From the Heart of Country Music

Nashville is a ten-hour drive or so from Mena. When you've got three little boys, two of which have questionable bladder control, it is eleven and a half. When you decide to sacrifice your own sleep to drive through the night so that you don't have to stop for your children's needs as often, it is only a little over eight.

We spent less than twenty-four hours in the city known as "The Heart of Country Music." I so wish we could have spent a week there. The city is old, and has a lot of character. And! It is all about music! It felt like coming home.

We arrived late on Friday, had brunch with Jason's friend Devin and his daughter on Saturday, then hit the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum before starting home. It was amazing. I didn't drive along Music Row, but I peeked down it as we drove by it.

There was something very cool about knowing I was sleeping in the same city that many of my musical heroes call home or have frequented. I felt a deep connection to the names and faces of the musicians I read about in the museum. The experience was almost spiritual.

Besides this, though, there were a few other highlights I would like to mention:

One of our leg-stretching stops on the way there was at the Memphis Visitor's Center (I believe it is called the B.B. King and Elvis Presley Welcome Center). This is a beautiful place, just on the north-west side of the Mississippi River, with lots of long sidewalks and green space, as well as a beautiful building with larger-than-life statues of its two namesakes.

It was a gorgeous day in Memphis, though slightly overcast--the temperature was a slightly breezy 20°C. We were strolling along the river bank, reading the historical bits on various pedestals along the way, when we approached three homeless people sitting on a bench on the grass opposite the riverbank. Jason and Jude were up ahead, already stopping to read the sign opposite the bench, while Jabin, Noah and I were coming up.

They were seemingly harmless, but somewhat intoxicated, and the older lady was lamenting the way someone had treated her in a rather loudish voice. The old dark-skinned man on the left side of the bench had a white scraggly beard and was missing all his front teeth--but this didn't matter to Noah. Before I could react, before I could say anything, he had gone right up to him and given him the biggest hug ever. Then he crawled right into his lap and jabbered away at him. The man was a little difficult to understand, himself, but he was obviously tickled pink. Jabin, with a grin that would shadow the sun (if it were shining), stood in line waiting his turn, and followed his brother's suit as soon as the man's lap had been vacated.

Jason and I watched the whole event with chagrin. How wonderful that children can love so unreservedly, so unconditionally. How sad that we, as adults, have to teach them to put restraints on behaviours such as this because it isn't safe. How can we teach them to show the love of Jesus, just as they were doing, without putting themselves in danger?

Maybe the real lesson here is not for the children, but for the adults--loving is a dangerous thing to do. But it's the only way to do it.

On the way out of Memphis, we passed by St. Jude Children's Research Hospital. Jason said to Jude, "Look, there's your hospital!" Jude was positively delighted, and really took it to heart, too! He went on about that for a good five or ten minutes!

"Does everyone have a hospital? Do you have hospital, Dad? Maybe when I'm older, I'll get to go to my hospital! Maybe I'll let you come, too!" And on and on he went. Eventually, I had to make sure he understood that it wasn't really "his" hospital, it was just named after the same Jude in the Bible that we had named him after. It didn't seem to matter much--he was just as excited about seeing "his" hospital on the way home!

We left Nashville to come home at around 4:30 on Saturday, and finally pulled into Mom and Mike's yard around 12:45 a.m. that night. We transferred the sleeping children as quickly and quietly as we could, packed in our bags, and were getting ready to nod off at last within about fifteen or twenty minutes. After I climbed into bed, Jason and I exchanged about five words wishing each other a good night, etc. From around the corner, where the boys were sleeping, Jabin said, "Qiet!"

The funniest thing about this is that Jabin is the one we usually have to shush about fifteen times to get to go to sleep--the little noise-maker usually talks himself to sleep! Jason and I muffled our laughs with our pillows, and finally entered blissful Neverland.

B.B. King

The other "King"

The egg says "Memphis: Home of the Blues, Birthplace of Rock'N'Roll"

This is Johnny Cash's actual guitar, that he used for most of his career. It was only one of many legendary instruments in the museum.

In the centre of the Hall of Fame.

In and Out

I wasn't planning on performing Tuesday night. Mom had asked me to do a special music, one song only, on Saturday at church. (My mother attends the Seventh-Day Adventist church.)

Except now we are going to be in Nashville on Saturday.

While discussing this on Tuesday, the performance changed and grew and evolved until the end result was that I sang for about forty-five minutes at the Tuesday night Bible Study.

Most of the songs were from memory. My voice was already tired when I started because I had been practicing all afternoon. But it was totally great. While I was a little nervous, because it has been a very, very long time since I was the sole entertainer for a period that long, for the most part it was a very casual, informal way to perform. The last-minute character of the performance gave me little time to build up nervous energy. I was in my comfort zone.

The next day, however, I was decidedly out of it.

Quadding seemed like a perfectly harmless and innocent activity for the afternoon when it was first suggested. Until I found out that not only would this be my first time on a quad, but I would be driving my own!

A ten-second crash course and an experimental spin around the yard, and we were on the road. After a couple of miles of manipulating the beast over narrow country roads, the adrenaline was starting to ease off and I was just beginning to think, "This is okay. I can handle this."

Then we started off-roading.

Did I mention that my mom lives next to a mountain? And that my husband has apparently a very different filter than myself on what kind of a trail is "harmless?"

Mom and Noah were on one quad, then Jason and Jude, then myself in the rear. Jason had taken the trail earlier in the day with Mike and thought to himself, he thought, "This should be fine for kids to go on."

By the time we got up the mountain and over the ridge, and I had had a sustained adrenaline rush (which I did not really enjoy--adrenaline junkie, I am not) for nigh on an hour and a half, I was shooting daggers at the love of my life with my eyes from behind him.

Did I mention that none of us had helmets on?

As the ATV hauled itself over and around fallen trees and edges along trails-turned-gullies, I became more comfortable with it and my abilities to drive it. A "baptism by fire," I guess. But the whole time there was the story of a local Peace River family going through my head from this summer, where the 31-year-old husband and father of a baby girl died in a quadding accident because he was not familiar with the terrain. The wife was the previous babysitter of one of the little girls I ended up babysitting this fall. My husband already says I worry too much, so I didn't divulge my fears of either having myself or watching other dear family members topple over and have the heavy machinery land on top of them, crushing out life in an instant. I bit my lip, bit my tongue, and bit into my resolve.

So. I quadded. I survived. But having now done so, I have to ask myself "why?" It's not like you get to enjoy the scenery when all of your concentration is taken up with driving. I could see quadding again if you were on your way to a specific spot, where you got to get off, walk around, maybe have a picnic. However, as someone who is not a risk-taker by nature for things that put me in physical harm's way, I am glad to say that I have at least done it.

But quadding as an end in itself? I can take it or leave it.

What's new with you this week, friends?

That's The Way It Is

This article is reprinted here in full from Newstarget.com.

Vaccines Exposed: A Hidden Crime Against Our Children: NewsTarget) "The greatest lie ever told is that vaccines are safe and effective," said Dr. Len Horowitz. I am a father, and in the course, I have spent a reasonable amount of time researching vaccines in order to determine the most sensible cause of action for my daughter.

According to the US government's own Vaccine Adverse Events Reporting System (VAERS) in 1998 there were 88 vaccine related infant deaths, in 1999 there where 73 infant deaths, and in 2000, 73 infant deaths. This trend of between 70-90 reported infant deaths continues yearly through 2007.

In 1993, FDA commissioner David Kessler reported in the Journal of the American Medical Association that, according to one study, “Only about 1% of serious events are reported to the FDA.”

Based on this report, and other studies regarding the reporting of “serious events,” one comes up with an estimated figure that 1-2% of all serious adverse vaccine reports are actually recorded. When you combine the VAERS data together with the adverse events reporting studies, there is only one dreadful conclusion. In the United States each year, anywhere from an estimated 3,900 to 7,800 infants are poisoned to death, as a direct result, of being vaccinated.

If this figure is too startling or shocking for you to swallow, consider an ultra-conservative figure that states that 10% of adverse vaccine events are reported. Even with that figure, we can be sure that about 780 infants are poisoned to death every year.

When one child is murdered by a violent person, as a culture, we put forth the maximum amount of anger, hatred, and punishment towards such a sick person. We all know in our hearts, that children need to be honored, cherished and protected from harm. We are united as a culture in the belief that hurting children is bad, and wrong.

However, when there is documented evidence that proves, beyond any doubt, that hundreds, and likely thousands of infants, are murdered every year by vaccines in this country, we consider it to be good public policy. With the recent vaccine events in Maryland, one can conclude that since a certain percentage of children will die, and a higher percentage will become permanently disabled, that Maryland's state vaccine policy is a policy of state sponsored child debilitation.

I want you to really take a moment here to pause and reflect on this experience that is so painful and vast; that many of us do not want to take the leap of faith to realize the gravity of what I am, as well as many others, are saying about vaccines. We have a national policy that supports the murder of completely innocent infants. The cost is particularly high to the parents who are shocked when they find their newborns poisoned to death. Part of a way our government has decided to mitigate this harm is through a system of compensation for vaccine injured children. The burden of proof to receive compensation for this program is extremely high. Very few parents who apply for an "award" qualify for the money. In the past 18 years, the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program (VICP) has paid out $782,638,751.16 for 908 “awards.”

Look At Vaccines Moralistically

As a culture, we accept, tolerate, advocate, and make laws that promote the unlawful murder of thousands of infants because we have a belief system, and a public policy, that allows these children to be the “necessary” sacrifices of what is believed to be an unassailable system of vaccinations. The purpose of murdering perhaps several thousand infants per year is because we think that the good of the vaccine policy helps other children live and thus supposedly outweighs the known harm caused.

Now, I am going to bring up a critical example to show you the error of the current vaccine paradigm that allows for children to be harmed. Imagine that one of these children was your own. Or, imagine that one of these individuals was your mother, your sister or brother, or a saint. Are you telling me that one of the greatest examples of the cruelties of humanity, sacrificing helpless infants, is justifiable to supposedly save others? Is it really good public policy to crucify some children to supposedly prevent diseases in others?

If it was your child, would you volunteer your child to be the sacrificial lamb of our public policy?

Do not volunteer your child anymore and allow them to be the next lamb of our hideous public policy, do not vaccinate your child!

The truth is, every child's and every infant's life is valuable. Each being is precious, full of life and warmth, each infant is god-like. Every person on this planet counts and deserves the chance to live a healthy life. Since we have a public policy that allows for innocent children to be harmed, and at times murdered, then this policy must stop immediately.

We know for sure that at least 70 or more children are murdered yearly, and more likely several thousand children are murdered every year. When any individual or government sponsors vaccines; this is the equivalent to sponsoring the crime of murder. This is an outrage!

This first argument against vaccinations has come to you allowing the broad assumption that vaccines work, and that the losses of human life are thus justifiable because many more lives are supposed to be saved by vaccine public policy.

Yet the belief that vaccines work, flies in the face of any reasonable scientific inquiry because there has never even been one. Expert vaccine researcher Dr. Philip Incao MD testified that, “Incredible as it sounds, such a common-sense controlled study comparing vaccinated to non-vaccinated children has never been done in America for any vaccination.”

In simple English, we have no real, double blind scientific studies that show that any vaccination works as it is intended to work. In case you are wondering, normal vaccines are approved for use with only short-term studies, many times the studies are 30 days or less. It is hardly scientific to study the effects of vaccines for such a short term, when vaccines are designed to work for several years at a time. Thus, the long term effects, and the long term effectiveness of vaccines, have never been proven; let alone reasonably studied by the people who unconditionally believe in their good.

Because “Safety testing of many vaccines is limited and the data are unavailable for independent scrutiny”; in the year 2000, the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons passed a resolution calling for a moratorium on vaccine mandates. With such limited evidence, they stated that mandatory vaccination “is equivalent to human experimentation.” Unethical human experimentation was banned by the Nuremberg Code after the horrors of World War II were exposed (Nazi experiments on their prisoners).

Not only do vaccines not work, they actually cause diseases. According to the same US government Vaccine Adverse Events Reporting System, there were approximately 1400 serious events from vaccinations for people of all ages, per year, from 1991-1996. Serious events include: permanent disability, hospitalization, and life threatening illnesses. And we can know for sure, due to the low reporting of serious vaccine events, that the actual number of diseases caused by vaccinations is 10 - 100 times this number, meaning vaccines cause 14,000 - 140,000 serious events (diseases) per year. In some cases, such as with the Hepatitis B vaccine given to infants and children, the vaccine causes more harm and injury that the disease of Hepatitis B in infants and children.

Published studies from reputable journals have linked vaccines to causing AIDS, autism, cancer, diabetes, hearing/vision loss, hepatitis B, mumps, measles, polio and rubella.

At this point you might be wondering how it is that vaccines can cause so much destruction.

Why Vaccines Cause Diseases

Our body is equipped with an immune system. The immune system I am referring to is not just helper cells and anti-bodies, we have several lines of defense against infection and illness. We have saliva that is full of germs, and we have skin to protect our organs. We have a liver and kidneys to cleanse our blood and excrete toxic waste. We have our lungs to take in fuel, and excrete the waste of cellular metabolism.

In order to make a vaccine, one needs to render the virus, or germ, ineffective and find a way to introduce it into the body. In order to make many batches of this virus for injection, the virus needs food to grow off of. To grow a vaccine virus, the virus is cultured on a variety of nutrient rich substances; like monkey kidney cells, aborted human fetuses, calf serum, guinea pig embryonic tissue, fetal tissue, and other foul things. Once you have this large batch of “disease,” and you can imagine how sick and putrid this mix is, you need to remove all the impurities and isolate the virus (or germ) that you want to inject into someone. Now isolating just the virus from this milieu is impossible. Yet we try anyway, we bleach and cleanse the serum and get mostly the virus, plus many contaminants. Now, when the body gets injected with this virus, it will immediately seek to repel it, especially since it is rare for a disease to be introduced into the body directly through the blood stream. Vaccine creators had to find ways to keep the altered virus or germ from being immediately repelled from the body, and this is one purpose of adjuvants, vaccine additives.

Every vaccine contains MSG as one such additive; other vaccine additives include, thimerosal which is mercury, antibiotics, anti-freeze and other poisonous and acidic compounds.

Now imagine your helpless infant. They hardly have an immune system as their bodies' lines of defenses. Their organs are still growing and forming. It is our public policy to inject infants soon after birth, directly with a syringe full of foreign substances. The injection dosage is not carefully measured to be specific to the exact body weight of the infant, and the dose has never been independently screened to be free of contaminants. Immediately after the injection, the body goes into life saving procedures. If you have a healthy and robust child, you will be lucky to get away with a cold or flu-like symptoms, as your child's body tries to excrete all of the impurities just injected through its organs of purification: such as the kidney's, the liver, and the skin. If you have a less robust child, their body's defense mechanisms can fail one after the next, especially after repeated injections. When the body's internal purifiers fail, the blood-brain barrier becomes compromised; that is why a known side effect to vaccines is a high-pitched screaming. The screaming is the nervous system of an infant being damaged and breached as it was never meant to be. Many children are autistic because of vaccinations as the toxic poisons in the vaccines get lodged into places that can alter and affect the nervous system; including brain and spinal column development.

Dr. Albert Sabien, developer of the oral polio vaccine, has changed his vaccine position widely. In a 1995 lecture, he said, "Official data have shown that the large-scale vaccinations undertaken in the US have failed to obtain any significant improvement of the diseases against which they were supposed to provide protection."

With this in mind, we have before us one of the most horrific, disturbing, and incompressible crimes ever committed. Each and every day, thousands of parents along with local and state governments, schools, doctors and politicians, allow this crime, and even promote this crime, as it continues to go unnoticed by the masses.

Let me add one final note to this article. You may have heard of these supposedly great humanitarian organizations going into the third world and providing community service by vaccinating poor children against diseases. Given your new awareness about the lack of evidence of vaccine efficacy, you might wonder what these organizations are really doing? This is what the World Health Organization asked themselves in an internal review, after noticing that an AIDS epidemic seemed to follow where they were vaccinating.

Vaccines in the Third World

On May 11, 1987, The London Times, one of the world's most respected newspapers, published an explosive article entitled 'Smallpox Vaccine Triggered AIDS Virus'. The story suggested the smallpox eradication vaccine program sponsored by the World Health Organization was responsible for unleashing AIDS in Africa. Almost 100 million Africans living in central Africa were inoculated by the WHO
(www.conspiracyplanet.com/channel.cfm?channelid=34&contentid=1377&page=2) .

In Dr. Campbell Douglas's 1987 report titled 'W.H.O Murdered Africa' he writes that, “There is no question mark after the title of this article because the title is not a question. It's a declarative statement.” (www.biblebelievers.org.au/who.htm)

Wangari Maathai, the first African woman to win Nobel Peace Prize claims, what is a common belief in some parts of Africa, that, "In fact it (the HIV virus) is created by a scientist for biological warfare."
(www.news24.com/News24/Africa/News/0,,2-11-1447_1602547,00.html)

Kihura Nkuba spoke about Polio vaccine genocide in Uganda. “At the main hospital in Mbarara during that month of 1977 more than 600 children had died following polio vaccination. 600 children! So even some of the timid medical practitioners who were initially afraid to come out, started coming out giving information and saying 'Oh, we knew this oral polio vaccine was trouble because as soon as the child receives it, they get a temperature and their health goes downhill and there is nothing that you could do.'” (www.whale.to/a/nkuba.htm)

You need to know why you have been led so far from the path of truth. You need to know that when you see media reports that promote the good of vaccines and their effectiveness, such as news or television reports, that these reports are completely fake and fabricated.

This leads me to the conclusion that some of the most powerful forces are at play, since they can easily and freely put manipulative and false material into the public's eye.

Healthy children come from healthy parents who eat whole and unrefined organic foods, who avoid processed foods like pasteurized milk, processed sugar, cheap vegetable oils, infant formulas, and processed flour products that are so prevalent in our food supply.

If you want your child to be healthy and disease free, do not give them a polluted body. Do not violate the purity of your child's blood.

Loving our children means not giving them vaccinations and it means that we need to inform other parents as well that vaccines are indeed shown and proven to be deadly.

Spread the word and do your part in ending this heinous crime.

“The greatest lie ever told is that vaccines are safe and effective,” and now you know why.

May you and your children experience peace and happiness beyond vaccines.

Learn more about vaccines and their harms from this free, well referenced resource that includes many detailed and specific vaccine links as well as references to many points made in this article. (www.healingourchildren.net/vaccine_side_effects.htm)

About the author

Rami Nagel is a father who cares about the way we affect each other, our children, and our planet through our lifestyle choices. His health background is in hands-on energy healing, Hatha & Bhakti yoga and the Pathwork.
Rami is author of several health resources:
www.curetoothdecay.com - Heal and Prevent Cavities with Nutrition!
www.healingourchildren.net - Learn the Cause and Prevention of the Diseases of Pregnancy and Childhood
www.preconceptionhealth.org - A Program for Preconception Health based on Indigenous Wisdom
www.yourreturn.org - The cause of disease and the end of suffering of humanity.



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Hello from South of the Border

It's been a crazy, crazy, crazy week.

On Friday, Jason called me a slacker for not posting to my blog all week. Fortunately for him, I recognized the tongue making his cheek bulge out, because otherwise I would have had to dig out a baseball bat and lay down some smack.

Last week is a blur of short nights, overly-full days and last-minute preparations. On Saturday, we finished packing our bags and headed out to Edmonton, finally leaving Peace River around 1 p.m. The roads weren't great, but we made good time and got to our hotel around 7:30 p.m.--what would normally be considered "bedtime" for our children, but not the case that night.

Too much excitement and too much sleep on a van ride that was much too long all combine to equal children that are much too excited to sleep. Needless to say that the 4:30 a.m. alarm clock came much too early.

But, I suppose not early enough, since by the time we dragged all of our kids into the airport and got checked in, we were near the end of the line. I kept checking my watch impatiently as the hands kept ticking steadily onward to our departure time of 8 a.m., and we seemed no closer to the front of the customs clearance line.

Next time I travel, I'm going to wear pajamas through that line, I tell you. Could I have been wearing any more metal?!! They had to search me because I beeped every three inches with the scanning wand. Then they had to search my purse and my knitting bag. Apparently, although the American TSA is fine with small scissors as a carry-on, the Canadian security is not. (Later, as we were safely ensconced in our seats, Jason looks over at me and mutters, "Terrorist!")

The scissors had a very slight sentimental value, but there was no time to go put them in the mail, because by the time they finished all that, we were holding up the plane. The security lady and I were hurriedly shoving items back into my purse and bag, and in my fluster I dropped the bag with the passports in it and they went sliding across the floor. I scooped them up and we ran en masse to the gate, where I fumbled with the boarding passes and passports, only to have the gentleman inform me that we were missing one!! After several more minutes of desperate and hurried searching, one of the security officers found it underneath the conveyor belt where I had dropped them. Finally, we were able to board the plane and be on our way!

It was a long, long, long day. To top it off, the stress and not eating a real meal for most of the day combined to give me a nauseous stomach all day long. However, there were several upsides: the kids were fantastic. Despite the short night previous, hours and hours and hours of sitting, weird, upset schedules, and many other "perks" of travel, we really only had two melt-downs: one when Jude realized that he would have to sit across the aisle from Daddy on the second flight (it was a very narrow aisle on a very small plane, but it didn't seem to be any consolation that Jason could still reach over and help him with whatever he needed), and the second one at the restaurant where we ate supper when Jude was just waking up from a nap and Jason made the mistake of actually letting him choose what he got to eat for supper. All in all, not too bad.

Also, the airline staff were all very understanding and were wonderful with the kids.

And perhaps best of all, we made a new friend. On the second flight (on the small airplane) there was a brother in Christ named David that sat across the aisle from Jabin and I. His two-year-old daughter was with him, while his wife and five-month-old son were sitting near the front of the plane. (We were in the very back row, with Jason, Jude and Noah sharing the row in front of us with another Dave.) David was wonderful to talk with, and a total encouragement to us. Also, it was nice to "share resources" as parents for the trip--Rosario sat on my lap for a while, and Jude sat beside David and watched Ratatouille on his laptop for some of the flight. We shared snacks, colouring books, and swapped stories and e-mail addresses. What a blessing.

So, the end result is that we arrived safely at the Dallas/Ft. Worth airport at 4:50 p.m., as advertised, were met by Mom and Mike, and a mere seven hours later were falling into bed at their eclectic ranch-style house near Mena.

Yesterday was spent doing little else but recovering from jet lag. (I know we only moved over one time zone, but the crazy travel schedule gave us jet lag anyway.) Jason took the older boys for a spin on the quad a few times, but mostly we slept. I have about two weeks of sleep to catch up on, so I might just take a nap today, too!

For the most part, this trip will be R&R, but we are planning to take a road trip to Nashville this weekend to meet up with Jason's high-school friend Devin, who has been living in Kentucky for eleven years, and whom Jason hasn't seen for twelve. It will be an overnight trip, so another long two days of driving (eight hours one way), but I'm just stoked to be able to say that I got to stay overnight in Nashville!! Whoo-HOO!

I will post semi-regularly whilst we are here. One of my few goals while I am here is to catch up on some personal e-mail--if you've been wondering why I haven't written you, trust me, it was nothing personal!

Take care, friends, and happy holidays!

(P.S. If you've been e-mailing me at my wintersdayin.ca account this weekend, I haven't been receiving it. I was trying to set it up with Google Apps so I could access it from the internet, since my current DNS service does not have the ability to do that. But GRR! It didn't work. I don't know if I will get any of those e-mails once I switch it around, but anyway. Sigh. Just re-send it, please?)

How Great Our Joy

Just some photos from the last week. (Yes, I have emerged from doing paperwork for long enough to take photos.)

Jude and Noah were helping to shovel snow a few days ago. Daddy took these shots of them having some snow fun.

Jabin being all cute. This shot, and the sun streaming in our living room window for the first time all week, inspired me to try and take some formal shots for our wall frames. Unfortunately, by the time we were ready and set up to do that, the boys were getting tired, hungry, and silly. Here are some of the bloopers that followed:

"Wasteland? I think you mean 'Wonderland!'"*

Well, it's here. That time of year where the most obvious thing I've got for blog-fodder (and small-talk) is how much freaking snow there is out there! Oh, and also how freaking cold it is! This is the second year in a row we have had to endure a minus-thirty snap in November, and I don't. like it. one. bit. It wouldn't be so bad if we didn't know that there will be another one in January. Only longer. And most likely colder.

Jason imparted the cheery news to me last night that "several experts agree that this will be our coldest winter in fifteen years. One said in recorded history." Whee.

Why do we live here again?!

For the last twenty-four hours or more, snow has been drifting down in big, rabbit-pelt-like flakes. Pretty, yes. But it doesn't exactly make you excited to get out the door in the morning. Or out of bed, for that matter. Thank goodness that our fireplace is double-sided into our bedroom! Otherwise, what with that part of the house being the coldest and draftiest (and that's really saying something in our house), our bathroom pipes would freeze every night and I'd have to get dressed under the covers. As it is, we've been keeping that fireplace stoked about twenty hours a day, and it barely maintains a room temperature in the master bedroom and family room.

We have how many more months of this?!

I took these photos for Aakanksha:




They were all taken while looking out from my front window. You see that red truck hiding behind the monstrous maple in our front yard that did not get pruned this fall? The one underneath the mountain of rabbit-pelt-snow? That is how much snow has fallen in just the last 30 hours-ish.

When I took my van into the shop this morning, the guy behind the counter was complaining that he couldn't find his truck this morning under all the snow! (Apparently, the truck is white.)

C'mon, all you ex-pat Canadians--doesn't this make you want to come home? You miss this, right?

P.S. Thank you to all of your supportive comments after my last few posts. It really makes a difference knowing that people are rooting for you. Yay! for the Internet.

*Prize to the first person who can tell me where this quote comes from!