Busy As Always

We haven't had a whole lot going on these last few weeks so I haven't had much to talk about. I feel like all I do is run, run, run.  Work has been busier than ever. I have struggled with keeping up and find myself doing more and more work at home.  I receive at least 100 emails a day and it's usually a lot more than that.  I did see it slow down a bit this last week, so I hope for that to be a good sign.  I try to remind myself that it is good to be so busy as it provides (hopefully) job security as my district goes through budget cuts these next two years.

Home life has been just as crazy as we prepare for the fair which starts this Friday.  I have had a lot of practices with the Rodeo Sweethearts.  We've come a long ways in the last month and I'm so proud of our team for stepping up and getting it done.  We've had a lot of ups and downs and it feels good to see that we are working so well together. 

Barrel racing has been a lot more fun with Badger back on my roster.  Each run he gets smoother, more confident that he's not hurting and we are becoming a team again.  We just work so well together.  Yesterday I ran him in Rosenberg and he was AWESOME! I was #152 and was a bit concerned about the ground holding up.  He has such a hard turn I always worry about him keepnig his feet up under him.  If the ground sucks then it will give and we may slip and fall.  Well, the ground was AWESOME and Badger was wicked on his turns.  I couldn't have asked for more.  :)  We ended up 4th in the 2D and probably top 10 out of 191 horses. 

I decided to push Shiner and see how he would do.  He did pretty well.  He ended up out of the money in 3D.  I am currently stewing on some ideas to get a better, faster, nicer turn.  If I could do that I know he'd be in the 2D easily.  He has so much power he could reach 1D potential, but I don't think I'll ever get that out of him with my limited time and access I have to riding.

I was going for some 5D points on Twister, but we were 1/10 too fast. I was really bummed, but starting to think maybe the saddle isn't supposed to be mine. I could use another one, but maybe not this year.  I never thought it would be so hard to 'slow' a horse down enough to hit that D.  I'm blessed with horses that have so much heart and get pretty mad when I ask them to slow down.  I can feel them thinkning "WHAT THE HECK ARE YOU DOING???  I can do better than this!"  :)  I love their heart!

Ryan is excited to ride in the ranch rodeo Monday Sept. 27.  It's funny how things work.  He was waiting on a guy to responsd whether he would ride on his team and it took the guy several days.  Finally, he said yes so Ryan went to go pay up and found he was team #21.  They only allow 20 teams and the 20th team had entered about 10 minutes before he got there.  Ryan was NOT happy.  He left his entry fees and information there just incase a team dropped out. However, it didn't look good cause they have never had a team back out. 

Ryan worked all day on letting it go and being ok with it, but was really upset because his parents were flying down for the weekend and one of the reasons they chose this particular weekend was because of the ranch rodeo.  The next day he got a call and a team that was trying to qualify for Houston and just found out they qualified already, so they backed out.  :)  His team got in!  He was PUMPED!  I was too. I kept feeling he would get in. I just felt it deep inside.  All I can say is God is good! :)

We also have a rodeo this weekend.  I plan to run Badger in barrels and Ryan will team rope.  He has two runs - a head run and a heel run.  Oh, and I have a barrel race in Mount Belvieu (about 1 1/2 hrs away) on Saturday BEFORE we go the rodeo.  So, it will be a busy few days for all of us.

We are also super excited about the Nancy and Dick coming down for a visit.  They are so excited to see Shelby as she has changed A LOT since we saw them in May.  She talks all the time and is so animated.  She is such a ham too!  Yesterday at the barrel race I would take her for rides and she would wave, do her sweet little smile and tell people Hi or Bye.  She loves going for rides and is now starting to take the reins from me.  She is also learning to hang on, but often forgets that she has to KEEP hanging on.  Luckily I'm there as her big seatbelt.  She loves going places and hates staying home or inside.  If there is an opportunity to go somewhere she does it with a big smile.  ESPECIALLY if it's with the horses, because that means she is going to get to ride at some point. 

Yesterday I asked if she was excited about seeing Grandma and Grandpa.  She then repeated Grandma as "grma" and Grandpa as something like "gpa".  It was cute! 

She loves to color everything - including herself and anything that looks like it needs to be colored.  She'll sit with me and color for a long while now.  She LOVES Madagascar and watches it over and over and over.  She is now starting to repeat parts of the movie.  She also knows that remotes turn on her movie so she'll get the remote, point it at the tv, and say "moomie, moomie"....that means she wants Madagascar...as she knows how to say "movie"...."Moomie" comes from the part where they say " You got to move it, move it....YOu got to Move it Move it"

I guess this is long enough.  We'll have a couple of busy weeks, so it may be a while before I write again.  I'm sure I"ll have plenty to share again including, hopefully, lots of fair pictures. :)