My grandmother has decided to discontinue her treatment and has entered hospice care. The treatment was, in many ways, worse than the disease itself: robbing her of any quality of life and leaving her miserable. Her prognosis is not good, and the doctor gives her less than six months to live.

As much as this knowledge hurts me, I support her decision. It’s the kind of courage and strength I would expect from her and my grandfather.

It’s been an exciting couple of weeks in our household.

You may not know too much about Luis, who has been living with us for a few months now. He came to the United States from Venezuela in  2003, and has been pursuing permanent residency here (the coveted “green card”) ever since.

Last Friday, his wait ended. His green card (which is not green) arrived in the mail. We hope this means he’ll be able to travel back to Venezuela in the fall to visit his parents, who he’s not seen in over five years.

This achievement also resets the clock for him, as he now needs to wait five years (June 20, 2013) to apply for US citizenship. He’s excited about doing that, and so am I … mostly because I’m tired of hearing him complain about not being able to vote even though he pays taxes.

And in more citizenship news, Jake has earned his Canine Good Citizen and Therapy Dog International certifications! So now he’s officially known as Fairfield’s Jakelicious, CGC, TDI … but he doesn’t seem to be letting it go to his head.

Yesterday Paul and I went down to New Jersey to my aunt’s house for a barbecue in celebration of Independence Day.

My primary motivator for going was to see my grandmother, who was diagnosed with brain cancer in April and has since undergone a six-week course of radiation (5 days a week) and oral chemotherapy every single day. The chemotherapy will continue for the rest of her life.

It was wonderful to see her looking so well, considering the circumstances, but she was having a difficult day.

She wore a hat to cover her thinning hair, which she is losing. She cried several times throughout the day; that’s something I had never seen her do before. When I hugged her hello, she couldn’t let go of me, and so I held her for a couple of minutes until she calmed down.

My grandmother has always been strong, always funny, always loving. You can see her personality is still strong, unchanged … but her body is simply exhausted. It was really hard for me, but I made sure to talk to her and my grandfather just as I always have. I wanted her to know that in my mind, she’s still here with us. She’s still alive.

Some of the super drama queens in my family insist upon emotionally burying people at the first hint of an illness. Despite my own penchant for drama, I won’t be one of them.

I let the living remain among the living, and I do my crying privately. My grandmother and my grandfather don’t need to see it.

Last Saturday Paul and I made a quick day trip down to New Jersey for my friend Melissa’s baby shower.

On the way home, my little Civic made it to 100,000 miles!

I have never owned a car this long, and I’m incredibly excited about it … so much so that I pulled over on the side of I-80 to take a picture of the odometer.

I’m loving the fact that the Civic is still running strong after eight years, and that I’m saving money every month by not making a car payment.

When you factor in Paul and I, my parents, and my sister and brother-in-law, my family has owned seven Hondas in the past 15 years.

And even though I’m coveting a MINI Cooper as my next car, I’ll always love my Hondas.