The (long) Story

Ok, so here's the much anticipated story of how I met John Mayer :) (haha)

For as long as I can remember, I have been a big fan of James Taylor. My dad introduced his music to me when I was young. I've loved his music through thick and thin (even when my friends thought I should move on to someone more current). Well, I still love James Taylor, but a couple years ago, this James Taylor lover was suddenly caught off guard by a musician named John Mayer (JM to his biggest fans). I had heard his music on the radio back in the early 2000's (sounds weird to say that) and thought it was a bit cheesy. I never bought his music or anything until recently when I discovered the John Mayer Trio. He put together a trio with him, Steve Jordan and Pino Palladino (amazing musicians...amazing trio!). I ran into it on the internet one day and decided to take the plunge and buy the album. I LOVED IT!! I couldn't get enough. I think I drove my family (well, dave actually) crazy with my obsession for that album called TRY!. After that I decided I'd give his other albums a listen so I got some of them from the library and LOVED THEM!! I thought, Yes! a new James Taylor (well, for me at least). So in the peak of my obsession, I joined JM's fanclub, anticipating his upcoming tour and hoping to get better seats with my membership. Well, the first time around, in October of 2006, it didn't do me any good. JM came to the Glendale Arena in Arizona as a support to Tom Petty. It was a perfect match, actually, because Dave has spent most of his life being a big Tom Petty fan and so I didn't even have to convince him to go with me. :) Big plus! Since JM was only a supporting act, and not headlining, his fan club didn't hold a presale for me. :( But we still went; had not so great seats, but loved it. Fast forward to June of 2007.... JM announced an actual headlining stop here in AZ!! I was so excited. We got some great great great seats, 2nd row center, for the show and if that wasn't enough...a few weeks before the show I heard through the internet grapevine that there would be some chances for fanclub members to meet John before the shows. Well, long story short (sorry, I've never been one to tell a short story) I won!! I was 1 of 5 fan club members attending the Glendale show who was randomly picked to meet JM backstage before the show. I only found out a couple days before, when someone from the fan club called to let me know! Each of the 5 winners could bring one guest to the 'Eat and Greet'. During my time of obsessing over JM's music, I'm sorry to say that Sage has come along for the ride. She loves his music and when she found out I was going to get to meet him, she really wanted to come. So I brought Sagey to the Eat and Greet and took her to a babysitter after and picked up Dave for the concert...very complicated, I know....but well worth it! The Eat and Greet was very cool. There was a lot of waiting involved, but Sage makes everything fun :). It was fun to talk to all the 'chosen' fans and their guests and to talk to John's photographer, Katie. She was our guide through the whole ordeal. I would have to say, I had much more fun meeting Katie and talking to her than I did with meeting John.... but that's just because meeting him was way too short. He came into the room, finally, and went around to everyone, one by one, to say hi, sign something and Katie snapped a picture of them. Sage and I were last in line. Sage captured his attention from the moment he walked in the room. It was very cute. She was trying to contain herself, but couldn't...she was jumping a little and waving and said "That's John Mayer! Hi John Mayer!!" and she was giggling. So JM mimicked her, jumping and waving and giggling. It was very cute and made her night. He scored lots of points with me for being sweet to my little girl. So when he got to us, he got right down to sage's level and was off and running, talking to her. :) He signed her Eat and Greet pass and then she handed him the picture she drew of JM in concert and he thanked her and said how nice of her it was to draw him a picture...it was funny, because I had to butt in and tell him she actually wants to keep the picture as a memory and she just wanted him to sign it. :) Everyone laughed. It was cute. So he signed it and he signed 2 JM (vinyl) albums I brought and then it was picture time. I am a really big fan, and I don't know if you've ever met a musician you really admired...but let's just say I was in a wierd dream state and didn't really know what I was saying or doing. So without thinking I stood in Sage's picture with JM; not realizing "hey! If I wait a minute I can get one of my own with him!" oh well. It's cuter this way!! :) Ok Ok I know you're all thinking, wow, rachel is much dorkier than I ever imagined. haha! well, ok, you're right. I love music and meeting someone who makes the music that I love was amazing. Now if I ever were to meet James Taylor (the musician I've loved my whole life and not just a mere 2 years or so) I don't know how I'd react!! It's so silly, isn't it? To put these regular people, with extraordinary talents, on such a pedastal. I guess I'm only human.
Anyway, it was so fun to meet JM and it was so fun to share that experience with Sage. She'll remember it for the rest of her life. (and so will I). I'm so glad Dave didn't put up a fight and graciously let Sage go in his place. :) Thanks Dave. :)
After all of that hoopla...we got to go to the concert! ...it was the best I've ever been to! I know, I haven't been to that many concerts, but I have been to enough to know that this one was amazing!! We were so close to the stage and it was so fun to be there with Dave. :)

Oh ...some of the things sage said to JM:

I love your song Gravity!! and JM responded...Oh really, because I'm going to play it for you tonight!! (too bad she wasn't there to hear it!!...but we took pictures)

Oh, I'm not going to your concert..it's just too loud. (and she didn't have a ticket)

She was determined to ask John for a ticket to his show (I was hoping she wouldn't) and luckily she decided not to. phew!

And when were were waiting in the back room (that was attached to a bathroom/locker room type place) for JM to show up, Sage suggested everyone hide in the bathroom and when John showed up we could all jump out and say "surprise"!! haaha! she's so cute...but no one else was up for it (she did it anyway, by herself)

Ok so there it is. I'm not going to edit it...I'll just put it out there. :) It was fun and I'm so glad I got to meet one of my favorite singers/musicians. :) Thanks Local 83 ;)

Here is JM admiring his TRY! album before he signed it :) (and sage, just giggling) :)

Below is a picture of our Eat and Greet group, in the shower. Thanks Katie :)

THE END.

A Long Lost Photo?

You decide :)

Twilight Quiz

I just saw this quiz on my friend, Tori's, blog. I also LOVE the Twilight series of books (by Stephenie Meyer) and thought it would be fun to take this quiz. :) So here are my results...

Which Twilight novel character are you?

You're" Esme Cullen - Your maternal instinct to take care of people and be kind draw people towards you. You're compassionate and loving, yet firm when you need to be. You appreciate hard work and value the beautiful results of your dedication to any project.
http://www.quizilla.com/users/twilightnexus/quizzes/Which%20Twilight%20novel%20character%20are%20you%3F


So there it is. I'm the Mom. :) I guess that's all I could have expected. Although, being told I was like Edward or Jacob would have been cool too. At least I'm a vampire!

Now what?

So now that Sage is in school all day, Alex and I have been spending lots of time together. He really misses her and asks if we can pick her up, many times throughout the day. But when he's not thinking about sissy, he likes to have lots of fun with Mama!



Here he is, licking the spatula...his favorite part of making brownies!



I love his smile! and his silliness!

I love my little boy :)

First Day of Kindergarten!!

August 6, 2007

Sage was excited for her first day of school (and a little nervous too). This first picture was taken in front of our home...love those purple flowers!


We walk to school every morning. Sage gets tired a lot (she's telling me what to write! haha) when she does that."
This picture was taken right after she sat down at her desk for the first time. She was so cute. It was really hard to leave her there. In fact, we stood outside the classroom window for a while (along with many other kindergarten parents) and were finally 'kicked out' of there. The school uses the colors of a stop light to judge how well the kids are doing (behaviorally).... Sage is so pleased to come home with a 'green light'! So far she's brought home a green light everyday!! We're so proud of her!

Sending our first child to school has been an adjustment. I never thought it would be so hard to send her away to school. But actually, come to think of it, it is a rather big step, considering when I went to kindergarten it was only 1/2 day and now the little 5 year olds go full day!

Greg Pattillo

what do you think? :)

another great one

This one is for Andrew and Daniel...

slideshow

John Mayer

Here's some pictures from tonight....I'll write about it later :)

songs we love

Extra, Extra...Read All About It!!!

This is from today's newspaper!! Alex is up close (in the group shot) on the right and Sage is up closer to the librarian, on a blue mat right in front of the boy in a checkered shirt...it's kind of hard to see her but she's there (not the one with piggy tails...the other little girl in pink to the right).

Incredible!!

I just saw this today and had to share....

"In a zoo in California, a mother tiger gave birth to a rare set of triplet tiger cubs. Unfortunately, due to complications in the pregnancy, the cubs were born prematurely and due to their tiny size, they died shortly after birth. The mother tiger after recovering from the delivery, suddenly started to decline in health, although physically she was fine. The veterinarians felt that the loss of her litter had caused the tigress to fall into a depression. The doctors decided that if the tigress could surrogate another mother's cubs, perhaps she would improve. After checking with many other zoos across the country, the depressing news was that there were no tiger cubs of the right age to introduce to the mourning mother. The veterinarians decided to try something that had never been tried in a zoo environment. Sometimes a mother of one species will take on the care of a different species. The only orphans" that could be found quickly, were a litter of weaner pigs. The zoo keepers and vets wrapped the piglets in tiger skin and placed the babies around the mother tiger. Would they become cubs or pork chops??"

Sage and Charlie say Hello!

By Request....

By request...here are some more pictures of our new home! :)

Halloween

Sage dressed up as Cinderella for Halloween:

And Alex dressed up as an elephant!

Mom was here for Halloween so it was extra specialerific!!! ;)

Little Boy Turns 2!!!

We celebrated Alex's 2nd birthday on Halloween! We were so excited that Mom was here!! It was lots of fun and I can't believe Alex is already 2!!
Here are some pictures from the day:

Win your way to the Wynn

We went to Las Vegas at the end of September, for the contest Dave won. Here are some of the highlights from our trip.....



I have always heard of fancy shmancy hotels with robes to wear in the rooms...well, I finally stayed at one and Sage and I had to model the robes for a quick picture! :) Ahhh...

A view from one of our huge, entire-wall-covered-panoramic-windows! wow! Don't look down!

and another....wow!

Ok, so these are some stunning Andy Warhol prints and the tv in the middle...loved it!....anyway, if you look closely on the dresser there are some extremely expensive snacks. We read that if you so much as pick one item up for more than 60 seconds you would conviently be charged for it on your room bill....imagine dealing with 100+ dollars in snacks sitting there, bolted to the dresser and 2 little kids that wouldn't stop picking items up!! Ahhh!! I was so scared...I thought we'd have to pay for the snacks if they were picked up...luckily we were able to clear that all up at checkout...phew! $100 in snacks we didn't take....ouch!

I could have lived in this bathroom. seriously. no joke! There is a tv mounted in the wall with a picture frame around it and a lovely vanity. ..not to mention the water fall tub. This place was incredible. I know I know, you guys stay in places like this all the time....but to me, WoW!

This is "Club Suzuki"....pretty cool...there were cars in there, randomly parked around the room. It looked really great!

We were at Circus Circus and found this lovely Korean lady who made a "name art" picture for Sage and Alex's names. They're amazing...really, we were stunned!

Here are Sage and Alex, waiting ever so impatiently while we were checking out of the hotel. (I know, these pictures aren't in the right order...oh well)

I was really mesmerized by these "gigantic hanging flower ball arrangements"!! They are in the Lobby of the Wynn and I love them.

Here's a picture of Sage and Alex in the Lobby of the Wynn. I couldn't believe how beautiful it all was...

The floors were incredible!!

So that was the Wynn...wow. Too bad I didn't take any picture of the pool and surrounding area...that was some kind of paradise. Incredible. Maybe we'll see you again next year, Wynn. Keep a robe ready for me. :)

Welcome Home!

Welcome to our new home!! We officially moved in 1 month ago and we love it here!! :)

When we got the house, I just had to come by and take a picture of the sold sign!! SOLD! Yep, that's right! :)
I'll have to get some pictures of us at our house...in the near future!

Congratulations Dave!

Dave recently won a contest with Suzuki! They took the total Suzuki sales from July and August and in the Western Region (the western 1/2 of the United States), Dave ranked #1!!!!
I am so proud of him and just wanted to brag, on his behalf!
As a reward, Suzuki has paid for a flight (for the top 5 from each region) to Las Vegas for 3 days and he gets to stay in a luxurious :) hotel while he's there! And to top it all off, the kids and I are going along! It will be a fun trip for all of us! While he's in Las Vegas, he'll be able to preview a new Suzuki model that's coming out next year!
Congratulations to You, Dave!!
You're the best!!

Time Flies!

Brother and sisterhood is a love/hate relationship, as you can see from these pictures. There has been a lot of fighting going on around here lately, by the smallest people in the household. I hope it will be over soon. :) As you can see above, Sage and Alex love spending time together! We got an ice cream maker, which we LOVE, and they really like watching it mix and saying "it's getting thicker!" for 30 minutes straight! Fun fun fun!