Summer Break

I can't say it has been very summer-like this year, but I can't complain. We have had a few hot days, but overall, it's been pleasant. Sunny, which is always good. After the weeks and weeks of non-stop rain this spring, I was beginning to wonder if we would even have a summer.

In any event, Summer Quarter is over, and now I'm on my glorious 5 weeks break. Fall Quarter doesn't start until September 20th. Summer Q was insane. A full year of Spanish in 8 weeks and the toughest algebra class yet, in just 8 weeks. I just squeaked by in the algebra class, getting exactly what I needed to move on to the next class. However, I rocked my Spanish class. It was broken up into 3 separate grades. I got 3.8, 3.7, and 4.0.

It's probably a good thing I have this long break, because I have at least 20 credits fall quarter. Still deciding if I'm going to re-take a class I took in winter, to get a better grade. For now, I have Number Theory for Elementary Teachers, Interdisciplinary Science (part 1), Radio Lab (a journalism class), and Forensic Anthropology. Definitely the most intense classes I have taken and I'm taking them all at once. Crazy, maybe, but it's ok. I can't do it!

I have just 3 quarters left at GRCC (Fall, Winter, Spring) and I will graduate with my associates degree in June. Its so hard to believe that I'm already applying for graduation and getting things in order to transfer to CWU next fall. When I went back to school a year ago, I never thought I would actually finish. I am extremely excited and while I am very happy to have this long break, I have all my school supplies and my backpack is all packed and ready for the first day, which is still 4 weeks away. :-)

My grandpa is due for another Kidney scan next week. He will have these every 3 months for awhile, to make sure the cancer hasn't returned in the other Kidney. It's a little nerve-wracking, because the reoccurance rate is very high. My grandma also recently had surgery, to replace her other knee (she had the first one done almost 10 years ago). She is finding the recovery much harder this time. She underestimated the fact that she is 10 years older, her body is not in the same shape and she is completely dependent on supplemental oxygen, something she wasn't the last time. So, we'll see how it goes. She is a fighter, though, and I know she will make the best of the situation and do what needs to be done.

As far as Grandpa and the alzheimers, I can see some things slipping and in other ways, its hard to tell. He sleeps a lot. The doctors did find that he has excess fluid on his brain, which may be causing some of his problems, but the procedure to fix this is too risky at his age. He can be hard to live with sometimes, his moods are all over the place, and we are beginning to worry about him wandering off and forgetting where he is supposed to be, and wondering if he should still be driving. My grandpa is very independent, so the day we have to take his license or put him in a home, with be a very difficult day for all of us, but him especially. On top of it all, my grandma refuses to accept the diagnoses. I understand this, because its tough to swallow, but at the same time, I wish she would accept reality and allow him to get some therapy that could help him.

Anyway, I'm off to their house for awhile. I try to get down there and help out as much as I can. I don't want all the burden to fall on my mom. She has her own health to worry about. Not that she is sick or anything. She is diabetic, though, so she has to be a little careful, and sometimes she is not the best at remembering that.

I hope to blog again soon. I have so many things to say. So many things in my head. I do journal on paper almost everyday, it just doesn't always make it into my blog.