A Super Update on 2020

 It's been a while... I feel like every post starts like that!

I will run through 2020 is a nutshell.. one sentence and one picture to sum up each month of 2020. Then we will get into the nitty gritty of the first 6 weeks of 2021, because it's been a BUSY year so far.

January: Cold, and uneventful as most Januaries are! My Bermuda turned 1! So big!

February: Short, sweet and snowy. Bermuda decided to eat foam out of her bed...so we took an impromptu (and expensive) trip to Val D'or to x-ray her belly and make sure nothing was stuck! She was able to pass the foam with help from a laxative and all was well in the end.

March: As we all know what happened in March 2020... I'll share where I was when it all started! I was in Edmonton, Alberta! So exciting. A few colleagues and I signed up to attend the Think Indigenous Education Conference in Edmonton. The conference was extremely insightful, interesting and engaging. Unfortunately, due to the onset of the pandemic, the conference was cut short, but we were able to stay the whole 5 days and enjoyed ourselves nonetheless. 

April: I dove deep into working out, and being outside at all hours. So much time was spent with my girls and by myself <3 

May: Finally able to see my BF after 8 long weeks! Oh and here is when I started going back and forth to Val D'or every 2 weeks, meaning every 2 weeks I was in isolation in Mistissini... worth it I'd say! Due to the pandemic, we stopped teaching in school so we had all the time in the world to foster and rescue puppies and dogs, this means more transports! We did our first transport of the summer in end of May.

June: Let the kayaking commence! I think the kayak was a permanent fixture on my car as of June 1st...and I think we did 2 more trips with at least another dozen dogs/puppies!

July: Camping, more dog rescue, and 2 more weeks in Val D'or! Swimming and kayaking for days.

The following photo sums up July... a foster puppy had dug a hole in front of the tent to keep cool...July was SO HOT! Just behind the trees was a beautiful lake to take a dip in.

August: More kayaking, more swimming, and blueberry and raspberry season is here! Also... some very large tracks in the sand... Wolf? Large Dog? Direwolf? hmm...

September: Back to School! Finally!! I spent the last 6 months doing exactly 0 teaching. We were not able to send devices home or guarantee internet access and were very overwhelmed. My students were sent home in March and did little to no school work or anything until September. Way to close the learning gap or keep some semblance of routine and schedule... NOPE. Anyway, it was both a rough start but also a natural way back into the school routine. The students were so happy to be back and so were we! Life started to feel "normal-ish" again, but with like 5x the amount of work and 10x the amount of stress due to Covid. It was overwhelming for sure. One afternoon, I just couldn't handle it and took the afternoon off to spend time in the woods by myself. It was the best mental-health afternoon I could ask for. I made a fire, roasted marshmallows, went for a walk and read a book!

October: More workouts, more walks and while we kayaked in September, it snowed in October! As usual, Winter is upon us! Halloween was a blast, we won our door decorating contest.

November: This month brought some craziness that's for sure... Bermuda somehow got impaled by a stick or branch during one of our long walks and ended up in surgery needing 12 stitches!! Poor baby, I had no idea she was even injured, until I saw some blood on her bed, so I checked her over and found a small wound. I decided to send a picture and call the vet, they wanted me to bring her in. Thank goodness I did! The wound under her skin was over 15 cm long (about 6 inches) !!! It was not very deep, but very long. If we had not caught it, she would have gotten infected and would have been much worse. Poor baby had to stay on rest and in a cone for 14 days. It was a rough 14 days for all of us :(

December: So much snow!!! We had this amazingly humid evening that made all of the moisture freeze onto the trees and the power lines, everything. All was white and beautiful. December was the beginning of the end for me... It became real that my Work Permit was expiring in one month (on January 22nd, 2021) and I had no real plan to extend/renew/apply for a new one... I will dedicate the next blog post entirely to Immigration, it gets complicated really quickly. So I will end this post here with a beautiful white landscape and a hope that all of you had a safe, healthy and stress-free 2020. JUST KIDDING, it sucked big time, but look. Let's take a  deep breath in and focus on the fact that 2021 will be so. much. better. Now let that breath out..... long breath out. Phew. 

Now that we have breathed a sigh of relief that 2020 is over, let's take another one just for me, because my journey into 2021 has just begun....

Thanks for your support and I hope that a one year hiatus won't happen again!

Love to you all,

~Vicki