"Weathering" The Heat

As a continuation of my post from yesterday about the cute little town called Weatherford, I thought I would show the area around the amazing courthouse and some highlights of this charming town....

Here are the 2 greatest flags flying outside the courthouse......USA and Texas!

I thought this shoe store was hilarious! "Two Heels & a Loafer" - extra funny because I am trying to convince Jenks to lose the loafers that he wears. :)

Here's a view of the town square from under the crape myrtle tree.

I love these old buildings that have the date they were built and then the person/company who built them on the top. Such character in architecture back then.......

And after I uploaded my pics, I realized that the shutter/cover thing on my camera was not all the way open, so there's a black mark on most of my Weatherford pics. DANG!

I love these storefronts! Very Texas, very patriotic, very small town!

This bench was next to the business shown in the picture above. I LOVE IT!

This building is very 'castle-y'. LOVE the uniqueness.

Um, yes please!

Another cute little downtown business!

It's like going back in time to be in these little towns - and they are just a few miles from the Metroplex - 6 million people in Dallas/Fort Worth and yet these little peripheral towns still have the old feel to them. I love that there are people to preserve this and respect history!

Everything was absolutely adorable!

Here's the pharmacy......now check out the next pic....

In a world of 24-hour everything, look at these pharmacy hours! You know you're in a little town when..........

Just stunning storefronts/architecture...

And we were just about to pull out of the town when we discovered this mural on the side of a building.....a merging of Weatherford and Texas!

Here's who did this masterpiece....

They incorporated the history, the courthouse, the industries in this area, and Texas culture - all in one mural. Absolutely beautiful!

What an unexpected treat!

I'm so glad we saw this before we left - it was my favorite part of the Weatherford jaunt!

Parker County's Finest

A couple weeks ago, Jenks and I made a little afternoon trip west of Fort Worth to Weatherford. It was spur of the moment on a Sunday, so nothing was open, but we did get to see their pretty courthouse. I have become obsessed with little Texas towns' courthouses.......and Weatherford's did not disappoint.

In true southern fashion, there was a confederate soldier memorial/statue next to the courthouse....

Those Daughters of the Confederacy have been busy erecting monuments - I see them everywhere in the south!

I recognize those dates - the Civil War, of course....

"Southern Cross of Honor"

So by heading west to Weatherford, we were entering Parker County (just west of Tarrant County where I live)...

This courthouse was very pretty and I took a million pictures of it - I wish I could've seen the inside too!

Look - even their door handles are custom made!

It was a beautiful day and a beautiful courthouse....

They really did know how to make 'em back then.....

And they even had some crape myrtles as part of the landscaping - LOVE those trees....

Look in the top left corner of the picture - you can see the moon in the sky!

What a magnificent building!

I think I need to go back here and see if I can beg for a tour of the building!

I peeked in the windows and this is what I saw - gorgeous woodwork!

I just wonder what is up in that tall section in the middle......

Wouldn't it be amazing if your office was in those top windows?!

Nice job, Parker County - you should be proud!

List Friday

Top 10 Foods I Hate!

1. Horseradish ANYTHING

2. Olives

3. Mushrooms

4. Tomatoes

5. Coffee (or ANYTHING coffee flavored)

6. Beans (except green beans)

7. Cottage cheese

8. Fish/seafood

9. Tomato juice/vegetable juice

10. SWEET pickles (not to be confused with AMAZINGLY WONDERFUL dill pickles)

Thankful Thursday

This week I am returning to the normal format with Thursday dedicated to something I am grateful for. Although it may seem 'surface level' or stupid, I am wildly thankful for my Tide-to-go pen. I keep it in my purse and have used it many times. It has never failed me yet!

It seems as I get older, I become more of a klutz! I cannot walk in a straight line to save my life and I run into stuff all the time. I just don't have balance and I swear something happened to my inner ear(s) on my first flight over to Europe in 1999. I never remember a problem before then and ever since then I don't have balance. At any rate, I trip, fall and spill things all the time.

Whoever thought of putting laundry detergent in a little pen with a cap is a FREAKING GENIUS! Maybe they were a klutz like me........

My Best Friends

Every so often, I feel the need to give my pups a shout-out on the ol' blog. I am so glad I adopted Owen and gave Miss Maggie a buddy. They truly are a perfect match.

Here is Owen invading Maggie's nappy time and laying on top of her in the puppy bed.....

Recently, I found this cool frame from a website called www.chicklingo.com and I instantly thought of the dogs when I read it. When it came in the mail, I put a pic similar to the one above in it and hung it on the wall in my living room.

I found this picture on the internet - the one on the left looks just like my Maggie-girl. Too funny!

What a blessing they are - free therapy, unconditional love, entertainment, snuggle buddies....and the list goes on and on!

Here they are snoozing together while I blog......

Irritations and Annoyances

OK, it's been a while since I vented on the blog about stuff that irritates me, so I feel it's TIME.

Here are some random annoyances that I feel I must air in this forum!

1. When people go through the drive-thru and have orders of $30 - go inside!! The whole point of a drive-thru is that you are in a hurry or want to get in and out quickly. If you are ordering for your entire extended family, take the 5 minutes and go IN the store.

2. Men standing around in tiny gift shops, waiting in agony for their wives to shop - clogging up aisles and not paying attention to MOVE out of the way. They are obviously miserable and don't want to be there, so why do women drag them along??? And why don't men say NO?? They could be in the coffee shop, at home, or doing something they would enjoy??

3. Strollers in tiny, cramped gift shops - REALLY!? Get a babysitter!

4. When you are driving and generously let pedestrians go by in front of you and then they go SO SLOW and act like they are out there on the road by themselves - so rude!

5. Drivers who you OBVIOUSLY braked to let in in front of you and they don't do 'the wave'.

OK, I will get off my soapbox now.....just had to get those off my chest for now!

The Fourth

Have a safe, happy 4th of July, everyone!!!

Honoring The Memories

During our trip to Oklahoma City, the main focus was to see the bombing memorial. Yesterday's post was about the OUTDOOR memorial and today's post is about the museum. I have NEVER seen a more well-done museum. It was fantastic!

This is a photo from the security cameras that showed the Ryder truck that Timothy McVeigh parked out in front of the building with the explosives. Creepy.....

Here is a piece of a sign on the building that was salvaged.

Look at this door that was blown in!

They had a room that had all of these glass cases with specific items - this one was 'sets of keys found'. And then there would be one particular item with the description of whose it was. In this case, the keys belonged to someone who was killed in the bombing. Very moving and it makes it so real and personal.

This is the sign on the government building - they managed to find/salvage it from the wreckage.

Here's another of those glass cases - it contained a whole bunch of watches that were found....with one highlighted.....

Here's another case - this time shoes. It was so sad to see this one, because the shoe is a little girl's size. Timothy McVeigh HAD to have known that there was a daycare in that building.....UGH.

This was the most moving part of the museum for me - a clock that had the minute hand stopped on 9:02 - exactly when the bombing occurred.

This was someone's daily planner that was all messed up, but you could still read the pages - that was so very eery.....

A flattened file cabinet drawer from one of the offices hit.....

This wooden window frame was salvaged from a building nearby that was hit in the blast. A picture of the window is in the background.

Someone's scratched up briefcase found in the rubble......

This seal was found in the blast and has holes and puncture wounds in it from things flying at it...

This is a sign that a man held up in the window on the 9th floor to tell firefighters to come and rescue him. There was a picture of the man holding this exact sign!

Here are hats of all the agencies, fire departments, police, ATF, FBI, FEMA, etc. that responded to this horrible event in history. What a shame that some people cause this much devastation against innocent people.