A special something, an award, 7 things about me and what we got up to...

Firstly I'm very excited to share something very special with you.

For a while now I've been wanting to do another Youtube video.  The last one we did for Bianca was 1 year after her leukemia diagnosis, but she was still on treatment at the time and I wanted an updated one on where she is now.  I guess it is also really appropriate because even though Thanksgiving is mostly a celebration you find in the US, it seems a time to be thankful for all the blessings we have.   We are certainly so incredibly blessed that Bianca is doing so well!  I've been searching for the right music to go with my video clip for a while now and just recently Paul gave me the perfect music to use.  I absolutely love the music that Paul did (and even Bianca said it is one of her favourite songs!)  And so today I share with you Bianca's new Youtube video! (Click here).

Blackhuff nominated me for an award!  Thank you!  How it works is to share 7 things about yourself and then nominate 15 bloggers.

1. I don't have any middle names.
2. I hate clothes and shoe shopping.
3. I am not a coffee drinker (sorry LatteJunkie).
4. When I was at school I played netball.  I wasn't very good, but I enjoyed it.
5. I am fluent in 2 languages and can say a few words in another.
6. When I was about 10 (I think) I wrote to the then State President of South Africa asking him how I could become a State President when I was all grown up.  I even got a reply back from his office.  Obviously I never became a State President... 
7. I like to try and come up with unique presents for people when I feel I know them well enough.  Presents that I feel would be meaningful to the other person.  And then I get all excited and can't wait to give it to the person.  And yes, sometimes (okay a lot of the time) I come up with the ideas at the last minute leaving me very little time to get it ready.  But hey, if it wasn't for the last minute nothing would ever get done!

I now nominate (in no particular order):

• 123 Blog
• Living the Good Life
• Latte Junkie
• Unwritten
• Juggling Act of Life
• A pinch of this and a pinch of that
• I believe in miracles (Sharon van Wyk)
• Maas Life Journal
• Everything in between
• Buttons Thoughts
• Linni at home
• Communique

Okay so not quite 10 blogs...

Today has been an amazingly beautiful day!  All sunny and blue skies.  And so this morning we had to go to Coastlands Mall in Paraparaumu and decided to go to one of the little cafes in Raumati Beach not too far from Coastlands.  I've seen it in passing and it looked really nice.

The red lines above Caitlyn's eyes and yellow cheeks are her attempts to put on kiddie make-up...

See, beautiful blue skies!

After that we set off for the mall.  Terence wanted to go and have a look at something we are considering for the girls for Christmas so the girls and I walked around The Warehouse.  Caitlyn bought herself a puzzle (or rather a set of 3 puzzles) with some of her pocket money and Bianca couldn't really find anything she wanted to buy.

On the way back home stopped off to cast our vote.  Yes, it is election time!  It took all of maybe 20 minutes and we were done.  So different to what we remember from our South African days where you'd stand in a long queue for hours on end.  As we were there waiting for our turn I noticed around the hall there were some of the main political party representatives.  Not quite sure what the purpose was to be honest, but there they sat - the National Party representatives in their blue shirts and the Labour party representatives in their red.  Suddenly I heard a noise and when I looked it was the one National party representative falling off his chair.  I felt sorry that he could have gotten hurt but I couldn't help thinking "oh dear, there the National party comes toppling down...".  Of course I have no idea what the outcome of the elections will be.

Hmmm, decisions, decisions...

All done!

Okay, I'll stop talking now.  I think this is a long enough update.  Make sure you go see my Youtube video.  Don't you just love the song?  I think it is perfect!

All about hair

Today was Caitlyn's rehearsal for her ballet show that is on the 11th of December. She'll be a ladybug. I panicked a bit because we are meant to put their hair into a bun and I'm absolutely useless with doing hair. I'm so useless that I prefer to keep mine short so I can just gel it into something that resembles an okay hairstyle. So armed with some tips from two friends, a you tube video (or 2), a bun net, some hair pins, hair gel and hair spray I set out this morning to get Caitlyn ready for her rehearsal.

And this is the result:

Isn't she just so pretty!

Bianca asked if I could do her hair as well and whilst her hair is not as long as Caitlyn's it was long enough to make a bun:


We've sure come a long way with Bianca's hair since she was on treatment:

And even when she finished treatment her hair was still very short and very thin:


And the one song that springs to mind is this one. Who knew that a simple thing like hair could mean so much, but for us it is a symbol of just how far we've come. We have so much to be thankful for!

Here I go again...

but this time with Blogger. I guess it is just that you (or I in this situation) find comfort in what I know.

I took a break from blogging for a while. For one I just really struggled to get back into it. For so long blogging was all about life with leukemia and child cancer and hospital visits and neutrophils and blood test results and not much else that when we reached the point where Bianca's port was removed, life felt a bit too ordinary, almost boring and certainly not newsworthy. Not that we're complaining. Most definitely not. But when you experience intense and "on the go" for such a long time, it is hard to find yourself again afterwards. It is challenging finding the normal again and we are certainly getting there especially now that hospital visits are less frequent.

I didn't really think about blogging at this stage to be honest. Life here is pretty busy and I find now with December and the Christmas season right around the corner it feels pretty hectic. But then my one online friend Sharon recently asked if I stopped blogging and so I started thinking about it again. "Maybe it is not such a bad idea". So here I am, trying it out again :-).

I thought I would start with just a bit of an update on where we are at at the moment and I'll answer some of the questions we've been getting to date:

How is Bianca? Is she all better now?

Bianca is doing really well at the moment. She reached one year off treatment in September (and in fact is 14 months off treatment now). There is still a risk of relapse and in all honesty we don't know 100% if she is "cured" as yet, but the first year off treatment is the most critical with about 10% chance of relapse and we've passed that milestone. So that is a huge relief for us. She recently had to get her MMR immunisations again because after the treatment Bianca didn't retain immunity against measles and mumps and at this stage I think we have reached the point where we feel she is protected enough against things like chickenpox and measles that it doesn't become a panic situation each time we become aware of somebody who gets the illnesses.

How often does Bianca still visit her doctor?

Bianca is currently on 2-monthly visits. During these visits Bianca gets a blood test and she sees her doctor for a check-up. She will be on 2-monthly visits until around September 2011 when she has reached the 2 year off treatment mark. Next year (sometime in 2011) Bianca will also get another ultrasound of her kidneys. During her treatment Bianca had kidney stones and this resulted in a slight abnormality with something to do with her kidneys and it is not something we are overly worried about at this stage so will just do another check next year. Once Bianca reaches September 2011, she should (if all go well) go onto 3-monthly visits for the following year.

Wow, the kids look like they have grown so much!

Yes they certainly have :-). Caitlyn is now 3 and will be 4 in February. I can hardly believe it. That means in 1 year and 3 months my little girl will be going to big school and because her birthday is at the beginning of the school year pretty much I expect she'll probably start in Year 1 as opposed to Year zero. And for those of you not from New Zealand, here kids start school typically around the time they turn 5. Depending on when their birthday is in the year, they will either start in Year 1 or if it is later on in the year might be in a Year zero / new entrant class to start off with. Of course legally you could wait until your child's 6th birthday, but I expect Caitlyn will be ready and wanting to start big school when she turns 5.

Bianca is now nearly 7.5. I can hardly believe that she is nearly done with Year 2 at school and will start Year 3 next year. It sometimes feels just like yesterday when she started as a 5 year old. Bianca absolutely loves reading. It certainly is one of her strong points and she reads more or less at a 13 year old level. Her favourite books at the moment are the books from the Goosebumps series and she is so proud that she read a 123 page book in 3 days. I was quite stunned because I don't think I read books like these (or even as fast as this) when I was 7. And best of all - Bianca is finally able to make real ponytails. She is so happy about this :-). But I'll certainly write more about the kids later on in this blog.

Have you settled in the Wellington area?

It is hard to believe we have been back in the Wellington area for nearly 6 months (I think). We are certainly enjoying being back and more specifically enjoying living on the Kapiti Coast. Waikanae is really peaceful and quiet. It is small, but certainly has everything we need close enough around us. I have been playing around with trying to do a bit of vegetable gardening and it has been quite relaxing discovering this. I believe the Kapiti Coast has a great climate for growing things and so far so good. But I'll write about my gardening adventures a little bit later on.

Anyway, this is just a little bit about where we are at. Feel free to ask whatever questions you might have in the comments section :-)

And with this I'm closing off this first post and we'll see how we go along!