Okay! I am completely ashamed that I haven't been writing on my blog lately. It may have to do with my lack of pictures, it may have to do with all the hype at Christmas and New Year time, or it could be that I've had the cold twice since December and the flu. But then that doesn't mean that life has been boring and I haven't been doing stuff.
So, get ready because the story I'm about to tell you is 100% true and filled with horror, laughter and adventure...

Christmas 2011, we had decided that we were going to stay home for Christmas and we were invited over to the neighbors (who are also our landlords and our only neighbors for miles) instead of driving around visiting family. Which is something done ceremonially every year inevitably making it so we don't get to enjoy your presents from everyone on Christmas because we're only home to open everything until we get ready to leave.
So we took time and called our families, set up the kids toys, played outside in the snow and relaxed all day until dinner. After dinner, however, I started not feeling well (it wasn't the dinner I actually started not feeling well before we ate) but I really didn't feel good. Long story short Paul, our son, and I were up all night hugging the toilets with a really awful flu bug that was going around. Boxing day shopping was off this year, not that we wanted to go get anything specific anyway.



(My turkey going into the oven... it fits!)

So on New Year we all felt a whole lot better. I made a beautiful turkey dinner (my first turkey I've cooked ever!) it tasted delicious. I ordered it fresh from Ravenwood Meats in Caroline, they're amazing and sell ethically raised meat from local farms. That night it was clear and the stars were beautiful. Paul went out and played his bagpipes. The sound was amazing echoing across the fields, he only knows how to play two tunes so far but that night has inspired him like nothing else to practice everyday and get better.
One of the days in January we decided to go into Calgary and try out the olympic oval for public skating. It is on the University of Calgary campus so we met up with my friend Robyn who is studying Archaeology there and her boyfriend who is visiting Canada from Wales. We all skated for about 3 hours, the kids took turns skating with all of us and didn't want to leave even after all that ice time.
A week later was the coldest it has been this winter in Alberta. Here it got down to -38 Celsius for about three days. Paul was off work and the school buses weren't running because it was too cold. On the third day of the freeze Paul decided to go out back and get the yard ready for an ice rink. I was inside having a cup of tea and a cookie when I heard water rushing from both bathrooms. My thoughts were that Paul was filling up the rink in the back, but the ice rink kit was still on the floor. When I went to investigate, raw sewage was pumping out of the toilets like Niagara Falls and filling up the bathtubs. It was all over the floor and seeping into the carpets in the bedrooms. I was running frantic pulling our things out of the way and yelling for Paul.
In the meantime Paul thought I spotted a mouse and took his sweet time coming into the house. The smell was intense, the kids were running around scared yelling "poo water, poo water aaaaaahhh". My daughter slipped in the hallway and fell in it. I picked them up, hauled them outside and promptly vomited in the snow. That was a week ago, we're now staying at the landlords house awaiting the disaster crew fixing everything but recent information tells us that it will be a month before it will all be done.
So we're stuck in limbo as far as our trailer is concerned. But at least right now we still have a roof over our heads, that is important. Day by day things are changing around here and I only hope that our landlords insurance will cover the expense of the repairs to the trailer, because if not I don't know what we'll do.
Keep us in your prayers guys, we're needing it.
What have I been doing since all this mess you may wonder? I've been sick with a fever and sore throat and occupying my time trying to rest and reading a bunch of books. There's satellite TV here also and I've found I can watch BBC Kids Horrible Histories on it which is very entertaining.