Not sure if I mentioned this in a prior post, but Delaney & Cace are now enrolled in the Junior Rockers program here at the Yellowknife Curling Club.  Their last class for 2009 was on December 14th, and at that time we were talking with the gentleman responsible for the Ice at the YK Curling Club.  Terry is from Harbour Grace, NL and knew our former neighbours back in Paradise quite well.  It`s a small, small world.  Terry spends 1/2 his year back home in NL and the other 1/2 here in YK setting up and maintaining the ice at the YKCC.

While we were talking, Terry mentioned that there would be a nice family bonspiel (I think that’s how it’s spelled) on Boxing Day.  A family-oriented event to get the kids out and interested in curling.  Terry conviced us, even after much indecision, that it would be a good thing for all of us to attend… even though neither Flo or I have ever stepped foot on a sheet of curling ice in our lives.  Terry was quite confident that we would be in welcome company, so we said “why not” and signed up before we left the club that evening.

Here we are, 2 weeks later and it was time to “face the music”.  Our 1st game was scheduled for 10:15am.  We got the kids up early enough to grab a bite and we headed over to the club.  Before we even left the dressing rooms, we sorta knew this was going to be an “experience”.  You could hear everyone chattering about and you knew they were all experienced curlers!  “Where’s Terry?” I could hear Flo broadcasting telepathically… as I was likely doing myself!!    Anyhow, we went about our business and found 4 brooms and headed to sheet #4 for our game.  The team we were paired against arrived and when the skip bends down, takes off his professional shoe slide (not sure the name of that either… as I mentioned, we’re greenhorns right!), I knew we were in for a time.

I gotta say, even though they were probably chuckling inside, they never let on.  They were all great sports and provided us with some helpful advice on pointers as we struggled along.  The boys held their own.  They have learned quite a lot about curling in the month+ they’ve played… enough to make their Mom & Dad look like the “new kids on the block”.  Cace was even our Skip.  Go figure!

We had fun, but decided that we would not return for the scheduled game in the afternoon.  The kids were cranky, cold hands and cold feet.  We played for an hour and a 1/2 and the kids were starting to get cranky with one another, and since we were no competition for anyone, we decided against returning for the final game this afternoon.  While we were told we would be paired with similarly-experienced families, we knew that wasn’t the case.  There were no others families with the same experience as us, and it just wouldn’t be fair to the remaining “competitors”.  When you start out and they`re tracking team scores, you know it’s a competitive event and not really a “family fun” event as we had been informed.  It’s too bad, since Curling is suffering a tremendous drop in membership here in Yellowknife and across the country as whole.  It’s the sort of “family fun” events that NEED to be marketed to the broader community and to younger families such as ours, in order to get them participating in and enjoying the sport.  Keeping the competition to a minimum is KEY to keeping the interest of non-competetive or new members in the sport itself.

Curling is quite a fun sport, and one which can be enjoyed quite easily and fairly cheaply by the entire family.  To be honest, I probably could not have taken my entire family to the movie theatre for the cost of our event today.  I hope these things continue more and that organizers are able to recognize the need for less competetive events in order to generate more family interest in this sport.

Thank you to Terry for the encouragement to get us to sign up and come out today and for your assistance and pointers before we got started.  It was greatly appreciate!

Until next time…

Here’s a few pics of the boys, and Flo and I, as we excitedly await the arrival of the infamous Saint Nicholas himself.

Delaney and Cace are very excited this year, and Cace was soo excited this evening that he honestly did not know how to control the excitement.  He was bouncing around the house, jumping off furniture, you name it…  it was quite amusing to see him so excited.  Delaney was a little more reserved I guess, but you could still see the excitement on his face. 

Peace Everyone!

Excitedly awaiting his arrival

Reserved Excitement

The Heffernan Family 2009

The silly side of the Heffernan Family!

Anyhow, we wish everyone ALL the BEST this HOLIDAY SEASON.  Seasons Greetings, Happy New Year and may you all experience the joy of family and friends.

Until next time…

I finally managed to quell that little voice inside me which keeps telling me “you don’t really need that”.  That voice always surfaces when I plan a major purchase.  And it ALWAYS wins.  UNTIL NOW.     This time, for whatever reason, I managed to quell the voice.

Now don’t get me wrong.  That sounded like it might have been a very easy thing to do this time around.  It wasn’t.  In fact, I’ve been having this back-n-forth discussion with myself (some may call that insanity) for over a year now. Only this time around, I said to heck with it, and figured I’m living here in the North, in a land where Winter is actually winter, and not a combination of the seasons like we were accustomed to in St. John’s.  So when winter arrives, it’s here to stay for 5-6 months.  That played an important part in my decision, as I know that I will have plenty of opportunity to use my new purchase.

What is the new purchase you ask?  Check it out…

The new arrival!

Getting ready for a run

So I guess that’s 1 down, 1 more to go.  Now that I have one, it’s a no-brainer that I need another right?    Of course you say… me too.   Then all 4 of us are able to go off on an excursion.  And let me tell ya, there’s plenty of places to ride up here.

Until next time…

Delaney's letter

Cace's letter

These are not the actual “final” letters they sent off to Santa, but letters they created in a “Frosty Workshop” that was put on by the City of Yellowknife. (You can click on the images to see the big picture:))

Well, last night the real northern Winter arrived in Yellowknife.  It had been delaying it`s arrival for a few weeks now, but without warning it came to town last evening.  Not quite sure what I`m referring to… take a look at this snap from my Windows Vista Weather Network gadget….

Winter Finally Arrived

Up until now we had been enjoying some relatively mild temperatures here in Yellowknife.  Last week it was averaging about -3 to -7, which is a dream compared to -26.     Yet -26 will soon seem like a dream compared to -40 or even -50 which I`m sure we`ll approach in early January sometime.

Ah well, we chose to live here and we therefore choose to live and bear it, right….  I s`pose!

Until next time…

Like Father Like Son.  Yup, Delaney is a chip off the old block, especially when it comes to his ability to put himself in a doctors office or better yet, an Emergency Room.  And that`s exactly where he ended up Sunday afternoon after a very brief but somewhat eventful trip to the local sliding haunt here in Yellowknife, Bristol Pit.

It was about 3:00pm Sunday afternoon, the kids had finished up Squash, and were starting to get on each other`s nerves around the house (not to mention getting on ours too!!).  We decided to take them sliding at Bristol Pit, and they were quite eager to do so.  So I inflated their new double-slide, which Flo had recently picked up at Wal Mart.  After about 10 minutes we were ready to head out.

Upon arriving at Bristol Pit, it was clear there weren`t many others out.  I assumed it was because of the time and being quite late in the afternoon also assumed that most people had left for the day.  And there was plenty of evidence to indicate that others had been out sliding and snowboarding that day.  So the boys gear up, jump on the double slide and off they go.  Not 20 feet down, they both roll over and Cace decides he`s had enough for the day.  He wasn`t pleased at all.  Said we shouldn`t have forced to them go sliding!!  Go figure….

Delaney decided he was going to go down by himself.  So he hopped on, and off he went.  About the same 20 feet down the hill, he started to veer off to the right, and quickly got into `rough` patch.  The slide went out from under him and he went bouncing along the edge of the trail.  Then he started SCREAMING like nothing you`d heard before.  I took off down the hill and looked him over.  He was HOWLING.  After about 5 minutes he calmed down, I got him back to the truck, and then we headed home.  Once there, did a quick triage, and decided to call the neighbour who`s a RN and figured she could settle him down and confirm nothing was broken.  10 minutes later, Flo and Delaney arrive at the door, preparing to head to Hospital on RN neighbour`s advice. 

An hour+ later they both return, with Delaney`s left arm in a cast.  Apparently the bang his hand took was enough to FRACTURE the bone which connects the thumb to the wrist and hand.  Casted up, he`s good for 2.5-3 weeks before having to go back for follow up XRays.

My First Broken Bone

Like I said… LIKE FATHER LIKE SON.  For those of you that knew me when I was young, you`ll find great humor and truthfulness in that statement!

Until next time…

The Olympic flame made its way across Yellowknife on Thursday, November 5  from N’Dilo to the Samba K’e Civic Plaza in Yellowknife.

66 torchbearers carried the Olympic Flame across the city with the final celebration at 7:00pm at Samba K’e Civic Plaza, next to City Hall.

I was there as a  part of the celebrations as a volunteer with Coke.  I had a great time and was so in awe of the enormous amount of happiness and excitement that was felt by all. I really enjoyed my evening and will remember it forever.

Amanda and Florence

One of the highlights of the evening, was the unveiling of the life-size hand-painted Coke bottle by Yellowknife artist Dawn Orman.  Both David and I love her work!!

Hand Painted by Artist Dawn Oman

I'm 5'2"!!

And of course, it wouldn’t be the Olympic Flame Celebration without a picture of myself with the Olympic Torch.  Big Cheers Out to my 3 other ladies who were volunteering alongside me that night!

Chelsea, Florence, Amanda and Suzanne with the Olympic Torch

Wow, I am blown away by the fact that I haven’t written here for almost a full month.  October 5th was the last time I have written any words of wisdom (or boredom!).  How does that happen?  Besides the fact that I ended up down-n-out with the flu (possibly H1N1) for the last 9 days.  That takes a good chunk of time out of picture, but still not enough to account for the last month.  Okay, well the last 28 days anway.

I guess there’s a lot of things taking my time, all of which will be excuses for why I’m writing less.  But none of which I’ll bore you with.  All I can say is that I need a little kick every now and then to get myself motivated.  Sometimes from myself, sometimes from my better half.  Thanks sweety!

Now, to the topic at hand.  HALLOWEEN.  There it was, 2 days ago, like a distant memory.  That is, of course, aside from all the candy wrappers and chip bags kicking around all over the place.  Sorry about that dear…. 

Here’s a couple of photos of the kids, as they prepare to wreak mayhem (nah, just kiddin) on the neighbours.

Spooky boyz!

Who's that with the ugly face?

Let's go spook someone...

Are those 3" heels??

Anyhow, the treats were a plenty and the trot time was not.  All-in-all we were out about 30 minutes in -15 and the boys had enough.  Filled a bag or two and said let’s go home dad.  I didn’t question them and off we went, back to the house for them to gorge on chocolate and sweets.  Oh well, they’re allowed once per year I guess!!

Until next time…

If my memory serves me correctly, I beleive we received our first touch of snow on October 6.  Each day since then, we have received snow flurries.

Day	Forecast	Description
Today        11 Oct	Flurries  High: -2°    Low: -9°	Day: Cloudy with flurries. High -2C, humidity 35%.  Winds  at  10 to 15 mph.
		Night: Clear skies. Low -9C. Winds ENE at 5 to 10 mph.

We are also finally  catching up with darkness, losing minutes each day of our sun:(  I actually don’t mind the darkness.  The night sky provides the great aurora viewing and the sheer beauty of the moon.

How many times can one tell oneself that “enough is enough” before the message actually sinks in?  It seems like quite a bit for myself anyway… at least when the topic at hand is weight loss.  3 years ago I was a mere slice of my current self.  8 pant sizes and 3 shirt sizes smaller – in fact, looking back at my passport picture which was taken around the same time, I’d have to say that I was a very different person… both in terms of my weight, and my lifestyle.

Since that time, I’ve promised myself, at least a dozen times, that I will get back on the exercise bandwagon and start improving my health and my diet.  A year and 1/2 ago, we moved from Paradise, Newfoundland to Yellowknife, Northwest Territories and at the time I renewed that committment to “change my ways”.  I signed up for the Turbulence Training contest last September but never made it longer than 2 weeks of continuous effort.  I signed up in Broomball and loved the game so much that I finally started to lose some weight – I was dedicated to attending every session.  But it was a struggle to keep up with the younger guys who were in much better shape than I.  However, I held in there and made it trhrough the season.  But again, I committed to change my ways and get in better shape befor the start of next season.

Here we are, 1st week of October, 2 weeks from the start of the 2009-10 Broomball season, and I`m right where I left off, or even worse for that matter.  I keep telling myself that it`s my schedule… and that I don`t have time, etc.. etc… nothing but excuses really.  I need to change my ways now, and I need to do it wholeheartedly.  I really do understand the downfalls of continuing in my current mode of self anihilation.  So when, I ask, is enough enough?

I guess the answer to that question is going to be different for everyone that reads this.  We all have our breaking points and tolerance levels… I just hope that I`ve finally reached mine.

Until next time…