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

Going full tilt, so everything is normal!

What would life in Sani be like if I wasn't busy nearly every minute? I may never know, LOL!

The week began with the arrival of the sea lift, always a cause for great excitement. My room-mate and I booked a couple of helpers to carry all of our supplies into the house, where I noticed something odd: I had a case of beets, a case of kidney beans, two cases of cereal, and cat food and cat litter, and about 11 cases of Jell-o for movie nights, 5 cases of cake mixes for auctions and cakewalks, 5 cases of icing, 3 cases of M&M's for Monster Cookies for movie nights, 3 cases of chocolate chips (ditto), and so on...Hmmmm...I think I see a trend here.....

We got the sea lift organized and the kids all helped unpack at the school. There went another couple of days. Running in the evenings, canteens at recess, I basically roll home in time to eat a late dinner, shower and go to bed.

Thursday night we had our Halloween Music Night (aka costume dance) so I stayed after school to do my make-up and didn't get home until about 12:45 am. Made the coolest costume though...

t's amazing the effect you can get with a piece of construction paper for an eye patch, two zippers (on sale) an egg, and a bottle each of liquid latex and fake blood! It grossed out so many kids, LOL! Love it!

The dance went well, and the Running Club donated a $50.00 cash prize for the best costume. I'll try to upload some of the pictures later. The two local stores also donated bags of Halloween candy for prizes, and the kids were happy.

Friday night we had more running, and then a community volleyball tournament. Naturally, the canteen was open and I shared with Badminton (my room-mate). We were crazy busy! I had thought ahead and ordered 21 packs of hot dogs which Stephen cooked and we sold. What a great idea it was! It earned lots of money for both groups.

I am headed back to the school today for (a) running; (b) jello- and cookie-making for Movie Night; (c) canteen for the second tournament night. I will be gone from 10:00 am to 1:00 am. You know, if the school had showers, I'd give up my house and officially move in!

Tomorrow I am going where else? back to school to bake some chelsea buns for Stephen's auction as well as a pineapple upside-down cake. Oh, and I may actually do some planning as well, and mark some papers...

One nice thing to note: I was chatting with some community members during the games last night and they comment on how much they appreciate the fundraising we do. What they meant was, we do a lot of things like the dances and the movie nights, and have sports clubs, and it gives the kids something to do and somewhere to be other than roaming the streets. The hard work we do is noticed and appreciated, which feels great! When the boys and I came back from the running trip, so many community members met us at the airport and thanked me for doing the trip. It means so much to the kids...Paddy is still talking about the sushi restaurant, LOL!

On a Running Club note, our training has begun for the half-marathon. I will be the weak link in the chain, and may just do another 10K, but I will train my darndest anyhow. Our spring trip is looking like a Toronto trip, with 6 junior boys and 2 senior boys. Hard to say for certain as few runs are posted yet for the spring. However, I'm very excited to be planning again, still, as usual...oi!

So, that's all for now. Time to finish my coffee, have my breakfast, and get off to the store for supplies and a deposit to the Running Club account.

TTFN!

Terri

Home again, home again...wait, weren't we already mechanical in La Grande?

So, I can say for sure that 5:15 am feels VERY early in the morning after a busy weekend. And of course, wouldn't Bank of Montreal choose THAT time to update their server and leave me panicking as to why my debit card wouldn't work? Oi...but it got sorted out and we were off to the airport by 5:55 am.

Good thing we left early...the security has never had more than about 10 people in line any time I have checked in for Air Inuit...today, there were close to 200! We did make it through before the flight, and with enough time to get Timmy's coffee and donuts. The plane even left early! YAY!

And then the curse of the "Terri-as-a-Traveller" took hold...

We had a generator light come on 2 hrs into the flight. So we took a precautionary detour to La Grande. I'm sure it was a curse, because I was thinking of the picture in La Grande from the senior girls' trip in June...and thought that I should have left my camera out to commemorate our group in Kuujjuarapik...well, I could have gotten the La Grande photo after all, LOL! We waited about 30 minutes and were back in the air.

No problem with our arrival in Kuujjuarapik. We picked up and dropped off some passengers, and were only a bit late for leaving for Sani...until the generator light came back on 15 minutes from home. Next thing we know, we're on route back to La Grande! We landed there just after 2:00 pm, and our apologies to those airport workers in Sani who were waiting for Tim's donuts as we sacrificed them to the greater good and rumbling bellies of the boys. And those of the coaches and support staff too....

To make a long story short, we did get a new generator and finally made it home just before 5:00 pm. So, with the way my luck has been with my flights lately, I'm not departing from the island for the rest of this year! I feel I owe it to the other travellers not to curse their trips, ha ha!

Anyhow, it was a memorable trip and a fantastic race by all participants. I am so proud of the team and what they have accomplished! It felt incredible to be able to showcase their hard work and dedication to other cities and provinces. Just goes to prove that distance, isolation, weather, and lack of resources should not hinder anyone in their attempts to be physically fit. We are looking forward to starting marathon mode next week. Or at least HALF marathon mode...we'll take the small step first!

So, on behalf of the Running Club, thanks for the support and hope you enjoyed our story!

TTFN!

Terri and the team.

A busy last day!

We managed to have a bit of a sleep-in after our big day yesterday. So we had to have a group meeting to decide what to do for our remaining time..."shopping" was the winner, and off to Walmart we went. The gang got one last nosh of McDonald's, and were even lucky enough to win some fries, pop, and sandwiches on the Monopoly game. I have to say, this trip has been full of the expression, "I'm so FULL!" :-D

After Walmart, we stashed our booty back at the hotel and walked down to the Science Centre. A gray, drizzly day but we survived, no one melted, and we had a great time.

 Jonah testing his sense of balance...

The equilibrium challenge... 

 The "dam" table, hee hee!

Paddy and Noah at the jumbo parabolic speakers...

 "What?" LOL!

 Brad passing on a few tips at the music invention convention...

 Brain power? Moving a ball with the power of alpha waves. So who was the most relaxed person?

A final look at our corner, right by Chinatown in the downtown area. Very cool,

 with some great architecture and some seriously delicious food!

And a quick revisit of the Haunted House tour from last night. More tour than Haunt, but both Brad and I saw the curtains moving in the haunted hotel room just as the guide (who was an EXCELLENT character actor) was describing the manner of the haunting...coincidence? Maybe so...imaha...maybe not!

We finished the night with another belly-buster dinner and a viewing of the newest creepy movie, "Sinister". The guys loved it, I sort of cat-napped a bit through it. Back to the hotel and early night because we will be up at 5:15 am...then home to Sanikiluaq. A great trip that the team earned with their training and hard work!

TTFN!

Terri and the tired troops.

More race pics....

Here's Paddy' finish in 0:54.02...

...and Noah's finish in 0:56.58...

...and Willie's in 0:59.53....

Jonah and Timothy finished in 1:21.37...

...less than 3 minutes ahead of me, LOL!

We went for dinner tonight to Reuben's Deli (yummm!) and had our Ghost Walk tour although my hip is sore, Noah was yawning all the way through, and I think I may lose a toenail. All in all, it was a GREAT day to showcase the talents in the Paatsaali Running Club, and to demonstrate that being cold, remote, and struggling financially is no excuse to not be fit! YAY Paatsaali students! You are AMAZING!!!!

(And many thanks to the Official Team Photographer, Brad Wutke!)

TTFN!

A VERY proud coach!

We did it! Rockin' the Race!

What a beautiful, cold, windy day! 0 degrees this morning with -4 wind chill, but we got up and ready anyways. We were at the park by 9:45 am, warmed up and ready.

Photo op at the park...all of the reporters were fascinated by our team's story and the flag we carried... and then we were off...

Paddy made it in 54 min, Noah in 56 min, Willie in 59 min, and Jonah and Tim in just over an hour. I made it in 1:24, which is almost 20 minutes faster than my time in Toronto! WOOT!

The "Awwwwwwwwwww" factor...my team saw me coming around the bend to the finish. They grabbed the flag, ran out to me, wrapped it around me and ran me in, cheering the whole way...I teared up, it was so incredibly wonderful! What an awesome group of kids!

I'll post more pics later when I have the time to wait for slow uploads...

After the run we had a very yummy sandwich provided by Lucky's Truck and the Wishmaker Foundation...BBQ Pulled Pork on a delicious crusty roll. Mmmmmmmm!!!! Just the thing for sudden unexplained appetites, LOL! Then we walked over to teh Olympic Stadium and went up the Montreal Tower in the funicular elevator.

We came home to the hotel for hot showers to warm up, a brief rest, and we're off to do a bit of shopping, enjoy a well-earned celebration dinner, and then go on a Haunted Ghost Walk of Old Montreal. WOOHOO!!!! We Rocked this day!

TTFN!

Terri and the Team.

Day 1-1/2...Nommin' our hearts out!

It has been a busy day, and we have hardly seen the hotel at all! Our day began with a complementary continental breakfast (hurray for freebies!) in the hotel dining room: muffins, fruit, juice, coffee, pastries, cereal, milk, yogurt, croissants...yummy and filling. We then gathered into taxis for the trip to the Running Room (Coin des Courreurs) to pick up our race kits. 

(I love just hiking the camera up and sneaking shots behind me from over my shoulder!)

The boys are a little leery now that they have looked over the course map..."We have to do it TWICE? It looks too big already for once!" But we're all very pumped.  I bored them with my shopping so the group headed over to Future Shop whilst I gathered my gear for (gasp!) winter running outdoors...I truly am nuts, I swear! I got a pay-as-you-go cell phone and we were in business. Mountain Equipment Co-op, Dollarama, Halloween stores, clothing shops and the like took some serious hits before we left to drop the booty back at the hotel. Out the door we went again, for lunch.

  Oh sushi, how we all love you! It was so incredibly delicious! We had salmon, BBQ eel and tuna niri, we had kandu rolls, dragon maki rolls, seafood tempura rolls, special rice, dumplings, chicken teriyaki, chicken skewers, vegetable tempura, and repeats on our favourites...Quelles stuffed students! It was all-you-can-eat, and we tried our best! The boys were in heaven, and Brad and I just kept repeating, "OMG this is SOOOOOO good!)

I think Jonah is onto me sneaking photos here...

Anyhow, we went off to our Laser Tag game and the gang had a great time and a great workout. They were drenched in sweat when they were done. I wisely opted to sit out and, um...guard the wallets, yeah, that was it, I had to stay out and guard all of our goodies! No pics of the game, but a pic of the awards.

Way to go, Tulugark!

More shopping followed, then a movie, and what is a movie without a visit to the Hurricane Simulator?

More shopping at another sports shop (more money spent for winter running, gad!) and then back to the hotel to rest up for the big day tomorrow! And to wait impatiently while the pictures upload...

We'll have race day photos posted tomorrow. I'm making Brad jog along with us to start so he can take some shots, ha ha! Knew I'd get him one way or the other! He keeps trying to find a scooter to rent, no chance, LOL!

So nite all and TTFN!

Terri and the team of trekkers.