Love, Michelle

Very excited about this...

This week, we launched our new website for work. Go check it out if you want to see where I work and what I do!

The weather is hot and sunny and I'm going home early.

I am off to the North Slope

I am getting ready to go up north for a few days. Just a quick trip this time but it will be nice to see everyone, sleep by the ocean, and to get a little break from my office.

See you next week!

This weekend we...

Went to see Harry Potter and loved it! Well, except for the disgustingly  hot and dirty theatre. But the movie was great. I laughed. I cried. I didn't fall asleep (even though it was the late show and my new bedtime is 9 pm).
Planted a spirea in our yard. I asked Aubrey to leave a hole in the corner of the deck so I could plant a shrub. He didn't quite get my "vision" but I guess he didn't want a crazy pregnant lady on his hands trusted me. Now it's all planted and bark mulched and looks beautiful. Padfoot likes to be in the middle of the action.
Our slightly neurotic but very sweet friend Murphy stayed the night while Mark was having fun fishing in Skagway. Padfoot was especially happy about this.

It is pouring rain here today. I seriously don't ever remember a rainy day like this in the Yukon. Totally reminds me of being in Nova Scotia. I kind of like it, plus it gives my sunburn a bit of a chance to heal.

End of an era...

I am feeling a bit emotional today. We are going to see Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix tonight. I remember Aubrey and I reading that book together almost this time four years ago, on our drive from Nova Scotia to the Yukon.

To be honest those books mark so many milestones in our lives.

I got the first Harry Potter book in 2000 at a Christmas gift exchange with some of my friends in Prince George. This was just a few months after Aubrey and I started dating. I wanted to read it with him, but it was a bit early in our relationship and I was afraid to ask. I thought he would laugh at me. So I was very happy when he asked me to wait until he was finished his exams so we could read it together. And so the story goes...

We read that first book over Christmas in 2000. Books two and three took us through our first year living together at that apartment in Prince George. I remember curling up together on the couch so many times to read just one more chapter.

We read book four during the year we lived in Kentville. In that tiny castle apartment that we loved so much.

Book five took us across the country when we moved from Nova Scotia to the Yukon. We saved it for the drive and read all the way from Kentville, Nova Scotia to Watson Lake, Yukon. A year later we named Padfoot after one of our favorite characters.

We started book six during the summer of 2005, and finished it on the drive from Haines Junction to Smithers for our wedding. Aubrey was driving and it was starting to get dark so I pulled the headlamp out of my bag and kept on reading. I remember pulling into a gas station, sobbing. (Have you read the book? Do you remember the ending?). We were so close to the end but between the darkness and the tears I just couldn't see, so we had to put it away. We pulled into Smithers around 2 am and finished reading the book curled up at Dave and Penny's place in the middle of the night. A week later we got married.

We've been waiting for the last book for two years, and it comes out next week. The last one. We're planning to read it during our road trip in August, if we can wait that long.

Part of me knows it's just a book. Just a story. But that story has been such a big part of our relationship since the beginning. It is cool to think that we'll read the last book waiting for our first baby to arrive, and reading the Harry Potter series together will become something we did as a couple before we became parents. Just think, in a few short years we'll be able to re-discover the story with our own kids.

In other news I am enjoying a DQ Blizzard and wondering how I only gained 3 lbs in the last month considering the amount of ice cream I've consumed. Maybe the baby enjoys eating the ice cream too!

Happy Music Festival Couple

We spent the weekend with Mark at the Atlin Arts and Music Festival. This festival is fast becoming a favorite on our list of things to do in the summer, especially now that we are expecting a baby. Great music, relaxing atmosphere, and children as far as the eye can see. Aubrey and I were more than a little excited at the thought of our kids dancing up a storm in Atlin for years to come.

I was a bit disappointed in my lack of stamina at the concert on Saturday night, however. I stayed up to watch one of our favorite bands from last year - Ugly Stick. Let's just say that my days of dancing all night are on hold. I managed to make it through the hour that the band played, but it was a challenge! And the experience of dancing with my new belly and boobs was new for me too. But Aubrey thought it was pretty funny.

I went back to the tent at midnight, and Aubrey went back to the party. I woke around 2:30 am to hear the concert ending and a drum circle beginning and I knew that I wouldn't be seeing Aubrey for a while. Sure enough around 4 am he crawled into the tent with hands swollen from drumming and a big smile on his face.

On Sunday we wondered around the different venues listening to great music. Two of our favorites were David Francey and Tamara Nile.

I spent most of the weekend feeling excited that next year my sister and I could be wondering around Atlin together pushing our baby strollers!

Look who bought a shiny new Subaru