The first trip to Corsicana 2011

Melanie, Maggie, Olivia, Addy, Cammie, Maisy, Maya and I made a quickly planned trip to Corsicana last weekend. It was a little on the chilly side for me. Generally I'm an outside kind of gal so if it's too cold, I'm not interested. When we arrived, it was quite a lovely afternoon as we soaked it all in for the first time in a long time. And while we were soaking, the puppers got right down to business.

And so did I.

When we awoke the next morning....shocking....it had turned rainy and cold. UGH. And at Gran's, if it's 45 degrees outside, it's 49 degrees inside.

So this is what we did. Maisy believes the floor is for peasants.

And this.

Keeping paws crossed for the weather to change.

In the meantime, an executive decision was made that pastries would alieve the sorrow over the change in weather. But on their run to Collin Street, a very curious happening happened. Maggie and Olivia made a gruesome discovery in a pasture down the road, either a really relaxed cow.....or a dead one. Turns out he was dead as a hammer. Poor little cow. We have no information as to what or how or why. And even though this seemed to be a job for Maya the detective dog, she chose not to follow through with an investigation, and because of her refusal, we shall never know what caused the death of the poor little bovine. Later in the day, we found a coyote at the "drive thru" while buzzards were waiting in line. It served as a reminder to me that I'm thankful to be a human and not an animal foraging for food that keeled over dead.

Back at the house, it was apparent the northern that blew in was there to stay for a while so after our yummy pastries, we changed our outside plans to inside plans and headed to the library to do some ancestry digging....all 8 of us, dogs and humans. Even though I thought the dogs might like to do some intellectual browsing through the periodicals, I instead opted to stay in the vehicle at all times with a car full of pups. It was interesting. Addy and Maisy spent the time catching up on their sleep, while Cammie kept the rear guard by stoically looking out the back window the entire time. Maya stayed as busy in the car as she would have in the yard, but even with an entire car at her disposal, she spent the majority of the time trying to balance herself in my lap. I suspected she was attempting to determine how she could pop the windshield out to make the great escape, BUT, I'm just a tinch more clever than she and was able to keep her from following through with her plan. The waiting in the car was uneventful, except for one little old man who, for some reason, all four dogs took great offense at and "scream barked" at him as he walked to his car. They never revealed to me why his "bark factor" was off the charts, but surely it was.

Meanwhile, the library dwellers were discovering info about some of our ancestors, and then Olivia meandered over to the Corsicana High School yearbook section and found quite a few gems.

My dad as a sophomore in high school. How adorable is he?

This is a picture of him in the fine arts club. He played the violin in the orchestra.

A catchy little quote from Frank (Brandy) Walker. "It says even a bootlegger gets low in spirits at times." Get it? I'm sure that quote made his mom proud.

When Dad was a senior, he was elected King of the high school. This is his official portrait. He was so handsome in his brother Owen's tux.

Not just SOME of the high school, the WHOLE high school. This cracks me up.

This is Dad and the queen, Fannie Halbert.

He graduated in 1936. This is his senior portrait.

Olivia also found Gran and Grandma's marriage license.

This holds a secret. To my siblings, see if you can figure it out. I've already called BJ and discussed it with her. SHOCKING!

But also really neat.

That night it was bitter cold but thankfully the next morning, Mr. Sun made an appearance, but with it came an Arctic wind. If you've ever experienced any kind of Texas wind, then you know it can be brutal....especially when it's a north wind....and this one was. But there was work to be done and we were determined to do it.

I had to mow the pretty little flowers after I took more pictures. Maya wanted to mow but I didn't let her.

Melanie, Olivia, Maggie and all the dogs worked on the breaches in the fence.

Dogs had an opinion.

We also took a break for a picnic. I have no pictures so just imagine a lovely little setting with sandwiches and chips.

Addy was taking a break after an exhausting day of fence mending.

By the time the sun began to set, our hair was cold and tired.

But there was much accomplished.

Part 2 of the trip will be soon.

This took me FOREVER to finish!

Daylight savings time's tonight! It's very exciting! It says it's 6:53 but it's really 7:53. Losing an hour is stressful but soooo worth it.