Our Week - The One with the National Championship Game and Parade in Athens

Well, we kicked off last week with another National Championship win, and we are over the moon, y’all!  We are so proud of our Dawgs for winning it for the second year in a row!  What a way to start off 2023!    

Monday, January 9

Monday, I dropped the kiddos at school and then went home to do laundry and work for the rest of the day.  I had the most productive day, knocking out several blog posts, and getting a lot of my office cleaned out.  Granted, there’s not much to do in my office since I maintain everything pretty well in there, but it still felt great to get rid of some clutter, wipe down some surfaces, and get everything nice and tidy.

After school, the kids and I headed to Olivia’s dance studio to drop her off for her first classes of the new year, and then Jacob and I headed over to the kids’ music school for his first piano lesson of the new year.  He was excited to see his teacher and get back into the swing of things… especially since he received that new full-sized keyboard for Christmas!  He has been practicing on it nonstop all Christmas break, and he was excited to show Mr. Joseph what he’s been learning.  We’ve been hearing Fur Elise on repeat for weeks.  Haha.

While he was in his lesson, I chatted with one of the other music teachers who didn’t have a lesson, and he’s a big Georgia fan, so we got each other all hyped up about the National Championship game that was still to come later in the day.

After piano lessons, Jacob and I headed home, and I started cooking dinner (meatballs, mashed potatoes, roasted broccoli, carrots, and green beans, and blueberry muffins).  Yes, we eat blueberry muffins as dinner bread sometimes… it adds a little pop of sweetness to an otherwise savory meal.  My Momma has been doing that my whole life and I’ve carried on the tradition.  :o) 

While I cooked, B headed off to pick up Olivia from dance.  By the time dinner was done and the kitchen was clean, I had just enough time to start a stair stepper workout and finish it up just after the game started.

After that, I changed into my Big Daddy’s old Georgia shirt (the same one that I wore last year when we won our first National Championship game in 41 years!) and B and I sat down on the couch with some beers and watched the game.

The kiddos dressed up in their Georgia best for the game, and they made Olivia’s Sheepie a Georgia dress out of paper towels so she could be a Georgia fan, too.  ;o)

We let the kiddos stay up and watch until the end, even though we knew early on that we were going to win.  We ended up whooping TCU 65-7, breaking several records including the record for the most points scored in a National Championship game. 

Our QB was a total BOSS, and I had tears in my eyes as he took his curtain call.  We’re gonna miss him so much… his story has truly been a Cinderella story, and mark my words, there will be a movie made one day about him and these last two seasons that we’ve had!  Also, that's my cousin, Wil, next to him on the right.  If you follow me on IG, then you know I'm always stalking him on TV.  Haha.

After watching the trophy ceremony and basking in our win for a bit, we got the kiddos into bed sometime after 11 (SO LATE – EEK!) and then B and I managed to get in the bed just shortly after midnight.

Tuesday, January 10

All aboard the struggle bus!!  Beep beep!  Haha.  Tuesday started out rough after five hours of sleep, but we all rallied, and made it to school on time. 

After the kids were dropped off, I managed to get gas, go to Target, stop by Fresh Market, and make it back home all before 9 AM. 

The rest of the day was spent working on blog stuff, and then after school, the kids and I swung by the library to pick up books for AR reading. 

They both worked on homework when we got home, and then Jacob and I dropped Olivia at dance later in the afternoon.  I started dinner when we got home and then I cleaned out a few of the kitchen cabinets while sausage, bell peppers, and onions simmered on the stove for the tacos that I make quite frequently.

B grabbed Olivia from dance on his way home from work, and then we all sat down and ate dinner together. 

By the time dinner was over, it was already time for the kids to get showered and ready for bed, because Tuesdays are Olivia’s late dance nights. 

While the kiddos did that, I got in arms and abs workouts, and then I got all of the laundry put away from the previous day. 

We got the kiddos in bed early since they’d had such a late night the night before, and then B and I watched some of the Golden Globes before heading to bed a little early ourselves.  I was exhausted from staying up until midnight on Monday.

Wednesday, January 11

Wednesday morning, I dropped the kids and then headed to my annual mammogram/ultrasound appointment, and then I headed home to work for the rest of the day.

After school, Olivia had her first voice lesson of 2023, so we headed to the music school, and we ended up hanging out there for 30 extra minutes because the kiddos were playing in Jacob’s teacher’s piano room since he didn’t have a lesson.

By the time we got home, it was time to cook dinner, so I got started on that while the kids did homework.  On the menu Wednesday evening was parmesan chicken, roasted sweet potatoes, green beans, and leftover blueberry muffins from Monday night.

After dinner, the kiddos got showered, and then they decided they just wanted to play together instead of watching or doing something with us, so I ended up getting in a really long and hard mixed cardio workout. 

After that was done, we got the kiddos into bed, and then B and I watched an episode of Shark Tank before heading to bed.

Thursday, January 12

Thursday morning, I dropped the kids and headed straight home.  Our garbage disposal basically exploded on Wednesday morning when B turned it on and there were pieces everywhere down in there, so we had a plumber coming to look at it bright and early.

He told us that the garbage disposal was obliterated, so we’d need to buy a new one.  While he was there, he also looked at our kitchen faucet because it’s been really hard to turn off for literal years.  He didn’t have the part needed to fix the leak as the faucet is 13 years old like our house, so we’re going to have to buy a new one of those as well.  Yeesh.

After he left, I got back to work, and then that’s when things went off the rails a bit.  Haha.  Right after I sat down at my desk, I got a text from the kids’ school saying that they were going to be dismissed two hours early due to the severe weather that was expected to come in Thursday afternoon.

I wasn’t even aware that we were going to have weather bad enough to warrant releasing the kids early, but sure enough, after a quick check of our local weather page on Facebook, I saw that we did, indeed, have some terrible stuff headed our way.

I got through as much work as I could as quickly as I could, and then I ate a super-fast lunch, and then headed out to get the kiddos.  It poured all the way to the school, but by the time I got through the car line, the sun was coming out. 

We swung by the library on the way home to pick up another book for Jacob, and then we headed home so the kids could get homework done. 

We were scheduled to have dentist appointments at 4 PM, so I checked the weather one more time and saw that the bad stuff was due to hit here around 4:30/5.  Our local weather station was also reporting multiple tornadoes on the ground in Alabama just west of us, so I started to worry a little bit about going to our appointments.

I had just texted Brian and told him I wasn’t sure we needed to go, and right after that, the dentist office called and asked if we could come right now (an hour early) for our appointments.  They said a bunch of people had canceled because of the impending weather and they wanted to be able to get their staff out early and safely. 

So, the kids and I jumped in the car and headed that way, and we managed to make it home about 10 minutes before the line of storms hit our area.  It was pitch black all the way home and I was worried we were going to get caught in it, but thankfully, we didn’t.

We ended up only having pouring rain and some wind, thankfully, and we were very lucky because the city just slightly north of us got hit by a tornado that did some pretty bad damage. 

Once the storm was over, we made breakfast for dinner (eggs, grits, bacon, sausage, toast), and B and I made mimosas since we still had some leftover champagne from Christmas break.

After dinner, I got in a stair stepper workout, and the kids played together all evening until it was time for bed. 

Once they were in bed, B and I finally resumed Vampire Diaries after a couple of months hiatus.  You may remember we binged the first four seasons like wildfire late last year, and then we hit a lull in the show, so we stopped watching for a bit.  Everybody has told me to stick with it, that it does get better, so I’m hoping that it does.  Gonna give it another try for now and we’ll see how it goes!

Friday, January 13

Friday morning, I dropped the kids at school, and then I headed home to work all day.

Since Georgia had won the National Championship game Monday night, we decided to take the kids to the parade and trophy presentation in Athens on Saturday, so I spent the last couple of hours getting all packed for our trip.

We left town right after I got home with the kids from school, and we made it to Athens by dinnertime.  Traffic was pretty bad on the way there, so it took us a bit longer to get there than usual, but thankfully, the drive wasn’t too bad.

After we got checked into our hotel, we headed out in search of dinner.  Our hotel was downtown, so we were in walking distance to plenty of good places, and we settled on Ted’s Most Best for pizza. 

The walk there was freeeezing, so we were grateful to get settled into our warm, cozy booth at Ted’s, and even more grateful that there was no wait for a table.  We got some garlic knots to share and some pizza and beers, and it was a nice dinner out.

They also had a dessert case that included banana pudding (my fave) and cake pops (the kids’ faves), so we decided to splurge and have dessert at the restaurant… a rarity for us.  We hardly ever get dessert when we go out to eat unless it’s swinging through the DQ drive-through on the way home for Blizzards. 

We made the freezing walk back to our hotel after we were done, and then we lounged in our hotel room for the rest of the evening until bedtime.

Saturday, January 14

Saturday morning, we were up bright and early to get ready so we could grab breakfast at Zombie Donuts.  When we arrived, we saw they had a sign on the door saying that they weren’t opening until 8:30 AM due to training, so we had 20 minutes to kill.  It was the coldest day, so we walked to the end of the block to stand in the sunshine until it was time for the store to open, and the kids hopped up on Uga for some pictures. 

The store opened promptly at 8:30, and we couldn’t get inside fast enough.  I’m telling y’all it was cooold and windy on Saturday!  Haha.

Zombie Donuts is a unique build-your-own donut shop, so you fill out little forms to order your donuts.  You get to select the donut type (vanilla, chocolate, etc.), then you select the glaze (vanilla, chocolate, cinnamon sugar, maple, lemon, strawberry, etc.), and then you select your toppings (bacon, Oreos, gummy worms, etc.) so each donut is custom made just for you.

The kids went wild with their choices per usual, but I stuck with a good old fashioned cinnamon sugar donut and a maple frosted.  They’re so rich that I wasn’t able to finish my second one, though.

We lingered there at the restaurant for a while since we weren’t in a hurry to get back out in the cold, and then when we were done, we went back to the hotel to hang out for a bit longer until it was time to get ready for the parade. 

Around 10:45, we packed up all of our stuff and checked out of the hotel, and we were able to leave our car parked in the hotel’s garage which was nice. 

We walked over to Chick-Fil-A downtown after that to have a super early lunch, and then we walked over to the same spot on campus that we stood last year for the parade.  But not before passing by the bell tower to see everyone ring the bell for our win!  Side note, how cute are these rainbow crosswalks downtown?!

At our parade spot, we were able to get right near the street up on a curb, and it was just perfect!

We had to wait about 30 minutes before the parade made it down to us, and then we were able to see Kirby Smart (our coach) and Stetson Bennett (our QB) and all of the other players. 

My cousin, Wil, is the Assistant Director of Equipment for the team, so he was in the front row of one of the charter buses in the parade, so I was able to text him to tell him where we were, and we were able to wave at each other.  That’s him waving at us from the charter bus.  Forever stalking my Wil!  Haha.

Once the parade had finished passing by, we made our way to the stadium for the trophy presentation.  Wil gets tickets to all of the games and events, and since my aunt, uncle, and cousin weren’t using his that day, he gave them to us even though we already had tickets of our own.  His seats were better than ours, so we ended up using his and it was nice because we were right near the front.  We were also able to get some pictures by the hedges before the ceremony.

The stadium is under construction right now, so half of it was closed off, but the other half (behind us) was full!  So many people showed up to cheer on our Dawgs! 

The ceremony lasted about an hour.  We heard the governor of Georgia, the President of the school, the SEC Commissioner, and several others speak including Kirby Smart (our head coach), and a few of the players.  Kirby’s speech was awesome and very inspiring, and I’m excited for all things to come in our football program!  I’m hoping it’s the beginning of a dynasty!

Once the ceremony was over, we headed back downtown, made a quick stop at The Clubhouse (our favorite place to buy Georgia gear) to buy a Natty sweatshirt for me and some koozies, and then we headed to the car to make the drive home.

Traffic was pretty bad leaving Athens, so the drive home took a bit longer than usual, but we made it home by dinnertime.  Also worth documenting... this:

These kids haven't fallen asleep in the car in years.  I think we wore them out.  Even though, Jacob claims that he was never asleep.  I suppose he was just "resting his eyes" like a little old man.  Hahahaha.

We made a quick stop at my MIL’s and Five Guys on the way home, and then we ate dinner at home.

After dinner, the kids got showered, and then they headed off to bed.  B and I watched one episode of Vampire Diaries, and by the end, I was nodding off.  I ended up falling asleep on the couch for a bit, and then B and I headed to bed.

 

Sunday, January 15

Sunday morning, we got up and had cinnamon rolls for breakfast, and the rest of the day was spent unpacking, doing laundry, tidying up, and catching up on everything that we didn’t do Saturday since we were out of town.  I also got in a yoga workout since I'm trying to stretch more often this year.

 

The kids played outside for a long time because it was a gorgeous day, although still a bit chilly, and then we met some people at Publix to sell the kids’ old high chair.  We’ve held onto it forever because it was my intention to save it for our possible future grandkids, but ultimately, we just decided to get rid of it because it was taking up too much room in our storage closet.  It was bittersweet to say goodbye to it, though.

The rest of the afternoon was spent working in my office AKA fighting with my phone and computer.  For some reason they’ve gone to the bad place again and I’m having major trouble transferring my pictures from my phone to the computer again.  Ugggghhhh.

Sunday evening, we made hot dogs for dinner (fancy!  Haha.  We had nothing else in the house.) and then we watched that new movie on Disney+ called Strange World.  Or rather, Brian and the kids watched it and I fell asleep on the couch.  I just can’t hang after a glass of wine, y’all.  And yes, yes, I did have a glass of wine with my hot dog.  Haha.

After the kiddos went to bed, B and I watched the first episode of the new show The Last of Us on HBO Max.  Pedro Pascal who plays the Mandalorian is in it, and I just love him, so we’ll see how it goes.  Episode one definitely held my attention.  It’s definitely not for kids, though!

We also found out on Sunday that Olivia had Covid.  Face palm.  Friday, she mentioned that she had a scratchy throat and that she'd had it since Thursday morning.  We didn't think anything of it since we'd had to turn on the heat again when it got cold, and that tends to happen when we turn the heater on after having it off for a while.  Well, she had been fine all weekend, and I would have never known anything was wrong, but Sunday morning she mentioned that her throat was still scratchy.  Since we were going to be at my MIL and step-FIL's on Sunday for lunch and then at my parents with my Mama Cass on Sunday night for Sunday dinner, we decided to test her just to be suuuuper safe, and boy, am I glad we did. 

I'll be darned if the test didn't come back positive.  Sigh.  The line was super faint and barely there, so I have a feeling her viral load was probably already past its peak at that point since she was probably already on day 4 by that point at least, but we obviously couldn't go anywhere because of that.  I felt bad that we'd been in Athens all weekend (and also bad that she'd been at school Thursday and Friday), but there was no way for us to have known.  The good thing about Athens is that we were outside the whole time aside from the two restaurants, but thankfully, nobody was anywhere near us in either restaurant either.  It's so crazy how mild Covid can be for some people.  We would have never even known she was sick if she hadn't said something.  She was her usual perky, loud, bouncy self through it all.  No fever.  No cough.  Nothing.  Although, she did finally sneeze a few times on Monday.

So anyhoo, yay for Covid!  Haha.  So far, the rest of us are still fine, and I'm hoping it stays that way.  Ugh.

Happy Tuesday, y’all!