GVB......here we come!!!

This time Thursday evening, we will be listening to the music of the Gaither Homecoming concert in Corbin, Ky! Jonathan and I along with Donnie and Amy Bates will be heading out early tomorrow afternoon for a super fun evening! Jonathan and Donnie are HUGE Micheal English fans so they are thrilled beyond words to get to go to the concert! I'm taking my new camera with the zoom lens and hope to get some good photos! We'll be arriving home in the wee hours of the morning on Friday! I'm sure the kids will be up before daylight ready for another full day!! Pictures will follow!!!

Convention Quartet and Talley Trio Concert!

Last Friday night, Convention Quartet opened for the Talley Trio in Bedford, Indiana. I was able to go with Jonathan and spend some quality time with my best friend, Amy (Speer) Holsapple! We enjoyed supper together while the guys did their sound check! We hardly ever get to see each other so this was a special treat for us!

Convention Quartet did great! The audience seemed to love them and they pulled it off like they had been performing for years! They had Debra Talley fooled, she thought they sang together all the time!

We went to Steak and Shake after the concert with about 30 other people! The poor waitress didn't know what hit her at midnight! The Talley's bus pulled in not long after we arrived and so the guys enjoyed chatting some more with Roger!

We pulled our tired tail-feathers into our driveway shortly after 1:30am. We were SO grateful to Randy Dunn for babysitting our kids for 12 hours!!! (That's probably something he'll never volunteer to do again!) Peyton was still up and going strong until 3am! All the kids were up and ready for the day early on Friday and we found out very quickly that we are getting too old for these late nights!!!

Surprise!!!

On Friday, we had a "surprise" luncheon to celebrate my Mom's #60th birthday!

I told her I would pick her up at 11:30am and take her out for her birthday since we wouldn't be home Friday evening. She was available and assumed we would be having "lunch for two!"

I told her that Jonathan recommended that I take her to Smith's Row, a nice restaurant in downtown Columbus! She kept trying to talk me out of taking her there, and recommended several other restaurants in town that I really like!!! I knew I HAD to get her there and just kept talking about other things.

We arrived downtown, found a place to park, and started towards the direction of the restaurant! On the way, I saw Jonathan and my dad's vehicles! I was afraid Mom would see them, so once again I distracted her by talking 90mph!!! :)

We walked into the restaurant, and I told the waiter, "Thompson, party of two!" (He was watching for me and was told that a lady in a red jacket would tell him that! That was his clue!) He immediately said, "Right this way..." and started taking us upstairs! It was quite hilarious, as I heard Mom begin to "huff" behind me as we were climbing the stairs! (She did it more than once too!)

When we arrived at the top of the stairs, I stepped out of the way and a room full of people yelled..."Surprise Sheila!"

Making a wish...
Mom with her friend, "Tree" who also cleans her house!

...with her favorite daughter-in-law, April

...with good friends, Bob and Mary Ann Williamson

...with friend/neighbor Cathy Custer
...and long-time good friend, Mary Jane McGuire!...her favorite son-in-law, Jonathan!

Happy #60th Birthday Mom!
We love you!!!