It's All in the Name

So the title for our blog is “Adventures in Teaching (and babysitting)”.  I chose this because originally Tyler was going to contribute entries about teaching, he has since decided not to.  Mostly I think because it is far too easy for him to write all of the negative things that happen and then the blog becomes a space for complaining.  And of course I don’t write about adventures in teaching because as most of you know I am still at home with Reed.  There have been opportunities for me to work however the waiting list for daycare is a yearlong wait and there is just no one to take Reed.  And so the “Adventure in Babysitting” was more of an homage to the 1987 film staring Elizabeth Shue of the same name.  But it was a bit of lie because I really don’t consider staying home with my own child babysitting plus none of my posts have been about babysitting (or baby rearing) at all.  Well that might change.

It turns out the title may have been a little prophetic.  There is a teacher here who has a foster child.  He is 2 years old and after her mom leaves to go back to her own life, the 2 year old needs a babysitter (he of course is on the waiting list for daycare, he has been for a while now). Which as I’m sure you have all guessed is where I come in.  Starting December 8^th I will be babysitting and thus having “Adventures in Babysitting”. Some maybe even worth writing about.  I have to say I’m a little torn about the prospect.  On the one hand, Reed and William get along very well and it will be great for Reed to have someone closer to his own age to socialize with.  William is a very well behaved little boy so it will be a good way to make a little extra cash.  However, I really enjoy just having Reed and I at home.  Reed is napping twice a day, which means that in the AM I get to nap too.  And then in the PM I get to nap a second time or clean up or read a book or do some knitting or get something started for supper.  Take today for instance, with Reed in bed this afternoon I was able to finish the laundry, put a chicken in the oven…with stuffing.  Peel and cut the potatoes, carrots, parsnips and beets and do the dishes.  Before Reed went for a nap I was able to bundle him up and take him in the sled to the store/post office.  I collected our packages (thank you Judi and Dan) and had room in the sled for baby and boxes (I should note that yes we have snow, lot’s of it and pulling a sled is the easiest way to travel with baby and bags/boxes).  Having a second child with me will make getting out and running errands (well errand there isn’t that much to do here) that much more time consuming and complicated.  I’m sure it will actually be fine…but I’m going to miss that morning nap!

The Move

I know…it’s been a long time.  I was going to write yesterday but I couldn’t.  I mean I physically could have but I had nothing nice to say.  You see, yesterday the Red Septic Light of Death came on.  This is not your run of the mill yellow warning you will soon be running out of septic space (no that light came on Saturday) this was the red light, STOP! do not let another drop of water go down the drains.  And to ensure that no water goes down the drains the water is automatically shut off until the sewage is pumped.  So you think well that sucks and I’m sure some of you think oh well you’ll just have to wait a day or two to shower.  Except, because the yellow warning light was on we hadn’t showered in a couple of days.  I know someone suggested showering at the school to save water, except neither school in town have showers, the gym doesn’t have showers and although there is a pool in town and I suspect they will have showers, it’s not open yet.  It was suppose to open September 22^nd, I think they’re saying next week…we’ll see.  (We take a lot of sponge baths here, readying ourselves for one day when we might be bed ridden and it be the only way to clean).  Anyway we ended up going to someone else’s house for showers, a perfectly acceptable thing to do in Salluit, we also took some of her tap water so we could do some dishes.  We have drinking water on hand here but we didn’t want to waste it on dishwashing.  Anyway the septic truck came this morning ( I could have kissed those guys for showing up to work today, not everyone does all the time).  So I’m in a much better frame of mind to be writing today.  Today I can talk about all the great things about Salluit and our new (to us) house.  And I believe I’ve promised some pictures of said house. 

So we moved from our apartment to a house across town.  We liked the apartment because we liked our building members and it was very close to school (30 ish steps) and we lived on the top floor so we had a good view looking over the town towards the mountains.  But the apartment had some drawbacks.  It was small, Reeds room was right beside…well everything.  When he went to bed you had to be somewhat quiet.   (He’s a pretty good sleeper, and we just aren’t that quiet of people), but the doors didn’t block much sound and so it was almost like you were right in his room.  Also we lived upstairs so it was quite the sight watching me try to take a baby, a stroller and groceries up the stairs.  Plus the halls in the building were narrow so if I had the stroller out, no one was getting by us.  But it was home (for a while) and we were pretty comfortable there.

Here is what it looked like

This first picture is our kitchen Reed was playing with the drawers beside the oven and fell, I took this picture about 1/2 after he fell over.  He was quite happy to lay there and "chat".  He did finally roll over, get up and walk away.  He just needed a break from all that playing.  As you can see, the kitchen was not that wide (not even two Reeds).

 Here is the living room.  We actually changed the furniture around so it made more sense, especially when the tv arrived.  This was before all of our stuff arrived and it seems to be the only picture  I have of the living room.

 While taking the picture above and the picture below I was standing in the same place just pivoting to get both shots.

Now let me tell you why I love the house.  It’s two stories, you might think this would be a negative thing since toddlers like to climb (and fall down) stairs. We have a baby gate, in fact I brought a baby gate and I just bought a baby gate from Costco.ca, I love free shipping (but more about that another day).  So the stairs aren’t really a problem.  When it’s Reeds bedtime, he can sleep soundly upstairs, while we watch tv, listen to music, cook, dance, talk whatever we are going to do until bed time.  I’ll admit we don’t usually do a whole lot of dancing…maybe we should start. 

Tyler and Reed making towers with blocks.  (This picture is mid move, hence the chaos).

This is the living room and our little thug.  The dinning room and kitchen are on the other side of those stairs, I don't have a picture at this time.

 I am taking this picture from the dinning room table, if you could see past the stairs you would be looking at the living room.  This is Reed and his little friend Liam.  Under the stairs is Reed's favourite place to play.

I was worried we would lose the view.  But from the upstairs of this house we have a better view, we can see the bay from our upstairs and the mountains that surround it, which are actually pretty nice right now all covered with snow.  We also see ugly parts of town from our upstairs but it’s amazing how quickly you can train your eyes not to see that part.  And it’s pretty amazing what a little snow can cover up.  (A future post will be pictures of the town).

When you come in our house there is a porch, a place to take off your snow covered boots, to hang your huge winter jacket, to store a stroller and big bulky winter gear.  I have also found this room useful if Reed is napping when we get back from a walk.  This room is separated from the rest of the house by a door so it’s quiet and dark in there with the lights off, perfect for napping.

Our new house is a little bit further from school than the apartment was it’s about a 5 to 7 minute walk but we are much closer to the stores.  By stores I mean the two stores in town, the Co-op and the Northern.  Both stores have a little bit of everything.  You can even buy a 10” compound miter saw at the Co-op (I know because Tyler wants to buy it, we’re not going to).  They have everything but it’s expensive.  The Northern houses the post office.  When we moved here the woman who went back south, left us her P.O. Box as well as her house.  There haven’t been P.O.boxes available in town for about 7 ish years now, so we’re pretty lucky to have made friends with her before she left.  She also left us 20 or so pounds of frozen bananas (maybe more, there are a lot of bananas here), so I make banana oatmeal chocolate chip muffins regularly. And she left us two sleds.  She used them for carting groceries.  I will use them for that and for carting a baby around town.

I will (someday) write a blog entry about food and groceries but for now let’s stick to the house. 

Speaking of food, the kitchen is much bigger here and there is plenty more storage in the entire house.  The furniture is in better shape and is much nicer here and we have a huge kitchen table, we could actually have someone over for dinner sometime.

The house is on a corner right on the outskirts of what is called “downtown” Salluit, I kid you not.  Downtown Salluit is known to be loud and boisterous at night, particularly after payday.  We are in a louder part of town than the apartment, but it could be worse, we could live right “downtown”.  Besides it’s getting colder so soon the partiers and kids will have to move inside.  I suspect it will quiet down as the temperature drops.

Oh and it’s a 3 bedroom instead of 2.  Which means we have a workout room/office/sewing room/weaving room/spare room. 

This one is Reed's room.

The spare room.

And I don't have a picture of our room at the moment but here is our huge walk in closet.  (Sorry it's sideways but if I don't publish this entry now, I may never.)  It's even bigger than that, there is more closet behind the door.

So if you’re in the area, I can give you a bed.  I can’t guarantee a shower, but I can give you a place to sleep with a great view.

A Thanksgiving to Remember!

We had a great thanksgiving.  Potluck dinner at one of the teacher’s houses.  There were 3 chickens, stuffing, scalloped potatoes, squash, salad, roasted onions, butternut squash soup, meat balls and delicious cheese cake, there was pumpkin pie too, but I’m not a fan, although I hear it was fantastic.  We had a great time!  There were kids for Reed to play with and the house was all on one floor so he was able to roam relatively free.  The wheels fell off when we made it home.

When we arrived we saw our sewage light was on, in the North we have a septic holding tank and the septic truck comes around and empties it, they’re suppose to come everyday.  That is the contract they have with the school board.  They don’t.  When the septic light comes on your septic tank is almost full, at this point we still have water but you have to be careful because if it gets too full your water shuts off.  Which is good, because that way it can’t overflow.  Anyway, like I said we still had water so things could be worse….oh and they got worse.

As Tyler was trying to figure out who to call to inform them that we needed our septic pumped we had a flurry of activity.  I was trying to feed a cranky and tired baby.  Tyler was tracking down numbers and calling wrong numbers and answering calls we were getting. In the midst of the commotion we got a call asking if we would be willing to take in two little girls for the night.  They needed a place to sleep.  We didn’t ask what the situation was, at the end of the day the “why” is not so important.  Anyway we said we couldn’t really take them that night, we don’t have beds for them since Reed’s room only has a crib.  I mean we would have moved his crib in our room and they could have had his room but they would have been on the floor.  And we had no septic.  It just didn’t make sense that night, but Tyler said to the woman, "Don’t loose our number or anything but we just can’t do it tonight."  And that’s basically how we ended up on the emergency fostering list.

As the evening went on we realized it was getting colder and colder in our apartment.  Yep you guessed it the furnace broke.  We are in an apartment so our furnace is in a utility room with a locked door, so we couldn’t even go see if there was something we could do ourselves.  So Tyler got back to the phones.  

Side note here :  During off hours, the only way to get a septic truck to your house is to call the radio and they announce it and you hope the truck drivers are listening and are willing to go to your house.  In our case, they were not.   This was all going down Sunday evening, it is Monday evening as I write and we still have a full septic but I’ll get back to that later.

Tyler calls the principal and the Director to explain about our no heat problem.  The exchange went something like this.

Tyler “Hi, it’s Tyler so we have no heat, the furnace is broken”

Principal “Well we don’t have any maintenance guys right now [one quite, one was fired]  so you’ll have to call the Director”

Tyler “Hi, It’s Tyler, so we have no heat, the furnace is broken.”

Director “Hi Tyler, we have no maintenance guys right now.”

Tyler “Yes, I know but we have no heat.”

Director “Well, we have no maintenance guys, I don’t know what to do.”

Tyler “Ok, but we have a baby here and no HEAT!   We need to do something”

Director “You will have to call the other director, he might know.”

The other director eventually came and fixed the furnace.  He doesn’t seem to really

know much about furnaces but what he knows works and we get heat….At this point any guilt about not taking the two girls is totally gone since it was a bit of a gong show here. 

I should say that during all of this, one of the other people who lives in our building (and had heat and a working septic) offered us a place to sleep if we needed it and offered us supper, I went down and ate (it was a girls potluck/tv night at her house, I didn’t take anything.  Everyone understood). Tyler opted to staye home and eat leftovers, talk to the director when he arrived, and stay with Reed.  Meanwhile Reed was in bed sleeping in a long sleeve onesie, fleece pj’s, a fleece sleep sack and a blanket over him.  He had no idea anything was going on and was happy and cozy in bed, until the heat came on and I had to start unlayering him. (I may have been a little over cautious getting him dressed for bed).

So it was at least a memorable first Thanksgiving in the north.  And we learned a few valuable lessons.  Like always keep extra water on hand (we have lots’).  And now we know what great neighbors we have. 

Tomorrow is Tuesday.  We called the radio again today, no septic truck came.  We’re not even sure we have a working truck in town.  As of last week 2 of the 3 septic trucks were broken and I’m pretty sure no one worked today.  Which means by tomorrow there will be many more people than us needing the septic truck.  I hope it comes tomorrow because we would all love to have a shower, wash the dishes, flush the toilet.  But I won’t get my hopes up….I’ve learned that lesson too.  Things happen on their own time here.

Mussels and Clams

So….I’ve been realizing this blogging thing is a little more difficult than I first anticipated.  Not because it’s hard to write about what I’ve been up to, mostly because I’m having a hard time actually sitting down and typing it out.  So here is finally installment 2 of Adventures in teaching (and babysitting). 

I went mussel picking, clam digging and berry picking.  Now I totally realize the irony here. I left PEI, home of what are probably the most famous mussels around, and a place where clams can be dug (albeit illegally) while your spending the day at the beach as long as the tide is out.).  So I went with a teacher friend of Tyler’s.  She is Inuit and her and her family were taking a canoe to an island where they are building a summer cabin and then on to her late mothers favourite berry picking spot and their favourite clam digging shore.

It was pretty great! I have pictures to speak for me so I don’t actually have to write a huge long blog like the last one.  But I will say, it was cold.  At one point I was wearing, cotton socks, wool socks, and wool booties in rubber boots, I had jeans and snowpants on along with a t-shirt a fleece sweater, a down filled winter jacket, a rain coat over that and a huge rain proof pancho on the way home (to help keep the wind from freezing me), a hat and mittens. On the way home my teeth were still chattering, but it was fun and I’m glad I got to go.  Without further ado here are the photos.

Here we are heading out to sea, or at least out of the bay.

 This is the beginning of the cabin (in the backround) and the tent where they stay while working on the cabin.  There were really high winds earlier in the week so we were there to clean up a bit and take some camping gear back to town since it will soon be too cold to camp out there.

This is where we docked the boat for berry picking.

This is what I climbed up to get to the berry picking spot.

And this is what I climbed down.  At this point I feel I should explain that Reed was safely back in town being babysat by the teachers sister.  I also should mention after climbing all the way up there, the geese had eaten all the berries and we left pretty much empty handed.

That in the distance is rain coming towards us, by the time it got to us it was snow but we were heading back anyway so we didn't get snowed on much.

This is where we were clam digging and you can't see them but there are mussels everywhere just lying in the shallow water.

Same place different angle.

This is the teacher's niece and the fish she caught.  These fish do get eaten but when I asked the teacher if her niece was going keep it an eat it she said "no, it's just a toy now." When she was done playing with she let him go.

Same fish.

And here are the clams, I really didn't dig that many, mostly because I don't like clams, so I was really just digging them for Tyler and they are hard work to dig so enough for a taste was plenty.

 Here is Tyler pulling them apart, they are different from the clams in PEI and you can't just boil them you have to pull off this skin like stuff first.

They also don't have 'tongues' as we call them in PEI they have a different protrusion, the Inuit call them penises.  (in inutittut of course but I can't remember what that word it right now.)

And here they are just before we boiled them.  I should mention that here in Northern Quebec, they don't cook them, they just eat 'em raw.  Since I don't like clams in the first place I couldn't muster the stomach to try them raw.  Maybe next time :(

It was a fun filled day, and I didn't even get motion sick.  

I love Air Inuit!

It’s true I love Air Inuit.  Let me start at the beginning.  

Wednesday September 11^th, Reed (10 months) and I (29 years) left PEI for Montreal.  We would overnight there and catch an Air Inuit flight to Salluit on the 12^th.  I’ve flown with Reed before, by myself even, so I was pretty sure I could handle it.  At the times of his last flights however, he couldn’t crawl or move around much, so I was a little worried about containing him to our seat since he and I were sharing one.  We ended up sitting beside a lovely man who has 3 children of his own.  He was super understanding and even let Reed climb all over him for a half and hour or so to give me a break.  I love Islanders!  Anyway this was an Air Canada flight.  As far as Air Canada flights go it was fine.  The flight attendant however was on a power trip.  I witnessed a couple of instances where I thought if it were me, I wouldn’t have bothered with that one, or at the very least I would have asked politely first and snarky second.  He opted for snarky right off the bat. 

So he asked me if I needed a briefing for Reed, I said no.  I’ve flown with him before.  Plus I can still recite said briefing from my own flight attendant days (although I didn’t bother to tell him that).  Now the problem with holding Reed in the proper position for take off and landing is that he is big (as in tall) and he is strong.  If he doesn’t want to sit like that, his height gives him leverage and he can basically push away and sit however he likes.  Plus I have a limited space to work with, whereas he is not concerned with hitting/pulling on the people around us for support. 

We took off, to my utter delight Reed didn’t start crying (I was worried his ears would bother him).  Right after take off, the flight attendant got out of his seat to come and tell me that I was not holding the baby properly.  My reply “I know”.  His reply “you are suppose to hold him like this” shows with his arms using air as a baby.  My reply “I know, thanks”.  His reply - starring at me.  Now I was about to say, “You know you’re not suppose to be up yet.”  But I still had a 1 ½ hour flight with this man and I know from experience it is unwise to piss off the flight attendant.  He did eventually stop staring, and returned to his seat and buckled himself in because he was in fact up too early!!  My seat partner just laughed.  After the seat belt sign went off and the flight attendants were finished serving drinks he got up to go to the bathroom.  On the way back he stopped to speak to his friend where he stayed standing and chatting to give me and Reed room.  That is, he stayed there until the flight attendant made an announcement that even though the seat belt sign is OFF anyone standing should be in their seats.   My eyes are rolling involuntarily as I recall the event and write it here. 

So we land in Montreal, and I manage to find the hotel, (thankfully attached to the airport).  I’m sure people looked at me and thought ‘that poor woman’  I had Reed attached to me with his sling and I was pushing a cart with 2 suitcases and his stroller.  I got a lot of stare.  But to be honest I was a little impressed with myself. 

Finally, why I love Air Inuit

We made it to check in no problem.  The lady at the counter was out of connection tags for the stroller, which isn’t a big deal, but does make it more likely to end up at the wrong airport.  But she said “I’ll see you at the gate and bring one with me”  and she did, crisis averted.   She also blocked off the seat beside me so we could have 2.  I could have hugged this woman.  We were late boarding, which I’ve come to understand is typical (I was prepared for this and so was not expecting to be on time and therefore was not stressed)  Plus you can’t miss a connection flying north because there is usually only one plane coming into and going out of each town.  As long as you make it to Montreal on time, you’re good. 

Air Inuit has to be one of the last airlines that feed you!  From Montreal to Le Grande we got breakfast.  The egg wasn’t half bad.  I didn’t eat the potatoes (they were pretty soggy) and I didn’t eat the mystery meat because  it was, well…unidentifiable.  It might have been fried bologna so I left that.  But they had a yogurt, a piece of banana bread, a piece of cheese and a juice plus a drink service.  It was plenty of breakfast.  And not only did I have my seat and the blocked off seat, but the man on the aisle said “I’ll just sit over here on the aisle because it’s empty and you guys can have all 3 seats.”  These reasons alone are still not why I love this airline.  So we make it to P.O.V, the town is actually called Puvirnituq I have no idea why it’s called P.O.V for short.  And we wait for our connection, and then we wait some more, it felt really long (hours and hours) but it ended up being 1 ½ hours late so basically we waited in the airport including connections time 3 hours.  We got on board, and since we were late the Pilot came out (no P.A. system for this guy!) introduces himself and explains since we are so late they are going to serve us supper.  Club sandwich (with REAL mayonnaise), not made on the airplane either, made inside with real chicken, not deli meat! a bag of party mix and a can of pop …who does that!  It was actually quite tasty.  And we were off.

There are 2 stops between P.O.V. and Salluit at the second stop we were told we have to deplane so the pilots can check the weather and see if we are continuing on or not.  Panic set in.  Remember I am travelling alone, we are in Ivujuvik (I don’t know a soul here)  this is the most northern town in Quebec.  I have the phone numbers for the school but since it’s now close to 6, no one will be at the school so that phone number does me no good.  Not to mention with this many people stuck, chances are not good that there will be room at this tiny hotel.  So here are our options.   1:  We can stay in Ivujuvik for the night and all the next day and basically catch this same flight a day later on to Salluit (weather permitting)  or 2: we can get back on the plane and try for Salluit, if we can’t land (and there is a 90% chance that we won’t be able to due to fog) we are going back to P.O.V.  and again we will do this leg all over again tomorrow including stopping back in Ivujuvik to pick up those people stranded there.  Well 10% chance of landing is better than staying in a town where I don’t know a soul and have no idea how to get a hold of anyone. 

From what I hear not all Pilots would have bothered to try to land in Salluit, apparently lots would have said, “we can’t land in Salluit, stay here or come with us back to P.O.V.”  I am so glad I was not with ‘lots’ of pilots on this day, because we landed!!  There were only about 10 of us (maybe less) on the flight but I have never heard such thunderous applause when the landing gear hit the ground. 

And so begins the adventures in teaching (and babysitting [rearing, since he is, after all, my kid]) in Salluit!