A Few of these Photos are Somewhat Scary...but we sure had a great time!

Friday afternoon, my mom (from KC) and my dear friend Lisa (also from KC) headed down to Bolivar and then the three of us headed on down to Branson to attend the Women of Joy seminar at the Grande Palace. Originally Mom, my Aunt Vonnie (from Texas), and myself had planned on going, but Grandma (visiting my aunt in Texas) fractured her hip just a few days before the seminar and had to have surgery. Aunt Vonnie has been taking care of her and wasn't able to make it to this year's seminar afterall. Mom and I were so disappointed that Vonnie wasn't with us, but we talked Lisa into coming at the last moment.

Lisa drove us all from Bolivar on down to Branson. I saw a Garmin GPS unit in action for the first time ever. Man, those things are COOL! (I want one, now!)

The Women of Joy seminar was fantastic. We had such a great time. So much of what was shared just ministered to my heart...really spoke right to the place I have been in my own spiritual journey the last few years...was water upon parched ground. There was also a humerous speaker that Lisa and I, got quite a bang out of listening to. We knew we loved her two seconds after she had walked out on stage... nearly the first words out of her mouth were, "I am a BIG BEAUTIFUL WOMAN in a narrow, nervous world!" I latched right onto that phrase and decided that was my motto for the weekend! Lisa and I trashed our diet/exercise regimine on the spot and decided to just be BIG beautiful women for the week and not even try to fit into the narrow, nervous world! It was nice to spend three days eating without one iota of guilt! (You have to understand, Lisa and her twin sister Laura are my diet/exercise accountability partners. They are usually pretty tough to slip by...but, this weekend, half the accountability team was right there where I could see her and make sure she was eating with as much abandon as I was!...and the other half...well, Lisa and I just decided we would tell Laura that we had a new philosophy! We decided to be utterly unrepentant until Monday! What fun!!! But, of course, now we have a few extra pounds we'll have to shed!)


Lisa took this photo of me Saturday night. I had just finished my shower and had crawled into bed and was happily reading a book Mom had bought for me at the seminar ("Praying the Scriptures for Your Children"). I probably ought to get bifocals...but, I just look over the tops of my glasses and hold the reading material so close my nose almost touches it (the alternative being hold the book out at arm's length and still have trouble seeing it through my glasses)! This habit of mine drives Lisa nuts. She thinks it makes me look really old! Well, guess what? I AM old...and I prefer to just look over the tops of my glasses to read!!! (Lisa, in FOURTEEN more years YOU will know what it is like!!!) Anyway, Lisa grabbed my camera to snap a photo of me reading, so I gave her the evil eye as her finger pressed the shutter button!

A moment later, I took the camera from Lisa and held it at arm's length to take BOTH our photos (only fair that she get a "post-shower/already in jammies" picture taken, too! Didn't realize I was STILL looking over the top's of my glasses!

This was the scene Sunday morning. Mom had been up since 5:30am. I had been up since 6:00am (the time we had all agreed upon the night before as the time we should get up!). It was nearing 7:00am and we STILL couldn't drag Lisa out of bed. She lolly gagged around, and then had the audacity to say it was OUR fault when we didn't get to the seminar as early as we had hoped! (But, then, it probably WAS my fault that Lisa was so tired...I guess I did talk excessively the night before...and the night before that night, as well....at least I didn't SNORE very much once I finally DID manage to go to sleep!

Here are the three of us on our way back from breakfast, Sunday morning. (myself, Lisa, and my mom)



Lastly, is a photo of Kay Arthur hugging my mom!