05/18/06

Welcome to our little place on the web!

If you'd like to find out a little about our lives, experiences and hopefully some good stories, just read on...

The story of our move - During the Christmas of 2002, we decided that we were going to have the Christmas celebration at our home in Austin.  Mind you that our entire kitchen was demolished and we had plans to do the same to the connected dining and living room.  So, we set as our goal, that we'd complete the entire remodel in time for Christmas 2003.  We spent the 2003 year working on the remodel along with all the other obligations that we had in our lives.  During the year, Michael had several intense obligations to his work.  Mikey had the lead role in the Music Man at the Wimberley theater and along with these things, we had to build cabinets, cabinet doors, stained glass windows, strip and stain concrete floors etc...  So, we were down to the wire at the end of December 2003 trying to get the last of the floor, moldings, lighting and painting.  In fact, Mikey's parent's were pulling into their RV park in Austin while we were still loading furniture and decorating for Christmas about 3 or 4 days before Christmas.  It was hectic, but we got it done.

Now, the reason for the previous story is to show how lucky we've been.  In October, Michael found out about this opportunity in Florida and of course, Mikey thought it was nothing.  Just an idea, but nothing more.  Michael applied.  Michael got an interview.  We went to Florida for the interview.  Michael thought it went badly.  The day after we got back they called and offered him the job.  By this time it was mid November and Mikey was starting to panic.  He was thinking, "Surely we wouldn't move to Florida."  (Little did he know...)

Just before Christmas after many tears, heated discussions and lots of fear - we decided to take the plunge and go to Florida.  The reality is that Michael can only excel in his career by moving to different Universities.  There isn't much opportunity for upward movement within the same University.  For Mikey it's much less complicated and he can find work in most places.

After the first of the year, we began notifying our employer's that we'd be leaving for Florida.  MIkey's was great and let him work until end of April.  The plan (at the time) was that our home should be sold by then.  Michael had to start in early February, so we moved him then and UWF put him up in temporary housing until we closed on our new home.  On the weekend of May 15, 2004 - Michael came back to Austin and we packed up all our belongings (and our family...) and moved it to Florida.

So - We're here and getting accustomed to the new location and being in the VERY conservative bible belt.  You don't realize how nice you have it in Austin until you move to somewhere that is so much more conservative.  Austin now seems like the liberal MECCA of Texas.  We miss that aspect of it already, but we'll grow here and hopefully help educate some of the people that we come into contact with here.

Currently, Michael is loving his new job and Mikey is doing remodeling work and has become involved in the local theatre scene.  He's loving it.  Until then for him life consists of multiple projects, shows and learning where things are.