Thursday, June 22, 2017

Orlando or Bust!

No point in beating around the bush here - in case you didn't figure it out from the title, the Elwood family is packing up & moving to Orlando, Florida!

Greg has the opportunity to attend the Motorcycle Mechanics Institute at UTI in Orlando for the next year & a half to become a Harley Davidson-certified mechanic. So, in approximately 30 days (32 from today, actually, but who's counting?), we will be packing up our infant son, our dog, and our lives, and making the 3-4 day drive (that's right; we're driving) to begin our new life! This is an incredible opportunity for all of us, & completing the 18-month course paves the way for Greg to have a solid career with Harley Davidson afterward.

Truth time: I am terrified!!

And excited!

But...mostly terrified.

I have never in my life lived outside of Nebraska, & I have never lived in a town bigger than 30,000 people (nor have I ever wanted to). But, I am excited to experience something so new & so far outside of my comfort zone, not to mention all the new adventures that will be waiting for us in Florida (hello, Disney World & Universal Studios!!). And I'm very excited for Greg to have this opportunity; he's been looking for a career he can be passionate about ever since I've known him. And did I mention that our apartment is going to be freaking awesome?! Because that helps too :)

So yeah. This is happening, and happening soon. It's something that's been in the works for us for about a year now, but we've been keeping it quiet until we had all the details worked out. Then some other things happened (like the birth of our son :) :) :) ), and before we knew it, we were 60 days out! And now here we are. I have officially given my notice at work (& I am going to bawl my bloody eyes out on my last day there! :'( ); we gave our notice to our landlords; and we're slowly tackling the daunting task of packing up an entire house & sorting what goes into storage versus what goes into the moving trailer.

--Insert deep breathing here--

To be honest, I was never sure what "or bust" meant when I would hear people say it, or see it on signs. When I was little, I thought they meant "or bus stop" & just ran out of space. Turns out, it means "or collapse from effort/die trying." While this will certainly be the longest road trip of my life (so far, anyway), I'm really hoping we will be able to make it without the "or bust" so to speak.

So, yeah. This is seriously happening.