Schools | Wishes And Pixie Dust

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!

June 30, 2011
by wishesandpixiedust 3 Comments

Hold On Tight

The evening star is shinin’ bright. So make a wish and hold on tight. There’s magic in the air tonight, and anything can happen.

Tiana– Princess and The Frog

It has been 1, 276 days since we first dared to dream the dream of moving to the Walt Disney World area, and with only 21 days to go, we can honestly say that we have no regrets. We can only imagine how incredibly difficult it will be to leave our son behind; it’s a parent’s mission to protect and care for their children, and even though he is nineteen years old and a sophomore in college, it still seems wrong to not bring him with us. We are reassured that he does have a solid plan in place, and in fact he signed the lease papers today on his new apartment.

We have been busy scheduling our disconnects in Wisconsin, and arranging our utilities and cable hook-ups for Florida. The comment that we have been hearing a lot refers to the fact that we’re moving at the wrong time of the year. 🙂 Yes, granted, July is not an ideal time of year to be moving to hot and humid Florida, but we wanted the kids to finish out the year at their respective schools, and would rather not have them join a new school in Florida after the start date. The first day of school in Florida is August 22, which gives us less than a month of summer vacation left after we arrive in Clermont.

Wednesday we went down to the AAA office and ordered our Trip Tix and picked up a complimentary guidebook for Tennessee. Silly us, forgot to get the Florida book, but we will make sure to get that when we pick up the Trip Tix in a couple of weeks.

We are pleasantly surprised at how inexpensive the utilities and cable bill are projected to be compared to Wisconsin. We didn’t realize the extent to how much more we are paying here, and it definitely is one of the perks of moving to Florida. Our rent will be $286 more than we are currently paying, but our bills will probably go down by an equivalent amount, more or less. Of course, there is the monthly payment plan to Disney that we add on 😉

The Florida Department of Education released today its school grades based on the FCAT results, and we are very pleased to see that the middle school the kids will be attending received an A for the third year in a row. Click here to access the database.

We are still packing boxes and listing items on Craigslist, and we have lists all around of what we need to do yet. We titled this blog post “Hold On Tight”, because we feel like we are in a queue area, waiting to experience the attraction. It’s like packing and planning for the ultimate Disney trip, afraid we’re going to forget to plan for something, but uber-excited about the final destination. It is going to be so weird driving through Wisconsin for the final time, and knowing we won’t be returning.

Happy July 1st to all our readers~may all your dreams come true.

June 28, 2011
by wishesandpixiedust 4 Comments

Allowing for Changes

It is incredible to believe that we are down to our final three-and-a-half weeks, after years of dreaming and months of planning. Our house doesn’t really resemble our home anymore; it is more of a loading area for our boxes, and the kitchen breakfast counter resembles a command center for organizing our move. As soon as it gets cleaned off, the piles reappear again. There are days this seems so surreal, like we’re going to wake up any minute and find this to be a huge dream. 🙂

Our original plan involved staying in a hotel the night before the movers arrived, as our beds will be gone and we’re not ones for sleeping on the floor. Our love for Walt Disney World precipitated our move, so we intended to stay at Port Orleans Riverside for our night of arrival, this being the first (and only) resort hotel we have stayed at, and have mattresses delivered on Tuesday. As the weeks passed we realized this strategy was full of sinkholes and probably needed to be revised. A one-night stay at the resort for our family of four would run $208. Ok, we reasoned. Let’s get our driver’s licenses right away and be eligible for the Florida rate. This brought the cost down to $167. Still, it seemed too high for one night’s stay, and we didn’t really want the hassle of rushing to arrive in Clermont so that we could fit in all our appointments necessary for obtaining our driver’s license. We drove constantly when we went to Disney in 2009, and we vowed this time it will be different. It also wasn’t realistic to expect mattresses to be delivered the next day; while it could happen, it’s not likely.

We then made the decision to purchase airbeds once we arrive in Clermont and sleep on those until the mattresses arrive. This was kind of our holding-thought pattern until this weekend, when we decided why not buy them now? It would allow us to cancel the reservation we have for the hotel on July 21st, it would save the time and hassle of having to shop for them on our first night in Clermont, and chances are it would be more cost efficient to buy them now in Wisconsin as opposed to Florida. It helped that a few local stores had airbeds on sale, and we spent Sunday afternoon checking them out. We decided on a queen mattress for ourselves ($45), and two twin mattresses for the kids ($10 each). We also bought a pump for $20. (Just as a side note, the airbeds at Target got horrible reviews–we passed them by, went to Fleet Farm and selected Coleman brand instead). We felt the investment of $85 was well worth saving on three (possibly four) nights in a hotel. This eliminates the pressure of finding mattresses immediately, and it will also allow us to spend our last night in our home together. The airbeds will be put to use later for sleepovers or when Nick visits us during the holidays.

We’ve updated the website with a new “Schools” tab, that contains links to all the resources we’ve utilized in the process of getting the kids registered for school. A physical examination and up-to-date immunizations are required for all students entering the Florida school system, and immunizations must be put on a Florida Certification of Immunization Form DH 680 (aka the Blue Form). Only Florida providers or the Health Department have access to this form, so please be sure to bring an updated copy of your child’s immunizations to have them transferred to this form.

Ben and Catie both had their physicals completed today, and Catie was identified as having a possible vision problem in her left eye. Thanks to a cancellation, she is scheduled to see an optometrist tomorrow afternoon already, and we are thankful that we made the doctor appointment early enough before our move that we are able to see our own eye doctor before we leave. In your relocation efforts, plan to complete your medical appointments at least a month before your final move to allow for any surprises that may pop up.

There are times lately where life is routine as usual, and then there are those moments where you think: OMG we’re moving to Florida and Walt Disney World will be part of our regular lives. It kind of takes your breath away when you stop to think. It reminds us of the Disney song from Aladdin “A Whole New World”, where Ali instructs Princess Jasmine “don’t you dare close your eyes”. Yeah, that’s kind of where we’re at.

Please follow us on Twitter @wishespixiedust, @jvitek and @FondyMark, and friend us on Facebook at Jen Vitek and Mark Vitek.

Thanks for following along with us~ Mark & Jen

June 24, 2011
by wishesandpixiedust 1 Comment

Hi Ho, Hi Ho, 28 Days To Go!

As I sit here writing this blog post, the piles of boxes in our home surrounds my view. This, of course, is not a bad thing. It means that we are inching closer to living our dream of moving to Florida. We moved to using the large boxes recently, and I wanted to share a picture I took of Ben:

We are pleased to announce that we packed up the sunroom yesterday, so that is another room ready to go.

Before:

After:

I will say, out of all the rooms in the house, this room I will miss the most. I love how the sunshine comes in through the windows in the later afternoon/early evening; it’s my happy place to be while I work on my scrapbooks or other assorted projects. I will not, however, miss the frigid cold of this room in the winter: it is not insulated nor is there central heating in this room, so there are certain days (weeks, even) when I cannot be in this room and must keep the door closed. The joy of living in the frozen tundra of Wisconsin!

In the mail Tuesday we received our SunPass unit, so we are set for tolls at least in Florida. There are two different units that are available for purchase: a portable transponder which moves from car to car (it attaches with suction cups), and a mini-sticker which, once you place it on your car, it cannot be removed. You do not need to be a Florida resident to purchase SunPass, which can be purchased online at http://www.sunpass.com, Publix, CVS, and at all Turnpike service Plazas and Turnpike gas stations. The portable transponder is $25, and the mini-sticker is $4.99, but you will receive a rebate of $4.99 in toll credits, so it is essentially free. We chose the portable transponder unit mainly for personal preference reasons, and we like the convenience of not having to worry about having change when we travel into Orlando or take day trips around the area.

We are very much on schedule as far as packing boxes is concerned, if not ahead of schedule. 🙂 I would much rather be bored the last week before we move, than to be rushing frantically around trying to pack boxes. I don’t think I’ll be bored, though. 🙂 I’m looking forward to having a lot of quality time with the children before we leave, playing games, trips to the park, etcetera. The games are packed but the box is not sealed, so we can grab them as we want. The kids have their physicals on Monday, and God willing, that will be the last doctor appointment we have in Wisconsin. I’ve talked with the special education specialist, and I have to say I am impressed with how willing they are to make this transition as smooth as possible for Ben, and I am reassured that they will do everything they can to make this a good school experience for him. This only reinforces that Clermont is the city we are meant to be in, and we simply cannot wait to come home.

Wishing all our readers a magical and pixie-dust filled weekend!

Jen

June 9, 2011
by wishesandpixiedust 1 Comment

Farewell to Rosenow

Today was another series of “lasts”: the last time I will drive to and from the schools, which surprisingly feels very weird, but more importantly, it is the last time Catie and Ben will see the inside of their respective schools. Catie will miss her friends more than the school, but poor Ben has been having a rough adjustment with transitioning on. At fifth grade graduation yesterday, the principal gave a small talk about the “Rosenow Way” (Rosenow is the name of the elementary school): the school environment is a close-knit community, where teachers treat the students as their own children, and the students are always welcome back to the school to visit. He said, “you can always come back home”. Ben has been attending Rosenow since 2003–eight years is a long time in a young child’s life, and especially with a child who has autism: it’s so very hard to walk away from what is familiar.

We reached an important milestone in the Vitek household today: we brought up the few remaining items that were left in the basement. It may not seem too monumental to some, but this is the first time ever that we have been living in a house that does not have piles and piles of boxes in the basement. This is what was left in the basement:

So we have added to our Goodwill/Freecycle pile 🙂 We have been trying to pack at least a box a day, if not more. We have started to organize our photos/videos/candles into the bags they will go in our car trunk. With our pictures we are throwing away the duplicates and those stored on the computer. We can always order more prints. When we first decided to move in July, we were totally unaware that certain items could melt while in transit, notably crayons, videotapes, candles, and potentially cassette tapes and photographs. Well, we knew about crayons, having previous experience during a family vacation trip to St. Louis, but didn’t think about the rest. 🙂 The framed pictures are being packed, but we will be bringing all the non-digital photographs with us, as they are totally irreplaceable. Life before digital cameras: the horror of it all! :=) Looking back, I don’t think we would have altered our decision, as it is important to us that the kids finish out their school year in Wisconsin, which they have. We also wanted to make sure that we move in the summer months, as moving in the dead of winter, which we have done, is certainly not an ideal situation, and one to be avoided if at all possible due to the potential for delays and detours due to the weather conditions.

We wish everyone a magical and happy weekend!