Early Anniversary Surprise...

Charles surprised me today with an early 6th anniversary present - these beautiful (6) roses... He slipped into my office just after I left for lunch; apparently he had staked it out and watched me leave before he continued driving around the Square to my office. When I called him as I was leaving the office to find out our lunch plans, we said that he was just finishing up getting his oil changed and would meet me at home -- how sneaky. He drove up just a few minutes after I arrived home, and we had a delicious Chinese buffet lunch. My fortune said: "Even a small gift could mean so much to someone today." After I read it, I started to leave it at the restaurant, but Charles told me to take it and put it on my desk. When I got back to work, I understood why. Of course, everyone at work thinks that Charles is just as wonderful as I do! Everyone agreed that the flowers are beautiful.
I absolutely love the roses - a cabbage leafed rose with pale pink petal tips and light chartreuse and ivory petal bases. I love the greenery and dusty miller in the arrangement too; it reminds me of the magazine picture I took to Wanda Carol to show her how I wanted my wedding bouquet to look. The arrangement and the colors - just everything about it - reminds me of our wedding -- such wonderful memories!
Here's a view looking down at the arrangement...

and one from the back...
and one more view...

B is for...

Brick and Bunny

Charles finally got his last Easter present. As luck would have it, I happened upon the Chicago Cubs website earlier this year and saw that bricks from Wrigley Field were for sale. Since Charles is such a big Cubs fan, I thought I had found the perfect, different and original gift for him. Of course when I ordered it, I thought that it said that shipping would be in a few weeks, so I made a little note and put it in the baseball egg in his Easter basket thinking that any day after Easter it would arrive. After weeks and weeks went by, Charles asked if I was sure I bought a brick and not a paver (which they recently installed around Wrigley Field). I actually started wondering myself just what I had purchased! Anyway, yesterday (fittingly, on Charles's last day of school, since I always say we have to celebrate that) and while watching the Cubs (they won!) play the Dodgers, this delivery came...Now we just need to have the bookshelves for the living room and computer room built that I want so that everyone can enjoy a little bit of Wrigley!

And now for the Bunny -- Miss Toula Willoughby!

I think that Toula has a touch of baby fever too. Recently she has been taking very good care of her little bunny friend.

She carries it and places it in her comfy bed with her...

and snuggles with and nurtures it...
but then she also uses it as a shield when she is tired of having her picture taken!!

Happy Memorial Day

We hope everyone is having a good Memorial Day.
It has been a nice, relaxing day for us. Even though it is a little hot, the breeze has been blowing all day, so I was able to enjoy a little time reading in the sun today, and Charles was able to enjoy a Cubs win today.
This evening we enjoyed a delicious outdoor dinner of ribs (cooked using my Dad's recipe), Ma's baked beans and rolls. For dessert, we had individual strawberry trifles - I found the cutest dessert stemmed bowls which reminded me of Serendipity's frozzzen hot chocolate dishes, and they are perfect for the individual trifles.
I haven't decided yet on a place on the front of our house for a flag mount, so we were unable to fly an American flag today to celebrate Memorial Day and show our support and admiration for all those who have and are serving our country and making the United States a place where we are free to enjoy many nice, relaxing days.

Dinner and a Movie

Last night Charles and I had a date night to celebrate his last day of school (although he still has to return for staff development after Memorial Day) -- I think I was more excited about it being his last day than he was. This time of the year always makes me wish that I was back in school or was a teacher too - although August through June, I don't have the same wish!
We enjoyed a delicious dinner at On the Border and then saw Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull which was really enjoyable and entertaining! I would definitely recommend adding it to your summer movie list.

A'fair

Today was Hernando's A'fair. The weather was just perfect for it! There were a lot of booths set up this year with really neat things and the cutest things for babies and little children -- hopefully by next year we can actually shop for those cute little things. Anyway, this year, I found several things that I really liked and ended up buying a cute picture frame, a fun gourd birdhouse and the cutest little pink birdhouse... I also found the cutest fleur de lis candlier which would be just perfect for the sitting area under a pergola that I want. That vendor comes each year, so hopefully, in the next couple of years I can make that purchase too.

This evening Charles took me out for a date night. We thought about dinner and a movie. Kyoto's (a Japanese steak house) finally opened in Hernando, so we went there for dinner. Two hours later, we finally were finished and able to leave. Needless to say, we decided to forgo the movie part of the night. Hopefully the wait staff will get more on the ball and the kinks can be worked out soon, because the food was good, and our chef was really good!

Happy Mother's Day

This morning, I was surprised with a present from Toula... It was a Peter's pottery vase I had been wanting for a while...
When I stopped at Talk of the Town for Mama's Mother's Day present, I bought myself one without the indentions but strongly hinted to Charles that I wanted one with the indentions as well. Thankfully, he took the hint!!
Mama came up for lunch.
First she opened her Mother's Day present...

Then we treated her to lunch -- good food and good company, right Mama?

Hope you all are having a wonderful Mother's Day!!

Crawfish Boil

Yesterday, Charles and I had a crawfish boil at our house. Everything turned out great, and we had a great time catching up with our friends!!

We got the house ready by adding a few flowers in the kitchen... and in the guest bathroom...
Then we moved some things around outside to make room for the food under the patio...
and got the patio ready for the food and the guests...
Charles was in charge of icing down the drinks...
While I got the desserts ready on the kitchen island...
Once we were finished with the prepping, we set out the plates...Charles cooked some delicious sausage to add to the sausage tray...
And then we spread out the crawfish...
I cooked the potatoes and corn to go along with the delicious crawfish we bought.
For dessert, we had a fruit tray with fruit dip, Danish wedding cookies and congos...
Once everything was set up, Charles had to test the crawfish!!

We had lots of fun visiting with everyone!

Its always fun catching up with Dan and Courtney; they always have the funniest stories to share. Courtney is due in about two months and looks great!!Shane, Whit, Preston and Ainsley came. It has been so long since we have seen each other, but Whit was exactly right when she said yesterday that you can tell that we are all such good friends because even though we don't see each other as often as we would like, each time we get together it is like we saw each other yesterday! Here Ainsley is enjoying a little juice in her sippy cup...
Cliff, Robin, Katie and Will came too. It was so good to see them all; this was the first time I'd seen Robin since she is expecting again, and she looked so cute! And it's always good to see Cliff, who just makes every party!!

And all of their children are just so cute and so much fun!

Katie enjoyed the lawn chair! Isn't she just too cute!!

I saw her in the lawn chair and told her to say cheese so that I could take her picture. Will then climbed into the other lawn chair and said cheese too! Of course, I had to snap that cute picture! They all had a great time climbing in and out of the folding chairs -- too cute!!
I think Charles had just as much fun playing as the kids did. He played soccer with them and then blew bubbles for much of the afternoon!
After Charles blew a few bubbles, Preston blew a few and then turned around and around and around making lots of bubbles for everyone to pop!
Preston and Katie played so well together!

They found some rolly pollies which I think made their way home with them!!

Charles Willoughby...

Teacher of the Year!!

This afternoon the South Panola School District had a reception honoring the Teacher of the Year from each school, and Batesville Junior High's honoree was none other than Charles. The reception was very nice and had a good turn out. It was nice to see some of my old teachers and acquaintances, and everyone I saw (along with everyone at work) told me how proud there were of Charles and what a good teacher he is...something I already know...


The teachers of the year from each school...
Charles and Carla Rudd -- Teacher of the Year and Parent of the Year from BJH...
This shot of Charles holding his certificate and me is definitely one for the scrapbook...
Mama and Jerry came to the reception and the Dillons were there too...
Mama and Jerry offered to take us out to eat to celebrate, but we had dinner with Matt, MaryAnn and Nathan. Mama wasn't at the reception long before she was holding Nathan and with him being such a good and happy baby, she is saying even louder that she is ready for a grandchild...
I had to make a quick stop at Blossom's before the reception and when Wanda Carol found out why I was in town, she was so excited for him, she made me wait so that she could make a congratulations arrangement for Charles from her and Mary Nell...
Each of the teachers and parents of the year were given a fern...We're going to have to find a shady spot which may prove to be a little difficult!
Of course, I had to take a picture of Charles' certificate...

Cinco de Mayo

Feliz Cinco de Mayo!!
I am just waiting for Charles to get home so that we can go to Guadalajara to celebrate! After all the Mexican food we eat, I think that we must celebrate Cinco de Mayo by enjoying some fajitas!! The funny thing is, my mom who has teased me for some time due to my fondness of Mexican food -- Mexico Tipico (Starkville), Tequilla's (Oxford) and Guardalajara (Hernando) beat me to the celebration by having lunch with Miss Denise (a friend of hers and Robin, my friend's mother) at Mi Pueblo in Batesville! Even better, she left a message for Charles and me wishing us a happy Cinco de Mayo and singing a cute little Cinco de Mayo song - it certainly brought a smile to my face!!

I think that Ma's Christmas cactus is turning into a Cinco de Mayo cactus!! I was so disappointed when this cactus didn't bloom at Christmas; I was afraid it might not make it much longer. But it seems to be doing better now, and gave us a nice surprise by blooming now...

Here Comes the Sun...

Friday, I was in Oxford for a Family Law CLE (continuing legal education). I left around 4:45 which was apparently right when the storms were headed that way. The rains started out pretty light, but by the time I was on Highway 6 right out of Oxford, the bottom dropped out of the sky. I turned into a gas station and sat under the gas pump awnings while I tried to find out what the weather was doing on my path home. Since the winds began to pick up and I got a little nervous about sitting next to a gas pump and Charles said that the radar was showing that I should be okay, I braved driving in the rains. Thankfully, that is all I had to drive through. I had the radio tuned to an Oxford station which alerted me to be on the lookout for tornadoes. When I got right outside to Batesville, I really thought that I might just encounter one. The sky was so dark and the air was just eerily hazy. The sky toward Hernando looked lighter, so I decided to drive to Hernando rather than stop at Mama's. After a little more rain, the skies cleared long enough for me to make it home, but as soon as I was in the house, the next round came through. Thankfully, the tornadoes missed us, but we were still up most of the night watching the weather reports.
After Friday though, the sun came out and the rest of the weekend was very nice.
Saturday evening, we went to Oxford to see Matt, MaryAnn and Nathan. He has grown so much. We also saw Mark and Katie and Grace who is just too cute (and had on the cutest little outfit with little daises on it) and a little older than Nathan! I had so much fun watching the two of them play together. Of course, we forgot to take the camera. I did manage a shot which my cell's camera, but as you can see that camera doesn't take the best pictures!! After dinner, during which both Grace and Nathan behaved really well, we went to Matt and MaryAnn's for a little more play time with Nathan. We had a great time!!

Blustery Winds

I thought that it was April which was supposed to have the lion-like blustery winds. However, we've been getting them here for the past couple of days. This type of weather makes me want to go buy a kite to fly, but with the gusty winds we have been having lately, we would probably have a hard time keeping its line untangled.
Yesterday, we came home to find newspaper strewn all over our back yard. The winds had gusted so forcefully yesterday that the landscaping cloth had torn where some of the pins were placed and was blowing back allowing all the newspaper to blow about. So after dinner we spent our evening out buying new pins, stuffing newspapers back in place and re-securing the cloth with LOTS of pins. We had more gusting winds today, so I guess we did a good job last night - when I got home, I peeked in the back yard and thankfully no newspapers were scattered about.