Ahhh the memories....

Remember when gas cost under a $1 a gallon. It cost the same as the number of gallons you had in your tank. Gone are the days, but take a minute to reminisce when we were younger, ambitious and had our whole life in front of us. Each starting on a path sure to bring success, we knew all the answers, and no one would be able to get in our way!

Sonny Bono was killed in a skiing accident. President Bill Clinton questioned in Paula Jones case, charged in the White House Sex Scandal. Unabomber Theodore J. Kaczynski pleads guilty, later sentenced to four life terms. F.A.A. warned on computer updating and inability to remove "Year 2000" bugs. Senate rejects ban on human cloning. Winter Olympic Games open in Japan. U.S. Spacecraft finds frozen water on the moon. FDA approves male impotence pill, viagra. Japanese propose economic stimulus plan. Court throws out Paula Jones case against President Bill Clinton. Man convicted of killing Martin Luther King Jr. dies. Space shuttle Columbia returns safely. Frank Sinatra dies.

These are just some of the events happening around the world. Do you remember what you were doing?

We would love to hear about you and your family. There may be some who can not make it to the reunion, and it would be great to get an update. We will be sending out a questionaire through the e-mail address we have for you, so please let us know what you are doing. If you would like to include some photos, that would be great as well.

If you haven't received any information and would like some, please e-mail us at:
wendell1998@gmail.com

Can't wait to hear from you all soon!

Reunion update

Hey gang, Our reunion is fast approaching! I just wanted to run some ideas past ya'll to see what you think.
Friday night: We want to go formal, right? How often do we get to dress up now anyways? Guess I should find a cute dress! We'll need a couple people to sit at the door. Turf Club will do all set up and clean up.
Do we want to have a trivia type game for people when they come in? Like "Guess who lives in Hawaii right now" or "Who was voted as Best Smile in HS?"
Name Tags: Yes, they are kinda cheesy, but it may be nice for our spouses who will be meeting alot of new people...and for the occasional person we just can't remember from our class! We can get the nice plastic holders with pins so it's a little nicer than the "hello my name is" stickers. Any idea where we can get those holders?
Music: I think a DJ would be a waste of money. Andrea may be able to get some big speakers and we can just put together a CD of top songs from 98. Anyone want to put a CD together?
Pictures: Steph came up with the idea to have people hold their senior class picture up while getting their pic taken as a "now and then" type theme. What country music video was that, Steph? Any ideas for a backdrop? I have digital camera that is decent and we can just upload the pics and have them printed off at costco the next morning to pass out at the barbque. Door
Prizes: I have a box of our Senior Class shirts leftover. I actually found them in storage, isn't that amazing! :) Do we want to give all of them away or save some for future reunions? Best to give 'em all out, right. I've heard of other classes getting prizes donated from local businesses. That may be fun, but means more work for us. Any thoughts?

Saturday: I talked to Lana and we will rent the pool from 12-1 or 12:30 to 1:30 and have it to ourselves until they open to the public. She said that we are free to stay and swim after that too. Not sure if we can leave and go back in without being charged though...
Do we want to start at 11:30 and have food first so the kids can go play from 12:30 to 1:30 and not have to worry about leaving to come eat and going back in? Do we want to have other activities for the kiddies to do like origami or crafts?
Food: I talked to Dusty Votroubek and the class of 97 is going to have an 11 year reunion this summer as they missed their 10 year. Anyway, they are going to have their lunch catered by the Smokin' Cowboys (pulled pork sandwiches, Mmm). I called and it's $5-6 per person with salads and the works or $4 pp for just the meat.
I was planning to just do hamburgers from Costco, but it would be nice to not worry about cooking them, etc... We might be able to afford to have it catered, but we wouldn't have $ left for future reunions. What do ya think? Leave a comment!
Thanks much!Stacey

Point of Clarification..

Hey guys, sorry about the confusion!

Formal should be interpreted more as semi-formal. Slacks, nice shirt, tie or no tie. But by no means do we expect you to come in Tux's and prom dresses :)

Friday night is for adults only, and then Saturday is a family affair.

Thanks to all of you who are checking often!

More info and evites coming soon!

Stacey Briggs-Hallmark

Stacey just got a new rug, do you like it? Stacey Briggs Hallmark received her Associates degree in Business from Ricks College. She then served an 18-month mission for her church in the beautiful country of Thailand. Next stop was BYU for a Bachelors degree in Social Work, where she met her husband, Joe (from Seattle). She got married, graduated and moved to New York City all in one month. After finishing her Masters of Social Work program at Columbia University she worked at Harlem Children's Zone for two years. She is now a happy stay at home mom to an adorable seven month-old baby boy. Stacey loves the Big Apple, but will always be a country girl at heart!

Andrea Hope-LaPlante

Andrea Hope-LaPlante moved to Pocatello right after high school to study music education at ISU. While at ISU she participated in several different music ensembles, and was a part of the reinstated Bengal Marching Band. For one year she served as College of Education Senator. In the summer of 2002 Andrea traveled to Michigan to work at Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp as a summer camp counselor. In May 2003, Andrea graduated from ISU with a Bachelor's Degree in Music Education. After college she ventured into the career world as Director of Bands for Boundary County School District in Bonners Ferry, ID. While in Bonners Ferry Andrea met her husband, Garry LaPlante. Garry is also a band director, and later took her job in Bonners Ferry. Andrea has one kiddo, Carson, 3. This past August, Garry took a job at East Valley High School in Spokane, WA. Andrea currently is involved with her church, entertaining Carson, working part-time at KOHL's department store, and teaching a few private music lessons. Life has been exciting and adventurous, and she wouldn't change it for the world.

Check out Andrea's blog at: http://galaplante.blogspot.com/

Angela Nelson-Jensen

Angela Nelson- Jensen moved from Wendell to Ketchikan, AK her senior year of high school. After she graduated from HS she began a nursing course at the University of Alaska-SE and worked. After she graduated she worked for the State of Alaska and did private home care. She then transfered to Weber State University in Ogden, UT. Some highlights of all those years were the summers working for Grayline(Holland Amercia Cruise Line) as a tour guide in Alaska. She met her husband(Jeremy) at college. They dated for 2 years and were married in December of 2001. Shortly after their marriage they worked together as tour guides for the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympics for Visa International. In the fall of 2002, they moved to Bethesda, MD where her husband was an active- duty military Medical student. They have 2 beautiful children, Alex- 5yrs. old. and Abrianna- 19 months old. Currently she is living at Wright Patterson AFB, outside Dayton, OH while her husband finishes his psychiatry residency. Angela's current interests are zumba, learning Spanish by rosetta stone, and playing in the dirt. Life has turned out far better than she ever thought it would. She loves where she is in life and loves what she's doing!

Check out Angela's blog at: http://www.angelamjensen.blogspot.com

Lisa Scarrow-Howell

Lisa is still living in Jerome. After high school she went to trade school, and is currently self-employed. Lisa is married to Mike Howell.

Justin Vipperman

Justin has a lot of memories from high school. The time he, Kendi, and Marc almost got expelled for not wearing shoes for an entire week. When he and Dave Brown ditched Ms. Adam's newspaper class everyday to go to JR Java to get italian sodas when they were supposed to be selling ads. (makes you wonder how he's so successful at selling ads now : ) State Baseball- in his words, "the beer, the tobacco, and staying up for three days straight." No wonder they didn't win. *editors note (his wife): Justin has seen the error in his ways during high school and does not promote alcohol or tobacco. Him and Craig Vanderham sitting one-behind-the-other on the stairs at state basketball and doing what will forever be known as "the bobsled" *Editors note (again his wife): most of Justin's stories involve running from the cops, things exploding or illegal substances so we're being selective. Just note that he had a pretty exciting high school experience. Right out of high school Justin served a mission for the LDS church in Nashville, Tennessee. He loved it and loved the people there, and even had a chance to meet a few country music stars while he was there. In November 2003, Justin married Rebecca Bunn, and they now have one daughter, Audrey Mae Vipperman who will turn one in May. The Vippermans are currently living in Boise where Justin works for the Idaho Statesman, the largest paper in Idaho. He works as a marketing and advertising executive there and has a blast. He sells ads to small businesses in Idaho for advertising, then manages their accounts which includes handling their contracts, coming up with the ideas and layouts for the ads, helps with marketing their business etc. The Idaho Statesman was also recently a finalist for the 2008 Pulitzer Prize, which has been very exciting for Justin. In his spare time Justin enjoys going to minor league baseball games, BSU events, and eating at great restaurants.

Check out Justin’s blog at: http://thevipfamilyofthree.spaces.live.com/

Stephanie Vos-Malson

After graduating from high school, Stephanie attended Idaho State University to study speech pathology, after her sophomore year she transferred to Boise State, and then decided speech pathology was not for her. Stephanie then moved to Denver, Colorado where she worked 3 years for Red Robin Gourmet Burgers as a corporate trainer, opening new restaurants across the US, and training people how to be trainers. Living out of a suitcase got old, so she decided to go back to school earning a degree in Marketing from Colorado State University. GO RAMS! She graduated in December '05 and decided to move back to Idaho.

In September 2006, Stephanie married Jared Malson. They do not have any children, but prefer to spoil their pug, Rambo. Stephanie currently works for Pioneer Title Company as a Business Development Rep. As well she owns an event production company, Platinum Producions.

Stephanie and her husband are currently living in Nampa, Idaho. They enjoy traveling, spending summers golfing and hanging out on the lake in McCall. Also sledding, tubing, and skiing taking advantage of our plentiful Idaho winters. The enjoy doing home improvement, and in the last year have remodeled both bathrooms, from the studs and subfloor to new vanities and showers, painted the outside, and relandscaped the entire yard. Jared works in wholesale plumbing so luckily they wont go broke as they prepare to gut and redo their kitchen floor to ceiling.

Check out Stephanie's Blog at http://www.themalsons.blogspot.com/