Gratitude And Adjusting My Attitude

On August 15, 2022August 15, 2022 By SuzIn As blogged by Suz28 Comments

Y’all. We had the best weekend. Our event on Saturday was ahhhhmaazzzing.

I found myself repeating this line the past few weeks: I can’t wait for the day to get here, have the event, wrap it up and let’s move onto other things.

It was very time consuming, mostly for my husband, who, by the way never ever complains. Never. Although early Saturday morning he said: this is like herding kittens. Getting the artists here is always a challenge; sometimes the airlines like to switch things up or the artists themselves need to change travel times at the last minute. Creative people can be flaky; I’m not telling you something you don’t already know.

This was our fourth year for the Songwriters For Vets Event and each year we’ve been building onto the foundation. More sponsors each year (who by the way happily write big fat checks!) and we added silent auction baskets/gifts, plus some live auction items. I wasn’t able to see my craft table for the last few weeks…but today, I can see what the countertop color actually is.

ATTITUDE ADJUSTED

Anyhoo, as we were setting up all the tables, merchandise area and silent auction items on Saturday morning, I was taken aback by all the lovely people in my life who always show up with a smile on their face, always ready to help.

_{Family photo photobombed by Mr. James Otto himself.}

On Sunday morning as we were having breakfast with our kids at the hotel and discussing how the night went my girls also marveled at how many long-term ‘lifer’ friends we have. We are surrounded with good, quality humans and I adore them all. BONUS: Lolo, Linds, Nathan and Lindsay’s new beau were a huge help weeks prior and the day of; I appreciate my kids so much.

We’ve not settled up the funds yet, but Coach thinks we should net about 40k, but maybe more.

_{Channing Wilson, Kristian Bush, Patrick Davis, Angie Aparo, James Otto.}

The Coach and I arrived home on Sunday afternoon and after unloading both vehicles we took the time to rest as we were going nonstop Thursday-Sunday morning. I think I slept 10 hours last night, and surprisingly, I’m still tired. Getting old ain’t for sissies!

Did anyone else attended a musical/charity ~~super spreader~~ event this weekend?

I Like Big Checks And I Cannot Lie, Twinning, and A Spidey Upside Down Smacker.

On July 29, 2022July 29, 2022 By SuzIn As blogged by Suz29 Comments

We had a quick jaunt to the East Coast this past weekend; a mere 20 hours that included giving away some big checks, visiting with our amazing friends and driving through our old stomping grounds.

Boy have things changed. The high school the Coach and I both attended used to be in the middle of Crack Town. Since we’ve left, it’s all cleaned up and seems to be such an affluent area now. We were all: Man, I remember seeing drug deals going down right where the Cheesecake Factory now resides.

GIVE IT AWAY, GIVE IT AWAY NOW

Remember our Songwriters for Vets event we had in June? Well, I say ‘we’, but I’m a teeny, tiny cog in the machine that my husband is driving. Anyhoo, the money was counted and we were able to give a good amount to two different Veteran charities.

I’m getting gas and groceries tomorrow, so I’m gonna need another one of those checks.

Doppelgänger

Linds was assisting a friend in looking for a rescue pup earlier this week and sent this pic (left) to me stating this dog was at Domestic Animal Services and it’s Lillie’s twin.

I mean, it kind of looks like her, but it’s weird seeing ‘her’ with two ears. I knew the dog looked familiar and not just because of Lillie. The day before I saw this dog on our local lost/found dogs FB group.

*Don’t you hate it when dogs just ‘wonder’?*

I.do.not.need.another.dog.

That being said…

I could.not.stop.thinking.about.this.dog.

But Thank you Baby Jesus because when I looked today, he’s been picked up by his owners.

*phew* *wipes beads of sweat off forehead* *bullet dodged*

Upside Down Nature Porn

I’m so happy I threw that butterfly post together on Monday; you seemed to like it.

You like me, You really, really like me!

I was out perusing the yard yesterday when I saw two Monarchs fighting.

Then it dawned on me, they’re not mad, they’re fighting like a couple in love. ❤️

I know it’s not polite to watch, but I was mesmerized and this reminded me of something.

No, not my honeymoon.

Something else…

And then it dawned on me!

Raise your hand if you felt this was a was a cringy moment then AND now.

So, have you seen any nature porn lately? Goodness, I wonder how many weirdos who will find my blog now that I typed porn twice.

Wait, now I wrote it THREE times!

Someone, help me stop the madness.

XOXO

Good Music, Good people and Getting Back To Doing Good Stuff For Our Veterans; Now With Dogs!

On June 24, 2022 By SuzIn As blogged by Suz35 Comments

If you’ve been here for a while you’ll recall that the Coach spearheaded Songwriters For Veterans charity events in 2018 and 2019. He’s also hosted a few smoked pork butt cook off’s to raise proceeds for Veterans. These events are so much work, but he loves doing it and never complains. ALL proceeds go directly to vetted Veteran Charities. He does all of the work for free and the past few years we’ve had a handful of our employees that also do a good portion of the work on our dime. (website setups, ticket sales, merchandise ordering, etc)

In early 2020 The Coach decided to expand our Songwriters event to the East Coast where a lot of our friends live. Plans were in place, sponsors wrote checks….and then we all know what happened.

Finally, 2022, the event was going to happen. Can you believe that our amazing sponsors NEVER asked for their money back, they trusted that the event would happen eventually; talk about being gracious.

2022-*I’m a VIP, it says so on my lanyard!*

Songwriters For Vets

The Coach was able to secure five singer/songwriters for the event, and someone new to the lineup was our wonderful friend Clint who is a bonafide Cowboy and Poet. We’ve been friends for a long time and Fun Fact, we adopted Callie from Clint’s cattle ranch a hundred years ago and the dog is still kicking. It’s a magical ranch!

Anyhoo, Clint read one of his amazing poems before the songwriters took over and I have a video version of it.

Unless you’re a commie bastard, you’ll appreciate it. 😳

There was not a dry eye in the house.

ONTO THE MUSIC

Our songwriters talk/sing in the BlueBird Cafe style and it’s so interesting to hear the stories behind the songs. I’m not gonna go into detail about our songwriters, they are all accomplished and wonderful humans. Our lineup or this event was Kristian Bush (of Sugarland) Patrick Davis, Channing Wilson, Lauren Jenkins and Angie Aparo (my new favorite!)

I took one little clip of Kristian singing…he explained that this “love song” Isn’t really about love at all, it’s about being in a relationship with someone who makes you nuts and each time you try to leave, they do one little thing to bring you back in.

My husband could probably relate.

As you can see even though I’m a VIP, I didn’t have the best seat in the house. We saved those for our gracious sponsors.

AGAIN WITH DOGGIES

I almost forgot the ‘almost’ best part. My girl Kelly is good friends with the people at a dog rescue in Jupiter and they decided to do an adopt & donate TWO-FER. (This particular rescue has a dog training program that helps Veterans with PTSD and they also take in and care for dogs belonging to a service person who is going overseas.) This little rescue girl (from Ukraine) was auctioned off for three thousand dollars with the proceeds going to our charity. The rescue people of course vetted the humans before they let her go with them, but how awesome is that? She got a home and the money went to our Veterans.

*The Coach would have doubled the donation for her if we had room for another pup.*

OLD OLD FRIENDS

Since the Coach and I were in our old stomping grounds (we were both raised on the East Coast of FL) we had a lot of our old friends in attendance.

The Coach and four of his childhood friends; they’ve been in each others lives for nearly fifty years.

It was such a fun, busy and proud weekend for all of us.

I hardly took any photos of the night as I was enjoying every minute. The night was a huge success; the event profited just under $40,000 for the night.

I KNOW!

Are you a live music fan? It’s always good time in our books.

How about long friendships? Do you have any that are that long?

XOXO