Daniela's No More Cancer Party

In a word...AMAZING! It was an amazingly perfect day! The sun was shining not a cloud in the sky...140 people or so...a lot of food and beautiful healthy girl named Daniela having fun! Who would've thought that two years could go by so quickly. That only two years ago we were given such horrible news. That two days ago it was the 4th (will 5th best day of my life!). The day we were married, two births, the official last day of chemo and the biggest party of our life. The guests came out in droves. Each guest was better than the next - all were great - but each time someone walked through our yard (garage) it was such an awesome feeling for our family. We were so happy to have all our friends and family sharing in this most incredible day. The party went on till midnight and I finally hit the sack at 2am exhausted! Here are some of my favorite highlights.

*family upon family

*all the food...yummy..thanks to everyone who contributed to the party with all their help and genoristy of food - potatoe salad, wine, desserts, sausage and peppers.

*thanks to Joy whom without I couldn't have the party since i do not own so many party favors likes serving dishes, drink dispensers - you name it - she has it!!!!!

*Can't forget the sangria and the keg of Sam Adams that began to float empty gosh around 10pm! Holy Cow.

*my little falls contingency

*the Erie contingency

*PSU Girlfriends!!! Still choke up with the thought of them being here for us.

*The One Man Band - and the overtime he played - thanks to my brother Georgie and Melissa who gave Paul some extra cash to play until midnight.

*Rebekah being thrown in the pool for splashing the guys

*Me being thrown in the pool just for the fun of it....ha, ha, ha

*The Watermelon Drink - thanks Karen! It was a hit!

*PSU Friends and me sitting on my living room floor opening the most thoughtful gift i could've received. A beautiful Pandora braclet with 6 charms - one signifying a JOURNEY, a fish to represent Casey, two angels representing my daughters, one charm representing faith, hope and love but the greatest of these is LOVE and on just because they like it. 6 charms...one for each of us...we're 6 all together.

*Louie wanting to know if Georgie was for hire! The kid is pretty funny you know.

*the many, many, kids in our pool!

*Poor little Thomas Turdo bumped his head big time on our pole in the yard...poor kid.

*Givoanni went missing for a few minutes but we found him with a book in Christina's room.

*Daniela falling asleep on Aunt Chelly's lap while listening to music

*Daniela's journal...Martina got a book so that everyone can write a note to Daniela...thanks Martina!!

My mother in law Lucy out did herself again with the last letter of Daniela's journey. She sums up everything so beautifully. her letters are something that we will always treasure. The girls are SOOOOOO incredibly lucky to have two grandmothers that love them so much. Lucy included so many momentos that she kept a long the way over the last years. She is amazing and we love her so much ! Thanks Mom, for all your help this weekend. I couldn't have done it without you. See you in 2 weeks!!!

First Worry...of many i'm sure...

So for the last two days, Daniela has been complaining that her leg hurts. We were not sure if it's from pure exhaustion b/c we are pretty active or if it was something else. Two days of complaints is enough for me. All during her treatment they would ask us if her leg hurt, if she was walking funny etc...leg pain is a side effect of one chemo med. She never experienced it at all. It's also a sympton that goes along with other symptons of Leukemia. And so the worry began. I called the clinic this morning to see how i should handle it (mind you 2 days before here bash) and they set my worries to rest. They said many parents suffer from end of treatment anxiety. Because of the anxiety many "little" things will cause us to worry. naturally of course!! So i decided i would take her in for blood tests just to be sure. And thankfully, she was fine. I think it is exhaustion as she has now been sleeping for almost 2 hours. That baby needed some rest.
I think we will always worry about her b/c of the Leukemia ....

Finally Some Summer

Here in the NE we've had a very, very mild summer...zero heat wave, zero humidity. Usually by now we are sweating and the ACs go on so that you can at least sleep comfortably. We've had very unseasonable temperatures the last week or so. Pool temp hasn't been above 75 degrees and of course the kids think it's cold.But not this weekend! It was definetly hot - 88 degrees - and there were people a gazillion people at the beach. The girls and I drove down to Belmar to spend the night with my brother and his little family. We had so much fun. The kids were up all night playing house while the teenagers and adults just hung out. The next day we were on the beach by 9:30AM ! It was hot. The water was cold but refreshing. The kids loved it. And so did everyone else at the beach. Check out how crowded it was :

This is the look that I have been getting from Daniela lately. "leave me alone mommy" look. She's been a little fiesty lately.

But then she's nice too me again.

And Christina enjoying riding the waves in. This water was cold!!! My ankles got numb!

And Jakey...my brother's youngest. I think he looks so much like my brother. I didn't get a picture of Josh...sorry Joshy.

And last but not least...Daniela's favorite past time while we were at the beach was walking to the shower to rinse off.

And just because i really like this picture...pre 4th of July celebration.

It's Official...She's Done..

June 26, 2009! It was official...Daniela was done with her very last chemo treatment. It ended with a spinal tap and vincristine. It was a great day...we had cards and pictures of course for the doctor, the main nurse, nurse practioner and the all the nurses. I mean really - how can we ever repay them for their kindness? I felt that there was no gift other than words, a letter, a card illustrating our daughters journey , that could thank them more. So that's what I did . From the heart, i wrote them all a card. Told them how i felt we felt about them. How eternally grateful we are to them. How they made this journey - a difficult one in our hearts and mind - so much easier to bare. I think I cried as wrote each of them out. I cried when I gave it to each them. They were so thankful for the cards and pictures. Some of them had tears in their eyes too. To us, they are one in a million. I'm sure for them we are several thousand in a million. They have treated so many families with the same dignity and respect. They are truly incredibly human beings. I wish Daniela never had to go through what she did over the last two years but since we did I am so happy we were lucky enough to be so close to an amazing hospital and clinic. The Tomorrow's Children Institute is incredible. I know that my family and I will forever hold a place in our hearts for all of the people there. And I know that we will always work somehow to help raise awareness and funds for the Tomorrow's Children Fund.

God Bless Daniela's caregivers: Dr. Flug, Dr. Halpern, Annette (APN), Dorothy (nurse), Carmen (Triage), Phyllis (Billing), Joanne, Eva, Diann and so many other nurses and APNs.

One of the other big moments of the day, is that Christina was in the room with us as the Dr. administered Daniela's anesthesia. She actually saw Daniela shake her head from feeling woozy and then just fall asleep. Christina is also one tough cookie. I still crack at the site of my baby falling asleep...Christina was like oh that's cool now let's go get some free chocolate milk (her 3rd!). I know she's just a kid...but how many kids do you know can handle this crap? I'm so incredibly proud of her maturity over the last two years. She is also something to celebrate !

The Pool!

The pool has been a blast! By day 4, Daniela was totally on her own in her tube...ie. she no longer had to hold on to me thank goodness! Christina is a little fish. We're totally grateful that the kids have enjoyed it so much. We were concerned that they wouldn't love it but they do. We've actually enjoyed being in the back of the house vs. the front of the house. It's amazing how quiet it is in the back. It's early July and we're tan and girls are blond and we haven't gone anywhere yet! Sweet. Very fun...Very relaxing!

Last Day of School 6/23/09

Today was Christina's last day of school! What a great year she had. Great report - super reader...so incredibly proud of her. What i love most is that she really likes going to school. Hopefully, she'll continue with that love for school and learning. If there is one thing I remember about my childhood , it's school. I loved it too! Her first grade teacher Mrs. mendel was such a great educator on every level. She loves these kids and loves what she does. She will be taking a year off from teaching to be with her new baby Addie. She will be really missed. Christina will have Mrs. Hunt for second grade..."mommy, she was at our house." And indeed she was. Toni and I had a scrapbooking class at my house and two teachers actually came. Yup we're famous. Two teachers at my house. Very cool for a first grader.

Here's Christina on the first day and last day of school:

And then there was the STAR of the show. Daniela experienced her first spring show at magic years. Every penny we spend at this preschool is worth it because of this show. These little kids - BABIES - work so hard for their big performance and it shows. It has really been so awesome to watch Daniela grow this past year into such a bright and funny little girl. She too has such a joy for learning and it's fun to watch that little sponge of a brain soak it all up.

Bad Blogger

And here I thought a new blog and some new motivation to write...yeah right! well the last several weeks have been kind of busy but in a fun way. We had the last day of school on 6/23, daniela's last clinic visit on 6/26 ...I was off from work that entire week so we were able to inagurate the pool quite nicely! After god knows how many days of rain, it finally stopped!

So i'm back ...at least for this evening to catch up on some writings and happenings.