July was an exercise in endurance for my family. Not only did we have the last of the surgeries and weeks of scattershot happenings, but we got a few unpleasant surprises that have altered the course of at least this next year of our lives. Back in early July, Morrigan found out that his “full ride” ROTC scholarship only covered tuition, not room and board. We could deal with that. He took out some loans (about $10k) and switched to cheaper housing on campus at KU. But a few days ago, the DOD denied him altogether because of a few self-diagnosed “allergies” (like pineapple makes his mouth itch). He cannot reapply to the Air Force, and he loses his scholarship completely. Without it, he would need to come up with an additional $15k to attend KU, even with their scholarship granting him in-state tuition rates, and we just can’t afford that. All of a sudden, on July 29th, my son no longer has a college plan, and without the Air Force, his career plans must change as well.

(frazzled me…)

These are low blows, but we’re working on them. Morrigan has applied to a local community college where my dad is a prof, and is currently looking for both a job and a cheapo car. He’s also considering going into Navy or Army right away and deferring college, instead. Everything is a bit scattershot and up in the air right now, but one thing is for sure: Our original plans to drive Morrigan to Kansas on August 21st are no longer our plans. We didn’t really see this one coming. I’m just glad that by the time this second big blow came, Morrigan had pretty much prepared himself, and he’s actually feeling okay about this (most of the time, anyway). Still, how frustrating, right? Thank goodness he has some options!! And also: thank goodness President Obama passed those laws that allow us to keep him on our insurance regardless of whether or not he’s a student!

As for me, I’m just ready for the heat to end and school to begin, as all my readers might expect. I’m reorienting myself constantly with all the new changes and trying to catch my breath. Fingers crossed that the next month goes smoother, right??

Reading
Very little reading in my life right now. I only managed to read a single book this month, The Stranger Diaries. At least it was really good!

Watching
It’s been a TV-heavy month for me, which is fairly typical of the summers, I’ve found. I finally got to see the Good Omens mini-series, which was AWESOME and definitely my favorite thing watched all month. I also got to see the newest season of Stranger Things, and an interesting based-on-real-life mini-series called Mrs. Wilson. (Ruth Wilson plays her own grandmother in that one!) Then my youngest son has been binge-watching Friends, which I never saw much when it was on, so that’s been an interesting cultural touchstone to see. In movies, there was only one this month – I finally managed to watch the third volume of How to Train Your Dragon, which I actually thought was better than either of the first two movies.

Health
July was another month of doing very little in terms of health. I mostly ate gluten-free. I did some gentle walking for Wizards Unite. Aaaaand that was about it, until late in the month when I saw my PCOS doctor and she put me on a new medication. I’ll write about this a bit more once I’ve had time to evaluate it, but I’ll just say here that starting a weekly injection (that I do myself!) is a really scary thing. Beyond that, despite the lack of exercise and my total apathy toward health this month, I did manage to maintain for the month, and I also confirmed that gluten is bad for me. Both are WINS in my book!

Highlights of July
Since July was an exercise in just-keep-swimming, these highlights were REALLY needed to keep me going…

• Jason’s surgery went well and we’re done with surgeries for the summer, yay!
• meeting my nephew Kyler for the first time!!
• family reunions: seeing siblings and some extended family for the first time in months
• Morrigan enjoying (most) of his Appalachian Trail trip
• my grandpa getting through his surgery and out of the hospital successfully
• new (much cooler) haircut! –>
• Laurence finishing summer school
• Ambrose turned 17!
• Summer Sendoff party for the new college kids (oh the irony…)
• and of course, tons and tons of Harry Potter: Wizards Unite!!!!!!! Especially Community Day, and meeting up with other players in person!

Coming up in August
I have no idea. Yay! School will start for the two younger boys on the 19th, and we have a few family birthdays, and Jason is going to Wisconsin at the end of the month for his brother’s wedding. Otherwise, the rest of the month will all depend on Morrigan’s situation – military or community college or full time work or…who knows? I was looking forward to getting back into a routine, but at this point…sigh.