Saturday, November 25, 2017 - Busy Saturday

Saturday, November 25, 2017 - Dean Headed to Wichita, Christmas Decorating, Shopping Apps, and Christmas Lights

Last night as I tried to work on the blog I kept falling asleep and would wake up with xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx or some other letter or symbol showing up across the page.  I finally managed to get most of it written and then finished up this morning and tonight before posting it.

I was back to my normal waking time this morning and hope I remain in that routine for awhile.  After coffee, we walked 2.34 mi at 16:58 min/mi.  I surprised Dean and made breakfast burritos again this morning after we returned from our walk.  He was busy packing to head to Wichita while I cooked.  He will pick Heath's boys up at their Grandpa and Grandma Addis' at 10.  Then later this afternoon his oldest son Heath, Heath's oldest son Abram and Dean will head to Kansas City to spend the night so they can tailgate prior to the Chiefs' game tomorrow.  Abram is really excited about tailgating.  Papa took our grill, and Heath is taking a couple of games they can play while they are there.  The weather is supposed to be nice so I'm sure they will have a great time.

This will be my first night to stay alone in Bentley but Dean has made sure everything is in good order.  I have a little water in the tanks in case the water would need to be shut off for any reason, he emptied all of the tanks yesterday afternoon, he made sure we were on a new tank of propane and I'm sure he checked everything twice.  He takes very good care of me.  

After he left I did some much needed cleaning in Bentley.  About 11:00 Misti called me to see if I could help get her Christmas tree in the house from her shed.  It's pretty heavy to try and do by yourself.  I had a few things to finish up and then drove over to her house.  We got the tree inside pretty easy between the two of us and I stayed to help her decorate it.  I left the house around 2:30.  She and Haleigh are going to get ready and we will visit a couple of light displays near Grand Lake in Oklahoma.  I picked them up about 3:45 and after stopping at Sonic to get our last happy hour drink here in Oswego - our Sonic is closing for good at 7pm tonight - we headed south.  We are so sad to lose our Sonic and hope somehow, someone will step in and take it over.

We headed south with our first stop at Miami, OK at Walmart.  Between Misti and my friend Drena I am learning all about downloading apps on my phone to save money.  Misti told me about 3 tonight - Ibotta; Shopkick and Checkout 51.  So while we were in Walmart, because I needed a few things, we walked around scanning items to earn "kicks" using the Shopkick app.  You can earn cash gift cards with this app.  For instance tonight I earned 525 kicks, and once you earn 1,250 kicks you receive a gift card for $2 or $5.  This was just for scanning items - if I had purchased any of them I would have earned more points, but I really didn't need anything on the list that was available.  I also used Ibotta and earned $1.50 buying 5 items at Walmart that I did need and I was still able to use the Walmart Savings Catcher app - that might save me more money yet.  I haven't had a chance to do much with Checkout 51 yet; however when we left Walmart, we stopped at McDonald's to get something to eat.  I used my McDonald's app (thanks again Drena) and we saved $3.00 on our order due to a special deal you could only get by using their app.  I am now up to $21 in savings since I learned about the food apps in Carthage.  We would have ate somewhere no matter what, so the apps definitely left more money in our pocket.

The first light display we visited was at Twin Bridges State Park.  It was such a nice drive through display and we all enjoyed it very much.  As you entered the gate, a volunteer worker gave you a listing of the 35 displays if you wanted to vote for your favorite.  We all three loved the Tattered Flair.  It was set up with items from a flea market setting, such as used furniture and just very unique.  Unfortunately, since I was driving I didn't even think about taking any pictures until we were almost through the display before I realized there was not enough traffic to keep me from stopping long enough to snap a picture.  The Tattered Flair display was on my side of the car and I don't think Misti was able to get a picture of it.  If you are close by Twin Bridges State Park it is worth driving to see.

Displays at Twin Bridges State Park "Park of Lights 2017".

Our next stop was "Winter Wonderland Christmas Tour at Pine Lodge Resort" on Grand Lake.  While it was nice, we enjoyed the one at Twin Bridges much more.  If you are in the Grand Lake area, I would still encourage you to drive through this one as well.

Displays at "Winter Wonderland - Pine Lodge Resort"

We drove back through Ketchum, OK, to Vinita, OK and then north on Hwy 59 to Oswego.  Misti wanted to drive through our own Riverside Park where a number of decorations have already been put up this year.  By December 8th there are to be over 50 decorated trees or items in the park and they have a great start already.  Once they are all in place we'll take a drive and include a few pictures in a future post.

Since we didn't have enough of light displays yet we drove around town and looked at the various home displays.  We always love driving by our friends Linda and Joe Schreppel's to view Linda's beautifully decorated trees - I think we counted 7 or 8 different trees.  Gorgeous!  We were disappointed there were not more homes decorated - probably the fewest we have seen in quite awhile - especially since the weather has been perfect for putting decorations up.  Maybe we'll still see some more in the next week - as the nice weather looks like it is going to hold out for a little while longer.

I dropped Haleigh and Misti off at their house at 10:00 and I headed back to Bentley.  It's been a good day.  I loved spending the day with my daughter and granddaughter.  It's not something we get to do too often and I enjoyed every minute of it and was thankful for the opportunity to be with them.  It was a GREAT evening!