Camping at Enchanted Rock State Park!

A couple of weekends ago I got to go on a fantastic trip with two of my very best friends, Ashley and Amy! We backpacked around Enchanted Rock State Park and had a blast!

Up at the top of Enchanted Rock!

We hiked, had great girl talk, had to take a trip to Fredericksburg for a stove malfunction, and also did some geocaching!

GPS was vital as we didn't have cell service for a lot of the weekend.

Found a benchmark at the top of the rock!

This tree looks like a Toucan! 

For the full scoop (and to see my friend Amy's fantastic doodles) you can check out the electronic scrapbook here!

Date Ideas: The Vintage Flying Museum!

Jared and I have been in a slump on the dates over the summer. But now that it's fall we have had a resurgence to try to be intentional about spending time together. We found a really great place to visit on a recent date...the Vintage Flying Museum!

vintageflyingmuseum.org

This museum was so cool with the old planes that they are preserving and restoring right in the hangar at Meacham Airport. We got to talk to a Vietnam Vet at the desk and his "young lackey" that ended up giving us a personal tour of the hanger. He was a walking encyclopedia of plane history that we throughly enjoyed talking to.

We got to see the A26 "Special Kay" being restored up close! It was so awesome to see all the hard work and amazing engineering that goes into these incredible aircraft!

Did I mention that we got to see the other A-26 Invader based at Meacham in action?

This was such a fun date PLUS we got to learn so much more about something we both love!

Geocaching Road Trip to Kansas!

One of the reasons this summer was crazy was because Jared and I attended one graduation and four weddings in the span of three months. And most of them were across the country. So cue on of the biggest items on the list...a road trip to Colby, Kansas.

Now this wouldn't have been a big deal except for the fact that the longest road trip I had ever been on was from Dallas to San Antonio. So the twelve hour trek for us was certainly going to put my patience to the test.

Are we there yet?

Of course, we made the trip fun and geocached the whole way up and the whole way down, visiting some of the places we have wanted to visit for a while now. First stop, OKC!

This was a virtual geocache at the Oklahoma City Bombing Memorial.

It was so beautiful and quiet in the middle of the city.
Finally checked this off the bucket list.

The next logical stop for us was in Wichita, KS. We stopped for food and checked out some of the downtown area. It was very quiet and deserted for some reason. Almost felt like a ghost town except for the random statues of people and animals all around the plazas. We found some awesome and unique historical landmarks while finding our caches.

Travel pooch was not excited about meeting another "dog."
She said he was such a poser!

 Finally, we were able to get to our destination...Colby, KS! It was a cool morning as we did our long run and we checked out downtown Colby and it's unique buildings and monuments.

I guest that means there's liberty here right?

One of the "Oh My Goodness!" moments that happened while we were planning this trip was the fact that I had been listening to Podcacher right before this trip and they mentioned MINGO, the oldest surviving cache in the world. As I was planning our trip, lo and behold I found out MINGO was just outside the city we were visiting!

Cue fanfare!

So cool to be able to check this one off the geocaching list and add it to our favorites!

On the way back, we visited a few other notable caches.

Found this one at an old F14 off the highway.

Earthcache at a rest stop.

Final Earthcache in Oklahoma.

Somewhere over that hill is Texas!

While I definitely had the patience of a two year old on this trip while traveling in the car, it was so interesting to travel across the country like this. I pretty much always fly anywhere (hello...pilot's wife) and so getting to see the places I fly over from the ground was eye opening. Our country is BIG and filled with so many cool people.

Also, the cool thing I got to learn how to use was the geocaching road trip planner. It's a part of the premium membership, but this one tool alone was worth the cost of the yearly membership. We were able to search along the route we were going to take and sort based on location and favorite points. We found so many cool caches and were able to visit some amazing places we would never have known about otherwise. And that, is why we love caching so much in the first place.

We had a great trip, but I am so glad to be back in the best state in the Union...Texas!

Update on Love Life Design Co

So I am going to take a little time to brag on my amazingly brilliant husband. People have asked me if I knew he could do what he does before we got married and my honest answer was, "no." He built a bed with his dad for college once. He's pretty good at engineering things for sure. But in no way did I know he had the talent to channel his creativity into power tools and create new life out of old wood.

In case you don't know, he has started his own little business called Love Life Design Co. I give the man a garage and some power tools and a new creature was born! He has been making the most stunning Texas' over the past few months and I am amazed every single time with what he can make!

One of his first designs, which has inspired so many others.

He stained the wood on this one to look like the state flag colors

Love the little heart on this one.

 And of course, everything is bigger in Texas. Jared was commissioned to make a 5 ft tall Texas. It was as big as me!

It was huge!!!

But it didn't take long for us to start branching out to other states as family members saw what he was doing!

Our first "other" state, Tennessee! 

Of course, in our family, we tend to challenge one another. Thankfully, Jared helped me make some of my designs come to life!

A super cute medal hanger with some bling!

Custom quote sign

And I couldn't resist the Disney flair!

Made this for our guest room!

Never thought I would start a small business. But I am super excited about it and love what we have been able to create so far! If you are interested in our shop, you can check it out at https://www.etsy.com/shop/LoveLifeDesignCo

Plano Balloon Festival Half Marathon

Hello everyone! Yesterday I had the most amazing time racing with my parents at the Plano Balloon Festival! You can relive my race with me in the video below!



Plano Half Marathon from Madelyn on Vimeo.

It was a great race. Several things factored into making it my best race ever:

1) We had our first cold front move in through Texas! The morning was just cold enough without too much rise in the heat at the end of the race. My hard training this summer in the heat really helped me be able to push hard in the ladder miles so that I was hitting negative splits. My last mile was my fastest!

2) I was racing with my family! Dad and I passed each other a ton and ran the middle of the race together. He was staying steady while I was having my middle-of-the-race slump and he kept pushing me to keep my pace up!

3) I worked on my speed. This training cycle, I spent one run a week working specifically on speed. I worked on pushing my lactate threshold back as well as learning to run on tired legs. I think working on my fast finish training runs really gave me the "umph" I needed at the end!

4) I learned from my last race to not drink as much water! All the sloshing around in my stomach was causing me cramps. Also, I remembered to fuel early and often. I didn't hit the wall in this race because I found Cliff Shot Blocks (which I love so much) to fuel my race!

5) I have the best family and friends! The constant cheering from my Nike +, the love I knew I had during training and the promise of getting to Skype with Jared at the end really contributed to the race day magic. Thank you so much for your support and love for me as I have gone through this journey!

6) The last, yet probably most important, was the special time with God I have gotten during my training. I have had moments where I have just been able to worship him during my runs and unplug long enough to spend quality time with him. You might think I'm weird, but it's true. God has shown me through running I am more capable than I thought and can do more than I could have ever imagined. He doesn't put limits on how he can use me, I do.

Put this all together and I was able to run the entire 13.1 miles without walking, a feat I have never accomplished before. Even on my previous long runs, I take numerous walk breaks to drink Gatorade or eat. Not this time! I ran and ate and everything! I felt so good, so prepped, that when I slowed to drink a tiny sip of water at mile 12, my legs were like, "What's this walking thing you speak of? We don't like it!" I hit my pace goal of being in the vicinity of two and a half hours with a final time of 2:33. I think I could have gotten a  faster time if I would have really been serious about running the tangents.

But you know, that's learning for the next race. :)

Next stop: Disney!

Too busy to run...or am I?

Good morning everyone! I hope you all slept well and are beginning to enjoy the weekend before the 4th!

This morning I woke up and the first thought in my head was, "Ugg." That pretty much summed up how I felt this morning. Problem is, I had a bunch of things to do this morning, including a long seven mile run. That was pretty much the last think I wanted to do this morning.

I gave myself a ton of excuses to not go. I've been really good with my running schedule this week. I am tired. I had a ton going on this weekend already. I never gave myself a reason to go.

But I ended up going anyways. And when I returned to the house at the halfway point to drop off the dog, I managed to get past my excuses and go back out to finish the last three miles.

And as I'm running, I was like, "What got me out here in the early Texas heat?"

I really can't give you an answer on why I went. I can't give you a reason on why I finished. So the only answer I can think of is, habit.

Whaaaaaa?

Yes, I believe running has become a habit to me now. I just went and did it, Nike swoosh style. Yes I'm busy. I work part time, help my mom with jobs around the house on the side and run a ministry. I don't have a ton of time. But I am proof that if you do something with dedication over a long period of time, you will make it habit and it will soon become a staple in your lifestyle. This goes for working, reading your Bible, eating healthy, being intentional in communicating with family and friends, anything!

Now excuse me while I sit on the couch doing nothing until I have to go into work!

Overcoming the World

Hello everyone. Sorry it's been so long (a whole three days!) since my last post but it's been a bit crazy out here. We have a big garage sale this weekend to raise money for kids camp and it's been a week long project to get all of it organized and priced. We got it done today though! Tomorrow all we have to do (I say ALL in the loosest of definitions) is get the tables set up in the hallway so that when 7:00 am Saturday rolls around, we just have to move the tables out and we are open for business!

Here's a picture of the stuff BEFORE it got all organized and priced.


Yes that is my dog. She was "helping" haha.

And that picture was even after my fabulous team went through the first pass and at least "lumped" like things together!

So this week has been crazy! Not only do I mean by my schedule just been jammed packed, but the world suddenly decided it was going to be a dramatic week. We started with bombs in Boston, tornadoes across the country, ricin being mailed to government officials and now we had a fertilizer plant explode just north of us in West, Texas. They had to evacuate the entire city! It's weeks like these where I think, "Did the world just decide to have some crazy pills?" I struggle sometimes when things like this happen. What's the point of trying to achieve things, work so hard, etc when someone is just going to destroy all the time? I'm sure that's how many of the runners feel. They worked so hard to first, qualify for the Boston Marathon, and then compete in the Boston Marathon. Then someone took the completion of that goal away from them with a single decision.

But what I have to remember, is that the devil is the one responsible for these things. His agenda is to steal, kill and destroy. He is loving the havoc and destruction that is happening. But God is not gone. He is not absent from the situation. God is placing people at the right place, the right time and providing help for those who need it. God is not fighting for victory. There is no desperation in his conference room. There is no emergency meeting going on. God is already victorious! God is placing on the hearts of many to look beyond the pain and the doubt. He is pressing on his church to go out and help and provide care for those who need it. There are countless stories of those in Boston giving blood, inviting runners into their homes, Texans helping those in West whom have been displaced. This is God at work. This is God showing yes, something terrible happened because we live in a world where we feel the effects of sin. Yet I have overcome the world and you just need to hold on to me.

So take heart. Read John 16. Then finish the book! Jesus came so that we can have life, and life to the fullest, no matter what.

Day of Rest

So today there was no workout. Isn't it funny when you aren't supposed to do something, it's all you think about? So this morning, after Jared and I slept in, all I wanted to do was run. But since I know that my body needs the rest, I just read about running haha. Spent some good time perusing Runner's World magazine, The Marathon Method, and The New Rules of Marathon Nutrition. Great reads so far let me tell ya!

After Jared and I took the dog and went geocaching, but miserably failed finding anything. Duchess loved the walk though. Then we went and ran some errands, which included the grocery store AND the plant store!

I was super excited as my garden has been taking off in some places, and had died in other places. My top half of my lettuce is doing great! The bottom part of the planter, not so much haha. So I replanted some lettuce.

Garlic is doing great. I hardly have to do anything for it!

Then my sunflowers didn't make it, but I realized this last month, what good Texas girl DOESN'T have bluebonnets in her garden? This girl now does! I love them! They are my favorite!

My green bell peppers are growing fast!

And I planted some cilantro today! I'm gonna have to make some sort of shade for them so that they aren't in the heat as long.

Jalapenos are holding on. I keep praying for the one in the back haha.

Then I finally have BASIL! Just the smell makes me hungry!

The last thing that didn't make it was my onions. So I'm re-starting those in little seed starters next to my mint (which of course is thriving).

 

Waiting for my parents to come in tonight and we are going to do Mexican of course! Can't wait to see them. Brother comes in tomorrow! Yay!

Turkey Trot Dallas 2012

So today was our Turkey Trot 5K!

We began the morning at 7:00 am with breakfast then headed out for downtown around 7:40. It wasn't hard to find where to go. Not because there were tons of signs, but because there were tons of people! It was like a 45 minute wait for the bathroom alone. Thankfully, I found a small bank of porta-potties that was tucked away and no one could see! I was a little worried about missing the start of the race. However, it proved to be unnecessary to worry about because we didn't even get to the start line until 30 minutes after the gun went off. Thank goodness for RFID chips to time our run! Here's our results!

I was super proud of this race. First, there were TONS of people like I already said! Then, we also had Duchess. I was so surprised! She did so well! I was giving her verbal commands like "left" and "right." Even "up" and "down" for the curb we were running on. She was so focused on running it was amazing! I think she's a sled dog at heart.

Then, we were actually passing people running instead of being passed! It was such a good feeling! I didn't stop throughout the race...every time I wanted to I just kept on going! We beat our last time by three minutes!

What was also really cool is that they had bands along the race course for a mid course jump start. The track also went through Deep Ellum. While I would not normally go through there at night, it's still fun to look at all the store fronts. There was even a puppy day care with all the dogs barking at the runners going past the windows!

Again, I am just super proud of myself in this race. I cannot shout enough for joy!









So now it's onto the 10K! Jared and I just signed up for the Biggest Loser 10K in Austin on January 26th. We are going to make it a part of our 1st anniversary celebration! I am so excited to get better at running and to really see what my body can do!

You can check it out here:
http://www.biggestloserrunwalk.com/Austin_TX_5k_10K

One race I have also longed to do is the Disney Princess Half Marathon! The next one is in February but I seriously doubt I will be able to run it that fast...much less have the money to go! But let's say you are a girl, and lets say that you want to join me for a fun Disney weekend in 2014. Message me on Facebook and let's do it!

You can check out that race here: http://www.rundisney.com/princess-half-marathon/

Still running across America!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Pinterest fun!

Today's blog is a little different from normal. Normally I post about how our training is going and not "how to" things. But today I finished a weekend project that I am so excited about I decided it was worth sharing!

So this weekend we had our 5K race and this surfaced a problem I have never encountered before. Jared and I have been amassing a small pile of medals. I can instantly see that if we continue to do races like we are planning to, I am going to have no where to put all these medals and race bibs.

Like any good woman, I know Pinterest has the answer!

So I search "medal hangers" and several pins came up. I paroosed for a little while and decided to use a combination of a couple of pins along with my own ideas. You can see the pins I borrowed ideas from here:

http://diddledumpling.blogspot.com/2010/05/tutorial-vintage-looking-painted-sign.html
http://pavementrunner.com/diy-medal-bib-holder/

Credit where credit is due! I couldn't have done this without these ideas and how to's!

So I love rustic "Texan" looking decorations. After all, I am born and raised in Texas! So I went to Lowes and bought some cedar planks. Not only do they smell amazing, but they made me reminisce about the summer my parents decided to rebuild our fence by hand. So many cedar planks!

Did you also know that Lowes cuts wood for you? I picked out two planks that were 6" wide and one that was 2" wide. They cut the 6" wide planks into four 16" pieces and two 32" pieces. They cut the skinny plank into 6" long pieces.

From there I used wood glue, nails and two skinny boards to join two fat boards. As seen below...

I repeated the process with the other four fat boards. I used three skinny pieces instead of two for the 32" long pieces to add extra stability.

Then I went to my computer and found a font I liked. Then I typed out everything I wanted the sign to say and flipped the words on my word document so that everything read backwards. Then I printed on an inkjet printer.

Then I cut out my pieces and arranged the papers where I wanted the words on my boards. Ink side down!

Then I started the ink transfer process. I used a spray bottle to saturate the paper. It's best to wait a couple of minutes to let the water start to release the ink from the paper.

Then I used the cap of the sharpie and basically scribbled over the paper to let the ink transfer. You can see the first blog link above to get more detailed instructions.

Once you have done this for each word you can remove the paper and ink should stay on your board! Do this for all the boards you want to do!

Then my husband so graciously used a wood burning tool to outline the letters. He got one at Michaels when he was making a time capsule box for our wedding. I think this looks very rustic and "Texan-y" hehe. It also helps the letters to pop!

Then I painted in the letters with pretty cheap paint. It looked more like a stain than paint which I thought made it look cooler. 

Also at Lowes were some cool looking tacks. I thought they looked like they could have been made by a blacksmith in the 1800's so I got them. They were only $2  for a whole bunch! I took the two smaller boards and measured out the holes for the running bibs that I was going to hang on it. You can click on the second blog link for more ideas too. I had two sizes like she did so I staggered the hangings so they would all fit!

Then on my long board I hammered a bunch of tacks to the bottom to hang our medals on!

Attach some rustic farm-looking string to the corners (with tacks of course!) and you have a sign! Hang your medals proudly and stand back and admire (this is a very important step lol). I'm pretty happy with how mine turned out!

Now we have a very big reminder for why we run every time we enter our bedroom as well as a reminder of all the faithfulness God has shown us in the past!

Now on to our next race...the Houston Turkey Trot!

Happy running everyone!