That is cool. We need to have a meet up. We had one in October in Fredonia. But I moved and have a bigger house with a fenced in back yard, I would volunteer it to be here. :p

We live 15 minutes from Ozark. I think that you would LOVE it here. I have lived in this area all of my life, except when I got married. I had to live in K.C. for 2 years & absolutely HATED it ! ! ! We moved back & will never leave again : )
If I had to choose a town around close to Ozark, my first choice would be Republic (15-20 minutes from Ozark) They have a pretty decent school system (compared to others) a lot of the teachers, principals, etc. are christians (if that matters to you) We homeschool so that is not one of our priorities for a town. Republic is still small town U.S.A. It is a very friendly little town. I grew up there so I am kinda partial but there are alot of other people here who feel the same way.

My second (& third) choice would probably be Billings (where I live) or Nixa (5 minutes from Ozark). If you are wanting to stay small town Nixa may not be what you are looking for, or Ozark for that matter. They are both growing super fast. Billings is definitely a small town. We have a Casey's, 2 gas stations & a Dairy Queen. Woo Hoo ! ! Oh & a post office & 1 bank too, sorry, forgot about those. We live in the country on 3 acres 1/8 of a mile from Republic School district, but like I said that didn't affect where we moved. If my kids were in public school I would want them in Republic school district.

As for things for kids to do, my kids are never bored. Republic just put in a new water park last year. It has a wave pool that is 1 of 3 in the nation. We received quite a bit of publicity over that, you may have heard about it. There are lots of things to do in Springfield, its about 15-20 minutes away. That is where most of the jobs are. Lots of jobs in the medical field, construction, insurance etc.
Then we have Branson which is exactly 1 hour from our house, it's about 40 minutes from Ozark, maybe a little less. You could never runout of things to do there.
If you have any other questions feel free to ask, I would be more that willing to help you out. If you want me to send you the Sunday classifieds for houses (or jobs) I could do that also. I really think you would love it here, in fact I would guarantee it :)

Good luck with your decision,
Melissia