Mystic Monday

Mardi Gras Time in WI!!!

Sorry I'm late with my post this week - I new it wouldn't take long for me to get back to my night owl ways, lol!

Besides my night owl ways, it was a very exciting day/night last night as I got to watch my Green Bay Packers beat the Chicago Bears to become the National Football Conference (NFC) Champions! We're going to Super Bowl XLV (45)!

The Packers haven't been there since 1998. Yeah, it's been that long! I admit, I've been a Brett Favre fan even after he left Green Bay. While I always wished him well and wanted him to have a good game, I wasn't as invested with his team winning. However, when he became a Viking - one of our major rivals - I wanted his team to lose and I wanted him to sacked! I just couldn't help it.

Aaron Rodgers took over the team for Brett Favre. I can honestly say that I reserved judgment for Rodgers. I didn't immediately jump on his bandwagon because I wanted to be sure that he was going to "stick". Players get injured all the time and we basically got spoiled with Brett Favre. He played in every game he started with the Packers, even if he was injured. So, I didn't want to put all of my expectations onto a new guy because...well...that just wouldn't be fair.

Not only that, I wanted to make sure he could get out of Brett's shadow. He seems to have done that this year. Yes, I want us to win the Super Bowl, but if they lose I'll still be proud because they made it this far against some very big odds. Besides the injuries that have plagued us this season - including Rodgers suffering 2 concussions - they barely slid in to the play-off wild card spot as the 6th seed with a record of 10 wins and 6 losses. After having lost to the Falcons in Atlanta at the end of November (Week 12), getting past the second round seemed like it would be a miracle. However, they managed to beat the 1st seeded Falcons in Atlanta in a 48-21 rout.

Next was the Bears. To say that I was nervous about this game was an understatement. The Pack lost to the Bears in Soldier Field at the end of September (Week 3), and we were going to have to go into Soldier Field to play the 2nd seeded and NFC North Division Champs, Chicago Bears. Yeah, that's right, the we're in the same division as the Bears.

However, I do need to point out that their win-loss record was just 11-5 while ours was 10-6. If we had not lost to the Lions in Detroit on Week 14, we would have been tied with the Bears...sort of.

Anyway, the game started off seeming like we might run away with it with a quick TD in the 1st quarter and another in the second to make it 14-0 by the end of the half, which stayed that way until the 4th quarter when the Bears sat their 1st and 2nd string QBs for their 3rd string QB Caleb Hanie. He played less time than Cutler, had better stats, and got the Bears a quick TD.

14-7 and I was biting my nails. But then, BJ Raji stepped up and not only intercepted a pass, but ran it in for a TD to make the score 21-7.

The Bears managed to score again and looked like they were going to tie the game and possibly send the game into OT when Tremon Williams came up with a game-saving interception with 37 seconds left in the game.

That's right, it wasn't until there were 37 seconds left in the game that I could finally breathe easy, knowing we won the game.

It felt sort of anti-climactic though because, for the first time in our relationship, he was not in front of the TV to watch the game. He was playing in a disc golf tournament. Even though he listened to the game while playing, he came home and we sat and watched the game a second time. Yep, I watched the game twice!

It's like a surreal party up here because there were so many points in the season we weren't sure the Pack would make the playoffs, let alone go to the Super Bowl! Sure, we all wanted them to get here, but the odds seemed so stacked against us.

So, in honor of this joyous event, here's a few songs that I felt appropriate for the day: