Tag: Music

The *Makes Me Happy* List: Three Congratulations, My Friends Are The Best, Books For My Ears

I’ve been having ‘Thank You Lord For Everything’ moments lately. So many terrible things happening to friends and the world in general; it’s good to reflect and pay tribute to the good stuff.

  • Before the holidays, Lolo was offered a new position; this is what she’s been striving for: DETECTIVE. And even better than your standard Detective-ing 🫣 She’s investigating her peers as an Internal Affairs Detective. Ya’ll, this is RIGHT up her ‘follows and enforces all laws’ alley. She started her position in January, but received her business cards last week, which makes her fully Legit.
  • Coach (and his team) were awarded *Fabricator Of The Year for North America last week. He had to make kind of last minute, quick 36 hour jaunt to Mexico to receive the award. We’ve been joking about it all week. He asked: have you ever laid down with A Fabricator Of The Year? Um, not this week! I’m thinking I need to have some Merch ordered with FOTYONA on it, with an arrow pointing to his face. *Fabricator as is Stone; countertops, walls, surfaces, etc…
  • My friends. I know I speak about them all the time, but I hold them in the highest regard because they are My People, and My People are always just as happy and proud of my children, my family as I am.
  • Coach and I met Don and Kelly (on a school night!) to see Tim McGraw and we had so much fun. Tim did not disappoint and he had a lovely tribute to Toby Keith. Tim is my age, and it’s only showing because he actually started his show at 8pm (the scheduled time; this never happens) and was finished by 9:40pm. WHAT?
  • Coach’s Mom and Stepdad had their 50th wedding anniversary this past week. I KNOW! It feels like we just celebrated their 25th; let me double-check my calendar. Oh, yes, that was twenty five years ago! Look at me with The Math!They are so amazing and I love them dearly. Coach and I had a quick visit with them on their big day and it was nice to put my arms around them both.
  • I’ve been reading more books lately, but mostly I’m on an Audio Book spree. Why did it take me so long to find Ann Patchett? (Thanks Nicole!) I finished Tom Lake, (LOVED) The Dutch House (LOVED) & Bel Canto. (Liked Immensely) This led me to her book of Essays: These Precious Days. I’ve never read a book of essays before, but it might be my new favorite thing. I’d enjoyed The Dutch House so much and part of that might have been the narration by Tom Hanks. (who doesn’t love Tom?) Anyhoo, listening to her book of essay’s where she describes how the Tom Hanks thing came about and the story of her friendship with Tom’s assistant is nothing short of amazing. It’s what my friend Michelle describes as the Spider Web Affect; how you meet one person and it can evolve into so many other relationships. Anyhoo, I recommend ALL the books.

My week in a nutshell:

Lolo The Detective, I sleep with The Fabricator Of The Year, my Friends give me life, Tim McGraw is ageless and prompt, My In-laws are inspiring & My ears are full of books!

Care to share one thing that made last week special for you?

Welcome To The Real World She Said To Me, Condescendingly.

Last week my girlfriend Stacy and I drove across the state to see John Mayer. To be clear, it was a public concert, not just the three of us meeting up. This time.

I’d bought tickets months ago and I’m not sure if you do this, but when I bought the tix, I was super excited about going to see JM. The day of, though, um, knowing the show didn’t start until 8pm, with a 1.5 hour drive each way, I was less enthused.

Once the show started, (Opener at 8:05 pm, then JM came on at 9 and played until 11:15)I was so happy we made the plan and stayed the course. JM was doing a Solo tour—just him up there with his guitar or piano and he was More Than Fantastic!! How often do you hear live music and they sound just as good as they do on your transistor radio? He was that good.

I’m trying to hold onto ALL the pennies.

This show was my treat for the two of us. Momentarily I almost purchased front row seats for many more pennies, but I settled for 11th row and a few less pennies, but still, Lots O’ Pennies. Coach encouraged me to buy the best seats, but I refrained.

This is the line my husband gives me now when it comes to (my lack of) spending money:

If you don’t go see yada yada in the front row, are you just gonna save the money so our kids can go see yada yada in the front row one day?

(You can adjust the front row for anything else I don’t want to splurge money on)

Deep inside I’m still a broke girl, and it’s hard to change that perception even when our bank account will allow me to splurge.

Red Wine & Ambien, You’re Talking Sh*t Again

Heartbreak Warfare is one of my favorite JM songs.

JM was engaging, funny, appreciative and entertaining. I have so many favorite JM songs (Gravity, The Last Train Home, Neon, Tom Petty’s Free Fallin’, No Such Thing, Daughters) and he played a few of them, but also played some of his sleeper hits.

If you get the chance, go see him yourself!

Do you have a favorite John Mayer song? Are you the conservative money person in your relationship?

XOXO

Clean Living, The Event, My People, My Dress, So Many Givers.

My husband uses a phrase when good stuff happens for us and to us: Clean Living.

When I hear the phrase Clean Living, I (used to) think of: eating clean, not drinking, not smoking, etc, but he’s changed that for me.

When he says this, he means: not being a cheater, not stealing, giving to others where and where you can; being a good human.

No matter what it means, we’ve been very fortunate the last few years to be on the receiving end, so that we can in turn be on the giving end. Giving is so much more fun, but to be able to give, you have to be able to ASK and RECEIVE from others too.

I have a hard time asking, but not The Coach. He actually doesn’t ask donors for anything; he says: I need you to help our Veterans. And by golly, it works!

This was our best event yet. In that I mean it was the most fun, entertaining & all went smoothly AND it was the biggest money raiser yet.

We had close to 300 people attend and raised almost $190,000. IN ONE NIGHT!

Probably a month before the event we were worried that we wouldn’t have enough sponsors and enough silent & live auction items. Then they started flowing in and I heard Coach say many times: Clean Living.

Linds, her BF and several of our other employees are integral in this event; we could not do it without them.

Lolo was able to attend this year as well as both sets of my In-Laws and my Aunt, Uncle and Cuz Patrick drove down from NW Georgia for the weekend. It was literally a family affair.

AND, all of my best girlfriends were there aside from D in Texas who wasn’t able to come this time.

These ladies have my heart and I think Kelly had my butt in this pic.

The Songwriters

We had a some of our usual suspects who I absolutely love: Patrick Davis, Tyler Reeve, Django Walker & Channing Wilson, but we also had a ‘new to us’ songwriter who was fan-freaking-tastic: Tim Nichols who has many hits under his belt, but perhaps my favorite is Live Like You Were Dying, recorded by Tim McGraw. (BTW, have we ever discussed what an amazing talent Tim McGraw is, because we should.)

Anyhoo, the night was just perfect, my husband works so hard putting this together on top of running a successful business and tending to my every whim.

One part of the event that’s always been a headache for the Coach: Travel. He books all the artists airline tickets, (using his personal miles, he’s got a lot!) and you know how artsy people are? Sometimes, they’re flaky and want to change plans at the last minute. This time, the Coach wisened up, sought out a private plane company to be our Pre Show VIP Sponsor and to fly the artists in & out from Nashville.

I know, GENIUS!

And Almost As Important, Suz Pulls Off Another Soma Dress!

Ok, maybe that isn’t nearly as important as helping our veterans, but a good dress can change your life day.

I can’t tell you how wonderful it is to be in the company of so many like-minded people who really love our country and appreciate our veterans and their sacrifices. One thing we never thought about when starting this years ago is that some of the biggest supporters of Veterans are actual Veterans! Coach has connected with so many ex military people who’ve gone on after their military careers and are super successful and they’re the first ones helping.

Our beneficiaries this year are Operation 300, Operation Healing Forces & The Kevin Popke Foundation; all are near and dear to our hearts.

I think we’ve finally caught our breath and what’s next? 😉

XOXO

That Hinge Made Me Giggle, The Unhinged One Did Not And The *Not So Professional* Scribble Queen

First I need to stretch.

Then I picture myself wearing some bad ass boots while doing the following:

And then I giggle my butt off.

I just realized that Shania’s video was drawing from the Vibe of Robert Palmers Simply Irresistible. Man, I wish I could relive (some of) the 80’s!

****

By the way, one of our exterior doors, actually DID come off the hinge yesterday.

For a few hours I wasn’t able to shut the door and I had to enact the Fiddle Leaf Fig Security system.

The Coach managed to get it closed for now, but we are down one usable door.

I’m adding to The Building My Case For Downsize without even trying. #thishouse 😳

On Monday I was signing a birthday card to my Cuz Patrick who is turning 40 today.

Happy Birthday Cuz Patrick!

I grabbed a pen out of my pen supply in the mudroom and when I was almost done writing my note and signing our names, the damn blue ink pen ran out of ink. I then went through six pens from the pen basket on the counter looking for blue ink. NONE to be found.

I groaned, grabbed the card and brought it back to my office desk and proceeded to go through 14 pens looking for BLUE. Did I only have one blue pen in my house; a house that houses 492 pens?

Finally I found a blue pen, only to realize that the piece of paper I was scribbling on was a signed Lease Document I’d just got back in the mail from an upcoming renter.

*SIgh*

Suzanne, you are so effing professional.

To quote Shania: Man, I feel like a woman nimrod.

Am I the only one that never noticed the correlation between Shania’s video and Robert Palmers but women instead of men? Or am I just imagining that? (Ernie, don’t even try to answer 😜we all know you don’t know!)

XOXO