This morning I got a new book in the mail, the 4th edition of Childhood Leukemia by Nancy Keene. She wrote me a thank you note:

Dear Paulette,
The book is finally out! Thank you so much for sharing your story. This book only exists because parents like you share this wisdom and experience to help those following in our footsteps on this difficult journey. Wishing you and your family good health and happiness. Hugs, Nancy

My blurb is super short but still! Yay! I love that I'm in it! This book was my bible through the first horrific year of treatment. I really liked being able to read what parents wrote in their own words about what treatment was like for their children. Now I have a little bit in there about Isabel! I hope this is the start of me contributing much more in helping other parents navigate childhood leukemia treatments.

One year ago, March 9, 2009, Isabel entered the hospital with her blood counts near zero. She stayed in the hospital for the next 11 days.

Her official one year off treatment anniversary is March 20th, when she was released from the hospital, after being de-ported (surgery to take out the chest catheter) and off all chemotherapy treatment.



Today is Isabel's one year off treatment check up and blood draw at the local hospital. She has completed a full year without relapsing. This is huge.

For the next year, we will only go to check her blood counts every two months instead of every 30 days. After we complete the second year, the risk of her ever relapsing with leukemia is slim to none.

We're one year past cancer!! ONE YEAR!! Her hair is so long and she is so happy and healthy. She is full of life and love and big ideas. It's amazing. Why am I still in shock that we're done?

Some more photos of our very fun snow trip, from our friend's camera:

We went to the snow! Our good family friends took us on a spur of the moment, three day trip to Truckee! It was wonderful. I kept exclaiming "it's like being inside of a snow globe!" I have only seen snow a handful of times in my life, so it was all very exciting.

Today we visited the Marin Headlands. It was a gorgeous day and the waves were the biggest we've ever seen, due to the earthquake that struck off the coast of Chile.

Then we headed over to the marine lab at the Headlands Institute where Isabel did a little more research for her class project and we checked out some tidepool creatures.

Gabriel's class has been learning about the culture, customs, values and beliefs of the Japanese people. Today Alan helped the kids make seaweed salad while I tried my hardest to teach them how to use chopsticks. It was a cute way to spend the morning and the salad turned out delicious. One of the boys told his mom he had "weeds" for snack!

We spent the day at San Francisco's Exploratorium: the museum of science, art and human perception. It was so much fun!









I love this series of photos. We were watching an up close cow eye dissection. You can see how utterly disgusted Isabel was at first.

All the fat and muscle were cut away so we could see the eyeball.

She was still put off, but interested in the explanations about the workings of the eye.

She couldn't help but be fascinated by all different layers. Here she is looking through the lens and seeing the instructor upside down and backward. Isabel learned how the mind works with the eye to make an image.age of the world

In the end, she thought it was pretty cool.

Gabriel just wanted to play! So, we did and had a great day.