

I may have mentioned in past posts that we have decided to develop the hobby of fish. We obtained a second-hand acquarium, complete with filter and rocks and have been prepping it to take our friend's fish when they move in August. Without doing any research I stupidly cleaned the tank, filter and rocks with soap and bleach, a big no-no. Apparently all that dried guk that is left behind when you don't clean your tank is actually good for the fish. It is good bacteria, etc. that we should not be messing with. So I rinsed out the tank, filter and rocks as best I could, then set up the tank with a new charcoal insert to clean out the water. Then, after a few weeks, Jen came by with her dirty fish water, some plants from her tank and four snails. This, she said, would help prepare my tank so that when she transfers her fish to me, they will be better aclimatized to the new enviro.

So we put the plants and snails in and...so far so good! Although we have seven snails now, not four, so I am not sure where the other ones came from. Every morning Rachel and I count them. Apparently they will reproduce rapidly, then when the fish are introduced, they'll eat them back to a manageable number. It's gross and fascinating at the same time.

See the snails? See 'em?

Posing with the tank

Fancy posin'

Weather has been cooold here, in the minuses, but we still managed to get to the park once so far. Today we had a birthday party at the pool, which was a great distraction. It was with the kids from the daycare, so they all played really well together. Tomorrow we have a holiday (Victoria Day) so we are thinking of taking a drive towards Fort Providence to see the bison on the road. You may recall we did that three years ago, but Rachel will get a real kick out of it this time around. The sun is already up for most of the 24-hour-day. It was brightly shining at 5am this morning when Rachel popped into our room. And it will still be bright at 11pm tonight. We've got blackout shades on her room and garbage bags to hide the cracks of light, but she is still up really, really early. It's hard to sleep, period.

I am busy at the hospital and have lots of homework in addition. It's assignments and studying and prepping for the next day, and there is not a lot of time between leaving the hospital and then getting back there the next morning. But we are on midterms this week, which is hard to believe, then we start the final countdown. It is still 4 more weeks, but hopefully they will go by quickly. But I just realized it's a short week this week, so that will help. I've been riding my bike each day (and walking a few days just for variety). The ride is cold, especially the day it snowed, but it's by far the cheapest way for me to travel. Oh, yeah, it's also good exercise.

Have a good week!

PS: We seem to be down to six snails. One of them climbed onto the filter and I think the sucking motion may have sucked him right out of the shell. The shell is empty, anyway. Cool.

Smartie Cakes and Mother's Day

2009-05-10T21:01:00.008-07:00

Well, another long week, this one my first of six of Term 3, Year 2. Early mornings (up at 5am), biking to the hospital for 6:50am start. It will go by fast however, and now that the snow is gone, I am hoping it won't be so cold in the early morn. The bike ride makes for a fast commute. It just takes a little preparation, getting my bag packed the night before, having my helmet and outdoor clothing figured out so I don't end up getting soaked in a rainstorm.

Shane worked the entire weekend (his third in a row), and I kept Rachel home on Friday because her cold has lasted for about a month. It's a nasty cough, runny nose, and I would be more worried if she didn't have an amazing amount of energy to go with it. Since she's been bouncing off the furniture, I figured this was just a typical cold. But in the morning her voice sounds froggy, like she has a sore throat, so we went to the doctor on Friday. Well, it's viral, so there is not much we can do about it.

On Saturday we were up early and went to the tradeshow to visit Shane, and to see who else had exhibits. We entered as many draws as we could (fingers crossed!). Rachel had her photo taken by First Air:

She was PhotoShopped in, in case you were wondering.

She had a pretty good time, insisting on carrying all of the canvas bags that the vendors were handing out, and of course obtaining a balloon the minute we walked in. She got lots of free things, and loved them all. Like the magnet in the shape of a car, and the flag being given out by the Canadian Cancer Society.

She tired of the crowd pretty quickly and stated that she was ready to "go home", but we grabbed a quick lunch, then went to Dance Class. Rachel, with some forethought, had put her leotard on under her clothes, so she was ready to roll as soon as we arrived. She did well in class, but her dinosaur roar was the loudest and longest by far. As soon as the dance teacher said, "Let me hear you roar like a dinosaur," (which we were pretending to be, by the way), the kids made little "rawr" noises. Rachel paused for effect, then let out the loudest "ROAAAAAAAAAR". All the moms looked quite appreciative (and a little unnerved. What do they teach her at home?).

The newest activity Rachel and I do is bake muffins together. I learned this most amazing trick from Carol, who gives her girls their own bowl with flour and a few ingredients and they stir and spill away without a worry about the fine balance that an actual muffin recipe requires. I used to let Rachel stir, then when her spoon slipped and half a cup of flour, baking soda, etc. went flying over the chair she was standing on, I would be left wondering if I could reduce the liquid ingredients to compensate. Now she works beside me, and we are both happy.

However. She insists on a few things for her muffins. First of all, she needs sprinkles. She pours them in her bowl. Then she requests a glass of water, into which she mixes some food colouring. She does this four times, one for each colour in the box. Then she asks for the "Scribblers" drawing icing in the little tubes, which she squirts into her mixture.

I just noticed the glass teetering on the edge of the counter. Yikes.

Once finished, she hands it to me, saying, "Here are the muffins!" Then later in the day she will ask if the muffins are ready yet. Her muffins. It's getting harder to explain that her mixture (which is black, by the way, because all colours combine to make black, blah, blah) is not going to turn into muffins any time soon. It's fun, though.

This morning Rachel raced out of her bedroom at 5:30am. We played quietly for a bit, then when Shane left for the tradeshow at 8:30pm, we were ready to go to the park. Thinking smartly, I wore long underwear and several layers of clothing, and I brought snacks and a book. The worst part about going to the park is having to drag Rachel away when I am ready to go. Usually I get cold (and I know she is too), or we are hungry but won't admit it, or boooored (that's usually just me). So we went to this brand-new playground and were there for THREE hours. We went on the swings 5 TIMES. I can't tell you how many slides she slid down. And until the last half hour, we were the only ones there. It was nice and quiet but I would have given anything to have someone to talk to. But I think it tired her out nicely, because she came home for a nice nap, I studied some medications, and then in the afternoon we did some errands.

Shane and I decided to celebrate his birthday today, since we don't usually have much time during the week, so Rachel helped me make, ice, and decorate his cake. We shamelessly copied the "Smartie Cake" from the Racicots. Thank you Carol, Jennifer and especially Kathleen for making such wonderful cakes and reminding me of all the wonderful birthday parties I attended. :-)

A not-nearly perfect facsimile of the "Racicake"

Pretending to eat the cake.

What I didn't realize when we were decorating with Smarties is that Rachel was hoarding hers and using my box to decorate. So when the cake was done, she suddenly produced a nearly full box of Smarties to munch on. Smarty-pants. I had to eat a bunch so that she wouldn't fill up on them before dinner. Who's the smart one now?

We sang Happy Birthday to Shane, Rachel blew out all the candles, and then inhaled her tiny piece of cake. It was a different Mother's Day for me, but nice to spend time with Rachel, and it was great to have a nice-enough day to be outside for as many hours as we did.

Hope Everyone Had a Lovely Mother's Day!