Oh my goodness, summertime is so much fun!

Life is feeling a little Groundhog Day lately –
Maggie has managed to stay out of the doctor’s offices for a few weeks but is still a constant struggle of draining ears and scraped feet and physical therapy. Next week she has xrays, pulmonary testing, nerve testing, an MRI, labs, etc. But she is happy through it all.
Laney is growing up but seems to have unfortunately finally learned the squeaky wheel rule.
Kaya is finishing her last few weeks of first grade and joined the swim team, which pretty much takes up all waking hours. They’ve also all developed a new obsession with popsicles.
And somehow we found ourselves moving houses again, this time to a lovely house in the woods that Tommy’s parents bought but are sharing with us to save some money while our house is being built. Would be great except they seem to hate it.
Tommy escaped for a week for a sailing trip that he desperately needed.
And I manage to work mostly full-time these days but never accomplish anything creative. I answer a lot of emails though.
Perhaps I should drink my coffee before I write blog posts. Overall we are fine, which is a great thing to be nearly one year post transplant.

The photography people have really figured out how to get money out of me. They now take school pictures twice a year – once in the fall, and then a class picture in the spring. But they reshoot the individual pictures in the spring as well, and send them home to see, and gosh darnit if Kaya doesn’t look super cute to me in every picture I see. So I buy them both! So here is spring of first grade – growing up!

The Rose family (including Maggie and her new immune system) went camping last weekend with our old preschool friends Fiona and Eric (and their parentals). It was great, except we had to skip that 1-2 hour period where you stay up and drink by the fire after the kids go to bed because it was storming. But we managed to get a good lake swim (not Maggie, of course), and have hot dogs and s’mores. I even saw Maggie’s fingernails be dirty for maybe the first time in her life! This is a picture of her eating her 47th cheese puff. Hair is getting long enough for pigtails!

Kaya finally has enough common sense and enough skill at bike riding that we can cover some distance in the neighborhood. So, during naptime the other day when her sisters were sleeping, she and I took a nice ride down to Pop’s to enjoy some cheesecake and french fries!

A belated big happy birthday wish (March 9) to our wonderful Magnolia Rose. These haven’t been the easier two years anyone has lived through, but she has managed to smile through it all. She doesn’t like cake, so celebrated with some birthday mashed potatoes! We love you Maggie!

One of the best things about our current house is the proximity to Homestead Park. We have the option of the “little playground” or the “dinosaur playground,” as well as a pool, a dog park, basketball courts, lots of ball fields, and a skate park. Endless entertainment. The girls and I took a long walk to all the sites this weekend while Tommy did the taxes. I definitely got the longer straw this time.

Come join Team Magnolia for the Raleigh Run for Rare MPS 5K on March 30, 2019. We would love the community to join us! What else do you have to do then come to Raleigh at 8am on a Saturday?

https://support.mpssocietygive.org/event/raleigh-run-for-rare-mps-5k-2019/e218711

It feels like it has been raining incessantly here for the last several weeks, which is really hard on Maggie because it means she just has to stay inside the house all the time. She is now off immunosuppression, but it is still flu season and her immune system is not normal, so she is not yet able to fully join society. Laney and Maggie and I did sneak out to Duke Gardens a few weeks ago during better weather, but we are oh-so-ready for a sunnier springtime.