Where the heck did February go? It was a memorable one due to the fact that Bill took the last two weeks of his vacation and we didn't go anywhere at all. Well, we did go into downtown Cincinnati to the Cincinnati Museum and saw the science & history exhibit that was full of dinosaur bones. And afterwards we watched a film about the Grand Canyon in the Omnimax theater. Now that was a trip. I had to keep closing my eyes because I kept getting dizzy. And sometimes a little nauseated. Chemo and 3D theaters really don't mix well. But the film was awesome and quite an experience despite the dizziness and nausea.

Then my friend Ruby from Toronto came down and visited with us for three days. Actually, this picture is from last summer when she and her sister came down for the first time ever. This time she came down by herself and, wait a minute, it wasn't in February it was the first week of March. Gee, what was I doing that kept me so busy last month? I dunno. Oh, well, the women from the OGADE drum group did the opening and closing music for "The Vagina Monologues" at Miami University in Oxford for three nights straight and there were several practices before that. And then there was Bill's vacation. So, I was a little preoccupied. I'm writing now because I'm enthralled about having heard a song sparrow singing outside my window for two days. It was a first time spotting for this yard. The weather warmed up enough for a couple of days for the windows to be opened and we sat outside on the deck and ate dinner a couple of nights. Now that was a real thrill, a beautiful luxury after being shut in for the past four months.

So, it's been a year since I discovered I have breast cancer and mets to the bone (mets meaning that it metastisized). I don't feel much different from a year ago. One difference is that I use a walker to help get around but I've been using it less lately since the chemo I've been on since November has shrunk the cancer immensely. I'm off pain meds, too, since those pesky chest muscles have finally loosened their vise grip of pain on me. In the past, every time I had heard of someone who had cancer and then that it spread elsewhere, I always predicted that within six months they would be gone. And they were. My mother, my ex-husband's grandmother, my ex-husband's mother, and a couple of acquaintances. Well, here it happened to me and I'm still around and actually going pretty strong. And I feel that I have at least five or more years left to me despite my condition. Hope my prediction for me comes true.

Spring coming always cheers me up. Well, that and starting celexa again, ha, ha. A couple of weeks ago I got to feeling just so sad and I couldn't shake it. I knew then that I had to start the antidepressant again. I thought I was going to make it through this winter depression season without going on the stuff but...nope, I didn't. I was able to keep off celexa the past several winters while Amy, Todd, and the girls were living here. I guess it was all that distraction that helped. It was probably also all the company I had every day from them. It's hard not to light up when you have babies or toddlers in the house. But they moved out last May, as I've mentioned before, to their own little house about 20 minutes away and all of us are much happier than before except I don't have as much to distract me and I felt the SAD creep in again. Maybe that was exacerbated by the knowledge of having cancer. I dunno.

But besides hearing a song sparrow in the yard, the cardinals have started up again. There's one lusty one that you can hear going, "Cheer, cheer, tweet, tweet, tweet, tweet, tweet, tweet, cheer." I love it. Because that means that spring is really just around the corner. Other signs I've noticed are the tulip leaves have popped up as high as they will go but no colorful parts yet. And I finally saw the male mourning dove consummate his 'love' on the old tree stump yesterday. He is constantly chasing her around and I never seen them getting together but he managed to get it on for once. There are also flocks of robins populating the yards again.

To top things off today, I have pictures of Addilyn and Elyse to put up. It's been some time since I posted any of them. Addilyn is 5 1/2 and Elyse is 2 now.