Sonshine Anyone?

Caitlind gave me this mug. After about six months of living with us, she had me pegged.

If she wanted, 'solid advice', 'Biblical wisdom' or 'accurate psychological analysis' of an emotional issue, I was the girl to come to. If she wanted sunshine, too bad. Call a different friend.
Now, does that mean I was rude, derogatory or insensitive? No, in fact, by the grace of God only, I was usually none of those things. I could quite effectively boost her spirits, cheer her on and coax her to finish that Bio. assignment that she just didn't want to finish. Just without the sunshine. I had perfected the art, somehow, of blowing sunshine, without the ummmm, sunshine.

For the older generation out there, when Caitlind was frustrated at my lack of sunshine she would call me Spock. For the younger generation, when Caitlind was frustrated at my lack of sunshine, she would call me Sheldon. Crazily enough, I didn't mind either. Had a distorted sense of pride about it even.

Until just recently. Something started to stir in me. Caitlind was here when it began. We were having one of our usual 'gab sessions' in her room and she was pondering some important life question, rather sadly. Some optimistic, almost cheerful comment came out of my mouth and stopped her mid-sentence. My eyes widened in horror.

"You didn't just?..."
"Oh my, I think I may have..."

I had blown sunshine. For no other reason than - I could. I wasn't trying to impress anyone with my sensitivity to their situation, I wasn't trying to put a 'positive spin' on an otherwise dreary circumstance. It just seemed like a good time to be (gasp) happy.

Now, I realize I might be getting myself into some hot water here. There may be people reading this and thinking, 'Hang on a minute, Aubrey said this encouraging thing to me once or offered me that piece of merriment. Was it fake, was it NOT REAL SUNSHINE?'

And this is where I have to hang my head and confess. In all likelihood, it was not real sunshine. It was well intentioned and sincere, but, I probably wasn't feeling it with you. I was telling you to go ahead and do it, but wasn't willing, or able in fact, to participate.

Hmmmmm. Weird, huh? Well, not really. I think there are a lot more Spocks and Sheldons out there than one would guess. At least I am hoping. I can't possibly be the only one who was dead inside to joy?

And here is where I insert a piece of 'news'. I am going to be attempting a new blog. This one will continue to be for updating interested parties of our comings and goings as a family. The new one will be for me to hopefully encourage people who have come from pasts similar to mine, (or maybe completely different) to see that lasting, sunshiny change is possible if you know where to look for it.

Back to the point. One of my favorite Third Day songs is called "This is Who I Am." Part of it goes like this:

This is who I am, oh, this is who I am
So take me and make me something so much more
This is who I am, oh, this is who I am
So change me and make me someone better than before

Apparently, if you belt this song out at the top of your lungs for enough days on end, God listens and starts changing you. Either that or He just wants you to stop singing, so He starts doing what you've asked.

Regardless, He has done it. I had deadened myself (on purpose) to pain and in the process (but not on purpose) deadened myself to joy. But He has awoken that sense of joy in me (and with it a sense of pain again, but that I will talk about more in the other blog) and my outlook on life has become - surprisingly sunshiny.

Darn it, I meant to get to the point, and I didn't. Here it is for real this time. All the sunshine around here has been a bit blinding and I think has made us all a little strange in the head. It has made us think taking Godly risks might not be such a bad thing after all and it has overridden a lot of the 'well that's just not practical' objections.

And now we have a list. A list of positive, exciting, character and faith building things we want to do. And we have no way financially or time-wise to do any of them. Fun and sunshiny, eh?

Here is the list:

April - send our oldest daughter to California with her Grandmother, Uncle & Aunt and two cousins and not us

May - Third Day concert in Langley (6 VIP Packages)

June - Family Retreat at Camp Qwanoes

TBA - Short Term Mission to Brazil

1 Chronicles 16 says this:

²³ Let the whole earth sing to the LORD!
Each day proclaim the good news that he saves.
²⁴ Publish his glorious deeds among the nations.
Tell everyone about the amazing things he does.
²⁵ Great is the LORD! He is most worthy of praise!
He is to be feared above all gods.

And that is what I am doing today. I am publishing His glorious deeds - well the one that involved making me feel sunshiny anyway - and am looking forward to publishing some more, when He shows us how He's going to go about helping us get that list accomplished.

Aahhhhhh, feel the Sonshine!

Good-bye Broken Park, Hello Um, Well....Hmm?

Well, we kept hearing rumblings. "The park is coming down for new housing." The bad news had been circulating for a while and nothing definite had happened, so I suppose, maybe, we kind of thought it was indeed just a rumor.

But today, we got down there and it was for real. The broken park is broken forever. It is very exciting that new housing is going in there, but..."Good-bye broken park."

So, we moved on down the road just a little, into a bit of a crescent, thinking it would be a safe place for the kids to play. Let's just say we were met with less than a warm and inviting welcome. More of a door slammed in our faces, literally. So, we prayed for guidance, dismantled the tents and went for help.

Within seconds of showing up on Grandma Lena's door, she was out in the rain in her trusty chair banging on doors, convincing people to let us park in their driveways. And. It worked. Just like that. Grandma got the job done. I really never had any doubt.

And the kids found us. We weren't too far from our normal spot, but it was different. And they didn't care. They played, they snacked on Valentine's cupcakes and they made the best of it. So all of us adults took their cue.We set up 'road patrols'. Mostly TC guys who stood on the road and yelled 'CAR', so we could clear all the bikes, skippers, etc. out of the way to let the vehicles pass. And you should have seen the looks we got. We've been down there a few Sundays now and none of us could recall there being so much traffic. You could see the grins on most of the drivers' faces as they patiently waited for us to make way. Pretty impressive P.R.

I was chatting with Grandma and surveying the scene and felt like we had just had our own version of Acts 8:1. "On that day a great persecution broke out against the church in Jerusalem, and all except the apostles were scattered throughout Judea and Samaria." We kind of got the boot from our regular stomping grounds, only to land in territory we hadn't reached yet. The driveway we ended up parking in was right between two houses with little kids in them. None of them had been to visit us on a Sunday yet, even though they could see the park from their front steps.

There is NO WAY you don't come out and join a bunch of crazy people in the rain, playing loud music and eating pink cupcakes; when they are parked in YOUR driveway with a big white van and bright green and blue trailer. You just cannot avoid that.

And so, we met two new families that we likely would not have, had we stayed put on the playground. Go figure.


So, what's next for Kidzone on the Road? Only God knows. But we aren't worried. We will just keep showing up down there, and if today is any indication, at least half the people will let us park in their driveways.

So, kudos to an amazing team today that just rolled with the punches and did what needed to be done. I say, "Way to go team! Now, let's get scattered."

God Can't Heal the Cover Up

Attending 'special events' with this church we now call home never fails to mess us up spiritually somehow. David Chotka is here. I am going to plead ignorance, I had not heard of him until New Life started pitching his visit. We attended the first evening of teaching yesterday. And he messed us up spiritually somehow.

Someday I will tell the entire tale, but for now I will stick to the theme in the title of this post. Rev. Chotka informed us that there are two things God cannot do. He cannot sin and He cannot heal the cover up. Then Rev. Chotka told a personal story that he has not told in his entire ministry career, but that he felt the Lord prompting him to share specifically, about a cover up he had been trying to 'keep from God' and was repeatedly warned against. Then Pastor Mark confirmed that Rev. Chotka had shared that story to speak to 'at least one person' in attendance. "If you have been living a lie, tonight you should deal with it before God."

Koos and I were both sweating in our seats. We knew it was us. Just the night before I had had an emotional meltdown and had hurled those very words at my husband, "I am so sick of being fake, none of this is real, I don't want to do it anymore." And the strangest thing is, I can't even really put my finger on what precisely I was yelling about. I just knew there was something we hadn't 'come clean' about.

We couldn't deny the intensity of the Holy Spirit pressure we were feeling, so Koos went to the altar to get prayer and come clean. And something broke. And this morning, I got a revelation as to the magnitude of our 'cover up'.

Both Koos and I come from intensely messed up families. You name it, it has happened. Alcoholism, legalism, drug abuse, sexual abuse, emotional abuse, blah, blah, blah. You get the idea. And for some reason Koos and I have not been honest about it. We've not had the fortitude to say, "That was all really messed up, and we've suffered for it. And we still are suffering for it. And we will not stand by and let the next generation suffer for it." And it breaks our hearts. And we haven't wanted to deal with the pain. So, we've covered it up.

But God can't heal the cover up. And there is nothing we want more for our families than healing. As much as dysfunction is part of our ancestry, there is far more in the way of phenomenal gifting and talent. Both sides of our family tree contain musicians, artists, writers, speakers, caregivers and untapped reservoirs of love and devotion. But those gifts and talents have been pummeled and pulverized almost into oblivion. And it is a shame. It is beyond a shame, it is a travesty. A carefully and craftily devised plan to destroy what God has wonderfully created and Koos and I are no longer going to pretend it isn't happening.

You can cue the dramatic music here if you are so inclined, because what I am going to say next is going to sound like that part in a movie where the evil plot is finally revealed. I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that the reason our families have been so viciously and systematically attacked by the evil one is because, here it comes...

he knows that the Creator intended us for greatness and to do massive damage in the kingdom of darkness and he is scared. Should the full potential of our combined families be unleashed upon him, it would greatly hasten the day of his demise.

Duh, duh, duh...

The cover up is over, let the healing begin.

It Is Christmas

I have come to an unpleasant realization. Having a blog that one keeps up 'regularly' completely and utterly steals all the thunder from a yearly Christmas letter. I have done such a spectacular job at keeping everyone up to date with our goings-on that I have nothing for the grand finale. Dang it.

The last post was October and seriously, nothing much happened in November, so yeah, ummm....hmmmm.... I have been mulling this over for a week or so now, since the lights and trees and elf hats signal it is time to display my writing prowess, and nothing incredible has gone on in that number of days to give me anything to write about. Silly blog. Now what??

I guess I could tell you the obvious. Kael turned four in April, Calahn seven in July, Delaena nine in October and Brooke will be eleven in five days. Caitlind still lives here and we make her do all the housework, cook all the meals and babysit Kael. It is great. We all really like it, well, except for maybe Caitlind, but she's too busy for us to ask, so we just assume she likes it too.

We started the summer with six small goldfish in the pond in the backyard and we now have five fat goldfish in a tank in our TV room. We still have both tree frogs that we 'rescued' way back in October 2010 at Aunty Berta and Uncle Dale's. No one is quite sure how they are still surviving. In January 2011 we had an old, decrepit cat and an old, decrepit dog. We now have an old decrepit dog and a spastic, garbage-eating, shoe-chewing, door-escaping pup.

This Christmas season we've enjoyed so far, Calahn's voice and Brooke's piano recital. We still have Koos and Delaena's guitar recital coming up, and we just enjoyed the DCS Christmas performance. Kael proudly told us that he is not "just an angel" for his performance, but "an angel with a star". Makes me think of the new DQ ads.

The church hosted a potluck last Sunday which we guess about 200 people attended. A significant number were our friends from Boys Road. Koos was the MC and did an outstanding job. He directed people through food lines and kept them from rushing the dessert tables with pizzazz.

Koos is working four days a week for Lakeshore Auto Parts in Lake Cowichan. I have been working quite a few hours as an EA at the kids' school. That has actually been quite a bit of fun. I don't know that I've ever said that about a 'job' before.

Some highlights of the year that I may not have blogged about:

Tara, my Hay River soul mate and her husband Kelly had to make a trip to Vancouver, so Koos and I ditched the kids with Aunty Berta and Uncle Dale, hopped the ferry and spent a great day at the Body Worlds exhibition, enjoying fine cuisine and taking a death defying race-car style trip back to the ferry. Put Kelly behind the wheel of a fancy car and all kinds of craziness ensues. At several points in the journey I honestly thought I'd be meeting my Maker. "We have lots of people in here, we can use the bus lane!" But his skill won the day and he got us there just in time to catch what turned out to be the last Saturday ferry!

Koos and I went to a Brian Doerksen concert which time warped us back to our Vineyard days. They even performed our 'second wedding' song, which we probably hadn't listened to since our 'second wedding'!



We had a surprise visit from Paul and Debbie, some more amazing friends from Hay River. Literally, we walked into church one Sunday and they were sitting there. It was incredible! There was crying, laughing, hugs; great entertainment for our new church family who were watching the whole thing! Paul and Deb hung out for a week or so and played with the kids and we even made them work when Koos was offered a job doing some landscaping!

Caitlind's sister and our dear friend Paula, also from Hay River, and her two sons spent a week with us. We toured some kid friendly hot spots on the Island and ate a lot of yummy food and got her hooked on Facebook scrabble. The kids spent a few nights in the tent in the backyard. Our lazy way of dealing with the 'we want to go camping' bug.

Nana and Papa came all the way from Hines Creek to take us to Victoria to the Butterfly Garden and Bug World. Up to that point we had not ventured to Victoria because I was not prepared to deal with the dreaded "Malahat". Thanks to Nana and Papa, I'm over that now! We got a quick visit at the beach with Koos' brother Kevin and his family.

Our brave friend Elissa from Hay River drove down with her four kids to see their grandparents in Port Alberni, so we reunited with them for a day in Nanoose Bay for a blackberry picking, sea-creature trapping, adventuresome day. Her grandparents served us a delicious steak dinner, camp style. Such generous people considering we had never met them before.

The six of us and the annoying new puppy boarded a plane at Thanksgiving break to meet the newest member on my side of the family, in Calgary. We spent five fantastic days cuddling the new baby, playing with his big brother and reminiscing with Mama and Uncle Aaron over old 'slides' of our childhood days. I estimate Kael went down the water slide at the hotel at least 67 times. We counted, there were 50 stairs to the top. 3350 stairs in five days, no wonder he basically slept for a week after we got home. Aaron and Terra and Foster had also been on the Island to visit us in June.

We got to bless a whole bunch of little kids (and some bigger ones) on Boys Road with a shipment of sock monkeys from Caitlind's aunt and our incredibly talented cohort from Hay River, Jess.

So yeah, Kael is still pretty much a cute, extremely energetic and perhaps precocious, four year old. We think it may be retribution, but can't prove anything, that Caitlind has him obsessed with old video games. Mario Kart 64 and such. He's getting pretty good, but it has brought out an extremely competitive side in him, "Yoshi, you are evil. Princess Peach, stop being a little freak." Hmmmm....

Calahn is the class clown in the 1/2 room. A friend of ours brought us some 'dried meal worms' for a snack, as a joke. Calahn thought they tasted just like cheese flavored popcorn so she took them to school and convinced the teacher to try one along with some of her classmates. They ate the whole box! She was nervous for her voice recital, but when it was her turn, she was up on stage so fast introducing herself and ready to sing that the lady playing the piano hadn't even had time to find her music. Now Calahn is looking for every opportunity she can to perform. I think a monster has been created.

Here is a recent conversation between my oldest daughters which should give you an idea of how cheeky they are becoming:

Me, after having been up and down the stairs seventeen times for last minute items before leaving for school, and then discovering my glasses were up there, "Which one of you is my favorite daughter?"

Delaena, rolling her eyes and walking out the door to the truck,

"Brooke is."

Brooke, grabbing her backpack and following her sister out the door,

"Nope, not today Delaena."

So off I trudged up the stairs, for the eighteenth time, to get my own glasses, because that old trick doesn't work on them anymore, they've got me figured out.

And now I have come to a second unpleasant realization. I think I took the last year and all the blessings it held for granted. Friends and family who will travel here to see us. Fantastic, albeit flippant, children and low cost maid service and catering. Friends and family here who will put up with our every day insanity. Not to mention our new friends at Boys Road and fun, fantabulous Fridays at Teen Challenge. And a made-in-heaven family of fellow believers from Alberta, the Northwest Territories and now here on Vancouver Island. There are a lot of things I didn't write about.
Okay, no more complaining. Just looking back with gratitude and forward with expectation.

May this revelation be yours as well this holiday season.

With much love,
The Reintjes Family

Pitbulls and Preschoolers

These are just a couple of shots of Kael at Boys Road. He seems to attract the resident pit bulls and pit bull crosses. Thanks to Koos and Delaena's guitar teacher, Conor for the shot of Harlem, the red pit bull at the bottom of this post. I stole it off his Facebook page. Conor named the picture, "Lion and the Lamb". Kael's response was, "I'm the lion, right?" Conor has recently added a fun new dimension to Boys Road by bringing his guitar down there for "Live Music"- as Brooke drew in sidewalk chalk in front of him today. He is super patient and lets Delaena and any other kids who want to; sing and play along with him. We've loved it!

Harlem has been a regular at Boys Road since New Life started going down there. He is single-pawdly responsible for us keeping really good track of all the basketballs, footballs, any kind of toy balls at all - while we are playing at the park. If there is a ball left unsupervised on Boys Road, Harlem will make short work of it. No kidding, it has become something of a well executed Boys Road strategic drill now. Someone will see him sauntering down the road and the cry goes out. "HARLEM'S COMING!!" All activity ceases and everyone scrambles to find any loose balls laying around and get them to the trailer. If we are unsuccessful, there will be a group groan of defeat, "Ahhh, Harlem." But with the defeat, there are always a few giggles. Score one for Harlem. Some days he can be distracted by a well thrown tennis ball or cookie, but most days, the poor, unfortunate ball gets demolished. We used to tie him to the fence with a skipping rope, but then he figured out how to snap those, so we went for the heavy duty chain. Today was a good day, he had a collar on. Usually we just have to wrap the chain right around that big 'ol neck of his.

The black pit bull cross interrupting Kael during his attempt to lead worship songs, is Roscoe. Roscoe was a recent addition to the fun at Boys Road, but unfortunately Harlem decided Kidzone was his and we had an exciting afternoon of dog fights at the park a couple of weeks ago. Thankfully, Troy, one of the dads who lives close to the park, got them apart before Roscoe got too badly hurt. Roscoe didn't give up easily though, Boys Road is some serious fun, and he wanted in on it. Harlem chased him off and Roscoe came back for three rounds before he finally gave up. We only see Roscoe sitting and watching from the street now.

Oats has had all her shots, so she's been out of the truck at Boys Road a couple of times. All the really little kids who live in the area love walking her around. They can't believe a dog exists that they can't actually ride on. It is fun to be the 'big human' and the one in charge of the beast. Oats could easily be a squeaky toy for Harlem. I have an image forever burned in my memory. The first day Oats was out of the truck and the call went out "HARLEM'S COMING!" Everyone scrambles for the balls and I think at the same instant, our good friend Mark and I thought of Oats. I was too far away and Harlem had seen her but Mark was racing at mach speed across the asphalt, towards Oats and whomever was walking her. Like something out of superhero movie, Mark dashed between the dogs, swooped Oats off the ground and safely into his arms. He was so fast that neither child nor chug had the chance to figure out what was going on. He introduced Oats to Harlem from that vantage point and all was well. It was awesome.

Every time Harlem strolls over to hang out at Kidzone, or Roscoe watches from afar or Oats gets drug around the playground, I can't help but think of the Psalm: Let everything that has breath praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. (150:6)

There was a lot to praise the Lord about today on Boys Road. A little girl who has a few times just sobbed inexplicably and uncontrollably was laughing hysterically on a swing. An elder who used to hate the church can't wait until next Sunday to go back. A four year old learned how to skip. Dino got so cozy comfy on Mackensey's knee he just fell asleep. Calahn kept 'accidentally' getting burrs the size of grapes stuck to her jacket. A little boy who used to eat as much as he possibly could while we were there, in case he didn't get any more for a while, wanted to share his last carrot with Brooke.

As we were packing up today, the gentle drizzle stopped and the sun shone for a brief moment as if the Creator just couldn't contain a smile.

It felt deep in my spirit, like our world and the Kingdom of Heaven collided today and the Kingdom reigned supreme. Darkness didn't stand a chance. It was like it should be, where the lion will lay down with the lamb and the preschooler can praise with the pitbulls.

And I just found some of those other moments captured by Pastor Shane!

This is just a quick update for those of you who like to know what's going on. The picture of the kids is them with their new sock monkeys. We have an incredible friend in Hay River who makes one of these little guys every day. She's been doing it all year! You can check out her blog if you don't believe me: Sock Monkey A Day. She sent us a huge box of the little beasties to hand out on Boys Road. Of course, we all had to make our own selections first!

On October 20th, Rick and Deanna Bergen hopped a ferry to come visit us on the Island and meet with the New Life missions board. One of the conclusions was that we will stay in Duncan until at least the fall of 2013. The main reason for this is that there have been / will be a couple of other families move down there recently / before us and it would be best for them to get settled before we show up too. And that usually takes a couple of years. We are actually quite excited to be able to settle down in Duncan. It really is a beautiful place. The only thing I am a little sad about (and I am the only one) is having to endure some more Canadian winters. I am really anticipating shorts and flip flops all year round! Caitlind put me in my place this morning when I was whining about the 'cold' and said, "Minus 5 or minus 35??" Okay, minus 5 it is.

Speaking of Caitlind. We got a crazy gift yesterday. She has been having a difficult time with French 30 to say the least. And we are coming down to the crunch on having to get it in. So yesterday we sat down (for some unknown reason) to look over her transcript, discuss requirements, etc and realized, that somehow, we overshot on the number of credits we had her doing and she doesn't even need French to graduate!!!! It was like the angels were singing in heaven. So then we were trying to arrange for her to write her departmentals for her other two courses. It is a mountain of paperwork and a lot of inconvenience to write them here because she is taking the courses through Alberta Distance Learning and we live in BC. Again, out of the blue, she says, "Do you think I could just fly back to Hay River and write them with this year's grade 12s?" "I don't know, phone and find out." The guidance counsellor at the school up there says, "I am just submitting the applications right now, the deadline is in 10 minutes." Unbelievable!! So in a matter of half an hour yesterday, we discovered that she is only two exams away from graduating, and avoided all the rigamarole we thought we were going to have to deal with to get those exams done. So, all that to say, she has no more assignments, work to hand in, questions to answer, etc. Some studying and a couple of exams and the long road to grad is DONE!!!

Since we've decided to stay in Duncan until 2013, we would like to buy a house again. There is currently one for sale right across the street from the kids' school. I would really like to get that one! We have to sell this one to get the down payment for that one and unfortunately what we have to sell it for is higher than what the market has it valued at right now. It is definitely going to have to be another God thing if it is going to work out.

Koos has been approached by Ekati to work up there again. He has gone for a few interviews around here, but the pay just doesn't quite cover a family of 6, or I guess 7, until we can get Caitlind settled with a job and her own place. If nothing comes up around here by the 27th, he will apply to Ekati.

I have been doing a bit of 'EA'ing at the school. That has been fun! I am officially on the Education Assistants on Call list now! Haven't had a title like that since before Brooke was born!

And that is about it. Sandy's cancer is a treatable one, so she is currently undergoing all her chemo. Her daughter has started a new blog about her journey: Cancer Wars.

Take care everyone. You know, we would love to hear how all of you are doing too! This is my email if you ever want to drop us a line: reintjes1991@live.ca.

So, we've known for seven days or so now and just today, have stepped out of the 'denial' stage.

In November 2009, Dan and Sandy Thiessen braved the North to visit us and bless our small Oasis Fellowship for a few days. Sandy kept the kids occupied while Dan took Koos and I apart piece by piece and read us both like books. She taught us 'Pairs', made tie dye t-shirts and introduced us to the world of Webkinz.

After Dan did a number on us, in the most loving way of course, Sandy encouraged us and built us up. She read us too, but didn't mess with our heads as bad as Dan did. Kind of like the 'bad cop', 'good cop' couple of Christian counselling. Then they took time out of their lives to talk with quite a few friends of ours from Hay River and pray for and encourage them too.

So, then we moved to Duncan. Dan kept calling us and making our lives miserable, in the most loving way of course, and then we'd get encouraging, cheerful, uplifting emails or blog comments from Sandy. Then, they decided to hop the ferry and come for a visit. Just to check out the Island and see how we were making out and settling in. That time, Sandy taught us Dutch Blitz and a dice game.

Just this past September, only 39 days ago to be exact, we hung out with Dan and Sandy and some of the Xingu Mission / Xtreme Mercy crew in Abbotsford. The kids got to add some more tie dye t-shirts to their collections, I can see the bird houses Sandy gave them to make outside my window right now as I am typing this and she fed us freezies and puffed wheat squares. And just generally, she made us feel good about ourselves. That's what she does.

And then we got an email. A short email, but one that kind of stopped our world. But we couldn't stop. We had a 'holiday' to go on. I was celebrating a new life and had to work hard to shove the possibility of the end of one of my favorite ones to the back of my mind. We had a fantastic visit with my brother and my sister in law and my nephews, but there was a cloud looming just over the horizon.

Now we are home and the storm has hit full force. This is real. My first question is this: How can you hang out with someone a grand total of three times and feel like you've known them your whole life? No answer, but it happened. Second question, How can someone influence your ten year old so quickly that a comment like this comes out of her; 'I love being around Dan and Sandy, it is like having Grandparents who are Christians like us!'? No answer for that one either, but it happened too.

How did we go from puffed wheat squares to chemo in 39 days, exactly? Can someone play that over again please? I missed something somewhere.

So, denial has passed and anger has arrived. And that's about all I can blog because any more would be just a big long string of inappropriate words. Like the giraffe in the quicksand.

Some of you would have met Dan and Sandy in Hay River and you know what I am talking about. Here is the link to their daughter's blog to keep you updated: Foment of the Moment. Jen Snell has some updates too: Snells in the Amazon. She seems a little more calm and in a reasonable state of mind than I am right now, so for the facts, go to those blogs. For a rant, read this one again.

About one thing, there is no question, we love Dan and Sandy. They have had a big effect on our lives in a small space of time. That is for sure and for real. The rest of this **** would best be only a short, ridiculous nightmare.