A Quick Trip to The Music City.

A few weeks ago some friends of ours found out they were going to get to play on the Grand Ole Opry. Of course this is a huge step for an artist and we decided we wanted to be there for it. The group's name is Sundy Best and one of the duo is the brother of Tony's best friend Brett. His name is Kris Bentley.  We have known Kris since he was a small child. We have watched him grow up and watched the two of them from the beginning of their career. Tony actually recorded their first cd, before they were called Sundy Best and was still Nick and Kris. It only made sense that we would be there to support them during this great step in their career.

I ordered the tickets and made reservations for the Tuesday before Thanksgiving. I knew timing was going to be tight because of the holiday but I knew we could make it work.

I love Nashville. Its one of my favorite cites anywhere. Add to that my friends playing at the Opry and also my son, Tabor and his girlfriend Loren getting to go with us, I knew it was going to be a fun trip.

The weekend before we were to leave Tony and I decided to buy a mini-van. I had been wanting a mom van for traveling.  We agreed to shop for one. So that is exactly what I did on Monday. Yes the Monday before we were to leave. The Monday I could have been shopping for my Thanksgiving dinner. No! I was on a mission.

We ended up buying a Chrysler Town & Country.

I love it! It has all the bells and whistles. And it is sooooo comfortable! I am pretty sure Tabor and Loren loved being able to watch movies all the way there.

Don't they look comfortable?


I wish I could say we had a pleasant, relaxing drive there. But it rained the whole way and Tony was fighting a cold so I had him drugged up on cough syrup. But I did enjoy "getting to know" my new vehicle and figuring stuff out on it. And well....Tabor and Loren relaxed all the way there.

We were booked at the Embassy Suites on Broadway. Over all I was very happy with the hotel. This is the view of the rooms and open atrium from the door to our room.

All rooms were suites. They were very spacious and nicely decorated. We had one little hiccup when we first got there, but it was very minor.

Right after we checked in our friends Brett and Blair were checking in, along with Brett's mom and dad and some other family members. So I was not paying attention and I left Tony's iPad laying on the counter. The front desk kept trying to call me to tell me but I couldn't hear them. So they sent someone up to fix the phone. He brought a new cord and switched it out. After he left I realized the phone still wasn't working but then I noticed that he had plugged it in the data port. No big deal, and I thought it was funny. The guy was seemed to more interested in talking to Tabor and Loren...lol.

We decided to grab an appetizer in the hotel restaurant which was a Omaha Steaks. It was pretty good. The onion soup I ordered was very good. We then we grabbed a taxi and headed for the Ryman. Did I mention they were playing at the Ryman? Well.....not only were they getting to play The Grand Ole Opry, but they were playing at the Ryman. The building historically known for the Opry.

And here they are living the dream!

During intermission I think I discovered the true reason the Grand Ole Opry was moved to Opryland. The restrooms. I promise I have been in shorter lines in arenas. I missed the first two songs of the second half.


Tabor and Loren at the Ryman.

And Tony and I with Kristofer. We were so proud!!

After the show we walked down the street to Margaritaville and grabbed some grub.

I would get into what we ate. But it honestly wasn't good enough to mention.

 It ended up being too cold to walk around, so we grabbed a cab back to the hotel to hang out there. I ended up crashing around midnight and since Tony was sick I don't think he lasted much longer than that.

The next morning I decided to run across the street to grab some Gigi's cupcakes to add to my  deserts for Thanksgiving dinner. The cold wind literally took my breath away and I was pretty sure I was going to die before I made it back to the hotel. But the cupcakes were worth it...lol.

We then checked out and waited for the valet to bring us our van. We were standing there waiting with another family when our van pulled up. Tabor kept saying, "That's not ours." He was right it wasn't. As Tony was going for the back hatch he noticed the license plate was from Tennessee..lol. The other family just stood there and stared at us like we were morons. Well, I had only had if for two days! I wasn't use to it yet..lol.

It was a beautiful sunny day even if it was incredibly cold. Made for a nice drive most of the way home,that is  until we hit snow a couple of hours from home. But it still wasn't too bad. It was then off to the grocery store for me to buy my Thanksgiving dinner. Yes I shopped for my dinner at 8pm the night before.

I am proud to say that I pulled off Thanksgiving dinner without a hitch even if I was up til 2am the night before baking pies!


Thanks again for coming along on one of the Mullins Family crazy excursions! Hope to see you again soon!



                                                                                                         The Boss Lady

My Crazy, End of Festival Season October

I know, I know......I have been gone for a bit. I have been neglectful. But I promise I had  good reason for being missing in action for October. We were crazy insane busy.

The first weekend of October is Apple days. Its an event that takes us away from home for three days. Its putting up a stage, setting up production and running a stage. It's exhausting on its own, but this year we decided to throw some other stuff in for fun.

Our stage at Apple Days.

Tony and the guys running sound and lights.

We were also hired to take care of production for the Chris Stapleton show on Friday night. Thankfully it was in a venue that was only about ten minutes from the stage. So we left our guys with the stage downtown, took a couple of our other guys with us and took care of the show.

What a show!! This guy is super crazy insanely talented. I can listen to him sing ANYTHING. If you have never heard him then do yourself your favor and look up some of his stuff. 

We were up early the next morning and back at the stage. Don't I look excited?

I hung out behind the stage for awhile and rested on some road cases and had this view of the stage.

I watch a LOT of shows from this angle.

Tony plays keys for a guy named Logan Hall on occasion. That night Logan had a big show about an hour from Apple Days at the Knott County Trail Ride. Again we left the stage in the hands of our crew and I played roadie for Tony. 

Tony snapped some pics of the crowd from the stage.

After the show we headed back to Apple Days to tear down the production and stage there. Needless to say we didn't MOVE on Sunday.

But we didnt have much time to recuperate. It was on to Lousia for a show there on Wednesday. Tabor during setup of that concert.

In years past, Apple Days always marked the end of our outdoor festival season. But this year we were booked to take care of Harvest Days in Inez, KY.  I love the experiences these festivals bring us. I love interacting with new people and I never know what situations I will find myself in. This festival found me as an official "cake walk spot picker". It was a blast.

One of the bluegrass bands from the weekend.

And that ended the summer Festival season for bt Media Group. But that didnt mean things slowed down or we would be able to take any kind of break.

The weekend progressed into a crazy week. The University of Pikeville was inaugurating a new President 

and the event was huge. We spent the week setting up production and rehearsing. The day of the event the Expo pulled off one of its craziest changeovers ever. 

We started the day with the arena looking like this.

And we changed it over to this....

in an hour and a half. It was crazy, it was mad, it was EPIC. 

bt Media went from that event that night to DJing the UPike homecoming dance the next night. Then Sunday we provided sound for comedian James Gregory. 

The last weekend of the month found us providing production for Exile at the Jenny Wiley Convention Center.

In between these events there were meetings, housing keeping staff, estimates, the recording studio and the music store all to take care of.  

I apologize for this being so long, October was a long crazy month. I also apologize for being so late on taking so long to write this. There has been a lot of catching up on things in November. 

Hopefully I won't be gone so long with the next one, and thanks again for spending some time again with the Boss Lady. 

                                                                                                                 The Boss Lady

Festival Season Comes To An End

Next weekend is the Apple Festival in Paintsville, the next weekend is the Harvest Festival in Inez. Then everything moves indoors!

Summer aka festival season is busy crazy time for bt Media Group. This summer was no exception. It's long hours in the heat, and sometimes in the rain. We had a great crew working with us and it made working a lot easier and more fun!

Here are a few of things we were busy with;

We started the summer season with this Day of Prayer event.

July Jam in the Pikeville City Park

The Chamber dinner with 1964 a Tribute (Beatles tribute band). Ok, this one was inside. It's nice when things are indoors during the summer.

We did a couple of events at this church in Ohio at their outdoor pavilion.

We did several shows for Main Street Live again this summer. They always end up fun and we ended up having a great weather for the ones we were involved with.

We were also involved greatly with the Hatfiled Mcoy festival held for the first time in Pikeville this year. We did production for the Expo stage, the park stage, and had a Rodney Adkins concert thrown in. Here is a pic of some of my crew waiting backstage for Rodney Atkins to come off the stage so that we could load out. At this point I am laying on a road case. I had started the day at 7am. It was close to 11pm and I still had at least 3 hours of work ahead of me. So I was trying to get a little rest. Or at least the amount of rest one can get from laying on top of a road case. Which surprisingly I have gotten quite use to.

It was a good thing we had just had a vacation right before this...we needed to be all rested up for this long three day weekend!


We do work our tails off but we also have lots of laughs. Here we are loading out from Gingerbread Days.

A night that this jewel of picture was taken!

These are only a few of the things we were involved with this summer. Tony has also been very busy with installs, studio work and other shows.. I admit it's kinda nice that we have a business that changes like the seasons with the seasons. Keeps things from getting boring.

 Arena season will be picking up in the next month and I will be busy with shows, ballgames and all other kinds of events. I hope you decide to join me for the fall season as we head towards Christmas.

 OMG did I just say Christmas?


                                                                                                    The Boss Lady

A Relaxing Day at Sea

I am going to finish up my series on our latest cruise but giving you a little peak at our fun filled,relaxing day at sea.

Being that we had nowhere to be at any set time (except for dinner) it was just a fly by the seat of your pants kinda day. I started it by ordering room service breakfast and enjoying it on our wonderful balcony.

How's that for breakfast!!! I love sitting out here with the sea as my view.

Eventually Tony rose from his slumber and joined me.

After eating, I just propped up my feet and took in the view while reading my nook for a while.

I then decided to explore the ship some. I wanted to make sure I had not missed anything and grab some pictures of things that I had not taken yet. After a while I ran into Tony and we grabbed a Starbucks. Ahhh a Starbucks coffee at sea, what a happy place!

We found seats overlooking the ocean. We just chilled, drank our coffee and had another of our "taking over the world" conversations. These conversations have lead into us expanding our business, buying new box trucks, hiring people, firing people, and even buying new buildings. They can occur while we are traveling or even while we lay on floats in the pool at home. I am pretty sure no big decisions were made from this conversation. Our brains were stuck in vacation mode at this point.

At some point (because keeping track of time was non existent), we joined up with Tabor and Loren to play some cards.

We played cards in this location for a while. We moved because a trivia game started up in the Centrum. I was accused of not focusing and trying to play trivia. I didn't see it that way at all. I think I could have done well trying to do both. (I was losing miserably at rummy). So after moving to another area in which a trivia game also started, we ended up back in our room playing.

During our card playing, we took breaks to run up to the windjammer/foodcrammer/buffet for snacks. Or lunch. Or just the non stop meal that seemed to have begun when we stepped foot onto the ship. Whichever you choose to call it. After our intense card game ( I didnt win) We all four lapsed into naps/food comas.

BTW, We didn't see Shane or Brian until dinner. I found out later they were having their own food comas/naps in various locations of the ship. Awwww the beauty of falling asleep in a deck chair while the ocean wind blows. It doesn't get much better!!

I finally rose myself from the deep sleep of the seas and started getting ready for dinner. I loved the fact that the vanity was facing the windows. Every night I was able to enjoy getting ready with a view of the sea in the mirrors behind me.

Then it was time for us to go to our last dinner. We were sad. This had been the best dining experience I had ever had on a cruise. Valfino took care of us from day one and the food never disappointed us. Actually Valfino may have been too good. At some point during the cruise he decided to spoil us and bring out tons of extras. Tonight it was fried shrimp, my Achilles heel. I ate until I was sick. I ate so many I couldnt eat dessert. Oh how I would love to have some of those shrimp right now.


My "extra" plate of shrimp Valfino brought me.

Tonight after dinner was served the wait staff sung their goodbye song to us.

This is ALWAYS a very sad moment for me. This is the point you realize there is only a few more hours left of your vacation.

The rest of our evening consisted of watching the late night comedian, packing our bags to sit outside the door for the luggage guys, and exploring the ship one last time.

The next morning we were up early and on our way back to Pikeville. Back to where there was no Samy to make my bed. Back to no Valfino to bring me food. No more ocean views or breakfast on balconies. So I do what I always do so that I won't be so depressed that my cruise is over.....I start planning my next one!!!

Again, if you are interested in many more details about this cruise, ship or ports of call, I have a full review on Cruise Critic at this link  http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1912863. Or just ask me! I love helping people plan a cruise!

Thanks for traveling along with the Mullins Family. We had a blast and can't wait to cruise together again!


                                                                                                         The Boss Lady

My Bucket List Is A Little Bit Shorter

Our second stop on this cruise was Nassau, Bahamas. I did a lot of research on this port because not only was it a place I had never been but we were going to be there for a while. We would dock at 7am and not leave until midnight. I have always wanted to swim with the dolphins, Tony not so much. So I booked Loren and I at Atlantis for the dolphin encounter. Being in port for such a long time allowed us to do some shopping that morning before heading to Atlantis.

We grabbed a cab at the port and told the cab driver what we were doing.

Atlantis viewed from the bridge to Paradise Island.

He dropped us right at Dolphin Cay, the area of Atlantis where the encounter would be.

 We checked in and they had us wait on the beach area of Dolphin Cay until it was our turn.

I loved it! After a brief "class" they took us to the water where we met our dolphin for the day. My dolphin was a two year girl named Nahama. Her mom was with the group beside of us and was a rescue from New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina. She was great. We got to rub, hug, play and kiss her. It was such a wonderful experience and I am so glad I got the opportunity to do this.

After the dolphin swim we roamed around Atlantis and explored some.

I love getting to mark things off my bucket list!


Next up.. a day at sea!

                                                                                            The Boss Lady

The Mullins Family Spends a Little Time in Paradise.

The first morning of our cruise I wake up, head out to our balcony and find this....

Our own little island for the day. This island is called Coco Cay. It is owned by Royal Caribbean so it's private. Which means that the only people that would be there would be the people on our ship.

Shane and Brian left for the island ahead of us, and not long after we headed down to the tender to head to the island to join them.

A tender is a smaller ship that transports guests. It is needed when a ship can not dock somewhere because there is not a dock or the waters are to shallow.

I had reserved us a Cabana. We ended up with Cabana #1, which ended up perfect for us.

The Cabanas are a very good sized. We had six people in and out of this one all day and it worked out great.

Our view

The water was gorgeous. We ventured around the island trying to find a good place to swim and snorkel.

The only complaint I really had about the island is that we never found "deep" water. The water is shallow for a long ways out. Which was great to walk around in and play, but not for swimming. The beach area directly in front of our cabana seemed to be deeper but that is also where most of the people ended up.

Overall, we had a great beach day. The weather was perfect! My first taste of Bahamas was a success and I couldn't wait for more.


My next post will let you travel with me as I mark off an item from my bucket list!


                                                                                                               The Boss Lady