An Early Christmas/My Birthday And The Big Move To Florida

Greetings from Florida.  We made it but first let me take you back to our last breakfast of the year with the kids.  Since the winter weather can be so temperamental in the mountains Mike and I decided it might be too risky to go back home to TN for Christmas.  So we had an early Christmas with gifts for the kids.  My birthday was also on Monday of this past week and the kids surprised me on the same day.  Oh what a celebration for all of us.

Nicole puts on some Christmas music while Ella says hello to Niki girl:

Ooh…time for presents.  I won't bore you with all of them but just a few, lol.  We have all been playing Apples to Apples each weekend so that is the theme.  For AJ since he loves acting and Disney we got him a Disney version:

Nicole is next and she is finally getting her very own miter saw and stand:)  Now she won't have to borrow Mike's anymore:

And Ella…she is all about Frozen…so we bought her decals for her bedroom wall:

And my birthday….Ella, the sweetie, made me a big sign that says Happy 28th, lol:

Nicole bought me these pans that I have been wanting to try for years now.  It takes me a long long time to finally buy things for myself:

And my homemade cake…chocolate of course:)

After the kids left Mike and I had to close down the house and move the last of the things to the store.  We already picked up the U-Haul so the fun will begin…ugh!!


Before we get to that, Nicole sent us a picture of Ella's room and her new Frozen decals.  What a cool room:

Now for the move…

Mike and I didn't think we could get the U-Haul truck up to the house so for a couple of weeks we took our packed things and brought them down to the store.  It is pretty full.  We are taking the shelves that we built but we had to dismantle them for the move.  As you can see we filled them:

Getting empty:

Filling up the truck which took Mike and I about 4 hours:

Time to hit the road.  Mike drove the truck and the lawnmower while I drove the van and the Jeep.  It is going to be a long trip without each other to talk to.  Mike checking to make sure we are safely hooked:

We rented the truck on Friday, loaded the big stuff, had the kids over Saturday morning, closed up the house, finished packing the truck and started driving about 2:30 saturday afternoon.  Shortly after leaving I found out my A/C was not cooling enough.  This would be bad for Niki and I especially in Florida so we drove through the night taking short naps along the way.  We got to our new house about 10:00am on sunday.  We made it safe and sound:)


Pulling up:

Now for the tricky part…we need to get both vehicles to the sliders you see on the right.  That was the original garage in this house and we are going to unload everything in that room for now:

Yay no sinking in the grass and we didn't run anything over, lol.  We start with the van and unload that.  Next up was the truck which took us Sunday and part of Monday to unload.  

We were exhausted but we did get the U-haul returned on Monday and that turned into a fiasco…grr.  We had a specific location to return the truck to…in the next town even after I asked the man at the U-Haul back home if it was in the right town.  So Mike drives the truck and I follow in the Jeep to the return spot.  "Sorry we are full try another U-Haul place".  So down the road we go and we pull into a second one…ugh…they are also full.  Third time is a charm….yay finally we got rid of the truck.  Just an FYI…if anyone ever moves you can return your trucks/trailers at any location.

We have been super busy unpacking and trying to clean up our mess.  We are almost finished with all the "inside" stuff.  Mike still has to sort his tools but everything is staying in the house.  First part of the remodel will be the workshop/garage area…I think, lol.

One of our new neighbors.  I tried to get closer but he went under:

Some very cool trees here.  I told Ella it is like a big hairy monster tree:):

Ahh the life.  Mike finally taking a break.  Our boat house is on the small canal across from the workshop.  

It is very peaceful here.  We have seen and met some boaters but other than that we are in our own

little world again and you know we like that:)

So now we have the best of both worlds.  We left this:

And came to this:

Life is good.  We are going to try to enjoy it a bit before the heavy work starts.  Mike doesn't think we will last that long.  He is itching to get the sledgehammer out.

That's all for now.  I hope you enjoyed the update.  I will post each Monday and maybe more if and when we get very busy.

Have a great week.

Lisa