Paatsaali's Run! (and day 4, too, one day late...)

So, first of all, we all did AWESOME!!!!! Every runner finished, and every runner had a good time! And a good time, too, as in Noah made it in just over 2 hours, which is amazing! I will have the official times once the race results are posted, as the finish line ran many clocks simultaneously and you got about a half second to look as you went through the chute.

Backtracking a bit, here's the hostel downtown at which we're staying. The kids have met students and young people from many other countries here and have really seemed to enjoy themselves. Willie was king of the pool table for a whole night: just unbeatable. Good thing it's all for fun alone!

This was taken with zoom from the observation deck of the CN Tower.

 Saturday morning, the kids all chose to see the Hockey Hall of Fame, again not far from our lodgings. For some reason, they all seemed really keen. I suggested a library, or maybe a crocheting store, but no...hee hee! They loved it, of course!

Posing as usual for the millionth time.

Did Paddy just shrink, or is that goalie really tall?

 

 

 Next to the one and only Stanley Cup! Oooohhh...ahhhhhh...!

 



We didn't quite make it to the Museum. By the time all had been fussed over at the HHOF, we had time for lunch and a very short rest before the game was broadcast at Maple Leaf Square. What else for lunch but what is quickly becoming a Running Club tradition of finding an all-you-can-eat sushi place. This one was the Kyoto House, and was absolutely scrumpscious!

When the plate of food arrives, it's every man or coach for themselves, LOL! You could lose a finger the chopsticks are flying so fast!

 

 



We walked over to the Air Canada Centre before 7:00 pm and watched some of the game on the Jumbotron outside. So in a sense, the gang DID get to see the hockey game! Not quite as good as inside but the best we can do at play-off prices!

Early to bed, and early to rise for the half marathon team...our bus left just after 6:30 to drive us all the way UP Yonge Street. Hmmmm. Hardly seemed fair to then make us run all the way BACK, LOL! 21.1 kilomteres, 13.1 miles. It was a tough run no matter which measure you used, and the team did a great job.

Go Team! (Why is only the coach wearing the Running Club shirt?)

 

 This is how it looked...

...WTG Noah...

 

...and this is how it felt, LOL! Hamming it up for the camera! I think they're trying to use the flag as a shroud to dispose of my poor dead remains! :-D

 

The Juniors at their start, and our finishing pose...

 

 

 

We returned to the hostel for a quick change of clothes and then out to my parents' place for a BBQ burger dinner and a swim.

 

 

And knowing it would be Aullajuuk's birthday the next day, we had a small celebration for him. (I know the 'k' is missing at the end, I just ran out of room! Sorry!)

 

"Happy birthday to youuuuuuu!"

 

So once again, the team has down the town proud! They have shown what it takes to be part of a team, and to show dedication and strength to pass a challenge like this.

 

Tomorrow we will be touring the Science Centre, which should be yet another fabulous day of new and exciting things for the group. More pictures to come along with another post.

 

TTFN!

 

Terri and the Team.



Okay, Blue Jays, Let's play ball! Day 3...

It's a beautiful day in the neighborhood and we have been busy.

After our post yesterday, we finished out our day by walking over to Yonge Street and spent some serious shopping time at the Eaton Centre. Dinner and then off to a movie.

"Look both ways before you cross..."

 

"Okay, coach!"

 

 

This morning we enjoyed the pancakes cooked by the hostel staff, and walked down to the Canadian National Exhibition grounds to pick up our race kits. We were all very reassured by the staff that the run was within our abilities, and we would not be the last ones across the line, LOL! Everyone is delighted to meet these students from Nunavut, and they are representing the community very well. I'm proud of them all!

The Princes' Gate at the CNE grounds.

 

 

From the race headquarters, we enjoyed a Toronto tradition of barbequed sausages on a bun for lunch, affectionately termed "Street Meat" but very tasty. And they are quite large...Janie could hardly fit his mouth around it to take the first bite!

"Open wide and say,'Ahhhhhh...'"

We continued on to the CN Tower. It does not seem so tall when you're only a couple of blocks away at night...

...but from right underneath the tower it's a whole different story!

That is one TALL Tower!

 

 

Some of the grown-ups would not dare to cross onto the glass floor, but our students piled on for their photo opportunity!

And apparently there was a teacher meltdown, and students were slung from the ramparts, LOL!

Hilarious photo! We'll display it at Paatsaali, so come in and have a chuckle!

Back to the hostel for a brief rest, and out to a very filling dinner at The Old Spaghetti Factory. Not a belly was growling after that dinner, they were so stuffed!

"Pass da pasta!"

We finished our night by walking (I swear they walked over 10K today!) back down to Skydome to watch the Blue Jays play. The mascot came over to meet the students and we got our photos taken with him. Alas, the Jays did not win, but we still had an awesome day.

"Let's go, Blue Jays, let's go!"

 

Tomorrow promises to be busy as well. We're going to the Hockey Hall of Fame, the Royal Ontario Museum, all-you-can-eat sushi lunch, Eaton Centre, and then to the Air Canada Centre where the Leafs playoff game is being broadcast on the Jumbotron screen free for 30,000 fans. Not as good as the real game, but more within our fundraising budget, LOL! And then the Big Race...

 

 

Stay tuned, more adventures to come!

 

TTFN!

 

Terri

Running Club, safe and sound, Day 1 and 2.

It was another nail-biter in many ways! After a winter with no fog, we were blanketed for almost 2 days and I had feelings of déjà vu from the October trip! No prob, says Almighty God, and blew the fog away with somewhat scary almighty winds gusting to 80 km!!!! Yikes! The regular plane could not come but we met up with it after Air Inuit sent a Twin Otter for us.

 (Not again, says Noah!)

We do get underway a bit late but up in the air nonetheless. A nasty bit of a nail-biter just as we approach Montreal, though...apparently the hydraulic system overheated, they weren`t sure if the landing gear was down, or on fire, and we had an emergency landing but a completely SAFE landing. Hurray for guardian angels! We grabbed Tim Horton`s coffees, donuts, pop and water, sandwiches, and made it to the bus on time.

Three guesses which level the boys all ran for...you guessed it, all up on the top!

 

 

It was NOT the greatest ride, and we did not get much sleep, but for convenience and cost it was fine. A subway ride and bus ride for the boys, and we got to my parents' place before 9:00 for a breakfast of juice, fresh fruit, cereal, milk, muffins, scrambled eggs and coffee! Yummmmm!

 

 



 

When breakfast was done, the boys went straight for the pool and did not come out again until they had turned into wrinkled raisins, LOL! Once dried, they found and installed the new X-Box Kinect game and got it working with the technical advice of the senior team member, hee hee! (What do you mean, the TV needs to be on video input?) ;-D

 ahhhh...chillaxin'....

 



 So, how long do you think he can hold his breath?

 

 synchronized swimming? LOL!

One...two....three....wait! 

 



                                             Look out, Willie...she's got the camera again...

Anyhow, they had a great time. McCafe at McDonald's for McLunch and we headed down to our hostel. Passable accommodations but location, location, location! Steps to CN Tower and SkyDome, steps to shopping, movies and restaurants, steps to the Museum and the race starting line, and pancake breakfast too! WOOT!

We are all off now to the shopping centre, supper, and a movie. I will keep my camera handy and the blog full of pictures for all of our friends/family back home in Sanikiluaq.

TTFN!

Terri and the Paatsaali Running Club.

Long time no see!

Well, my apologies in taking so long to write anything new. Life is always busy up here!

I have been very busy training for the upcoming run on May 5th. Pictures will be posted as usual as the Running Club takes wing for trip #3 to Toronto. Half marathon for coach and seniors, a 5K for the juniors.

The Science Fair preparations are well in hand, happening just over one week after our return. Yes, I do seem to be spending a lot of my 'free' time. But after all, I have a whole wasted 5 or 6 hours of sleep each night...LOL! This year we are running the Science Fair for 2 days and having the community come in at night. I have a whole slew of build-it-and-test-it kits, like a parabolic listening device, a hydraulic robot arm, catapults, ball launchers, balloon rocket cars, and many regulars like disappearing water and walking on eggs. Pictures again will be posted.

Music Nights and Movie Nights keep me busy, but I did actually take a Sunday off two weeks ago. Not saying that I live at school or anything, but when the teachers come in on the weekend and the school is empty, they DON'T say, "Where is everyone?" They DO say, "Where's Terri?" LOL!

I am flattered to have been nominated for a teaching excellence award. I don't care if I win it, I am just pleased to be nominated. This is a Canada-wide one from the House of Commons, BTW, and not a school thing. I'm honoured that my principal has that much confidence in me.

Meanwhile, the remaining time in year 3 is flying by. There are four movie nights, two music nights, one table sale and a midnight-to-dawn movie marathon left to go! Home for the summer, a vacation to Thailand and some R & R at my trailer. I must remember to actually book my ticket, LOL! I have the seat from Montreal to Toronto booked but not the flight from here. Think I should maybe get on that? Good news was I got a ticket at the auction and got a steal! Yay for me!

So for now, I shall leave you, and will be posting from Toronto as we all leave May 1st for the Paatsaali Running Club trip.

TTFN!
Terri

I'm still here...I think....

Wow, what a hectic couple of weeks! I cannot believe that I am still standing! Well, technically, I am sitting, finally, while I type, but you get the drift...

It began with the Loonie Sale on November 30th. It was a busy week just getting ready for that, as I always make sticky buns and pineapple upside-down cakes and things. (I'm getting a reputation here, and the first thing people ask now when there's a sale is if there will be sticky buns, LOL!) Anyhow, we had a very successful night followed by a Music Night for the kids, so a long and late day for me. I went from that straight into Christmas goodie bake mode for the Table sale. Stayed late after running practice every night to bake something yummy.

Meanwhile, I had scheduled baking with a purpose for my grade 10 class for their metric and imperial measure conversion test. They were not quite finished their work on Friday the 30th so I scheduled their test not on the Monday but the Tuesday. Woke up on Tuesday to a raging blizzard. No school. The kitchen was booked already for Wednesday so we rescheduled for Thursday. And woke up on Thursday to a raging blizzard. No school again. We did try to have school on Friday, we really, really did, but by 10:15 we gave up and closed again. Blizzard-level winds and white-outs from blowing snow. Reschedule. The kitchen was booked Monday and Tuesday, so I booked Wednesday. In the interim, I'm baking until 8:00 or 9:00 pm, doing Christmas cookies, sticky buns, gingerbread men, gingerbread houses, butter-tart squares, and so on. Tuesday, Tim comes up and asks if I really need the kitchen for Wednesday as he has turkeys to cook for the Daycare staff Christmas Party, and how long do turkeys take to cook? I figured about 4-1/2 hours for the average 5-6 kg bird and told Tim likely he could put the birds in at noon. That meant the grade 10's were good to go.

I went into the kitchen for my usual spate of after-school baking and there sat two 24-lb glorious birds. Not a hope in you-know-where that 4-1/2 hours would do it...So, I got up early Wednesday morning so I could prep the birds, and popped them into the oven at 8:15 am. Tim looks in, pleased that he didn't need to prep them,  and asks if he needs to check on them at all. I said that as the grade 10's would be still in the kitchen (we decorated the gingerbread cookies) I would keep an eye on them. Then he says he also has some roasts and what would I suggest? They were not such good cuts of meat, so I suggested pot roast. He looked at me a bit blankly and I said, Would you like me to pop them on at noon for you? Natch, he replied. I offered to make some gravy to go with, once they were done, which led to a conversation about what else was on the menu, and by 4:00 I realized that in effect I was cooking Christmas dinner for 60! It was delicious, the turkeys were perfect, I stayed for the party, wrapped up a tray of cookies for the gift exchange, and was complimented endlessly on how much everyone enjoyed the dinner. I got paid handsomely for the effort, YAY!!!, and I won a lovely box of chocolates at the gift exchange. Yummmmmm!

Thursday was a gift-wrapping opportunity at the Northern until 8:00 pm and Friday saw me packing multiple trays of cookies, bars, houses, men and marshmallow rice krispy "Christmas Trees" (thanks to my cool new 10-star set of cutters/moulds for such a purpose. The kids helped me set up tables, I turned on Christmas carols and we were set for the table sale aka Christmas Bazaar. We sold pretty much everything! Margaret (one of the teachers) had a guest at her place so she bought two trays of cookies as she had no time to bake. Her guests promptly ran over and bought some because they liked them so much. That was good advertising, LOL! And, with my happy earnings from the impromptu chef day, I bought  beautiful parka filled with local eider duck down made by my friend and VP Mina Rumbolt's aunt. It is very Inuk in style and the kids all said that I look just like them now. It is very slender (I was initially very hesitant to try it on as I thought it was too small!) and it fits like it was custom-made. A beautiful deep slate green-grey colour with silver grey fox trim. I must take a photo and post it.

So, yet another very late night. I don't think I left the school before 9:00 pm once in almost three weeks!

And my busy-ness isn't done yet. We (my room-mate and I) were offered the chance to earn some money for our sports teams by cooking a community dinner through a Health and Nutrition program. So today, we prepped and cooked all day getting ready to feed 500 people tomorrow...I baked and sliced 250 lb of ham, baked the first 500 tea biscuits and put about 800 cookies onto trays and wrapped them up and then still had my usual Movie Night...I am EXHAUSTED! Tomorrow we have 200 lbs of potatoes to peel, I have the last of about 800 tea biscuits to bake, and about 80 kg of vegetables to cook...

On the plus side, the past two weeks have seen us raise about $7000 for the Running Club, which is INCREDIBLE!!!. I have to check with Leah Meeko to see if the funding request for our sport shirts for the team has been approved. If not, then I think we will just go ahead and get them for the team from our account. I can't wait to see the "Paatsaali Running Club" in the school colours at the next race!

And just for fun, we have a Music Night next Friday, a Christmas Movie marathon on Saturday, and a Midnight Movie Marathon on the 28th. Just so I don't get bored with putting my feet up over the holidays...

So if I don't have time to write until after the big day, Merry Christmas to all and a Happy New Year for 2013!

TTFN!

Terri

Oh, my, what HAVE I done now? LOL!

The Running Club and I are always on the hunt for something new and challenging. As a result, I haunt the Running Room race website. I have been looking for our spring race. The past few days I have looked at the website for the Goodlife Fitness race on May 5th, 2013, in Toronto. It features a 5K , half marathon and marathon. The half goes down Yonge St from around Finch all the way to Ontario Place...very cool, even though I know AAAAALLLLLLLLL about that monster hill at Hoggs Hollow (Yonge and York Mills)...

...so I have officially REGISTERED for the half-marathon! Hurray and YIKES! all at the same time! The senior boys in the Running Club are very excited about it, and are too thrilled to know they will get a personalized race bib with their names as well as a Karbon technical wicking shirt and a medallion. (I'm registering them on Monday.) I'm going to buy the four of us a T-shirt that says, "At mile 10, I thought I was dead...at mile 11, I hoped I was dead...at mile 12, I HAD to be dead...at mile 13.1, I realized I was too tough to kill!" I LOVE it! The juniors are looking forward to their first 5K which will start at our finish line about a half-hour after we cross. I'll be bringing a chaperone who will occupy them while the seniors and I race our share, and we will cheer them on as they run their share. And perhaps a Jays game to follow up? Or a day at Ontario Place...I'll have to find out from Michael when Canada's Wonderland will open next spring...

So another chapter in the book, and an item off of my personal Bucket List at the same time. My life may be painful most days (in the hip, of course!) but it is endlessly exciting and challenging! I am so darned THRILLED!!!!

Me

It's beginning to look a lot like...ankle-twisting, wrist-spraining, slip-sliding, fall-on-your-kiester time 'round here.

And I bet you thought it was looking like Christmas, LOL! That too, I guess, but mostly we have a lot of ice on the roads. We had a fair bit of rain the past week and then lots of wind and below zero temperatures combined with a dusting of snow to create skating rinks on the roads. And not the kind you could actually skate on...that would be just too much fun to skate to school each day! No, this ice is just putting a thick coat of accidents-in-waiting on all of the rocks and gravel piles that make up our roads. Treacherous to walk on, but kind of fun to drive a Honda on. Makes cornering a breeze, LOL! One quick flick of the wrist and you turn a perfect 90*...just don't try heading down the steeper hills in town...

Training is going on as usual. I'm stuck indoors until there is enough snow to cover the rocks and then I can try my sneaker-sized "Stabilicers" along with my Extreme Run jacket. Oh, how I love the Running Room online! (They offer gift cards, Christmas hint, hint...) So, in honour of the training, here is a team photo we took. We're missing about 16 kids due to flu in the community, but I'm proud of these kids and their dedication!

We have a funding request in for some team track shirts that I designed in the school colours: royal blue, grey and black. The shirts are royal with white inserts, black lettering with a large grey outline and a logo design of grey and black running shoes. The kids are so thrilled at the prospect that if we don't get the funding, I'll just darned well order a set myself. They won't be able to keep one but we could use them for racing. If we get the funding, I'm ordering 50 shirts which means every racer for two years will keep a shirt and have some for our race meets. I'm as excited as the students!

We have a long weekend with Monday as a holiday to observe Remembrance Day. Terry and Marilyn and the students presented a beautiful servive Friday afternoon at the school. Congrats to all who helped, it was lovely! After dismissal, my crew and I did some cross-training. We're doing yoga stretching and ab workouts twice a week to build up strength and flexibility. I can almost press my forehead to my knees again. But the splits...not a hope! Apparently my thigh adductor muscles are happily shrinking and prefer to stay that way. We're arguing that one out at the moment...

Tonight is Movie Night as usual. We're showing |"Crocodile Dundee ", 1 and 2. I thought that teh kids might be able to identify with the culture shock of the city, and it's old enough that they may not have seen it before. Should be fun. I'm planning a Loonie Sale, Music Night and Christmas Bazaar in the near future along with a few Music Nights. I'm going to make two gingerbread houses for a silent auction at the Bazaar as well as have baking and a Toonie Table with items I picked up in Montreal at the Dollar Store. Just before Christmas Break, we're also going to do Christmas Cookie-Grams in the school. Should be fun. So, if you add all of these things in with the regular movie nights...can we spell "B-U-S-Y"? Or am I just plain crazy? Hmmm...tough call...

TTFN!

Terri of the North