The Heart of the Ozarks nursing home in Ava puts on an amazing 4th of July celebration for the community every year. The last few years I have helped at the CMN booth sponsored by Wal-mart. This year we decided to do face painting and hair spray of different colors. We made about $150. Not bad for a few hours. We all had a great time. Brandon, my 13 year old cousin, always likes to come help with the booth. He has been helped out a lot by CMN, so it's cool to see him come work at the booth. He painted faces all evening, but at the end of the evening he decided to have some fun. The local trout farm had a big pond set up for kids to fish, but at the end of the night a bunch of kids got in the pond and tried to catch the trout by hand. Talk about some good ol' Douglas County entertainment. Needless to say, Brandon could not resist the temptation. He pulled off his shoes, handed me his phone and hearing aid, and jumped in. He didn't even see the fireworks, but he didn't care. He chased those fish around until I made him get out to go home. I just wish I had taken my camera! I didn't take it in because I knew we would be too busy in the booth to take any pictures. Anyway, overall it was a really fun night.

There was one thing that really bothered me, though. There were several people around me who just kept eating, talking, and whatever else during the National Anthem. To me, that is one of the most disrespectful things a person living in this country can do. I am a patriot. I am married to a veteran, and my grandpa is a WWII veteran. I cannot ignore their sacrifice, and I will teach my children the same. We are blessed to live in the United States, and I hope we can all take a moment to remember that as we celebrate with barbeque, fireworks, and fun with family and friends.

Husband Of The Year Awarded to James!

My husband planned the best weekend to celebrate our 18th wedding anniversary! He booked us a suite at Nostalgic Place Bed and Breakfast in Arcadia, MO, but that is only the beginning. He had every detail worked out with Margot who is one of the owners. When I arrived in the suite I had a dozen red roses, a dozen chocolate covered strawberries, and freshly brewed tea with Splenda waiting for me. I was so impressed. The suite was beautiful and comfortable. We enjoyed just relaxing there. James scheduled a massage for me before breakfast on Sat. At first I thought that was kind of early, but it was great! She came to our room, so I didn't have to get up and go anywhere. I just threw on a robe! Very nice. Then it was upstairs for Tom's French Toast with fruit. Delicious. All the food there was great! Omelettes made to order, poached apples, pancakes....Yum! Needles to say, we took a little break from our diet this weekend. We have a little adventure Saturday which you can read about below and concluded the day with a carriage ride through historical Arcardi and Ironton. We learned a lot about the history of the area. I really enjoyed it.

We decided this was one of the best weekend getaways we have ever had. Thank you to James for doing such a good job of planning and making it so special for me. I love you and I'm looking forward to many more years of suprises and adventures with you!

Nostalgic Place --One buliding of a Methodist school for girls that has been renovated.

We spent some time at Elephant Rocks State Park before we checked in.


The sitting area of our suite and my beautiful roses!



The big, beautiful bed and tub.

On Saturday we went to Taum Sauk Mountain State Park. We decided to do a hike to Mina Sauk Falls, the state's highest wet weather waterfall. This was one of the views along the way.

We hiked about and hour before we finally reached the falls. It was very pretty. Everyone said it is even better when there has been more rain.

We hung out there for a while and enjoyed the scenery. It was very hot! There wasn't any shade there.

James really wanted to get in some water to cool off. After we finished at the waterfall we had an hour hike back out a different way. By the time we got back it was about 1 in the afternoon, and we were drenched with sweat! We were ready for a little down time.

When we got back to our suite we decided to enjoy our picnic they had prepared inside. It was a very nice feast for two hungry hikers. Tom ( one of the owners) brewed me some blueberry tea that was amazing and thirst quenching! They are so thoughtful!

Here we are in front of our suite entrance. The yard is as beautiful as the inside.

Still Waters Vacation

We had such a great time at Still Waters on Table Rock Lake! We invited my parents to spend the week with us, and we had aunts and cousins come by throughout the week. The weather was perfect...excluding the tornado siren on Tuesday. There is so much to do there. We did a little boating, paddle boating, kayaking, and sliding which led to sleeping in almost every morning. Very nice. James grilled for us every night and it was delicious. This was probably the most relaxing vacation we have ever taken. We're thinking it will be an annual trip, and we're hoping more friends and family will join us next year. Sallees- that means you.

Brenna and Tracy joined us the first day.

She had a ball and was sad to leave. Rachel finally got a paddle boat

ride courtesy of her favorite aunt.

Chillin' out after "Zooming the Flume."

Do these cousins know how to

relax or what?

This was absolutley Hailey's favorite

activity. She rode until she couldn't

hold on any longer!

By the end of the week we

were content to sit on the

dock and enjoy the beautiful sunset.

Good Times and Tornado Sirens

We are having a great time at Still Waters Resort! I probably won't do pics because everything is already running really slow.

We have done so many fun things. James and the kids tried out kayaks for the first time yesterday. That was pretty cool. They say they'll have to show me the trick today. I enjoyed hanging out at the pool in the afternoon with my sister and my niece. Brenna was a little sad that they had to go home yesterday. She was having so much fun with Hailey and Tyler and making new friends at the pool.

We finally settled in for some much needed rest. We had been in bed for about an hour when the storm sirens sounded. Very unnerving to say the least. We all got up, got dressed, and got ready to go to shelter if we needed to. It was crazy! People were loading their kids up and going somewhere. Not sure where. People were in the trash room, under the stairs, pretty much everywhere. The storms ended up being mostly south of us. So we finally got back to bed.

No harm done except Tyler didn't make the early morning fishing excursion. James and Dada report no big loss there, though.

Looking forward to some fun in the sun today!

Camp Barnabas Bound!

A group of my friends from church got to go to Camp Barnabas yesterday to do the Party People program. It was amazing! We have a group of our youth there this week as counselors, kitchen help, cabin moms, and barnstormers who get to clean a lot of toilets. We were given a tour of the camp by the girl that Camp Barnabas was actually created for. The whole experience is a little overwhelming. Seeing our kids give so much of themselves to give these campers the best week possible is such a blessing to me. They are with their camper 23 hours a day for 7 days. A very big responsibility. It really makes me think about how the camper's families live every day. It makes me feel very blessed to have the happy, healthy family that I have. It also inspires me to want to do more for those who are less fortunate. I'm looking forward to more opportunities to serve at Camp Barnabas in the future.

I've posted a couple of picture of our kids with their campers, and I think they really show the spirit of camp.

Our party people group at Inspiration Point.

Beautiful!

Cabin moms Becky and Angela.

Richelle with her very talented camper after

her dinner performance.


Emilee and her camper at dinner.