Where Have I Been?
So, wow! Have I been busy! If you have noticed (so many of you have e-mailed me about this, I feel the ❤ thank you), I have been taking a break from blogging over the past few months?
Why?
Well…my husband and I decided to move our family across country from snowy Wisconsin to sunny Florida, and to be frank with you, I just did not have the time to blog!
But I am back, and have settled in a bit and thought I would share our journey with you all.
What Would You Have Done?
I grew to love Wisconsin! We moved there 5 years ago from Savannah, Georgia and it was quite a change.
But change is good sometimes. My girls got to experience snow, snow boarding, snow tubing, skiing (snow of course, not water skiing) and many other winter activities.
We embraced the winter full heartedly and enjoyed it and its cold temperatures.
But if I am being honest, we missed the sun and my husband always said he missed the salt (short for saying the ocean, he is mad about sport fishing in the ocean).
We found our hearts pulling us closer to what we were use too and back to our roots.
When An Opportunity Arrives
Then one day, my husband told me about an opportunity for him to take a new job that would require us to move to Florida.
At first I was like, no…we are so settled here. But then after some chatting and some more chatting, we thought now is the perfect time to move because our babies were still young enough to transition easily.
So after a number of interviews, and some pretty scary decisions, we took a leap of faith and changed jobs and got ready for our move across country!
Selling and Buying a Home In The Same Month
So I have to tell you, we had a LOT to do to make this happen. It is crazy how much “stuff” you accumulate over a 5 year span.
So we cleaned, donated, cleaned and donated some more and decluttered our house so we could put it on the market! It’s crazy how much you have to take OUT of the home to sell it!
But our realtor assured us that our house would sell faster by making it less personal. Here are a few photos after we depersonalized it.
Our House Sold In 24 Hours with Multiple Offers!
Well let me tell you…decluttering and depersonalizing the house worked! Y’all (yep, getting back to my Southern roots already), y’all…we sold our house in 24 hours! I know it was absolutely crazy AND we had multiple offers! Talk about feeling blessed!
So as soon as we had an accepted offer on the table, my husband and I flew out to Florida and found our home over the weekend! Who sells and buys a home in the same week right? It was totally crazy!
I will say this in hindsight…I don’t think I would have bought and sold in the same month, let alone the same week. It was SO STRESSFUL, but when it was done, it was done right?
Packing Up For The Move
We decided to make the investment to hire a moving company to move our belongings. I can not imagine moving our entire family and our belongings. It was a big financial commitment, but it was money well spent.
The movers came and packed up all our belongings. Our job was to pack up the kids and ourselves so that we had enough stuff for 3 weeks.
We tried to make it fun, and here we are being a bit silly (certainly we did not travel with her up there, she was helping us fix the latches) 🙂
A 20 Hour Ride Across Country
So we said our good-byes (oh my gosh you guys, it was so hard saying goodbye to so many terrific friends) and we hopped in the car and began our journey.
The first day we traveled 14 hours in the car. The girls were excited for the adventure and they did terrific!
My poor dear Gemma however did NOT like the car ride! 🙁 Don’t you just love the monkey my girls put in there for her!
Gemma is not a fan of traveling, so my vet recommended a sedative to help her with the move. I tried for two hours to go without meds, but her anxiety was so high that we chose to sedate her.
Best thing for her! She got a nice long nap and was good to go once we got to the hotel room.
Are We There Yet Mom?
Okay, so if I was to hear “Are we there yet mom?” one more time, I swear I would have SCREAMED!!!
But when we crossed the border and saw this sign, all was good…we were almost there!
I will not lie, it felt amazing to FINALLY get out of the car. We stayed in a rental house for 2 weeks while our belongings were in transit and we closed on our new house.
Closing On New Home and Moving In
On our way into our closing, we got a phone call from the moving company and they informed us our stuff would be super early and was coming a day after we closed.
How is that for timing? We were so excited to say the least…this was working out better than we had planned…that never happens does it? 🙂
So here we are…our new home and our moving truck (that is the view from my front door, yay…I will show you a better picture without the truck, I promise)!
I Can Not Wait To Take You Inside!
I can not wait to show you guys the inside of our new home and some pictures of this beautiful state we now call home. I will save that for a post later this week!
Update: Take a tour of our new home here!
Any Floridians out there??
Psst….Okay, I just have to show some of my excitement, Eek…check out all those tropical plants in the picture above will you?!!! They are so beautiful…oh and the lizards…there are so many of them! Yay, you can bet I am still getting use to those bad boys!
Aww….Halle! So sad that you moved. Even though I didn’t know you for that long here in Wisconsin, it felt like we’ve been friends forever! I guess it’s that Southern charm and friendliness you have. 🙂 No wonder your house sold so fast…it’s beautiful. Can’t wait to see the inside of your new home! M says “hello” to the girls!
LYNN!!! So nice to hear from you. The girls were excited when I told them M said Hi! Hi to her as well and yes, miss you friend 🙂
Welcome to Florida! We are in Orlando. I was doing a google search for more holistic nutrition blogs and stumbled across yours 🙂
Thank you Debra! And Welcome to Whole Lifestyle Nutrition! 🙂
We Miss You!!!! Can’t wait for you to come visit us and join us for some Spicy Tuna Rolls! 🙂
You are on! Spicy Tuna Rolls sound awesome!
We miss you everyday!!! We can’t wait to visit!! Love you forever!
Lets get a day on the calendar for a visit Jenn!
Hi and welcome to Florida! I am in St Cloud, just southeast of Orlando! Hope you love it as much as we do! Looking forward to your blogging again!
Thanks Betty! We are loving it here already 🙂
Congratulations, old pal! Love thinking of you in the sunshine state. I can’t wait to find out what you can grow in your garden there.
Hey Kim! I am already challenged by all the deer…this is gonna be fun! 🙂
We are moving to Florida next week! From Pennsylvania to somewhere near the Ocala area. I’m already wondering where to find good beef! (Any hints would be appreciated!)
I am looking for beef in the Sarasota area. There is a large Amish community there and I bet that will be a great place to start! I will keep you posted! Best of luck on your move!
Fun to see your photo’s and read your story. We are near Crystal River and not far from Ocala and Gainesville! Welcome to Florida!!!
Thanks so much Barbara!
Welcome to the Sunshine State! We are just outside of Pensacola, in the Panhandle!
Thanks Donika! I can not wait to explore this fine state further. So many great places and everyone is so friendly!
Hi Halle,
We are in the Sarasota area. We get our organic produce from AnniesBuyingClub.com. I believe they also handle beef and dairy. We are vegan so we only buy produce. We have been thrilled with the produce. Welcome to Florida. The more you are here the more you appreciate it.
hi Halle,
I see that the last time this blog was updated was back in 2014. I was just wondering how you feel about your move since you’ve had a chance to settle in. We’ve been thinking of moving to Florida from Colorado and all I have come across are very negative blogs stating how absolutely horrible everything in Florida is. From the weather, humidity, critters, mosquitoes, and especially people, every blog says we will live to regret it. We would be moving to the SW part of Florida so maybe each area is different, but I’m sure the people and of course the weather is basically the same. We’re retiring so totally different from moving with family, but I would love your feedback.Love what you’ve done with the inside of your home. take care and thank you.
I’m not Halle but we moved 15 months ago from PA and totally disagree with what you’ve heard. We are in Central FL on the gulf coast, north of Tampa. We were told before we moved that FL is like two different states and since moving my husband and I say it’s really like 4 different states. So the areas are VERY different. You have north FL, south FL, coastal areas, and inland, none are similar! It really depends where you move to and what you’re looking for. I like the heat so maybe I’m not a good judge but I have yet to figure out how much people really do OUTSIDE anymore that the hot summers are that big of an issue. Most of our time is spent going from one air conditioned place to the next. Actually similar to life in the north in the winter but without the ice and salt and shoveling! In the winter you mostly go from one heated place to the next! Because of the heat most sports are in the fall, winter, and spring so that’s not even usually a consideration for the heat. We used to live on the other side of the county near the swamp and the bugs were pretty bad. Where we live now I’d say we have less bugs than we did in PA. I have no complaints about the people, I think they’re better here than in the north as well. That may not be the same for you in Colorado, I don’t know what people are like there. People here pull completely off the road for a funeral procession even out in the country, EVERY car, not just a few. I had never seen that before moving here. There are definitely more retired people than younger people but it’s not terrible. We are in a rural area, that may be different closer to the cities. Neither of us regret for one second that we moved. Even among friends we have that are transplants we all say, “Why didn’t we move sooner???!!!!” Hope that helps you!
Hi Ann! Wow, what a move and also an exciting time for you! You know, we absolutely LOVE Florida. We are originally from Savannah, GA so we were already used to the humidity, but really you get use to the weather pretty quickly. I do not regret one bit moving back to the south, not one bit! Are there bugs, sure. Are there critters, sure. Are there gators, sure. But we steer clear of all of them pretty much and we have water in our back yard. I say follow your heart and what your gut is saying and don’t listen to all the other “bloggers” are saying. We have no idea where they are right now in their life and happiness. I’ve always said if we are healthy and I have my family I can live anywhere and…Life is good! Best of luck to you and keep me posted! 🙂