little love notes...

Our Madi.

She doesn't just have a beautifully sweet face, she has a beautifully sweet spirit. Last week, while Madi was at Bible study, I picked up my cell phone to check the weather via my weather application. But, I accidentally clicked on the "notes" application instead of the "weather" application and to my surprise (I've never used the notes app.) there were five notes from Madi sitting there, unread!

The notes dated back to December 26th, which was the day after I got my new cell phone. They were short notes just to say - I love you mommy or Madi loves you or Have a nice day, but they were heartwarming and sweet! A perfect example of Madi's beautiful God given spirit.

Finding those notes made my day! And if I really pay attention, really allow myself to not be lost in the worries of each busy day, I see that there are little love note moments all throughout my day with Madi. Moments that I will over look and take for granted if I don't pay attention.

These moments are worth soaking in as they happen and worth remembering when they have past. What better way to remember them then to write them down, right? Right. I'm paying attention and I'm gonna read every little love note!

Blue thou art, intensely blue; Flower, whence came thy dazzling hue?

*the title quote is by James Montgomery.

About a month ago, Jack, Madi, Bella and I went on a Bluebonnet drive. As you may know, the Bluebonnet is the Texas State flower. A good one, I think! The Bluebonnet is a species of Lupinus, which is a beautiful group of flowers that come in a variety of colors. Here's some interesting information on Bluebonnet's per Wikipedia~ Lupinus texensis is almost exclusively blue in the wild. A random genetic mutation does occasionally create an albino white bluebonnet naturally. Texas A&M University researchers were successful in breeding red and white strains, creating a Texas state flag in bluebonnets for the 1986 Texas Sesquicentennial. Further research led to a deep maroon strain, the university's official color. I was able to see a maroon lupinus (or Lupine) thanks to Camille (mom-in-law) who called me the day after our drive to tell me about the ones growing in their neighborhood. You'll see the pictures I took of these at the end of this post. So, one beautiful sunny Saturday morning we all took off from our home and headed toward a small town named Llano, Texas. Mom & Dad Johnston had driven the route the weekend before and were so impressed with the abundance of Bluebonnets along the drive that they shared the route with us. It was a beautiful drive with amazing landscapes full of bluebonnets, Indian paintbrushes and lots of other wildflowers.

~all of these pictures were taken while we were driving. As you can see, Bluebonnets covered each side of the road. ~We stopped at a little place where there were lots of Bluebonnets on a corner lot just off the road. I love the contrast of the blue and yellow flowers! Makes me feel warm and happy! ~ I asked Jack to stop the car so that I could get out and take pictures of these cows grazing in the Bluebonnets. I just had to have a picture of Texas cows in the Texas Bluebonnets! Anyway, the longer I stood there taking pictures, the more aggitated I could see the cows getting. So, I tried to hurry and as I got into the car I thanked them, as any nice southern girl would do, for allowing me to take their picture. Then, I told them "By the way, I don't eat you!" and to that Madi yells, "But I DO!" That crazy~funny Madi!

~wildflowers everywhere!

~The Bluebonnet's favorite companion, the Indian Paintbrush. These flowers are very vibrant with a deep redish-orange hue. They are beautiful!

~We stopped at the Buchanan dam which was along the drive. There were even Bluebonnets here, growing right out of the sand.

We found the perfect spot to stop and take family pictures...

However, we forgot to bring the tripod for my camera. "Someone" was in charge of loading the tripod, but failed on HIS responsiblity! We didn't realize this until we were out of the car and looking in the trunk for it! So, no family pictures, but here's what we did get...

~Madi and Bella. Madi looks so beautiful! I love how the wind is blowing her hair.

~Just Bella. She was hot and a little worried about what was going on.

~ I loved all the pictures I took of Jack and Bella! These two are too cute! I played with each picture to give them a slightly different look and they all turned out nice.

~Madi, Bella and I. This is the only one of about ten pictures that I thought was alright of us. But, at least we have one! ~Jack, Madi & Bella.

~Jack, Bella and I. We think the pose is a little awkward looking, but again, it's the only one that we have to show! Here's a few collages of all the good pictures from our drive. Some you have already seen above and some, you have not...

~What a great day for a Bluebonnet drive it was!

As I mentioned above, Camille called me and told me about the red lupines and on Sunday, I while visiting with her, I walked over and took a few pictures...

~Pretty, huh? Jack has planted some lupine seeds in our flower beds in the back yard. I'm excited to see what colors we get and what kind of wildlife they will attract! So, hopefully, I'll have more pictures of these beautiful flowers to share soon!

Ce-le-bra-tion...

As I mentioned in two of my previous posts, Jack and my Dad recently celebrated their Birthdays. Jack's Birthday was on April 23 and my Dad's was just six days later - April 29. So, there's been lots of partying going on the last two weekends. I've let the pictures and stories pile up to the point that I feel a little overwhelmed by it all. So, I've decided to combine a lot of the pictures into a collage and share them with some brief commentary. As usual, you can double click on the pictures to make them bigger and easier to see. I'm hoping to keep this post from getting too long, but we'll see how it goes... Starting with Jack. His Birthday was the Friday before last and unfortunately, he had to work on his special day. But, we celebrated later that evening by going to The Range restaurant in Salado, TX for an amazing dinner with his Mom and Dad. After dinner, Mom and Dad Johnston came over to our house to have cake and ice cream and watch Jack open their gifts.

~I made Jack a Chocolate Buttermilk Cake which turned out even better than the one I made for Madi's Birthday! No lopsided-ness on this one! Unfortunately, the decorating didn't get any better. I'll have to work on that and Jack and Madi will be happy to consume all practice runs on cake-making of any kind. ~I got up to take pictures and Tex took over my chair and my plate! As if he isn't bad enough already, lots of sugar and chocolate would probably turn him into a whirling dervish of yowling, jumping, running and vomiting throughout the house! Sorry that we don't have any decent pictures of the festivities but, you really don't need to see Johnny-Dad or Jack snarfing down mass-quantities of chocolate cake and ice-cream. Not pretty, not pretty at all. We spent the next day in the yard planting vegetables and flowers. I didn't take a lot of pictures that day, but I do have a few to share...

~Peas ~Black-seeded Simpson Lettuce, Bell Peppers, Chives. I have since taken pictures of the garden and I'll share them in another post. Just about all of the beds are full and the garden is really starting to come alive! We are very excited. While we were planting, Madison made some pottery with a pottery wheel that her Aunt Virginia gave her for her Birthday... ~I think her pottery is beautiful! On Sunday we went to my Mom & Dad's to celebrate Jack's Birthday. ~Madi & Dad on gazebo swing.

~Jack and Madi goofin' around on the front porch.

~Opening gifts. This past Friday Jack was finally able to take a day off. YAY! We went to Oma's Garten Pflanzen in Killeen, TX, that morning and purchased six trees for our back yard. At the time, we didn't know it was Arbor Day (we didn't find out till later) but we sure did our part to celebrate it! We spent the entire day planting trees and more vegetables.

~This is the Mexican Plum tree which we planted in Christie's memory. It was late in the evening on Friday when I took this picture, so it's a little dark, but I think you can see it pretty well. I will share pictures on a later post of all six trees.

Bella and the cat's did the usual while we worked...

Saturday, we spent the morning watching Jason's tennis tournament held at Ellison High School in Killeen. Jason played really well and surprised us with some awesome serves and backhands. He and his partner took home #2 ribbons! How exciting!

~We are all so proud of you, Jason! ~hanging out during and after the tournament. Just what is Jack doing? After the tournament, Jack, Madi and I meet up with Mom and Dad Johnston for lunch, then went home only to continue the never-ending work in the yard. Saturday night, as an early Mother's Day gift, Jack and I ordered the Mayweather vs. Mosley pay-per-view boxing match. We were pulling for Mosley and boy, were we disappointed! It was still the perfect gift for me! Thank you Jack! How cool is it to have a wife that wants to order pay-per-view boxing for her Mother's Day gift?! (*Jack wrote this last line...but, I'll keep it because it's sweet!) After Church on Sunday, Jack, Madi, Gennie, Jason and I met up with my Mom and Dad at The Texas Roadhouse for Dad's Birthday dinner. After dinner, we went to my Mom and Dad's to hang out, eat cake and open gifts. Even though the water temperature was only 76, Madi got in the pool, at first by herself because it was "too cold" for Jason. But, after much ribbin' from us, he got in with Madi.

Mom made a red velvet cake per Dad's request and since it was such a nice day, we were able to enjoy it and have the Birthday celebration outside.

~Dad blowin' out the candles on mom's gorgeous and wonderfully delicious cake! ~Gifts! We love you Dad! So we've had a very busy last two weekends and this weekend promises to be just as busy since it's Mother's Day weekend. My Aunt Edna will be coming from Mobile, AL on Sunday (Mother's Day) and will be staying with my Mom and Dad for a few weeks. We are all very excited about her visit. After Thursday, I will be out of school until the Summer Semester starts. I'm hoping to write a few more posts this week in order to catch up. I've been wanting to write about a Blue Bonnet road trip we took the first weekend in April. I have the pictures loaded, I just need to do the writing for it. Hopefully, I can post that one tomorrow. Also, I want to start writing little things...things that I want our family to have written down to look at and remember. It's especially for Madi. I'm going to call these posts "Sweet Nothin's" (yes, another 60's song title which I'm sure some of you are singing right now!) and I'll set up a label on the side of the blog with these posts. That's my plan anyway! Have a fabulous day!