This is the story of how Ellen Degeneres blessed my socks off.
It all started when my friend Ashley invited me to go to the Ellen show with her...
You know, just another ordinary day...
touring the WB studios in Burbank...
hanging out on the Central Perk set of Friend's...
seeing Ellen Degeneres... (along with Emily Blunt, Ansel Elgort, and of course--Twitch!)...
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| Photo cred: The Ellen Show |
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| Photo cred: The Ellen Show |
and going home with a Bvlgari necklace, a 2-year subscription to Netflix, and a Samsung Galaxy S3 mini phone.
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| Photo cred: The Ellen Show |
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| Photo cred: The Ellen Show |
WHAAAAT!!! :)
We were ecstatic the entire day... My face seriously hadn't hurt from smiling that much since my wedding. And apparently it showed--we were invited to come back to another show!!
In the end it worked out that I brought a good friend, Jen (who got some air time asking guest DJ Loni Love for romance advice!).
We got to dance next to Ellen and were completely star-struck. :D And then it was game time... I still remember hearing Ellen reveal what the players would be playing for. My mouth dropped at the amazingness that was this prize--I was just in total awe for whoever would get to win it. And then I heard Ellen say my name...
"Where are... Bethany Sloan and Alisha Michaelson?!?!"
HOLY PICKIN COW, ELLEN DEGENERES did NOT just say MY NAME!!!
All of a sudden I'm running down to the stage, hugging Ellen, and jumping up and down. Guys, it was INSANE. Amidst the blur of it all I remember how piercingly beautiful Ellen's blue eyes were up close, and hoping I was showing enough how excited I felt inside!!
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| Photo cred: The Ellen Show |
You can see the clip of our trivia game, Farmville 2 Nashville, here!!
The story behind the Beyonce answer was my favorite part--neither Alisha nor I knew the answer to, "Who is the mom of Blue Ivy?" so we tried turning to the audience for help. I had a chance to steal, and I could tell my bud Jen knew the answer, but there was absolutely no way to hear her shouting to me with the entire audience shouting, too. Ironically, just before the taping, the audience had been warming up by doing Beyonce's infamous dance to "Crazy in Love," so Jen just starts busting it out, using charades to help me get it!! As soon as I saw that it CLICKED and I got my ONE point!! Hahaha.
So the lovely Alisha wins the game and the amazing prize, but gotta love Ellen who gives prizes to her losers too, because hours later I'm busting through my front door and announcing to my husband,
"WE'RE GOING TO NASHVILLE, BABY!!!!
AND we're going to THE CMT AWARDS!!!!
AND we get to meet KEITH URBAN!!!!!"
Shocked, laughing, and hugging, David kept exclaiming over and over, "BABE.... Are you SERIOUS?!?! SERIOUSLY??!! WHAAT!!!! BABE!!"
It still felt unreal when Alisha and I were boarding the plane at LAX with our country music-loving husbands just three weeks later. (Gotta love that they were just as excited as we were!!)
And thanks to an incredible integration between Farmville 2 Country Escape, Ellen, and Keith Urban, we were given the trip of a LIFETIME. Round-trip tickets to Nashville, a 5-nights' stay in a hotel, tickets to the Country Music Television Awards, a surprise opportunity to rub elbows with all of our fav country celebs on the RED CARPET before the awards, a meet-and-greet with Keith Urban, AND surprise tickets to the Country Music Association (CMA) Festival that was going down that weekend!!!
We're talkin SECOND ROW SEATS to THREE NIGHTS of concerts, where we got to see Tim McGraw, Luke Bryan, Rascal Flatts, Alabama, Dierks Bentley, Brantley Gilbert, Blake Shelton, Eric Church, Miranda Lambert, Jason Aldean, The Band Perry, Sara Evans, Travis Tritt, Florida Georgia Line, Darius Rucker, Little Big Town, and Keith Urban!!!
HOLY MOLY GUACAMOLE... It seriously just kept getting better... and Better... and BETTER.
I even got to see the incredibly handsome and charming Chip Esten, who plays my favorite character Deacon on my FAVORITE drama, Nashville (which is returning for its 3rd season this fall on ABC, woot woot!!!)
Y'all, we can't even capture what an amazing time we had and how thankful we are, or how blessed we feel to have gotten to experience all that... We especially loved gaining a friendship out of it--with Alisha and her husband, Sven! Both of us got to use this trip as an early anniversary trip, and man will we never be able to top this one!!! We kept saying it was a trip of a lifetime, and man was it...
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| Photo cred: Keith Urban, AKA master selfie taker |
The Ellen Show put together a clip of our time on the red carpet for the CMT Awards, and you can check it out here! I also have several more pictures on Instagram (@bethanyjanae)
And for those who are curious--the award show aired live on June 4th, and the CMA Fest will be airing on ABC on August 5th.
Back home I've still been riding the high from the trip by rewatching the first two seasons of Nashville on Hulu, and by ordering a huge sampling from Nashville's Loveless Cafe online store that I cooked for David for Father's Day (complete with sweet tea). :)
Also, I'm pretty sure I'm still weaning off a slight accent. I just love the south too much...
Thank you a MILLION--to Ellen "the most generous and wonderful talk show host" Degeneres, to Farmville 2 Country Escape, and to Keith "the handsome Aussie cowboy" Urban!!!
