Why I Love the Green Bay Packers

I don't consider myself a sports person.  I don't watching many sporting events, and I was never was involved in playing sports.  My middle school gym teacher gave me the unofficial award of "Most Injuries," but that's about as much athletic recognition I'll ever get.

Oh, but how I love my Green Bay Packers.

I was in love with the Packers before I really even cared about football.  I like to say that I was born and raised a Packer fan.  My hometown is in Michigan, but it's right on the Wisconsin border, only about an hour from Green Bay.  It's safe to say that the majority of the town's population fondly considers themselves to be cheeseheads.  I knew nothing of football in my early years, but I knew I loved the Packers.  Every person close to me did.  As I grew older and learned more, I was surprised to discover that Michigan had a football team.  I remember asking my dad why we weren't Detroit Lions fans.  He said, "Detroit is a whole other world, way far away.  Green Bay is right here! It's home!"

Well, that settled it. 

I was always a Packer fan growing up, but I still wasn't into football.  The games were always on our TV, but I usually did not watch.  I was always interested in the score and was happy to hear of a win, but that was about as involved as I got.

When I was 14, the Packers and Patriots were going to Super Bowl XXXI.  Although I don't remember it, I can say with confidence that our town was going nuts.  My parents bought Super Bowl sweatshirts for themselves, my sister, and me that we wore in anticipation of the big event.  My parents also bought us each a jersey of our choice to wear while watching the game.  I picked 92, for Reggie White.  

Spoiler alert: the Packers won!  We went crazy!  It was amazing!  But, as a kid not really into sports, I enjoyed the victory and then went on with my life.  It was cool that they won, but it didn't have a huge impact on me.

My dad and I moved to lower Michigan a couple weeks after I graduated high school.  For the first time in my life, I wasn't seeing green and gold everywhere I went.  We were now living in Lions territory, weird and unfamiliar.

Fast forward over 10 years.  Life was obviously a lot different.  I was married and living even further downstate.  I was still a true Packer fan, but I continued to carry my love quietly.  I was 29, and the Packers had once again made it to the Super Bowl. I made no special plans other than watching the game at home with my husband.

When the Packers beat the Steelers, I was literally running around the house cheering until my husband asked me to stop.  I called my dad right away, and we were both thrilled beyond words.  We kept our phone call quick so we could each get back to our TVs to continue savoring the win.

While I watched the Packers celebrate, I was so happy I began to cry.  I soon realized that I wasn't crying just because I was happy; I was crying because I was extremely sad.

I missed my hometown.  I wanted to be back home so badly. I was thinking of my friends and family who were surely all jumping around, screaming, and celebrating.  I thought of the joy that was spreading throughout the town, and I was sad that I wasn't part of it.  I laid in bed that night and finally began to appreciate how incredible it was to be a Packer fan and how much it meant to me.  Loving the Green Bay Packers made me feel connected to my hometown, to my youth, to the people I love most.  Having this shared link with people and places that I cherish is comforting and brings me happiness.

I decided that my love was no longer going to be carried quietly; it was going to be proud and prominent.  When I went to work the next morning, I brought my now 15 year old Reggie White jersey with me and draped it over my desk chair.  

These days, I make it a point to have Packers stuff around me. It makes me feel like I'm surrounded by love.

I'm home.

New Year, Same Stuff

Some people get really fired up and motivated upon the start of a new year.  They make resolutions and come up with all sorts of goals for the year.  Me?  I change the calendars and move on with life.  I don't need a major shake up or change for 2015.  I'm happy to just continue.

A few things that have made me happy lately:

1. Cracking open the Play-Doh that Matthew received from my parents for Christmas.

He had a great time, and I sadly discovered that my dough sculpting skills haven't improved much since my childhood.  Check out  my masterpiece!  This picture was taken about 3 seconds before his head pitifully plopped onto the table.

2. Ice cream sundaes used to be our New Year's Eve tradition.  We don't really celebrate the holiday anymore since having Matthew, as it's no fun to stay up until midnight when you have a kid who will surely wake up at 6:00 a.m. on New Year's Day.  We still had sundaes when my parents visited though.

3. When my parents spend the night, they bring their dog Andy with.  Matthew is quite fond of him, and I love seeing Chewie with a playmate.  

My First Packer Game

I don't have one of those oh-so-popular bucket lists, but if I did, I know one item that would definitely be on it: go to a Green Bay Packer game.  Seeing a game at Lambeau Field would obviously be the best, but I'd be happy with getting to see them anywhere.

Last week, one of my friends said that she and her husband would be unable to use their Lions season tickets for Sunday.  Their opponent?  The Green Bay Packers!  She said they were hoping to pass the tickets on to someone who could use them.  I texted my husband to ask if he'd like to go.  He told me to take the tickets but to ask my dad (also a lifelong fan) if he'd like to go.

I really thought my dad would say no.  My parents live three hours away and have made countless trips back and forth since Matthew has been born.  Matthew recently started daycare full-time, which will reduce their number of trips here.  They had actually just come to visit the previous weekend, so  I expected my dad to be all sensible and reasonable and say that he really shouldn't make the drive again.  Our conversation went something like this when I called him:

Me: "Do you want to see the Packers play the Lions in Detroit on Sunday?"

Dad: "Huh??"

Me: "I got offered two free tickets to the Lions game on Sunday, and they are playing the Packers.  Want to go with me?"

Dad:  "Um, yeah!!!!!!!"

Cue major excitement!  It was crazy that such a huge event was going to be happening in less than a week.  I'm used to having at least several months of waiting for an event once I get tickets.  I've already held concert tickets for over a year before a show (due to a postponement).  To be able to get tickets on a Tuesday for a game on a Sunday was crazy.

The game was incredible.  Well, actually, the game was a bit disappointing, since the Packers lost.  I think a more accurate statement was that the entire adventure was incredible.  Being surrounded by fun and crazy fans, even for an opposing team, is an absolute thrill.  Wearing our Packers gear made us easy targets for teasing, but that was part of the experience, and we rolled with it and had fun.  We will also never forget the two extremely vocal Lions fans who sat behind us.  Thanks to them, we have a lot of new phrases to use as inside jokes!

If I could change the outcome of the game, I'd have the Packers win.  However, there was something really great about being surrounded by ecstatic Lions fans and seeing their excitement over the home team's win.  I was even amused by the exuberance of the girl who ran up to me and knocked my cheesehead off. 

I will always remember this day.

Our Big Road Trip

Last weekend I was able to do one of my favorite things: drive back to my hometown and stay with my sister. The last time I was able to do that was almost 2 years ago, when I was pregnant with Matthew.   Matthew was once again with me, but of course he is a toddler now.  I was slightly nervous about the two of us making such a huge trip.

Our drive there on Thursday went super smooth, and he napped for a nice chunk of it.  After crossing the Mackinac Bridge, we stopped in St. Ignace to fill up the car and grab some lunch.  I specifically chose where to eat based on the view.

Once we arrived at my sister's, Matthew was immediately smitten with her dog and cats.  Matthew had never spent time with cats before, but it was clear that it was love at first sight.  I'm also pretty sure that my sister's dog, Rusty, gained about 10 pounds that weekend.  He and Matthew were pretty much BFFs, especially when Matthew had food.  "Rusty" is Matthew's new favorite word.

The three of us enjoyed some time together.  We ate pizza, visited my sister's co-workers on their lunch break so they could meet Matthew, ate some more pizza, and basically just enjoyed being together and playing with Matthew.  Our parents joined the fun on Friday, along with their dog.  My sister was also dog-sitting for her friend, so we had a really full house.  It's very clear that Matthew is an animal lover!  I am getting such a twinge to adopt a second dog.  I know that wouldn't be a wise move right now though.

Saturday took us to Green Bay for a family reunion for my dad's side of the family.  It was Matthew's first time meeting just about everybody.  He was a little shy at first but definitely warmed up.  The reunion was at my cousin's house, and she has a beautiful home and yard.  Matthew had a blast, and it was great to have fun with everyone.

We were able to spend time with some relatives from my mom's side of the family.  One of my aunts had us over to our house and cooked dinner.  She had a couple desserts, and we opted to give Matthew the least messy choice: angel food cake with Cool Whip.  He loved it!  My aunt commented when I was a kid, I just called it Cool and would eat it with my hand.  I'm not surprised.  Matthew also got awfully close to my aunt's TV, but it was to watch the Packers, so I allowed it.

We were able to visit my grandma (my dad's mom) at her apartment afterwards.  Matthew got ahead of me and ran down the hall and was rattling every single door handle he could reach before I caught up to him.  Thankfully, they were all locked.

Then it was back to my sister's house for one last night.  She graciously let Matthew and I have her bedroom so we could close the door at night to keep the kitties from jumping into Matthew's pack 'n play and accidentally causing chaos.  Her bed was crazy comfortable, and I slept great every night, except for the last one.  The last night is always hard.  I hate falling asleep because I know that when I wake up, it's time to hit the road.  Being realistic with vacation days I have left for the year, I'm certain I won't make it back until sometime next year.  It's always so hard to leave.

The drive home went almost as nicely as the drive there, so I really can't complain.  My parents decided to take the long way home so they could drive through Michigan, so we left at the same time and traveled together for most of the trip.  Mom rode in the backseat of my car to spend time with Matthew.  He loved having her there.

By the time we got home, our trip odometer showed that we had logged 1,063 miles.  I can't wait to do it again!

Weekend Recap

What a weekend!  I'm an admitted homebody; I love being home. We spent a lot of time elsewhere though, and it was great.

Saturday started out bright and early with Mom helping me work our first Mom 2 Mom sale to get some of Matthew's old stuff out of the house and make us a few bucks.  How does one child accumulate so much stuff?

The sale was a lot of fun, and all we ended up not selling was some clothing and a baby monitor.  We sold lots of clothing and bigger items like activity gyms, bathtubs, a swing, and a high chair.  It made us a little sad to see some of the stuff go, but there is really no sense in keeping it.  The atmosphere at the sale was wonderful though, and it made me really happy to see other people so excited about their purchases.  Feeling some sadness about seeing an adorable little jacket of his get sold is eased by seeing the excitement of the person buying the jacket for their little one.

I was exhausted after the sale.  My poor mom had to drive home to Ohio right after, but I was fortunate enough to be able to go home and crash on the couch.  Ernie kindly let me sleep but finally woke me up to get going to a graduation party.  My co-worker's daughter graduated high school and was having a big party at her house.  A lot of my co-workers were there, and we had a really good time.  Her house and yard are beautiful.  Matthew loved running around the huge yard.  He also enjoyed the food.  He basically had a little bit of meat sauce, a bread stick, Goldfish, and cookies for dinner.  So healthy.

Matthew fell asleep on the way home, and then he of course got his second wind once we got home.  After playing for a little while, he was ready for bed.  Ernie and I watched some Breaking Bad on Netflix before we went to bed ourselves.

On Sunday, I got grocery shopping out of the way, and then we hit the road to go to my cousin's house.  She lives about an hour and a half away and had kindly offered us a free tricycle, wagon, and basketball hoop that her son had long outgrown.  Matthew has none of these things, and we have particularly been wanting a wagon, so we were obviously pretty excited.  Another one of my cousins (they are sisters) was visiting from Green Bay with her husband and sons, so we got some bonus relative visiting.  They had also never met Matthew before, so it was nice for them to see him.

As we left, Ernie called his cousin who didn't live too far away to see if she'd be up for having us pop in for a visit.  She agreed but admonished us upon arrival for not giving her more notice about our visit.  She was not mad that we'd shown up with little notice but said if she'd known we were coming, she'd have cooked us dinner and got Matthew presents from Toys R Us.   She still managed to be quite the hostess.  After we had called her, she quickly called to order pizza and salad.  She also had some strawberries and mini eclairs and presented Matthew with a brand new Batman t-shirt.  I was highly impressed!  None of that was necessary, but it was flattering and appreciated that she fussed over us.

Matthew and I snoozed on the way home, although I'm pretty sure I slept longer than he did.  I used to never be a napper, but since having a kid, I sure do love naps now.  Ernie mowed the lawn when we got home and then rode into town with Chewie to get some gas in the truck and pick up some Chinese for dinner.

Now, it's Monday morning.  Where did the weekend go??