rebs over vols

it was an emotional week leading up to the game saturday between Ole Miss and Tennessee.

first of all - greg hardy had surgery and is out for the rest of the year. uuuggghhh.

then - tennessee has three players arrested.

then - we find out that 2 of our good players, kentrell lockett and patrick trahan, have been in the hospital with the swine flu. uuuggghhh.

and the underlying thing all week? ed orgeron, the chair throwing, chest beating coach that was in oxford for a few years, would be returning as the defensive line coach for tennessee.

revenge? yep. i think so.

we decided to wait and go up to oxford on saturday morning. that meant that we left home around 4:45. i slept part of the way (not at all to the surprise of my poor husband), but got up around grenada to talk, etc.

this season, we have gotten in the habit/tradition/whatever you want to call it of going to the inn at ole miss (alumni house) to eat breakfast before going to walk through. we even do this when we tailgate. crazy, i know. but we have enjoyed talking to other people over a nice breakfast of grits, fruit, sausage, bacon, yogurt, biscuits, coffee, juice, eggs with cheese......

ok - now i'm ready for breakfast THIS weekend!

anyway - we went to walk through after breakfast and were able to stand with my dental mentor - dr purifoy. he was my dentist growing up and is the one who encouraged me to go into dental hygiene. i love this man.

mary peyton must, too. she ran to him and hugged his leg saying "hey, doc!!!".

this was mpb during walk through. she wasn't nearly as cold as she was acting...

looking towards the arch on the walk of champions....

she has been completely petrified of colonel rebel for 2 years. well, we kept telling her that we would NOT be going to disney world until she had her picture made with him (she LOVED him from a distance!). so she said that she wanted to take a picture and after she did, we were walking off and she said (in a humming na na na naaa na voice), "now i can go to DISNEY WORLD!".

bless her heart - i didn't say how LONG after the picture we would go, just that we would!

mpb wanted a picture with mrs brandi.

cheering on her Daddy's shoulders (ok - that's pretty obvious, huh?)

she wanted some chips with steak (um, no sweetie, those are corky's nachos with bar-b-que...), so we got them and had a "picnic" while waiting on the team to come out at half time so that we could cheer them on!

another one of her with her "steak"!

baula decided to come down and hang out with us. i told her that the sunglasses were awful. they were VERY 1980's and had "Chi Omega" on the side.....

the picture below is of our sweet friend, mrs karla. karla and her husband, rick, have sat behind us since mpb was born. they have literally watched her grow season to season and are somewhat "football grandparents" to her. mary peyton looks forward to seeing mrs karla every time we go to oxford!

and here's one of mrs karla and mr rick!

after the game, we decided to go down and see if we could get some pictures with players, etc.

the first player we got to and were able to take a picture was andrew ritter, our kicker. we loved seeing him because he graduated from JA last year and mary peyton knows that there's a raider who plays for the rebels! (of course JA also has reed neely up at ole miss, too, but we didn't see him)

chyna ward (the main assistant to coach nutt - and the past few coaches) was talking to me and mary peyton and mpb said that she wanted to see jevan. mp literally jumped to chyna and chyna marched over signaling to jevan to come here.

the picture below is the end result! and the smile on her face says it all!

this is mary peyton with chyna. i was talking to her about the ladies forum stuff for next summer (she is the one who coordinates everything) and mary peyton would not come back to me! so chyna smiled real big and said, "i've got a new friend!" she later emailed me and said that her baby is 20 years old and it had been so long since she had little arms and legs wrapped all around her and it was just what she needed. i love this sweet lady!

so here's mp with kentrell lockett. yes, the one who had had the swine flu. so far we are good! if you want to know our favorite memory of lockett, just find a copy of the ole miss/florida game from 2008. he is the one who blocked the field goal to help us win the game!

GET YOUR HANDS UP!

this is mary peyton with jerrell powe. he is SUCH a nice guy! for those who don't know, they call our defense the "landsharks", so you see lots of people putting their "fins" up when the defense is in!

powe has so much heart, in my opinion. he fought so hard to be able to play ball at ole miss and i just don't know that i would have been able (mentally) to handle that!

oh my goodness.

does this even need an explanation?

mary peyton with her ABSOLUTE favorite player, dexter mccluster. i love that she knows players numbers and names and can't wait til the next game.

but dex is special. go to YouTube and search "dexter mccluster testimony".

dex was saved this summer. he was baptized this fall. he is not ashamed.

and i'm glad that my child has athletes like this to look up to.

see the bracelet on his arm? it says, "Yes, Lord". our pastor just did a series with this as the title and they passed out bracelets to serve as a reminder.

long story short, tommy decided to give dex one during walk-through one day (uab game). well, during the arkansas game, some church members saw it on him on tv! then, during the next walk through, tommy said he saw it on again!

we were able to talk to dex and his girlfriend, brittany, for a few minutes. they are such sweet people with smiles and personalities that make you feel so good when you leave them!!!

and here is mary peyton with miss brittany. her smile is BEAUTIFUL!

it's been a fun year to be a rebel. yes it's been up and down emotionally, but i'm not a fair weather fan, nor can i stand talking to fair weather fans. these are kids that are 18-22 years old and we expect so much from them. i admire them for their hard work and effort!

hotty toddy!