From Dixie With Love

Things I Loved From My Weekend at Ole Miss:

1. As we are packing the car to head from Memphis to Oxford early on Saturday morning - Kendall says "MOM...NOSEBLEED!!!!!" I turn around to find that yes, indeed, my 10 year old dressed in her Ole Miss game day finest (thanks, Limited Too!) has blood pouring out of her nose. I yell "Kendall, do not get blood on your outfit!" while Nurse Jenny grabs her nose and pinches it and gets the bleeding stopped. Thank goodness for Jenny!! And Kendall did not get any blood on her adorable outfit.

2. The baby car - Ryan asked us to drive his baby car since he and Reid were going 4-wheeling on Saturday and they would need my truck. Do you know how easy it is to find a parallel parking space when you only need enough space for a baby car???!!! Piece of cake!!!

3. A "Rebel Yell" (a.k.a. a shout out) to the Grove set up team. Bevill, you and your mom did such an amazing job with the food and the set up. The table was beautiful, the food was wonderful and the hospitality was like no other!! And Thank You to Jeff and Will who sat in the Grove on Friday afternoon to secure our awesome spot on the Walk of Champions.

4. The Walk of Champions - A couple of hours before the game, the Ole Miss football coaches and players walk through the Grove down the Walk of Champions over to the stadium. Hotty Toddy is hollered throughout the crowd. The band plays. Everyone gets pumped. Go Rebs!! Beat the Gamecocks!! And such can be heard all over the Grove. And the players keep their hands out so that everyone can give them a high five.

5. Kendall, Jenny and I did not have to open one door for ourselves. The gentlemen of Ole Miss did that for us. We also heard Yes Mam and You're Welcome come out of their mouths as we thanked them for opening the doors. Everyone loves a southern gentleman!! Especially when they are dressed in khakis, an oxford shirt and a tie!!

6. Cute shoes - while wearing my red, white and blue plaid platform heels seems like a really bad idea, when 40+ friends and total strangers tell you how cute your shoes are...it is totally worth the pain!

7. The beautiful October weather that we had. Thank You to God for providing us with the sunshine and that slight breeze that washed the smell of magnolias under your nose.

8. Kendall at her first SEC football game. As we walk into the stadium Kendall says "I have never seen so much red in all of my life." We hooped and hollered and cheered and high-fived and yelled Hotty Toddy. The new rule (since the cheer involves a few bad words) is that she/we can say the cheer only while in the stadium. She looked at me and said, "but Mom, I feel like such a bad girl when I say the cheer." It is okay Kendall, I promise! She also noticed a Rebels fan giving the Gamecocks fans "the finger" and says to me - "Mom, he must not know the golden rule, I'm sure he would not want to be treated like that!" So true, Kendall, so true!

9. That the end of every Ole Miss game, whether they win or lose, the band plays From Dixie With Love...and knowing that Jenny and I are sworn to play that song at Jeff's funeral. And then after From Dixie with Love, they put Elvis up on the brand new jumbo tron singing Glory, Glory Hallelujah! Name another school that plays Elvis on the jumbo tron!!!

10. I did not love this part but just as a side note - SC Gamecocks fans are NOT nice. They are sore losers, sore winners and just overall not a pleasant crowd.

11. While walking from the Grove back over to the car, some SC fans were running their mouth in their car while sitting in traffic. Jenny hollers out "Watch your mouth" so I say "What was that all about" and Jenny replies "Just some yankees from South Carolina!" You've got to be really grounded in the fact that you are in the south when you call people from SC, "yankees"!!

12. Taking Kendall over to the AOTT house. Jenny got choked up as she explained to Kendall that Kendall is a legacy because of Jenny's membership, and basically is a shoo-in for the sorority. They walked through the house, Jenny showed her where you eat dinner and where you wait for your dates to pick you up. Kendall even got to see Jenny's old room. All of the AOTT girls were so sweet to Kendall and she loved it!!!

13. But what I loved most, was the soft snoring of my baby girl as I turned onto Highway 7 to come home after a long day. This was my favorite part because the last time I left Ole Miss to come home, I bawled the whole way. Mainly because this was before I met Ryan, and before I had kids, and my life was a wreck. I didn't want to come home. I wanted to stay in Oxford, hide in my sister's room, and pretend I went to school there. But Saturday was different, this time, I knew that when I turned onto Highway 7, I had spent an awesome day with my sister, my sweet Kendall, Cousin Jeff, my Ole Miss friends who love and accept me just because I'm Jenny's sister and Jeff's cousin, and I was coming home to tell my sweet Ryan about what an incredible day Kendall and I just had.

Now...we just have to figure out how we are going to pay for out of state tuition...Ryan says "think scholarship"!!!

Hotty Toddy,
Melissa