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

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!