Topazia

Update a full year later: We're still in maryland! No longer living in my mom's house. I was fired from the job I came up here with just before Halloween. Thankfully Maddie had just gotten a promotion at work and made just enough that I didn't even really have to work. It was like less than 50 dollars short of covering every expense. So I took a month off to recover and then got a job at the toy store next door to our downtown apartment. We've had a friendly relationship with the owner since we moved here and I like all of my coworkers. And i hardly ever have to do the retail part, since my job is doing all the physical jobs in preparation for a new play area opening up in the back. It's so fun! I built a fence all by myself! I make a little less, but the lack of a commute means we save more than the difference in gas! Maddie is still thriving here, and other than one jerk on Facebook, she's had zero negative experiences from people around here. (Other than the usual rude people, but nothing regarding her personally) We started a LGBTQ group (like PFLAG but not associated with the organization) in town but had to stop bc we got overwhelmed at work. Now that our stress is reduced, I'm hoping we can get it started back up again! MacKenzie is doing good in school. Better than last year, still has some room to improve. It's definitely helpful that I'm home every night at 5 so she has a reliable evening routine. So much better than when I was working big box at all hours. We have friends in town we can see more often. The town is so small we can walk to school even on cold days and not be too bad. Kiddo got a scooter for Christmas so on REALLY cold days we can scooter to school and get there faster! It's been a crazy year and I'm so happy we came here. It snowed on Monday and we got to play outside a little. I made a tiny snowman! I will try to be more active here again. I miss this place. I would love to hear how your year was too!

TOP BANANA!!! I'm so happy to see someone pop in! How have you been? I've been alright. Very busy lol working a lot and trying to get my wife into a job soon.

I am glad to see you understand the problem with the FL governor. The supreme court also said Roe v Wade was settled, and look at that now. It's not even about our marriage, it's about her being trans. They've (state medical board) already blocked trans care on the state Medicaid program (it's self pay or private insurance only), and now they've completely blocked ALL care in the state for trans youth, and when told it would result in... Let's say fewer trans youth but in the way that means someone's mother will be crying, they said on record "that's okay". I'm not exactly holding my breath that things will change for the better at ALL with him in charge. Miami would be nice, but it's... Still in Florida. We have moved. We are safe and sound in my mom's house in a tiny little hideaway town full of nice people. We're a five minute walk from kiddo's school and 15 minutes' walk to downtown. We've made introductions to the local economic and cultural planner and we have somehow roped ourselves into possibly starting a local theatre! Sharing our fundraiser on the blue bird website with shares from large accounts who were game to help, has helped us reach half our original goal. We're leaving it up for now because we still have expenses related to the move that need to be paid. Maddie is a lot happier here. We've been here for less than a week and she's been out of the house more than she has in months in Florida. Nobody knows who she "was", so there's less stress about that here. The weather is milder. The trees are colorful. The houses are so cute and look like storybook houses. The town is diverse. I was worried it'd be a fairly homogenous town but I was very pleased to see children of all sorts of backgrounds playing together and making noise in the parks. Housing is a *little* more expensive than Florida, but the bigger problem is there's very little in town and I'm already in love with this area so I don't want to move far. That'll have to wait a few months tho, after Maddie and I are both working steady and saving money. I'm sorry to hear you've had some stumbling blocks in your way! Hopefully they're getting resolved, and less frightening than ours for the last month

Hi Horatio! Oof, a lot has happened in the last month here. I'm glad you were able to get the url back, but it sucks that it was basically extortionate. We can't stay in Florida. The governor you recommended I call about our power bill is doing everything he can to make my wife illegal. It isn't safe here for either of us. (Also we ended up paying for it... But we did make most of the money back up in donations shortly after.) Also the rental company is increasing our rent so we can't stay anyway, so our moving timeline has been moved up. To Halloween! We have been.... SO BUSY. I'm so tired. We've been trying to have yard sales every Saturday but had to call last week off bc we were so beat. We've sold our grill, riding mower, deep freezer, and my brother's guitars (to an old friend we knew would put them to good use, and we know my brother won't mind him having them). The worst part of all this... We had to rehome our cat. I didn't want to at all... I'm angry about it. But we really couldn't bring her in the situation we're in. So we gave her to another good friend that we know spoils her cats. Nani will thrive there, as soon as she realizes she's safe. We don't have a place up there, so we're moving into my mom's garage (kiddo will be inside) until we save enough for a rental fee. We're selling as much as we can bc we only have a 16ft trailer and a van to transport. I need to sell my grandmother's wicker peacock chair (easily the most valuable asset we own besides our camera equipment, computers, and wedding rings - full size peacock chairs in good condition can fetch hundreds, sometimes over a thousand bucks! I'm asking for 200 at local furniture stores bc I know they might sell it low and they still need a profit) this week. I'm keeping the sitting set I got from her tho. MacKenzie is excited for the move. We're looking forward to a fresh start. She has had a lot of behavioral problems with her teacher this year, so I'm hoping a new classroom with fewer students will be a good change for her. Maryland Walmart pays more, so I'll be getting a raise when I transfer. Maddie has contemplated going back to Walmart once we're up there, with the assumption that nobody knows her as her old self, so there's no historical relationships to worry about, which will reduce her stress. Also the store we're looking at is in a state with far better culture surrounding LGBTQ people. Like, instead of actively trying to detransition her, they're making efforts to legally protect her right to be herself and seek care. That's a lot of writing and I'm losing my train of thought. I'm glad renovations are continuing under better weather. I'm glad to hear from you!

Hi Horatio! Goodness, what an update. Quite a bit has happened in the last year. We're doing well. Maddie has reached a full year on HRT (hormones) and she's doing so well. MacKenzie is amazing. Doing pretty well in school with just a little bit of behavioral issues, but they're getting better. She's in FIRST GRADE!! How on earth did that happen?! Maddie ended up leaving work earlier this year due to anxiety issues becoming so intense it was making her ill just driving to work. We're struggling, but I'd rather have my wife healthy and... Here... Than try to force her to go to a place that literally had her heart rate at 160s from stress. We're raising money to move out of Florida. With all the discriminatory behaviors from lawmakers here, neither of us feel safe. So we're trying to move to Maryland, or possibly Delaware. Those states, and really most of the NE, are much safer for LGBTQ folks and women. We have a fundraiser, but it's been slower than I hoped so now I'm worried that we won't be able to get out of here. You mentioned your crappy power company, well ours is giving us a thousand dollar utility bill because THEY failed to communicate when we signed up for a special payment plan, and of we can't get them to waive most of it, we'll be forced to spend our entire savings from the fundraiser on that... And then we will have to try to raise that money again... I'm glad to hear you're still working on your house! These heat waves have been brutal. I see it in the news and feel so bad for people who have to work in that. And I can't wait to see more of your photography! Finally, YAY I'm so happy to hear you got the old URL back! Did it just come back up for sale, or were you able to get in contact with who you needed to?

We don't give her a lot of high-sugar foods. Like she has snacks, but currently it's applesauce, last time it was bananas, stuff that isn't that bad. Her diet is higher in fat than sugar lol so it's definitely not that. Her behavior is consistent, even on days when her diet is drastically different. She also doesn't respond to caffeine (we very occasionally let her have a little bit of Maddie's soda) which is a correlated factor in ADHD. Maddie and I both experience that; she only drinks it bc she likes the taste, and to ward off headaches she'd had for years. Hopefully the house prep goes smoothly! Ooo drone stuff! That's a lot of fun. We have a small drone camera we rarely use but it's fun when we do! I'm glad you're still learning. It's important to keep the brain flexible! I know I feel better when I'm working to expand my knowledge haha

greetings! I hope your house sold! My family is doing well in MD so far. We're collaborating with a friend and favored teacher to get my sister a yearbook bc I guess she's feeling homesick. I'm excited for the surprise lol Maddie and I are doing alright. Mostly following the hyperfocuses where they take us lol right now we're into woodworking and 3D modeling with Blender. MacKenzie is a very clever, very silly kid with big feelings that we're learning to regulate. We need to get her checked for ADHD soon bc she's starting to display more obvious symptoms. Unsurprising, since both of her parents suffer through it untreated. But I want her to thrive, so it's been on my mind.

Happy holidays to you too! Ours was relaxing. Kiddo got a bunch of really cool stuff!! And I got dragon stuff

oh nooo that's awful!!! I hope you're able to rebuild quickly....

Happy birthday to the very best site manager and moderator I ever got to know!

Many churches do provide a residence for the head priest, but not necessarily for the associate priests. Not all churches can afford to provide housing even for the head priest, tho. They're Anglican Christian. He'll be serving as the head priest at his church, but it's the cathedral so he's not technically the head bc the bishop is based out of it, so that's who gets the provided housing. I'm sure they'll love it there. They are like half an hour from the beach, my little sister already has a job and starts tomorrow, and my parents like the snow. There are some great memories there. I painted my room bright purple with many-colored spots all over the walls. It has since been repainted several times by my little sister, who got my room when I moved out. It was a good house. Hey, we use our gigantic master bedroom for an office for Maddie's streaming. We sleep in one of the other bedrooms, right next to MacKenzie's room. We sleep there... why should it be huge? The master bath isn't that much bigger than the main bath, and the master closet sucks so there's no loss there. A streamer or tech-lover would be fine with a small master as long as they have another room available for their office stuff haha!

I don't have any of her in it bc Maddie did all the pictures on her phone that day, but here's one of the dress by itself (ignore the messy desk ). She absolutely felt like a princess haha! My dad is a priest and has been trying to find a job for a few years. He FINALLY found one! We're all very excited for him. It's in Maryland, so that's why they're moving there. Good luck on your coursework! You can do it! And I hope you get top dollar for your FL home. I was really hoping we'd be able to rent my mom's place. I love that house. But the church they're going to doesn't provide housing, so they have to sell it so they can buy a place up there.

I'm still alive! My mom moved this past weekend. Well, my dad and little sibs too. They moved to MD! I've never lived this far from them before and it's kinda weird. I don't think MacKenzie fully grasps that they're gone gone, but she is fully aware their house is empty bc she was with us when we were cleaning it out for them. She's in Kindergarten now and seems to enjoy school. She turned five recently! I'm so excited to see her learn and grow and make friends at school. I'm scared, bc covid and the fact that crazy people exist, but she's good about wearing a mask, and our area seems fairly safe for little kids, so I'm hoping the second fear never happens. I made her a dress for her birthday and regretted it immediately. It's a lovely purple dress with butterflies and some woven-in glitter, with three layers of ribbon-bound tulle as a petticoat. It's gorgeous!! but I used glitter tulle.... guess what the bouncy, happy, energetic five year old left ALL OVER THE HOUSE over the course of six hours.... My feet are still glittery. But she loved it, so it was worth the extra sweeping :D

I just now saw it, I must have skimmed past before. that looks sooo cool!

also the odd paper with a pink stick on it off to the side is her unicorn. It's adorable.