Opening Day...

Crack open the peanuts and Cracker Jacks, it's opening day at Wrigley Field!!

We have TiVoed almost an entire day of programing from WGN, so we won't miss a minute of the Ernie Banks statue unveiling, pre-game coverage, the Cubs' first regular season game, and post-game coverage...guess I know what we'll be watching tonight!

GO CUBS!!

Hopefully, this is THE year!!

Delicious Dinner

Charles had the day off work today. Anytime Charles has a day off is almost as much of a treat for me as it is for him. We had lunch together - a really good Chinese buffet - and when I got home from work, Charles had the grill going (our first grilling session of the year). He cooked the most delicious steaks, grilled mushrooms and baked potatoes. He had even prepared a fruit mix of grapes and strawberries for dessert. We decided to enjoy the Spring weather and dined al fresco. It was such a nice dinner and was delicious!!

Easter

We hope you all had a wonderful Easter!
We did at the Willoughby house.

Charles gave me these beautiful flowers for Easter...
They are so pretty, and I just love the container they are in...
Charles got a basket filled with candy and goodies - a book about Wrigley Field and a brick from Wrigley Field (which didn't come in on time, so instead he got an IOU in one of the baseball eggs)...
Even Toula got an Easter basket...
It was hard for her to decide which treat to eat first...
Charles and I went to Mama and Jerry's for Easter lunch. We had a delicious lunch of turkey and ham, creamed potatoes, candid sweet potatoes, Ma's baked beans, squash casserole, pink salad, deviled eggs, and rolls...
And for dessert...Pink Lady Cake! My favorite!!
It was delicious!!After a quick egg hunt, Charles and I got to open our Easter baskets...
I got the cutest Coach purse - which I just love!! And Charles got a springy Polo and money.We made it back home in time to watch the MSU - Memphis game. The Dawgs played really well! But (in my opinion) due to some referee interference and much better free throw shooting by Memphis, it became a heart breaker rather than a victory...Oh well, go MSU (Michigan State University)!!

We then went to the Orpheum and saw Dirty Rotten Scoundrels. It was funny, and both Charles and I really enjoyed it!

Enjoying Spring...

We have all been enjoying the beautiful Spring weather. Our grass (or I guess I should say our weeds) were finally mowed this morning, and our yard is looking a little better.
Although Toula cannot be convinced to go outside and enjoy the weather, she must know that Spring is in the air, because she has been keeping us laughing the past couple of days.
She enjoyed having extra living room time yesterday while we were off work.
She began her day by sitting in the sun streaming in the windows.
Then she decided that the Kleenex box needed to be chewed on a little...Since chewing on the box caused it to lift into the air, she put her little paw up on it to keep it on the ground -- for better chewing... She then hopped and jumped all along the couch until she just flopped down...
After resting for a little bit, she noticed that Charles had gone to get a snack. She then jumped off the couch and begged and begged for a little bit of the cookie. She is just too pitiful when she begs, so of course, Charles gave her a little piece of his Jumble lemon cookie...
She is such a good little bunny. After eating, she just had to clean her face...
We are all getting ready for Easter in the Willoughby house. We hope you all have a wonderful one!

Bulldogs win...

What a beautiful Spring day we had in Hernando today. The sun was shining and a breeze was blowing which meant I spent more time in the sun today than I should have and am now just a little red...
And what a great evening, too!
After much nailbiting and several questionable calls, which caused lots of shouts at the Willoughby house, the Mississippi State Bulldogs make it to the second round of the big dance! How exciting to watch Rhodes play a career high game!
Wish I could say that my bracket was fairing as well...

March Madness...

Well, it's that time of the year again, and MSU has been invited to the dance! Charles and I have our brackets completed...it was hard to pick with my head instead of my heart (although I have the Dawgs going to the Elite Eight).

As always asked in The Hump, "Are you ready for some basketball...Mississippi State Style?"
Our answer is yes. Let the madness begin!!

Top 'o the Mornin'...

to you!
We hope you all have a Happy St. Patrick's Day!!
Remember to wear green to avoid getting pinched!

Visiting Day and Bad Weather

Yesterday was a day full of fun visits! Tammy brought Brooke by for a visit. Tammy is a former associate with the firm, and Brooke is her new two and a half month old baby. Brooke is just so cute with her little chubby cheeks and smelled just like a little baby should! We had a fun time holding her! When they first came Brooke was full of smiles and laughs for us and didn't mind being passed around. Well, after her little snack, she turned into a Mama's girl and would just fuss and fuss until her Mama was holding her again. At two and a half months old, she already has the perfect pout perfected! Unfortunately, I have no pictures to post.
Then later in the day, Katie came by to visit. She used to work after school at our office and is now in stenography school and doing great. We always enjoy getting visits from her.
A lovely day of visits ended with some very bad sounding weather late last night. The thunder roared while we got heavy rains and pretty large hail. Thankfully, we did not have any damage, and the strong winds and tornadoes that swept through Georgia missed us. Unfortunately, they did not miss the SEC tournament, but our Mississippi State Bulldogs pulled out a win to advance in the tourney! GO DAWGS!!!

Spring Break...

The weather for the past couple of days has been so nice and springy!
When Mama came up for our Girls' Day, she brought us these little daffodils which smell so sweet. I have found a place for them in the living room, and they are making our whole house smell so good... Charles is on Spring Break this week. Yesterday, I took off work so that we could finish some projects. I finally got the top coat on the dresser that I was repainting for our bedroom and which was the cause of my ankle sprain. Well, wouldn't you know my luck, after it was finished, I had Charles bring it into our room, and it just didn't fit right. So after all the problems and delays with that project, it is back at home in our attic!!
We did manage to clear off the patio of the dresser, leaves, birdseed and other debris from the snow, so it is now ready for Spring. Even though we didn't get much of our to-do list checked off, we did have a good day.
We had a lunch date at P.F. Chang's which was delicious, and we had bought some frozzzzen hot chocolate mix at Serendipity during our trip to New York, so we ended the day which a delicious treat!
We also found the prettiest pink and green French tulips which I just had to bring home with us...

Girl's Day...

of shopping!

Well, the snow melted rather quickly once the sun came out. The roads cleared so fast that Mama called late this morning to see if I wanted to go shopping in Memphis. We had planned on going sometime this weekend. We had the best time!
Our first stop was La Fleur's. We always enjoy looking in this store because they have unusual little things for the house and the most beautiful plants and flowers. They had out their Easter things and had the cutest bunny made from a gourd!
Then on to Macy's. We both had our Thanks for Sharing cards and wanted to use them!!
I have been wanting some new makeup for the Spring, so the first stop (after a brief detour by the sunglass counter to try on the cutest big Coach sunglasses which I managed to leave without) was at the Lancome counter. All the workers at that counter are always so nice and do the best job with my makeup. After purchasing necessities and new colors, it was on to the clothes department where I found some cute tops and really cute jackets. Mama bought me the cutest little green jacket - it is perfect for work, but I can wear it with jeans too. I just can't wait to wear it!
Then off to the shoe department, and, of course, we had to check out the purses on the way. We were disappointed with the shoe selection, but we both managed to find a pair of shoes to buy there. Macy's didn't have the cute little pink shoes or anything similar that I saw the last time we were shopping (while I was still in my walking boot), so we stopped by Dillard's. I was able to find plenty of pairs of shoes there that I liked, and thanks to Mama, I didn't have to whittle the selection down too far!!
After a day of shopping, we had dinner at the Olive Garden and then whirled through Target.
It was such an enjoyable day. We both had the best time!!

Snow Day...

The snow had covered our birdfeeder, so we put birdseed out on our back patio for the birds. We saw cardinals, doves, and all kinds of little birds and enjoyed watching them eat their breakfast... I cooked us a breakfast of eggs, biscuits and hot chocolate so that we would have a warm breakfast to give us energies to play in the snow.
We first measured, and on flat areas, we got 5 inches of snow. We had drifts around the yard of much more!
We then decided to build a snowman. We had trouble at first because the snow didn't want to stick. We finally got it going though...
We scrounged around the house for eyes, a nose and a mouth and found almonds for his eyes, a carrot, of course, for his nose, and grapes for his mouth...Charles thought a Cubs hat would be perfect to top him off...

The hat was a little too small for his head, so we traded it for a Cubs visor...
Our poor little snowman turned out a little whopsided, but we had lots of fun making him!!

By the time we finished with the snowman, the snow had mostly melted from the sidewalks and road...

Since we had all this snow, we had to take advantage of it and have a snowball fight...

We both got in some good shots, but Charles caught me with one right in the face...
Then we decided to sled. With my ankle still not being 100%, I thought it best for me to stay on the little incline in our backyard, so Charles took our fantasy draft boards from this year and last year (thank goodness, they will finally be going to the garbage now!!) up for us to try sledding on...

As you can see, our first idea did not work out too well...
I had a little better luck, but still did not sled far...
So, Charles decided to use our lawn chair cushion on the hill...this worked out much better...
We had a great time being kids this morning!!

A Winter Wonderland...

in Spring!

So yesterday the snow kept falling around 5:30...
and 6:00...

and 6:30...
and 7:30...
and while the snow fell, the wind was also blowing at times, making the snow whirl down from the roof (which was really pretty to watch)...
By 7:30 last night, we already had a couple of inches of snow on the ground...

Toula decided that since the snow just kept falling, she should make sure she had some extra shelter and protection...

She is a Southern bunny, so she made sure that she had plenty of groceries in her home during the snow...

It is so funny how any time snow is forecasted, the grocery stores are packed with people buying bread, milk and a few little other things, and it is really packed at the sight of the first actual flake...I think half of the people who I work with spent their lunch breaks or sent their spouse to pick up "bread, milk and a few other things," and they reported seeing pretty much the whole town there doing the same thing.

I kept checking periodically through the night, and snow flakes were still coming down around 10:30; however, by then it was a very light snow...

This morning, I couldn't wait to get up and see just how much snow we got!

While I haven't measured yet, you can see we got several inches...

This is definitely the most snow we have gotten since we moved here, and the most I have seen Northern Mississippi in quite a few years, if I remember correctly...
We already have little icicles forming from our roof, and the sidewalks and even the streets are icy!!
I can't wait for Charles to wake up so we can go play in the snow and build a snowman!!

Still snowing...

It's still snowing - and the flakes are bigger now!!
This was the scene around 4:30 p.m. As you can see, in an hour's time (from the last post), we're getting some accumulation...Charles is feeling a little under the weather, so I went outside to play in the snow by myself for a little while. There really aren't too many things more fun than playing - or just standing - in snow!!
The wind is really blowing too, so the snow is making its way under our back patio and onto my pansies...
It was getting a little cold out, so I went back in to add my scarf, and Charles came out with me for a little while...
Since it doesn't snow too much in our area of Mississippi, when it does, even if you are a little sick, you still have to go out in it - at least for a little while!

Snow...

So, our office closed early today because of snow!! Around noon today, we began getting a wintery mix of rain, sleet and a few snow flurries. It stopped and then later this afternoon, we started getting sleet and snow. It started accumulating on the cars and ground. When I got home, this was the scene in our backyard...It is still coming down, but now it is mostly snow!! It is really starting to blanket the ground and shrubs!! Maybe, we'll be able to build a snowman!

Friends and Seinfeld...

Remember when the NBC Thursday night line-up included Friends and Seinfeld (ah, the good old days when there were good shows on TV). Well, this Thursday, friends and Seinfeld were back for us. We had tickets to Jerry Seinfeld at the Orpheum last night, and our friend Matt came up from Jackson and went too.

We ordered tickets the first day they went on sale. We waited until that evening to purchase them, so our seats were in the lower balcony...

Even though our seats where pretty much at the top of the theater, we had a great time! The opening act and Seinfeld both put on a great show - very funny!! At the end, we even got a "Hello, Newman!"

Getting ready for Easter...

With Easter coming so early this year, I almost waited too late to get our house ready...I had said something about Easter decorations this weekend, and when I got home today, Charles had brought everything down from the attic for me...

During the commercials of American Idol (By the way, I think the guys are doing really well this year - better than the girls, and the '80's night was really good and fun!! I actually voted tonight for the first time in this year's competition) I did a little Easter decorating.

I added a touch of Easter to our entry with eggs and a cute little rabbit...

then a little boy rabbit and little girl rabbit found a home on our coffee table...
I already had changed out the potpourri to The Smell of Spring (that and OPI Cajun Shrimp came out this weekend -- we had wonderful Springlike weather this weekend, and to me once Spring is here, that means The Smell of Spring and Cajun Shrimp), so I just added a few eggs to Ma's tea cart...
then I had to find a special place for my cute little bunny from La Fleur's...

and I had to let the little rabbit in the breakfast area hold some Easter eggs...Of course, I had to set our breakfast table for Easter...
I love toile and the colors pink and green together (I know, I am a child of the '80's who really liked the preppy fashion), so these placemats and napkins are perfect for me...
and of course, Toula had to help and investigate all the other bunnies in the house!