mysql keeps pulling select email NULL for session in RoR

I tried using Devise but since that didn't work out for me, I decided to build the authentication and sessions from scratch. I realize the problem wasn't devise, but it's mysql. For some reason, when I register a user, the information and attributes are stored in the database. When I login using the email and password, it keeps telling 开发者_运维问答me that it's an invalid email/password. The log looks like this:

Processing by SessionsController#create as HTML
Parameters: {"utf8"=>"✓", "authenticity_token"=>"NFudGruZS79uwDrKzbHDQrBjlcwQ7AkC958vI4aHDAs=", "session"=>{"email"=>"first@abc.com", "password"=>"[FILTERED]"}, "commit"=>"Sign in"}
User Load (0.4ms)  SELECT `users`.* FROM `users` WHERE `users`.`email` IS NULL LIMIT 1

After some investigation, I know it's not because I didn't install mysql or other gems properly because a brand new app works just fine.

Does anyone know why it's not pulling the email I entered and pulling email is NULL instead?

Should I just create a new database and switch my database.yml file to the new database instead?

Thanks in advance.

EDIT - SOME MORE CODE

user model:

class User < ActiveRecord::Base

 attr_accessor   :password
 attr_accessible :name, :email, :secondary_email, :password, :password_confirmation, :gender

has_many :user_owner_relationships
has_many :owners, :through => :user_owner_relationships
has_many :cash_endowments
has_many :checks, :through => :cash_endowments
has_many :owners, :through => :cash_endowments

email_regex = /\A[\w+\-.]+@[a-z\d\-.]+\.[a-z]+\z/i


validates :email,                 :presence => true,
                                  :uniqueness => { :case_sensitive => false },
                                  :format => { :with => email_regex }

validates :name,                  :presence => true,
                                  :length => { :maximum => 40 }

validates :password,              :presence => true,
                                  :confirmation => true,
                                  :length => { :within => 6..20 }

sessions_controller (user controller is standard)

def new
 @title = "Sign in"
end

def create
  user = User.authenticate(params[:email], params[:password])
 if user
  session[:user_id] = user.id
  redirect_to root_path, :notice => "Welcome '#{user.first_name}"
 else
  flash.now.alert = "Invalid email or password."
  render "new"
 end
end

Rookie mistake -

It's actually because my new.html.erb for the sessions controller was not pulling the :session symbol from this code:

<%= form_for (:session, :url => sessions_path) do |f| %>

So I just ended up using form_tag instead.