Wordless{ish} Wednesday ~ A Single Fallen Wing

A single, fallen Monarch butterfly wing. 

Wednesday Link:The Paper Mama

Madi ~ UT Long Course Kick Off

On Saturday, April 9th, Madi participated in the "Long Course Kickoff" swim meet with her club swim team, Swim Belton. This was her first ever long course meet as well as her first time swimming at the University of Texas' Swim Center.

The location was actually called the "Lee and Joe Jamail Texas Swimming Center". The building was really nice and as the crowd wasn't all that large we were able to sit right in the middle of the stands on the lower level. This was a treat for the family since we are normally forced to sit or stand at the very end of the pool or maybe scrunch into metal bleachers for hours on end. Instead, we had fairly comfortable stadium seats and two jumbotrons that showed the event taking place and the swimmers by name and club, as well as, split times and final times for the event. Pretty cool!

 The 'Madster" getting her warm up on.

Nervous as usual before the start.


















Making some last minute adjustments before her first event.

Well, we knew someday we'd see her name in lights!

Hard to see in this one but, she's on her mark on the block for her first event...

The buzzer sounds and she's off, slightly behind the girl in lane 6 it seems. You can see swimmers from the previous heat still in the water. They climb out right after the next heat starts.

Fuzzy picture, but it was a pretty good looking dive... 

While Madi starts her underwater kick for the 100 breaststroke, the girls from the other heat get out as coaches look on.

Still underwater; this is what having a high-speed action setting and telephoto lens on your camera will give you...lots of pictures of something that only took a second or two to happen in real life. Pretty cool for capturing your kid's swim meet, though!

And away she goes! Madi has opted for the ear flapper look in this event. Maybe it helps her head to cut through the water or keeps her centered in her lane?  We always joke with her about leaving her ears "hangin' out", but really, whatever works for her is fine with us.

It's a long way back to the wall in the 50 meter pool!



Madi's next event was the 50m backstroke.  

The breaststroke is not her favorite stroke {though it use to be, but she's "over it now"}and especially not in a strange pool. Here she is getting ready on her start. 

One thing that hurts here is for the girls who don't have the upside-down underwater, dolphin-kick thing down for the start of the backstroke. See how Madi's already swinging her arms and the girl next to her is still under, going pretty fast. It looks like one of Madi's teammates at the top of the picture is having the same difficulty.

 The girl next to Madi is out of the water now, but her start gives her an edge for the rest of the way. Gotta practice that for next time!

Madi said later that she splashed a lot of water into her face and choked a little in this event. It sure wasn't noticeable from the stands and her technique has really gotten so good! She shaved off time in every event in this meet. Way to go, Mads!

 Here Madi is starting out for her third and final event, the 100m freestyle. She looks to be beating the girl next to her in lane seven off the block but, let’s hope she's not diving too deep and giving up some momentum...

 This is one stroke where Madi has had mixed success in her techniques. Her arm technique has improved big time over the past year; therefore she looks super smooth above the water. She even takes multiple strokes between breaths to increase speed...

The only thing that can really still use a little work is her kick. She relies so much on her arms and shoulders to pull her body through the water and she needs to use her legs to really drive herself like a propeller. Nonetheless, Madi managed to drop a full two seconds from her best time!

One of the other club team's coaches is pictured here with a great quote on swimming, competing and life in general. This is the message that we encourage Madi to keep in mind at her meets. It doesn't matter whether you win any of your events or even any of the heats you are in, just that you did your best each time. She gets better and better every meet and we couldn't be prouder of her! 

Thank you Mom & Dad for taking the day to drive to Austin and attend this meet!  It really means a lot to have you guys there, cheering Madi on! 

Wordless{ish} Wednesday ~ Transcendent Happiness



Euphoria. Bliss. Contentment.

I absolutely adore this picture of our water-lovin'-beauty!  
 
Picture taken on Sunday, April 3.

Wednesday Links:The Paper Mama

Furry Friends Friday ~ Frolicking Feline

Today's "Furry Friends" post is about our female cat, Cassie.  Surely, you've heard me talk about her many times before.  She's the "pretty" one with a mean streak and straight-up crazy personality. 

Cassie, up until a few years ago, never went outside - not even for a short period of time.  Now, however, she loves to be outside!  She loves to roll around in the grass, hide under stuff and then jump out at whatever comes close by.  She's just really playful when she's outside and while it's cute and all, we don't let her frolicking cuteness fool us; she's still a crazed cat waiting to strike!

The pictures of Cassie {below} were taken this past Saturday in our backyard.  Jack, Madi and I spent most of the day doing yard work and had the animals outside with us.  I was taking pictures of the Black Swallowtail butterfly larvae (Yay! We're raising butterflies again this Spring!) on our Dill plant when Jack told me to look over at Cassie. 


She was half crawling, half stretching under the wheel barrow when I looked over

rollin' around playfully

She loves to roll around in the grass and like all cats, likes to have some sort of cover nearby. With the shelter of the wheel barrow, she's in heaven!

"I don't think they can see me."

See, from this picture, you'd never guess that she's actually an evil little devil-cat. But, trust us, if you get too close, she'll gladly rip your face off!



"Ahh my family, if only you were smaller... I'd already have eaten you"

Boy are her looks deceiving!

Jack planted some beautiful Snapdragon flowers (from Oma's) on Saturday and I wanted to share a some pictures of them along with some other pictures I took on Saturday of what's going on in our backyard this Spring.

I'm so glad Jack choose the Snapdragons for the yard this year.  I think they're so pretty.  We bought what was labeled as a "rainbow pack" and will eventually have a few other colors, but when I took these pictures, they weren't open like the yellow one was.  Yellow is my favorite color, so I'm really enjoying this flower!

Black Swallowtail on 3.24.11

The same Black Swallowtail on 3.30.11. They grow up soo fast!

A couple of ladybug larvae on the Mexican Plum by the back fence. These little chicks have been chowing on the many aphids that the new leaves on this tree have been infested with. Go girls, go!

Another little lady. Or would that make her a baby-lady? Maybe a lady-baby?

An adult no-spotted ladybug also on the Mexican Plum.

Apparently our yard is its own little melting pot as this ladybug is actually an Asian Ladybug which is often lacking spots. I found an interesting article for more information on these non-native ladybugs:

"Ladybugs, or as the British call them ladybeetles, are one of the 450,000 types of beetles that share our Earth. We are used to ladybugs with spots, but increasingly we are seeing orange/red bodies with no spots.

These are Asian beetles, which can be tan to orange, and can have very discreet spots. They have become more prevalent as they have displaced the native beetles. Like the native beetles, they do eat aphids, scale insects and mealybugs.

They have become fairly infamous because they try to move into houses when the weather turns cool in the fall. If squished, they can leave a yellow/red stain, and they have an offensive odor. This is just a natural defense mechanism designed to protect against insect and animal predators.

Vacuuming them is the safest way to get rid of them if they get into houses, but outside they should be left to take care of insect pests."

Read more at Jacksonville.com: http://jacksonville.com/entertainment/home-and-garden/2010-04-16/story/ladybug-no-spots-still-bug-we-love#ixzz1IIiDLQtH

Apparently this Asian Lady likes Mexican food or at least she likes aphids that like Mexican food.
(the pretty white flowers on the Mexican Plum tree have been replaced with nice green leaves - as you can see in the picture above)

Our Culinary Sage is in bloom. It's always nice when something that you can eat puts out pretty flowers too.

A wider shot of the Culinary Sage in the bed outside the back bedroom.

Another herb that is in bloom this spring is our Thyme in the bed by the back fence (the Mexican Plum's little neighbor).

I'll be documenting {in pictures} the Ladybug and Black Swallowtail larvae as they grow and change stages; so they'll be more to come on our Spring babies.  Also, our garden is looking good so far as we already have a few vegetables growing; a tomato and a few peppers.  There will be more to post on the garden later.  I've got a feeling this is going to be our best one yet!

As for Madi {the deprived one; as she's the only one I haven't spoken of yet}, she's doing really good.  School's going well and her grades are good. She's still swimming - on average, she swims eight times a week and she has a few important swim meets coming up that we are all looking forward to. First, she has the "Longhorn Aquatics Long Course Kick" swim meet at the University of Texas in April.  Then, in May, she has been selected to represent her middle school in the "Hill Country Middle School Championship Meet" in Burnet, Texas.  Jack and I are really excited to see her swim at the University of Texas because it will be her first competition where she will be swimming in an Olympic size pool.  She's practiced in an Olympic size pool, but this is going to be totally different. We're ready and can't wait to see Madi swim competitively again.  

Well, this post turned into more than just my usual "Furry Friends Friday" post, but I've been lazy with posting this week and wanted to make up for it a bit. 

Wishing you a very happy Friday!