ladybugs

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I'm a WiNNeR!

I love blogging. I love reading about people's lives and what they are up to. I love seeing different scrapbook creations and getting inspiration from amazing artists. I love reading about reviews and products people have tried and whether or not they recommend them. And I also love giveaways. Those are always fun. :)
I follow a few blogs that offer quite a few suggestions as far as savings, reviews and giveaways. I LOVE bargain shopping. Love. Love. Love. I am a coupon clipper and a lean-mean-savings-machine. Even my grandma said the other day, "You sure do find great deals, don't ya?" Yes, Grandma--I do.
The other day one of the blogs I follow had some great giveaways. I entered a few of them, including one for tickets to the Maroon 5 concert in Tulsa, OK. I checked back occasionally to see if they had announced the winner but I never saw it.
A couple days later, I just happened to check my "junk e-mail folder" because it showed a new message. It was from Jennifer and titled "Congrats from Life with the Lebedas". NOOOO WAY.
I was super nervous and excited to open the e-mail. And sure enough, I had won the Maroon 5 tickets!! I literally started squealing at work. I couldn't believe it!
I immediately emailed her back. She was waiting on the tickets to arrive to her from a 3rd party, but they informed her they had been shipped so she was just waiting to get them to give to me! I was super stoked!
So I just happened to Google.com search for their concert. My. Jaw. Dropped... They were playing with...
ONE REPUBLIC!!
My all time favorite band! I could NOT believe it. I had won tickets to see One Republic and Rob Thomas last year on the radio, and also won meet and greet for One Republic, where they proceeded to serenade me and my boss/friend, Andrea at lunch. We had a private concert with about 8 other people. It was UH-MAY-ZING. I was literally on cloud nine. It couldn't get any better than that!
But wait... YES IT COULD!
I asked Jennifer to FedEx the tickets to me. They arrived Monday and the concert was Tuesday. I was very happy I didn't have to drive to Tulsa to pick them up (a 2-hr. drive) although I would have if I needed. I just happened to look online to see where the seats were. It said section F4. My thoughts were, F seems to be higher up in the alphabet, so they were probably nosebleed seats since they were free. But hey, I'd take what I could get!! But then, I looked online. "F" meant FLOOR!!! AHH!! I had NEVER been on the floor at a concert before. And they were row A, seats 7 and 8!!
I asked my sister to go with me. I got off work a little early on Tuesday and after gassing up and grabbing some Chic-Fil-A, we headed on the road. I had to buy the latest Maroon 5 CD to listen on the way (I wasn't up-to-date on their latest and greatest). So with the Maroon 5 CD and my two One Republic CD's I already had, we were set. The two-hour drive wasn't too bad. Actually, it didn't take nearly that long. I have a heavy foot. :) My handy-dandy GPS, along with my MapQuest print-out (just to be safe this time!), we were able to get there a good hour before the concert was to start. I had never been to downtown Tulsa, so I wasn't that familiar with the area. We found the BOK Center pretty quickly though.

We drove around the BOK Center and everywhere we looked, people had signs saying "Parking $20". Ok, as I had mentioned before, I am a money-saver. I pinch pennies. I was NOT paying $20 for parking! So we drove past the BOK Center hoping to find a cheaper spot. I would WALK if I had to. :) We drove past the Sherriff's Office to the north of the building, and I realized I didn't quite feel comfortable parking near a gated area with barbed wire on the top. I decided to make my way back around the Sherriff's Office and head back to the BOK Center and hopefully we could at least find $10 parking or something.

We rounded the corner and I noticed a empty spot. I asked my sister, "Is that handicapped?" She said No, so I zoomed over and took it. Right in front of us, through the gate, were the bands' buses!

We were early, but we decided to go on inside. We stood in line so I could buy a couple of t-shirts. Then we decided to find out where our seats were. We went to the entrance and showed the lady our tickets. She told us they were floor seats and to head on down. We made our way down the stairs and got to the floor. They looked at our tickets again. I asked which row, and the nice gentleman told us to follow him. We started walking towards the stage. And we kept walking. Closer. and Closer. I glanced at my sister and smiled. He took us over to the front section and sat us down right smack-dab in the middle of the first row, with no seats in front of us! We were literally front and center! We visited with the mother and daughter duo that were sitting next to us. They had won tickets online too, but from a different site. They didn't know they were up front either.

The concert quickly started, and the opening band was a group called Ry Cuming. The lead singer was Austrailian and had an amazing accent. They were really good.

Next came One Republic. I was soooo excited to see them! The nice man who seated us had to play security guard and make sure that everyone had tickets. He let us go up by the stage and take photos. It was so cool. I couldn't believe how close we were able to get. I had a blast singing all of the songs at the top of my lungs and rocking out. It rocked.

After they sang quite a few songs, Maroon 5 came out. I must admit, I am not a HUGE Maroon 5 fan. I do like some of their songs, but I don't have them memorized like I do those of One Republic. But once they started singing... oh... my... goodness! It was amazing! The lead singer has such a stage presence, and he danced and sang and it was incredible. I was crushin' hard. lol And I'm prettttttyyyy sure he was singing to me. I'm just sayin'. It seemed like it. ;)

So after the amazing concert was over, it was time to head back to the city. I knew it was going to be a long drive and I really needed some coffee!! (so did the drunk lady that had to be wheeled out on the stretcher-haha! Look in the photo above with the blue lights... see the lady on the left side with her hubby holding her up? Yep, that would be her!)
We walked to the car and there were people lined up along the gate in front of my car. We were getting in the car, when we heard screams. We looked up and there was the lead singer from Maroon 5! I grabbed my CD case, hoping to get a signature. However, he quickly got on the bus and we didn't see him again. We visited with the very nice bus driver who told us they "may" come back out, but then he quickly said that they weren't and they started backing up. We got in my car and followed the tour bus out of Tulsa.
All-in-all, it was a FABULOUS night. Thank you soooo much Jennifer for offering the tickets. We had so much fun and it was probably one of the best nights that I have had!

Pumpkin Patchin'...

Have you heard of Groupon? They have some AUH.MAY.ZING deals on there. The other day I found one for Flat Tire Burgers in Edmond, and you got $20 worth of food for only $8! So I bought 3 of them... $24 for $60 worth of food! The family had a nice dinner together one Friday night. It was great.
Last week there was a Groupon for the TG Farms Pumpkin Patch. You could get two admissions for only $8, a 53% savings. I went ahead and bought 4 sets. On Saturday, we all drove out to the patch.
I put in the address in my handy-dandy GPS. 1580 NW 32nd Street in Newcastle, to be exact. I entered it and hit Go! We headed down the road (Me, Chadd and Z) and my dad was following us (with my mom, sister and fiance' in tow). Dad drives, well, not so fast, so I told them I would just meet them there. Josh had his iPhone and could get them there. Shortly down the road, mom called and said Josh's directions told them to turn, but since I didn't turn they wanted me to wait for them. So I pulled over and waited. and waited. YAWN. and waited. lol Just kidding. They came up behind us and I got back on the road so they could follow. The GPS lady, (I don't have a name for mine), told us to exit and, "Turn Left. Turn Left." So we turned. And then we turned right when she told us to. The next thing we know, she's saying, "Arriving at destination." UHHHH... We were on a country road by a barn!!! I busted up laughing. I looked, and for some reason, when I entered NW in the GPS, it kept taking us SE! My dad, with his sense of humor, said he knew how to get there and to follow him. Apparently it takes us getting lost for him to put the pedal to the metal. haha About 10 minutes later, we arrived at the farm. Finally. :)

We had such a great time together. Zoie got to pet some animals at the petting zoo, we took a trip through the corn maze, road the hay ride and picked out pumpkins. After a long day's play and being covered in Oklahoma's wonderful red dirt, it was time to go.
Thanks for looking!
-Lindsay