Major Tom to Ground Control ..

Scott finished his last steroids this morning thankfully but it will take another few days for the effects to leave him. As usual his face is all red and puffy and he feels dreadful. The vincristine has hit hard again and he is getting through a fair amount of codeine w/tylenol to try and relieve some of the pain. It does work but only kills the pain for a short time. It also 'zones him out' which he doesnt mind, however I do. I hate it. He is also chugging back benadryl every night to help combat the insomnia caused by steroids. Benadryl is an allergy medicine but is recommended by the doctors as it also helps to induce sleep without the patient becoming dependent. Fortunately the pain is starting to leave his body. Tomorrow and Thursday it should ease considerably and hopefully be gone by Friday giving us 13 lovely days of a pain free, fat face free, and happy Scott.

We got word a few days ago that we have been accepted to Camp Boggy Creek (near Orlando) for a family retreat weekend on the 14th March. It sounds like a lot of fun if a little 'Butlins 1970s' ish. It said on the info sheet, 'wake up at 7am to take your kids to the morning manatee'!!!!!!!! That set my warning bell clanging, for sure. It also said, 'come ready to sing songs, play games ..", hahahahahh, cant wait for this photo opportunity of David giving us all a rousing chorus of Kumbaya. They do have archery and a zip line though so maybe we won't accidently not hear the 6am wakey-wakey-rise and shine, get up y'all whistle, after all.

Derry is doing great with his new hockey team and I am so proud of how fantastic he is starting to look on the ice. Last week he attended two 'Power Skate' classes and he also had team practice on Sunday. I have posted a couple of photos, nothing brilliant, for one thing it is very hard to photograph the ice, due to glare, low temperatures and also with the kids moving so fast. More importantly, Derry hates me taking pictures so I try to limit it to just a couple. The photos are his new team, they didnt do anything fancy this week, the poor kids just went up and down, backwards, forwards, faster and faster, they were exhausted. This week he will have one Power Skate class, team practice and his first game. I'm hoping that this season won't be quite such a whitewash. We have a new head Coach who will not tolerate the favouritism and cliqueishness that was in evidence last season. He has gone to great lengths to ensure a good balance of players, however due to so many children trying out, being placed, but then not showing, we could see team re-shuffling in the following weeks. Even still, it's good to see fairness this year!

Well thats it for now, Derry will be home in a minute to hijack the computer so I'd best sign off. Thank you for the birthday messages, I had a very nice day, along with the gifts from David I also got (with the birthday money from my mummy and Eric) Amish Society by John Hostetler, Anthropology and Modern Life by Franz Boas and the book from the TV series Ghosthunters, yeah I know, silly huh! LOL. I also got a Miracle Bullet WHICH IS GREAT! I love birthdays. :)