Madi's first day of 8th grade!

Remind me to never, ever, wait four months in between posts again! I’ve spent days mulling over creative ways to fill you all in on our summer.  I’m tired just thinking about it; all the writing, all the pictures! Ugh. It’s really no wonder I’ve been putting this post off for so long!  Anyway, I've decided to save myself the headache and just skip it all! Yup, skip it, because honestly after all this time, who cares anymore?? It’s old news man!

Let me say, in short, that our summer was pretty good. The highlight of which was my sister, Melanie, nephew, Jimmy and niece, Mimi's visit.  If we’re “friends” on Facebook you’ve probably already seen the pictures from that week.  I think it’s pretty apparent how much fun we all had!  It was so awesome and we truly enjoyed every minute of their visit!

I figured the best place to pick up posting would be with the official end to our summer – August 21, 2011, Madison’s first day of 8th grade.

This is our gorgeous girl on her first day as an 8th grader!  She picked out the outfit for her first day without any input from me, which was a first!  I gotta say, before I actually saw her wearing it, I thought the shirt (which her Nana got for her, thank you Nana) looked a little too grown for her.  But, what do I know?!  'Cause once she put it on, I realized I was wrong.  She looked Perfectly beautiful! 



She was really getting tired of all the pictures at this point! But, she managed half a smile.



Gotta include one with Madi and her sister, Bella!  Do you see Bella's face...she's totally pouting!

I didn’t cry when I dropped her off at school on that first morning, which is another first. But, she made it easy for me, she was worry-free and seemed eager for a new school year.  Plus, just before Jack and I drove her to school, we (Jack, Madi and I) joined hands and prayed for her.  So,  I was pretty confident that Madi would have a fantastic first day!

Jack and I continued to pray throughout the day for our sweet girl and our prayers were answered as Madi came home to report that she had had a "great day"!  And thankfully, most of Madi's school days have been great, so far. 

As an 8th grader, Madi is doing something a little different this year; sports wise.  She had decided last year that she would continue to with club swim at Swim Belton, but that she would not swim for the Belton Middle School Swim Team.  She didn't want her only other sports opportunity to be another swim which would be the case if she swam for the middle school again this year.   Instead, she wanted to try her hand at other sports, such as; volleyball, basketball and track. Her Dad and I totally supported her decision on this – especially since she’s continuing to swim regardless.

So, since Madi does not have swim practice for the middle school, she now has an “athletics” period. It’s during this class that she is couched on the seasonal sports. Remember when I said most of Mad’s days have been great?  Well, there was on day that wasn't so great.  A day of pure heartbreak over not making the volleyball team. :-(  She really wanted to be on the team!  I tried to reassure her,  tell her that she had never even played the sport and that she needed more than four days training (in a 50 minute class) to prepare herself for it.  She's been a swimmer all these years, not a v-ball player.  She just needed more prep time is all.  I know had she had more time to prepare, she would have made the team.  Anyway, She was pretty tore up about it and it was sad to see her so upset, but in true Madi fashion, she was over it in no time!  Now, she preparing for basketball.  I think basketball starts up in October, but I’m not exactly sure. Anyway, Jack has promised to help couch her after school (when there is time) and on the weekends.  So, with her training during athletics and her Dad couching her for the next month or so, she’ll have a better chance of making the team, I’m sure.

On a super positive note however, Madi is on the Belton Middle School Cross Country team this year!! She has totally stepped out of her comfort zone and has dedicated herself to the sport!  She's been running and training (which is usually at 6:30 in the morning!) for about three weeks now and I've already seen an improvement in her running. We took her for her first trail run with us on Saturday.  She never quit, she whined a little, but never quit!  I can’t even begin to tell you how very proud of her we are! 

As you can imagine, Madi's weekdays are total madness between school, XC (Cross Country) and swim!  But, so far she is balancing everything nicely! Her longest days, which are Tuesdays and Thursdays, are 12 hours long!  It's reall crazy and I'm amazed at her drive and energy!

Y'all pray for Madi today.  She has a XC meet this evening at 5pm.  It's her first ever non-swimming event!  YAY!  She’s really nervous about it and I can't blame her, I would be too.  Jack and I are praying for her to do well - if only for her self-esteem and confidence in the sport.  Unfortunately, Jack is out of town on business travel, so he will not be there. :(   I know Madi's going to miss seeing her Dad there, but her Aunt Virginia and cousin, Jason will be there with me cheering her on!  I pray that she will keep in mind what her Dad and I have been telling her this week - that it doesn’t matter where she places, just as long as she doesn’t quit!!  

I haven’t gotten pictures of her in her XC uniform yet, but I plan to today during the meet. She does not love the uniform, so she might freak if I take a picture of her in it and post it here. But, I think she looks great in it and if I’m sneaking enough, she’ll never even know! ;)

It's going to be 102 today, so please pray for all our kiddo's out there running in this heat. Thanks!

Lazy, carefree summer.

I'm just stopping in to say hello and to assure our readers (all two of you! Ha!) that we are not, despite our lack of posts over the last few months, going to stop posting here on The Purple Door. Unlike times in the past when Jack and I have been too busy to write, the truth of the matter this time is that I’ve just been lazy! I decided to not take classes this summer so that Madi and I could spend a lazy, carefree summer together. Blogging (writing or reading them) has not been on my lazy, carefree summer to-do list.

As for Jack – poor guy, he’s always super busy during the summer. So, unfortunately again this summer, he hasn't had much time off. It’s a little disappointing, but it is thanks to his hard work and dedication that Madi and I can have and enjoy this time together. We are so grateful for such a wonderful, hardworking husband & father!

Anyway, I just wanted to say that we haven't forgotten the blog and plan to catch up here soon. I'm pretty sure I know what you’re thinking though - something like, "yeah, right!”, but I can assure you that we'll be back with a summer roundup very soon!

We hope you are enjoying your summer and that life is good!

bringin' up the rear...

Jack and I are still doing the trail running thing.  We go at least four times a week and still enjoy our local parks very much.  I still take pictures (when I can remember to bring the camera) during our runs because there's always something new and interesting to capture.

We enjoy being on the trials so much so that when we have time on our "off days" (the days we take off from running to rest our bodies a bit), we hit the trails for just a regular ol' hike.  Our last hike was on Friday, April 8th; that's what today's post is about.  Really, there's not much to write about, just a whole bunch of pictures.

Jack took the day off so that we could spend the day together. We decided the night before that we would start our day with a hike.  We were both so excited about this rare opportunity (rare in that it was a weekday, Madi was in school and we had no commitments for the entire day, so we knew we could hike as long as we wanted - that's rare!) that we were packed and ready to go around 8:30am.

Since we were taking Bella along with us, we went to Dana Peaks in Harker Heights.  The other park, Miller Springs in Belton, that we frequently run/hike, does not allow dogs. We found out just a few days later while jogging at Miller Springs that we wont be able to frequent it for a little while.  The place if full of poison ivy right now!  Full of it!  And after my last miserable bout with it (which lasted 5 weeks!) we're not taking any chances by going there!

Anyway, when we started our hike, it was fairly cool out, a nice spring morning, but as the hours passed it turned pretty warm.  In all we hiked for 4 1/2 hours.  Bella was pretty wore out by the end, but the only reason Jack and I were ready to end our adventrue was because we had run out of water. 

During our hike, we met a really nice couple; Mr. and Mrs. Glover. Their puppy, Buster, went chasing after a deer and had had gotten separated from them.  Luckily, we ran across him on one of the trails and scooped him up.  He was pretty tired and really thirsty.  Bella was nice enough to share her water with him, which he seemed to really appreciate. While Bella and I stayed behind to attended to Buster, Jack ran off down the trail following some footprints; hoping to find the pups parents. After about fifteen minutes I heard people yelling.  I figured it was his parents so I called out to them and we eventually found each other .  Poor Jack, he had run quiet a distance before I called him (on his cell phone) back. 

We spent a good forty five minutes talking with Busters parents - Mr. and Mrs. Glover. They are such wonderful people.  We had so much in common with them that it was crazy!  Jack and Mr. Glover became fast friends as did Mrs.Glover and I.   Jack was so impressed (you could literally see his jaw drop) when Terry (Mr. Glover) mentioned that he had hiked the entire Appalachian Trail! That is a total of 2,175 miles my friend!  Impressed?  You should be!  Jack was, he was in complete awe; it's a dream of his that one day he might get the opportunity to hike The Appalachian Trail.  I pray that he gets that opportunity and that God willing, I'll be right by his side.  To Jack and I, a 2,175 mile, 6 month hike is an adventure of a lifetime.

So anyway, we enjoyed our visit with the Glover's and their four doggies.  We hope we get the change to visit with them again.   Jack has so many questions and wants to hear more about the Appalachian Trail. I just enjoy the company of fellow Alabamians!

Back to our hike: Jack let me stop as much as I wanted to take pictures; he never complained that I was taking too long or that I was stopping to much. There's just so much to take pictures of at Dana Peak and I wanted to capture it all, so I have tons of pictures.

Just starting off. 
This is the usual order of things; with me bringin' up the rear.
Bella hates for me to be in front of her.

 

Not sure what kind of bird these are.  Pretty though.



Tiger Swallowtail butterfly

Purple Verbena growing wild



A buckeye butterfly "eyeing" me suspiciously. 



I've already posted this one.  It was my Wordless{ish} Wednesday post. 

A cardinal following us around.



That's where we're heading ~ the Twin Peaks.



An Indian Paint Brush among dead grass.



One of several rabbits that we saw.



One of the trails leading to the shore. 

This is one of the area's where the trails end and water begins.
Just ahead is Stillhouse Hollow lake.

Jack trying to get Bella in the water to cool off.
She doesn't like the water at all.

 








A lizard.



Another shoreline area we found to cool Bella off in.








Verbena spilling over onto the trail.

  

An Eastern Blue Bird.

Okay, I'm done for!  blogger is not user friendly when it comes to posting and organizing this many pictures.  Now I have a headache from fighting with it, but I'm glad to be done with it so that I can move on to something else (hopefully) tomorrow.  Hopefully being the key word ~ I have so many things that I want to share, but I have so many things that I need to do this week.  Hopefully I'll have time to fit it all in, but I'm usually not any good at "fitting it all in", but we'll see.  I really want to write an update on my "babies" (Butterfly larvae) in the backyard (you would not believe what's going on!) and also about our vegetable garden.  I also want to write a post about my first photo shoot; family portraits of my long time friend, Tabatha, and her beautiful family.  Also, I have a few (just a few and I'll tell you why when I write about it) pictures from our visit to the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center in Austin, TX this past weekend.
  
By the way, I got lazy (fustrated is more like it) and didn't label most of the pictures.  Also, my love, my bestfriend and my editor (Jack or course) is out of town this week, so please excuse any grammer/spelling issues in this post.  :)  Thank you

Happy Monday!

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!