As we continue with our packing and moving forward with our dream of relocating to Florida, we thought this would be a good time to update you on different things related to our move.

Packing :       The boxes are slowly being packed, and we continue making our weekly trips to Goodwill. We are up to 47 boxes packed.  🙂   We have all our holiday decorations and supplies in plastic totes, and we have decided to transfer them to moving boxes, for two reasons.  One, it helps us to cull what we have, and two, it prevents probable breakage and ensures our holiday belongings will not be rolling inside a Mayflower moving truck!  We have not yet decided if the totes will be moving with us, or if we will buy new ones in Florida.

We did not reach our goal of completely packing the downstairs by Easter, but we have made a considerable dent in it.  Our oak video cabinets, secretary, and wooden fish stand are on Craigslist, but we have not had much success in obtaining a buyer.  We will leave them on there for now, but will soon be reaching a point (because of space issues) where we will need to make the decision to donate the items and forego the cash we may have earned from the sale. Another option is a rummage sale, but we really do not feel it is worth our time and energies to pursue this, to possibly earn a few dollars.

Medical :        We are making sure that all our medical appointments are scheduled in before we leave.  We are really fond of the doctors that we are established with here locally, and it will be hard for us to make the adjustment to find new ones in Clermont, but we don’t want that to be a pressing issue at first.   Vision and dental appointments have been taken care of, and the children will be obtaining physicals this summer before we leave.  This is a requirement of the school district in Clermont.  We are just waiting to finalize our housing plans in May, and then we will be able to obtain the appropriate form needed.

Soccer :      Our daughter is gearing up to begin her soccer season:  she will be able to attend all practices and games except for the final tournament, which we believe will be held on the Saturday after we leave.  The schedule is not up yet, so we don’t know for sure. We will need to purchase new cleats and shin guards this year, but she loves soccer and plans to continue it in Clermont once we move, so it is a worthwhile expense.   Due to our move, Mark decided not to coach her team this year, a decision we feel is best for all concerned.

It’s Getting Closer!      We are getting more and more excited as our moving date draws closer.  We are thankful that we have had time to sort through all our “stuff” and weed out the unimportant things.  We feel that we are on a good time table– we are under three months but we have a lot accomplished.  No, we did not meet our downstairs packing goal, but we are not far off from it.   In the month of May we should be able to finalize our apartment choice, which is awesome!, and while June and July will be busy months, we will not be frantic and stressed out because there is so much to do.  Jen plans to do some scrapbooking in May and June, as the craft room/sunroom will be the last room packed. We have discovered that staying organized is the key to a successful move.    We have tried to anticipate all our potential expenses and needs, set up a time table and work a little bit every day doing something in preparation for the move.   A box packed, or a file folder of papers shredded is one less thing that needs to be done in July.  Every night we listen to one of Lou Mongello’s podcasts, which really inspires us to keep moving forward and realize our dream of living in warm, sunny Florida with Disney World just a short drive away.

Thanks for following along!