Midway Outdoor Flea Market - CLOSED

August 4, 2011 ~ We this was a tough decision to make but we have decided to close our flea market for good. We started our flea market in August 2010 and was a huge success and decided to continue it this year. The weather played a huge role allowing us to be open because the flea market was in an open field. We would open between rainy weekends and then we hit the hot season and it was too hot for vendors and customers to come out. Our first priority is our electric company and this was something to do for fun to bring people to Midway. We made a lot of  friends as well as reuniting with people from years ago. (We have recently put Max to sleep and Mattie had surgery for cancer in her lower intestines which her care require us to be home more) We feel that if we can't give 100% attention to this business and it's not fair to our vendors, customers or ourselves. Many of our vendors set up at flea markets as a source of income and we want everyone to go where they can make the most money.  If you were a vendor, customer or someone who supported what we did .... Thank you! We wish you all the best of luck in anything you do!

Truckstop Missouri Premier

August 3, 2011 ~ Well it finally aired.... TruckStop Missouri is a reality show about Midway Truck stop in my hometown. I will be honest.... I was not for this when I first heard of it but once I understood it was about a locally owned and operated truck stop, I agreed with that. When you saw all of the TV cameras out there filming and asked anyone at the truck stop about the reality show they looked at you like you had a third eye and said they didn't know anything about a reality show.... really? With all these people filming stuff you don't have a clue? I think if they had just been honest and said we can't talk about it right now I would have had a little more respect. I have lived in Midway for 32 years and always went to the truck stop with my grandma and grandpa as well as I purchase fuel there. So last night was the big premier. I watched it at home and tweeted about it with a friend who was there. I was really worried this wouldn't be tasteful and appear that Midway folks were back woods hill-billy type people but it showed day to day operations of running a truck stop with laughter. Some of it appeared to be staged but it's a reality show.... how many reality shows have you watched that just have the boring day in a day out stuff in them? That's the entertainment factor and to keep you watching! I think in the 30 years they have been operating they have seen just about all walks of life come through their doors and it's the same today. I am a huge people watcher and I bet you could sit in the restaurant and get lots of chuckles watching what comes through the door. My favorite quote from the first episode was when they brought the Big 70 food challenge out and the older woman looks over her shoulder and says "That's just wrong!" I think you could use this quote in about 1/2 of the show! When they got to the second episode I about lost it when Biker Granny wanted to get a tattoo! Oh my goodness.... she was a hot mess and I am pretty sure I was yelling at the tattoo guy telling him "Don't do it!" She wasn't afraid to let it all hang out! Guess I am glad they don't do piercings..... Granny might have gone too far! Oh and the poor little fisherman.... bless his little heart! He got his shows all mixed up and meant to be on Pawn Stars or Hard Core Pawn to pawn or sell his special fishin' pole. Then when he was going to catch fish but was fishin' in the lagoon. Overall I think Joe did a good job. Cheesy? Yes, but would you watch a show that wasn't a little cheesy or backwards? It didn't appear that they were making fun of the town of Midway rather poking fun at the "characters" on the show. I think that as business owners we do things that are positive impacts on our business. Midway Truck stop is perfectly placed smack dab in the center of the state and think about all the people that come there prior to the show.... it's really no different and if nothing else it will bring more people in out of curiosity to see what it's all about. I am not on the show nor am I around when the cameras are however I can't blame him for trying it and based on the comments this morning a lot of people watched it. Will they watch next week too? I will be! 

Happy 35th Birthday to me!

August 2, 2011 ~ Well today marks my 35th birthday! It has been an amazing day filled with lots of fun! From text messages starting at 5:45 am, hundreds of facebook wishes, phone calls and e-mails my poor little iphone died twice before 3:00 pm! My wonderful hubby went to town this morning and brought back my favorite Starbuck's hot chocolate (7 pumps of vanilla and made with whole milk), a piece of pumpkin loaf and 3 great cards! I then had a great lunch with Aunt Judy and Stephanie at Hollihan's and got these beautiful flowers from my best friend, Misty and Maxina! Brandon is taking me to Bleu tonight for dinner to finish up a great day! I am such a lucky girl to have so many amazing people in my life! Thank you to everyone for making my birthday extra special!

An early birthday dinner!

Sunday July 31, 2011 ~ Mom cooked my birthday dinner and had all the things I love... Roast, taters (mashed and then some cooked with the roast), wilted lettuce, gravy, fresh sweet corn cut off the cob, and fresh tomatoes! It was so good but then again... momma's cookin' is always the best!

So my sister decided to be really sweet and go to the Sugar Loft at the Lake of the Ozarks... they have the best cupcakes ever! So while she was being really nice she had to be funny at the same time.... yep that is a little dog poo next to the flower (made of chocolate icing) because she told the lady I had dogs and dog poo seemed appropriate on the grass.... that girl ain't right! She is my sister! (As you see that is a white cupcake and I only like chocolate cupcakes.... so you guessed it.... that one is for Brandon!) It was a great dinner with the family and I got to make Jaxon laugh! He's getting so big and loves to be around everyone to see what's going on. (sorry I didn't have my camera with me to get an updated picture of him)

Extreme Make Over!

Saturday July 30, 2011~ I was fortunate to be a small piece to an amazing thing going on in our community this past week. Boone Council on Aging and Fairview Church teamed up and did their 3rd Extreme Make Over Fairview Church style! This project started Wednesday morning with the outside of the home looking like this:

It hard to see but there were shrubs all along the street that kept you from seeing this home and the landscaping was overgrown. When this amazing crew of workers got done with this home it had all the shrubs taken out and replaced with new beautiful landscaping that allowed you to see this adorable home. It also had the old shed removed and a new one built as well as all the fence rows cleaned up and new gravel on the driveway. It was an amazing transformation on the outside. The inside was amazing! She received new carpet, laminate flooring, blinds, curtains, tile in the shower, new vanity in the bathroom, new kitchen cabinets and sink as well as everything was painted. I couldn't believe my eyes when each day more things were looking amazing and I couldn't wait for this woman to see her new home!

This is what the outside of the home looked like once they were done. It was an amazing experience and I am so proud that Ms. Henderson received this make over. She is an 80 year old woman who is on dialysis Monday, Wednesday and Friday and about 10 days ago had a heart attack. She had been recovering in a nursing home her in Columbia, MO and was going to come home Saturday to see her home. It started raining which closed the work on the home because the finishing touches were all inside and they didn't want to track mud in the home so everyone came back around 4:30 pm to finish up. They brought Ms. Henderson home around 5:30-5:45 pm and it was so exciting seeing the big ol' smile on her face! She just couldn't believe it!

This is Brian, the pastor at Fairview Church, showing her all the things that had been done to the exterior of her home once she took a tour of the inside. She was so happy and I am so glad I was able to be there to witness it! She was so deserving! A very special thank you to Boone Council on Aging and all the amazing volunteers of Fairview Church.... you guys are awesome!

For the love of baseball!

Most of you know that I love the St. Louis Cardinals and I stumbled across this unique picture.... and story. A guy was selling this picture to help pay some bills and said he bought it (print only) and had it framed. It was stamped and signed "Arteaga". The guy told to me that in 1980 he called the Arteaga Photography in St. Louis and talked to the guy that actually took this picture. Upon my own investigation I further found that the man who took this picutre was the grandfather of the guy that is running the studio and died in 1982. His grandfather was the St. Louis team photographer from 1930-1946. The image was taken at Sportsman Park on July 24, 1938. The interesting thing is that Babe Ruth (center) was hardly ever known as wearing a Dodgers uniform. The story is....

His only official association with any club following his 1935 retirement as a player came on June 19, 1938, when he was hired as the Brooklyn Dodgers' first-base coach by general manager Larry MacPhail. Ruth took the job with the explicit understanding that he would be given an opportunity to eventually take over for then-manager Burleigh Grimes. Unfortunately, the Dodgers were less than truthful with him. Whereas Ruth thought he was being groomed for the manager's job, the Dodgers looked upon him strictly as a drawing card. Right from the start Ruth was ordered by management to put on pregame "home run displays" and stay late to sign autographs for fans. To his chagrin, Ruth quickly realized that he had been duped once again. (The Braves, in 1935, also signed Ruth with the false promise of a future managerial position.) Ruth had no interest in being a sideshow attraction; he wanted to be manager. Disgusted with the situation, he left the Dodgers at season's end. Unfortunately, his dream of becoming a manager never came to fruition; thus his Major League career came to an official close with the Dodgers at the end of the 1938 season.

Brad Arteaga has the original negative and one original photo from this photo shoot as well as many other rare photos captured by his grandfather. I am going to make time to stop by his shop to see what other unique items I can find. I like the more "interesting" pieces and this has started many great conversations already!

The Columbia Star Dinner Train

Friday July 15, 2011 ~ Tonight was the first night for the Columbia Star Dinner Train! We have been waiting month's for this new adventure to get here and didn't want to miss the first opportunity to be a part of the madien voyage!

Our evening started at the Colt Railroad at 6501 N Brown Station Road just behind Catfish Corner and it was great to see a wonderful turnout of guests.

It was fun to visit with others about attending and once you made it to the enterance you were greeted by wonderful staff who gave you your boarding passes and welcomed you aboard.

We were surprised to see Mark & Lori (some of our Grumpy's friends) celebrating their 11th Anniversary!

They were having dinner with some more of our Grumpy's friends, Gene & Annabelle! How fun!

We found our way to the first train car (113 a&b) and found our seat! This evening they only had 2 train cars with people with 150+ people in attendance! (Normal operation would be 224 guests not including the additional car that would come that would be handicap accessable)

Brandon and I!

My momma and I!

It was a fun evening that my momma, hubby and I got to share together! We have flown, rode in a car, and now rode a train together!

It was so fun to see all the people along the way waving at all of us! They would pull over on the side of the road just to let their kids wave. It was really cool!

They served an appetizer first (sorry I forgot to take a picture!) which was a cheese bread with little bit of onion, dried tomatoes (little) and pepperoni (I think). They they brought a bread basket and cute dishes of butter, sour cream and horseradish (for the prime rib).

Next up was the shrimp cocktail (this was additional if you wanted it) and since I don't eat seafood (many of you know I don't eat anything that stays in the water longer than I take a shower) Brandon and momma said it was really good.

More people enjoying the train going by!

Howdy y'all!

These people were having a great time and when we came back through they were still there having a good time!

Although the scenery was mostly woods the experience was really cool. To do something different than the "normal" is always fun! I wanted to catch the beautiful sunset but it went down before we got to a clearing so I got this one. Very pretty sky!

Dinner is served! The prime rib was so good! It was melt in your mouth good! Brandon had his done medium and mine was medium well and it was perfect! Fork tender! The horseradish was excellent too!

More people waving and checking out the train!

They had some romatic lighting to add to the experience too! There was one wedding proposal on the train, several anniversaries, a young man who it was his 88th birthday and he had retired from the railroad, and several birthdays and one man dressed in uniform.

Picture from our train car.

I found our very own Kat Cunningham who was on board with her hubby and sons! (One of her son's was helping on our train car)

The final piece to the trip.... dessert! This cake was so moist and had a pudding style center that was so good! Our overall experience was great! The food was excellent, the service was excellent, (Amando took great care of us) and being on a train that was so old and a part of history was really cool! When you make reservations you are required to pay in advance but honestly I liked that. Your beverages (we had sweet tea) was not part of the meal and the tip was not included when they charged your credit card when you made reservations but the personal service that the men and women gave to everyone was top notch! Tonight was just the madien voyage... I know it will get better and it is something I think you should give a try at least once. I respect the people representing the handicap community for being there to voice their opinion. I believe that the Columbia Star Dinner Train is and will do everything in their power to get appropriate accomodations allowing everyone that wants to be a part of the dinner train to do so.  I hear what they are saying and it's not being ignored and they even said last night on the train as we were coming back that they hope that in the near future they will have accomations for handicap to make it accessable. Hang in there guys and gals.... tonight was the first trip of many. :)