[DianaB]

I'm home!!! It was a really fun time!! We stayed at a dr.'s cabin on Table Rock Lake and it was really nice! We got there early in the evening and had planned on playing games and stuff but we couldn't get the furnace to turn on. We spent a lot of time trying to figure out what needed to be done with that since it was suppose to get in the 20's that night. Nothing we did could get it to come on so we lit a fire in the fireplace and turned the oven on and left the door open so the front room and kitchen could get warm. We never got around to playing games but my daughter, Amy, got to talking and had all of us just rolling with laughter. My Mom said that she didn't know that Amy could be so funny! We also had some other ladies that went that are always good for laughs. I was late getting up the next morning which worked out really well because the living room was nice and warm and the bathroom was too so it wasn't cold at all getting dressed. I forgot my hair dryer and can you believe that out of 12 women that we only had one!!!! Mine was left on the front seat of my Tahoe!!!

We got to Branson about 10:30 and shopped at one of the outlet malls. I went to the Carter's store and bought some baby gifts that I've been late on getting. And some shoes for my little Karlie. They had some great sales!! I bought a Karen Kingsbury book. I love her books!!!! I got some bras too. I found a Pfaltzgraff store so I went inside because my good dishes are the Tea Rose pattern and I love to find new serving pieces. It ended up that the store was closing and was having a huge sale and people were EVERYWHERE!!! I never did find any of my dishes but I found some flatware and I've been wanting a new set for everyday. I picked up a couple of boxes and went to get in line.........I was behind about 20 people!!! I was in line for about 45 minutes!! But the price that I paid for the flatware was better than I was expecting so it was definitely worth the wait! I was a little late in meeting the girls but they didn't mind.

Then we went to another outlet mall. I got an outfit for myself. It was a pair of black slacks and a grey, black, and purple shirt that was very stylish. I wore it yesterday and got a really nice compliment on it.

Then we went to ANOTHER mall!!! I didn't realize that there were so many in Branson and the last one I'd never been at before. The sales weren't as good at this one either but I still found a few things. I bought a little phone that looks like a cell phone that talks for Karlie.....she loves cell phones! I also bought some shirts for all of the older granddaughters for Christmas and I found a couple of shirts for Glen.

We got home about 12:30 that night and the next morning I had to get up early and go to Wichita!!! We're in the process of looking for a new pastor for our church and we went out to listen to one of the men that sent us a resume. The church that we went to was VERY friendly with a lot of the people coming up to shake our hand and welcome us! The pastor did a really good job with his sermon and the whole service was really good. They were having a dinner after the service with donations to go towards a trip to Mexico and we had two men come up and invited us to stay and they would pay for our meal!! We hated to turn them down but we felt odd being there to check out their pastor.

Then we went to the mall and looked for a Christmas dress for Jaci for the school dance. So I shopped again!!!! She found a dress in Penneys and Deb's that she liked but Deb's are made cheaply and everyone buys dresses from Penneys so we headed to Dillard's. They had a great selection!!!! She found a really cute dress that's black with pink and white on it!! It was fun looking but she's not a shopper so after about 20 dresses she was definitely glad to finally find a dress!!!! We then picked out some jewelry at Claire's to wear with it and she bought shoes last week that she can wear with it so I think that she's all set! I also got a beautiful dress for little Karlie. Dae Lynn said that she really didn't have any really pretty dresses and I love frilly dresses on little girls so I finally found one that I liked. Dae Lynn's going to be so surprised!!!

After we ate supper Glen wanted to stop at Lowe's. Jaci and I were tired so we decided to stay in the Tahoe and watch a movie. When Glen came out the battery was low enough that the Tahoe wouldn't start!!! A guy had parked just in front of us and saw that we were having problems so he offered to help. Glen ran in and got some jumper cables and we were soon on our way home. I was so glad to finally get home and this moring I'm sure enjoying being home!!!! I really have felt tired with all of this running around but I feel that I got a lot done this weekend!!! Now I just have to get everything put away because it's still on the kitchen bar!!!!