I ordered my winter jacket I am stoked! It took some detective work too. I really wanted the Trillium Canada Goose jacket in pink. However it was super hard to find. None of the online retailers carried the pink so I contacted CG, turns out there is only one store in Newfoundland (out of all of Canada and the states) that carries the pink jacket. I emailed them and had amazing service. They emailed me back this morning and by noon they had already put it in the mail for me :)! The company is theoutfitters.nf.ca if anyone wants to order in a jacket. I guess that anyone who is reading this doesn't really have to order things in... you can go to that thing called a mall or a clothing store. I bet your jealous that you don't get to be a Canada Goose Detective like me. This is the jacket that I ordered:

http://www.canada-goose.com/products-2/womens/trillium-parka/

In the pink (not the berry colour).

What else is new? I got my flu shot and my mouth is full blown infected again (surprise surprise). It was ALMOST gone on Monday you could barely see it but I was out of meds so I went back to the doctor and it was a different one. He gave me a prescription for the same med I was on but when I went to get it filled I saw that I had a completely different dose. I went from 20mL a day to 3mL a day. Needless to say it took about a day and a half to go back to where it was a week ago (last Thursday I had to stay home sick because it wouldn't stop bleeding, gross!). Anyways I went back today to the same doc I saw on Monday and he put me back on the regular dose for another 10 days (I think that 3mL was a mistake). I also have this mixture of drugs that he wrote a prescription for.. he had to look it up on his palm pilot (he said he had heard about a mixture that helps when your mouth is burning lol). The mixture is liquid benedryl and this clay stuff that is used as a medicine. The texture is very interesting! Hopefully in a week it'll be all gone :).

Alex and I went fishing and caught a bunch of fishies! We let them all go but we took some pictures. I am tethering to my iphone internet right now so I can't upload them though.

For those of you who didn't see the pictures all over the news, here is a picture of the plane crash:

Apparently Nicole's funeral was a huge celebration of life that lasted hours. So many people showed up that a hundred people had to be turned away. They had it filmed so that people could cram into the basement to watch it as well on the screen. Very tragic and sad but it's amazing how much she was able to fit into 26 years!

It's bedtime for me! I am attending (for special circumstances) a funeral tomorrow for a younger resident of our facility who passed away this week.

Speaking of so much death this article has been making me think lots this week. Very interesting read! It's about the lack of morgue's in the north and families having to keep their loved ones in deep freezers in their houses. We also don't have funeral homes up here in the smaller communities (ours included). It's considered the families responsibility to prepare the body for the funeral (bathing, dressing, grooming, placing into casket, etc.) Kind of crazy and interesting!

http://nnsl.com/northern-news-services/stories/papers/sep26_11no.html

On that sad note. Good night! xoxo

Well I can't sleep :(! My infected mouth (ew) is sore.

Super sad that there was another plane crash :(. It wasn't NWAL, the company that a lot of my friends work at thankfully. Unfortunately the co-pilot (who passed away along with the captain) was a friend of Alex's and another one of his friends up here. They all went to the same flight school and Alex worked with her in Calgary at the airport. :( There were 7 passengers who survived.

Here's another sad story. One A's friends knew the girl who passed away as well as knew the Canadian couple that died in Reno last weekend.

It has barely been more than a month and there has been the Resolute crash, Reno, Yellowknife.

Well that's enough sad news for one night! Night!

Let's Play a Grocery Game!

Yay... Grocery games!

How much did my bag of groceries cost me today.... anndddddddddd what is in the bag?

So how much did it cost +the whole wheat buns?

Yep... $108.26!

-Just ignore the bucket of ice cream listed on the receipt. So what did I get for $108: Ice cream (obviously), tomato, avocado, spinach, bananas, apples, a frozen pizza, some cheese and lunch meat, yogurt, buns, frozen strawberries, and honey. Not bad... I think?
- By the way, thanks for everyone looking at the blog! It's nice that people are so interested. I wasn't expecting to get 50 views in a year.. never mind close to 1300 in 4.5 months. I don't know who's looking because I didn't give this out to THAT many people. Kind of weird to think random people are viewing it!
-In other quick, random Smith related news:
-The mayor called me today at work! To tell me to call one of my good girl friend's up here, even though she didn't know we were friends. Very nice of her! (It was work related).
-In the grocery store there was a lady with the baby in the ice cream aisle. I was having a staring contest with her baby while she picked out ice cream and when she picked it out she thought that I wanted that one (it was the last one) and she felt bad. I told her any ice cream makes me happy and that what I really wanted was to steal her cute little baby (in the nicest, most non-creepy way possible). We had a nice chat after that because she recognized that I was new. I told her how long I've been here for and she's like, "Oh! You're not THAT new". Anyways, point of the story is I made a friend picking out ice cream. Sweet!
-My finger looks to be getting better :)! I pulled a sliver out from under my nail and it's calmed down. Unfortunately my mouth is now infected HAHA! Went to the doctor today, I have 10 days worth of meds now. I just want it to not bleed when I eat... is that too much to ask? Gross, eh? :).
-Alex was down in Reno this weekend! Thankfully, they arrived into town after the crash took place. Sucks that the main thing they were going to see was cancelled but at least they are still alive :)!
-Ok I think that's it for now :)!
-Have a wonderful sleep (whoever you are)!
-xoxo
(Sorry for all the points.. the formatting is being weird)

GloBall!

Went golfing last night... well I walked around. Didn't want to have my arm broken again for playing golf. Anyways it was a blast. It's night time golfing... no lights however you get balls that glow in the dark. Much harder than you'd think. Definitely took us over 4 hours to play 9 holes LOL. I lost my camera too but it's ok because it was broken.

This annual event in Smith is one of a kind. It's a keeper for sure!

We were all getting ready to start and Alex texted and told us about what happened in Reno. So sad but I'm so happy that he got there after it happened. It sucks that he took lots of time off to go to Reno and didn't get to see the air races. Too many plane crashes this summer!

I'm going to do a few posts about different topics. If I do one post I just ramble. So first topic is:

What do I miss most about living south (I will add more when I think of them, if there are anymore):

1. Shopping... yep I miss it. My friend up here loveeesss shopping too so were thinking we might plan a holiday south to Edmonton to go shopping sometime lol. And YES Edmonton is like a sweet southern holiday for us. I haven't got into the online shopping because it would suck to have send clothes back that don't fit often.
2. More selection with produce. We've got a decent selection but sometimes you'll go in and there will be something and then the next day they will be out and not have any for awhile.
3. Free shipping. I got quoted $350 for shipping from Costco in Edmonton... by a private company because Costco won't ship anything big. Also it would have to be delivered to the shipping company before they would ship it up. I got a quote from Ikea but it was actually cheaper to buy the merchandise then it was for shipping... and I wasn't thinking of buying something that was $50 either. Shipping was over a grand.
4. Coffee shops/places to study at.
5. Unlimited internet.

That's pretty much it!

Well this weekend we went camping and it was a blast. We went to Little Buffalo Falls which are probably 30 minutes outside of Smith. The northern lights were dancing around as we drank and played Crazy 8 Countdown. Great times with great people. Although my camera doesn't really capture the northern lights I do have a few that captured the vivid green colour. Here are some pics from our Friday night adventure:

These are the northern lights. Unfortunately for you, this doesn't really capture them for your viewing pleasure. If you want to see them I guess you'll have to come visit:

The beautiful sunset on the way out to camping:

Alex, Luke and Jeff:

My soon-to-be roomie Meagan, Paul (who lives upstairs) and Vina who works at Northwestern with most of the boys and the Legion:

The river that flows from the waterfall:

That is all for pictures! My new roomie told me tonight that her boss wants to run a story in the newspaper on how I'm the only rehab person left in town at the end of this month. We can't really talk to the media so she'll have to go through the higher up people in the authority. I asked her if they really had to do it and she said that her boss wanted to because were having an election and one of the issues being brought up is bringing up train people to work. Oh well I'll let you know how this one works out.

So happy that little Kienan was returned home. So nice to have a happy ending to a child being abducted! I was following that story like a hawk.

Now that my roomie is leaving I have lots of stuff to gather/buy.

- couches since I sold mine
- table + chairs
- my new roomie needs a bed
- I need a boxspring and frame but I think I'll just lay my mattress on the floor.
- shelving for the kitchen because we have very few cupboards
- I need to order the internet and cable (yay I'm getting cable)

Unfortunately you can't really just go out and buy what you need. Apparently someone said you can order from Leon's but on the website it says it doesn't ship here but some guy on our community Facebook page says it does. I can order from Sears but will have to pay extra shipping. We also have a Brick in Yellowknife (which is really far away) but there is a lady who is ordering stuff for herself and if she can get people to buy enough stuff to fill the delivery truck they will do it for free/cheap. Oh the options.. all three of them.

Finally, I hate to say it but I THINK my finger is getting reinfected. I can't see anything yet but I'm losing feeling in the tip of my finger and my finger is starting to peel a bit. Not a good sign. When my parents were here I ended up getting a sliver under the nail of the same finger and I can see a little bit still in there but I can't tell whether it is a piece of wood or just a spot that was bleeding a bit. The saga continues. On a happy note if it does get infected I'll be flying to Edmonton or Yellowknife to see someone who might be able to figure out what it is. Hopefully not osteomylelitis which they could not rule out last time.

On another happy note, it's bed time :)! Night everyone. I'll try and post some more this week. I have more pictures/stories!

xoxox

Life in a Northern Town

Well this is something unusual you don't see in the south very often. I work in a long-term care facility and I am part of their team. We also have a Rehab team that treats the general public and does a little bit with our residents. Three months ago the Speech Path left town because her fiance was being relocated for work. Her position hasn't been able to be filled until now. Also three months ago the rehab assistant left. Her position hasn't been filled. In this past month our physiotherapist who is the director of the rehab team has left. Today my roomie got a job offer to Inuvik so she is leaving in a month, also the admin staff left for school (it was a summer student). So basically.. there is no one left on the rehab team. If Crystal lef tomorrow, the team wouldn't exist in this town. I find that very weird! Fortunately we are getting a new speech path in.. but that's all I've heard of so far! It's going to be a bit difficult for me; we work together a lot so not having a rehab team will make my job harder! Hopefully we'll get some amazing new staff :). It'll be weird to be here for four months and not be the new girl anymore! I wonder when I'll be leaving ;).

Random Post. Alex and I thought that it would be sweet to borrow some books from the library. In particular, we wanted I-Spy and Where's Waldo. So I found the I-Spy but couldn't find Waldo (ironic eh?) so I asked the librarian. She looks sad and said she doesn't think she has any but she would look it up. Then she looks really sad and says there are NO WHERE'S WALDO IN ALL OF THE TERRITORIES!!!! WHAT A TRAGEDY! So we talked for a few minutes about how this is not ok. She kept searching and THANKFULLY she did find some. After all that I think I will go back and have the books ordered in. Just about broke my heart to think that northerners would not get the opportunity to experience Waldo!

Hihi!!

Sorry for the long delay. I wasn't feeling too well for a week and my mom and Paul were up this weekend for a visit. I think I'll just post some pictures and explain them as I go. I'm downloading music so this might take forever and I might get frustrated. Alex and his roommates went $185.00 over there internet bill last month. Crazy! That's what happens when you look at too many youtube videos and download music. We are suppose to be getting digital cable in Smith and if you sign up for it your internet usage doubles so that would be amazing. Paul burned 30 DVD's for me which I'm very excited about. Ok pictures. I'll try and put them in some proper order but try to follow along if I jump around. Never mind, I just looked through my pictures and there is way too much so for tonight, I present Pine Point.

I think I have talked about PP before. It is where we lived when I was born even though I was born in Hay River because my mom was in the hospital there (there was no hospital in PP). PP was designed and built.. the whole town, before people were brought it. Once the mine shut down everyone was kicked out and they bulldozed the town and filled in all the foundations (except for one). It is very significant because the town wasn't just open for a year or two, it was open for I believe more than 20 years. Some people were born and raised in PP, graduated highschool there and no longer have a hometown to go home to.

This is a picture of the residential area of Pine Point before it was torn down:

Here are some pictures of the residential area now. The first one is me on the lot that our house once stood. The second is of Alex on our friend Luke's Aunt's old lot.

Here's a picture of the sidewalk that remains and another area that used to be houses:

Here's a picture of the basement hotel. One is the entrance that you climb down into, the other is Alex and I hanging out down there. There were tons of records of people from Trail since Cominco is based out of the Koots. Kind of creepy. When they filled in all the foundations they forgot to do the hotel. Now people go down there to drink:

Ok it's past my bedtime. Lots more on PP and other stuff to come hopefully tomorrow or Friday if I get bored of studying!

Night! xo