Between Trips and My Parents' Bad Health

July was a crazy month for our family. Obviously we started the month with a huge trip to the other side of the country. That was awesome and exhausting. 

 While we were there, Miriam had a birthday! But since we were on a trip, this was the birthday that kept on giving. She got some presents and special food there. Then she got a package when she got home from Uncle Daniel. We didn't even celebrate her birthday just yet, because we needed to have a good day when we could really focus on that, which wasn't while we were between trips.

We had less than two weeks before our next trip, this time it was a trip up to Utah for the Pearson Family Reunion. We tried to get somewhat into a routine before we had to go, but it didn't really happen. There was a little swimming, reading, and practicing. But let's be honest, unless the momma has the energy to make everyone do their work, it doesn't happen.

Eliza worked so hard on her typing this summer. She improved a lot and was really self-motivated about it. I am proud of her.

 We had a fun outing to go see the live action Lion King. Once again our realtor rented out a theater, and we got to go for free. We didn't win a prize like we have done in the past, but it was still fun.

 It was fun to see, but I liked the new Aladdin better, which we had just seen.

In addition to just managing to recover from one trip and getting things ready for the next trip. We also organized Miriam's baptism in Utah and made a talent video for the reunion. Both we were pretty time consuming, but worth it. We decided to try to do the baptism up in Utah because of all the bad health that our family is facing right now. My Grandma is super frail. John's parents are okay, but also not up for much of anything. My parents are in the worst spot right now. My mom finally got an official diagnosis about what is wrong with her. She has Progressive Supranuclear Palsy, which is not good news. What is boils down to is that there isn't anything they can really do about it, and it is terminal.  They don't know how long she has left, but probably 5ish years during which her abilities will decline (physical and mental) and eventually she'll probably succumb to pneumonia because of an inability to swallow properly.  Even though I have known about this for a while now, I don't know if it has fully hit me. I hope for her sake that when she starts to decline, it goes fast. 

Then, there is my dad, who shortly after we found about Mom's diagnosis was diagnosed with prostate cancer. It was pretty intense there for a while, but we found out that it hasn't metastasized, so it looks like that with the radiation he is going through, he should be fine. I feel bad though about how awful he has been feeling with all of the radiation. It is a several month process, but I am hopeful that he'll recover okay. I tell you though, it was a hard time for me, getting the news about my parents so close together. I haven't even really talked to the kids about it. I just don't know how to address it. But I need to sometime soon.