Pflugerville Meet | 9.14.12

Early this morning I made the one hour drive to Pflugerville, Texas to cheer on Madison during the Pflugerville cross country meet.   If nothing has ever shown Madi the depths of my love for her – this certainly should!   I am really uncomfortable driving in or around cities and I have zero sense of direction.  So, for me to drive to Pflugerville, in the dark, alone, near the city of Austin and all of its horrible traffic, without a GPS {thanks to the person who stole it from my husband’s bag at the airport a few weeks ago! }, in the torrential rain, is huge!   HUGE!   But, I was determined to see her run and determined for her to hear at least one voice in the crowd cheering for her! 

Since it’s been raining pretty much non-stop for 24 hours around here, the course, which was a muddy mess, was shorted to 2 miles.  It rained the whole time the XC teams were there. It didn’t seem to faze the runners much, but I had a hard time dealing with it because it was nearly impossible to hold an umbrella and take pictures at the same time!  So anyway, here are a few picture of our girl taken earlier this morning during her 4th High School XC meet of the season!

This one’s a little out of focus thanks to the whole umbrella holding fiasco.





Yep, it’s your crazy ol’ Momma over here; trying to hold the umbrella, take pictures and cheer for you at the same time! Aren't you the lucky one?!

Sprinting at the end!  That’s our girl!   

You can’t really see her, but Madi crossed the finish with a time of 16:08 – which is a whole minute and 41 seconds faster than her last 2 mile time!!

Madi just continues to amaze us!  Her hard work is paying off every week during these meets and I'm just so glad I get the chance to see it!  Madi, you make this Momma so proud and you are so very worth the hour long anxiety filled drive! ;)

Midway Meet | Sept. 7, 2012

Madi ran in the third high school cross country meet of the season this morning.  This meet was in Midway, Texas, about an hour from Belton. 

Unfortunately, Madi started experiencing some pain {potentially a muscle strain} in her left calf yesterday afternoon which was still present this morning before and during the run.  So, this morning’s 5K run was particularly brutal for her. 

Poor thing - you can see that she’s in pain from the look on her face.

However, even with the injury, Madi improved her best 5K time by 56 seconds! Her new best time is now 29:26. Here she is heading to the finish line…

She was sad after the meet because she felt like she could've done better.  She actually cried out of frustration – that’s a first!  She’s usually happy with whatever; just an easy goin’ “I’m just here for the ride” kinda kid.  But, today was different.  Her attitude sifted and for the first time ever {even throughout all of her swimming years} I saw a spark of competitiveness in her.   And if I’m being honest, I’m happy to see it.  I love her sweet, kind, carefree attitude and I don’t like to ever see her cry, but when someone works as hard at something as she does at XC, then they should feel emotion about it – good or bad.  And plus, being competitive helps motivate and drive athletes to do their very best.   Today, I think Madi did her best – even though she had an injury, she improved her 5K time by almost a minute!  That’s just fantastic!

Pick your head up, Madi!  We’re so proud of you!  You’re training so hard; putting in so much time
and effort and though you may not think so, it shows – little by little you are improving; getting faster and faster, better and better!   Be proud of yourself - you are an inspiration!  We love you - bummed leg and all!!



Wordless{ish} Wednesday | Forgotten Photos

I'm being a little lazy with this post because I just don’t have time to be super creative today.  I have too many irons in the fire right now, but I wanted to post something  for Wordless{ish} Wednesday. 

So, I made a collage with photos that I took last year but never posted.  As a matter of fact, I had completely forgotten about them because they were loaded onto my daughter’s computer back when my computer was in the shop last summer.  I hadn’t seen them since I loaded them, but when I ran across them earlier this week I figured today would be the perfect day to share them.  J Hope you enjoy.

A Zinnia, a Damselfly, a Monarch & a bloom on a 'Lemon Queen' Sunflower plant.  All of which were taken
in our back yard last summer.

Wordless{ish} Wednesday | Backyard Blooms

Today in my backyard.

MoonPie and RC Cola | A Sweet Southern Treat!



Holy cow were these babies good! 



Father’s Day is always a difficult time for me as far as gift giving goes.  I have a father who is extremely hard to buy for.  He has just about everything and even if he didn’t, he would never admit to wanting anything.  I guess most men are that way – especially Dads.   Anyway, as Father’s Day began to come into focus this year, I was at a complete loss as to what to get him.

Well, thank goodness for Pinterest because it totally saved my bacon this year! About a week or so before Father’s Day, I was browsing through pins on pinterest when I ran across a link to a recipe for homemade MoonPies!  Homemade MoonPies??! How absolutely awesome is that?!  So anyway, as soon as I saw that link, I knew that that was it – that was the golden ticket!

I have so many wonderful childhood memories of my Dad, my sisters, MoonPies and RC cola! We lived in Alabama back when I was a kid and on the weekends, my Dad would let us girls {me and my two sisters} walk to the store {about a mile round trip} and buy MoonPies and RC Cola {because you just can’t eat a MoonPie without an RC Cola!}.  And sometimes, we would get to have boiled peanuts {which is my all-time favorite southern treat!!} and RC cola instead - it just depended on my Dads mood, I guess.   It was a special treat for us girls – a treat that my sisters and I would sometimes have to arm wrestle our Dad for.  Even though it was the three of us against his one arm, we never won; he was as strong as a bull {and still is, mind you!}, but he wasn’t a mean bull, he was a gentle one and even though my sister’s and I didn’t win, he’d usually give in and let us get MoonPies or boiled peanuts anyway.   

So, thanks to Pinterest, I had my gift idea – MoonPies, RC Cola and salted peanuts {for dumping into his RC Cola, of course!}. By the way, I had to go with salted peanuts rather than a bag of boiled peanuts because, believe it or not, in Texas where I live, boiled peanuts are pretty much unheard of - crazy, I know!  So anyway, I was totally psyched about this gift -  I knew that my Dad would be delighted with a nostalgic gift such as this!

Madi was also pretty excited! She couldn’t wait to get started and I was so thankful for her help because, turns out, these babies aren’t that easy to make – well, sorta easy, but really time consuming.  But!!  Boy, were they worth it – the finished product tasted just like the store bought, sweet southern treat I’ve enjoyed so many times before!  

Marshmellow filling  - sorry for the poor quality photo, I took it with my blasted cell phone.

MoonPies before they were dipped in chocolate!

Another shot of the MoonPie, pre-chocolate coating.

 MoonPies after being dipped in chocolate - another cell phone shot, sorry.

Madi and I wrapped them up and placed labels on each. 

  Dad's gift basket completed!

Because we hadn't seen my Mom since before Mother's Day {they were gone to Savannah, GA for a few months} we weren't able to give her her gift until the same day we gave Dad his Father's Day gift - July 19th.  Mom's gift was ALSO a pinterest find!  I modge podged a photo of my her and my Dad to  an 11' x 14" canvas.  It turned out pretty good; it almost looked like a painting rather than a photo.

Jack giving Dad his gift basket.

Dad - not really sure what it's about just yet.

He's eyesight ain't what it used to be. Lol!  It took him a minute to figure out what the labels said - I think the one he picked up just said "Happy Father's Day", so he had to pick up another one ...

NOW he's figured it out!   I love his reaction here - his big ol' smile!  It says it all and makes me :) big!

Wordless{ish} Wednesday | Thistle

The Thistle

In a patch of baked earth

At the crumbled cliff's brink,

Where the parching of August

Has cracked a long chink,

Against the blue void

Of still sea and sky
Stands single a thistle

Tall, tarnished, and dry.

Frayed leaves, spotted brown,

Head hoary and torn

Was ever a weed
Upon earth so forlorn,

So solemnly gazed on

By the sun in his sheen

That prints in long shadow

Its raggedness lean?

From the sky comes no laughter,
From earth not a moan.

Erect stands the thistle,

Its seeds abroad blown

-Robert Laurence Binyon



From a Swimmer to a Runner

I officially withdrew Madison from Swim Belton today.  I can honestly say that after 3+ years of swimming, her Dad and I are a little sad to see it come to an end.  But, at the same time, we are very happy and very proud of her for the new direction she is taking in sports - Cross Country.  Going from a swimmer to a runner hasn’t been easy so far, but with our encouragement, Madi’s running is getting better with each passing week.  We just pray that Cross Country is good to her {as long as she’s putting in the effort, we’re sure it will be} and that she finds what she is hoping for in the sport.

One of my favorite swim photos of Madi.  I’ll miss watching this girl swim – especially that nice butterfly stroke she has!

Madison:  We love you and we are proud of you no matter what you choose to do in life.  As you know, one of our rules is that - if you choose it, follow through with it.  I know we push you pretty hard and expect a lot from you, but I want you to know that we do it for YOU!  We do it, not only so that you learn to dedicate yourself to something and work hard at it, but also so that you learn integrity – the importance of following through with the commitments you make in life.

Cross Country was a choice you made {a huge twist in the Johnston’s game of life}, but it’s one that involves our whole family because you need {for now} to be pushed.  You need constant supervision so that you put in the work/miles.  I’m pretty sure that one day running will become something you want to do, not something you have to do because we make you. But, until that day, just know that your Dad and I will be right beside you; supporting you {first and foremost}, encouraging you, pushing you, and yes, sometimes downright yelling at you in frustration because we know you can push harder!  But, also know this; that we’ll be doing all these things because we care about you, we love you and we want to see you succeed in everything you choose to do in life.