Oh Happy Day!

Is Zach a superfan? Maybe

If you know Andy at all, you know that he is a Broncos fan - not a jump on the bandwagon because who doesn't love Peyton Manning or Tim Tebow fan, but a tried and true multi-decade Broncos fan. You can imagine the excitement over the last few weeks in this house as the Broncos won game after game and finally secured a spot in the Superbowl.  Everyone in this house over the age of sixteen except for me owns some sort of Broncos apparel.  Our plans for the big game were not completely set until Wednesday.  Our church group had a gathering, but for the past few years, Zach and Savannah alternated having friends over.  While they have great, trustworthy friends, Andy and I still feel the need to be present for those gatherings.  On Wednesday, Savannah decided not to have friends over, so Andy and I committed to the class party.  Savannah was actually going with us as this is her class too.  On Thursday her plans changed, so she went over to a friend's house.

Zach went to a friends house - dressed as you see him above.

Andy enjoyed the game and even DVR'd it for later viewing.  I socialized and caught very little of the action.  The one time I tried to watch the game, it seemed that the Broncos were struggling.  I figured it best that I leave the room as they had done better without my viewing up to that point.  As you know the game ended with happy Pages returning to the roost.

The only thing better than enjoying a big win with great friends would have been to be there in person.

Post Game Thoughts: I liked the half-time show for the most part.  I'm not a fan of women scantily clad doing seductive dances, so Beyonce's part of it was not appealing to me.  It looked like Cold Play and Bruno Mars just had fun, and the montage of past performances was really fun.  The sound left something to be desired.  Hopefully, that was better live.

Andy and a friend from church were game day ready even for worship.

I think the hype over Cam Newton walking away from the post-game interview was ridiculous.  Anyone who has been closely associated with sports knows that the agony of defeat is much greater than the elation of victory.  It seems unnecessary and cruel to parade players from the losing team in front of the press to rehash what went wrong - especially right after the game.  Just my two cents on that.

Zach came away from the game totally impressed with Von Miller.  He actually bought a Von Miller Superbowl shirt to celebrate :)  I have to say that I was counting on that win to have an idea for Valentine's Day for Andy.  I don't know what I would have come up with if it hadn't been so easy to just get a championship shirt. SHH!!

Normally I would spend my Sunday afternoon napping.  There's just something about a Sunday afternoon nap.  However, when Julia came downstairs for church Sunday morning, I faced a game changer (no pun intended).  She wore a too-small spring dress.  What?  When I insisted she change, she pointed out truthfully that she wears the same thing every Sunday because she has nothing that fits.  Ouch.  Andy's response to my decision to shop for Julia -"you are always buying her clothes."  Ouch again.  Here's the thing.  She's growing lots, and when I am always buying her clothes, I am never buying a wardrobe.  I am buying a pair of jeans here and a shirt there to get her by until I can really shop, so I had to face the music and buy the girl a decent winter wardrobe in the middle of winter.  

Shopping with Julia never goes as quickly as you hope.  It's always an experience.  I liken it to trying to keep track of an unleashed dog in a field of squirrels.  You will always lose Julia at some point to some shiny thing that she must stop to explore - typically, this happens multiple times.  Fortunately, the middle of winter means we can shop clearance sales.  I chose a store that caters to teenage girls and boys - one that Savannah particularly likes.  That's a risky move because Savannah and Julia do not want to dress alike. This store carries junior sizes -yes, I bit the bullet and moved Julia up to the next level.  If I am going all out, she needs to wear this stuff this year.   This particular store has cheap clothes.  I don't know how long they will last, but I needed cheap.  We totally rocked the sale, and Julia ended up with a free bottle of cologne out of the deal - actually better than free as it took additional dollars off of our purchase.  We then went to a bigger store for jeans and a pair of jeggings she really wanted a few weeks ago when we visited there.  She had to have the jeans, so I bought them -saved only by a great coupon on the high price for those.  The jeggings were on clearance and so was a cute skater skirt - bonus!  

We finished our adventure just minutes before I had to leave for the football party.  Julia scored four sweaters, two pairs of pants, a camisole, one pair of jeans, one pair of jeggings, and a skirt. Whew!  Hopefully, this will see her through next winter, and we got amazing deals.  

Just some additional trivia about shopping with Julia:

She likes her clothes to be comfortable.  I kid you not, she did standing splits in the dressing room to check every pair of pants we bought!  Seriously!  She pulled her leg up straight over her head.

Julia is all about claw machines these days.  She talked me into one last stop before heading home so that she could check out a shirt she had seen and liked there.  The lines were long as this is a supermarket, and it's Sunday - Superbowl Sunday.  She left me in line with the items she wanted to purchase so that she could check out the new stock in the claw machine.  Really?  She did not return to me.  I found her playing the claw and winning.  Grr.

She can shop at the same place as Savannah because their sense of style rarely overlaps.  Case in point: Julia got the cutest red jeans and a nautical, navy sweater printed with anchors to go with it.  I love it- my favorite of her choices!  Savannah would not even consider wearing anchors on her clothing and thinks I am way too enamored with the nautical look.  Seriously, I think I was born to live in a beach town, just saying.  Well, except for the whole hurricane thing - maybe inland but close would be better for me.

The shopping trip combined with a late night enjoying the big game left me starting the week pretty tired.

P.S. Savannah's interview a couple of weeks ago was for a big scholarship at her first choice school. We should know in the next couple of weeks if she got it.  She's on pins and needles waiting, and she interviews for Yale this Saturday - truly a long shot but why not try?