Cameron Falls
Today I headed out to Cameron Falls with Cassidy and Elijah. It was a wonderful day, hot and sunny and just enough wind to keep the bugs at bay. There was lots of water at the falls and the wild strawberries were just delicious. We played Pooh sticks off the bridge but then started throwing sticks in willy nilly anywhere. When we got close to the edge of the falls, Cassidy (10 years old) declared that it couldn't just be plain old Pooh sticks, we were now into "extreme" Pooh sticks. We ate our lunch as the kids waded around in the water. I couldn't convinced them to go in the water with just their underwear so they came back to town, tired but dry. Once we got back, we hit the ice cream store, hopefully they will get their appetite back by the time they have to eat their supper.

Well the job that was supposed to last for a month only lasted for a week. The idea that I could handle a new job and Barry’s surgery turned about to be a bad one. I lasted a week and then the employer decided that the job was too much for me and I was made redundant. Does that sound better, than I was fired, I have come to grips with it and basically decided that it was better for my mental health that I not continue to work in that environment. Since then I have gone on one interview with the Dept. of Justice, the feds were looking for a casual for 2 months, as far as I know they are waiting to get approval from Ottawa for funding for the job, so I am still in the running.
I did have a job for 2 hours today though!! When we were cruising, the standard joke is that you can go back to work and be a Walmart Greeter. We’d even practice our lines, or the other classic, “Would you like fries with that?” WEELLL today, I almost fit into that scenario. I was the customer survey person at the local Canadian Tire. I got to ask customers 6 questions about their CANADIAN TIRE experience today. I was rather dreading it but everyone was quite nice, no one snubbed me and I was able to be my happy, cheery self for 2 hours. I had to get 50 people to answer questions and I would say I only had about 10 people refuse, that was pretty good odds. I must admit the next time I see someone with a survey in hand, unless I am late to catch a flight I will certainly answer their questions, unless of course they are trying to sell me anything. I think one guy tried to pick me up but I am not entirely sure as I am out of practice to detect those types of things, he did stand very close and he was a trucker, an ice road trucker. I guess I should have gone all googled eyed and asked him if he was a star of the Ice Road reality show!!!
The weather has been great, hot, sunny and windy, I have raced twice in the local Wed. night races and I am hoping to sail across the lake next weekend in the annual Commissioner’s Cup. There is the annual float plane fly in this weekend so we will have to go down and have some breakfast with the pilots and listen to some stories.
Barry and Bruce turn 60 this year. I e-mailed Marg and asked if she was planning anything special. She said that Bruce didn’t want a fuss made, neither did Barry. I suggested that Bruce and Marg come up for a visit. They got some very cheap flights with West Jet, so they are coming up for almost 4 days in the middle of Aug. We will have the use of a boat then so hopefully Barry and Bruce can catch some large fish. Bruce really enjoys that type of thing.

Here are some lovely photos of Leeland Edward Stonehouse that Jen and Mark took. I really like the shot of William holding on to Leeland. Jen said William asked to hold him but she had to coax him to stay still for the pictures. Once he was done holding him he wanted to go, go, go.
I had a visit with Cassidy and Elijah and we went to the pool. Cassidy and I had great fun sneaking up on Elijah who was playing away with a buddy from school. Cassidy climbed to the top of the climbing wall in the pool before falling back into the water. Elijah floated and showed off his swimming skills. He is a tentative child and although he came into the deep end with Grannie he was not too happy about it. They came back to the apt. after wards and Cassidy entertained us by dressing up their monkeys. I loved her sense of style and humour. If you click on the picture it should get bigger and you can really appreciate what she did. We got to hear about their visit with their Auntie Jen and the Kravitz side of the family. It sounds like they had a blast when they visited, NS, NB and PEI. I did not manage to get the camera out while they were here so will have to make sure I do that when I see them again.

I went Yellowknife's folk festival, Folk of the Rocks. It has been running for 29 years and this is the first one I have managed to get to. We were always busy sailing other years. Now I know why people go back every year. The theme this year was hip hop, and I was not sure I would like that. It was a blast. There was an aboriginal hip hop group up from Edmonton that explained the genre and had great fun with the audience. In the evening there was a collaboration between all the hip hop groups, which incorporated throat singing, Inuit story telling, hip hop and Dene drumming. They did a great job and you could tell the performers were thoroughly enjoying themselves. One of the hip hop guys who makes noises into the mike did a duo with a throat singer, magical.
Barry didn't come because he didn't want to sit on the ground the whole day. The weather had finally warmed up so we went for a jaunt to Tim Horton's. Barry insisted on walking there and back, a total of about 3 km. He said that nothing hurt and when I asked if I could walk home and get the car he was insistent that he was fine and walked all the way home. He is resting in bed with his foot elevated at the moment. He says he is going to work tomorrow, he doesn't get his stitches out until Thurs. I suggested he only go in for a half day and he said he would come home if he got too tired or his foot got too swollen.
I scored on the way home. I have been scheming about finding some rhubarb I can use. We walked down this lane and there was a huge patch all going to seed behind a vacant bordered up house. Barry had his handy dandy all purpose tool in his pack so I cut off all the pieces that were going to seed and took enough home to make a pie, yum. What could be finer!

Introducing Leeland Stonehouse
Mark just sent me these pics. Doesn't Leeland have a shock of dark hair!! He is a very handsome looking baby don't you think. I think Jen looks great.

Jennifer and Mark have decided that their son's first name is going to be Leeland, they have not decided on a second name yet. Mom is doing fine, she says she feels better than after she had William, but was pretty groggy during birth and through the night last night. Leeland has been nursing well and I am told he looks like William although Jen said his hair may be darker.

I forgot to tell you a funny story which happened the day Barry got home. He had read in the literature that the hospital had given him post surgery, that prune juice was a good idea. As per usual he didn't read all the way to the end of the sentence, which said you should mix it half and half with hot water, or perhaps he just processed the first part of the sentence. He just knew prune juice was recommended!! Sooooo he requested that I buy him some prune juice, no problem, probably a good idea. When I came home that night from work, he had drunk a half of the 2 litre container. He was already feeling the effects and had spent some quality time on his fancy high rise toilet seat! What a Lange move!

NEWS FLASH
Jen had her baby tonight. She had a boy, he is a healthy 9 pounds, 13 ounces. Mark said they are both fine. Jen tried to give birth but he did not want to co-operate so she had a Cesarean. They have not agreed on a name yet, so Baby Boy Stonehouse he is for the time being. The clan just keeps expanding, that is grandchild number six for those of you keeping count. There are now 3 born within a week in July. It should be fun it we all get together for a July celebration some time. It is hard to be here when I want to be there!!

Barry is home from the hospital. The operation seems to have gone very well, it is early days yet, but everyone at the hospital was amazed at his progress. We actually (this is 4 days after surgery) went for a kilometer walk this morning. Barry was really tired out after wards, and his foot was quite swollen but I kept asking him if we had gone far enough and he wanted to keep going. I guess I should have made him come home sooner. He is in bed sleeping off his walk!! He is still on pain meds but says that the burning pain that was in the joint before the surgery is all gone, he is so happy about that. He is walking much better than before the surgery, he only has to use one crutch to get around. He is already talking about graduating to just a cane next week. I must get a picture of him outside standing up straight and tall. Wow, what a relief that it worked out so well.
I have gotten a temp job, with the local Chrysler dealership. I am doing some bookkeeping there. Their system is not windows driven so it is cumbersome and the woman who is supervising is very busy so does not have time to train me properly. The person in the position before me left on two day's notice so she is not there to train me. I was not even introduced to the staff so when I had to answer the phone to cover the receptionist I had to ask who everyone was. I will be there a month and then the job is up for grabs. I have applied for it. I also had another interview for a part time position that sounded right up my alley. Hmmm, work really hard and bash my brains out learning an archaic system or go to a windows driven environment where I can name my hours, pot and curl all winter and enjoy myself. Some choice, but we are here to make money, maybe I should just let Barry take care of that, he loves to work so much!!

JUST KIDDING!!!
Well we just achieved our main goal in returning to Canada. Barry had his hip operation. So far it seems to have gone really well. He feels GREAT. I don't know I think he looks rather wan myself. He went under the knife at about 10:30 and did not return to the room until about 2:00 P.M. I was about fit to be tied, I was so glad to see him, my gosh, you wouldn't believe how good it was to clap my eyes on him.
He was awake the whole surgery (the surgeon told him he might need an extra pair of hands) and when he came into the room he was regaling the nurses with South Pacific stories. When I went back tonight, the nurses came in to change the dressing and I got to see the scar. I think it is great, we can tell shark bite stories and he has an actual scar to back up the stories. Barry will be able to go to town on that story for years, I can hear it now, man oh man.

He is being well looked after, the nurses are wonderful. He will see the occupational and physio people tomorrow. He told me to get something to put under one knee because he has to do these exercises. He wanted something round that was fairly substantial, so I got him a large bottle of Diet Coke and figured that if he didn't like the size of the circular object he could just drink it.
Anyway, thank you to everyone who sent us their kind thoughts, it is good to know there are lots of people in the world that care about us. We have both had a big day so I think it is time for me to get to bed.
P.S. Barry made me take the AHHHHHHH picture and post it, if you don't believe me ask him!

A TIRED FAMILY AT THE END OF CANADA DAY 2009
We, that is Trish, Graeme, Quinn, June, Mooch and I spent the day up at the ranch. The spot where Trish has been working off and on for the last 7 years. What a gorgoeus location and it was a perfect day. The owners had asked that Trish come up and take them riding and they were kind enough to include the whole family in their invitation. Trish had a tiring day, out in the hot sun, brushing, saddling, walking youngsters around and then going on a 2 hour ride.
Graeme and I hung out, he entertained Quinn, there were horses to look at, cats to harass, tractors to climb on and bikes to ride. Oh, and the best of all, balloons to blow up, there was this cool balloon pumper up thing and the balloons had a special end. Graeme would pump up the balloons and the kids, (the owners have 3 under 3 years of age) would let them go and they would scoot up in the air and around and around and they would make this wonderful noise, fascinating for kids. By the time we were done, I don't think there were very many useable balloons left, oops.
June was the perfect baby, waking up at the correct times so Trish wasn't exploding when she was riding, and eating the bottle that Grannie had heated up. The only mishap is when she projectile peed over her diaper when I was changing her and wet a towel that was on the bed. How does she do that?? Girls are not supposed to be able to pee in that manner, what a kid!!
Trish took a bunch of pictures yesterday of June, just chilling on the grass, enjoy the pics of her, she really is lovely.

The other day Trish and Graeme got a new kite. It is for kite surfing which they figured they could do here and in Australia. Quinn was tooling around on his coaster bike in the field where they were trying to learn how to fly the kite. The next session with the kite will be over the water, that should be fun!!


One of Trish's friend gave her a whole bunch of beautiful second hand baby clothes. After we had sorted them out, Trish could not resist putting her in one of the cute outfits and we had a photo shoot. The lighting wasn't great, so the lighting director (Quinn)decided to add some much needed extra light. (thus the flashlight in Trish's face)
June had her first bath at home and she was not impressed. She is eating like a true Lange and after she has finished she is just satiated. She just lays in Trish's arms her arms hanging down. She is so relaxed and calm, so far she has been a wonderful baby.

Relaxing after a busy day
Trish got home safely on Monday night. The whole family was very happy to see her. It has been a very busy household ever since. Quinn seems to be adjusting quite well. He would not let his Mom out of his sight the next day but that is perfectly understandable. He is not sure about Grandma. Sometimes she is useful, like when Mom is really busy and can't come then occasionally she is allowed to help him out. The other day he went on a ramble outside and started pulling at something that had some pink itchy insulation behind it. I told him he couldn't do that. He was not impressed and after several minutes trying to figure out a way to get what he wanted he gave up and went in the house. I opened the door for him and he squeezed in then pushed me away and shut the door. Fair enough, I had spoiled his fun and he didn't want me around. I headed around to the other side of the house to let myself in the front door and the little monkey was already there trying to make sure that big bag grandma wasn't going to get in HIS house!!!
June is doing great, the health nurse was here yesterday and weighed her and she is up to 5 lbs, 10 oz. and the nurse was very happy with her weight gain. She is, off course,as cute as a button with lovely auburn hair. She is very tiny, but has long limbs, with very long fingers. I haven't gotten a good look at her feet yet but she has lovely small ears. My grandmother has these monster ears with huge lobes and I was always afraid one of my children would get them. So far I don't think that gene has surfaced in any of our offspring!!
Trish' garden is flourishing. Her flowers are all blooming and her veggie garden is growing at a great rate. I hope to have a nice salad with her garden lettuce tonight as well as fresh herbs.

Mom is looking at the camera but the guys are busy looking at the car!!

Well, I guess internet baking is not my forte. Yesterday I looked up a recipe for bran muffins online and then copied it down and cooked them. Well as you can see the results were not stellar. I kind of wondered when there was no flour involved in the recipe and actually went back to the computer to check on the list of ingredients, and sure enough I did not see flour. The results were very tasty but did not hold together very well and at the moment they are in a bowl. I consumed some for breakfast as a cereal substitute. After I had scraped all the cooked stuff out of the muffin papers I went back to the computer to check again to see if there really was flour and sure enough, hiding between the baking powder and the egg there was the required 1 cup of flour, I can't believe I didn't catch it the second time I looked. Oh well, I may try them again, meanwhile Graeme does not really believe I can bake!! Quinn on the other hand shoveled some of the tasty bran/craisins/sun flower seed mixture into his mouth and wanted more.

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Trish and June in Trail

I am in Windermere, BC awaiting the return of Trish and June. They should be here sometime on Monday. Last night they were to do the car seat test. They were going to put June in the car seat, while she was still hooked up to the monitors and see how she did. If she managed all right, Trish and June would be left on their own for 48 hours to see how they managed on their own and then they would be discharged on Monday. Trish would then drive home with June. It has to be about a 4 hour drive if not more.
Quinn and I are going to get reacquainted today, he seem to remember me this morning so that is a good thing. We took a trip down to the garden to check it out. Things are growing but there are some weeds to be pulled so I guess that will keep me busy today.

We have had a busy weekend. On Saturday we helped out down at the boat yard. We were responsible for putting in a Fraser 42, launching is stressful anyways, but when it is not your boat it just adds to the stress. Everything turned out fine though, the engine started and after clouds of black smoke came out, it settled down and got us to the mooring. We were not happy with the engine temperature after it had been running for awhile and not knowing whether that was normal or not, we have decided not to use the boat while it's owner is away. He has offered it to us for other times in late July and perhaps after a few more lessons on the running of the boat we will feel more comfortable about using it.
We were invited out to a Skills Canada demonstration of what the students have learned on Sat. night. The skill was cooking. We were treated to a sumptuous 7 course meal. It was astounding, first was a cheese and fruit plate, then shrimp cocktail, delicous home made tomato soup, a sorbet to cleanse your palette, whitefish with wonderful homemade tartar sauce, then beef tenderloin and to finish it off strawberry shortcake. That is Yellowknife for you, something unique and different going on every weekend. I think I may attend a concert put on tonight featuring one of our boating buddies daughters.
Today we volunteered at the annual Midnight Sun Triathalon. Once again it was raining but it wasn't as cold as 2 weeks ago when we volunteered at the track meet. It was interesting watching all ages swim, bike and ride.
This afternoon our grandchildren, Cassidy and Elijah came by. They are heading off on summer holidays soon so are wanting to make some spending money. They sorted our recycling, walked to the bins to put it in, then we rolled Grandpa's stash of coins. They each made $6.00 for their efforts and seemed quite happy with that. We headed to the Co-op after that and bought ingredients for smoothies. The cherry yogurt with the fresh strawberries was a hit all around as we slurped up all that goodness. What fun.
I am flying to Calgary on Thursday to be with Trish, Graeme, Quinn, June and Moocha, I will arrive in Windermere on Friday. Trish and June may or may not be home by then, but since I have to be back on July 6 to be here when Barry heads in to the hospital I thought I should get there pretty soon. I am sure June will be able to hold her own by then. She is now out of the isolet, breathing on her own, now she has to be able to hold down a good feed of milk before they will let her go home. I can't wait to meet her!!

Heather called, she is safely in Tulita. She said that have a decent place to live and that the plane ride up there was long. They went up on a small plane. Tulita is located where the Mackenzie River meets up with the river flowing out of Great Bear Lake.
I met with a bunch of ladies I used to curl with and against and was asked to curl in the Senior ladies with them. The only hitch is that the Senior National playdowns is at the end of March. It is in Ottawa, which would be a lot of fun, but that would mean I would miss a good part of the NZ summer and have to stay in the cold NWT until the end of March. HMMM. Barry is willing to stay as long as I want. I guess I will write a list of the pros and cons and figure out where my priorities lie.
Launch day is tomorrow, hopefully it won't be too windy, it is not fun to see those boats waving around in the breeze when they are launched. A fellow who lives in Hay River and does not use his boat much said that we could sail his boat any time we wanted this summer. He sailed across the Atlantic a few years ago, sounds like I won't be hurting for boat to use. That is great.

NEWS FLASH
Unbelievable, Barry's surgery has been scheduled for JULY 7, 2009. HORRAY, YIPPEE unbelievable. i am doing the happy dance all around the living room, otherwise known as the entertainment center and the library!!!!

Life is good!!! Barry and I went to see the doctor today. He is a candidate for a new hip and they are going to schedule him in for surgery. That is just wonderful news. We still have no idea when it will be but it will be sooner rather than later and we should be able to be back on the boat to make the run to Fiji at this time next year. I can't tell you how happy I am. Barry will not have to live with the pain he has for too much longer. Oh wow, we must have someone looking out for us!

On the boat front, we have been asked to launch a 42 foot boat on Saturday and then been given free use of the boat until the owner comes back on June 25. He is a very trusting sort, I spent about 3 hours with him yesterday going over the boat systems and writing down all the ins and outs of starting the motor. I think I have it down, it is just checking to see if the 8 new thru hulls he put in are leaking that has me slightly worried. He is a pretty careful guy so I am sure his workmanship will be outstanding. He has a brand new furling genoa on the boat which should be fun to see how it works. I may go down and put the main on today, depending on the wind of course.
I don't think I have mentioned that one of our friends has a laser that he said I could sail in the Wed. night races. Seeing as how I have never sailed a dinghy by myself, this should be a great experience. I guess I will find out what kind of a sailor I really am. I am not looking forward to the first time I go for a dunk though, that water is going to be freezing. Now I am wishing I had bought a heavier wet suit than I have. I hauled the wetsuit all the way back from NZ with plans to do this so I had better stick to my convictions, I really am a northern girl, born and raised in the north so I laugh at cold water HaH!

Big news, Trish is engaged. A very ecstatic new mother called me the other night and said she had a lovely diamond ring on her finger. Graeme was very happy to see his new daughter again and Trish said that Quinn was very pleased to see her. They are ensconced in Bob's fifth wheel and loving it. They are parked by the playground so they can watch Quinn play from the trailer. He also has his new coaster bike with him and the area is paved so they are all happy about that. A coaster bike for those of you not in the know is a bicycle without pedals. They just push it around with their feet and COAST when they want. I will be interested to see him on it. Last I heard was that Baby Girl Martin was still doing fine. Hmmm, any bets on how long it will take them to name her??????
We went for a drive out to a lake about 30 km from town yesterday. It was a lovely day, the leaves are still not out here, but are getting ready to pop. From the top of the hill I could see leads in the ice, but it still looked pretty solid. It was warm enough today to walk to the library to use the computer with just a short sleeve shirt on, so things are warming up. I have applied for 2 jobs so far, I am getting bored, today I was such a housewife, doing the laundry, going shopping and even ironing Barry's shirts. If I get supper ready for when he walks in the door from work he will think he has died and gone to heaven. OH JOY!!

Here is a picture of Baby Girl Martin, courtesy of my brother Bob. He lives just 4 hours from Trail . Yesterday he drove his fifth wheel trailer to Trail so that Trish, Graeme and Quinn can have somewhere to live. Graeme is driving to Trail today so the whole family can be together. Hopefully Trish will be able to get some rest and Graeme will get to see his baby girl again. I am sure Quinn will be very happy to see his Mom again as well and visa versa.
All is well on the YK front. Barry and I went garage sailing today and got some good stuff. Still need a broom and vacuum according to Barry but I find that I really don't need those things, hee hee hee!!!

OUR NEW HOME, AT LEAST FOR THIS MONTH

The closet,notice the slightly skewed doors


Check it out, a bathtub, Woopee!!

The entertainment center


Patricia and Baby Girl Martin are in Trail, BC. They were flown there yesterday, the baby is fine, just underweight and she was having some trouble breathing. They did not have the facilities in Cranbrook to look after the baby if she got into trouble so they shipped her out. Trish said in Trail they have a nurse who is dedicated to the preemie babies. They admitted Trish to the hospital last night and she is going to be allowed to stay there for 1 more night. She thought there was a place in Trail for family members of hospital patients to stay, so she may look into that.
On our front, we are in a one bedroom apt, YEAH, we have a toilet, YIPPEE!! So far we have a foamy, 5 pillows and some dishes, 2 plates, 3 glasses, 2 soup mugs, 2 knives, 2 forks, 2 spoons and some pots and pans.
We shouldn't fall off of this!
Ian and Helen loaned us some sheets and towels, I have organized all our clothes into piles on his and her sides of the beds. We have a closet, with hangers, wow, space to actually hang things up, what a luxury, the boat’s locker to hang stuff up was really lousy and there was always the generator and 2/20 liter full water cans in front of it. I think I will have a house warming party and tell everyone they need to bring a chair, little would they know that they would have to leave empty handed. Oh yeah, I could ask them to bring something to eat and then keep the dishes as well, this idea is getting better and better all the time!!
The library


Ah well, Barry is enjoying work, I think but he is very tired when he gets home. His hip was really sore today and I asked why. He said he did some visiting on the first day, and apparently he walked up and down the stairs between floors a few times, what can I say!
Elijah and Cassidy our grandchildren said that their teachers would like me to come in and talk to their classes that would be fun. I must get in touch with them today. I probably won’t go to Windermere to help Trish out until she and the baby return home, that may be a week to 10 days.
I just went to get internet hooked up and it is not going to happen until next Tuesday and apparently there are no “Hot Spots” for Wifi in town, what a drag. I did call the library and they have computers, first come, first served, so I guess I will go there, and I will get a library card as well.