The fourth of July

Just another day here, and it isn't REALLY independence day yet because it isn't the Fourth there, yet...well, maybe on the East Coast, barely. So Happy Fourth of July, Marian, Suzy, and to the rest of you as it comes...

Another month has rolled by and I haven't written. A very busy month, at my work, as we had an accreditation site visit for the clinical programme, the first such process in New Zealand, so no one quite knew how nervous to get, but I, being American and having a tradition of horrors such as JCAHO accreditation, and APA accreditation, and such, had it in my genes to take it seriously, unlike my colleagues, who managed to get the first attempt postponed by both being out of town for the appointed days...anyway, it was a relatively painless process, a very collegial and clinical evaluation in which they asked very good questions but were also clearly identified with our side of the process, helped along by the fact that the chair of the site visiting team was the director of the next programme up to be visited...and then two days later I chaired the oral exams for our interns, a two day ordeal in which I sit with two external examiners in a room with extremely nervous students trying to show that they know what they are doing. They all passed (a couple by the skin of their teeth), so I had happy phone calls to make afterward. During all this Manford had peace and quiet at Hospice, and then had to get used to being at home again with the dog barking and Emily singing incessantly (which in my book is better than a lot of other things she could be doing, but took some adjustment after the calm at Hospice).

Then, last week, we put Joseph on a plane for California (and Chicago, and Kansas). We decided to all make the trek to Auckland, where Manford and Emily stayed in the motel room while I took Joseph to the airport and launched him into the unknown at the security line, hovered around for an hour making sure he wasn't extruded in some way, and then wandered, only slightly forlorn, back to the motel. We visited Butterfly Creek, an attraction we have driven past many times on the way to the airport; it's a rainforest-like dome with lots of butterflies and birds, and has added on various non-sequitors like crocodiles (which are BIG) and baby farm animals (for some reason mainly including guinea pigs and rabbits, but also a very engaging 18-day-old pig called Wilbur) and Emily entered in spite of the ubiquitous taxidermy (stoats, possums and weasels, the villains of New Zealand) and a good time was had by all.

Emily is on school holidays (a three-week break between terms two and three, of four), and has been hankering for snow, so we decided to make our first real expedition to the mountains since coming here. Last year when Sue Wine and her mother were here we got somewhat close, but it was sleeting and we didn't go far enough up to see snow. So this time we got a reservation at a grand old hotel (the Chateau Tongariro) and borrowed a child so Emily could have someone to pelt with snowballs, and we drove the three hours to Mt. Ruapehu (not mentioning to Emily that this is, actually, an active volcano that did erupt two years ago, but no one seems very worried about that, really). I will post some pictures. Manford stayed in the lovely hotel, while I drove the girls up the mountain for sledding and snow angels and snowman-building. Rachel, Emily's friend, had never seen the snow, and was thrilled. For some reason she was inspired to eat quite a lot of it. It is a different landscape than the Sierras or the Rockies--very rocky, a bit bleak if it weren't for the snow. Actually, the next mountain over (which you will see in the pictures, looking very classically volcanic) was Mt. Doom, for LOR fans. In two years, Emily will tramp the Tongariro Crossing, a famous all-day alpine trek that is described as "challenging" in the guide books...it is part of the Year 8 camp rite of passage at Southwell School. Parents are warned not to come unless they are "fit"...

Anyway, we made it down the mountain again and are home, have made phone contact with Joseph in Topeka, and getting ready for Manford's MRI tomorrow, starting another week of chemotherapy. He has been reducing his steroid dose gradually but successfully, so if the scan looks good he may be able to get off the steroids for the time being, which would be very good.

I will post some pictures, and try, again, to do better at keeping you posted...
Carrie