Week One Thoughts

It’s been a week since we arrived in Florida. So how’s it going? Well the unloading and unpacking went A LOT smoother than the loading did. I was dreading it after having the loading take so long. And unpacking went pretty quickly as well. We got rid of a lot of stuff before we moved, and all though the process of selling/giving away/dropping off at Goodwill is a pain, it feels great to have less stuff to deal with on this end.

My daughter is handling the move really well having gone into it very excited. My son is another story.

If you don’t have kids, or they are under the age of, say…13 much of this will not make sense to you. (This is my disclaimer)

If, on the other hand, you have a teenager in your home at this moment, I think you get this. Misery loves company right? So let’s commiserate a little, shall we?  Yes, when one member of the family is out of sorts of course we all feel it to a certain degree. But a disgruntled teen is a whole other animal. It’s easy to underestimate the impact of one teenager on the rest of a family. They do not suffer in silence. They do not quietly suck it up and get on with the task at hand. If there is a tremendous amount of chaos happening they don’t wait for a more opportune moment to approach you to discuss their “concerns”. You parents with teens am I right on this? Are you with me? Let me tell you this level of animosity is a challenge to handle at the best of times. Being in the middle of an out-of-state move is not the best of times. We have become the sole source of every bad thing or feeling that has happened to him in his entire life. Oh, and we pretty much don’t know anything. Certainly not about him or what he is feeling and we definitely do not understand that he will never ever be happy here. Ever.mom

Needless to say, this situation has put a damper on my excitement to finally be here. Not that I haven’t been able to enjoy some of it. But when one of your kids isn’t happy it affects you. It’s always on your mind. And we are close to our kids, and generally have a very good relationship with them both. So it’s hard to adjust to suddenly being enemy number one. In his determination to NOT be happy here, he has refused to go to any of the Disney parks with us, or anything fun that we’ve done. I know it’s not good for him to stay home and mope alone, but we are giving him some space to hopefully work this out. And forcing him to go someplace he doesn’t want to go seems to be a bad idea for all of us at this point. But it’s only been a week. I know it’s too soon to expect him to change his tune on this. Still. This is rough.

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Geeking out on Main St.

So let’s talk about some things that are going good, yes? We got our annual passes! Holla! I was so ridiculously excited I think the CM was a little confused by me. I am working on a whole post about getting the passes and what you need to prove residency, etc… so I will cover that there. After we got our passes we went to Magic Kingdom. It was….surreal. We walking down Main Street and I turned the corner and saw the castle and… it was just a…moment. We had a moment. Me and the castle. It as very private. Yes there was like, a thousand other people there. Still. After all the work, the weeks/months of packing, preparing, the difficult goodbyes, the long drive down, the unpacking, the lack of sleep and the physical tiredness that comes with all that….to finally stop and just BE. To look at that castle, and know that our home, our new home, with our bed and our dog (and one very grumpy teen) is 10 minutes down the road. That we can come here and see this, and experience this, whenever we choose. It’s just…wow. I still can’t fully believe it. We just hung out around Main Street, shopped a little, and watched the castle projection show. The three of us were just soaking it up. Watching the Wishes fireworks explode over the castle to the music (star light staaaaar bright) was an amazing ending to the day.

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Gorgeous evening at Epcot

Since then we have been to Hollywood studios for Osborne Lights, and today to Epcot for a little Food & Wine Festival. Every time I start to walk out of a park I find myself automatically thinking about how many “days” I have left of “vacation” before we have to go home. I didn’t even realize that I used to do that! Until now when I get to remind myself that no one is going to make me leave.I can stay and do this often. It still feels like something that will go away.

We also had our first meet up with some fellow Disney fans and that was awesome! Even better than I thought and so much fun. I all ready love the people that we’ve met and look forward to connecting with them at other Disney events in the future. Meeting other people who “get it” is always very validating. They get your particular brand of crazy. That is a wonderful thing.

Overall I would say the first week is a success. Some ups and downs but I’m trying hard to focus on the good and let the rest of the stuff work itself out. It’s a new thing for me. I’ll let you know how it goes.

Serena Lynhttps://livingbydisney.com
Hi there, I'm Serena and I created Living by Disney when I moved next door to Disney World in Orlando Florida. I don't work for Disney and don't represent the company, but after moving here I made it my job to share unbiased tips and strategies to help you get the most out of your Walt Disney World vacation!

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