Sneaky

"I think I'll visit a Vineyard church today."

One simple sentence...as a status update and it was done. The groundwork was laid for the Long family to be super-sneaky today.

See, I was supposed to be coming back to Florida on March 30th. Supposedly. What happened instead was that I came home on the 23rd–a full week early. The only people that knew were my immediate family. No friends and certainly not my church family. Sneaky.

So, I've been home since Friday evening, catching up on hugs and kisses from my wife and boys, turning off location services on my iPhone and iPad, hoping that I wouldn't be caught hanging out in Florida a week earlier than had originally been planned.

Today, I got to surprise my church family by showing up unannounced. And it was so much fun. I love the St. Pete Vineyard peeps so dearly and it was a blast to get all the hugs and such all day long. It was great to eat lunch with my friends and it's especially awesome to get an extra week with the family Long.

I'll be hanging out here for the next two weeks, working from home and trying to convince my bosses that it's a great idea for me to work two weeks here and then two weeks in Michigan, as opposed to the initial three weeks in Michigan and one week in Florida plan that we started with. They're from the midwest and are honestly some of the most sincerely nice people I have ever worked with so hopefully, this works out.

More importantly, the life on pause phase is over for the time being and I can do normal things like watch TV on a couch instead of a bed, eat something other than peanut butter sandwiches and fast food, and hug my wife and kids every night and morning and in between. I love FaceTime on my phone, but nothing beats the real face time I'll be getting with family and friends over these next couple of weeks.

I have so missed you all very much.

The times, they are a-changin'...

If you read my last post, then you would know that A LOT had been going on over the past month or three. Well, I'm finally able to publicly talk about some of the stuff that I wasn't really willing to share then.

I mentioned that companies were calling me even before I knew I would need a new job. What I didn't say was that of the five or six companies that called, only one was local. All the other interest was coming from out of state and all of them were offering substantially more in salary than I had ever made before. Fast forward to yesterday and what that means is that...

...we are moving! From Florida...to Michigan. Yep, that Michigan. With the ice and snow and seasons and window scraping and running your car in the morning to heat it up. Eek!

The deal is that I'll be in Michigan three weeks a month and in Florida one week a month until the boys are out of school in June. Then, the family Long will begin a brand new adventure in our own wintry wonderland. This all begins on February 27th, 2012.

So, I told 2012 to bring it, and bring it she did. We're excited and nervous and overjoyed and overwhelmed and sad and probably too many things to list in one blog post.

I guess if I were to ask one question, it's this: what advice does anyone have for a big move? More importantly, does this down parka make me look fat?