Wishes And Pixie Dust

March 23, 2011
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Itinerary

As I listen to the freezing rain hitting against our house, it feels weird knowing that this is our last winter in Wisconsin. While this is one of the awesome things about our move (no more brutal winters), it also hits home that we are leaving everything we know. The second half of Ben’s IEP meeting was today, and as team members left, individuals I have known for years, it occurred to me that I would probably never see them again. It’s a bittersweet feeling knowing that we are achieving our dream, but with it comes the cost of familiarity of our surroundings, in both material possessions as well as friendships.

We have set our itinerary for our trip down and wanted to share it here. When we drove down to Walt Disney World in 2009, we had three drivers and looking back, we pushed ourselves by driving far more miles in a day than we should have. In July we will be at two drivers, and because we are looking at this as an adventure and not a marathon driving experience, we will be taking three days to arrive in Clermont. All of our hotel reservations (except the arrival day in Orlando) have been secured, using our AAA discount.

Thursday, July 21 : As the movers will arrive by 8am on Friday, July 22nd, we decided the best option is to spend the evening in a hotel in Fond du Lac. Today will be spend finalizing any last minute details.

Friday, July 22 : Our goal is to leave Fond du Lac by 5:00 pm and spend the night in Pleasant Prairie, Wisconsin. Our original thought was to spend a second night in Fond du Lac and leave early Saturday morning, but decided that this at least gets us to the Illinois border and a jump start on our travels. We estimate the movers will be completed by 1:00 pm, and a 5:00 departure time allows us to make sure the house is in check-out condition, with still time to deposit the security deposit check in the bank (that we’ll get back from our landlord).

Saturday, July 23 : We will leave Wisconsin by 9am, travel through Indianapolis by approximately 2pm, and stay the night in Bowling Green, Kentucky.

Sunday, July 24 : We plan to leave Kentucky and enter Tennessee by 8:30am. We hope to be able to stop along the way and take scenic pictures of the landscape. We were awed by the beauty of the mountains, and are looking forward to this part of our journey again. We will spend the night in Lake Park, Georgia.

Monday, July 25 : Our goal is to arrive in Orlando by 2:30pm. We have not yet booked the hotel reservations for this night. Our original intent was to stay at an extended-stay hotel for a week while we finalize our housing plans. However, Mark and I have narrowed down three apartment complexes that we really like, and one in particular we may be able to move into before August 1st. If so, this would affect how many nights we need to stay in a hotel, so we are waiting before securing those reservations.

We are really looking forward to the drive down to Florida. As a family, we love taking road trips: just driving to a new city within the state that we haven’t been to before with no expectations of what might be there. We hope to be able to do a little more of it this summer before we leave Wisconsin, but we also have to be mindful of rising gas prices, and the upcoming expenses we will have for the trip down to Florida.

Thanks for following along!

~Jen

March 19, 2011
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What a week!

Dear friends,

It seems that we were caught up in our daily life this past week and therefore didn’t put as much attention to our move as we would like. Even so, we did manage to get a blog post out, make a run to Goodwill and donate two pieces of furniture to two different recipients in our local Freecycle group. All in the name of progress.

I don’t believe we’ve formally shared this fact on our blog, but our youngest son Ben has autism. We wish to share this information to provide hope as well as information to other parents who may have a child with special needs, and are considering a long-distance move. When I refer to keeping things as normal as possible for as long as possible, he is the reason why. We are acutely aware that this major life change, while good, will be hard on him especially. Right now he is very excited to move to Florida; he has really embraced our dream, and it truly is a dream we all share: Mark and I would not consider moving if it proved to be a true hardship for either one of our children.

On Monday, I met with his teachers and staff for his annual IEP meeting. I have been very open with the school as far as our moving intentions, so they have been aware for a couple of months now that we are relocating. We are moving forward with his IEP as if we were staying here, and modifying his curriculum to meet those needs. Until we have our permanent residence, it is too difficult to guess what might happen in Florida. The special education teacher has put in several phone calls to Clermont Middle School, all of which have been not responded to at this point, and I admit, it’s a little disheartening. Our intent is to place Ben in public school, but I am also willing to homeschool/virtual school him if the public school district does not meet our needs.

Tuesday was our Ben’s 11th birthday. We celebrated by going to Chuck E Cheese for dinner, and then back home for an ice cream cake and presents.

Wednesday was “spend a lot of money on car repairs” day. :=) We currently have two vehicles, but we made the decision from the start that we would only be moving one. Unfortunately, the car we are selling decided to have a flat tire, so we replaced that on Wednesday. We also brought in our other car for a tune-up, as we had a $20 coupon to our favorite auto repair shop. $700 later, our car is in tip-top shape :=). We will be bringing it back in July to make sure there are no additional repairs that need to be completed. We are using the sale proceeds from our 1st car to pay off the loan on our 2nd car. We are excited to be able to begin our journey without car payments. We considered trading in both our cars for a newer and bigger vehicle; we have our eyes on a Hyundai Santa Fe, but as long as our car is in good condition, we’re going to wait and save up money for a bigger down payment and look at buying a new vehicle in a year.

Thursday was St. Patrick’s Day as well as Catie’s orchestra concert. The corned beef turned out delicious in the crockpot, and Catie played her violin beautifully.

Today (Friday) we sold a craft storage container for $5 on craigslist, did some decluttering in the sunroom, and our Mayflower rep brought over a huge stack of boxes for us. Right now the challenge is where to put the packed boxes. We are still four months away from our move, and while we live in a fairly big house, there really is little available room just to stack boxes. This is why we have started to donate/sell our furniture this early. Catie has her solo ensemble choral performance tomorrow, but we are hoping to find time to empty out the secretary and list it on craigslist. We are fortunate in that we have a small foyer by the front door, and this enables us to put our furniture or other belongings there while they await pick-up. The area in which the secretary is in will allow us to place quite a few packed boxes there.

We also went to the local book sale at the Fairgrounds: it’s our yearly tradition and we always spend at least $30 in books and magazines. This year we spent $0. Every book or magazine was looked at in the context of : “Do we really want this bad enough to move it?” And the answer every time was “no!”. It really wasn’t as enjoyable this year because of that. While this transition time in moving is necessary and worthwhile, we also long for the day when we are settled in Florida and able to relax into routines, and yes, acquire “stuff”. :=)

We appreciate your readership: please feel free to add us on Facebook if you haven’t as of yet, and we love to read your comments about our adventure :=) Some of our decisions have been made because of your feedback, so we do appreciate them all.

Enjoy your weekend!

March 17, 2011
by wishesandpixiedust 1 Comment

Packing those boxes

We are going to share several packing tips that we’ve come across recently, in the hopes that it might help others who are moving long-distance. Even though we’ve moved a few times, we’ve come to realize that our packing methods were less than acceptable. Thankfully we’ve had minimal breakage over the years, but with a 1,295 mile trip, we want to ensure our boxes arrive safely.

1. Start off with having the right supplies. Packing tape, packing paper, bubble wrap and sturdy boxes are four essential items. It is recommended to use clean newsprint for your packing paper, so the ink does not transfer to your belongings. We were able to buy end rolls of paper from the local newspaper company for $2 per roll.

2. Boxes need to be packed tightly. If you pick up a box and can hear things shifting and moving around in there, there will probably be breakage. Fill in all the gaps with packing paper. If you have children who are bringing stuffed animals, they make great filler. It doesn’t add a lot of weight to the boxes, and it prevents needing separate boxes for them.

3. Plastic totes are not necessarily the way to go. If they ship during transit, they could pop open and all your belongings will be scattered in the moving truck. We do have a few that we are bringing but we are going to secure them with wrap and packing tape and hope for the best.

4. When packing breakable items, fill the bottom of the boxes with crushed paper. This is where buying the end rolls of paper really come in handy. You can rip off as much as you need.

5. Books should be packed in a small carton and placed on end (not on top of each other).

6. Plates should never be packed flat; place on end. When wrapping plates, start from the corner and wrap diagonally, tucking in the edges as you go. Fill the bottom of the box with crushed paper, place plates on end, and then separate layers of plates with crushed paper.

7. Bowls will be packed the same way as plates.

8. When packing bowls with lids, first wrap the bowl and tuck paper on the inside. Then place lid on top and wrap entire bowl again.

9. When packing stemware, roll a piece of packing paper and roll along the stem of the glass. Then wrap each piece individually with more packing paper. Stemware should be placed on edge in the box (up–> down).

10. Cups should be wrapped individually and then packed into the box upside down.

11. For odd-shaped items, roll a piece of packing paper around the handle. Then wrap the item using new paper.

12. If you have silver in a chest, there are two possible ways to wrap. You may wrap pieces individually and reposition in the chest, or you can fill in the empty spaces in the chest with tissue paper. Wrap the entire chest in a paper pad or bubblewrap.

13. Vases should be wrapped in bubblewrap and then in a paper pad.

14. Be sure to label all boxes with breakable items as FRAGILE with an arrow pointing up.

15. Mirror boxes are available to wrap mirrors or picture frames, and are adjustable to fit the size you need. Wrap in paper then place in a mirror box. Be sure to tape all the way around the box.

16. Electronic devices should be unplugged 24 hours before you move, to allow the devices to come to room temperature. The same rule applies when you arrive at your home or apartment: allow 24 hours before plugging in.

17. When possible, use the original packing and boxes for TVs and computers. Cut out a piece of cardboard to fit your screen before packing.

This is where we will give a shameless plug for Mayflower. :=) If you visit www.mayflower.com you can view different moving videos (which are also available on www.youtube.com; do a search for Mayflower).

Mark and Jen

March 10, 2011
by wishesandpixiedust 1 Comment

The moving process

As we prepared to initially plan our move, one of the first considerations that arose was how we were going to move our belongings from Wisconsin to Florida. We had three options we could utilize: a professional mover, self-move using U-Haul, or PODs portable storage units. We researched each choice, and decided the professional mover was the best option for our family. We have always chosen U-Haul for our previous moves, and while financially it was the best option, overall it provides for a less than stellar moving experience. PODS are slightly better, but they are quite expensive, require you to have a place to keep the unit while you are filling it, and the basic fact that you have to fill it, as opposed to a mover doing the work for you.

We have always wanted this to be an adventure for our family. While moving to Florida close to Walt Disney World has been our dream, it also comes with the harsh reality that everything will be different. For our children, this will be the most difficult hurdle, as there will not be a routine or familiarity around them. This is one of the reasons we chose to use a professional mover. We did not want to start our moving adventure tired and totally exhausted. We consider this a mini-vacation of sorts, and who wants to do work on vacation?

We chose to use Mayflower as our carrier. We have discovered there are a lot of online moving companies who want our business, and they will offer a cheap estimate, then all of a sudden find extra expenses they need to charge for before delivery is made. We wanted to go through a reputable company and be assured that our belongings as well as ourselves would be treated with respect. Mayflower came highly recommend, and we were impressed with the level of service we received.

Our in-home visit took almost three hours. He provided us with printouts on information of Clermont, inventoried all our belongings, entered them into his computer, and provided us with a written estimate, which is binding. If you are considering hiring professional movers, two words of advice: (1) Make sure you are dealing with a direct agent of the company, and (2) make sure your estimate is binding. Only a direct agent has authority to provide you with an estimate, and you want it to be binding, because then you are guaranteed you will not be charged any additional fees. Basically, what you see is what you pay. You may pay less, but you won’t pay more.

Overall we are pleased with the level of service we received and the cost is not unreasonable given the length of our move. We have moved up our move date to July 22nd. We now need to sit down and plan our travel itinerary, so we can book hotels. Our goal is to be in our new apartment or house by August 1. We discovered that storing our belongings is quite expensive (even more so than the move itself), so we are under a little more pressure to find living arrangements quickly. Mayflower will extend delivery as much as possible, and it helps that we will be moving in a peak season, which means delivery would have been extended anyways. So we are thankful that storage is an major expense that can be avoided.

We would love to hear your packing tips. Thanks for following our dream; we appreciate your support!

Mark and Jen

March 6, 2011
by wishesandpixiedust Leave a comment

Inventory day!

As we reach the 140-day mark today, we thought it would be a good time to update our readers where we are in the process of relocating our family to Florida. We contacted Mayflower to begin the moving process; as we are waiting to hear back, we decided it would be a good time to survey our belongings and make a final list of what furniture and electronics we will keep, and what we will donate. The following items made the final cut:

Ben’s Room: headboard, bed frame, wall shelf, red toy storage unit, metal shelves & metal cubes, TV and DVD player.

Catie’s Room: headboard, 2 shelf cabinet, Noah’s Ark stool and shelf, 2 wall shelves, TV/VCR/DVD player

Downstairs Hallway: corner shelf and wall shelf

Kitchen: baker’s rack, filing cabinet, Kitchenaid mixer, dining room table, Ben’s chair

Master Bedroom: headboard, green corner 3-shelf unit, 1 wall shelf, jewelry armoire, TV

Living Room: 2 shelf cabinet, stand fan, slide-under-couch table, stool, round table, 2 end tables, 3 hanging shelves, wall perpetual calendar, Wii, computers

Sunroom: 2 wooden scrapbooking carts, laptop table, black rolling cart, long bookcase, short bookcase, ribbon shelf, bulletin board

We have made the decision to leave most of our furniture behind, for two reasons: one) they are older pieces, and while still functional, are not worth moving; and two) our son Nick will be moving into an apartment this summer and he can use them. We have a huge and extremely heavy oak desk that we are going to sell this summer. It’s a high quality piece of furniture, and in excellent condition, but we just don’t want the burden of it any longer. We don’t expect that our first apartment or house in Florida will be our permanent residence, and we would be unable to move it ourselves to a new place.

The only unknown as far as furniture right now is our video cabinets. We have 2 free-standing units, and our original goal was to go through our videos and only keep those that would fit in one unit. However, we have recently heard of a friend who moved to Florida whose video tapes melted in the moving process; so we are now considering buying a Video/DVD Recorder to put all our videos on DVDs. It would make it easier to move them, and it would allow us to sell the video cabinets.

Now that the basement is cleared out, our new goal for March is to declutter as much as possible the downstairs area: living room, sunroom, kitchen, master bedroom. IWe expect this goal will carry us into April, and have set April 17th as a completion date for this. After Easter we intend to step up our packing process. We have very few boxes packed now, and really have not disrupted our living area, trying to keep it as normal as possible for our kids.

Thanks for following along, and we welcome any advice you have to share.