Greetings from Florida!

Hey guys! I finally am getting a chance to update all of you on what has been going on in my life. Thank you so much for holding out and being patient with me. My schedule has been absolutely bananas and very irregular. Matt and I also don't have internet just yet, so I have to go over to the clubhouse in our community to use the free Wi-Fi. I figure the easiest way to write this all out is to just break it up into sections. I apologize if this is too long for some of you, but I am also documenting this experience for myself. 

Just to preface, there are certain details about my job down here that I can't talk about. If you ask me a question (or have asked me) and I haven't answered it, it's simply because I'm not allowed to, not because I'm a big jerk. 

The journey down here was one of the most challenging things about the last month. We rented a trailer that attached to Matt's parent's vehicle. However, the trailer ended up being too small for all of our stuff and we had to leave some items behind. For example, we have no vacuum. Yes, it's driving me crazy. Matt and his parents drove the trailer down, while my mom and my brother came with me in our Yaris. We ended up accidentally taking two separate routes and we weren't together at all on the way down. The drive was going really great for us until we hit Georgia and decided to stop around 1:30 a.m. to sleep for a few hours. Sleeping was a huge struggle because of a couple of factors. The humidity was ridiculous and our dog, Ellie, decided to sleep the whole drive down to Georgia and stay awake once we got there.

My car made it to Florida about 2 or 3 hours ahead of Matt's clan carrying the trailer. I had to sort out some details with our apartment lease before they would give us the keys. The price ended up increasing because we missed the expiration on the quote we were given by a couple of hours. Crazy stressful moment for me in the leasing office. Once Matt and his parents arrived at the apartment, we all worked really hard and unpacked the trailer… hauling everything up 3 flights of stairs. 

The first week in our new home is sort of a blur when I look back on it. Our family stayed down in Florida with us for that first week and we are SO grateful for that. They really helped us ease into this new life. My brother helped us figure out how to arrange our furniture, he hung up artwork for us, and every other little problematic task you could think of. Our parents were our emotional support. Just having them here made us feel a lot better and not so alone. We had a fun week together going to the beach, a few Disney parks, air boating, and dinners in Celebration. 

My Disney journey started with the onboarding experience. Sadly, it was not pleasant initially. I had a complication, and the initial woman I interacted with in the office very rude and unhelpful. I actually had to contact my recruiter so she could be the go between and help me out. She was fantastic and a lifesaver for me. Four days after onboarding was my first day of work… Traditions. Seriously, it was one of the best days of my life. It was such a surreal experience! Traditions was the most fun class I've ever taken in my entire life. I met a lot nice people, some of which I got to be with throughout the rest of my training.

My first week of training was pretty much everything that I expected, only much more challenging. It was emotionally and physically exhausting. The days were long and most everything made me feel really overwhelmed. The only thing scarier than my training, was my first day out of training. It was like my first day of high school. Actually, every time I've had to work at a new location it's felt like my first day of high school. Where I'm the little newbie that doesn't know anyone, or where anything is, or what I'm supposed to be doing. I seriously walk around saying, "Hi, I'm new. Can you help me?" Luckily, I've met some very nice people that have been willing to point me in the right direction. Last night I worked at Disney's Hollywood Studios for the first time, so I've now worked in all four major parks. The scariest is still Magic Kingdom. The other day I was leaving work at Magic Kingdom and meeting Matt on Main Street to watch Festival of Fantasy. I didn't know how to get "onstage" from the tunnels. Someone told me to just take any staircase… so I did. I ended up coming out a random door, looked up, and there was Cinderella Castle right beside me. Pretty cool, huh? 

My job itself is the most rewarding thing I have ever done. I get to make magic and spread happiness to people. I work for a company that I love more than I could ever explain. I literally have my dream job. Every bit of it is still so surreal to me when I think about it. I seriously waited my whole life to get to work for the company. It's pretty much totally and completely amazing.

Let's talk about Florida now. Obviously, it's hot. Really hot. As this random stranger at a gas station told Matt the other day, "You don't get used to it. You just learn to tolerate it." Totally reminds me of how I view Michigan winters. I absolutely love the area we live in. There are so many things close to us that we never had in Sturgis. A nice perk? Target is closer than Wal-Mart. In general, retail stores are a little more costly down here, but nothing ridiculous. Our rent is what's ridiculous. We don't have internet yet because it's so expensive, and we don't have our money situation figured out yet. Matt just took a job with Lowe's, so up until this week it's been just my income. We've been living on a lot of leftovers, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, and bananas. 

When we left Sturgis, our house sale was pending. A few weeks after we were here in Florida, we got some disappointing news. The appraisal came back lower than our sale price and brought the sale to a halt. We were planning on closing within August, not have to pay August's mortgage payment, and using the small amount we made on the sale to put toward a second car that we absolutely need. Now, we've worked with the bank and come up with a solution to still sell the house, but Matt and I will make nothing on it. In fact, we'll be paying out money in order to complete the sale. The housing market is just not in our favor. We bought the house for significantly more than what we're being forced to sell it for. This has easily been the single biggest stressor in our lives the past month. Everything was just too good to be true. Matt and I literally cannot pay our rent at the end of the month AND our mortgage (and all of our other bills). We even discussed the idea of being forced to move back to Michigan and how we'd handle it. I just crumble at the idea of it. I love it down here so much and I don't want to leave. 

The four of us (Matt, Vinnie, Ellie, and myself) have all adjusted to Florida living quite well. Thank you all so much for caring about us and following along on our journey. There's so much more to come! I'll be sure to post more pictures and keep you all updated whenever I can. Please keep us in your thoughts!