The Highlights

Ahh, what a great few weeks! Thanksgiving was, of course, a wonderful holiday. Mom arrived in Searcy on Tuesday before the Thanksgiving. We left Searcy Wednesday morning about 9:00 a.m. in Mom's van. We stopped by the Key Lime Cottage (I had ordered the YUMMY friendship bread, pumpkin bread, and pumpkin cupcakes!!! awesome!!!!) because I thought we needed to take some snacky/breakfast food. We stopped in West Memphis for a late breakfast/early lunch at Cracker Barrel (one of the three times we ate at CB on this trip) before heading on down the road. I drove and it wasn't too bad until we hit Hattiesburg. It rained off & on the whole time, but then on the radio we heard the tornado warnings. And then the tornado watch. We heard what county the tornado was in, but since we don't live there we had no idea where it was. So Mom got out her trusty AAA map, only to discover that we were IN the county, and in the storm's path. Hmm. We filled the tank with gas and finally decided just to keep going because the storm was morning east and the further south we went the better. So, we head out. We called the Eyrichs to ask about the storm and they told us to keep coming too. It was really pouring rain, very windy. I told Mom to watch the skies! The traffic slowed to a crawl, people had their hazard lights on, it was wild. But we made it through!! It didn't last very long, but I was sure ready to get to Long Beach! We ate, talked, caught up on the latest. We prepped food (whatever they told us to do), looked up recipes, got the Pina Colada cake on, etc. Thursday morning, Mom & I got up quickly and showered and dressed. We headed downstairs and chopped some more, crumbled cornbread, whipped cream, etc. More people arrived, and we ate about 2:00 p.m. It's been a while since I've been so stuffed. We managed to sit around and check out the sale papers while planning our "Chicks Day" attack for Friday.

Mom & I didn't get up to hit Michael's at 6:00 a.m. I didn't need anything that bad. But I did get up and around in time to hit Tuesday Morning, Stein Mart, etc. We came home to unload (again) and eat Mr. George's delicious oyster po-boys for lunch. Then we headed out again. We finally gave up and limped back to the house for leftovers.

Saturday morning, we took our time getting around before heading to Mobile. We met old friends of ours Phillip & Ann at Cracker Barrel for lunch, then we shopped at the new Eastern Shore Mall until dinner (do you notice a pattern here - shop & eat, shop & eat?). We went to Stix - sushi and hibachi grill! Mom & Mrs. Sue had never tried sushi before, so Elissa made sure we ordered several things for them to try. It was great! The show was wonderful and the food was way too good.

We went to church on Sunday, and then ate at a casino (it was a buffet and yummy - and we didn't even have to walk through the casino!). We had planned on leaving and getting on down the road, but the weather reports were calling for more bad weather. So we stayed another night with the very hospitable Eyrichs!!! And on the way home Monday, guess where we had dinner?!?!

More later - it's time for Bunco!