Wishes And Pixie Dust

Follow the journey of a Wisconsin family of 4 who relocated to the Walt Disney World area in July 2011

Category Archives: Disney


by Leave a comment

Baby, It’s Hot Outside

We almost felt like we were Floridians yesterday; our high reached 97 degrees, with the heat index in the 100’s!  While we are enjoying the weather (after all, this is what we are moving in to!), we do wish Mother Nature would tone it down a little, if nothing else but to save on our electric bill!

We received a shipment of boxes late Monday afternoon, and one of the boxes he brought was a huge TV/Large Picture box, which we requested for Ben’s marble vortex toy.  At first we thought it might be a little too big,  but then realized the toy and several odd-shaped items could fit in there as well, so we’re actually quite happy that the box was over sized.

We’ve been experiencing a series of “lasts”.  We recognize that certain things we do will be the last time we do them, possibly forever (but who knows what the future holds?)  We met with our insurance agent yesterday, to find out information regarding the steps we need to do to transfer our policies down to Florida.  We have been with this particular agent since we first moved to Fond du Lac from Chicago, twelve years ago.  We’re finding it’s hard to walk away from local businesses that we’ve patronized for so long.  It’s not going to prevent us from moving, but it’s also producing sadness and a feeling of loss that really we did not anticipate.  There are a lot of unique businesses that only exist either in this city or in the Midwest, that we will be walking away from.

One of these establishments is Friar Tucks, and we decided to take advantage of the kids still being in school, and do a last visit.

This is a small bar/restaurant that serves the absolute best one-third pound cheeseburgers.  There are a couple other locations in Wisconsin, located in Oshkosh and Manitowoc, and our son Nick works as a cook at the seafood restaurant this same company owns.

This morning we will have another “last”– our son Ben’s 5th grade graduation.  This is also a tough moment, as we have had children attending this particular elementary school for eight years.  Ben is particularly having a hard time separating from this school, his friends and teachers, and especially his aide, who has been a constant in his life since Kindergarten. She entered his life at a time when the school district was moving away from 1:1 aides as “not being in the best interest of children who have autism”, and we are so thankful that she has been able to remain by Ben’s side in spite of that fact.  We will post pictures later of the celebration!

We will stop posting updates on the “Wishes-And-Pixie-Dust” friend on Facebook effective July 22nd, so we encourage you to friend and follow us on Facebook and Twitter.   We plan to post a lot of pictures along the way using Twitter, and will be able to post blog updates each night.    We are Mark Vitek and Jen Vitek on Facebook, and @FondyMark and @jvitek on Twitter.  We do encourage you to friend and follow both of us, because we won’t be posting the same updates on both accounts.  It depends on who’s not driving!

Have a magical day!!


by Leave a comment

Left Behind

We were among many of The Relocated Tourist followers who tracked Amy and Craig’s journey from Wisconsin to Florida this past weekend.  We were especially curious, as we will be making that same journey ourselves in 46 days.  Interestingly enough, we feel “left behind”:  it’s hard to believe that we are no longer in the same state as the Petermann’s. We had good intentions to meet up with their family before they left, even had an outing in mind, but our lives got extremely busy and it just never happened.  I’m sure we will have many opportunities in Florida to reconnect.

46 days.  It seems so long but yet short as there’s a lot to get accomplished before moving day.  On Monday we hope to go room to room and make a checklist of what needs to be accomplished yet before we move.  We do have a lot of boxes packed; right now we are waiting on our Mayflower rep to bring us some more boxes.  We won 2 tickets to Country USA which we need to pick up at the Festival Foods in Darboy, and at the same time we will meet up with two people from Craigslist which will give us another $45 to stuff in the pig.

Nick just came in and we had one of our late night chats, talking about the move and what he is taking with him and/or needs to buy yet for his apartment.  I am sure going to miss that when we move.  😦  (For those new to our blog, our oldest son Nick is not moving to Florida with us.)  I’ll be honest, it’s hard to leave a family member behind; even if that member is a capable, responsible adult.  He’ll always be my little boy, and yes, I need to let the mama strings go sometime, but it’s still never easy.    He has a good head on his shoulders, a good plan in place, and I am proud to call him my son.

We hope to blog more regularly as our moving date moves closer.  Please friend us on Facebook (Mark Vitek, Jen Vitek) and follow us on Twitter (FondyMark, jvitek).  When we leave on July 22, we will post our moving updates on our personal accounts using Facebook and Twitter.   We’re hoping to get a lot of pictures along the way (whoever is not driving!), and our intent is to find a place to stop in Tennessee to get some great photos of the mountains.  When we drove to Disney in 2009, we were absolutely awestruck by their beauty.  (Ok, remember we are from mountain-less Wisconsin!)

We are excited to continue our Florida adventure and keep you posted as we move closer to our dream!

~Jen & Mark

 


by 2 Comments

The Beginning of Our Dream

It probably comes as no surprise to our readers that we are in full-frenzy packing mode right now.    This afternoon I was sorting through papers and came across a magazine that I knew I had to share with you.  The magazine is dated June 2008, so we would have purchased it after our December 2007 trip to the World.   Take a look at the headline underneath the magazine title and don’t you agree that this is an absolutely perfect statement as we prepare to relocate to Florida next month!

We do consider Florida our next perfect place to live!  As we draw closer to our move, I keep thinking about why we are choosing to relocate our family.  It’s not all about the weather, although it was very freeing to dispose of all our winter gear.  Unless you live in a cold weather state, you have no idea how good this feels!    It’s not all about Disney, although we both admit that we are enthusiastically looking forward to that first walk down Main Street USA as Florida residents.

“Why are you moving?” is a common question that we hear lately, and it mainly comes from individuals who can’t imagine uprooting their families and moving away from everything they know and hold dear to them.  It may be that some of our readers are considering this very question:  “Can I really do this, and relocate my family across several states?”  Our answer is definitely, yes, you can!

We have felt for quite awhile that Wisconsin is not where we are meant to be.  Yes, the desire came in 2006 after our first trip to Walt Disney World, but I suspect the feeling had been dormant for quite awhile.  It started as nothing more than a hope, that someday, in the future, we will do this.  The obstacles seemed insurmountable, and we believed that only if we won the lottery, could we make our dream come true.  It’s not that we believed we would win the mega jackpot, we didn’t have faith in ourselves to believe we could make it happen without a miracle occurring.

I think that is the single most important thing we want you to take away from our experience.   Walt Disney said it best:  “If you can dream it, you can do it.”  Believe in yourselves, and your ability to make your dreams a reality.    Please visit The Relocated Tourist for an awesome blog post The Dealings of a Dream, posted in May 2011, that really explains how to jump start your dream of relocation.   The only thing we would like to add is to say that our move is different than the Petermann’s, which will be different from yours, because we are different individuals with families who have different needs.  Don’t be afraid to customize your move to meet your needs, and don’t feel as if you have to do everything that we do.

Have a magical Disney day!

–Jen


by 4 Comments

Dealing With The ‘Ick’

Some call it the doldrums, some call it being down in the dumps; I call it ‘the ick’.  Here we have the unofficial start of summer but here in WI it’s dreary, rainy and icky; just enough to drain the happy out for a short time.  So it was this morning for me, just feeling blah and icky and needing some sun (and for the next 54 days to be in the past).

Now, I know that not every day in FL will be bright and sunny, but the sunny days will far outnumber the grey ones (the opposite of here) and there will always be our Happy Place even on those grey days; you can’t have a grey day any day in Disney World.  🙂  So, I listen to some Disney Park and Disney movie music, look at pictures of past visits, do some work toward the move and picture the dream…and the ick passes by.  It also helps to know that you’re not alone in this dream and that there are others who have already made it, some who are on the brink of making it and others who will be following.  All united by one hope, one wish, one Dream.

So, the ick has been pushed aside for another day and the Dream awaits.

Thank you all for following us on our path to our Dream and keep on following yours!

~Mark. 


by Leave a comment

Setting Goals. Or Not.

[Artwork done by our lovely daughter, Princess Cate!]

One of the biggest challenges we have faced in our move thus far is finding the time to prepare for the move, while continuing to live our lives as normal.  We have been fortunate as we have allotted ourselves six months for the move.  Incredibly, four months have already passed us by, so we expect to step up the packing progress as our time here in Wisconsin comes to a close.

We originally set goals of packing areas by a certain date.  That didn’t seem to work so well, so we moved to setting a goal of one packed box per day.  This method seemed to flow until last week, when life got busy with prom, concerts, soccer, doctor appointments and rehearsals.  The thing with setting goals, is that you need to allow for the unexpected to occur.  One wouldn’t think this would apply with packing boxes.  Unless one has a son who has to play with every toy for two minutes before it gets packed.  🙂  It’s all good, though.

We are stepping away from setting specific goals and just trying to concentrate on getting it either packed or moved out.  The current area we are focusing on is the sunroom.

The desk area is unusable.

As this room seems to be the dumping ground for all miscellaneous paper piles, the challenge is to pack what is not needed.

Our oldest son Nick has already secured his apartment here, and will slowly be moving his belongings out in July.   He was fortunate enough to be able to take advantage of an offer that gave him his first month’s rent free, so this saved on needing to rent a storage unit and stay in a hotel for a week, as his original plan was to find an apartment for August 1.  He will be taking our couch, a chair and other pieces of furniture, which will allow us to use our furniture (and more importantly our beds) until the very end.  He will also be on the receiving end of most of the kitchen appliances and supplies, as well as whatever food is left.

In other news, we have paid our security deposit on our apartment, and will be setting up an account with Progress Energy so that it is all set to go when we arrive in Florida.  Our goal is to spend our first night in Florida in our new apartment 🙂  We may need to purchase air mattresses to accomplish this goal, as we won’t be able to shop for our beds until we arrive.  We will be setting up an account with Bright House for our cable and internet, but will wait until we arrive to make this appointment.

We have found a wonderful Yahoo Group, Clermont Connection Cafe, which has already given us a wealth of information, from lovebugs to wholesale clubs to doctor referrals. Everyone we’ve had the opportunity to talk to who lives in Clermont is very friendly and welcoming to us, something we’ve appreciated immensely.  We look forward to being a part of this wonderful community.