Catching up - Part 2

The most common question I am asked since moving to the south is, "How do you like living in North Carolina?"

Here's my answer;
I love it. I love how friendly the people are and the how our neighborhood is such a tight-knit community. There is just a completely different feel here and different way of life. Best thing we ever did. You only live once; you have to decide what's best for you and figure out a way to do it.
We also have some pretty great pizza places - all owned by northerners!
Babysitters are shared by neighbors and there are plenty to go around. Neighbors take care of each other and everyone watches out for you.

One of our biggest motivators for leaving NJ, was the cost of living. The housing costs plus the property taxes are among the highest in the country. It was time to get out. It's amazing the size house you can get for your money compared to up north. Our property taxes are ridiculously low as well. Our old house would fit in our new house 4x over! There's just no comparison.

The weather ..... oh the weather. Short winters where the average temp is 50 degrees, then a long spring, longer summer, and long colorful fall. Everything starts to bloom in March and flowers come up so early. I love seeing all the green when up north, we did not see that until early May if we were lucky. I also love that the kids can play outside almost every day.

I also think, much of how I feel is based on why we decided to relocate. For us, it was just the right time in our lives and this was the right place. Some people relocate to a new place because of a job, family, or other reasons, and my not like it. We did it for us and made the 100% right choice.

There so many parks in every town - big parks where the kids can play, we can walk, picnic, do NFL obstacle courses, and they all have real bathrooms. You laugh, but most of the kids parks where we used to live had port-a-potties (yuck!) or no bathrooms. Super inconvenience.
We can walk to Julianna's school from our house- a major perk. Many of the kids walk or bike to school.

Things here are just so different, but in a good way. I love exploring all new places and there is so much to do. I also love how everything is geared towards outdoors. We are only an hour or so from the Mountains if we want to get away for the day or the weekend. We live right down the road from an outdoor shopping and restaurant area called Birkdale Village. Truthfully, it's one of the things that persuaded us to live where we live. We go there at least once a week to shop or eat out. All the restaurants offer outdoor seating because the weather is so nice here. You can bring your dog everywhere, they can even sit with you when you eat dinner or lunch (outside), if that's your thing.
We live within a few minutes of every major convenience known to man kind. In NJ, I've always had to drive far to go anywhere, but here I barely have to drive far ever. I love living so close to everything! I fill the tank of my SUV maybe once every 2 weeks.

Everything is clean, landscaped, and kept up wherever you go.
Charlotte is the cleanest city you will ever step foot in. There is so much new construction and so many new buildings going up all over the city. I love living outside of a major city but not having the cost like we used to when we lived outside of New York City. We don't have to pay a $15 toll to cross over a bridge or go through a tunnel, and then we don't have to pay $30 to park ... and we don't have to sit in 2 hours of traffic just to get into the city. We can cruise in and out in 15 minutes time from our house, a very nice convenience. Charlotte is such a foodie town - we have discovered some really great restaurants as well.

I was nervous before moving here that we would feel like outsiders or have a hard time fitting in. I don't feel like we've encountered that much really. There are a lot less working moms here, so I do find I don't fit in with some of the mom groups who don't work, but there's not much I can do about that.  The part that I knew would be hard was making new friends. It's been a big adjustment, but I sure didn't expect to miss my lifelong friends from NJ so much. Luckily with technology, we can keep in touch easily and my best friend has already come to visit as well as some others that expect to visit soon. I miss my friends from NJ terribly and they can never be replaced (you know who you are).

We have, however, met some wonderful people since moving here, but it's hard to make close friends and make that connection with everyone right away.  Good friendships take time and need time to cultivate, so I am just learning to being patient. I feel like we are finally headed down that path as we have met some exceptional neighbors, and also have developed friendships with some of the parents through the Julianna and Tyler's school.

One nice surprise is, two of my high school friends live here in the Charlotte area, they moved here long before us. I found out they were here and was in touch before we moved. Once we moved here, we have met up and out to dinner, on the boat, kids activities, etc. It was so nice to have some familiar faces from home.

I feel like we are 'trailblazers' for the rest of our family. Brian's parents decided they will be moving down here in a couple years when his step-father retires. They fly down every few months to visit because of the weather and we have plenty of room for visitors. My mother ended up moving here a year ago (shortly after we moved), and she loves the senior community she lives in. My Aunt and Uncle may end up here in a couple years as well. Oh and Brian's aunt will be moving here soon as well. We also just heard from a cousin that wants to visit and move here! Brian's father and step-mom live in Charleston, South Carolina, which is only 3 hours away. It's nice to have them close by.

In closing, I will say that of course nothing is 100% and I would be foolish if I said this has all been perfect. There have been a few inconsequential things that I do not like (to be expected), but overall I have zero regrets about moving, and we will never go back.


As promised, Here are some more pictures from the last year...

I just love our neighborhood. 

This is Birkdale Village (my happy place). 

How do I get this thing going again?

I have sat here several times, in front of my laptop, staring at the empty blog draft, trying to think of something to write. And then nothing happens. Nothing at all. I think about great things to write during the day while I am driving the car, or in the shower, or when the kids are screaming, or as I'm falling asleep, but never as I sit in front of the laptop. I feel like the more time has gone by, the more overwhelming the task 'to write something' becomes. I have so much to catch everyone up on. I started this blog in order to keep a 'diary' for my children to read and enjoy later in life, so I feel like I need to get back to this now. It's time.

Two years has gone by. (WOAH!) Julianna is 6 and a half. Tyler is 3 and a half. I guess that means I am ... 2 years older as well. During this two year time period, a lot has gone on.

About two years ago, we decided to make a big change in our life and move out of NJ. We kept our house in NJ and rented it out to tenants, and then we packed up and relocated to Huntersville, North Carolina. We did it and it is, by far, the best decision we have ever made.

A lot of planning, research, discussion, thought, sweat & tears went into this big change, and was not easily decided. Brian and I visited the Charlotte, North Carolina area for a long weekend in April 2015. We spent a couple days with our realtor, and looked at too many houses to remember. We fell in love with this area, specifically the town of Huntersville, instantly. The first house we looked at that weekend, ultimately, ended up being the house we bought. We decided right then and there, that weekend, that the Fillmores were moving to North Carolina. Brian was able to find a job here relatively fast, and since my job can move with me anywhere (I work from home), we put an offer on a house in June of 2015, moved in and closed on August 1st. It all happened very fast, and everything fell into place very quickly. When you really want something bad enough, you can make anything happen with hard work, planning, and determination (and sometimes a little bit of luck).

A little backstory on our move; In early 2015, Brian and I were at a crossroad in our life. We knew we needed to move out of our house in NJ that we had completely outgrown after Tyler was born, but weren't really sure where we should end up. We asked ourselves, "Do we stay comfortably in NJ and just buy a bigger house, but keep paying ridiculous property taxes and other high cost of living, and continue to suffer through awfully cold and long winters?" We had been wanting to move out of NJ for a while, due to the extremely high cost of living. We wanted a different lifestyle and quality of life for our family. We talked about leaving NJ and decided if we were going to do it, now was the time in our lives to do it. It was now or never.

The kids were young enough where they wouldn't be ripped away from all of their friends and lives like they would be if it was 10 years later in life. Bottom line is, it was the right time to make a leap. We love our new home, our neighborhood, our town, the kid's schools, and the community. Oh and the weather - it's pretty freaking awesome. It's always sunny here. Did I mention that we can boat for 9 months, on Lake Norman, a lake that makes our old lake look like a pond. Every person here is from the "North". When you meet someone, everyone asks you "Where are you from?" ... because it's a rarity to meet anyone that is actually from Charlotte or North Carolina for that matter. Most of the people we have met are from NY, NJ, PA, Ohio. It's a  nice commonality. Crazy, huh?

Here is a summary of our lives in pictures, since we moved to North Carolina. I'll post a part 2 with more pictures in a few days.

Vacation to Fenwick Island, DE (Part 1)

I finally finished editing my pictures from our summer vacation to Fenwick Island, DE!
Two months too late - oh well! Things get done a little slower around here with 2 small children. Here are the first batch of pictures. For those of you that don't know, Fenwick Island is located about 20 minutes north of Ocean City, MD. We had a fun vacation and will probably end up back there next year, it's a great area for families & kids. Fenwick is quiet and peaceful, yet so close to the Ocean City Boardwalk and tons of other things to do. Most of the pictures below are from the rainy and cooler days we were there. Sunny pictures to come in the next post.

Brian and Tyler on the Ocean City Boardwalk 

Where we stayed (our townhouse is on the right)

Every morning, we had beautiful herons out in the marsh 

I forget the name of this bird, but he was so cool with his long orange beak!

Cloudy & rainy day = bubble blowing day 

View from our bedroom balcony - I love this shot (we brought our boat with us) 

Sibling Love

Osprey nest 

My little girl posing for the camera

Egret Island 

Such beautiful wings

View from our balcony in the morning 

Pepper's favorite spot to sleep 

Happy boy on the bed with Pepper. I just realized he has so much more hair now - just 2 months later! 

What's up lately?

What book am I reading now?

Special Heart: A Journey of Faith, Hope, Courage and Love  by Bret Baier

I am reading a few pages at a time when I get a few minutes for myself! Fabulous book for heart moms and families to read. 

I also read the Mariano Rivera book called "The Closer"- about the best closer (in baseball) of all time. Loved it!

What did I do this summer?

As usual, it seems that summer went by too fast and here we are rounding the corner to fall already! I don't blog much in the summer, there is just too much going on as much as I have the good intention of doing it. This summer, even though it has been on the cooler side, we spent a lot of our weekends on our boat trying to relax. It's hard to truly relax with a 4 year old and 1 year old - but we sure tried! We went on vacation in July to Ocean City, Maryland. Well, we actually stayed about 20 minutes north in Fenwick Island in a bay front townhouse - it was a lot of fun and much needed. It's fun for the kids because we went to the boardwalk twice where there were plenty of rides for Julianna. She was in her glory! I'll be posting some pictures of vacation soon enough! Did you take vacation this summer? Where did you go?


Exciting News?

We sure do have some really exciting news here in our household! My husband accepted an offer to work with a larger company in a higher management position a few weeks back. He just started his new job recently and he is in his glory. This new job means longer hours and unfortunately more responsibility for me to take care of the kids; I now get them up in the morning, feed them, pack their lunches, log into work (I work from home) and then drop them off at daycare down the road. He won't be around as much during the week, but it's worth the sacrifice in the end.

The other big news is my that company is spinning off from our larger fortune 200 parent company in October. I work for the 'Dealer Services' division of ADP (the payroll/human resources co). In October, Dealer will be spinning off and leaving the nest to be our own company. The new name was just announced and is CDK Global. We will be a fortune 1000 company and not much will change for us day to day - business as usual in my own group especially. This is a really good thing for our company and looking forward to the future of CDK.


How is Tyler doing?

• How Old? Tyler is 15 months old
• Eating: He eats most table food even though he doesn't have all his teeth. He loves any food you put in front of him. He eats pasta, most cooked veggies, sweet potatoes, any fruit, anything roasted or steamed, meatballs, fish, whole wheat muffins, oatmeal....and the list goes on!  
• Drinking: He loves his milk in a cup (about 24 ounces a day) and he also drinks water in a straw cup. We do not offer juice. 
• Sleeping: Tyler sleeps through the night from 8pm to 7am, with the exception of some separation anxiety he has every couple of months; where he has a few nights of crying himself to sleep, which is difficult when both kids share a room. 
• Size clothes: He is wearing 12 months pants/shorts. He is wearing 18 month tops. He's on the small side, so I think he will be in size 12 bottoms for a little while. 
• Talking: Not saying much yet. He says mama and dada sometimes - but not much else. He is delayed in speech and is having a hearing test in a couple weeks to rule out any hearing issues. I also have a call into Early Intervention to have them evaluate him to see if he will need some speech therapy. More to come on that. 
• Walking: Heck yes. Running, actually. 
• Doing: He is a true boy; tears the house apart, destroys things, climbs furniture, gets into trouble and laughs about it. 
• He likes giving things to me like the remote control, toys, his milk cup. He understand requests like "Sit down' and stand up... please give to mommy ... More milk? I can tell him to go to put his cup in the sink, and he does. He listens & responds, just no speaking yet.  

How is Julianna doing?

• How old? She is 4 years old and going on 10! What a little lady she is turning into! 
• Eating: She is expanding her horizons in her picky toddler eating. She recently discovered she likes peanut butter smeared on apple slices and also grilled cheese (up until 2 months ago, she wouldn't touch grilled cheese). She has been a very picker eater but getting better. 
• Doing: A lot of things. She is making new friends & having a blast playing with any kids she meets! She is a fun & happy girl who wants to go go go all the time! 
• School: She is starting pre-k in 2 weeks. I can't believe in 1 year she will be starting kindergarten! My baby girl! 
• Friends: Lot's of them - I wish I could let her play more often but it's hard to find the time with us working full time. She's excited to start up school in a couple weeks and reunite with her friends from last year. 
• Size clothing: Julianna wears size 5 bottoms and 6 on top. She has zero clothes for school and the fall or winter. We need to go do some school shopping ASAP! 
• Her favorite things: baby dolls (new thing for her!), giraffes, jewelry, lip gloss, octonauts, sherriff callie, chugginton, disney princesses, Frozen (I can't take a simple car ride with out her wanting to hear and also sing Let it go!) 
• Value of money: We are trying to teach her the value of money slowly - even if it's her learning how many quarters it takes to get on the ride at the mall! She has her own change purse and brings it with her - she decides how she wants to spend it but once it's spent, it's gone. 
• The beach: This girl loves the beach - she would go to the beach every day of her life if she could. She gets that from me! The girl loves summer and warm sunny weather! 

Some random pictures from this past summer...

Sibling love

My boy with his adorable sun hat on

Julianna loves to float in the lake

Fishing with Daddy off the back of our boat 

Lounging time - our favorite place to anchor in the summer

Super cuteness

A picture of Brian and I that I Might actually frame!

A brief trip South

A few weeks ago, we took a quick trip down to the Charleston, South Carolina area to visit my inlaws. It was very nice to see my husband's family and spend some time with them. It was also so nice to be in the warm sun and hit the reset button on the winter-blues.

Julianna loves the beach. She hugged us all and thanked us for bringing her to the beach! 

This girl takes after us 100% with loving the warm outdoor weather. 

Collecting shells 

Rare family shot! Too bad Tyler was facing the other way! 

Daddy & Tyler selfie! 

She thought nothing of sitting right on the wet sand and digging in! 

More shell collecting. 

Tyler was touching the sand and deciding if he liked it. 

He then tried to put it in his mouth... and mama picked him right up and he was done with the sand after 6 seconds! 

Me & my little boy! 

A rare shot of me ... for those that ask :) 

He did not like the sand on his feet - I put him down and he lifted them right out of the wet stuff! 

Walking the beach. 

Running.... running... running! So much fun! 

We went to a local festival and Tyler fell asleep in Daddy's arms (in the pack!) 

Ooh I forgot to resize this one - Daddy & Julianna browsing the festival. 

Julianna discovered Sidewalk chalk. 

Too bad we don't have sidewalks here; she really had a blast with this! 

Hop-scotch on the driveway, with baby giraffe in hand! 

She also discovered the soccer ball! She wanted to play all weekend! 

Guess we'll get her one for her birthday next month! She'll be so happy. 

We had a great time, but it was a long drive there and back - 16 hours each way, with many many stops. I think we will fly next time!

Catch up

Working on a couple posts but I didn't want to leave you high & dry...
Here are some recent photos, it should be the last of the indoor pictures for a while... at least until the next snowfall. Now that the warmer weather is here, I should be snapping more photos outdoors!

Happy Spring

The girl is nuts! 

So is he!

Smiley boy.

I'm gonna get you!

Bye bye

 Checking out her goodie bag from a birthday party