Very Busy - Sick - Big Snake

It has been a CRAZY week to say the least. Sunday our rodeo was cancelled. There was a tractor pull at the arena the day before and a lady was killed. Her husband was competing in the tractor pull. She went out to talk to him and the light changed to green. The other driver never saw her. Very sad!

Then, Sunday night around 1 am I woke up very sick. I was up and down the whole night. When morning came I knew there was no way I was going to work. I went to the doctor first thing and she gave me a shot and told me to go back to bed. Yes Ma'am...no problem....I had a virus...Anyhow, so that's what I did. Ryan took care of Shelby, went to work and did a bunch of yard work while I laid in bed, useless.

Monday night it rained and rained and rained in Houston. You may have seen it on the news that we were basically under water. Living so far out we didn't get near the rain and we have the fields and big ditches for the rain to go in. So, we got the rain we needed, but no flooding. But, because of the rain, FBISD (my district) was closed for the day. I was really thankful cause I still didn't feel like a 100% and really needed that day.

Unfortunately Ryan woke up sick on Tuesday. So, he took his turn on the couch/bed while Shelby and I did our business. I dropped her off at the babysitters for a few hours while I ran to town to do the many errands I don't normally get to do such as get my tires rotated, get my ring cleaned, get some stuff at the grocery store and eat out.

When Shelby and I got home Ryan was still sick so we did some stuff around the house and fed the horses. We also washed Twister. By then she had enough of being in her stroller so we went back inside.

Wednesday Ryan and I were both up and running....well, not running, but you know what I mean. Anyhow, it was a pretty normal day. I had TAKS testing and he had his normal work load. Wednesday evening was eventful though! We washed 4 horses and I took Badger for a ride in the pasture. That's when the real adventure happened!

I was strolling out of the back of the barn and started to head out to the back pasture when I saw a BBBBIIIIIIGGGG snake. I mean BIIIIGGGG! I went back and told Ryan. He comes out with 1/2 of a hand post hold digger. I was thinking "Are you kidding me? You are going to kill THAT snake with that 1/2 of a very old and dull post hole digger?" Ok, you are the man after all. So off I went to take care of Shelby while he did his manly duties. Of course, I had to watch the adventure so I picked around the corner of the barn just in time to see him pull the post hole digger from the head of the snake and the ground he drove it into only to see the snake spin around and jump towards him. WOW, that was scary. I figured it was a cotton mouth, which is a venomous snake and can really do some damage. Seeing it bounce back towards Ryan was not a good sight! Fortunately, Ryan and his ratty, old post hole digger won the battle and the snake was dead. I have added pictures so you can see how BBBIIIIGGG the snake was (over 5 ft long) and how ratty the post hole digger was. Needless to say, Ryan now has a gun stored in the barn!

You can click on the pictures to enlarge and see how big this thing was!

Oh, I almost forgot! Ryan was at the vets office earlier in the day. They had a momma cat and 3 kittens that needed a home. So, we decided to bring them home and put them in our barn. Momma cat is a wonderful mom and is VERY protective! She is super friendly, but she will get after the dog and the male cats. LOL She chased our friendly male cat, Fritz, out of our barn twice last night. We are happy to have her and her babies. With the excitement of the snake, I forgot to take pictures of her so I'll try to remember to do that soon. She is a tiger cat with white socks. She has a black kitten, a white and grey kitten and a tiger kitten. They still have their eyes open. I am sure Shelby will enjoy playing with them this summer.

I've also realized it really isn't good to have two animal lovers in the same household. It becomes a zoo! HA!

Ramsey and Weekend

I got an email this picture this morning. I thought it was pretty good and wanted to share.

Well, the Dave Ramsey Webinar was a success. We only had 15 or so people at our church, but it still went well. I hope those who attended enjoyed it and felt it was worth the trip and time away from home.

Monica and Leslie, the girls who work in the nursery at the church were very excited to get Shelby. They LOVE little children and right now she's the youngest one. So, they always look forward to holding her and playing with her. We are so blessed to have such wonderful people to help us with Shelby!!!

I'm sure the girls are very excited about the arrival of Ismael and Amber's baby boy, Levi. He was born earlier this week. I can't wait to see him! I want to go visit, but want them to settle into their new life with Levi.

This weekend we have the Wharton County Reunion Rodeo on Sunday. Pam has offered to help us out with Shelby since we both will be competing. Her help will be greatly appreciated. Ryan is going to heel on Twister, our paint horse. He hasn't heeled in a long time, so he is excited and nervous! I will run barrels on Badger. Badger doesn't run well in this arena so I plan to push and kick a lot. I hope we can show improvement. It is supposedly not real competitive so hopefully I'll come home with a check. We'll see...It sure would help me out for the week.

I'm sure glad it is Friday. It has been a busy week and our house reflects it. It will be good to do the never ending tasks of cleaning kitchen, living room, our room and laundry. And, with all the rain we got last weekend, Ryan is chomping at the bit to mow the lawn. I hate that we had to buy that lawn mower but it sure is nice to know all that land can be mowed in less than an hour. We need all the time saving jobs we can get!

Our Baby Girl

Here are some fun pics we took of her and us last night.

Here's a video of her in her bouncy seat that rocks. This is what she does inbetween bites. It makes it fun.

NM Boudrie's Puppy

I don't really have any news, but Nancy sent me some fun pictures of their new puppy, Cowgirl. It was her first experience with snow.

Pictures of Shelby

This is my favorite picture of her...Unfortunately her Easter dress was too small. Her Grandma Nancy bought it for her, but bought a 0-3 months...so I only got to take pictures of her and then had to take it off since we couldn't button up the back of it. That's ok, we were out of town and didn't even go to church on Easter so it all worked out.

Click on her link to see even more pictures of her that were taken Easter weekend.

This is another fav of mine...it was taken after I made my run on Saturday. Her shirt says "Will Rope for Candy"...I love it!

Here is a video of her playing in her entertainment center. She loves it! Notice how she knows her name. She just starting looking at me when I said her name a week or two ago. It's awesome how she knows her name!

This is a video of her with her dress on. I uploaded it by accident so decided to keep it on here so I had it uploaded already.

Easter Bunny & Barrel Run

I don't think I need to say much about this picture. Isn't it cute??? I know I'm bias, but it's still adorable! I had no intentions of getting pictures because I ran out of time and I didn't know where to go to get her picture. So, we lucked out when Walmart had someone taking pictures there. Her shirt says "Will Rope for Candy"....so fitting...hahaha...just not very Easter-y....oh well....She is a cowgirl after all!

Shelby is now 6 months old and doing all sorts of cute things. She is trying to stand and is starting to learn how to sit on her own. Her back is still not strong enough, but she's getting closer. She rolls around everywhere and will roll away from you if you look away briefly. She is nothing but smiles and enjoys life to the fullest. She, of course, also loves the horses. Twister, my paint horse, loves her too. He always wants to see Shelby and lets her pull on his nose wiskers and lets her pet him and squeal with excitement. It's awesome! I will take pictures and video of the two of them. I believe they are going to make an awesome team in another few years. It's amazing how the meanest horse in the pasture is the sweetest with us. Twister was my first horse down here and has a special place in my heart. So, he won't ever go anywhere. I would love to see him and Shelby become a team and share the bond I share with him already.

Here's my video from Saturday's run. I was hoping to post Sunday's run too, but my tape is screwed up on my video camera and I can't get it to download without having lines go through it. I wanted to show off my mad skills on the 3rd barrel. I was turning the 3rd barrel and I realized my rein was too long and Badger was going to go wide. So, I was holding the rein on the turn with my left hand and I reached down with my right hand to pull it harder so he would turn sharper. It worked and I didn't lose my balance! Yea!

I also worked Badger last night. We are still turning wider than I would like and I believe we could take off 3/10 of a second or so if I could get him to turn just a little tighter. This is risky (could hit the barrel and get a no time) but I believe it will pay off in the end. So, we worked on that last night. He did AWESOME. I have two barrel races this weekend and I can't wait to see how it turns out for us!

Yesterday Ryan took 'my' Romeo to work him on cows. He is still very green and so I was anxious to hear how he did. Ryan called me throughout the day to tell me something I already knew. That my horse was awesome! :) He worked great on the cows and was starting to cut them and go after them in the pens. Now he's in love with the horse too. I have a feeling we'll be fighting over him. Hahaha....perhaps he is our perfect mix....quick and caddy to make a great barrel horse, and big with strong bones for a heading (roping) horse. Time will tell!

Ryan also took his Mom's horse, Shiner, and used him to gather cattle. Ryan said Shiner did great as well. I was proud of him too. He is all racing blood, so we were curious to see how he'd do with the cattle. Ryan said he even started nipping at the cows...which is good...so Ryan is looking forward to working him more this year as well.

Great Race

This was a great weekend of barrel racing. I have never been to a WRAPN3 productions and I was impressed on how it was run. Crazy how much barrel racing can take place in 3 short days!

Badger and I did well and we were consistant 16.767 on Saturday and 16.775 on Sunday. We placed 3rd in the Open 3D for a $302 check and then we placed 1st in the 2D Adult incentive for a check of $93 on Saturday. Sunday we placed 2nd in the 2D Adult incentive for a check of $50. So, not a bad weekend.

In barrel racing it gets down to the thousandths of a second...for example...I missed out on an additional $300 by 0.027 of a second. I missed out on another $471 by 0.305 seconds. Amazing isn't it?

Anyway you look at it I can't complain. I came home with money in a very TOUGH barrel race. A lot of the pros were there....including many world champions, futurity and derby champions. Badger was only 7/10 of a second off of some of the toughest competition in the country. So, I was very proud of both of us.

We have decided to get him back into swimming. He needs to lose around 50-75 lbs. I think if he loses that we can be a lot tougher with the competition.

Shelby did great with her first night away from home. She is teething so it made things a little more challenging. She cowgirled up and slept in her play pen where the horses go. We have a walk through door that leads to the horse part of our trailer. I cleaned it out and put Badger in the last stall of the trailer on our way up to the barrel race so Shelby would have a clean place to sleep that night. My friend, Sandy, said that made us official Rodeo Trash! HA

We went to bed like normal (8 PM) on Saturday and slept great til 12 AM. Then she woke up screaming....poor thing...I'm pretty sure she had a belly ache. She would settle down when we would sit her up but as soon as we laid her down she would start to cry again. So, we gave her some tummy medicine and that seemed to be the trick. After about 20 min. she settled down and was keeping us up in our bed so we put her back in her play pen so we could get some rest and she would go to sleep. Ryan said she woke up two more times cause she spit her pacifier out. I never heard it her...other than that she slept til 7:30 AM.

It was also a challenge for us. Wow do you have to pack a lot of things when you are packing up a horse and child! We talked about getting a larger trailer, but priced them and decided we could make ours work. Hopefully it will get easier as we figure out what we need and don't need! I really like these WRAPN3 barrel races so I hope to attend more of them.

Well, time to get back to work so I will write more later...I also will post pics and videos of our weekend sometime soon with details of both.

Do Good, Run Fast

I was at lunch telling one of my friends/co-workers that I had the 2 day barrel race in Gonzales this weekend. She has been learning about the rodeo world and barrel racing through our many lunches together. Anyhow, I've been trying to come up with a catchy phrase and it just hasn't come to me. So, I told her I was going to steal hers.

So, as I approach this weekend I'm going to take her advice and run with it.

I'm going to....

Do Good, Run Fast

Ramsey Webinar

My church, Grace Community Fellowship, Needville, will be hosting a webinar by Dave Ramsey on April 23, 2009 @ 7 PM. I learned about him from my friend/co-worker, Alison. I'm looking forward to the webinar and plan to attend his 13 week program through our church. The 13 week program is still in the works, but I hope it goes through and we are able to attend.

To learn more about this webinar or to be a host site you can go to www.daveramsey.com.

Let's see, what else is going on...I have a two day barrel race on Saturday and Sunday. The average winner will win a saddle. So, I plan to go Saturday and if I do well I'll return on Sunday. It's a long drive, so that's why I'm waiting to see about Sunday. I do hope to attend both days. We could stay the night, but with Shelby and our little horse trailer (6 ft short wall) it makes it hard so it's just easier to travel back and forth each day.

Friday is Good Friday so I hope to take Shelby in to get her 6 month pictures. This will be the first time she will have professional pictures taken and I'm excited about that. If it doesn't work out I'll dress her up and take my own photos. I really wanted to get pictures of her in the blue bonnets, but I think I missed that window. Bummer! I wasn't too worried about it this year cause she is still not stable sitting by herself. The pictures are so much cuter when there is not an adult in the picture.

I think that is it for now.

Mom & Dad Boudrie got a new puppy. If you remember, their beloved dog, Cody, passed away a while back. This new puppy has been quite the challenge for Shelby's grandparents. They are used to a quiet dog that has all the manners and rules down. This energetic puppy has been wearing Nancy out and keeping them both on their toes.

Her name is Cowgirl and she is (obviously) a blue heeler. She recently contracted Parvo, but seems to be doing well with the treatments. The vet has even let them keep her at home. That surprised me because our dogs always had to stay at the vets office for 3-4 days. Yes, I said "ours"...we had 2 dogs that contracted Parvo and, with treatment, recovered perfectly. It just puts a real dent in your pocket book.

Tomorrow is shot day for Shelby. Last time she was so tough, she didn't even cry! She just cussed the doctor out. So, we'll se what tomorrow brings. I may have to video her so y'all can see what she does.

She has really gotten vocal the last couple of weeks. This is a video I took with my phone of her talking back to me. If you listen, you can hear her trying to mimick me. She gets very vocal right before nap time too. So, she made all these noises about 10 miles from our house (while we were driving) and by the time we got home she was sound asleep. Darn! I tried to send it to my email from my phone but it won't send. I'll try later and add if I get it to work.

Justice Prevails

We are happy to say that the mediation we went to this morning went well. It is so good to know that us hard working folks do get what is rightfully ours. I'm not going to share anymore information on here since it is a public blog. I just had to share it went well and we were happy with the results.

Ryan's New Lawnmower & Hittin' Home

First the good news....Ryan got him a 'tripped out' lawnmower...hahaha...I love that lady on the Progressive commercials. She makes me laugh!

We have been trying for a year to make our old, tired, used lawn mower work. But, since we bought it we have put more time and money into it than it's worth. We have replaced MANY parts and EVERYTIME we mow the lawn it breaks down. We have around 2 acres of lawn to mow on a weekly basis in the summer and so it is very frustrating. We have a beautiful place and we want it to look presentable and show pride in what we have.

So, after much research, hesitation, and prayer we decided to go with the lawn mowers of lawn mowers...the zero turn. We originally looked at the cheaper (if you think $1600 is cheap for a cheaply built lawn mower) lawn mowers to get us through the next few years. After much consideration we decided that would be a waste of money since it would probably need to be replaced in 5 or less years. So, back to the zero turns...then we thought we would go with the 42 inch deck instead of the 48 to save some money. Well, while Ryan was looking at it the salesmen came over to Ryan and was talking to him. Long story, short...he offered to sell Ryan the 60 inch for a few hundred dollars more than the 42 inch. It's a Gravely and will last us 20 years if we take care of it. So, that's the 'divine intervention' I was waiting for and Ryan bought himself a fancy lawn mower. It's cuts BEAUTIFULLY. I am amazed at how pretty our lawn looks. Ryan is praying for rain so he can cut the front lawn again to make it look pretty. (It was cut with the old lawn mower. He would've done the entire lawn, but, SURPRISE, it broke again which brings us to the present.) He even mentioned offering to mow someone else's lawn just to drive it...hahaha...

So, here's to you Mr. Zero Turn lawn mowing guy...hahaha...some of you may be familar with those funny beer radio commercials. They play them down here. Not sure if it's national....

On to the Hittin' Home part of my blog...

I have two prayers requests -

One is a close friend of mine at work found out her husband just got layed off. They really depended on that income and are not sure what to do. Please pray that they remain faithful and know that God will give them something better. That door was shut for a reason. God's ready to bless them. But, when you are in the middle of it all you know how hard it is to wait for those blessings.

The second one is too personal to mention on here. I ask that you pray for this person so that he may know it WILL get better....and that he is loved...not just by his family, but by his friends and, most importantly, by God. He is perfect in God's eyes. Isn't that really all that matters? I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me....sometimes we have to say that over and over and over again until we get through the dark tunnels in life.

Have a blessed weekend! We will be off to a roping in Rosenberg tomorrow. I hope to report big winnings with Badger and Ryan. :)

Missing Shelby

I have been missing Shelby a lot during the work day. Aaah...the joys of working full time. It's alright once I get going with my day, but first thing in the morning and drive home seem to last forever some days. Thank God for weekends! Of course, some days I torture myself by looking at her SUPER cute pics and videos.

She is getting so big and is getting a big personality. She talks a lot and loves to sing in the vehicals. It's fun. She still thinks me telling her "good girl" in sign language is funny. But, enjoys learning the signs and watching my hands move. Last night Shelby and I were laying on my bed and I was doing signs above her so she could watch. She was watching with such intensity. It was pretty cool. I tried to do some of them with her hands like "more" and "friends" but she didn't like that too much.

In doing this she got very relaxed and pretty much went straight to sleep. I found a new routine for us! She is VERY good about going to bed but she likes to pick her legs straight up and slam them down on the bed. That's how she puts herself to sleep.

Well, time to get focused. TGIF tomorrow! Team roping on Saturday...Hopefully another good team roping pay check will come with it. :)