Happy Easter!!

I got to talk to Jeremy today. He is doing good and staying safe out there! He has it figured up and we have 23% of the deployment down. I haven't checked his math because I'm just hoping he is right :) Tonight we had dinner at grandma and grandpa's house for Easter. We didn't really have any other Easter festivities because we got in from Nashville at about 5:30 this morning. I did get to play with Barney and Chloe outside a lot. She got a new jacket that she was prissing around in today.

I took this one because I want Jeremy to see how long she has gotten.
Awww I love my Barney Boy
Nashville was tons of fun. We had an indoor pool at the hotel so we got to go swimming. We went to some of our favorite "out of Arkansas Restaurants" that we try to hit when there is one near. Here we are at the Cheesecake Factory and then at The Rainforest Cafe the night before.

We loved Nashville. I didn't realize how huge it really was until we started trying to find stuff. Saturday we went to the Country Music Hall of fame (which is in located with the Ford Theatre) to see Allen Frizzell sing and sign autographs for his new CD. He is a great country and Christian artist. His brother was a famous singer named "Lefty Frizzell". His other brother David is famous for the song "You're the reason God made Oklahoma" and several other really popular hits. Allen is well known in the music industry. Brian opened for one of his shows a couple of months back in Louisiana, so he knows Allen and his family. They invited us to come so we were glad to!

Brian and Allen

Brian was so prepared for the Nashville Star auditions. His song was great. It is like winning the lottery if you get past the first stage. He didn't and he was pretty disappointed at first. Mom dropped me and Ashley off at about 4:00 a.m. to get in line. There were already tons of people there. The final count was almost 10,000. They turned down so many good singers. It is really sad to see all the awesome talent get turned away. But, they can't let everyone in! We waited there for 9 hours (and we were close to the front of the line) just for Brian to sing for 30 seconds. Everyone was allowed up to 30 seconds. He did make some good connections while we were there and it was a great experience. The line went all the way around the Gaylord Opryland Hotel and out to the mall nearby. Some people were finishing up with their auditions at midnight.

We went down to music row and Brian got to sing at 2 different places. He had such a good time while we were there. He is motivated more now than ever. The people in the bars on music row loved his voice. We are planning on going back in late April to start promoting on music row. He is going to try to get gigs in some of those places down there.
Really cool At&t building downtown
Even though he didn't make it the camera loved him. He will probably make the show because he was filmed A LOT. In fact, we will probably all be on there.
Probably not even 1% of the people that tried out. Brian is in the middle upper right. Good luck spotting him! This is only the very earliest of the people in line. They got to do the filming and singing for the commercials. The lines around the building were woven throughout sets of stairs like this. It was insane.
Filming the season opener with John Rich (of Big n Rich)

Nashville

Brian had a show in Clarksville Saturday and it was great!! They loved him up there, he had 3 encores to come back and sing again and again.

We are leaving in the morning at 9:00 for Nashville!! Brian is doing awesome so far with his songs this year. He has written at least 8 and his fans are growing in Arkansas, Texas, Tennessee, and Louisiana. I am his biggest critic and I truly believe he will make it one day, Nashville Star or not!! Just wanted to let everyone know where we will be for the next couple of days. Unfortunately, it doesn't look like we will be home for Easter. He doesn't have his hopes up too high because the show is a lot like American Idol. NBC is producing it this year. Anyway, keep us in your prayers please. Mom, Ashley and I will be in line all night holding a spot for Brian. He needs his rest for the 30 second tryout :).

We have been in Austin the past couple of days, we got in at 3:00 this morning and we are worn out!! The tryouts there were a nightmare. It rained on us when the sun was coming up and it was cold and windy! None of us slept at all until after auditions. We took a 2 hour nap(at 1 p.m) and then drove home (9 hours). They took some people that couldn't sing AT ALL. They had good sob stories and/or were incredibly different. If you watch the show you will see :) Anyway, Brian told them he would see them at the second round of auditions in Nashville, and they taped it the whole time. So even if he doesn't make it to the finals there is a really good chance he will at least be on national t.v.
A certain little girl saw the luggage and DID NOT want me to leave
A picture of the line at about 3 a.m. Brian is in the red chair wearing brown. He had his guitar out and was singing with about 5 other people. The man in the wheel chair to the left made it past auditions. He were really happy for him.

At about 9 a.m. The rain had finally stopped!
(Below)Brian in front of the Hyatt regency and the big white catering tent. They had that tent set up and wouldn't let people under it because it was for the caterers. If you chose you could PURCHASE your own breakfast from them for $20. However, once you got your food you had to get back out in the pouring down rain and eat it. I didn't see one person buy breakfast :) The caterers didn't even get set up until maybe 8:30 that morning.

Brian and one of the ladies we waited in line with. She auditioned with him (they went into the audition room in groups of 5).
Brian (in brown, back to the camera) taking it all in, and the sun was finally coming up! Grandpa is in front of him in the gray sitting down.

Happy 21st Birthday Brian!!!!

Well we are finally finished with birthdays for awhile. So far in 2008 I had my birthday, followeed by Kareem, grandpa, grandma, and Brian. We have had our fill of cake for the entire year. Next in the immediate family is Jeremy (on June 16th) and chances are that he won't be home for it :( Saturday night was a lot of fun. We had dinner at Ruby Tuesday's and then we went bowling. Here I am with Jana (long time BF) at dinner. Serious Brian (joking really) with his bowling ball.

Next was Electric Cowboy. That is where Brian chose to be 21 for the first time. They made him wait inside the entrance until 12:01 am (since Saturday was the 8th and his birthday wasn't until the 9th).

Can you spot him out there?
Walking up at almost midnight. We were already there and had a table.

On the 9th we had our family dinner for grandma and Brian's birthdays combined. They chose Colton's. They servers came out with a cowbell and gave them free peanuts!

Here is grandma with her peanuts :)
Ashley and Brian

What a long weekend! We had a blast though.

This week while we were working in Benton, I took mom's car to Razorback Car Wash and got it cleaned. When I walked into the waiting room there was such a cute dog!! I wound up on the ground with her until her parents' vehicle was ready! Her name was ShyLow because she is shy and low to the ground. They think she is half basset hound and I'm not sure about the other half.

I talk to Jeremy almost every day. He is doing good out there. Nothing new to report that I can really post online. We still have no idea when he is coming home. They will give us 2 weeks notice.

Birthday Row and Catching up!

Tonight is Brian's 21st birthday party, I will try to post pictures tomorrow! His birthday is March 9th so we are having his cake tomorrow. Then it is DIET TIME!!! Happy Birthday Grandma!! March 7th, 2008
We had our usual get together at her house. Her cake was so pretty, and she had a "white birthday". I'm sure everyone enjoyed the snow too! We had fun, Barney and Chloe played so hard!

Never underestimate the power of soft pillows and a heated blanket though!

Thursday night we had dinner with Steve(Jeremy's dad), Logan(Our nephew), Eric(Jeremy's Brother. They are nothing alike it is weird) and Kira(Our sister in law). We usually try to get together at least once a week and see each other.Wednesday night between working in Benton and in Sheridan I finally got to meet up with (one of my best friends) Brandi and her precious little boy Tristen. He is getting so big and handsome! I hadn't seen them in forever and I am so glad we got together. Brandi's husband has to be out of town for awhile, plus we had a really close call with another one of our best friends (Brooke) the night before. We decided it was definitely time for some catching up! Brooke was involved in an attempted robbery in Memphis on Monday night, and was shot in the face. Luckily, they got her to the hospital within 10 minutes of the shooting and were able to save her! She got to go home Wednesday night and we are so thankful shes doing well.

Representing for her daddy, here is Chloe Mae in her newest t-shirt. She wears it proudly
She takes awesome candids!
Barney loves going to see grandma and grandpa He and grandpa are buddies

The girls! It was so nice this afternoon we had to sit outside and let the dogs play for awhile
Jeremy is doing great, just really ready to come home! He has more internet access right now than usual, so if you would like to email him this week is a good week to do it! There will be good and back weeks as the months go by. He is rotating posts so it will just depend on where he is. His mailing address will still be the same no matter what post he is at.