Celebrating with "Style"...

Sage and Jack have always been Taylor Swift fans but me on the other hand...not so much, at least up until her most recent album. I have though always appreciated her good girl image and desire to be a good example to young women. So in August, months after her 1989 World Tour tickets had first gone on sale, Sage casually mentioned how she wished she could see her in concert. I knew Taylor had come through Louisville months prior but as it turned out she would be coming back through Columbus and Indianapolis in the next few weeks. Well when Jack learned she'd be in Columbus on my actual birthday he thought it would be a great way to celebrate and encouraged me to look into tickets. Of course the whole tour had been sold out since close to ten minutes after tickets first went on sale back in November so the only way to get tickets was through winning them on the radio...lol...or buying them on the resale market! The good news about buying tickets on the resale market is that you can really search out the exact seats you are interested in (for a premium of course) and I'm fairly confident that half the tickets originally purchased were purchased with the intent to sell them on the resale market at a big profit. The bad news is that you pay multiples times the original ticket price due to broker fees and scalpers looking to make a buck. Never would I had imagined spending what we did on these tickets. NEVER! I mean good grief, just the broker fee was $250 and I will admit I didn't sleep for a few nights after purchasing them but Jack really encouraged me to do it knowing it would be a memory Sage would hopefully never forget and a great way to spend my birthday. We ended up finding aisle seats in the first row just above the floor in a section close to the stage so that Sage wouldn't have to worry about people blocking her view if she got tired and wanted to sit down for a bit. It was so worth the sick stomach I had over the darn tickets as they were great seats! Here's a few photos from our night!

The closest Sage would ever get to Taylor...lol!



In our seats waiting for Vance Joy to open up the show! I don't think Sage was too thrilled when she learned it would be another hour before Taylor Swift would be on stage but watching her stand up and dance to his music was so cute!



Almost time...



Finally!






Loved hanging out with my little buddy at her first concert ever even if she did ask about one hour into Taylor's performance how much longer it had!!! I calmly whispered in her ear that after what her dad had spent on these tickets she'd better be willing to listen to her for a full 24 hours...haha!!! It was a late night, she had been up since 6:30 that morning for school so I had to remind myself it was ok!



The return on investment? A couple guitar pics that some kind band staff member came by to give Sage as Taylor first started performing. We heard it was Taylor's dad but we don't know for sure! But Sage was sure excited to get them!



Definitely one of the more exciting birthdays I've had! Happy big 45 to me!!!

Western and Southern Open

Little did we know when we moved to Mason OH there would actually be some pretty cool things to do once we got here.  One of which is King's Island, a really fun amusement park with some amazing roller coasters.  But who would have ever imagined that we'd get all the top tennis players each year passing through our little town for the Western and Southern Open. This is the stop they make right before the US Open in NY and how fun it was to spend a day seeing some good tennis. From enjoying the morning/afternoon session with Andrea to the soaking up the evening session with Julie what a treat it was to watch Novak Djokovic, Roger Federer, Andy Murray and a few others try to defend their titles.  Here are just a few shots from the day!

Past winners wall

Marin Cilic arriving at the venue!

A couple crazy middle aged women...

Trying to keep my hair out of my face while taking a photo with Goran Ivanisevic who was a professional player and now coaches Novak Djokovic and Marin Cilic. 

Watching Serena Williams get in some practice!

Watching Novak win this match!

The night session! Rafael Nadal for the win tonight.

Roger Federer for the win in this match!

A couple of the important people...the umpires!  Mohamed Lahyani (next to me) presided over the longest match in history back in 2010 during Wimbledon.  Such a fun experience and thanks to Julie for sharing it with me!

Good morning 4th and 8th grades!

After a fabulous vacation the week before school started it was time to head back to routines...and school! After running around like a crazy lady the day before school started to gather what the kids had missed at Open House and Orientation, the morning had arrived. Once again it's dark outside as the boys head off to the bus stop at 6:30 which just seems wrong! The clear theme from the first week of school was how much the boys had grown over the summer. They had grown 4 inches in the past year according to their physical a couple months back but it's not until people keep commenting that you realize, yes, they really are growing. It's only been in the last month that Ty keeps standing next to me to see if he has passed me up...



And here is our beautiful Sage before heading off to her new school this year! This will be school number 3 for her since moving to Mason! She attended Mason Early Childhood Center for 1st and 2nd grades, Western Row for 3rd and now Mason Intermediate for 4th! You know you are in the big leagues when you get an assigned hallway locker with a combination lock!