Home Sweet Home!

As of Thursday morning at approximately 9:22 am, the house pictured above officially became our new home! Since that time we have been playing the waiting game for all of our belongings to arrive from Canada and storage in Arizona. The moving company gave a window of time between 8/29-9/2 for the trucks to get here and unload...knowing that the 1st is Labor Day I anticipated that it wouldn't happen until the 2nd at the earliest. I'm a bit nervous that Tuesday will not work out because of Hurricane Gustav that is currently headed towards the coast of Louisiana. Although we are far from where the actual hurricane will hit, the weather people are predicting lots of rain and high winds here starting on Tuesday thru Thursday. I'm pretty sure that the moving company won't be doing much moving in a tropical storm...just a hunch. My fingers are crossed that the storm will just dissipate, but have a feeling that is just wishful thinking.

New iPhone = 2 Cool 4 Words

I can't quite finds the appropriate words to describe how amazing I find my new iPhone! In fact I'm writing this post on it...it's so cool to have all of these features at my fingertips. It really is so much more than a phone and I would highly recommend it to anyone wanting to stay connected.

Making New Friends!

Last week I did some shopping at the local mall. I'm in the need of more professional looking work clothes for when I land my dream job next month (yes, I'm putting that out there). Well Dillard's happens to be my department store of choice and I found a cute skirt and dress shorts for a great deal (under $40 for both). I was still looking around a bit and one of the store associates, Christine, approached me to see if I needed any assistance. Well, we ended up chatting for a while and found out that she just moved here to town about a month ago. It was crazy how much we had in common and she ended up giving me her number. I called her and we hung-out yesterday afternoon and had an absolute BLAST together. The original plan was to layout at her pool but the weather was not cooperating. She had heard that they have drive-thru liquor stores and a drive-thru daiquiri store and suggested we give it a try since neither of us had been and we had nothing better to do. It seemed to both of us that having such establishments only promotes drinking and driving...but who are we to judge. We got there during Happy Hour so drinks were 2-for-1 price. She asked the woman at the window what the drinks of the day were and what she recommended...the woman's first questions was, "How strong of a drink do you want?" and proceeded to name of the drinks that were the strongest. I ended up with a 32oz margarita and Christine got a 32oz Frozen Long Island Iced Tea. What to do after picking up these cocktails you may ask??? Get manicures and pedicures of course! So we took our drinks inside and got a little pamper treatment. One of the guys doing our nails asked if we were best friends and was shocked when we said we just met a few days ago. It's nice to have a girlfriend to hangout with around here.

Dogs In Charge

When I got up this morning Miss Sally was up on the chair...not bad for an 11 year old (the furniture that's in this apartment isn't very high). The dogs aren't typically allowed up on the furniture but are allowed while we're living in such a state of disarray...plus the furniture is hideous and uncomfortable. Thanks for the suggestions on Champ. We all agree that there have been other pets that have lived in the same apartment and probably had accidents all over the place. I'm more than ready to get moved into the new house and see all of our belongings that have been in storage for the past year...it's going to feel like Christmas!

White Dog Anyone???

Champ has been a VERY bad dog since getting here to Louisiana (Jenn, you asked). We take him out to go potty on a very regular basis, yet he still has peed 3 times inside the apartment we're staying in AND #2 twice! I'm not sure if it's hormones or just being unsettled from the move, but the second time I walked in after a workout and there was pooh on the carpet I got really upset. I could have almost just put him outside so he could fend for himself. It also upsets me because Ray always gives the guy a hard time and I'm always there to defend Champ...but he has only proved me wrong and Ray right. Yes, he's very cute, lovable and cuddly...but how many guys can you say that about that are complete idiots...I think we all would agree that we would each need more fingers and toes to count on.

Goal Accomplished!

When I set the goal 4 weeks ago to burn 2,000 by running/jogging/walking in 4 weeks by using the Nike Plus gadget I have, it seemed like it would be a piece of cake (mmmmmmmm, did someone say cake?). It was a bit more of a challenge than anticipated due to the move and a lack of energy. I typically burn about 100 calories every 10 minutes jogging...so unfortunately it was not a one and done kind of goal. I tend to be one of those people that if I set a goal (especially if I make that goal public) I feel the obligation to come through...Jenn, I have a feeling you're the same in that regard...you too Stephanie since you post your New Year's resolutions on your blog to stay accountable. So I guess the blog helped give me the motivation to come through on my word, which is exactly what I need at times. Oh, part of Ray's deal with his job is a gym membership for the two of us which is always a nice perk.

And Jennifer, you and your family are more than welcome to come for a visit anytime you'd like! After looking at over 35 houses we decided on one and will be closing on the 28th. It's in a gated community, 4 bedroom, 3 full bath, 2,100 square feet and has a community pool...counting down the days to get settled.

So Far, So Good!!!

It's official...I absolutely love it here in this part of Louisiana. I can't tell you how wonderful it is to be living in a warm climate once again!!! Plus there is a ton of stuff to do around here. I truly can't believe that we have not been here a week. The people here are really friendly and we have yet to have bad service in any of the restaurants we've been to. Only one bad meal so far and that was last night. You see, I'm a bit of a gambler and since we've gotten to town have told Ray that I wanted to check out the Horseshoe Casino (the one in Downtown Vegas is my favorite casino), so we went last night...I should mentioned that Ray does not like to gamble or be around the type of people that frequent casinos, which is why the totally stay there was less than an hour. Anyway, I took a page out of Suzanne's book and insisted to stop and get a "players card." By getting this card you can gain points by playing to get comps. Well part of signing up gave us two free passes to the buffet in the hotel...thank goodness we didn't have to pay because the food was terrible. The only thing that was edible was the desert. It was still nice to check it out and the hotel has a CMT bar with a lot of live country music which is pretty cool. You may be wondering what else is so great about the area...well there is plenty of great shopping, a boardwalk by the river, bike paths, good restaurants, an arena (can't wait to see Taylor Swift in concert), and little to no snow in the winter. Every time I tell Ray how much I like it here he says that I haven't even scratched the surface, so it's nice that there's so much stuff to check out.

M.I.A. No More

I've been meaning to sit down and blog for the past week but for various reasons this is the first opportunity I've had. Well big news for those that I spoken to in the past 2 weeks...Ray & I are no longer living in the great white north of Canada (Stephanie...I hope that you will continue to read my blog even though I'm no longer living in Canada...I LOVE getting comments from you!). We are now living in Bossier City/Shreveport Louisiana! We got into town on Tuesday night (less than 48 hours ago) after 38 long hours on the road with the dogs. It's a very drastic change of scenery and at first sight I think I'm really going to enjoy living here. Suzanne, they even have 5 casinos here that we can hit when you and JD come for a visit. I'm at Starbucks right now because we don't currently have internet access at our temporary housing. I was out all day yesterday with our real estate lady and am trying to get my bearings. It's always a bit strange the first few weeks of moving to a new city, especially one I've never seen before, to figure out where things are. I'll blog a bit more when I have some time and am a bit more settled.