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.

I had a good visit with my grandma yesterday. It was a blessing and I'm grateful for how things went. She held my face in her hands and stroked my cheeks with her gnarled 94 year old unbelievably soft hands and told me how beautiful I was over and over again. She said she always liked visiting us because it felt like coming home.

The little dogs saved the day again. They gave everyone a reason to laugh and gave the kids a break from the intensity of the afternoon. My kids' 5 year old cousin was there who was absolutely delighted by the dogs. Her family has two big dogs so these guys were so very adorable to her.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

 These lucky kids woke up to freshly made cupcakes, dressed up dogs and a busted leprechaun trap.  Isabel made sure to make this year's out of a tin can, since the rascally leprechaun busted through the side of last year's cardboard trap. Alas, no leprechaun was trapped yet again this year but they did leave behind a mess, a taunting note and a bag of chocolate.




Isabel and Gabriel have fallen in love with the little dogs we care for. Isabel especially likes all the outfits that come with them!











We went downtown to check out all the decorations for St. Patrick's day and ended up, as I knew we would, spending the majority of our time in the local toy store.







Alan made a big pot of corn beef and cabbage with red potatoes and carrots for dinner. I love St. Patrick's day for this tradition alone!

 Isabel and Gabriel are on spring break which so far has been filled with birthday parties, play dates and a lot of family time. 

Happy Friday! The kids are enjoying school, little dogs and the sunnier weather.

Finally the kids and I are about 95% recovered from the nasty flu we had. I was floored by how severe it was. I expected to get sick since I usually do after nursing the kids back to health, but I was taken aback by how miserable I was and how unrelenting the symptoms were. I haven't been that sick in years.

My family showed me much sympathy which I appreciated and I spent the entire weekend on the couch with the kids watching various old programs like The Addams Family and napping. Alan made me soup which I could barely eat and Isabel perfected the art of making tea with honey. Gabriel insisted he was totally better but ended up falling asleep with me in the middle of the day which proved otherwise.

Come Monday we were all mostly back to normal and then Alan came down with it, though he resisted for as long as he could. He has finally relented and is in the awful throes of the flu right now, poor guy.

Having that terrifying cancer relapse scare put things into perspective for us once more. While it was uncomfortable, we're all very happy it was just the flu.

Isabel has been enjoying the little dogs we have around our house these days.