Evening ladies! We are back home safe and sound and had an absolutely wonderful time. Sorry for the confusion. We were in Branson, MO.
Maggie and Susan: Congrats on the losses!
My house now looks like it blew up! lol We aren't picking up Fortune until tomorrow morning so hopefully I can get a bit done. I have a ton of laundry and of course my house is now dirty so it has to all be cleaned this week. This weekend is commissary weekend so hopefully I can get the house cleaned before the weekend gets here.
Sounds like everyone has been busy while I was gone.
Susan: The wedding sounds beautiful. I hope Glory is coming along and feeling better.
Jean: The pictures of the kids on your facebook are so cute. I had to tell Jack who was who, but I might have mixed the girls up! lol
Maggie: Jack absolutely just cannot wait until he retires and can be home all the time. He sure enjoyed himself the last few days and we did a lot of relaxing and getting some rest.
We left Memphis around 9:30 and got to Branson around 4 pm after stopping for lunch at Chilis in Little Rock. We checked into our room and went and got a bite of supper down in their breakfast room as they serve a light dinner 4 nights a week. They had bbq, chips, salad, potato salad, macaroni salad, and brownie and rice krispie bites as well as lemonade and coffe. It is free and breakfast each morning was free too and it was a nice breakfast buffet with hot food. We just relaxed the rest of the evening and I dug into my book I have been saving and finished it in one evening! lol
We decided to just leave daytime open everyday and do what we wanted so somedays we did some shopping other days just hung out at the hotel or went swimming in the pool, though the water was cold so I was the only one that ended up swimming. I had a lot of swelling in my feet so we didn't go play mini golf like we had planned. We didn't care, we were having a great time.
Thursday evening was the Branson Belle paddleboat dinner cruise. Boy oh boy, Susan did I get some walking in. The boat was really far away from the parking lot, then you had to either manuever about 50 steps or walk a long ramp to the boat. Well, leaving it was all up hill from the boat clear to the parking lot so that was a real jaunt for me. The show was ok, the ventriloquist was a bit silly and childish, but the singers/dancers were pretty darn good and most of the food was ok, though thankfully the dessert was awful and I just left it.
Friday's show turned out to be my very favorite. We went to see a tribute show of a Beatles group called Liverpool Legends. The 4 guys immitating the Beatles were chosen by George Harrison's sister. Ladies, these guys were spot on singing. They sounded just like the Beatles and did a really fun show. We even got to rush the stage like teenagers and dance in the aisles to slow music with our honeys. Jack's knees gave out so we sat out the last dance. They did a great piece honoring all veterans, which was nice. When they did "Yellow Submarine" they had a yellow cartoon sub behind them on the screen sailing back and forth and two huge bubble machines pouring out bubbles right in front of us (we had end front row seats so that was very cool) They did tons of Beatles favorites and a few lesser known songs. George Harrison's sister came out on stage and did a q and a session during the intermission, which was cool. My favorite was the guy who immitated John Lennon. He actually looked like him and boy did he sound like him. When he did "Imagine" you would have sworn it was John. Gave you chills. After the show they were out in the lobby to talk to you, sign autographs, etc as well as George's sister being out there to talk to.
On Saturday was the dinner train trip and this one didn't go so well. First off, when I booked the tickets they ask you if you want a table or booth. Since I was sure a train booth would be small I said table and then double checked my booking by calling the next day. Well we showed up, they had sold out all the dinner seats and they had put us in a booth, which was really tiny and I had real trouble getting into. Even Jack had trouble and he isn't rotund. I could only squeeze about half of me into the booth and I ended up accidently tripping a waitress because my right half stuck out into the aisle. I couldn't do a thing about it. The train ride was boring, the food was just ok, but the couple who sat with us was really fun. They were 50 and 60 and had been married 25 years, had 2 grown daughters and 2 granddaughters. The funny thing was Jack and this guy had a lot in common. They were from California, he worked at a waste water plant and he had had heart bypass surgery. It was the only enjoyable part of the whole thing. When the train pulled back in 2 horrific hours later, my right hip and knee, which is my bad knee were in horrible pain, I was bruised from the table cutting into me and I could barely walk from having sat half in and half out of the booth. I emailed them this evening and let them know I was not pleased. The tables would have been great as they had nice padded chairs and were much, much roomier so I don't know why they screwed it up. The ticket booth was closed when the train pulled back in and I never got back downtown to complain.
On Sunday we went to see the Shanghai circus acrobats and they were amazing. They had this adorable little tiny 14 year old girl who did an upside down ballet on one hand and it was really beautiful. She was dressed all in pink with glitter on her tights and a tutu. She did all the ballet steps basically doing a one handed handstand. Later in the show she did acrobatics holding 4 serving bowls stacked inside of each other on her foot. She literally turned her foot sideways and held the bowls on with her toes while she did some acrobatics. They had several different things from acrobatics, plate juggling, bike riders doing acrobatics, kung fu fighting with long spears, one girl hula hooped with 120 hula hoops and on and on. It was a fun night we topped off with a hot dog at Dairy Queen.
We got and got around and left Branson around 9:30. We are tired but so glad we went there instead of to Florida where it rained a lot during the weekend. We are looking forward to going back again to other shows.
I guess I have blabbed enough. I will talk to you sometime tomorrow. Have a good evening all! Faye
Have fun at the wedding tomorrow. I enjoy weddings just to see the decorations and the lovely bridal party all dressed up.
). I don't have that cookbook. 
from Iowa!
and windy again in my corner of the world. It's so dark I have lights on around the house. Next week still looks like it will be sunny and nice; I'm sure the farmers are looking forward to that. Bob just left for the lake to meet Jason -- they are going to seal (?) a spot in the roof that has leaked. Since it's raining he couldn't take the board to finish the ceiling part so will take that up later when the weather cooperates. I've got a load of laundry going and a pile of ironing waiting. We have a church lay leader meeting tomorrow afternoon in a nearby town. Bob is actually the lay leader but I agreed to go with him just so he would go. 
I had a large green salad without dressing to start than a small piece of rare steak and some shrimp and a biscuit. It all fit within points I have. Tonight I will watch it close at the party after church.
JD was in the kitchen talking to me and I wasn't paying attention to which spice bottle I picked up. That's my excuse and I am sticking to it.
and many more. I love birthdays and wish you the best on yours. Wouldn't you think that someone would have offered to let you have their table in exchange for that booth. 
I would have in a heart beat my friend. Sounds like Fortune missed his mommie for sure. If we went somewhere and left Ragg Mopp with JD he probably wouldn't want to come home at first when we went to pick him up. He loves JD so much. But on the other hand he would come for he loves us so. Another person he would stay with would be his groomer that likes him so much. He had a trim and a bath yesterday and still looks so clean. Some of the things you told about your trip were a hoot. What a neat place to vacation even if it did rain some eh? Are you don't anything special this evening to celebrate? 
