I danced through the kitchen swinging the mop back and forth along the tiled floor as I sang along to Pat Green at the top of my lungs. I felt good for a change and it felt wonderful to be able to dance and sing and be "Crazy" for a few minutes of my busy day.

I held the mop like a microphone, singing into the end of it like an enthusiastic teenaged girl, and twirling around in a wide circle. I was having a blast.

"Well, well!" I heard a voice from behind me chuckle as I spun back around quickly and found my cousin, Kevin, standing in the doorway, holding a huge box of God only knows what and laughing hysterically at me.

"Now I guess we know what you do when you're home all alone Cuz!" He giggled, "If my arms weren't full of this box, I'd applaud your amazing performance."

I slid in my socked feet across the freshly mopped floor and hit the pause button on the CD player before grabbing a dish towel from the counter beside the sink and chucking it across the room at Kevin's head. He ducked quickly out of the way, still laughing to himself as he set the box on the dining room table.

"Kel and Joey should be here in a few minutes with the last load of boxes," he informed, stooping down to retrieve the towel from the floor where it had landed in a crumpled up heap. He glanced over at me with a snarky grin before using it to wipe the beads of sweat from his forehead and cheeks.

"Well then," he said with a laugh, "thanks for the towel, it came in handy."

"Nice."

"I try." He winked and looked around the room with a puzzled expression, "By the way, where's my wife?"

"Oh, She's putting Mason down in the guest room and if she's smart she'll stay in there with him and take a nap herself. I may go join the little guy myself here shortly... Lemonade?" I asked handing him a glass and stifling a yawn.

He gladly accepted and pulled a chair up to the counter to sit down beside me.

"How are you feeling today?" He asked the question after studying me carefully for a few moments.

It was a question I'd grown used to answering... asked only anywhere from fifteen to twenty million times a day and though I grew tired of the question itself, I knew it was asked out of genuine concern and with good intent... and so I mostly tried to answer it honestly. Although I'm pretty sure I'd never told anyone yet "Well thanks for asking, I feel like complete shit!"... and there were plenty of days that answer would be the honest to God truth.

"I'm feeling pretty good today actually," I answered with a small grin (because it was true afterall), "a little bit tired, but good on the whole."

"You look like you feel good," he responded reaching out a hand and rubbing my fuzzy head. One of Kevin's favorite pastimes... even when I had hair.

I sipped my lemonade and pondered things for a moment, "You know, I have only two more rounds of chemotherapy left to get through. Then at least I'll have one less thing to worry about."

"That's awesome!" Kevin said with a warm smile, "We're going to have to throw you a huge party you know... a house warming, wedding showering, congratulations you're free of those damned medicines party!"

Kevin put his arm around my shoulder and gave me a kiss on the cheek before he grabbed both of our empty glasses and rinsed them off in the sink.

"That would be fun," I replied half-heartedly, "I would love to spend some time with everyone... you know... just in case."

The killjoy. Kevin looked at me and nodded knowingly. I hated to be the killjoy though, so I changed the subject quickly.

"Nick's SO gonna want to strangle me when he gets home. He has so much waiting for him to do." I motioned around my new house at all of the unpacked boxes stacked in various corners and lining the walls. "God knows I'm not unpacking any of his things until he gets back."

"I don't blame you," Kevin sighed, "he can be picky as hell when it comes to his personal belongings. When are they getting back anyway?"

I pointed to the calender hanging on the fridge across the kitchen. It was completely marked with red X's, one for every day that Nick had been gone so far, and a huge circle on the day he'd be coming home.

"Two more weeks," I said with a smile... "Just two more weeks."