Featuring Airport Impressions

Airport Impressions is an amazing band who writes songs that tell a story. Their songs can be felt right into heart. I had the honor of meeting them in the Indie Scene Radio chat room. When I say honor, this is a true honor.

This band is currently based out of Malta, a small island south of Sicily in the Mediterranean. Locally they have played in many major venues and hosted some of their own concerts. Performing abroad is their next focus to perform for new audiences.

Airport Impressions was started by Errol and Johann in Ireland in 2008. A year later Chris and Steve joined them to complete the four man band.
Their first commercial release, ‘Beside You’, obtained local airplay quickly.

‘Minutes of a Lifetime’ was their first official release in September, 2010. This album brings back reflections of our lives.  This is a track album that contains singles such as ‘Freedom’ and ‘Walk with Me’. ‘Walk with Me’ gained a few local awards, Best Song, Best Band, and the entire album was named Best Album of the Year, 2010 in both local and national awards.

Their first EP with five songs was released in 2009 called ‘Seeing with Eyes Closed’. This EP contains the first songs written and recorded by the band. The song ‘Boderline’ was a local hit.

Their most recent release, ‘Mariette’ in 2014, is somewhat different than their other releases. The songs on this album are based upon personal experiences or encounters and society itself. The band uses acoustic guitars as the main songwriting influence in this album. Singles on this album such as, ‘Hymns of June’, ‘Berlin’, and ‘Star Signs’ are already hits.

Check out their music on iTunes and YouTube. If you are ever in Malta, catch one of their performances. I promise you won’t be disappointed.

Links

www.airportimpressions.com
https://www.youtube.com/user/airportimpressions01

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Featuring Model Southern Peach Coolberth

Southern Peach Coolberth is an independent model following her passion and dream. She is a single mother of five boys, a certified cosmetologist, and licensed daycare provider. She is also attending college to finish her child psychology degree.

Southern Peach Coolberth, has been modeling for the past couple months. Many of her photos will be featured in a few magazines soon. One of her features will be in Country Outfitters.

It is so fun to be featuring Southern Peach Coolberth. She is a close friend and I love that she has stepped forward to follow what her heart desires. Please see her photos below.

Facebook fan page

https://www.facebook.com/southernpeachcoolberth/photos_stream

Staying Organized When a Family Member is Sick

Caring for an elderly parent of family member can be overwhelming and confusing. Especially when they unexpectedly get sick and need to be hospitalized. Below is a general scenario.

The hospital has done all they can do to help your sick family member. They are now going to discharge your parent to a rehabilitation facility and they have twenty-days there that will be paid for by Medicare. What happens if they aren't fully recovered in twenty-days and they need additional help?

This scenario is something my "partners in crime" and I hear a lot in our employment. I call them "partners in crime" because they are the best girls ever to work with and they truly care about the folks we work with.

In some instances the hospital or rehabilitation center may have a social worker available to help you and offer guidance. He or she may make referrals for you. Individuals from various agencies may come in and talk to your family member or you about the services they have to offer.

Sounds overwhelming, right? It can be. When I call individuals they tend to get the agencies confused and forget which services they offer. It's already overwhelming handling day to day duties, and now you're trying to stay organized to determine the best way to care for your family member.

Here is some advice to stay organized.

Keep a folder on hand. Chances are the person coming to speak to with you is going to leave a pamphlet or some sort of information about their program. Take notes. They are likely going to give more information than what is in the packet. Ask questions and write down those answers. Keep everything compiled together. Try to keep all information as organized as possible because you are going to want to review it.

I also advise asking for more than one business card. I say this in case you have other family members involved in the decision and they can call and ask questions or maybe set up a meeting for themselves.

One thing I do say to individuals when they tell they may have to put their family member in a nursing home, is don't make an appointment. When you make an appointment with a nursing home, there is a possibility you won't see the true picture. Walk in unannounced. Look around and observe how the staff interacts with the residents. What activities are going on? Is the nursing home clean? Are there odors?

I hope you find this helpful. When things happen unexpectedly, sometimes it's hard to think of the best way to stay organized and take in all the information given to you.

A Story, Carlos Wilde Most Recent Release

Carlos Wilde is a man of many musical talents. He sings, writes songs, composes and produces his own music in various genres. His love of music has run deep within his soul since he was born. He got on stage for the first time at the tender age of six.

Carlos never ceases to amaze me with the new music he writes. Currently he is working on some new releases. When talking to him about them, even through instant messaging, I can see in his words, his excitement.

Carlos Wilde is a socially conscious person that runs campaigns to raise funds to help non-governmental organizations with no religious affiliations whose projects strive to provide empowerment  for the needy through education and/or cater for stray animals in animal shelters in hope of  a better life. 

In April 2015, he released an EP called "A Story." The title track is fabulous! Carlos has a great way of telling a story when he writes songs and sings. This song is perfectly titled, because he does tell a story.

With the purchase of the EP, "A Story" you will also receive a video with the Title Track. The EP can be purchased on Bandcamp.

https://carloswilde.bandcamp.com/album/a-story

"A Story" can also be listened to on Soundcloud and ReverbNation.

https://soundcloud.com/carlos-wilde
http://www.reverbnation.com/carloswilde

The EP has received wonderful digital sales.

Helping Others Along Their Path

The reason I'm writing about this, is because it sparked a thought in me from a fellow author's post about helping others out of love and kindness. The author definitely does just that through her radio show and sharing others work.

She makes a good point. So many people have radio shows, blogs, vlogs, and share works of others that don't charge a dime. They are paying it forward.

I personally am grateful to those who have helped me along my path. There are so many out there, that when I took a break from blogging and writing, they carried on sharing my work. I couldn't be more grateful to them.

A group called, Stooshpr that I belong to, as well as many of the artists that I feature, believe in supporting one another. The administrator does a fabulous job of keeping members of the group informed of who is needing help and who can help. This group has taught me that it is important to offer support, lift one another up, and work together. The only way to success is to help one another.

When helping someone, you may be the one person who has the contact to help that individual succeed, just by clicking a button and sharing.

In the words of our fabulous administrator of Stooshpr, "Circle the Wagons". Let's network and help each other along the path of following a dream by "Circling the Wagons".

If you would like to be featured on this blog, please email me at author.lrhatfield@gmail.com. I am also going to be working on some conference calls in the near future to do live interviews.

Comment your links of websites, your fan pages on facebook, your twitter names, and maybe through this blog you can get help from others and help them along their path.

My facebook page is https://www.facebook.com/adrianbornunderafallingstar
Twitter is @lrhatfield

I truly hope this blog will help others move closer to making their dream come true through networking.

The Struggles of Some Elderly

This subject of the elderly has been weighing in on my mind lately. Especially after visiting with a friend about an elderly family member. I'm writing this to raise awareness of what our elderly go through and what we may face one day.

So many of our elderly are having to choose between eating or paying for their medications. For many social security is the only income they have. Some have a small retirement pension to supplement their social security but it isn't enough to pay everything.

Here is something to think about. Medicare B and D costs our elderly. In some instances some qualify for the state to pick up the cost of Medicare B. Then they may have a supplemental insurance that costs close to $200 a month if not more.

Imagine that your gross social security check is $900 a month. Then you have a small retirement of $500 a month. Your home is paid for, but you have depleted all of your savings paying for property taxes and insurance on your home since you retired. Now you have nothing but you're monthly check.

Now you are down to around $1000 to live on, because remember you are already paying for Medicare B, D, and a supplemental insurance. Your prescriptions cost you around $300 a month. We'll say that is for over the counter also because in my mind, a prescription is anything the doctor advises you to take. Now you are down to $700.

Factor in depends, because you are now at an age that this is required. We'll say a package a week that costs around $20 each a package. Now you are down to $620. But wait, the doctor said you aren't eating enough so you need something to supplement your diet. Tack on another $100 for ensure. Now you are down to $520.

We just went through the cost of insurance and prescriptions. On top of that you have utilities, phone, transportation needs, In addition  there may be a need to pay for help for an aid to come in and help you take a shower a couple of times a week. After paying for all of this, there is no money left for food.

What is a person in this situation supposed to do? Get a job? What if you are too sick? Apply for Medicaid? That could happen, but what if none of the programs offered are beneficial to you. What if the program will cost you more than your cost of medications? Yes, I have seen that.

I can hear some asking the question while reading this, 'What about family?' In some instances there may not be family close by, they either live in another state, may work a lot of hours to support their children, or they may be disabled themselves. You may have cut that family member off because when they did come around, they stole from you or taken advantage of you. Family is not always the best answer or even an option.

There is a program for our veterans and their spouses called Aid and Attendant Care. I thank my friend Peggy for introducing this to me, because I tell people about this and help some elderly apply. However, there is a catch to this income also. One being the veteran had to serve 90 days active duty, during a war, be age 65 and over, and have less than $50,000 in assets. The pay is based on a sliding scale of how much medical costs you have.

Also check with various associations and foundations to inquire if they have grants, waivers, or scholarships to assist with costs of medications. There are many hidden programs out there that many don't have knowledge of unless the right questions are asked.

I'm going to end this with, please be aware of the elderly around you. Ask them if they have all that they need. Remember, you may think this won't happen to you, but it can. I have seen where some should never have been in a situation of choosing to eat or buy a medication but they are because their health took a turn for the worse.