Moving | Wishes And Pixie Dust

July 15, 2011
by wishesandpixiedust 2 Comments

Thoughts.

I am excited for what the future will bring. It continues to amaze me that one man’s vision could possibly impact so many people in the world. Thank you, Walt Disney! As you know our son Ben is autistic, but he has possibly the greatest imagination of any child or adult I know. He is constantly designing concepts for new worlds, new cities and infrastructures and it makes me wonder: what if he had the foresight to create Ben Vitek World? What would it be like? Ben is our “imagineer” and absolutely loves to draw. I can’t even begin to count how many reams of paper we have gone through over the years, but art has given him the ability to understand and make sense of his world through his drawings.

Confession time. We have never been to The Magic of Disney Animation at the Studios. It didn’t make our list during any of the three trips, and I think back as to why, and I’m sure time was the primary reason. When you vacation, you are limited in what you can experience, and unfortunately some attractions never made the cut. However, as interested as Ben is in drawing, you would think it would have entered our minds at one point! One of the joys of living so close to Walt Disney World is we will have the opportunity to do all the things we never had time for before. Ben is so looking forward to participating in this at the Studios.

It makes me think of all the different career opportunities that will be available to the kids in Florida that are simply not an option in Wisconsin. Walt Disney World in itself offers a multitude of employment opportunities, but even if you look beyond the world of the mouse, careers in zoology or marine biology are a feasible option for Catie to pursue, as she is quite the animal lover. For sixth grade Catie attended a virtual school, and I could only help but think how much more varied and enriched the experience would have been if we had lived in Florida, and had the opportunity to experience more science field trips and hands-on learning.

We are fortunate and blessed to have the children attending a public school that is A rated; moving into a city and neighborhood we don’t know is always a gamble, but we feel secure in the path we have chosen for this year. Catie will be in high school next year, and the particular high school she is on track to attend doesn’t rate as high, so we will need to examine the best option for her.

Both kids are really excited about the move next week, and we are so thankful for that as well. If we had to do it over, we would choose to move earlier in the summer, as they will have less than a month of summer vacation left once we arrive; school starts August 22. It’s wild to believe it’s already mid-July; school supplies are out in full force here and it’s a little odd not to be buying them or even thinking about what might be needed.

As I close my thoughts, it is my hope and prayer that friends in our Disney community recognize that we are not infringing on other blogs, and that our content is unique to our family. We believe this is in the spirit of what Walt Disney would want. We intend to keep this blog active, but it will remain a blog dedicated to the ins and outs of moving to a new city, and the challenges and joys we face there.

Sending pixie dust to all our readers,

Jen

July 14, 2011
by wishesandpixiedust 4 Comments

Moo-ving along!

We’re from Wisconsin–we had to include a pic of a cow somehow! 😉

We have reached a point in our move where we need to examine what we will need for the next few days, and pack the rest away. It’s very refreshing not to be hassled at the last minute, as we have been on all our other moves. Instead of being in major packing mode, these past days have, for the most part, been pretty routine. Catie’s room is done, except for the last minute necessities that need to be packed up, and the kitchen is slowly getting packed away, as we decide on whether to keep certain items or give them to Nick.

On Monday we received 25 boxes from a fellow Freecycler, sturdy boxes from a moving company, and we were so grateful to get them! We are currently trying to dispose of the rest of our furniture, and will have to decide soon when the break point is when we pull everything off Craigslist and donate it to Goodwill. We also have a lawnmower, which is less than a year old, and a weed whacker, which is less than a month old; if these do not sell before next Friday, then we will give these items to Nick to try to sell for us.

We’ve finalized the payment for Mayflower, and are really excited to see that part of our journey unfold, as we’ve never used professional movers before. We’ve learned so much about the “right” way to pack, which is really a consideration if you are moving such a long distance. Please see our earlier post ‘Packing Those Boxes’, published in March, if you are looking for more detailed information.

Thank you for following us along on our journey!

July 12, 2011
by wishesandpixiedust 4 Comments

To Dream Is To Believe

A common theme in our blog posts have referred to how brutal Wisconsin winters can be; we won’t revisit that topic, but reference it in the fact many Wisconsinites dream of moving to Florida, especially in the months November through March. To us Florida is an exotic location, with sunny skies and palm trees, while we sit with piles of snow and sub-zero temperatures. As we finalize our move, a recurrent comment we hear from people is: “I’m jealous”, mainly made in reference to not having to survive another winter.

It’s easy enough to observe us and feel like we have it made; to feel jealousy over the fact our winters in Florida will be spring weather in Wisconsin, and that we’ll never have to shovel again. The truth is, we consciously made the decision to make this our reality, and we have worked hard to make it happen. It has not been an easy road for any of us, but we feel the effort is well worth any sacrifices we have to make in the meantime.

One thousand, two hundred and eighty seven days ago we first dreamed the dream, of relocating to Florida close to Walt Disney World. We write out that number in words because it really seems surreal right now that we are only ten days away from realizing our dream. There were many moments of doubt that we experienced. The first twelve to twenty months it was merely a dream that we talked about; something that would occur in the future but we had no idea when, and we did nothing towards making it a reality. It seemed so far away in the future that it seemed pointless to expend energy at that point in time. The basement boxes and just the accumulation of possessions that we owned really overwhelmed us as where to start, so we did nothing. After our Disney trip in 2009, we were more enthusiastic than ever about moving to Florida and this is when we let the kids in on our dream, that someday we would move to Florida.

The dream first became real to us last summer, in June 2010, when we first set a date of September 2012 and started the blog. Even though we now had a date, it still seemed like it would never happen; and we didn’t really believe it would happen. How much difference a year makes! Since that time we backed the date to September 2013, and then in January of this year, we decided to take the plunge and move this summer. “Do you really think we can do it this summer?” is the question that propelled us forward.

We can’t say how many times we doubted ourselves, but it was a lot. Over the past six months since we made the final decision, we haven’t doubted our choice, but there have been moments of fear: fear of the unknown, fear that what we are doing is not in the best interests of our children, and fear that we will fail.

We are now ten days away from leaving Wisconsin. We can honestly say that this is the best decision we could have made for our family; our kids are uber-excited about moving to Florida, and while we won’t be traveling with as much money as we’d like (thanks to car repairs); we are very thankful we were able to take care of the repairs now and not have them happen along the way. We won’t be able to purchase as much furniture right away as we had previously planned, but we’ll make it work. An empty, unfurnished apartment in Florida is way better than our current home in Wisconsin, and because it is an apartment our expenses will be less than if we rented a house: we won’t need to do lawn care, maintain a pool, or spray for bugs; and we will have access to a business lanai (with wireless internet and printers) and fitness center, should be choose to utilize these amenities.

Thanks for following along~ we appreciate your comments and feedback!

July 8, 2011
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It’s Not Just About Packing Boxes

One of the biggest challenges we are facing right now is not packing up the boxes, but finding the best way to dispose of our unwanted furniture and other assorted items. As you know, we opted not to go the garage sale route, but are using Freecycle and Craigslist, which have their limitations.

Our furniture is not in the best shape, which is why are opting not to sell it (or move it). The difficulty we are encountering with Freecycle is that people initially show an interest, but then fail to respond to the email or fail to show up. This weekend we are opening our garage up and letting people come and just take what they want, and we’re hoping they will take it all!

Our Craigslist sales have been slow but steady, and we’re very curious as to how much we’ve been able to save using this method. We think we will break open the piggy on July 20th, as he (the piggy) will get packed. If you are choosing to sell your items in this way, we recommend starting at least three to four months in advance of your move. We’ve been able to sell pretty much everything we’ve put on there, but it involves having the right person see it at the right time, which means you’ll need to repost the ad regularly. Craigslist recently did an update, which allows you to renew your posting, instead of deleting it and relisting it; this is definitely a time saver.

Please follow us on Twitter @FondyMark and @jvitek, as we continue to tweet about our progress! Thanks for following us along; like Tiana sings: “We’re almost there!”

July 6, 2011
by wishesandpixiedust 2 Comments

Go With The Flow

A part of any successful dream involves looking ahead and anticipating possible obstacles that may impede you from attaining your goal. If you’ve followed our personal accounts on Facebook today, you know that our car repairs will be $400; due in part to the age of our car, it requires a part that has to be ordered directly from the manufacturer. To say we’re a little frustrated is an understatement. However, we are extremely thankful this didn’t happen two weeks from now, or while en route to Florida. It could have been much worse.

Due to this happening, we thought back to the past twelve months and how our move has really unfolded. If you have told us last year at this time, that we would be moving to Florida in July 2011, we would have laughed at you. 2010 was not a good year for us, to say the least; we still had the dream with a date set for 2012, but due to circumstances occurring around us, we weren’t too hopeful we could achieve this move in two years. The thing is, the events that happened in 2010 needed to happen before we could make the move to Florida. If you are in a position now where you can’t possibly believe that you can ever achieve your dream, take heart. Go with the flow, keep dreaming the dream, and know that you can do it. We at Wishes And Pixie Dust believe in you, and we will cheer you on.