Saturday, September 8, 2007

We're Here!

We finally arrived in Florida this afternoon, after a very, very long trip. With that being said, Miles was great. He slept about five of the seven hours we would drive a day. He was a little rambunctious in the hotels when we would get there, but that was understandable after being in the car for hours at a time. On the second to last day, he started to get a cold, that kept us up almost the whole last night, but as far as the drive he really wasn't a problem. Our dogs on the other hand were an absolute nightmare. Sam refused to eat for five days and cried for the first two to three hours each day when we would start driving. Kobe was a little nuts for the whole trip, with his constant panting and crazed behavior at each hotel, he caused us to check often to make sure he was still alive. But now that we are here things seem to have calmed down a bit. We will never travel with them again without a lot of tranquilizers.

We got here at about 1:30 today and we are utterly exhausted. After a phone call yesterday from our moving company telling us our moving van was ready to deliver on Monday we are left with only tomorrow to rest up and recover. We went to the house today that we will be renting for the next year, and signed our contract and got our keys. Our landlord is a very nice older man from Connecticut, who lives a few miles away in Land O'Lakes. He and his wife own several investment properties that they were unable to sell due to Florida's poor market. Their loss was our gain. We get to rent a really beautiful home with a pool and in the meantime get to know the areas around us. My mom and I will be heading out there tomorrow to clean it up a bit before the furniture comes. We would have liked to have been closer to her, but it is hard to find anything affordable in her area. She lives in Clearwater and the house we rented is about 18 miles north in a town called Trinity, also known as New Port Richey. It is a newer area, but it remains to be seen if that is where we will want to buy when the time comes.

We took a lot of pictures on our trip across country, and even though it was a very difficult drive, we at least got to see Nashville, TN, which for a brief moment made it feel like a vacation. It is such a beautiful city, we can't wait to go back. We will post pictures from the whole drive as soon as we get them loaded. We will also post an address and pics of our new home once we get in and get settled, but for tonight we are just looking for a good night sleep. It is hard to believe we are finally here, but when the moving truck arrives, reality will set in real fast. Goodnight to all....

Sunday, September 2, 2007

To Lola

Happy Birthday!



Love, Miles, Chris and Christine


Quick Update

Besides being extremely exhausted, we are finally starting to make some progress with our move. Almost all of our furniture it packed included the 1000lb. treadmill, but not without leaving some nice marks in the walls I will need to fix. I have to say thanks to everyone who came yesterday to help us load the truck. I unfortunately was unable to be there because of my five hour stint at the gym to finally finish all the routines. I am relieved of that responsibility for the duration of our time here.....all three days, and I can concentrate on getting the last of our things together, which didn't seem like a lot until we got it all out to pack. Man we have a lot of stuff!!!

We think we have found a house. It is in New Port Richey, FL, which is about a half hour from my mom. We signed a contract yesterday morning, but are waiting until we get there to make any money transfers. It seems like it will be nice, although I am not so sure about being out in the NPR/Trinity area, but I am sure we will adjust. Miles still doesn't know what is going on, and it is useless to tell him. He does like all the new found room he has acquired since all the furniture left. The first thing he did was walk into the family room, look around and then start screaming and laughing while running in big circles. Apparently he likes his space.

Well that's about it so far. I have to stop stalling and get back to packing. We have a busy day today and I would assume for the next two weeks at least, but the end is in sight. Be thinking of us on the long 5 day drive to Florida with a one and a half year old and two dogs in the car. We will need some solid prayers to make it through that one with our sanity.