4th of July.....

Happy 4th of July!!

I am just having a nostalgic moment and remembering the days of old...the parades, the fireworks (yes, even the illegal ones we set off), the hot dogs, ice cream, and the sparklers that we kids loved to wave around in the dark!

This year the hubby and I went into Historic Norcross (the town in which we live) to see the festival and fireworks last night. Apparently, the town used to have the celebration on the 4th, but was in too much competition with the fireworks and hullaballoo from Lawrenceville...another town just north of Norcross (which is also the county seat...I guess that means they have bigger fireworks???) So Norcross moved their festival to July 3rd. I think it makes for double the celebrations myself...as you know we're not really going to just sit around on the ACTUAL 4th holiday...that would be silly :) And unpatriotic...or something like that.

At any rate, we had a great time! There were tons of people and cotton candy (which of course I had to get), and funnel cakes (which I so wisely stayed away from) and a really bad band trying to play fleetwood mac covers. It had everything :) Even the fireworks were pretty cool!

Today we're off to a friend's house about 45 minutes north of us, to see his new house and hang out with some of my husband's friends that we haven't seen in awhile. I'm sure it'll be good times, with lots of wine/beer and hot dogs/hamburgers. Methinks we'll also try to catch some other fireworks later tonight in downtown Historic Roswell--another historical town very close to where we live. They'll have something similar to Norcross' event, I think, so I guess that means more cotton candy and maybe a funnel cake with my fireworks!

Methinks I'm turning into a fireworks junkie. Or perhaps, I'm just there for the food :)

I hope that everyone (or whoever reads this) has a safe and happy 4th of July!

Good News!

Thanks to everyone for your wonderful thoughts, prayers, and comments :)

I finally talked to mom last night around 7:30ish and she was home and tired, but doing well. She was in a bit more pain than she expected, but she told me that the doctor had found another spot that looked suspicious, so he scooped that part out as well. She also got in and out of the surgery faster due to an 80 yr old woman who accidentally pulled the needle out of the surgical spot while trying to put her hospital gown on. That poor woman had to go back out to Williamsville to have another needle placed at the surgical site...ughh. But, because of that they prepped my mom for surgery and she went in almost two hours earlier than expected!

We're not sure if that extra spot will affect the radiation plan for a week from now, but all we can do is wait. At least she's through the really hard part!

Please Pray....

My mother's surgery is tomorrow. Thankfully they didn't find any other spots of breast cancer and so it will only be a lumpectomy on the one side. I feel grateful to be able to say that it's no big deal, but I'm struggling with the fact that I can't be there for her tomorrow and during the radiation and everything. I feel as if I'm letting her down somehow, even though I'm not sure there is anything I could do if I were there.

I feel really helpless. All I can do is pray. So please, keep my mom in your prayers and send good thoughts her way! Hopefully I'll have more news to post by Tuesday night (after her surgery).

Who Cares if You Listen....

That's the title of our new podcast! My husband had this idea of doing a podcast about art music and wanted to put a panel together. So of course I said sure, not entirely knowing what this would be about. And it turns out, it's one of the more interesting things that I've been doing lately :)

We have a very 'eclectic' panel of people...ranging from people who are involved with rock, r&b, prog rock, classical, bluegrass, irish (that would be me!), etc., and when you put all of us together....well, you never quite know what will happen! The first episode came out at the beginning of June and yesterday we recorded the material for the next few episodes. It was definitely interesting!

I wish there was just an easy way to explain what the podcast was about, but I think it's still defining itself. The original idea was supposed to only be about art music and why people should or shouldn't listen...and I think it's morphed into so much more than that! It's become a roundtable discussion of musical ideas, including those of pop music, and a way for people to really say what they think!

You can check us out at http://whocaresifyoulisten.com or you can find our podcast on iTunes in the music section. Please take a listen and let me know what you think!

Back in the ATL

And so the string camp is ended! It was a great week, but exhausting. I was still sick on Sunday when camp started and my icky viral throat infection turned into an even yuckier sinus infection, so now I have a Z-pack. I love drugs! At least the ones that make me better, that is. I really needed to stay on my feet this week, so thankfully it worked!

We had 36 campers this year, which is WAY more than we've had in the past! It was awesome--I heard soooo much great music ranging from fiddle to rock to jazz to classical and helped the kiddies learn how to fiddle, both old-time and Irish style. There were lots of awkward/funny moments, which always happens when you first try to get classically trained budding musicians to "swing"...especially when they're violists!

Anyhoo, the final concert was a blast and then the remaining campers (there were only four staying over until Saturday) went out for some food in Hillsboro Village (right near Belmont University). After finally getting them off to the airport/meeting their parents I was able to get on the road back to Hotlanta...and now I think I could sleep for a week :)

I have a few great pics to post, but that will have to wait until I can get them uploaded from my camera....until next time!

Back to the Grind...or something like that!

Well, it's back to work for me, I suppose! I got back to Atlanta on Friday, still trying to recover from whatever bug I came down with at the end of my Buffalo stay :( I wish that my time there hadn't ended with me feeling so awful, but I didn't have too many choices on that score!

And so now I'm attempting to do laundry and pack quickly as I'm headed back to Nashville today to teach the String Crossings Camp at Belmont this week. It should be a really good week. It's a group of high school kids from all over the country, and usually they're a pretty good bunch. (I should know as this is my fourth or fifth year teaching at the camp!)

At any rate, I just wish I were feeling 100%......

A Plethora of Good news....or maybe just news....

Ok, so I mentioned in the last post I had news. And I do :) I was just way too tired and wrung out emotionally to post any more yesterday.

My mom got the test results back yesterday from the second biopsy and the tumor is benign!! Which means that there is absolutely no change for the surgery and it can be rescheduled soon...and it will ONLY be a lumpectomy as far as anyone is saying, which is GREAT news!! They caught the cancer early enough that mom won't even need to have chemotherapy...only radiation and that's only precautionary!

I'm also excited about the new podcast that my husband and I and a number of other friends have just launched. It's called "Who Cares if You Listen?" and it's a discussion of art music, made up of a panel of people from ALL different walks of life. Check out our website at You can also find the podcast in the iTunes store and it's Free to download :)

Let me know what you think! It was a fun thing to record--I had a really great time just sitting down with everyone and having interesting discussions, though we didn't always stay on topic!