Fun at Gabrielle's new house

I went to Oak Lake this week to help my sister Gab get settled into her new house. Well my job was to watch my nephew Indiana while everyone else worked on the house. A very important job indeed. We read stories.

Went for walks with Indiana in his new sled.

Ate yogurt for breakfast.

ate apples.

and just looked cute in general. What a nice visit.

Christmas Time

So I was getting a little annoyed with Jeff this year. We had all these people coming form out of town for Christmas and I wanted a clean house. I was also working quite a bit before the holidays. So I kept asking Jeff to do little jobs around the house. Like can you do at least 1 load of laundry tonight Jeff? Sure he would say. And he wouldn't do it. Could you just clean the kitchen please? It wouldn't get done. I made a list of things to be done and asked if he could do one thing from the list everyday. Never got done. I asked him to buy 3 Christmas presents. I said I could get them, but he said he would. He came home 4 hours later, no presents and said he had spent all 4 hours at the fishing hole trying to find a fishing reel for his dad. I was getting sooooo annoyed. The next day he went to the Fishing Hole again, for 3 hours. At least he bought something this time.
Then my brother gets here, and we went to my dad's to visit. When we were ready to leave I asked Jeff to start the car, and he made a big deal about not starting the car and how I had to go start it. So when we left I told him he was being a Jerk. Two days later at his parents house he did the same thing. So I told him he was a Jerk again.
Well guess what he got me for Christmas? A remote car starter. Guess where he was when he was at "the fishing hole"? Installing my new car starter. He couldn't clean the house while I was at work b/c he was at his parents house working on the car. When he would send me out to start the car he would be telling our family what he got me for Christmas.
You know I still would have loved my present and have been surprised without all the annoying behavior.
That's my husband.

Fudruckers

This is my nephew Indiana. My sister taught him sign language, so he is signing please because he wants his Auntie Karen to give him more milkshake. I wish I had video so you could hear the cute sound he makes when he signs please.

Indiana wasn't too sure what his daddy was doing with the camera. We were at Fudruckers for lunch. He was amazingly well behaved for all the people and noise around him. Don't you like his preppy sweater?

Bailey's new boots

Go Riders!!!

I'm not really a football fan, but boy am I happy the Riders just won the Grey Cup. For my American friends, the Grey Cup is the Super Bowl of the Canadian Football League. We haven't won a Grey Cup since 1989, so it was well past due. Here's a story to read about it.

Remembrance Day

So today is Remembrance Day in Canada. We've missed out on this the past few years. I can remember showing someone our wedding pictures in the states, and saying that a picture was taken in the Vimy Memorial. Well the look on his face, he had no idea Canada had been in World War I.

The Vimy Ridge Memorial in Saskatoon

Above is the Vimy Ridge Memorial to Canadian soldiers in France.

Today at church we had a moment of silence, and sang the national anthem. The veterans in the congregation all stood. There were 4 WWII vets there. It was a little moving.

In the paper yesterday there were quite a few in memoriums for WWI and II vets, but also some for Afghanistan. It makes it a little closer to home.

Here is a link to Canada's role in World War I and Canada's role in WWII

Shopping Carts

Ok, so when my family moved here from Illinois, we noticed that at the grocery stores you had to put a quarter into the shopping cart to unlock it, and then when you put it back in the shopping cart rack, you get your 25 cents back. Well then some stores upgraded so that now you need a whole dollar (a loonie) coin to get your shopping cart. I always thought this was kinda weird, but good incentive to return your shopping cart.
Well since Jeff and I have been in Kentucky, I have enjoyed the world of not having to keep loose change in your car to get a shopping cart. Now that I am back in Saskatoon, I am always scrounging for the appropriate coinage depending on what store I am at.
Last night Jeff and I went to Dairy Queen for a late night snack, and I was a dollar short, so I used the loonie from the glove box to pay for our treats.
This afternoon we went grocery shopping. So we pull into the lot and I exclaim "Oh no, I don't have any change for the shopping cart!". Jeff says, wait there is a loonie in the glove box. I said well no, remember we used it last night. Then Jeff looks up at the shopping carts and see's that the one on the end isn't locked up. Meaning that the loonie is still in it, and we can just take it. But there are other people going to get carts too. I yell at Jeff to go get the cart, he yells at me to get the re-usable grocery bags. So as Jeff goes running from the car I yell out the door, "You get the cart, I'll get the bags!!" Jeff ran up to the carts, and gets there just before some other guy and he got the free shopping cart. Phew! We only had 75 cents, so I don't know how we would have gotten a cart if we hadn't gotten the free one!

vote update

I should mention that when my NDP candidate was here, he did talk about a bridging program between LPN's and RN's, but as a union guy and health employee, he said he didn't really know that it would work. It would be like taking from Peter and giving to Paul. There is a LPN shortage too. Also this wasn't really the party's platform, just something we discussed.

Now for the exciting news. I was at the Farmers Market this morning, and well premier Lorne Calvert was there. So I talked to him. I asked him if this bridging program does happen, what does the SRNA think about it? He asid he didn't know, that it was a good idea in theory, but that he didn't know if the SRNA would be ok with it or not. He would have to ask his health minister about it. He said the Healthcare system is so rigid, and that change happens very slowly there. Which is all true. I told him I didn't know who to vote for yet, that I wanted a minority government, but I didn't know what I thought about my SaskParty candidate, so I didn't know if I should vote NDP so that the SP guy doesn't win, or if I should vote Liberal in the hope there is a minority government. He said most people are voting very stratigically in this election, and thanked me for thinking about them.
Well that was nice.
And then a reporter from Edmonton interviewed me. He siad what was interesting about this election is that our province is in a state of prosperity right now, and the NDP may not get re-elected. And normally this would be a sure thing for them. So I talked a little bit about how people are a little impatient and they want change to happen faster. He asked why I wouldn't vote for the SaskParty and it's really that I am not a conservative. I never have like a conservative platform, and I don't like this one either.

So considering the polls, the Liberals may not get any seats, and that's a little worrisome for me.

No comments yet, and I want to know what everyone else is thinking!

How to vote.

I love election time. I love having the candidates come to my door and answering my questions. This year I e-mailed each candidate to let them know I was looking forward to talking to them. Then one day I was at work and they all came by when I wasn't home. So I had to call them all and they came back, well except for one.

To start, here's a little thought. We come form a province that has traditionally shunned the Liberal party. Have you ever thought about what if our province had a Liberal government when the Liberals with in power nationally? Would we have been treated any different? We have two parties represented provincially that are also national parties. The Liberals and the NDP. The Saskparty is it's own little party that only represents Saskatchewan. Although it has strong ties to the Conservatives, it's not the same. All that being said, you still have to vote on what is best for the province.

So here's how I see it at the moment. I really really liked my NDP candidate. He works in healthcare as well, and he figured there needed to be someone in there who actually has something to do with healthcare.
I don't know how I feel about the NDP right now. They have made some progress and you know, things like roads, and a severe nursing shortage don't get fixed oevrnight. So you should give them some credit that the wait list is shorter than before, there are now better incentives for nurses to come back to Saskatchewan, or to stay here after school, and there has been some progress on roads such as highway1 and the road from Stoon to Lloyd. The NDP guy admitted to me that working on the nursing shortage will take a while. A new day surgery centre has already opened in Regina to help with waiting times and there is already plans in the works for a Saskatoon day surgery centre.


The Saskparty guy never came back, and although I have called his office many times, I haven't heard from him or the healthcare critic they promised would call. What exactly is "enterprise Saskatchewan". Would they really privatize the crowns? And what if the first thing they do is pass a bill that elections will be every 4 years no matter what. Well then what if they aren't good, then no one can force an election before there is damage done. This applies to any party, but the Saskparty is the only one talking about making elections every 4 years. And how exactly do they plan to pay for recruiting and retaining nurses? And where do they plan to find 800 nurses? He did say something to Jeff about LPN's, and I don't really know what the plan is there.

The Liberal guy came by, and though he was in a hurry, he answered my questions. There was mention of a bridging program for LPN's to become RN's. Of course it will take a while to deal with the shortage. They would like to set up day surgery centre's to open up OR time (and so do the NDP). All good. But the most important thing, we all know there is not going to be a Liberal government. So I asked what will happen if there is a minority government and he gets elected. The Liberals could have a swing vote if they get enough seats. So he assured me that they would vote on a vote by vote basis, and they would remain Liberal.

Now I have no idea how the SRNA feels about this "bridging program" the various parties are talking about. That will be interesting to see how it plays out.

Some issues being discussed around the hospital are, heart surgeries. Apparently the wait list in Saskatoon is much longer than the one in Regina (this is just gossip mind you). Also heart surgeries in Saskatoon are often cancelled because there are not enough ICU beds. If there is not an ICU bed available, than no heart surgeries that day. Until there are more beds, with the nurses to staff them, this will be an ongoing problem. So which party is going to fix that? These are not easy issues.

So in the last few years, the NDP has had a majority government. That means that the SaskParty has had to just sit back and watch. Be vocal, but watch because they didn't have the numbers to do anything about it.
Now if there was a minority government, then either party would have to lobby for votes in order to get anything passed. So the Liberal party could say, ok we'll vote for you if you change this and this. That way the bills get changed or watered down a little bit, which has potential to be a very good thing.

So what does everyone else think?

Survey

So tonight I handed out candy to the first trick-or-treaters at our door. I was telling Jeff about them, and he got this panicked look on his face and asked where the paper was. I said "What paper?" He said there should be a paper by the door to write down how many trick-r-treaters there are. I told him no-one does that. He said his parents do, and his grandma did, and his auntie Heatehr does it. Well I said that was wierd and you know how many kids come by how much candy you give out. He thinks I am wierd. So he frantically found some paper and pen and has been marking down how many kids come to our door.
So the question is, how do you keep track of how many trick-or-treaters come to your door. Or do you bother? Please post a comment, or send an e-mail.

Indiana's First Birthday

We went to my sisters for Canadian Thanksgiving, and celebrated Indiana's (our nephew) birthday a few weeks early. I made cake, and I'm so proud of it:) Here are some pictures:)
One for me, one for Indiana.

He just got up from a nap and was soooo cuddly.


Presents!!!

Watch the video of him eating cake. He got the "sugar shakes". It was hilarious!!!

His Royal Cuteness

Just thought I would share a picture of Mr. Popular sitting on my couch. I like being an aunt.

Before and After

Here are a few before and after pictures of our house. Keep in mind that it is a work in progress. We have lots of pictures to hang, and have to do the floors in the kitchen and dining room still.

The Dining Room before, notice the nice hanging cupboards in the right hand corner. They had gold plastic inserts.

After

The Kitchen Before

After

The Living Room Before

After

More Living Room

And here are some after pictures of the master bedroom and mast bath. I don't have any before pictures on this computer.



The chocolate brown is in the toilet room:) It's my favorite!!

Hockey Game

We went to the Canada-Russia hockey game in Saskatoon. It was a part of the super-series, and it was game number 6. Canada had won every game so far, and they won this one too:) We had a lot of fun watching hockey in Canada again. It was the amateurs, but a good place to see some up and comers.

Waskesiu

Waskesiu Lake

We went up to Waskesiu for the September long weekend. It was a nice relaxing vacation away from the constant work of owning a new home. It rained on Saturday, so we only went for a short hike, and spent the rest of the day napping, relaxing and eating. On Sunday it was beautiful. We went canoeing on the hanging hearts lakes, and had lunch outside before coming back home.

A view from our Canoe.
A caterpillar we saw on our hike.

The place we rented our canoe from.

Trip Home part 4

After leaving our campsite, we headed to Kenora. It is a beautiful little town close to the border of Manitoba and Ontario. It has a little lake right in the middle of town. And it was farmers market day. So we stopped and had lunch at the farmers market. It was very nice:)
And then we got into Manitoba, or Manitoilet as some people call it. It is so boring driving through there. No hills, just straight road and wheat. At least in Saskatchewan the road turns a bit and there are some rolling hills.
Anyway, we made it to my sisters and got to spend the night with our nephew Indiana. Indiana liked Bailey a lot. Here are some pic's.
The next day we finally made it to Saskatchewan. We were pretty happy to be on familiar roads and in we couldn't seem to make it to Saskatoon fast enough. Bailey was sick of being in the car, as were we. We rolled in about 4 or so, and were very happy to be in Saskatoon:)

Trip Home part 3

So the next day was not only our longest day of driving, I had to stop every hour to take a picture, or go to a gift shop, or go to the bathroom. I was driving us both crazy. So it took FOREVER.
First we had to stop at White River. I have a picture of me when I was 10 sitting in front of the sign that has a big thermometer stating that White River was the coldest place in Canada at -72C. When I don't know. I have a picture of me when I was 20 in front of the same sign, but this time it said the second coldest place in Canada. So I had to get a picture in front of the same sign, but this time it didn't even say anything about being the coldest anything. And the gift shop wasn't anywhere near as nice as I remembered it.

I am including some scenic shots from the hourly stops we made to take pictures.

We stopped in Thunder Bay and of coarse had to go to the Terry Fox Memorial. When Terry Fox had to stop his run across Canada because his cancer came back, he was just outside of Thunder Bay.
We finally made it to our campsite just outside of Dryden. It was at Sandbar Lake. Our site was perfect, it actually had steps up to a little grassy area where our tent was.

Trip Home part 2

So after we took the ferry across to Manitoulin Island, we drove up to a little town called Espanola. There we stopped at a little fish and chip stand. I love stopping for fries in Ontario, they have these little fry stands on the side of the road where the make fresh cut fries, then you can add whatever toppings you want, like salt and vinegar. Jeff had never been to one of these places before, so we stopped, Bailey could sit outside with us, and the guy gave us a bowl of water for Bailey. It was great:)
We kept going and just outside of Sault St. Marie we saw a little baby bear on the side of the road. No obvious sign of the mommy bear, so we kept going without a picture.
Then we got into Lake Superior Provincial Park. The scenery was beautiful. We got up to the far end of the park and camped at Rabbit Blanket lake.
Well, earlier in the day I was driving and I accidentally ran over a chipmunk. It wasn't on purpose, it ran out in front of the car and I didn't even have time to swerve. I felt it crunch under both tires, and then when I looked in my rear view mirror I saw it bouncing down the highway. We had to pull over and have a moment.(see picture below) When we set up our campsite, there were little chipmunks everywhere. They were trying to steal Bailey's food, and Bailey would chase them into the trees. So we had to put a little bear bell on Bailey so we could keep track of him. Then we even had to resort to putting Bailey into the tent. He was so funny, he would still try to chase the chipmunks, but he would just run into the tent wall. Well one of the chipmunks was plotting how to get the food. It stopped at the edge of our campsite and stared at me, as if to say "Hello, My name is Inigo Montoya, you killed my father, prepare to die." Silly little chipmunks.
It was a nice little campground and we even found time to go swimming in the lake.

Trip home

We left Lexington on Saturday morning the 28th of July. We were sad to leave and it was hard to go.
we had to make it to my Grandma's that day, so we drove to Port Huron Michigan. We had to stop on the American side first to "export" our vehicle. After all the stress we went through getting our papers sent in ahead of time, it was not that stressful. We stood in line and watched other people get yelled at for things like going to the bathroom and who knows what else. Then when it was our turn, they just photocopied our title and let us go. I even had to tell them I needed to give up my TN. Then we get to the Canadian side. We walked into the building and they said, "oh well welcome back, we're glad to have you!". No problems there.
Then we went to my Grandma's house. Grandma was waiting for us, and we had pizza for dinner. When we were kids Grandma would always use us as an excuse to get pizza, because she liked it and Grandpa didn't.
Grandma really enjoyed Bailey, and he loved her too, I think he especially loved the table scraps. Now Grandma is getting up there, and she really can't cook much anymore, so when someone is there to help her, she wants to cook. So the next morning I was up at 6am with Grandma starting a roast, making eggs for breakfast, and trying to get Jeff out of bed to help me:)
This is a picture of the part of Ontario where my Grandma lives.
That day we went on to Owen Sound to have supper with my cousins on my mom's side. That was fun:) There were new babies to meet, and lots of catching up to do. And Jeff had to meet my cousins still. And that area is so pretty.
After supper we drove up to Tobermory to spend the night. We were booked on the ferry for the next morning. So we walked around the town a bit, got some ice cream, and checked into our hotel for the night. Tobermory was very beautiful. You really felt like you were in a small oceanside town.
The ferry ride takes about two hours. We had to sit on the promenade deck with Bailey, as that was the ony place you could have dogs. The views were amazing, we got some good pics:)

Saskatoon

We are in Saskatoon. We are working on the house, our moving truck gets here on Tuesday!!! We will write a much more informative blog later. For now just know that we are here.

Green Tomatoes

I love Fried Green Tomatoes. Not just the movie, but the food. Living down here, I have gotten pretty good at making them too. On Saturday morning I went to the farmers market and bought some good green tomatoes, and that night we went to a Canada Day / 4th of July party at my friends house. I made a nice little Canada day cake (I'll post the picture later). We had a little BBQ, and then later on came the tomatoes. You cut the tomatoes nice and thin, dip them in egg, then batter them in Jiffy corn muffin mix, you can add some sugar, and if you want salt and pepper. Then fry them in olive oil (as Dana says "ol"). I like to eat them with apple cider vinegar. Some people eat them with ketchup, although other people think that's blasphemous. Jeff and I had them again today too. When we get home we will have to plant some tomatoes in our yard. I don't think the stores in Saskatoon will have a whole display area of green tomatoes in the summers like the stores do here.

Possesion Date

Today is our possesion date. So we now officially own our home. It doesn't really feel that different, mainly because we are not there, but also because I've had a key to the house since I was in Saskatoon a few weeks ago. But it's still a special day. And it's Canada Day!!