Small Town Tour - Part 2

As a continuation of yesterday's post about my west/central Texas adventures , I will present you with Brownwood....

Ya know, after driving through a million little Texas towns lately, I think I might start a coffee table book of small town post offices. They are all different and they all tell the story of their town. Hmmmmm.......

In Brownwood, we found a very pretty institution of higher learning - Howard Payne University!

The gate into the school was gorgeous!

And in stark contrast, we also saw this little ammo shop in the deserted old downtown area........

It is still in business! Can you believe it?!

It is a relic from days gone by, but it's still hanging on......how much do you want to bet that it is the same/original owner that still works there today??

I think we were there on a Sunday, so they were closed.

That is so cute - they are open M-F 10am-3pm. It says they are closed on Saturdays and it doesn't even mention Sundays, so you KNOW you're in a little town!

This is the courthouse in another little town that I can't remember the name of - such beautiful architecture back then.....

And look at this little Chamber of Commerce building for Mills County!

It used to be the jail back in the day........built in 1888.

There's even still bars on the windows!

It's really sad to go to the little original downtown areas of these small towns - some have been revitalized, but a lot of them look like this...........

I loved this sign......right in between the US and Texas flags.....and the burn ban is definitely in effect - we are going on 30-something days of 100+ heat with NO RAIN. It's very bad.....

I love that they are patriotic and alternated messages from the burn ban to THIS...

The south is known for pecans and slower living, but business and modern commerce are what they are......pecans.com!

And as evening fell, we saw this cool bank building in Hico, Texas. LOVE IT.

Small Town Tour - Part 1

I will start off by saying that I am becoming more enamored by cute little old Texan towns by the day....this fact SHOCKS my mother since I have always prided myself on being 100% city girl. hahaha But because of several factors, the year 2011 has been (and continues to be) a very stressful one and I have discovered that getting out of the city and experiencing a complete change of scenery relieves that stress on the weekends - HURRAY!

So, without further adieu.........here are some sights from a daytrip out west of Fort Worth that Jenks and I took recently.....

Good 'ol Erath county - apparently it's the #1 dairy county in Texas (at least it was when the sign was made in 1972!).

Their courthouse didn't disappoint either - it was beautiful! I think that's limestone and something else. LOVE IT.

This was the view inside one of the courthouse windows....I would SO love to work in a historic, unique building like this.....

And I loved their patriotism......

The buildings are just so unique, beautiful, and have SO MUCH character! I absolutely am obsessed with turrets - I want one on my dream home someday!

WOW - Ben Franklin stores - do they still exist anywhere? haha

And what I have come to realize as a Texan staple - a confederate memorial.

Stephenville was about as far west as we went on this daytrip - we were in the car for about 12 hours or so!

Look at this cute building with the cool little balcony above the entrance!

This was my absolute favorite building on the whole trip - the cool limestone, the turret, the columns, the curved window and doorway, the cool second level - everything! Wouldn't it be fun to gut the inside and make this into a house???

Gotta love this - they KEPT GOD in the Pledge!

Here's the 'rumored' hanging tree outside the little old courthouse in Comanche, Texas. The caretaker was there when we were - to lock things up for the evening - and he said that the 'hanging tree' story is just folklore......but that he wasn't sure if it was true or not....

Talk about old-school construction - look at this little building! Cement in between logs. Weird!

Here's the inside....

I loved the seatless chairs outside on the porch. HAHAHA

We found this cool castle-like building in another small town - the Firearms Museum of Texas. Really, I think most Texans have one of those in their gun cases at home! :)

I'm sure this building wasn't originally built to be the museum, but it is now. It seriously looks like an amazingly cool castle!

Too bad it was closed on the day we were there - I would want to go in just to see the architecture! I don't care about the firearms, just the building. LOL

Thoughts on 34

Well, it's that time again - my birthday! I'm not a big celebrator of holidays in this season of my life, so I'm not doing anything crazy or anything. A few friends of mine are taking me out to dinner and I know I will have a great time since the company will be so good. :)
Last year at this time, I was publishing my official 33-list....a list of 33 things for me to do/accomplish in my 33rd year of life. I am proud to say that I accomplished 31 of the 33 things! The ones that I didn't get to were the Amtrak train trip and learning to 2-step. I have quasi 2-stepped before, but I just never made it to another class to REALLY learn and practice. And there were a few things on the list that got replaced by something else when I decided that I no longer had interest in doing them anymore or they just didn't make sense.



After trying this to-do list idea, I would deem it a major success in my life. I am a task-oriented creature, so crossing things off a list definitely motivates me to accomplish things. And I didn't HAVE to do this or any of the things on my list, but I wanted to push myself and try new things. It gives me purpose, goals and a sense of accomplishment as I work through the list during the year. It also gives me things to look forward to and work toward.

I would highly recommend it to anyone! I have my 34-list ready to go (with a few open spots at the bottom, in case I think of some cool ideas throughout the year and need to add some things) and I'm not going to waste any time getting started! However, I did cut it down to 20 things (plus the few openings) because some of them are bigger items/trips.

Here's to another year of adventure along the journey of life!

Blanket, Texas!

On a recent jaunt out west of Fort Worth (I'm loving these daytrips out of DFW!), we encountered something that I thought was insanely amusing.......a tiny town called BLANKET!!

We pretty much blinked and almost missed it.....and I begged to turn around and go back to see it. I couldn't believe someone named a town after one of my favorite things in the world! Here's proof - the post office!

This was the sign that I saw along the highway that made me beg to turn the car around to check it out. Basically we found a post office and some rundown buildings, and not much else.....but Mayce's brother said that his high school played Blanket in football back in the 1990's. Too funny!

PS - I think it was a little bit of a stretch for them to call it "downtown" Blanket......LOL

Look at this phenomenal cactus! It's huge and pretty!!

Well, I'll be damned........Blanket has a city hall!

This is "downtown Blanket"........hmmmmm..........

The good 'ol Methodists are still there, though - my peeps! :)

It's official - Blanket is a historical place in Texas. This was one of the highlights of my day and brought a smile to my face!

List Friday

Top 5 Best Feelings In The World

1. Accomplishing something you never thought you could do

2. Making someone proud of you (including yourself)

3. Giving of yourself to help someone and knowing you really made a difference (even if no one was watching)

4. Laughing REALLY hard

5. Receiving a genuine compliment

Top 5 Worst Feelings In The World

1. Disappointing someone

2. Hurting someone's feelings - either intentionally or unintentionally

3. Worrying about money

4. Depression/emotional lethargy/apathy

5. Loneliness

Thankful Thursday

This week I am wildly thankful for my air conditioner (even though I had to shell out $1,400 a month ago for a new compressor!). I know, I know - pretty lame and unoriginal.......but I don't care. If I'm being honest, I would say that I have been kind of all over the place emotionally lately and it's a struggle to remain thankful and grateful for what I DO have. So I am trying to stay positive and be genuine about what I am thankful for.

I am GENUINELY and ENTHUSIASTICALLY thankful for my air conditioning! I live in a VERY hot place (as I write this on 7/24, this is the 23rd day in a row over 100 degrees.....and we haven't even hit August yet!) and it is miserable to be outside right now....even at night. When you get in your car, you almost can't breathe. My sunglasses even partially melted in the car the other day!

With modern technology, I fortunately live in a time and place where air conditioning is readily available and standard. I can be comfortable and stay safe while Mother Nature bakes all of Texas into a hard, crunchy pile of clay! I can sleep soundly at night, not tossing and turning from sweating. I am so thankful for my beloved A/C - no matter how much it costs!