Things I Love Thursday 12.18.08

I love getting to meet fun people. I had a string of good luck a few weeks ago when it came to meeting such fun people.

Our friend Eli, who went to high school with Brandon Heath, got me and her hooked up with some tickets and backstage passes to the Brandon Heath/Third Day show in Asheville. I was so excited to finally meet Brandon (Eli had been talking about him for years) and was also excited about seeing a great concert. After Brandon's portion of the concert, we were able to head backstage and spend some time chatting it up with him. He and Eli caught up and reminisced about old times and then we headed to the catering area and spent some time hanging out and laughing with Brandon and his band. Plus, Brandon was just nominated the day before that for TWO GRAMMYS!! So, it was really cool to be able to congratulate him in person! While we didn't get to see a whole lot of the Third Day show (although we were able to hear every bit of it...and what we did get to see was from backstage!) I really enjoyed getting to hang out with Brandon and the guys. They were so encouraging to us and it was a lot of fun.

Eli, Brandon Heath and Me

Me with the guys in Brandon's band (JP, Hai, Joe and me)...this is our version of the cheesy "Saved By the Bell" picture. They seriously crack me up!

At one point, the tour manager introduced himself to us and said he'd get us passes for the Third Day meet & greet after the show...ummm, ok! I've followed Third Day's music since before they really made it big and was so thrilled to actually meet them! So we followed the group of 20 people to this little room and anxiously waited for the guys to come in. We were able to talk briefly with each of the members of Third Day and were able to get some great pictures, too! We learned from Mac Powell (lead singer) that "Mac" doesn't stand for anything, but that his full name is Johnny Mac Powell...and that his hair should be in a commercial. And I was able to tell Tai Anderson(bassist) that I used to go to camp with his sister, and that our siblings dated for about 2 days back in high school. We were also able to chat a little with Mark Lee (guitar player) and David Carr (drummer).

Me, Mac Powell and Eli

Me and Tai Anderson

Me and David Carr

Me and Mark Lee
So, I left this night of amazingness and secretly wished that my luck would continue...at least for 3 more days. The following Sunday, Brooke, Lori, Beth and I headed to Raleigh for a little girls' Christmas getaway and to see Shane & Shane, Bethany Dillon and Phil Wickham. And while we'd seen the Shanes in concert about 5 times this year, we were never able to meet them after a show. So we headed to Raleigh with our fingers crossed. After an AMAZINGLY worshipful Christmas show (and we would have expected nothing less from our favorites, the Shanes) our one Christmas wish was granted...Shane Barnard was in the back meeting people. All we wanted for Christmas was our picture with the Shanes (Shane E was sick, and wasn't around after the show), and 1 of the 2 Shanes would do the trick. AND to make our Christmas wish even better, he was wearing reindeer antlers that blinked!!! We were so pumped!! So, FINALLY (after 2 years of traveling to the ends of the earth to see the Shanes) we were able to meet Shane B!!

Lori, Beth, Shane & the blinking antlers, Brooke and me
Then, seeing that Bethany Dillon was just around the corner, we ran over and got a chance to meet her for a quick pic.

Brooke, Beth, Bethany, Sarai and Glory (I mean Lori)
All that fun crammed into a 3 day period of time was almost more than I could handle...but I did and I have pictures to prove it!