December 6, 2008

Happy Birthday Mom Goertzen! Hope you and Dad had one of your most memorable birthdays cruising through the Panama Canal. So glad you could make the trip and the heart surgery allowed you both to enjoy this special trip with family. We can't wait to hear about your trip and see all your pics.

Just got off our friends blog who just spent a few weeks on the Cook Islands and are now hanging out for a few months in Australia...wow, that sure creates some serious beach paradise envy.

I guess we have our own wonderland happening right now...its just that it's a winter wonderland. For the past day and a half we got about 35 cm of snow with some rain thrown in. Lucy looks hilarious trying to get around in it. She looks like a little miniature reindeer prancing and jumping through the snow that is as tall as she is. She had her first toboggan ride down a hill yesterday and had fun chasing the sled down the hill. She is fast!

Sam did extremely well with his treatments on Thursday. It was the first time he did not need the extended anti nausea medications for 2-3 days after the IV chemo drugs. He's back on an oral chemo drug he had a few weeks ago and we're hoping it does not effect him the way it did before. His spirits, energy, and strength are all okay right now. His red blood cell, neotrophil and platelet counts have dropped significantly, but that is expected at this point in his protocol. He has to go to the hospital weekly to get his blood work done so they can see if he needs a blood or platelet transfusion.

Home schooling is going...now I know why I said I would never do it unless I absolutely had too! Some of the meds Sam is on make him irritable and contrary and then throw in the whole tween-y thing and it makes for an interesting time. We both require more time, effort, and positive attitudes to adjust to our new schooling situation. (How do you like that for a teacher report card comment...have had to use that more than once while writing report cards and now it applies to me!) I think I would like to share this teaching privilege/opportunity with Ger on weekends and during the Christmas break! It will be one of my gifts to him!

With the huge snow fall and dangerous road conditions K8 and Karly's out of town basketball tournament this weekend was cancelled. They were disappointed and don't quite know what to do with this unexpected free weekend! They are, as I write, catching up on their much needed sleep.

That's it for now, have a great weekend.

Debbie