Thursday

This week has been yet another adventure for us, Boudrie’s. For me, it has been a big taste of being a stay at home, poor (as in no money), mom. That is not much fun at all. It also doesn’t help that it is like 100 degrees, literally, outside! So, Shelby and I have had a lot of time in the house and staying cool. Each day is much the same with Shelby getting up, feeding, playing with her, giving her down time in her chair, nap, repeat. In the evenings I usually take her for a walk just to get her outside before we both go crazy.

Today was a busy one for me while Shelby slept or played. I spent most of my free time calling banks, learning the loan value of specific trucks, what the value of Ryan’s truck is, etc. I haven’t done that in YEARS so it was a little bit of a learning curve for me, especially with the banks being so tight on their loans.

I have figured what we are going to do (get a different truck) now I have to figure out where we are going to get the money to pay for the loss on Ryan’s truck. We are cutting our losses at this time. I just don’t feel safe in that truck anymore. We carry a lot of precious cargo…Shelby…horses…us…and can’t afford anything bad to happen.

We did find a really nice truck in Gonzales that we really like. We will make a trip there (about 2 hr drive) to check it out this weekend if we need to. As I type this, Ryan is heading to the dealership to check out the new ones. It is unlikely he’ll get a new one in the price range we are looking for, but you just never know. After what we went through with the Dodge, I prefer new, but, more importantly, I prefer what we can afford. So, we’ll see. They have lots of discounts, rebates, etc plus our GM discount…you just never know until you look into it. If that doesn’t work out, then we’ll make the trip to Gonzales I guess. We just don’t know what else to do.

On a Shelby note….she is doing great. She is learning more and more everyday. It’s fun to be home and see her grow in mind and body. I have been teaching her sign language. She’s been doing the sign for “eat” for several months. However, just this week she did the sign for ‘more’. It was soooooooooooooo cool! I was feeding her and kept showing her the sign for “more”. I then said (without signing) “Do you want more?” and she did the sign for more. I thought…No way…that’s a fluke…so I said it again and she did it again. It was soooooooooooo cool to witness it first hand. So many times I hear about her ‘firsts’ from Ryan or her babysitter, Brenda. I was thankful to have one for myself.

She is also starting to try and figure out crawling. Her legs and arms move, but they don’t go anywhere. If she gets on the hardware she can scoot backwards. She also loves to stand up with my help. She is getting stronger and stronger. She can now pull herself up without my assistance other than me holding my fingers out for her to grab. She is starting to try and pull herself up using furniture, her bouncy seat, etc. But, she has not had success with that yet. That goes for her sitting up from a lay down position as well. She gets about half way there and gets stuck. She gets so mad and throws these little fits. She starts to whine and looks for help. I have learned not to hover and let her work through it. I think being home all the time has helped me with that by eliminating the ‘guilt’ factor of not being with her as much as I would like or feels she needs.

With Ryan working full time she shows signs of missing him. He walks in and she lights up. It’s too cute!

As for the weekend, we are tentatively planning to go to Eagle Lake with some friends. There is a 2 day barrel race, but we are all ready for a break. A weekend off will be really nice. I got up early two days this week to ride horses. I got to ride Romeo and Badger 1x this week and Mito 2x. They all did well. I love that I can ride Badger in a rope halter and lead line. It helps keep my hands out of his mouth, which can make his mouth tougher which is not good.

Mito is starting to settle down and think a little more. He’s not as nervous. At this point, I’m working on making him a good trail horse. Since his price has dropped so much that’s all I’m going to worry about. Well I say that, but truth be known, I’m also working on the barrels with him. I’m using a technique I got from a Connie Combs clinic. Pretty simple, I just work on keeping him square around the entire barrel. He likes to drop his shoulder and weight on the barrels which will cause me to hit barrels when we pick up speed. Mito is smart and after a few times around the barrel using this technique he squared up a lot more and was going around the barrels more evenly. Yea! He’s trotting nice around them using this and so I hope to work on loping him next week. It should be an easy transition since I’m using all the same signals at the trot as I would at the lope. So, we’ll see…if I get him running competitively I’ll start running him every now and then. Either way, my hope is to sell him.

Romeo did well too. I don’t push him at this time. He is lazy and hard to keep going, so I’m working on that. You can be lazy, but when it’s time to work, it’s time to work. He is just sooooooooooooo smooth….and so nice to ride…other than the lazy streak.

Well, I guess that’s plenty for today. I have some really cute videos I’ll add of Shelby. I need to get access to some DSL, which means a trip somewhere where there is wireless. Hopefully that will happen soon as I’m anxious to share the videos with you all.