H'lo Bonnie lass. My current carry along is an HP mini. It has a full sized keyboard and with the extended battery is good for a full day of work and games. Comes with Windows 7 starter. I have found that I use my Microsoft Office 2007 interchangeably with Open Office on it.
As far as Win 8, I have several friends using it on small laptops with no problems. The nonusability is probably just a myth, just as the inability of XP machines to work as a platform for 7 was. RAM and chip speed are the primary criteria, as is a good sized hard drive.