Thoughts Formed From Iron

First, I'm finishing up my Thankfuls...

24th: J. Crew and Crewcuts - Yeah, I know it's vain but it is what it is... I love the place!

25th: Small group Bible studies: I have grown a lot in my spiritual life thru these and I just finished my favorite one ever. The thing I am most thankful for in these is getting to know my brothers and sisters in Christ in a deeper way.

26th: Christmas decorations - just got them out on Friday and I really get excited!! Put up five trees and I'm getting my FIRST real tree this year. Unbelievable I know, but I'm thrilled! Jack has a "GO BAMA" tree in his room:)

27th: really amazing fabric - I am completely unable to do anything productive with it, but I have found that I can find great fabric and give it to other people and they can make the coolest things for me:)

28th: kitchen gadgets - crazy about them!

29th: bonfires on cool nights - We built a brick fire pit when we built our house and I LOVE IT!!

30th: And finally, I'm thankful for all my blogger friends. I can't imagine not blogging now that I've been doing it so long. I enjoy sharing about our nutty life, but more than that, I have gained so much information that I never knew I needed through this blogging world and that's been fantastic!

And now............. I've been asked about my thoughts on the Iron Bowl. For those of you who don't follow college football, the Iron Bowl is played every year between the University of Alabama (who I L-O-V-E) and their in state rival Auburn University (who I H-A-T-E). This is a HUGE football game and people from out of state who find themselves at this game really don't have a clue what to think about it. There's just no atmosphere like it... I have been to some pro football games and that atmosphere doesn't come CLOSE to this rivalry. You also should understand that some of my best friends are huge Auburn fans and this is true for most everyone so it's a really odd kind of thing - I love my friends but I want their team to be destroyed. You get over the oddness by about two years old though so no big deal anymore:)

I'm going to share my thoughts, but I'm going to say up front that I'm completely and totally biased towards Alabama. I cannot in any way be trusted to form a fair and objective opinion of the game or anything to do with the game. So, there's my disclaimer...

(and if you don't know, Alabama lost the game 28-27 after being up 24-0 at one point. Auburn is also undefeated this season and trying to get to a national championship game and their quarterback is the front runner for the Heisman trophy this year. Alabama won the national championship last year and our current running back won the Heisman trophy last year so it was a BIG game. Two schools from the same state winning back to back national championships AND having back to back Heisman trophy winners has never happened before.)

Here are my thoughts (if anyone is still interested after all that:):-

- I think the fact that our stadium played "Take the Money and Run" and "Son of a Preacher Man" for Auburn's warm up music was very ironic (and pretty funny) and I'm thinking not conincidental. Hats off to the Million Dollar Band director for that. I would only have added "The Gambler" by Kenny Rogers:) *After writing this post, I found out Alabama fired the part-time employee that played this unauthorized music for Auburn's warm-ups. I'm guessing he thinks it was worth it:)

-I thought that our offense and defense played their best two quarters of football in the first half of that game.

-I think that if you follow those two quarters with the last half of that football game, they aren't worth much at all.

-I don't believe in celebrating losses or moral victories so I would have been just as pleased with losing 50-0 as I was losing 28-27 (which wasn't very pleased at all).

-I think Julio Jones is actually beautiful to watch on the football field and I think he will easily be the most successful NFL player out of all the players on the field that day. (He's also become my all time favorite Bama player!)

-I think that although Greg McElroy is not nearly as good as Auburn's quarterback overall (he's not even the best player in his own backfield), he was without a doubt the best quarterback on the field that day.

-I think Auburn didn't beat Alabama, but Alabama beat themselves. (which makes no difference at all in the outcome)

-I think I would rather Auburn have beaten us by being the better team that day.

-I think that if we had taken advantage of even ONE of the opportunities to score we got in the first half, we could have put the game away right then.

-I think I get much more aggravated with Alabama fans that are proud of that game than I do Auburn fans that are obnoxious about that game. (I'm actually a pretty obnoxious fan myself so that doesn't bother me so much from the other side.)

-I think that I have been amazed by how many people that are fans of both teams have told me they've never heard the term "barner" before last Friday. I was raised on that word:)

-I KNOW that we have the best coach in college football HANDS DOWN!!!

-I think that we have the classiest players in the league and you can attribute that to the above statement. I believe the proof of that is in our attitude in winning all year last year and not so much in our attitude in losing a few times his year. I think it's much harder to win with class than lose with class (though in the past two years we've done both).

-I think the fact that I had a really fun night after the game shows growth that I didn't know I was capable of a few years ago:)

-I think that I am still thrilled that I'm an Alabama fan and not a fan of that other team:)

I don't know if anyone is interested in any of that, but it's my blog and I get to write what I want on here:) However, I won't get into my thoughts about Auburn except to say this:

-I think Cecil Newton has over $200,000 buried somewhere but I can't prove it and I'm not sure anyone else can either... Time will tell...!!! :) :) :D

I tried to put a little humor in there even though my heart is continuing to break...:D I hope everyone had a Happy Thanksgiving and ROLL TIDE!!! Is there a team that breaks your heart sometimes?? Please share - misery loves company!! :)