Easter 2011

Mama and Jerry took Charles and me to Como Steakhouse on Good Friday to celebrate Easter.

So, we invited them to join us for an Easter lunch... of chicken salad, Wheat Thins, and fresh pineapple, cantaloupe, strawberries, grapes and kiwi...
followed by strawberry trifle for dessert...We all enjoyed our lunch!

Mama brought me these beautiful peonies from her yard...
I just love peonies, and our living room smells so good now!


On Easter eve, we made sure that Toula would have an Easter basket filled with goodies...
Toula was excited to see her basket and couldn't wait to find out what all was in it...

After giving everything a good sniff...

and checking out her basket from all angles...

Toula decided just which treat she wanted, and she turned the basket over to better get at that treat!

She was so cute nibbling on each treat...She was so happy with her treats...

that she sat still and let me take her picture...

She was cute chewing on her hay. She looked like the Cadbury bunny!

Charles and I enjoyed watching her with her hay. Instead of just eating some, she was very selective and sniffed and nudged the hay around until she found just the perfect piece to eat!
We hope you all enjoyed your Easters as much as we enjoyed ours!

Something Old...Something New...Something Borrowed...

I had had a bad week last week, so Charles decided to surprise me with some cheery sunflowers...

which were beautiful!

However, on his way back from Blossoms, he stopped to get gas, and now his old Altima looks like this...

Thank goodness for sports talk radio, because if Charles had not been listening to something of interest on it, he would have been out pumping gas...

when the 2 cars collided, sending one airborne and colliding into his car. That car pushed Charles' car up and plowed into the gas pump which Charles had stopped at, turning it on its side.

The crash was so violent that it took all but 2 petals off of my third sunflower...

Charles said that the flowers were in the back of his car but that after the crash, the petals from this sunflower were all strewn around the front seats.

Thankfully, Charles walked away with just a black eye and sore leg, neck and back.

This little sunflower did more than cheer me up, it showed me how much I have to be thankful for!

So, for about a week, Charles has been driving a borrowed vehicle...

Since the rental vehicle has to go back, we spent Good Friday looking at cars, and at the end of the day, drove home in something new...

Grizzlies v Timberwolves

On April 2nd, Charles and I headed back to the FedEx Forum to watch the Memphis Grizzlies take on the Minnesota Timberwolves. I was hoping to see Kevin Love in action and see if he could get a double double against the Grizzlies, but he was out of the game due to injury and did not even travel with the team. We arrived in time to watch the Grizzlies warm up...Our seats were really good! We ended up on the first row of seats, so we were really able to see all of the action...

Z-Bo...

and the rest of the Grizzlies were announced...

and the crowd was ready for some Grizzlies basketball!

From tip-off...

the Grizzlies played well...

They did pretty good at the line, too...

Our time out entertainment was a group of little dancers who all did a great job, altough the lone boy really hammed it up and stole the show!

The Grizzlies were leading after the half, and we enjoyed being up close to see their second half warm-ups...

Michael Beasley wasn't able to do too much against the Grizz...

Battier... Z-Bo...Conley and the rest of the Grizz really frustrated the T-Wolves!

The T-Wolves did keep the game competitive...

but in the end, the Grizzlies walked away with another win!

Grizzlies v. Clippers

March 14, 2011, Charles and I headed to the FedEx Forum to watch the Memphis Grizzlies take on the L A Clippers. We found our seats which were just fantastic... We ended up being really close to the action on the court! This meant that we got an up close view of Blake Griffen warming up...

I was just waiting to see him dunk! First though, we had to watch practice free-throws...

perimeter shots, jump shots and lay-ups. Then he left the court, and I was disappointed.

The Grizzlies took the court for warm-ups...

and we got to see Zach Randolph, Marc Gasol, Mike Conley, O J Mayo, Darrell Arthur, Sam Young, Tony Allen and the rest of the Grizzlies warm up...

The Clippers came back onto the court...

and I finally saw Blake Griffen at least leave his feet (although still no dunks)...

I would love to know just what all the opposing players say to each other before the game! Through out the warm-ups, everyone had their cameras out and were waiting on a dunk...

and we finally saw one!!

After the dunk, Griffen hung on and swung from the hoop - that's the best!

After the players were announced, it was time for some basketball!

From tip-off...

to the end of the game, the Grizzlies played well!

They played really good defense too...

We really liked our seats which were just a little to the side of behind the basket. We were really able to see the free-throws...

and the expressions on the players faces...

and were really close to all the scuffles for the ball!

I love watching Z-Bo (and his headband)...

and we got to see Shane Battier back in action with the Grizzlies!It was a fun game to watch...

with lots of scoring and lots of defensive plays...

and just a little time standing around... During pre-game and during half-time, kid teams played. They had some really good little ballers! Especially 2 for the blue team - he was making great shots and making some good defensive plays...

After the half, the Grizzlies continued to play well... Since we were only 5 or 6 rows back...

we got to see all of the Grizzlies up close...The bench played really good too, so we got to see some good plays by Ish, Haddadi, Vasquez, Powe and the others.

The whole game, I kept waiting to see a Blake Griffen dunk - I've seen enough SportsCenter highlight reels to know what to expect. Well, the Grizzlies played really well defensively and all first half, Griffen had no dunks. During the second half as I was looking down at my program, I heard Charles and the rest of the area explode. Blake Griffen had finally dunked! Not only did I not capture the dunk with my camera , I had missed it entirely! (I was really upset that I missed it, so after we got home, Charles watched SportsCenter, Highlight Express, NBA network until they finally showed the dunk so that I could see what I missed!)

Even though I missed Blake Griffen's dunk, I did catch the funniest dunks of the evening!

Super Grizzlie came out during a time out and dunked for us...

After that dunk, a vehicle was brought out and driven under the goal...

and Super Grizzlie dunked right over it!

Of course, the crowd erupted! We think that Super Grizzlie did way better than Blake Griffen does in his commercial! It was really funny to watch Griffen after that dunk - he just shook his head and kept a blank look on his face!

The Grizzlies played well both offensively and defensively and were rewarded with a Grizzlies win!!