Riverbender 🕸

Couples names: Juliana Weiner & Jonathan Siddell City: Jerseyville and Carlyle Date met or started dating: March 31, 2022 What makes your relationship special? What makes our relationship special? Well, let me tell ya. We both have kind souls and will do anything for one another, no matter the cost. Share a memory you have made together: We have made so many memories together, it’s hard to choose! Jonathan and I love going on adventures together. Our recent big trip was to Montana. We went to a musical festival there called Under the Big Sky! Got to see amazing artists and stayed in a beautiful lake house! The drive back from Montana was a beautiful experience with him. We have many more adventures ahead of us and I can’t wait!

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Couples names: Scott & Stacey Willis City: Carrollton Date met or started dating: March 18, 2018 Date married: June 18, 2022 What makes your relationship special? There's never a dull moment around each other. We are always up to something to either prank or tease the other. Share a memory you have made together: Going to Lake of the Ozarks for my birthday the July after we started dating. Taking a dinner cruise around the lake. We try going somewhere every year.

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Couples names: Angie Hillman & Matt Knight City: Alton Date met or started dating: June 11, 2022 What makes your relationship special? Although we’ve been dating a short time we are truly each others person. Dating after 40 is hard and never did I think I’d find the one in Alton Illinois. I moved here the year before we met and had given up on dating during that year. We connected on a Facebook dating shortly after I decided to give dating one last try. Our first “date” we spent 8 hours pressure washing my fence to prep it for painting and our second “date” he painted it! It took a few more dates for him to grow on me but when I met his friends and saw how kind he is and unapologeticley himself he is I was smitten! Less than a week ago he had a heart attack. Seeing him go through that and the recovery has made me love and cherish him even more! Share a memory you have made together: We’ve had many days on the river since meeting

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GOBBLERS KNOB, Penn. - Bethalto’s Steve Lowrance checked off a big bucket list item recently when he visited Punxsutawney, Penn., for the annual Groundhog Day Celebration. He said quite frankly when he returned that this was fulfilling a notch on his bucket list. “I went with my wife, Patti, my daughter and son-in-law, and my two grandkids,” he said. “They paid for my trip, which was present at Christmas time.” Steve Lowrance loves the movie “Groundhog Day” starring actor Bill Murray and even watched the movie a few times while he was at the festival. Steve only lived the experience one time, while Murray's character relived the festivities over and over again in the movie. Steve said it was wonderful to have his two grandkids there to enjoy this special moment with him. Reflecting on the Groundhog Day movie, he said in the beginning the Bill Murray character was not a very nice person. “He finally got a heart and he also found true

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Couples names: Alex & Abbie City: Bethalto Date met or started dating: September 1, 2007 What makes your relationship special? We had fifteen years of close friendship before falling in love in early 2022! There was no "new relationship learning curve" because we had almost our entire lives of learning about each other and growing both seperately and together before our timing was perfect, and the last few pieces fell into place for us to spend our forever together! Share a memory you have made together: Too many to choose! Abbie- "My personal favorite is the collective of all the nights spent stargazing for hours, only to feel myself slowly falling for my best friend, my favorite person--the memory still gives me butterflies!" Alex- "We've been there with each other for so many ups and downs throughout our entire platonic and romantic relationship, and all of my favorite memories are with her."

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Couples names: Ed & Lana Johnson City: Brighton Date met or started dating: August 11, 1971 Date married: February 23, 1973 What makes your relationship special? We both been so good to each other & we both provided for each other even in hard times. Sharing a love & a life God wants us to have. With doing that we have a beautiful family together! Also having the cutest puppy dog “Patty B”! Share a memory you have made together: A memory we share together, is we renewed our vowels 3 different times!

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Couples names: Stephen & Mariah Cope City: South Roxana Date met or started dating: September 30, 2018 Date married: February 18, 2022 What makes your relationship special? No matter what we go through, we are always there for each other at the end of the day. He is my rock and my best friend. Share a memory you have made together: Adding to our family and getting married in 2022 are my 2 favorite memories so far!

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Couples names: Nate & Kari Alderfer City: Greenfield Date met or started dating: August 1, 2014 Date married: September 26, 2015 What makes your relationship special? She is a great mother to our children and I could not be more blessed. Share a memory you have made together: We took our kids on a side by side trip to the creek and the kids saw a snake and would not get back in the water.

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Couples names: Anna & Trent City: Godfrey Date met or started dating: March 7, 2022 What makes your relationship special? I mean i don’t really know what would make our relationship special to anyone other then us. We are each other homes. Share a memory you have made together: We like to take my niece on dates and last week we took her to an arcade and she’s autistic and she really wanted a bear from this claw machine and she couldn’t grasp that we couldn’t get it so he sat there trying for about 20 mins and used about $40 just to get this bear for her it made her whole day and mine to see her hood it and laugh and smile and right after that we took her to McDonald’s ofc and she was scared to Go up in it alone but she really wanted to Go Down the slide but she was also scared so trent he’s a 6’4 man he got up in the play place and he went up the stairs and down the slide with her it was the best thing ever and the pure joy

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Couples names: Summer & Tyler City: Alton Date met or started dating: November 19, 2014 Date married: April 12, 2019 What makes your relationship special? As high school sweethearts, we got to experience many firsts and milestones together. We both grew together from a couple of teenagers, to adults with a 2 year old. We’re happily married and still haven’t left the “puppy love” stage. Share a memory you have made together: There are a lot of memories we’ve had together, but the one I remember most vividly is in 2015 we were watching James and the Giant Peach talking about our future and hoping we could make our future come true. Here we are 8 years later with everything and more!!

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BELLEVILLE - Edwardsville junior forward Malik Allen had a big game for the Tigers against East St. Louis on Feb. 10, leading all scorers with 19 points in Edwardsville's 57-38 loss to the Flyers at Lynx Arena at the Lindenwood University-Belleville campus. Allen, who is currently averaging 13.6 points and 2.7 rebounds per game, going along with 33 assists, 14 steals and a blocked shot, is starting to emerge as one of the key players in the Tigers' rotation as the regular season winds down and the IHSA Class 4A playoffs loom. Although East Side took control of the game in the third quarter, the Tigers kept plugging away and both played and worked hard throughout the game. "I thought we played hard, played to the capabilities that we could," Allen said about the East St. Louis game. "We're going to keep building, keep working, going to stay in the gym. The first half showed what we can do if we keep our energy up and everything. We kind of just let it get away, got a little tired, and

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Couples names: Chrissy & David City: Bethalto Date met or started dating: August 10, 1996 Date married: August 10, 1997 What makes your relationship special? We known each other our whole life. Share a memory you have made together: Back in 2020 he was a big part of saving my life along with our two children … I had a heart attack and a stroke and they saved my life.

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Couples names: Skylar & Nick City: Alton Date met or started dating: September 10, 2018 What makes your relationship special? I think what makes our relationship so special is that we are each others relief. We are always able to make each other feel better or laugh no matter the situation. Having met each other in 2018, there've been many memories we've gotten to make and milestones we hit together since then. We have been best friends from the start and that helped further build our bond over time. Share a memory you have made together: My favorite memory we have together is definitely seeing our baby on the ultrasound. Seeing the baby move and hearing the heartbeat was so special and was something we will both remember forever.

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Couples names: John & Brittany City: Bethalto Date met or started dating: September 3, 2022 What makes your relationship special? The love we have for one another after what we’ve been through is nothing short of amazing we both met at a Rough point in our lives and we’ve came together and flourished in such a short amount of time she’s my bestfriend honestly. Share a memory you have made together: Lots actually but probably going to the brewery lights for the first time ever that was pretty cool to experience that with her.

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Couples names: Aiden & Melody City: Wood River Date met or started dating: October 25, 2021 What makes your relationship special? I believe what makes our relationship so special is being best friends since 2nd grade and treating each other like we’re still best friends. Share a memory you have made together: Getting engaged in August.

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Couples names: Robyn & Jeremy City: Alton Date met or started dating: June 29, 2011 Date married: July 25, 2015 What makes your relationship special? We actually dated when we were teenagers and then were reunited 20 years later. Jeremy sent a random text one night to say that he had feelings for me and that was that! Share a memory you have made together: Jeremy and I have made many wonderful memories together. I think that the one that stands out most, and the moment that I knew I would spend y life with him, was when my oldest daughter hurt her head on the corner of a stone wall at Riverview Park during a Muny Band concert. She was sobbing and bleeding everywhere and he was so calm. He was wearing a long sleeved shirt and actually ripped his sleeve off to stop the bleeding. He joked with her to calm her down. It was one of the many times he has shown absolute kindness.

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Couples names: Caylee & Daniel City: Godfrey Date met or started dating: August 1, 2019 What makes your relationship special? When you have a best friend, your biggest fan and lover all in one, it makes life even better! We are constantly laughing and have so much fun together! He is my calm and I am his wild. We love trying new things and being ourselves around each other has always came naturally. The one thing I love the most about Daniel is that he stayed and loved my son like his own. And for that, I am forever grateful for him! Share a memory you have made together: We bought our first house for our family! I love knowing that we finally have our own home to make memories in for the rest of our lives!

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SPRINGFIELD – Hunters in Illinois harvested a statewide total of 801 wild turkeys during the 2022-2023 fall archery turkey season between Oct. 1 and Jan. 15. The total compares with the statewide fall archery turkey harvest of 683 in 2021-2022 and is the third-highest harvest total on record for the season in Illinois. The top five counties for fall archery wild turkey harvest this season were Vermilion with 27 turkeys harvested; Ogle, 24; Clay, 22; Marion, 21; and Randolph, 21. This season, 25,373 permits were sold (excluding landowner permits), compared to 24,768 for the 2021-2022 season. All 102 counties were open for hunting. The harvest consisted of 48% males and 52% hens. Below is a summary table of harvest by county compared to last year’s totals. County 2022-2023 2021-2022 Adams 8 12 Alexander 7 4 Bond 5 4 Boone 6 1 Brown 10 9 Bureau 5 12 Calhoun

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GODFREY – Sparks Junk Removal and Hauling, as it marks its 30th year in business, has been named the recipient of the RiverBend Growth Association’s February 2023 Small Business of the Month award. Owned by Denise Sparks, the company that got its start in 1993 as a ChemDry franchise carpet cleaning business has continued to evolve and grow over its years of operation to where it is today as a successful entrepreneurial venture with four employees and headquartered at 1816 Myrtle Street in Alton. The company recently moved into a 3,000-square-foot shop at 2201 East Broadway, Alton, where it also provides a drop-off service for couches, mattresses, recliners, etc. There is a charge for this service, and drop-offs must be scheduled in advance. “I began my journey as an entrepreneur in 1993 with ChemDry, and by 1999, I had emerged into smoke/fire and water damage, along with mold remediation,” noted Owner Denise Sparks. “By 2000, I had 35 employees. I tend

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MADISON - At 5:43 p.m. Friday, February 10, 2023, the Madison Police Department received a 911 call of a single-vehicle crash at the intersection of Washington Avenue at 10th Street in the City of Madison. At the time of the initial call, minimal information was provided before the caller disconnected. At approximately 5:45 p.m. on Friday, a second call was received on the non-emergency line with the caller reported hearing gunshots before the crash. Officers were dispatched to the area and upon arrival, they located a vehicle that had apparently struck a tree at what appeared to be a high rate of speed. "Arriving officers administered first aid to the two occupants inside of the vehicle until EMS and the Madison Fire Department arrived on the scene," Madison Police Chief Jeffery Bridick said. "The Madison Fire Department requested mutual aid from Granite City Fire Department for an additional ambulance and assistance with extrication of the driver from the vehicle. "The male passenger

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