Shehadeh big adventure in the Midwest thus far : )

Well we made it to the Heartland of the USA : ) While we feel like we’re starting to get a grip on living way up here in the hills – you know we no longer need a GPS to get most places – we still miss having our friends over for dinner and hanging out with our awesome family. I can’t believe we’ve been in Missouri for 2 weeks now! Although all the furniture’s in the house and all the boxes are unpacked, it doesn’t feel like we’ve been here that long. In an attempt to feel like we’ve been productive with our time and not lazy (watching 40+ episodes of Ugly Betty all day long) - Who said that?!, I asked Adam on our walk last night to help me recall what all we’ve done thus far...

1.BOUGHT A FRIDGE

So we needed a refrigerator, but it seems all of the stainless-steel-look fridges (I love magnests too much to get a stainless steel) in Columbia were not in stock and at least a 5 day wait. BOO!! Eating out is fun when you don’t HAVE to do it, but when you can’t get a cold drink without visiting the curb store – life is no fun. So, after visiting home depot, sears, best buy, and lowes (and actually purchasing a fridge from them), we stopped off at another locally owned place around the corner just to check out their stock…everything was WAY overpriced, and just as Adam told the salesman they were out of our league he pulled up a “hidden treasure” stored in the back…that could be delivered in 2 days and was way cheaper! Here’s the BEST part – he was from Monroe, LA!!

2.LICENSE & REGISTRATION
Check out Adam’s picture…the lady asked him to slide his glasses down a bit, which led him to give that divinere smile : )

Actually, the lady who helped us told us all about her wild times in Monroe, LA where her daddy sent her to college to get away from her no good boyfriend at the time...haha I wonder if she knows the refrigerator salesman : )

3.SETTLING IN & GOING WITH THE FLOW
So I got the house looking all cute...

… and Adam got the TV and computer set up. We even got some new furniture! Adam found this AWESOME deal on a nice computer desk on craigslist…and the guy offered to deliver it – thank goodness. It was quite a heavy bugger…but Adam got it all set up and in perfect position with the help of my new favorite invention: SLIDERS!

Next, it was time to go look for some bedroom furniture…so I threw in a load of laundry we headed off to the local flea market. After 20 minutes, Adam’s shopping energy ran low and we headed back to the house. When I got out of the car, I noticed a lot of water on the garage floor (here comes the “going with the flow” part). As soon as we opened the door to the house…we walked into a 1/2 inch of water on the laundry floor and a soaked kitchen and ¼ of our living room (right where the new HEAVY desk was set up –lol). Thank you draining hose on the washing machine! Oops!! I feel like the cute little couple on the LOWES commercials : ) (i've also had a few painting mishaps -- go figure!)

(click on the pic to go to the video)

The good news is that house insurance covers accidents! So we’ve become accustomed to concrete in the kitchen and are going to have new floors in our new house!

We were also welcomed to town by the Columbia welcoming people who gave us all kinds of fun gift certificates and “go green” shopping bags; were extremely late to the church the first Sunday because we couldn’t find the building : ) ; checked out the local farmer’s market; got a sofa and loveseat!; have probably made it to LOWES banned list for returning so many things : ) ; went to see the final Harry Potter; and we even enjoyed a fun few games of bowling!

So, I guess we have gotten a lot done!
Missing y'all from Missouri

Memorial Day Weekend

Before we get to memorial day, a little over a week ago, Adam graduated from LSU!!!
Aunt Donna & Uncle Clifton came over before the ceremony, then we were off to a couple of hours of speeches and clapping for all the graduates!! Check out the video to see Adam cross the stage...notice the lovely way they pronounced his name - so funny! We had ice cream, brownie sundaes to celebrate afterwards!!!

So... in light of his graduation, we decided to have party at our place...more specifically a BBQ. My whole family from New Orleans came up - which was sooo fun....and the first time they'd been up to visit, so it was a special day for many reasons!! Imade a yummy cake in the shape of a graduation hat with some twizzlers for the tassle. Adam grilled chicken and corn and pork - it was divine!!

We ate our hearts out and had a little fun with presents and played our new favorite card game - Golf!!!

THE LUAU!!!

A lady who attends my mom's church is Samoan and lived in Hawaii for much of her life. She and her family helped put on a traditional Luau!! It was so much fun!! We roasted two pigs and ate our guts out! After which, we learned to hula and sang enjoyed some traditional song and dances native to Samoa.

HOWEVER...funny story....before all of that, MOM and I went to the building earlier in the day to help set up. It. Was. HOT. We sweated buckets putting up cute decorations around the stage area outside the church. Well, when we returned 2 hours later, all our decorations were on the lawn!! But it was okay b/c we ended up having to move the dancing inside due to the weather!!

<-- Here we are before the rain!!!!

<-- Here we are learning the Hukilau

This is the lady who put it all on dancing with her dad as the chief's daughter!! So fun!

Happy Mother's Day

Sweet & Silly

Crazy about Mercury

So about 3 weeks ago exactly, I got a call from Adam about a dog he found on the Internet. I immediately went into lecture mode about how much responsibility dogs are and reminded him about the fact that we have cats and so on and so forth. His response was, "just take a loot at her." And a few hours later, well...I'll let the pictures do the talking:

Mercury is a Siberian Husky with a red and white coat and mezmorizing blue eyes.

As you can see, she and Adam became instatnt friends and she's fitting right in at home:

She is such a good dog - well trained and she loves people. Here's some footage of her and Adam playing together...we're in love! Oh - and P.S. at the time of the video, her name was ALASKA, but we felt that wasn't creative enouhg, so now she's Mercury.

Easter Break

This Easter Break was great!! First, we spent Easter Sunday at Nanny's where we played in the sun AND played our annual Russell volleyball match - girls v guys. Unfortunately, we got beat - next year we'll get'em!!

Easter Morning

"I GOT IT!!!"

The Champs and the Losers

(notice mom's backwards "L" - haha)

COOLING OFF

HOUSTON!!!!

Then Adam and I took off for the weekend to visit some friends of ours - Joseph and Kallan Rotolo and their precious dog Pearl. Houston was really fun! Who knew a bayou flowed right through the city? We went for a pretty walk along it one day ane we went to IKEA and we went to the Wall of Water. In short, in was a great trip! And they cooked us some yummy steaks and waffles : )

Wall of Water

Dandelion Fountain - the water blew out when the wind blew - so cool!!

We went to an old plantation and garden home : )

With a SPRING in our step...

Two Stepin' in the Mornin'

We had quite a fun filled weekend this past weekend. We woke up early Saturday morning - 6am to be exact to go Cajun dancing in Breaux Bridge with some youth from our church.

We had lessons on Tuesday night, so we could show off our skills on Saturday. We went to a quaint little cafe called Cafe Des Ami for breakfast (boudin, cheese & andoullie grits and eggs - YUM!) and dancing with the locals. I really think I got my Pawpaw's dancing genes. It is my goal to learn to jitter bug with the best of the locals by the end of the year!!! Anywho, we had a blast and learned some good moves. At one point, the band took a break, and an older man said in his creole tongue as he danced, "I don nee no music - I got it up heyah in mah head. Wach me now " haha - so awesome!!

On our way home, we stopped off at the Conoco Gas Station in Grosse Tette to see the Tiger.

Stompin' in the Swamp

When we got home, it was off to Bluebonnet Swamp to enjoy the beginnings of Springtime and give Adam some practice with his new hobby - creating virtual tours. Due to this, our walk took a little longer, but he'll only get better with practice! And it was so nice to escape the real world for a while and enjoy the nature's quietness.

Crawfish Picnic

We headed out yet again to eat some yummy crawfish, compliments to Adam's brother - Snake, who makes crawfish better than any local I know! Some friends of ours grabbed a picanic table at Baton Rouge Beach and we chowed down on crawdads...

while Roxy chowed down on a frisbee : )

Here's a pic of me and Shalom, my neice - but not really - haha.

Baby Love
After a nap and a church activity with the girls, we were off again to see the newest addition to our family, our neice, RILEIGH JOY. We got to change her diaper and feed her!!! Then Uncle Adam rocked her back to sleep - so sweet!!!

Needless to say...we slept very well Saturday night and had a Lovely and Relaxing SUNDAY!!!

Shehadeh Update

It's been a while since I have blogged; however, one awesome thing has come to be since my last post - I have a memory stick adapter so I can put up pics now instead of finding goofy kids with mullets on the Internet - haha So here's your Shehadeh Update: (1)My brother ISAIAH and my almost sister KATHY made the trek down from Minnesota for a few weeks. We went downtown to show them how amazing new orleans is not only at Mardi Gras but when the Saints are headed to the Superbowl : )

The SAINTS WON THE SUPERBOWL!!

and we celebrated...and celebrated...and celebrated...

Yummy Valentine's Day Dinner

cooked by my personal chef and husband!! It was a pork roast with veggies and sausage - SOOOOOO good!

Murder Mystery

Adam and I participated in a murder mystery dinner at church - 40s themed!! It was so much fun...and I turned out to be the murderer - haha!!

A NEW GARAGE DOOR!!!

So, our garage door has been broken for a while. It will go all the way down then pop back up on its own. Well, we had a GO USA party during the Olympics and I ran out to get some chips. So when I came back home, I closed the garage door...and it popped up again as I was talking to one of my friends... So I hit the button again to put it back down. This time, it came back up AGAIN and my friend said, "I think it's hitting their car!" OOPS!! That is exactly what happened. The good news - their car wasn't hurt. The bad news....the pressure the door put as it tried to push down (on the car) bent the garage door and made it impossible for the opener to open and close it! BIG OOPS....followed by lots of blessings: Adam found a door the exact size we needed for free on craigslist from a guy in Sulphur, Adam's brother had free access to a trailer, adn we got a new garage door opener for super cheap from my parents home town!!!

Then came the installation - thanks to YouTube videos, Adam was able to install the door himself...with some help from Dad and Michael, and it only took....drumroll......14 hours!!! lol But he did it! Here are some pictures...notice how the third panel is the same color as the rest of the door because after I took these pictures, unfortunately the third panel was a little messed up so we had to use our old door which is a different color. So - we have a striped garage door!! haha - oh well, at least we have one!