What's doing

Went to very beautiful house wedding - actually played for wedding, but whole thing was very nice

Trying to finish painting office and reassemble before almightly band camp.

Sent majors to do drum camp with the great George Parks. Excited to hear about their experience w/ that.

Missed a trip to Rome :-(

All the laundry, vacuuming, cleaning, and dusting you can imagine before little C returns.

Battling with this whole drill thing. This may be the last year I write it... which may be a great thing for the kids :-)

Heading to NH in a few days.

Now there's excitement. There's more to share ( not much) but it takes too long to edit. :-)

Man cannot live on bread alone

But on milk and instant oatmeal..... maybe. W/ a little HBO on the side :-)

Pics of trip through CO

I joined Bev and a few of her friends hailing from MD and TX to see CO. Great people and a great time. I joined their "little" adventure - little = 800 miles in 2 days.

Day 1 Whitewater rafting which was amazing. Day 2 - Rocky Mountain State Park via Golden then to Leadville. Leadville, where we partied at a bar built in 1872... or something like that. Met many new friends... whose pics must be on another camera ( Bev, did we get copies of Tambo's camera???) 4 Brits - Paul, Paul, Collin, and Woody, who we played shuffleboard with and some other folks. Crazy night.

RAFTING:











Rocky Mountain National park and some views along the way:















Leadville and the bar "The Silver Dollar":

H20 rafting

Made it :-) Loved it !!!! Will do again.

Grade 3-4 rapids on the Arkansas. Yee-ha. ( Actually, more like, Holy S#$t)

Pics to come soon.

Adventure - white water rafting

No story, just FYI. Hope to have some cool pictures afterwards though.

The last time I did this I almost drown. Hmmm. But, "you should try to do something that scares you everyday." - can't remember reference.

Batter's up.

More pictures

Badlands, more driving scenery, and a place called Bear Country USA. Pretty fascinating... and cute.

Trip and Goodbyes

Hello all,

The trip to Mt. Rushmore was very cool. It was seeing what I had always thought Colorado was when I first visited. I am going to add many photos of Mt. Rushmore, a place called Wall Drug and the Badlands, as well as photos taken on the trip.

The goodbyes come as today, I think I will begin journaling a little more privately. I have my reasons, and, for the first time, don't feel inclined to share. I'm going to try and learn to appreciate the more reticent nature :-).

I may use this more for random pictures and quotes.... and perhaps a funny story or 2 as I run into them. Time to figure out some things and reconstruct others. I have to attempt to put myself together a little more before I go back to trying to help adolescents figure out their stuff. At least, that's the idea :-)

To all who look, here's hoping for big life and great adventures, as well as the best of luck with whatever, where-ever, and who ever your endeavours lead you :-).

Heading to South Dakota

Well, it's not out of the country, but it's out o'state. A place to start at least. Sis and I are headed to see Mt. Rushmore and the Badlands. I 'm anxious to see the badlands as, well their name implies bad things. I am hoping this is just for comparison purposes. I can be a bad-ass in the Bad-lands. He,he,he.( come on... you know that was funny) Better bad than big...

Pictures to come. Wish for safe driving.:-)

Another note it was a beautiful day here in CO. I wore shorts and was chilly.... IN JULY!!!! That and the sunset as seen in Castle Rock was so pretty. Not a cloud in the sky. I kicked myself for not having my camera in my purse. When I question whether I should ever leave this place, nights like this make a compelling argument to stay. A very compelling argument. For those who have never been, I'll try to get pics of that too.

Lastly,the office is coming along alright.... thanks to my friend Carol. She is a great motivator. Anyway, over the last 3 days we have caught ...(gulp) SIX MICE!!!! Gross. They love peanut butter and chocolate. I share that like with them, sadly. I actually saw one in the trap today. The custodians had gotten the previous ones. My reaction when finding "corpus o' mickey" was not gracefull. Nope. It went more like. "EWWWW!!! OMG!!!! DEAD!!!! EWWWW!!! ICK!!!!! DEAD!!!" Luckily, Carol, being a little older and braver than myself, was able to remove dead rodent and kindly laugh at my spastic reaction. I could have emptied it, as soon as I obtained a face mask and rubber gloves..... I think.

Thinking of rural places, there's a place out here called Black Forest, which, as time passes, I become more and more enamored with. Lots of land, trees, and privacy - which I am growing to appreciate. As much as I like the country, if I have to encounter mice and snakes on a regular basis, maybe not. Then again, the cockroaches of extraordinary size might scare me away from the big cities too. I am damned to suburbia :-).

Nah. I take that back. I could handle the sitation. I'd have cats, ferrets, and raid on holster. I could make it........

Happy Place :-)

My little boy called me ( that's right. HE called ME :-) ) Twice today. I am usually the caller, but this time he called me and it makes me smile. But it gets better. He said the sweetest thing. He said, " I can't wait till you come up here. Next year, you should be here for as long as I am here." Awhhh.

I can't be there as long as he is. In fact, I need to give my ex-laws huge kudos as it is their generosity that allows me to go there this year. That story goes... C's grandfather normally flies little C back to Denver ( accompanying him on the flight) checks on their house here and then takes a return flight back to NH. This year, they offered to send me to NH, spend a few days there so that I can see all the things that Christian tells me about. ( you know, the impoverished vacation with a speed boat and tubing, kayaking, paddleboating, bongo jumping, Sea-dooing, swimming, etc. What we all did with our grandparents for 4 weeks. (note a little sarcasm... but happiness that he has all that)) Then, my little guy will return back to CO with me.

But, I miss my little guy and have been keeping busy in order not to think about that he's missing. Just a few weeks and I get to see him again. But today, I got the hint he missed me too. I don't want him to be sad, but it's a great thing to know that you are loved.

Here are some more pics from vacation: