We made it back to Florida!!!

It seems like so long ago we left the "Sunshine State" behind for our adventure in the "Nation's Capital". When we left we thought we would be gone for 2 years but as it turns out Ben was posted to Ft. Lauderdale, FL for his 1st assignment. This was both good and bad for me. I was already in the mindset that we would be staying in VA for at least 2 years. I had mentally prepared myself for VA and already researched the area where I wanted to live and schools and the weather and the list goes on and on. I had already accepted it. Florida on the other hand is a good choice for us because Andy gets to go to VPK for free, cost of living is lower than VA, we are already accustomed to the weather, and we are only 2 hours away from Ben's grandparents and 5 hours away from the rest of our family. I guess in the end Florida is better for us, I think I was just a little dissappointed that we already had our minds set on Virginia and then we had to change. Thus is the life in the Foreign Service, so I have been told. Everything "Depends" is the famous saying.

So we left our wonderful temporary home in Virginia and headed south via Amtrak (which the kids loved). I didn't mind it much except for the almost 3 hour delay once we got into Florida, which almost made us late to sign our lease.
 It all worked out in the end though. It was very hard to leave too because of the wonderful friendships we had made with other FS families in Virginia. I hope that we will see them again and be able to keep in contact via our social networking skills we all share.
6 months of having all of your stuff in storage and living with the bare essentials makes you appreciate life more. When our shipments of furniture and household goods arrived we were sooooo excited to have our "Stuff" back. That is until we started opening boxes and realized how much "Stuff" we actually had. To be fair we did move from a 2000+ sq ft. home on 1 acre of land so we had plenty of room to store things. We were able to unpack the essentials in the first few days, TOYS being at the top of the list of course. Everything else in being stored in our garage (so Ben's new car has to sit out in the elements, hehe). It has been about 2 weeks here now and we are still going through things. We have taken 2 loads of donations to Goodwill already (that's 2 YUKON's full of donations) and sold our master bedroom furniture via Craigslist. We have more furniture to sell as it does not all fit in this small apartment we are in now. Ellie has down sized from a full size bed to a twin and Ben and I have settled into the smallest of the bedrooms with minimal furniture and the computer on a table on one wall. I think a few more weeks of going through at least 1 box a day will get the job done. It's so hot and I really can't stand to be out there longer than it takes to go through 1 box at a time.
I am still trying to get my bearings down and figure out where things are in Ft. Lauderdale. I did find IKEA and we were able to get 2 bookshelves on clearance, as well as have the kids eat lunch for free while there. Double Score! The kid's schools are right across the street, literally. Andy will be going to Pre-K at the church across the street behind our complex and the other 3 will be at the Elementary school across the street from the front of the complex. I can actually look out the window and see the Elementary school from our apartment. Super Wal*Mart and Publix are about 3 blocks away on the other side of the expressway so we are set. I have yet to find a beach access that I don't have to pay to park at, though. This is a little disturbing to me and I will have to research this one thoroughly. I do NOT want to have to pay to visit the beach, especially in Florida. The good news is that we are close to the Keys and will be taking a trip down, hopefully soon! I can't wait.