Go! Fight! Win! Panthers!

Well here we are ... embarking on the first KICKOFF for the 10th consecutive year.  If you've been around for this whole journey, you know where we've been ...

First we were Tigers.  Go Maroon & Gold!

Then we were Broncos.  Go Blue & Orange!  (Who thought up that color combination?!?!)

Then we were Lobos.  Go Blue & Silver!  (which later was switched to black just to tick off the principal)

Now we stand as Panthers.  Go Blue & Gold!  (my favorite color combination thus far)

Tonight is the first kickoff of 2011. 

I am excited.  And nervous.  And looking forward to it.  These are all normal feelings for the first game.  (And nauseous, dreading, and weary are all normal feelings for the last game of the season.)

I remember when Rick switched his major in college and decided he wanted to be a coach.  (I married him cuz he was gonna be a doctor and then he pulled a fast one on me.)  I'll never forget the "normalcy" of it.  It was almost as if we all knew that was what he'd eventually do anyway.  It just seemed (and felt) right.

The thing I like best about his coaching is his strategery (if I may borrow a word from my beloved Bush).  He is "normal" until you count his strategy factor.  He is always one step ahead of the other team.  He NEVER just gets lost in the game.  He's always got a plan.  (He argues this way as well which absolutely unnerves me.  I argue by yelling as loud as I can with no plan at all in place.)

Football season always brings with it sets of challenges.  It was particularly draining when the kids were babies as I would reach the end of my rope quicker and not have anyone to fall back on.  However, the challenges are different now and I would venture to say slightly easier now that the children wipe their own behinds and bathe themselves.  (If they would just learn to clean up their own vomit ... )

Granted, not seeing my husband until 8 each night during the week and then not seeing him at all Thursday morning through Saturday dinner is rough.  However, I've said it before and I'll continue to say it (until I find a job harder than staying at home) - STAYING AT HOME WITH YOUR KIDS IS MUCH, MUCH HARDER THAN GOING TO WORK.  And - with both kids in school now and me working, things are tiring at times, but not near the challenge they were when the monkeys were 3 and 1.

So, I'm not real sure what this season holds.  And the thought of playing all the way up until the last week before Christmas is seriously scary.  However, it's hard to be a buzz-kill about your husbands passion in life (unless you're like the worst wife ever, which I'm not ... .... ..... anymore). 

So, with slight trepidation but mostly pure excitement, I say "Go Panthers! Beat the Bulldogs!"