WE MADE IT TO FLORIDA & a Linkup

We made it!  If y’all followed my Instastories, we moved to Florida.  I wanted to make it a surprise to everyone who reads my blog and follows me on social media.  I wanted the extra drama and suspense HAHA!  Just kidding, but I did want to keep it a surprise.  I’m officially in mermaid territory, and expect to be seen on the beach in my natural habitat in no time.  Well, I’ve actually already walked on the beach twice already, but it hasn’t been warm enough to actually swim.  We moved here to start a new chapter.  We have lived in NJ for most of our lives, and we were starting to look for houses, but it was just so dang expensive, and the taxes were even worse.  I read a few articles where NJ is the most moved out of state and that we are the most stressed out state.  We felt stuck and we felt like we weren’t getting anywhere.  My fiance and his brother came up with a business idea, and they opened up a store in Fort Walton Beach, FL.  More on that in a future post.

When they were making this big decision, my fiance had asked me if I’m willing to move to Florida.  If I wasn’t willing he wouldn’t have agreed to start this business.  Being a fan of the south, of course I said yes.  I always wanted to move back down south, but it wasn’t a feasible option until this business idea came to life.  I know that it will take some adjusting, as any move does.  The weather is different, the people are different, and the all around way of life is different.  It was a very stressful move, but it was so worth it.  I was happy that Tidying Up came out on Netflix because my blogger bestie has been obsessed with the Konmari method for years now and has tried to get me to read the book, but I never had time.  Then it premiered on Netflix.  This helped me pack so much better.

Before we moved I ate as much good food as possible aka Pizza (I’m sorry, but nothing beats NY/NJ pizza, try and fight me on this, I dare you) and Taylor Ham sandwiches.  For those of you who don’t know the huge debate of Taylor Ham vs. Pork Roll, this is a huge northern and southern NJ debate lol.  In my neck of the woods, we say Taylor Ham.  We do know that, that is the brand name, but calling it that just kind of stuck.  So, when you’re in northern NJ, I would recommend a taylor ham egg and cheese, salt pepper ketchup.  That’s how you order it haha.

We had so many decisions to make on how to move.  Meaning, do we drive a Uhaul and get a trailer for my car (can’t attach it because it’s AWD) do we get a POD, or do we get a Uhaul and while my fiance drives that, I drive my car?  Well, we can say that all of the options to move across multiple states were expensive.  The option that cost us the least amount of money was to go with 1-800-PACK-RAT.  We packed as much as we could in my car.  I had to take the sub woofer and amp/box out of my trunk.  Which is ok because I got a new one anyway so that one had to go.  Anyway, everything else had to be packed in the container.  It was really easy to use.  We called them, they delivered the container when we wanted it, and then they picked it up when we were done.  It took a little bit of time to deliver to our new place, but that was disclosed to us.  It wasn’t as bad as I would’ve thought.  Anyway, we had a really good experience with 1-800-PACK-RAT.

DAY ONE

We didn’t leave as early as we would have hoped, but we did make good time.  We had to be in Florida by a certain day and time because of my fiance’s business, but unfortunately we didn’t make it in time.  We were about half a day late, BUT it all worked out in the end anyway.  It was a really exhausting first day because I just wanted to be in Florida, but it was really hard leaving our home of 31 years.  As soon as we hit Virginia we heard everyone talking in an accent already.  It was kind of weird for me haha.

The dogs did really well.  We had to go to the vet with Zero prior to the move because we had to get her something for her anxiety/nausea.  She gets really car sick.  My vet prescribed her Cerenia which was the most amazing magic pill ever.  Zero did not get sick at all the entire drive, and that was a two day drive.  The pups slept for most of the time.  We had a rocky start because they both wanted to sit up front, but we made them sit in the back on the huge dog bed we made them.

We hit a little bump in the road when it was time for us to stop and sleep.  I was frantically looking for a hotel while we were driving and since I didn’t know the area, I found us a really terrible hotel.  It was really scary and very unsafe.  Let’s put it this way, I’m pretty sure crack houses look better than that hotel.  We got out of there really fast and found another hotel that was much safer.  The other hotel that we got was absolutely beautiful.

DAY TWO

We woke up extremely early and got on the road before the sun came up.  We traveled through a few more states.  I will say that I think Alabama was the worst state to drive through.  There was nothing for miles and we finally came across a town where we stopped for food and vape juice for my fiance.  Thanks to that vape that he’s been using he’s been able to stop smoking cigarettes.  He’s been smoking since high school, so I’m so proud of him for quitting.  Anyway, we stopped because I really wanted a sub from Subway and he wanted his vape juice.  When we finally got back in the car we started driving again.  Shortly after we had to stop for gas and the dogs got so upset that my fiance had to go into the gas station store.

After that, we had about an hour to our final destination.  I dropped off my fiance and drove over to the new house.  I can’t wait to show a before and after of the home because we already did so much work and we haven’t even been here for a month.  I had to go to Walmart because we needed some necessities and I also wanted to clean before we did anything.

As seen above, the pups have gotten used to their new home.  They are much calmer now that they don’t have to see dogs walking past the sliding door and that they don’t hear people walking up and down the stairs at the apartment.  They have their own yard, and they have so much room in this house to walk around in.

I miss my parents a lot, especially my mom because now we will have to drink our coffee through Skype/Video Chat instead of in person.  I’m going to have to get used to Florida living, but I have a feeling I’m going to love it!

I will start sharing home posts including a tour, and I will also start sharing information about the area that we will now call home.

On our first night, while I went to Walmart and bought cleaning supplies, my fiance went to the local Sam’s Club to buy us a mattress, and well he ended up coming home with not just a mattress but a TV as well haha.  He also bought these dog beds pictured above.  They absolutely love them and they are huge!  They have been sharing their beds ever since.  Sometimes I catch them together in one bed, and it’s the cutest thing ever.

I also wanted to show exactly how close we are to the beach.  We are under a 10 minute drive to the beach.  Our neighborhood is right across the street from the beach, but there is no public access unless we drive up the road a bit.  It’s been warm enough to walk on the beach, but unfortunately, it’s not warm enough for me to go swimming just yet.  I can’t wait until my dad comes to visit because he is going to have a field day with how much swimming he can do.  My parents used to live on the beach in Poland and my dad would go swimming every single day for hours.

Now, of course, part of this post has to be fashion related haha.  I wanted to show all of the different outfits that you can have from the above articles of clothing.  Now, I did buy the Lion King sweatshirt from Walmart because it was on sale, and it has been cold enough to wear a sweatshirt on some days and nights.  We get a breeze from the shore, so it cools down very fast at night.

xoxo Monica

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