No Excuses...Just Ran Out of Time

     There's no way I can recap everything that's happened between my last post and now.  In brief, these were the major events over the summer:  

1. Put on the first ever Adult Band Camp sponsored by the New Horizons Band of Northern Colorado.  (June)  I was Project Manager and this music camp culminated a year of planning with our Band Camp team.  We had 116 participants from all over the U.S. and Canada and the overall feedback was that this was the best camp yet!
2. Had surgery (biopsy) which was negative for cancer...yay!  (June) I'm still healing from the large incision and it could take up to a year until I'm completely healed.  The surgery put a damper on my hiking efforts this summer and the hikes were on hold this year.
3. Mark and I participated in 3 band concerts with the Loveland Concert Band, including the exciting 4th of July concert with fireworks!  (July)
4. We were thrilled to have Holly, Zoe and Ezra visit for 3 weeks (July - Aug).  We managed to get to Minnesota for a few days and spent a couple of days in South Dakota on the way up to Minnesota.  Visited Mount Rushmore, the Badlands, the Sod House, and Wall Drug.  Had tons of fun!
5. Our newest granddaughter, Haley Belle Goldberg, was born to Sara and Zach on September 3, 2013 at 5:47 a.m. weighing in a 7 lbs. 14 oz. and 20 1/4" in length. She is a sweetie pie!!!  Big sister, Sophia seems to think she's pretty special, too!
6. Band rehearsals started back up on Sep 3rd.  I finally made it into the Jazz/Swing band as their drummer!!!  Now play in the Concert Band, Jazz/Swing Band, and Dixieland Band as the drummer!  So much fun but A LOT of work!  I've also put together a "Jazz Jam" group with a few people to meet a few times each month in the evening to practice beginning - intermediate jazz tunes.
7. Flew to Philadelphia at the end of September to celebrate my Mom's 80th birthday!!! Several of our Connecticut relatives were able to join us:  Barbie (Mom's sister), Nancy, Judy, Debbie (cousins) and Debbie's family, Tom, Marissa, Danielle and Stephanie!  Julie, Ray, Alex and Zachary, Larry, Stephanie, Lucas, and Samantha, Helen, Rob and Alyssa, and Grace came, too, from New Jersey and Delaware.  We had a reception after church and then followed up with a luncheon.

There are no signs of things slowing down...wouldn't have it any other way right now. Mark and I are busy preparing the Fall newsletter for the New Horizons International Music Association right now and are readying for our Fall band concert later this month.  Next weekend I'm re-taking the Motorcycle Safety Course...it's a great refresher course and I can certainly use two solid days of riding.

So, that's where I've been.  I hope to provide more frequent entries...at least I'll try.  :)