My brother is one of the three winners of the Paris Literary Prize! He was able to fly to Paris for the awards ceremony at the Sociéte des Gens de Lettres. Then he gave a reading at Shakespare & Company.

www.parisliteraryprize.com


My brother's Paris Literary Prize acceptance speech!

Caricatures of Isabel and her best friend from the fair. I love it!

My cancer survivor Girl Scout helped her troop at school raise almost $200 for Alex's Lemonade Stand (100% goes toward research to cure pediatric cancer) https://www.alexslemonade.org/. She is just now being less shy and more proud of her survivor status. She even showed the entire troop her port scar!

My dad died yesterday, one week after his mother passed.

My grandma died on Easter morning.

Thank you for all your thoughts and kind words.  It's wonderful to hear memories of my father.

Gabriel's birthday is next Wednesday!  He is very excited and has invited his three best buddies to Expedition Island, an indoor rock wall climbing, zip lining, running around and getting sweaty play ground perfect for a group of seven year old boys! 

 http://www.expeditionisland.com

Isabel's been a busy girl lately.  Her weekends have been booked with Girl Scout cookie selling, birthday parties and play dates.  She is a happy and energetic kid.  Since she's been off all chemotherapy treatment for two years now, she only has to get her blood drawn and have a check up every three months.  It's a relief but  I'm not used to going so long between appointments.  We won't go back to the hospital until May.  In the meantime she's a normal 9 year old girl with lots of friends.

I teared up a bit watching her roller skate yesterday. I was just so grateful for the normalcy of it.  For so long our normal was filled with pills and needles, blood counts and hospitalizations. These days I'll be washing another sink full of dishes and remember how I longed for such a tedious task while trapped in another endless day at the hospital filled with beeping machines and miserable children. Anything was better than being there.  I don't think I'll ever take washing dishes, folding laundry or watching Isabel play for granted again. 

Isabel enjoying some dog days.







The weather has suddenly turned summer hot which is a far cry from last week's constant rain.



There was a lot  of rain!





Spring has definitely sprung around here.



Isabel and Gabriel in front of the art center.