I know you've been missing him

It's been 6 whole days since I've blessed you all with cuteness. O's been a very easy little guy the last few days because all he's done is sleep. I assume it's another growth spurt because he's eating like a horse too. Whatever the reason I'm loving it. I've been sewing obsessed trying to get my amautik done while still keeping up my browsing for nothing specific on the internet and getting a few scrapbook pages done. Yeah, I try and get some house work done during those naps too but admittedly not as much as I should. Am I selfish to be willing to live in filth so I can have more 'me' time? Yup, I think that's pretty much the definition of selfish but hey, that's who I am.

Anyway, I know you've all been in withdrawal so I won't keep you waiting any longer. Here he is....



Lovin' the bubble bath.

His tongue is always out these days.

Ok, now that you've had your O fix I'm out. That's all I have for today.

I'm here to save your sanity

This was my latest Facebook status update.

Morena Kelly Steeves Thank god I finally figured out how to get rid of certain people from my homepage. Some people's status updates are just tooo much. I couldn't stand it anymore.

My FB homepage is one of my first stops when I log on to my computer in the morning. I admit that I check it several times a day and always come up annoyed. My biggest pet peeve is the announcement of how John Smith is doing in Bejeweled . Or that Sally Doe got 100% on her 80's movie quiz. Farmville, and Mafia Wars... it goes on and on. Then there are the people who post the flowery, 'Oprah'-ish updates about how wonderful everything is that make me wonder if they are trying to hide how truly unhappy they really are. And I'm sure everyone has someone who posts updates that are just too personal or that you can tell they are just begging to be asked what's up? Do I really need to know the details of your latest breakup by only reading your updates?

Well it's seems I'm not the only one because I got MANY comments on my status asking how I achieved this state of utter bliss. I'm guessing that if so many of my FB friends wanted this knowledge I figured you out there in blog land might want it too. So here it is.

When you see an annoying update on your homepage, hover your mouse over the post. On the right hand side you'll see the word 'Hide' appear. Click on it and you'll get the option to hide the person or the application or both. The level of satisfaction is high and immediate. You will probably have recurrences as FB comes up with new things but it seems you'll only have to do it once. I now have a wonderfully readable page with updates from people I actually want to hear about. Oh, and by the way, if you ever want to bring anyone back up you can go to the bottom of your homepage and click 'edit posts'. It will give you the option to add people back in.

So that's my public service for the day. I hope this knowledge gives you the happiness that it has given me.

My new- not so favorite- word

NO!

How much do I hate this word. I hate it because I'm a girl that wants what she wants and wants it now. And I'm usually lucky enough to get what I want. I'm not a NO kind of person. Then how is it that I'm now saying this terrible negative at least a thousand times a day? NO, don't put your hands in the dog dish. NO, don't pull my hair. NO, don't put that in your mouth. NO, you can't stand up in the bathtub...... I could go on but I think you get it. I'm not sure why I bother because he doesn't understand the word yet. Or maybe he just wants what he wants and is choosing to ignore me. Interesting theory. Hereditary trait?

I can hear your thoughts now. Get used to it, it's only going to get worse and I know your right. But I don't have to like it. I want what I want and I want a child who I don't have to keep saying no to. Too much to ask for?? Probably. I don't think I'll be getting this want any time soon.

Health care?

As much as I enjoy living in the north there are some frustrations. I take them in stride because you have to, things don't just work like they do down south. The latest example of this came to a head on Monday. Four weeks ago today Nick and I took Oliver into the health center to get some blood drawn. Long story short it seems he may be anemic so the blood tests would confirm this or not. The first week we went in but the health centre was closed because of the massive amounts of flu in town. The nurses were run off their feet and were not dealing with anything accept for flu related illness and emergencies. I get that, no problem. We'll come back next week. The following week we went again but didn't get the blood drawn because the weather was bad, and was forcasted to stay bad. Bad weather = no planes = late blood delivery. So we'd more than likely have to do it again. Once again, no problem. Nobody controls the weather. Third times a charm right? Yup, we went in, got the test done and were waiting for the results, Monday or so at the latest. Well, by Tuesday we hadn't heard so I stopped in to ask. Would believe that all the blood taken that day (the Wednesday before) had only delivered to the lab on Monday? I won't go into detail on why but lets just say it's typical.

As I said, I take it all in stride because that's just the way things are here sometimes. Please know this was not the fault of the nurses here, they did what they were supposed to and were much more upset about it than I was. But then again, I'm not the one who has to redo all those blood draws, and many of them babies. Luckily, Oliver seems relatively immune to pain and barely made a peep when stuck so I'm sure it's not much of a bother to him. I do feel bad for other mothers as I'm sure their kids aren't so stoic. Attempt number four will be next week. Good thing it's not a life threatening situation.

Extreme close up

8 months

I try to do a little photoshoot with O on or around each month-aversary. I pretend I'm a photographer and do a background, with props and try to make them nice frame worthy pictures. I love seeing how he's growing and changing every month in a posed photo. hmmm, I said posed. That's getting much more difficult now that he's on the move. I set up our shoot today and didn't get one good shot.

There he goes.

Right off the set.

Then I added Tanko to the mix. Bad idea. Neither would stay still so both are blurry.

Finally Tank struck a pose but O was long gone.

You know what they say.... 'Never work with kids or animals'. Maybe we'll try again tomorrow.

So many ways to travel

I have recently started sewing my new amautik. Why do I need another one? No reason accept I don't have a lighter weight one for the summer and I wanted to make one for myself. You may note that it's now the end of August and summer is over. Reason number two however still applies. Anyway, it got me thinking about Oliver's many modes of transportation and I realised that I just may be the 'Queen of Carriers'. Lets count shall we? We have 2 strollers, an amoutik, an amoutik vest, a car seat, a Snuggly, Nick's backpack carrier and finally a Cuddle Wrap. I even have another vest to wear him in but I took it apart to fix it and haven't put it back together yet. And now (or someday) I'll have the new amautik.



I know, it's ridiculous. Maybe TV isn't my only addiction. But I swear I use them all!

Just because he's cute

Oliver's hat kept me laughing all through dinner. He didn't try and take it off once.

Near disaster

On Thursday night someone noticed that the garage which houses the hamlet's 3 water trucks was billowing smoke. Luckily they got the doors open in time and were able to save two of the three trucks. They incurred some damage but with some cleaning are now back on the road. The third one was where the fire started and it's done.

I got to thinking about what luck it was that the others were saved. The water truck is the northern household's life line. With limited delivery since, we have been forgoing things like laundry and the dishwasher, just in case it took them a while to get to us. Tonight, just as I put Oliver down I saw the truck outside. The first time since the fire. YES!!! I get to tub tonight!

I love taking baths. Not to get clean, just to soak and read a good book. I know, it's a waste of water but we all have our weaknesses. Since I missed my soak the last few nights I enjoyed tonight's more than usual.

Night time returns

It's so nice to have dark skies again and to be able to see the northern lights. They truly never get old. I have tried several times to get decent pictures but my skills and my camera were lacking and I've always ended up with a completely black exposure. I was thrilled when Jen offered to take me out and teach me how to do it right. So with my new Nikon and my newly acquired knowledge, these are the best ones I took.

I'm happy with them for a first try but I have alot to learn. I think I should have taken notes. To get a really good look at our night out please check out Jen's pics here.

Update

I wanted to post a short video update on O's walker. Now that he's up and running in it I'm so thrilled that we went to the trouble to get it and drag it up here. He loves it! It keeps him busy when I'm in the kitchen and he insists on being near me. That means I love it too. My only regret is that he doesn't have more room to really go. The basement I grew up in would be perfect.

Beach day, Dorset style

With all the HOT weather across the country, pictures of my friends and their kids at the beach have been all over Facebook. I'm not really jealous because I'm not much of a beach girl. Unless of course it's February and there's an all inclusive resort and swim up bar involved. Even so, when Jen (you know, Jen of Nunavut) suggested we hit the beach to enjoy today's stellar weather I thought it would be a great opportunity to add my own beach pictures to the mix.

Yummy... rocks.

Ezri's lookin' hot in her bonnet. O is checking her out.

Smile

Have you ever seen a bulldog smile?

Scrapping for the future

I was introduced to digital scrapbooking here in Dorset by my friend Linda. I had always loved the idea of scrapbooking but was annoyed with the amount of cutting and measuring involved. Not to mention all the tools and stuff you need to buy. I can't imagine having to drag everything out and put it all away every time I want to work. To go digital all you need is a photo editing program and a credit card.

I use Photoshop Elements because that's what Linda used and it seems to work well. The rest of the stuff you need, like papers and embellishments you can get on the web. You can actually accumulate alot of stuff for free, the rest you can buy. Most things are sold in packages that are theme based and are color coordinated. For example you can get 'biggie' packages that have 8 papers and dozens of embellishments for around $12.99. The site I use the most is Scrapgirls. If you sign up for their newsletter you get a 'freebie' 6 days a week. Digifree, Digishop, DS Free, Scrapbook Flair and Shabby Princess are others I've used. I'm sure there are a million more if you search for them. One secret... you can get alot of good stuff from Google Images too. Just use your quick selection tool to cut it out.

You can pretty much do anything in digital that you can do with paper and so much more. The best part, if you love a certain paper but it's the wrong color... No problem, you can change it. You can change the color of embellishments to match your picture too. Anything goes. To make things look more realistic you can add shadows and other effects to give your layouts the 3D look you'd get the old fashioned way. I would highly recommend buying Scrapbook Software Secrets Revealed from the Scrapgirls Boutique. It shows you how to get started and lots of cool tricks to make great layouts.

Once you have enough layouts done you can go to a website like Shutterfly and make a photo book of your work. I'm sure there are also many photo places that do it. You can print them out yourself but if you use the traditional 12x12 layout size you'd have to have a special printer. 8x8 layouts can be printed on your regular printer.

Since starting I've become a little obsessed. I make layouts for holidays and send them to my family as cards. I'm working on a baby book for Oliver and eventually plan to do a photo book of our wedding and honeymoon pictures. So far I've used a very simple style but I look in envy at some of the layouts on the mentioned sites. Some people are doing really beautiful things and I'm learning from them. At the risk of putting my creative endeavours on trial, here are a few I'm pretty happy with.

Of course my favorite subject is my boy.
A tribute to my other boy.I used a photo for my paper in this one.
This one is a double page (12x24) layout. I couldn't get it to show any bigger here. It's one of my favorites so far.

A word of caution for my northern readers. If you have a gig allotment on your Internet service you could run up against your limit pretty quickly. I always buy and download lots when I go down south.

Fondue for two

Last night Nick and I went on a date to this great little place we know. Ok, we had dinner at our own kitchen table but there was a tablecloth and a candle. Our evenings together lately have consisted of us watching an episode of whatever DVD series we are currently into while I scrapbook or blog on the laptop. Not so conducive to dialogue. I decided we were overdue for some quality time.

I highly recommend a fondue for your next date night. It's a meal that takes a while to get through and there is lots of time between bites to talk. It's a great way to reconnect with the one you love.

Now I'm satisfied

I had been feeling unsatisfied with the look of my blog since I set it up. Nick put it nicely, it was too BLUE. I finally decided it was time to find another template that I liked so I've spent the last 24 hours checking out a few. If you were viewing late last night you may have seen several different versions. I found quite a few I liked but I've settled on this one because it's simple. And I love the black. I found this and hundreds of other great templates on BTemplates. They have something there for every taste and best of all... They're FREE!

I hope you like the new look.

I may need a 12 step program

Hello, My name is Morena and I'm a recovering TV addict.

Do I get a chorus of 'HELLO MORENA'????

I'm not proud of my problem but I've learned to manage it. I used to be the type of addict who is up on every new show that comes on. As most of my shows went off the air over the years I didn't pick up new ones and instead left the box on reruns of things like Friends, Seinfeld and Will and Grace. Since I've seen them all a million times, I can go about my day without fear of having my plans derailed. It's more like background noise.

These days I've been leaving it tuned to Treehouse. Since I have a little one around I figure I should try and keep my noise kid friendly. At 7 1/2 months Oliver has little interest but my problem is rearing it ugly head again. These shows are all new to me and I find myself being sucked in. Do I really need to find out if Harry finds the wind with the help of his bucket full of dinosaurs? And why do I care where Toot and Puddle go on their next adventure? I actually have an excuse for that one. My sister told me there is an episode were they go to Nunavut. I have yet to catch it but I'm still watching. The worst one is 4 Squares. I find the show incredibly annoying but I constantly catch myself checking out Captain Hop's package. Maybe that's a whole different problem

Anyway, even addicts have their limits. Mine is Barney. I decided well before I was a mother that this house would be a Barney free zone. The day I start watching it I'll know I've hit rock bottom.

Cape Dorset Skies

I guess our fantastic summer is over because the temperature has dropped dramatically. The fog has also rolled in and it feels like I haven't seen the sky in weeks. To cheer me up I thought I'd dig up some of my favorite sky pictures.




The sky here is an easy shot, even for a non-photographer like me. It's so beautiful all on it's own you don't need to know anything about aperture or shutter speed to make it look good.

What's in a name?

On the news the other day I saw a story about this woman in Arkansas who's pregnant with her seventh child. She's currently unemployed so she came up with the crazy idea to sell the rights to her baby's legal name on Ebay. She started the bidding at $150 and was apparently hoping to make over $25,000 or more to help buy a "trustworthy car and to relieve her sister's burden of supporting her and her cash-strapped family." To this I say, SERIOUSLY??

Well, I guess you could call it a 21st century method of pan handling. Should I actually give her props for creativity and the fact that she's at least trying to offer up something rather than just having her hand out? I guess I just think that she shouldn't be pregnant at all when she doesn't have a way to support the six children she already has. And what about the kid who could end up with some horrible name. I read one post that said that if they won the auction they would name him 'Mistake #7'.

Before writing this I signed on to Ebay to see what the bid was up to. However, since Fox News broke the story the auction has been removed. I will assume there was no winner since the auction was only scheduled to end today. I'd like to think that she got smart and pulled the add. Or maybe some sugar daddy (or momma) came out of the woodwork and helped her out with a new car, a bunch of cash and hopefully an IUD.

I did notice however that hers was not the only 'charity' auction going on. Another woman, a young mother of three, is claiming her car is dead and needs money to replace it. She's promising a picture of the new car and a thank you note for the winning bid and is hoping to get a Durango. I say again... Seriously??

So am I heartless? Am I the one that's out of touch for thinking that this is very tacky and wrong? I really hope that whatever happens, that poor unborn baby ends up a Timmy or a Johnny.

Achoo and sniff

Many of the northern blogs lately have been posting pics showing the beauty of the local vegetation. I can say for sure I assumed moving here would mean never seeing summer flowers again. Honestly, for me that was almost good news. I have suffered from horrible hay fever since I was very young and I thought I would finally have some relief. No trees or flowers in the summer would mean I wouldn't have to deal with itchy red eyes and the forever running nose.

Turns out I was wrong. There are many beautiful flowers here and my allergies are in full drip. My sneezing is constant and I'm driving Nick crazy. He hates my sneezes. I'm a strange sneezer. I'm sure relief isn't far off since I'm convinced summer is over. It was a better one than alot of Canadians so I won't complain.... as I reach for another kleenex.

The C.D.T.C.

Cape Dorset is a pretty small town. It's actually a hamlet which means it is a VERY small town. But these titles are dictated by population. If you look at the land area it's actually a pretty good size so getting from one end to the other is quite a walk with lots of steep hills.

What if you're too lazy to make the trek? Well, now you can get on The C.D.T.C! The Cape Dorset Transit Company. (That's the name Jen gave it.) The town started this service at the start of the summer and honestly, in the beginning I never saw anyone on the bus. I think it took a while to catch on but now it seems very popular. And by northern standards the price is right, just $2 to get anywhere in town. The designated stops include the Northern and Co-op and all stop signs. Yes, we have stop signs. There are always people waiting at the stores to get on with their grocery bags and I've even seen it bring people to the airport with their luggage before the flights.

I must admit that I had a good laugh when I realised that we have public transit but I now think it's a great idea. I see lots of the elders using it, people with small kids and today a girl with crutches. If you are a tourist here, it's a great way to see the whole town.

As for me, I'm lucky that our house is very centrally located. With the exception of my laziness and that big hill I have to walk up to get home I can easily get to all the important places on foot in just a few minutes. However, I won't say for sure that you won't see me on the bus on those cold and windy winter mornings when I just don't want to walk to the store. That weather is coming soon so I'd better start saving my Toonies.

Amendment: I wrote this the other night but was waiting for the pictures before I posted it. Since writing it I found out that the bus is only temporary. Cape Dorset is getting taxis on the next sealift so the bus service will be suspended when they arrive. I'm a little sad. I was pretty proud of our bus service. I wonder how many other northern communities have a bus.

A Close Call

A horrible scary thing happened to me today. I shutter to think of it but like all experiences you should try and learn from them.

It all started a few weeks ago when our laptop, which is our main computer started acting up. We got the odd 'blue screen of death' but over all it was still working ok. Yesterday the issue came to a head and Nick decided it was time to strip the computer and reinstall windows. That may not be exactly what he said because when he talks computer I hear 'blah blah, blah'. It's not that I don't care but the extent of my techie know how allows me to get my email, upload pictures and write this blog. Anyway, we went ahead and moved all our stuff to our external hard drive so it could be put back on the computer once the repair was finished. Then Nick did his thing and that brings us to today.

So today I excitedly sit down to move everything from the hard drive back onto the computer. I hook it up.... and nothing. I figure it's not plugged in to the wall. I check and it is. I turn it off then back on again. Still nothing. WHAT'S WRONG???? Then it comes back to me. I accidentally knocked the hard drive off the table when I was moving the computer earlier. OH NO! I broke it.

All of Oliver's baby pictures.... all the digital scrapbook layouts for his baby book.... EVERYTHING IS GONE. The tears begin, I'm devastated. What is the chance the hard drive dies on the same day that the computer gets wiped clean?? How can I be so careless that I dropped it.... again. Well, in comes my wonderful husband, riding on his white horse and saves the day. Apparently when he did his techie thing he was able to save the stuff on the computer so all the back up was not necessary. I didn't know that however so the panic was real.

The moral of this story is maybe it's a good idea to have a backup for your back up. At least this is a good moral if you are like me and are a bull in a china shop and don't seem to be careful with your things. I really don't mean to be careless. I like my stuff, I really do try and take care of everything but I have an uncanny knack of breaking things. My mom has been on me about this all my life. Well, I'd like to say that this has finally taught me a lesson. I'm lucky that the hard drive has a 2 year warranty so we'll get a new one and I'm on my way upstairs right now to get disks to download my pictures onto. Maybe I'll make 2 copies of everything just in case I scratch one.

Thanks Nick, you always come to my rescue. Naming you in charge of electronics was our best marital decision to date. I love you. And baby Oliver does too.

Oliver 2 weeks old.

Going Commando

This one is for the Grandmas.

My book tells me it's called 'Commando Crawling' because he's dragging himself along instead of being on his knees. Whatever you call it, he's on the move. I never know where I'm going to find him but he seems to really like being under the coffee table.

Watch out world, here comes Oliver!

Another milestone

I left O to play in his crib last night while I went to run his bath. I came back into the room and there he was... STANDING in his crib! This was his first time pulling himself up on something. Luckily, I was able to run for the camera in time to get the shot.

He's crawling now too. Oh boy...
The chaos begins.