"Lights, Camera and Action"

It's the end of what has been a busy week so just a short blog update before calling it a night.

Here's a snapshot of our "happenings" ...

Trick 'r' Treat

All we can say is WOW do the staff at Cancer Care Manitoba know how to spoil a bunch of well-deserving kids! Ashley and Dane had an absolute blast trick 'r' treating last Friday morning. There were many great costumes, friendly faces and best of all a scale at the end to weigh the nearly ten pounds of goodies in their candy bags. This was a trial run for the real deal last Saturday night and they were not disappointed. They each went out with friends (and parents in tow) and collected quite the haul. Dane had no shortage of energy to run door to door and he now has enough chocolate to last an entire year! It was great that he was feeling well and could enjoy the holiday like all his peers. Hope you enjoy the post costume picture. Dane was a Wii remote (imagine that), Ashley was an art palette and have you ever seen a cuter Hershey's Kiss?

Boosting the US Economy

In need of a little get away and some new duds for our ever growing Clare (19 lbs and rising as she closes in on the six month mark next week), I escaped to Fargo and GF with my mom and Clare for a couple of days earlier this week. It was a good break and except for a couple of sleepovers with friends, it was the first time since Dane was diagnosed in early January that I have been away from him. I was a tad anxious when we first left, but I purposefully tried not to think too much about home while shopping til I dropped. The sky did not fall while I was gone and this is encouraging for future potential get aways.

Lights, Camera and Action

I think Dane has come to realize that agreeing to be the face of Cancer Care Manitoba's campaign is a lot more work than he could have imagined. In typical eight year style he not-so-gently reminded me in front of the consultant and photographer that "I made him do this - he never wanted to in the first place". He then asked if he could have a chocolate bar when the photo shoot was done and because sometimes bribery is effective, we caved! Seriously, we've all been busy with photo and video shoots at the house and at the hockey rink. The direct mail portion of the campaign is on its way to the printers and should be hitting mail boxes in a couple of weeks. We still have one more video shoot for the piece that will run on CTV and that will be filmed the week of November 16. We'll keep you posted on the details and will likely put a link to it on the blog once it's ready.

We didn't have any appointments this week and Dane continues to feel really good. He has his once a month IV chemo next Tuesday which also means the start of his steroid boost. This is the beginning of the third and last month of his first 84 day Maintenance cycle and knock on wood, we hope the many, many cycles to come run this smoothly. Now if only we could conquer his eight year old attitude!

Until next week, take care - Janie and Dirk