Blog
For anyone who didn't see - we had a wonderful family holiday in the UK in July / August - there are photos of our time in London (including James's excitement at seeing Big Ben), Shetland and Bedford).
So, Facebook added their Chat application but still haven't added the promised Jabber support so that you can use it through a standard instant messaging client. (If you haven't ever used one I recommend Pidgin - you can use it to do messaging over Jabber, Google Talk (which uses Jabber), MSN, Yahoo IM, etc, etc, in a unified way without having to install hundreds of programs. There's also a Mac-specific version called Adium.)
We had a wonderful holiday at Volmoed in Hermanus. It's a most beautiful Christian retreat center in the Hemel-en-Aarde (Heaven and Earth) valley that we've been to for church camps and also for holidays from time to time, so it was so lovely to go back there. We also had an afternoon at the beach which was just lovely for James and Charis...
Danielle's parents have just been for two weeks and it was such a precious time - full of all kinds of activities from her dad making a model boat with James, to Danielle speaking on a students camp, to visiting penguins at the beach, to having a birthday party for James and Charis with both grandparents there for the first time. We just said goodbye to them and we're off tomorrow for a week to Hermanus to stay in a beautiful place in the mountains with lots of ducks! Very exciting...
We had a fantastic day on Wednesday celebrating James's birthday. His bedroom and the lounge got decorated the night before with streamers and balloons; he had breakfast in bed (and we all joined him); and I took the day off so we could all have fun together.
We went to Aunty Elle for morning tea, then off to the Scratch Patch at the Waterfront where we all had lots of fun collecting semi-precious stones.
Fish and chips for lunch (although James didn't want any) and then James and Charis were both so tired they fell asleep in the car. We went to century city, put Charis in her pram and James in a trolley (with a blanket!) and let them both sleep while we had a drink together (a nice unexpected treat!)
Then we went to the Science Center which is basically a gigantic play area so that although little kids may not appreciate everything that's being taught through the activities they can certainly have fun!
Visited the Loizides on the way home and then had Gramps and Granny round for pizza in the evening - and James even ordered it over the phone! (With some coaching from mum...)
There's definitely something special about taking time out to celebrate!
It's quite an adjustment... James being on maintenance means he's freer to do things with other people, eat more food, etc...
Last weekend was amazing - going to church for the first time together as a family - not being able to go has been hard and it was amazing being there. We also went to the aquarium, visited a few friends, and went to one of his friend's birthday parties - quite a gear shift!
A small but very helpful victory for us - for the last few months James hasn't wanted to swallow tablets so we've had to crush them up and mix them with his vitamin syrup. His steroids he has to take (for 5 days a month now) are very bitter and he hated the taste...
Haven't updated this blog over the last few months - we had to return from Japan because of James being diagnosed with Leukemia in August... and have since then been going through fairly intense treatment with him.
Just discovered DiddleFinger which lets you use Google Maps without having to understand Kanji, etc...
We've added a Photo Gallery section (using Gallery 2) and started uploading photos - so far just Leaving Cape Town and Stopping over in Joburg but more will be added soon!