25th Anniversary

Our "vow renewal" service was great; it was so good to see our family and friends there to share it with us. And although I was able to get a hold of my maid of honor, we did not have information on Billy's best man, Donny . But because Donny's mother frequents the Wal-Mart where one of Billy's sister's works, she found out and then told him about it. So we were pleasantly surprised to see him there! We found out he was still living in town, and is married. I don't think we had seen or talked to him in at least 20yrs!

We then spent Thursday and Friday in Branson going to the outlet malls, Branson Landing and we also had a nice dinner at Red Lobster. Unfortunately that dinner didn't agree with Billy's stomach too much, so we didn't make it to Silver Dollar City. But we still plan on going at another time.

Christopher participated in the public High School's annual "Music Festival Contest" this past Saturday; that's where students play in front of judges and receive 'ratings' for how well they played. The best is "1" with the worse being a "4". If you get a "1" rating, you move on to the State contest which is held in Columbia, MO sometime in April. He played in a brass sextet and also played a trombone solo. Last year the ensemble he played in received a "1" and they went to State. (It is very difficult to receive a "1" at the State level, however.) Unfortunately this year they did not make the rating needed to go to State. It's still a good experience for him nonetheless.

Billy left on Saturday morning for Wyoming with a group of college students; they will return on Friday. He asked that we for pray for Aaron & Melanie; they are the campus ministers at LCCC where the group is working.

That's about it for now; hopefully we will have pictures of our vow renewal service uploaded soon, and Billy might even be able to send me some while he's in Wyoming.