A moment to breath! And catch up with my disnerds!

[jbrostek]

What a wonderful and exciting fall, winter and spring I have had!!! So much has changed, and I am so happy. I think I fell off the radar just around the time I was starting a new job. It was so excited for it and so much going on it helped the days fly by quickly.

The girls of course made sure I rang in the new job like they rang in the new school year.



But we didn't let that slow us down and columbus day weekend took a near end of season camping trip to Ocean City, MD with some good friends.




But we are not known to stay idle for long and went to visit Melissa's brother and fiance in Ocean City, NJ a week later when they invited us. We didn't camp since Katlyn's family has a house there they rent out/use. It' was a great time with them and even got the girls to drive the surrays!!



November we managed to keep just as busy with a trip to DC to listen to the National Symphony Orchestra (NSO) celebrate Disney at 'NSO Pops: Walt Disney Animation Studios: A Decade in Concert',. This was to help build the excitement for our first DVC trip since becoming owners. In December, we went and stayed at Old Key West in a 1 BR studio. It was a fun trip for Melissa's Birthday Celebration!! It was the first time the have ever seen it all decorated for the holiday season. I treated them all the the MVMCP and we had a great time!

 

[jbrostek]

After a fun filled birthday weekend, we next saw the whirlwind of Christmas time only a week later!!1 It was a holiday weekend and week, but a lot of travel between Melissa's parents in PA, and then back to VA for Christmas day before the girls were off to their fathers till New years. We all got some great gifts, though I still managed to 1. keep it a surprise and 2. shock the girls by giving Melissa a gift I knew she would love!!! I managed to get a deal on the Disney 40k piece puzzle kit. We both love puzzles and have done many of various counts, but this was soft of a bucket list item. When amazon listed it for 80% off I jumped on the price and got it. They were definitely all shocked.


We are still on the first puzzle, but that is partly because we have had so much going on. After a quiet start to the new year with just a few close friends to celebrate we had time to recharge for the next big excitement. Less then a week after our one year anniversary I proposed to Melissa.



All winter I had been working with a local jeweler to design a custom engagement ring. Hunt Country Jewelers did not let me down one bit, I asked to get a little disney magic in it plus make it able to withstand the rigors of a 5th grade classroom. They knocked it out of the park.



3 stones to represent my commitment to Melissa and her daughters. And a hidden Mickey to bring her joy. It was my comment of being a Disnerd on my profile is still something she remembers and mentions when telling our story which includes our first date at an RV show.



Shortly after this little celebration with friends I listed my home in Round Hill for sale. And it sold quickly. I had an offer in 2 days with a short time to closing. Since Melissa had her rental home, I accepted the offer. While packing my home up into storage other then enough clothes and items to take me through spring, we started hunting for our new home together. After a long talk we chose to look in an area that would not force her daughters to change schools. This was easy since her youngest goes to her elementary school already, even though she is not in the boundaries. So with only the middle school to worry about we started looking.

On the Sunday after moving me completely out of my home, we made an offer that was accepted. April 12th it became our new home!!!!!






Since then we have painted the bedrooms and moved in. We are still unpacking, and with school now done Melissa feels she can make some great strides in unpacking and sorting. The hardest part of the move has been combining two homes worth of things and deciding what to keep and get rid of. More to come!!!

 

[jbrostek]

We are settling into our new home and love the neighborhood. We are excited that in July we are going to disney with our friends Ken and Christie plus their kids. They get along with our two and that is great for all of us.



We are just starting to make the place look awesome and to our tastes. And I cannot wait till its all done.




Though we still know how to enjoy a friday night at home.


What's great is while we have a guest room, we also have a RV park nearby for further away camping friends to stay at that is not a far walk from us!!!



I can't wait to share more adventures as we build them!!!!

 

[Teamubr]

Nice job on the ring! And Congrats.

Job, engagement, house... No wonder you disappeared for a while.

j

 

[friendofeeyore]

Congratulations on your new adventures. The engagement ring is beautiful making brownie points - hidden Mickey- your new home is beautiful.
PS: welcome back home to the forum.

 

[2goofycampers]

Congratulations on all your life's adventures.

 

[Disneypeach]

Congrats! Welcome back to the camping board!

 

[bama_ed]

Great to hear from you again, jbrostek!

Lots of change in your life. It all seems for the good. and I'm glad to hear it.

I remember meeting you a few years ago when you were in the back of 300 loop up against the canal. Do I remember correctly that you were wearing glasses back then?

Glad you are back. Oh and did you say, "puzzle"? Only 40K pieces? That might take my Gulf DISMeet group a few days.

Bama Ed

PS - love the Disney front door mat.

 

[sirenia88]

Congrats on all the busy fun stuff in your lives. BTW is the Momentum M class in the background of the camping yours? GD trailers are nice. We now own a Reflection TT ourselves since last July.

 

[jbrostek]

Thank you all! The ring was very special and a lot went into it. Melissa sees all the time and care I put into the design of the ring. I also let the jeweler work with his own creativity only asking for certain elements to be included.. We both feel blessed to have found such a beautiful home and get it in a very competitive market.

@bama_ed I do recall chatting with you. I think that morning I was still wearing glasses prior to putting my contacts in. I managed to squeeze my rig into that spot two years in a row!! Plus big John was there and he always wears glasses. I been hoping to catch up but as you said, lots of great changes. They are all for the better!! Yes the 40k piece puzzle is 10 4k piece panels that when assembled is 22' by 6.5'. Our thought was to epoxy it into the floor of our library area when its done. I would love to make one of the dismeets one year.

@sirenia88 I still have the Sanibel, though we are looking at GD 379FLS. The bath and a half plus front living arrangement would be great for the 4 of us and give the girls their own bed space. The GD M is Ken and Christie and works great for them. They have blended family of 6! They need all the sleeping spaces and room for toys/etc. Congrats on the new TT!!!

I look forward now that things are getting settled to finally be able to catch up here and think about next adventures!

 

[cruising spud]

jbrostek,

What a fantastic year. Best wishes for the following year.

 

[PaHunter]

So glad with all the changes going on everything is going well. Glad to hear from you again. We would like to find a new campground, but we have to be careful.

 

[tigger92662]

Very Happy for you and all that's been happening.

Funny you should mention Dismeets , check out the the thread for Dismeet at The Fort October 2020. Would be a great Honeymoon kinda thing

I'm pretty sure we could knock out a couple of 40K puzzles

 

[jbrostek]

@PaHunter Finding new places can be tricky. We stayed in Ocean City, MD last fall and had a great time at the campground. This year we have not had a chance to explore much due to all the moves and changes! We are looking forward to our trip to FW soon though.

@tigger92662 I saw the thread for the meet and while that would be awesome, I am not sure we could make that. Melissa is a teacher, and while they get the same breaks the kids get, she does not get any paid vacation time. I can tell you that a 4k piece puzzle is not easy by any means. We have nearly finished the first one. 9 more to go after this!

The past two weeks has been great. Melissa and the girls are done with school. Since then she has been keeping busy getting things unpacked and organized! She has been rocking the work and we finally have sorted through two homes worth of kitchen, bedroom, living room and family room. I think the hardest thing has been trying to merge two homes worth of stuff. But we make progress each day.

We have also been pretty busy with wedding planning. After a small bump with our initial venue and having to find a new one. We finally found a venue that we like and feel can meet our dreams of a Hallmark Christmas wedding. We even just got through our DVC waitlist for our honeymoon over new years in Copper Creek like we wanted. So today I booked our flights for the day after the wedding!!!

Soon ill start my trip adventures, we depart on friday the 19th with the goal of savannah. Already booked the KOA and then from there we head to FW!!!

 

[PaHunter]

We are still merging two houses worth of stuff, after six years you would think we would be done.....

 

[jbrostek]

Chris I figure some of that will take time, but we are pretty determined to get this done and rid of the clutter. We have mad progress, but there is still half the garage full of stuff to go through. We started on the office last night and made some good progress.

 

[garneska]

We are still merging two houses worth of stuff, after six years you would think we would be done.....

Tell Jenn to throw all your stuff away

 

[PaHunter]

Tell Jenn to throw all your stuff away

DW says you two already talked about that.....

 

[garneska]

DW says you two already talked about that.....

Yes we did and I said the same

 

[jbrostek]

We are both pretty good about parting with things most of the time. So we been making great strides in getting rid of it. But I would rather yard sale, then donate before I add to the landfill.