January 2010…found out hubby's job transfer went through, look out Florida here we come.  Here's our chance to finally get a fresh start and to live where snow is pretty much a non-exsistant thing!

February 2010…move complete, this is gonna be great….isn't it, I mean come on it's Florida, it can't be that bad.  RIGHT?!?!?

Two and a half weeks after moving to the Orlando area my depression kicked into to overdrive.  

I've lived in Michigan for 34 years (p.s. I'll be 36 in March), this is my chance at a new start.  My chance to finally find happiness with my hubby and kids.  My chance to prove to EVERYONE that I am ok with change and that I can overcome adversity.  Oh who the hell am I kidding???!!!  I've NEVER lived more than five miles away from my mom.  She's my best friend and the one who has always supported me and I've always been there for here when she needs the strength to lean on.  Then she moved more than 45 minutes from me and I could feel things changing inside of me.  My hatred for cold weather and snow was at it's breaking point and I knew that I needed out of that state and soon.  I demanded that he put in for the transfer to Florida, I have family here, "we'll be ok" I said.  He put in for the transfer and it went through.  I couldn't have been happier, I was finally getting out of there. 

Since we have been here, we've pretty much lost all the things we were accustomed to having in our lives.  Our friends, our families, our support system, and our lives outside of the home.  I was a bowler and had my friends I could go out with, he bowled too and we were able to go out without the kids.  We moved here and lost a HUGE amount of money from his income, we lost my income altogether, and we are struggling to survive.  Cell phones were a thing we used to take for granted, now we can't afford to even get the pre-paid phones.  Cable and electric, those were a given…now, it's debatable as to when each of them gets shut off because we can't keep up with bills.  What the hell have we done to ourselves? 

We finally sat down about a month ago and had a family discussion.  Come next year we are headed back where we belong…MICHIGAN.  Everyone told me before I left that I would hate it here.  I had people who lived here before tell me they could stand it when they were here.  "How can you hate living in Florida when you've been in Michigan all your life" is all I could ask.  I couldn't understand how it was possible to be that unhappy in a state where even in the middle of the state, you are an hour and a half away from the world's most beautiful beaches.  I can honestly say that I no longer question how someone could live here.  I can't be somewhere where I know I don't belong, and I don't belong here. 

I can honestly say I also understand why everyone north of the Mason-Dixon line automatically deducts 20 I.Q. points from the people who live in the south.  The sun has baked the brains of every person we've encountered here.  We have concluded that 6 months of cold weather and some snow is a lot more tolerable than 12 months of these people here. 

WHAT A HUGE MISTAKE THIS WAS, I'm just sorry we subjected the boys to this.  Chalk it up to another screw up from your mom boys?!?!