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)