Let's begin at the beginning...

It was about this time last year when I was completely pulling my hair out. We were moving down here to Sunny Miami Florida. It wasn't the move or the fact that I had not even set foot in our house that we rented already, but the fact that we had not been contacted yet by ANYONE at our new duty station. Since North Carolina had been my home for well.. all my life I had had no trouble picking up and moving when my hubby and I had gotten married because he was stationed IN North Carolina (lucky me!!)

Anyways we arrived in Homestead in the middle of June and spent the majority of the time doing what you do when you move and live on the economy... set up utilities, unpack, test out the gps to see how accurate it is (or isn't), and find a grocery store. After all of the housekeeping items had been accomplished we gingerly went out exploring and knowing no one it was a bit intimidating.

Heaven shined down on us in the form of the YMCA. Being a "Y" kid growing up I figured it would be a good start for the kids and I to make some friends over the summer and for me to continue my fight against the bulge (which I lose more oftern than I win these days)!!! On the counter in the lobby was a flier for a new Charter School starting up, and since I literally cried when I went and picked up my son's "welcome kit" from the public school he was to attend, I immediately jumped on that opportunity.

The biggest relief came when I visited my son's school and the daycare center next door. The director was really helpful and showed me around and told me all about their toddler/pre-k program. I wasn't really ready to put my daughter into daycare, but I was afraid that she would have no one around her other than myself to talk with and I was overly paranoid of speech delays. That's when the director asked me if I had heard of the Meetup group in the area. Meetup?? What's that? And do they speak any english? Some of you are laughing... you should I am a dork.

www.meetup.com is a group hosting site where people of like areas and interests come together and get together!! I found the Happy Homestead Kids group and the Natural Parenting group and immediately we were transitioned to Florida!! We have made tons of friends and explored all sorts of things down here together, so if you are stuck as to how to meet new people, check out Meetup!!!