Better Late than Never

And boom, it is September!

It has been a crazy summer and fall is appearing to continue at as rapid of a pace.  So, here's a brief summary of it all.  Hold onto your hats!

April brought big changes in my life with the addition of a loving partner.  Nate and I continue to make the transition from being single guys to being in a relationship.  You've also got to work through big life transitions and I am happy to report that we're doing very well.  It's been fun to have someone in my life like this again.  It has been a while.

Which brings me to say thank you for welcoming him into the family.  He's been truly overwhelmed by our love and compassion for him.  It always serves as a good reminder of how awesome our family is when you have a new perspective in life telling you.  So, bravo to all of us and all of you for being such great people.

May and June brought Hutchinson Municipal Band to my Tuesday evenings.  It was a lot of fun this year as I had taken the time to get my lips in shape so it actually ended up being fairly low stress.  As many of you know, our personnel manager has made the experience a challenging one and often miserable.  But it is always nice to be congratulated for your quality playing and I often walked away from concerts feeling on top of the musical world.

July put me back in the saddle at Stage 9.  Our production of Time Stands Still was postponed to the 2017 season which means I got most of June off, at least in the evenings. Nunsense (which opens in a little over a week) auditioned on July 9th and we started rehearsals shortly after that.  It has been a lot of fun revisiting this production (and I am in a much better place than the last time I did it).  Hopefully you all will make time to see it.

At the end of July, I experienced my first Cosmosphere event (one of two this summer).  I had the awesome opportunity to host Michael Collins and his family.  Kate Collins (who was on a soap opera) and I connected over theatre as her husband runs the Court Theatre in Chicago.  Talk about a small world.  It was fun to be so appreciated by the Collins family.

In August, our fundraiser at Stage 9, Greater Tuna, was sold out 3 of the 4 nights which it was performed.  And the success continues here as Truckstop Honeymoon (one of our Stage 9 Live! series) sold out as well.  But the majority of my time was spent at the Cosmosphere preparing for our first big fundraising event.  The evening was called Everything Under the Stars.  And boy was it ever.  I helped arrange live music in a Jazz and Coffee bar as well as getting an awesome dance floor and DJ for our Studio 62.  And the evening was a gigantic success to the tune of $150,000 raised for the Cosmosphere.

So, now we are in September and it is State Fair time.  Nate and I are enjoying the opportunity to spend time together at the Fair both alone and with family (Auntie, Grandma, Grandpa, Mom, Sarah, the girls, etc.).  And of course, I'm taking advantage of the State Fair Railroad.

And the rest of the fall promises to be a lot of fun and challenging.  Nunsense opens September 22nd.  I attend a Fundraising Workshop from October 10 to 14, Talking Tombstones happens on October 15th and away we go into the late fall and early winter.

Hope all is well in your worlds.

With love,

Charles & Nate

Hello from Skokie!

I think we may actually post this within our actual assigned week. I know no one is keeping track, but I'm 99%  sure this is the only time this has ever happened. A new leaf!

Here are some highlights since our last post:

After six years of not being involved in much of anything creative, I (Katie) signed up to do props for a musical at a local theatre. They are producing Funny Girl and it opened this last Friday (Sept 9)! It was super fun to be involved in live theatre again, and the role really fit my availability. I was able to gather and make all of the props on my own time and then just attended tech rehearsals. It really worked nicely, since I am also in the middle of the busiest time of the year at my job.

We are finally finishing up the last touches on the basement (installing the last bits of trim and painting). It's been quite a long haul, but admittedly a stop-and-go project. We are really looking forward to having it done by the time the weather starts to get cold so that we have more space in the house.

Andrew's work is going well. As the school year has started, the demand for orders is also increasing. He took a trip to New Jersey (the gorgeous industrial parts...) earlier this month to help install new phone technology in the trucks out of that warehouse. 

We are enjoying that the weather finally has broken from hot and humid to lovely warmth during the day with cool evenings. We love sitting on our porch in the evenings, though last night we had to evacuate quickly as a skunk was walking around right near the windows! Scout saw it first and thank goodness it didn't spray. An indoor cat covered in skunk would be terrible.

In the next few weeks we are planning on a trip to go apple picking with some friends, a short camping trip over Columbus Day weekend, and trying valiantly to improve our golf game.

Here's a little photo dump!

We got some secondhand patio furniture from my aunt that works great on our porch!

We took a trip for my work to Wisconsin in August - and got to do a tour of Lambeau Field where the Packers play!

A photo during one of the tech rehearsals for my show. The theatre is small - holds about 140 people - and is 6 blocks from our house!

Almost Late

Theresa and I have been meaning to write this since Wednesday! Apparently we're still not settled into a new routine since I started working at the public library 20 hours a week.

We're prepping for another one of our receptions, in Colorado this time, on the 17th.

Kate and Theresa have signed contracts and are awaiting a shipment of clothes for their Lu La Roe boutique, which could take 2 months. After that, they'll have their business up and running!

Theresa and I's other business is rather dormant as we adjust to life at the library. We haven't head back from our first potential client, the Oklahoma Railway Museum, so we're just waiting on that. We'll try and work with Wichita's struggling "Kansas Aviation Museum," a cool collection located in Wichita's first municipal airport terminal, once we've adjusted to our new routines. That work probably won't be paid and instead be more of a resume padding experience and just help us get our brand out there, considering that the museum is really in trouble financially.