Hi sweet friends! It has been a little quiet here on the blog and that is mainly because, as some of you know, we moved! We found out in May that Brett matched into Florida Hospital for his residency and that meant we had a few short months to find somewhere to live! If you missed our big news about Brett’s match day, check it out here.  Now, this isn’t going to be a house tour because it is no where close to ready for that, but rather, a few things that we learned about moving. Hopefully, this will be an encouragement to you if you are about to move or are in the thick of this moving season.

Moving is Stressful

Now, this seems like a “duh” statement, but I never anticipated just how stressful it would be. Yes, I was ready for the stress of finding a house and figuring out how to get down here, but I was not ready for just how many people you have to communicate with to get a house done. Builders, sales agents, design center coordinators and so on-our contact list quickly became filled with these folks.

The Details have their Own Details

I almost have to laugh at this one because while I thought the home buying process would be really fun to pick things out and make it our own, I have a whole new appreciation for the careers of interior designer and interior decorator. If I never have to talk about what kind of sink hardware is available again in my life, I will be very happy. I also learned that unfortunately, I have expensive taste when it comes to home design, so of course my first choice options were WAYYYY out of our price range!

We also started to see the world in levels because everything we picked out had a level assigned to it with standard being included and anywhere up to 10 as the highest. When we would walk around the neighborhood, we wouldsay crazy things like, “oh, that must be a level ten front door because it is so intricate!”

Craziness! I found that while I like little details and appreciate them, I was so ready to have someone else do this part for me. Brett on the other hand, who is not usually a details kind of guy, was constantly going over the tiny details and actually seemed to like it. I barely recognized my husband through this process! 😉

Moving Trucks Should Require More than a Driver’s License

Thankfully, we didn’t have to use the biggest moving truck by any means for our stuff. We could get a 16 foot truck which don’t look absolutely crazy when you drive by them, but anything bigger than that is. Brett navigated all the way from Saginaw, Michigan to Orlando, Florida and said the worst part was driving through Atlanta traffic (which he described as just drive in the middle lane and hope everyone would stay out of the way). We were so happy to be done with our huge truck and after that adventure, it is amazing that just anyone is allowed to drive these things!

 

Florida is HOT, like LAVA hot, like never can get enough water ever HOT!

Alright, so this one wasn’t a surprise to us, but what was surprising, is just how little you feel like eating real food and how much you feel like only having watermelon, water, and ice-cream be your major food groups. This is the approach we took for the first week because we didn’t feel like grocery shopping or cooking, but quickly found out that this is not a sustainable diet. Bummer! I was personally really enjoying ice-cream for lunch and dinner, but all things must come to an end eventually. I will say that we have already gained a tolerance to this heat that I’m anticipating will really hit me when I come back up to Michigan and feel like 75 is chilly.

We should have bought stock in Hobby Lobby and Michaels

Again, not surprising, but when you want to take your eclectic random college decorations and finally make your house look like something Joanna Gaines would be proud of, it requires many trips to these stores! As well as Amazon and anywhere that sells cute coastal decorations-I’m still looking for a few more pieces so I’m always up for suggestions 🙂

Being close to Disney World is absolutely MAGICAL!

We received a lot of mixed reactions when we told people we were going to be close to Disney World. Some people were so excited and thrilled for us and are already planning their visits and others thought/think we are nuts for wanting to be near the most magical place on Earth. Well, I’m here to say that it is magical-it means the roads we drive on, the trees around us, the schools around us, and our property value is always going to be at a higher standard which is pretty magical to us! Also, it doesn’t hurt that it is an easy night out to go walk around at Disney which is always a perfect date in my book! I have already found dozens of places that I can’t wait to bring my couples and seniors to for sessions, so if you are interested in Disney magic for a session, just let me know!

 

 

 

 

These are some gems Brett took. He was very adamant that the frog one made it in here!