It's Bella's Birthday!

Today marks another big day in the Johnston family as we celebrate Bella’s 3rd birthday. I guess this means that in dog years old Beans is official legal today. She and I will celebrate by knocking back a couple of six-packs and enjoying a nice meaty beef rib bone or two! Or maybe she can have the rib and I’ll drink a beer to commemorate the occasion for her. Either way, we are happy to say that this very important and extremely goofy member of our family is celebrating her birthday today and we are all celebrating a little bit with her. Although I’ve read that for certain dogs, three marks the beginning of adulthood and the end of adolescence, I don’t see any change in her yet. That’s just fine by us. We’ll definitely settle for the same unflappably happy, curious goof that bounds through our lives in her unique carefree and often hilarious way. Enjoy some candid shots of moments in life with Bella, the Beans. Happy 3rd Birthday, Girl!

If I just lay here. Would you lie with me and just forget the world...

Mom, seriously! Can I have five minutes to myself? So here's the way this works, you put something in front of my face, and I eat it. No questions asked. If I get sick from it, you get to clean it up. Capiche?

Do I look like an idiot in this?!? I mean, I feel like an idiot! Do I look like one?

Bella, Warrior Princess

(10 points if you noticed before I pointed it out but, how many legs do I have again?)

Momma, I'm all ready for school but, I'm a little worried because I don't have a backpack like the other kids. No pants either.

Sometimes, the bone is soo good and the belly is full so you just... accidentally...fall...zzzzzzzzzzzz...

Hmmm, this looks like an opportunity to demonstrate how much I dislike water touching any part of my beautiful self.

Hey do you guys hear that? There is a plastic bag way up in that tree and the wind is making it go flap, flap, flap so fast that it sounds like brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr! I have got to tell you, that is really fascinating to me!

Mmmm, cat poop! Or as I prefer to call it, kitty bon-bons.

Oh there's Mommy up there! I love Mommy! I'm not gonna walk over there to her! I'm gonna run! I love to run! It is sunny! I love the sun! When I run and it is sunny and I see Mommy, I smile! I love smiling! Maybe Mommy needs a kiss?

kickin' it old school...

I'm taking a photography class at CTC this semester. In this class we are required to use a manual 35mm FILM camera. Yes really, manual film camera! To my surprise, manual cameras and film still exist…weird. For this class, we can only use black and white film. So, my photography teacher not only requires that we use this camera, with the black and white film, but also that we develop our own film, in a dark room. Very old school, am I right? I guess I like the idea of learning how to develop film, but at the same time I’m scared of the process. If you ruin the film (and several students have done so already) then you’ll never know what you might have captured on that roll. As for the camera itself, I’m totally frightened of it! I’ve had it for about a month now and I’ve only used it twice. I feel like I’m being disloyal to my poor digital, plus I’m just not comfortable with the manual. So far I have taken exactly 21 pictures with the manual and every time I snap a picture, I look at the back of the camera at the non-existent LCD monitor (picture preview) to see how the picture looks. Of course there’s no LCD monitor…it’s a film camera, Olivia, hello! It’s really scary when you know you can’t look at the picture you just took, that it’s on film and there is nothing you can do about it if it doesn’t look good. My first project is due on Thursday. I have three more pictures to take on my roll before I head to the dark room to develop it…I’m procrastinating. I’ve seen the way some of my fellow student’s film turned out and it wasn’t pretty! Lots of pictures were totally ruined. My friend lost all but 4 on her roll of 24! Yikes! The 21 pictures that I have taken so far where: three of our cat Tex, and 18 of the lake at mom and dad Johnston’s house. We’ll see how they turn out and if I’m not totally embarrassed, I’ll share them here once I’m done…that is if they survive the developing process! My digital has been a little neglected, but not too much. I still take it everywhere and choose it over the film camera every time! Surprisingly for me, I only took around ten pictures over our busy weekend. My Grandma, parents, sister and nephew came to our house for dinner on Sunday and I took most of that then…

~Madi helping us with dinner ~ being goofy. I love it.

~Can't you just tell that everyone was having a blast?!?! They were watching "Bit Boss" on Animal Planet...awesome show by the way!

I caught a rare moment between the cats (they were actually laying near each other) and had to take a picture…

Then yesterday, while at Mom and Dad Johnston’s lake, to take pictures with the manual, I took a few with my digital.

~a beautiful Blue Heron

I have a new love of bird houses. This one is in Mom and Dad Johnston's yard and is always occupied.

Hopefully, I will have a few pictures from my manual camera to share soon. Wish me luck! Happy Hump Day!

CTAGS!...Holla!

Our family had a great weekend and a busy one, as usual. This past Friday and Saturday, Madison and her fellow Swim Belton swimmers took part in the yearly Central Texas Age Group Swim Championship held this year in Belton. It was a great meet and a lot of fun to watch! Madi and her friends really did well and there was quite a large crowd in attendance both days of the meet. Unfortunately for spectators, and if you've attended any youth swim meets you already know this, there isn't much seating and what there is isn't real comfortable after about 4 hours. Added to that the nasal-searing, eye-burning air quality of the pool house and you've got your very own test of strength and endurance. The great thing about these meets is when your child who has practiced for hours a week for months and months gets into the pool and shows what she has been working on. Olivia and I, as well as, the rest of the family that came out to support Madison, were blown away with how well she is doing. Her swim strokes look really great and she just gets better and better and faster and faster each time out. Madi and her friends all improved on their personal best times and Madi swam in two different events that she'd never swam before in competition. She set new personal records in the 50 and 100 yard freestyle and the 100 yard backstroke. She also swam the 50 yard breaststroke for the first time and finished second in her heat and seventh overall!!! Madi also got to swim in a 200 yard medley relay with three of her friends and that was a lot of fun to watch also. There was a little bit of confusion about that last event since we almost made the fatal mistake of taking the advice of several 10-12 year olds who told Madi that all the relays were over. So, after drying off and walking to the car, Madi ran back in, found out she was, in fact, swimming in the relay and had to throw her cap and goggles back on and jump back in. Yikes! Thanks for all the support from everyone and especially to her family for coming out and putting up with the chlorine, the bleachers and the periods of forced starvation that go along with these meets. Olivia was able to put her telephoto zoom lens to good use during the meet and captured quite a few shots of the action. We got an email that the results from the meet have been posted on Swim Belton's website and the girls got First Place overall and the boys came in second! Can I get a holla! Well, holla or not, we had fun and are super-proud of Madi and her great performance! Here are a few pictures from the event:

~Madison during warm-ups

~Backstroke warm-up

~Madi diving in her second (and best) event of the competition, the breaststroke. Her dives are looking better and better!

Her goggles fell off her eyes, but she ~keep going. *She would have gotten yelled at by the couches if not. They really drill that in - if your goggles come off, KEEP GOING!

~Just after this shot, she smiled at us. Always time for a smile from this sweet one!

~Madi watching one of her friends/teammates swim.

~Jack comforting Madi after her freestyle event. She was bummed about that one.

~Giving Aunt Gennie a wet hug. Aunt Gennie doesn't mind a bit.

~Papa giving Madi some love.

~Getting in position for the backstroke.

~During backstroke

Great job Swim Belton! Great job Madi! We are super proud of you!

a story that I will never know....

In my last post, I mentioned that on our trip to Crystal Lake a few weekends ago, I took pictures as we drove. I wanted to share these pictures with you today. If you read the last post you will recall that Jack was driving and I was in the passenger seat with my camera snapping pictures the entire drive. Not all the pictures taken turned out - some were blurry (we were moving 75-80 miles an hour!) and some were of things that I didn't mean to get because I had totally missed my intended target. The following are the pictures that I feel are worth sharing. These are from the trip to Crystal Lake.

We love this barn! It is clear to us that the owner is proud of his land, his Texas, and the (no doubt) hard work he has put into this land. *I got a better shot of it on the way back from Crystal Lake.

 

"The Old Store" ~ awesome old building.

Jason and Madison on the drive there.

 

I would love to explore this place!!

These pictures were taken at the Dinner Momma Camille hosted at Crystal Lake:

Johnny Dad, Madi girl, and Jason



Alex and Emily~the newly engaged couple.

Jack and his cousin Conner.

Uncle Bill, Trey, Uncle Dennis, Momma Camile, Aunt Carol and Aunt Suzanne hanging out at the bar.

Jack and I. Conner, if you are reading this, I cropped out my hand, as you can see....that is still so funny to me! Thanks for taking the picture.

The boys watching the Cowboys game.

Thumper and Meredith~also engaged to be married!


Jasmine and Dennis with their youngest son, Joshua.

Trey and Alex



Conner and Aunt Suzanne

 
Madison and Jason playing cards with Gabi and David.

And these pictures were taken on the drive home from Crystal Lake:

A hawk taking flight from a speed limit sign. Jack loves hawks and we always look for them. We thought it was pretty cool to get a shot of it like this.

 

Nothing says Texas (other than the barn with the Texas flag painted on it) like a big Long Horn! A shot of a dilapidated house (I think it's a house) taken through some dead trees closer to the road.

 

Another shot of the Texas barn that we love so much.

 

This was really far from the road but, it looks like a dog house next to a tree. The dog house was just out there, not close to a house, alone. I wondered why. What happened to the house that was there, or was there ever a house? If not, why was this dog house out there? It's a mystery. A great picture with a story that I will never know.