Drown 'em TIDE!!

Football season has arrived here in our beautiful college town! One of the things I have enjoyed about living back in Tuscaloosa has been being back in the heart of the magic of football season in t-town! This season is really special with the arrival of our new (and very expensive) coach...Nick Saban! The buzz started from the minute we hired him and Saturday as he ran on to the field for his first game the atmosphere was downright electric. I even teared up!! It has been a long time coming for the Crimson faithful. After too many mediocre seasons, we are ready to win some games and after watching Saturday night...I believe we are finally going to do just that!!

I have loved football pretty much all of my life! I was one of the few cheerleaders in high school that actually understood the game and knew the difference between offense and defense! ha!!
When I was the Varsity cheerleading coach at Hoover, I actually borrowed game tape and made my girls sit down and watch it and learn the rules of the game. The moms thought I was the anti-christ...the dad's, however, loved it! When Jeff and I met our first date was to go to a UA game. He tells this story all of the time! We were in the stands and I was screaming at Shula for poor play calling on 3rd and 18...please, anything but up the middle! Anyway, Jeff says he knew immediately he would marry me! I have been known to be a little on the animated side more than once! I plan on raising Anderson that way as well! The other day we were at a local bookstore and they had some Auburn stuffed tigers. Of course, Anderson went right for them. I scooped him up and quickly said "No No...Dirty!" The man in line next to us laughed so hard I thought he was going to pee on himself. Hey you have to start them young!

Between the two of us I don't think we have missed too many home games in the last...ummm...let's see...20 years! I grew up here so that was just what you did on the weekends in the fall...it was expected! Jeff grew up in that other state to our north...think lots of orange...ick! However, he was always the kid in elementary school wearing an Alabama jersey on the Friday before game day! Everyone in his family were big UT fans! In fact Phil Fulmer is from Jeff's hometown, but my honey was all about the Tide...even then! When he told his dad he was in fact coming to school in Tuscaloosa he said "Oh no son...tell me something else anything else...tell me your gay, just don't tell me you are going to Alabama!" Well he did and then stayed for law school and never left. Tuscaloosa can have that effect on you! Only a few escape it's charm and even then they usually end up back here like I did!

We are excited about our new coach. Some are saying he's a jerk...not nice
enough...not media friendly enough. I don't care if he's nice...I want to win and preferably against Auburn! I even can say from experience that he is a very personable guy in the right circumstance! Jeff and I were at dinner at Depalma's one night and in came the coach and his wife. He sat down right next to me at the bar as we waited for our tables. I couldn't resist and turned around to tell him how happy we are that he is here and that we hoped they liked Tuscaloosa. He was polite...said thank you but that was it. However 5 minutes later he turned to us and struck up a conversation about great places to eat in town and told us all about the movie he and his wife had just seen. He was very nice...very personable and warm. Then we went our seperate ways, but as he was leaving he took the time to come all the way over to our table pat Jeff on the back and tell us to have a great night. For weeks Jeff told people that we had "Dinner" with the Sabans!!Ha!! We do run into his wife a good bit as they live about 4 neighborhoods down from us. Last week Anderson and I were at Publix and he was super fussy, so I handed him a yogurt to hold and fiddle with.
He proceeded to break through the foil top with his teeth and ended up with strawberry yogurt smeared all over his face. None of this I realized because I was unloading groceries at the register. She politely pointed it out and laughed and even helped me as I struggled to keep him in the cart and fish out wipes from my diaper bag. Too funny!! Here I am in this awful and sticky situation and who do I have to be next to in line...none other than Mrs. Saban!


We took Anderson out to the campus Friday night to take some pictures of him in his birthday jersey. They really turned out great! We even took him to dinner at Phil's on campus. That is where Jeff and I met on our blind date before walking over to the game together. We had to show Anderson where it all started! Maybe one day he might get to wear a real jersey...never hurts to dream, right??