SEC vs ACC

Here's hoping they don't match up Virginia Tech and Alabama again anytime soon! Mark and I went to the game this past weekend in Atlanta...along with my entire "Roll Tide" family and 2 of his "Hokie" friends. It was a great weekend all in all but during the game I was definitely a little stressed out. I am an Alabama fan BUT my husband who I love dearly is a dyed in the wool VT fan. Normally during football season we get along perfectly. Our teams are in different conferences and the games they each play rarely affect each other. And it's really fun generally to have 2 teams to cheer for! Go Hokies & Roll Tide! But when they play each other in the opening game of the season, it can be a little intense. Basically, the entire game I was just hoping that it would be a close, close game no matter who won. I just wanted peace in the family. So it would go like this....note that I'm sitting in between Mark and my dad....Alabama would score...Dad jumps up and down cheering and yelling for Alabama...VT would score...Mark jumps up and down yelling for Tech...a bad call for one team or the other and either dad or Mark would jump up and yell about the bad call....all the while baby C and I are sitting there just hoping the game stays close! And in the end, I basically got my wish. It stayed close til the end and Mark was such a GREAT sport about the outcome.

The craziest part came after the game. First let me describe our group a little so you understand why this all became such a big deal. There were 6 of us that had to get back to our hotel in Buckhead after the game was over. (Mark's friends left on their own.) And here's a picture of the 6 of us that needed to get back there--Me: 6 months pregnant in neutral white, Dad: hairline fracture in his ankle in Alabama colors, Clayton: wearing Alabama colors too and hobbling around b/c of a muscle injury in his leg, and the remaining 3 are Mom & Clayton's friend in Bama colors and Mark in his VT jersey. Dad had reserved a private car to get us back from the Ga dome to the hotel but before the game, Mark and I convinced him to cancel it b/c it was too expensive and we thought we could get a cab back for much less. Oops. Boy were we wrong! We walked & walked & walked to try to find a cab...and remember...we had some injured folks in our group. But to no avail! Then mom talked to one of the private drivers waiting on the side of the road and they could take us but my dad was missing and our cell phones weren't working. (Thanks AT&T!) So we missed that opportunity. So I said, "Let's just take the MARTA." Nope, the lines were CRAZY long and my dad has a fear of crowds and with this whole H1N1 scare out there he didn't want me to be in a crowded space like that. So, we waited...and nothing. Finally after waiting for a good while, we agreed that MARTA was our only choice, so we took it. It was pretty crowded still and my dad was VERY uncomfortable...and worried about me and Caroline. But it was really ok. Then after we had to switch trains to get to the correct stop, we got on a train with a bunch of drunken college students yelling obscene things. I could see my dad's blood pressure rising just by looking at his face! Oh man. But we (Dad, Clayton and I) hobbled back and Mom & Mark walked back to the hotel and got there safe & sound. Remind me not to encourage my dad to do something he doesn't want to again. I definitely should have let him keep that private car no matter how much it had cost. Lesson learned. Listen to dad's wisdom and don't think you know better. :)

On Sunday, we had a yummy breakfast together and then headed to Ikea to spend some money! I had done lots of research to find 2 things that we really needed to use space wisely in our little house. So we came home with a sofa bed for our office and a wardrobe so Mark & I can fit all our clothes in our bedroom. Love it!

And we made it back from Atlanta in 3.5 hours. Yep. Even with a pregnant lady in the car!

Here are some pics from the game...