Last Day of Summer

Yes, I know, it is only August. But, today is my last day of official summer vacation. I am looking forward to going back to work, but thought of driving so far everyday and paying the diesel makes me wish I had a little more time. The good news is diesel prices are dropping. YES! Just in time! It is down to $4.19 at the Needville gas station I frequent. I am hoping it is cheaper in Wharton as I'll be going there today to buy groceries. The diesel prices were as high as $4.70 for most of the summer, so this is a huge break and it will help us. We were spending anywhere between $600-800 a month...so hopefully this will bring our diesel expense down. I can't imagine if we were to be roping or barrel racing!

Speaking of barrel racing...Badger and I went to three races before I found out I was pregnant and we were in 1st place. Now, 6 months later, we are still in 9th place. Not bad since we haven't been to a race since then. People tell me all the time I won't have time to ride or run barrels after Shelby arrives. But, that doesn't stop me. That makes me drive stronger. I also have Ryan. That says it all....he can't wait for all three of us to go to barrel races. He and Shelby cheering me on. I'm so lucky to have a husband that can't wait to be a dad and to really step up to the plate. He makes me so proud.

I remember my aunt telling me as a kid when you start liking boys you want to ride anymore, when you get into high school you won't want to ride, etc. It never stopped me. I always craved it. Even when I sold my horse to move to Houston I only lasted two years before I moved to the country and bought my first horse, Twister. (I still have him and I doubt he'll every leave this place.) There is just something about a horse. Twister and I went through a lot...heartbreaks, losing Mom, losing Ryan (my nephew), sharing beers, celebrating good times in barrel racing as well as just enjoying life on horseback. It's where I belong and, God willing, where I'll always be. I can't wait to share my love and passion for horses with Shelby. If she has half the drive I have we will see her do great things with horses. And, if she doesn't like horses, then I guess that is more horses for me to ride! See, win/win situation! :)

Good News - It is RAINING...I mean raining...not rain 30 min. then stop. It is raining hard with no thunderstorms. So, this is PERFECT for us. We are so excited! I went for a walk in our back pasture yesterday and the pasture was looking kinda sad. So, I was relieved to see rain this morning when I woke up.

How ironic it rains on my last day of vacation. Hahaha...I guess that means I'll be doing house chores. That is ok. I need to do it anyhow. I don't have many maternity clothes so I need to do laundry so I'm good to go with full time work again.

Tonight is my church baby shower. I'm very excited. It means we're getting that much closer to the arrival of Shelby Lynn (only 8 wks left this Friday). I feel so blessed to have such good people in my life! Most of you know, but we have NO family down here. It's just Ryan and me. It really warms my heart to know that I do have such wonderful friends that treat us like family. Friends that are willing to take time out to host a shower for us and to show us how much they love us. Many thanks to Melanie, Esther and Debbie for hosting the shower. I can't express my gratitude enough but I do want them to know how much I appreciate it. What better way then starting with my blog??!!

Well, it looks like the rain took a break so I'm going to go and feed. I'll be sure to add my pictures from the baby shower once I get a chance to post them. Hopefully in the next day or so. :)

Let It Rain

We FINALLY got rain yesterday. We get a Tropical Storm with 100% chance of rain and we don't get any. We get a normal day w/20% and we get rain. What a strange year. Anyhow, we were very excited because we thought for sure the rain clouds we saw were going to past right by our home. But, it didn't. We got heavy rain and strong thunderstorms for about 20 min. then it just rained for another 20 or so min. after that. So exciting. The thunderstorms were so strong we even lost our power. It took 3 hrs to come back on. We lost it around 4:30 at 6 PM I told Ryan he had to go and get the generator cause I was burning up. So, he dragged the generator up to the house and we plugged it into a window unit we had. The cats and I were very happy!

Finally at 7:30 the power came back on. Here's the funny story....We have a window unit in our living room and we also have a coffee table that sits right below it. Our cat Cubby Bear (AKA Roo Daddy...who knows where he got that nickname...Ryan comes up with the strangest names...)...anyhow...he loves laying there and letting the cool air blow directly on him. Well, as soon as I turned the unit back on he jumped up and layed right underneath the A/C unit. It was so cute I had to take a short video...Enjoy!

Ryan broke his thumb this week. He was kicked by a horse. He has to wear a thing around his wrist and hand. It holds his thumb straight. They wanted to put a cast on but he said he couldn't do that cause he needed his hand to work. He shoed 2 horses and trimmed on yesterday with the thing on his hand. Poor thing...It took him longer than usually cause he couldn't bend his wrist or use his thumb. Of course, it is his right hand. He is doing ok...so that is good. He'll have to wear it for three weeks.

I had my dr. appt this morning and it went well. My new dr. is still not Dr. Giammarco, but he seems nice. He and is staff seem to have a more entertaining personality. I like that. I don't like going in and just feeling like another number. I also asked how Dr. G was doing and they said the doctors said he's doing better than expected at this time. So that was reassuring. Praise God. Please continue to pray for him as he recovers. I look forward to going back to him. I have REALLY REALLY missed him.

I went into work today to start getting ready for the new year so I guess I should keep this short. Here are a couple of photos of me. I guess I need to deal with the reality that I have gained weight...These were taken this past week.

Sady loves to lay with Shelby and me and snuggle with Shelby. I will put her between my legs and she'll stretch her paws over my belly and rest her head on my belly. It is really cute. She also likes to lay on the side like this pic. I took it myself so it didn't turn out all that great...but I thought it was cute.

Tropical Storm Eduoard

Well, yesterday at this time we were expecting 4 inches of rain in our area. LOL TS Eduaord came and went and yet another day of no rain. Arg....we mowed the lawn yesterday with the hopes of rain and green grass. Now, it will probably fry. Oh well...less work for me, right? :)

So, today we went to our friend's (Jesse and Rebecca) house to hang out and play games with them. It was nice not sitting at home and hanging out with good friends. We had a lot of fun.

My dr. appt. got cancelled cause of the T.S. So, we moved it to Friday. Tomorrow I have my training and I'm looking forward to that. It is a long drive though. Luckily I'll be able to ride with a fellow co-worker 1/2 of the way. That will be nice.

That's about it for me. Pictures are coming soon...

God Bless!
Stacie

Last Week of Freedom...so to speak

This is my last week before we start school again. Where did the 2 months go? It sure was nice being off and having a chance to relax. This summer has been hot and keeps getting hotter though! I wish we could work in the summer and take our 'summer vacation' another time like early spring or late fall! Then we could do things outside during the day.

The weather has been super hot and dry to say the least. There has been no breeze and the temps are reaching the 100 degree mark. I still don't miss the snow! Ryan and I talked about that yesterday. He says he does. Poor thing...as long as he is married to me I don't forsee us living in the cold climate. You Northerners can have that! I lived it for 23 years and that was enough. Of course...as they always say...never say never...

I have no big plans for this week. I applied to be a "SMART Exemplary Educator" and that entitled me to a free training through SMART Technologies. So, I'm going to that this Wednesday. My friend, Rachel, will be presenting so it will be good to see her as well. She lives in Houston and travels several days during the week so I don't get to see or talk to her very often.

I also have a dr. appt. on Tuesday. It is just the usual appt....check your blood pressure, baby's heartbeat, and how big you've gotten. I'm sure I have put on quite a bit of weight cause Shelby has gotten pretty big this month. 10 more weeks! YES! Ryan and I are both very anxious and ready for her arrival.

We took a pic of me yesterday but I didn't like it so I'll take another one soon to post. This weight gain can be mentally challenging! The other day Ryan told me I had something on my pants in the butt area so I looked back to see what it was and...BAM..."Baby Got Back"...I said "Where did that come from???"...so now I got what I would call a "Getto Booty"...Ryan likes it...I'm not so fond of it.

I do have to do some more maternity clothes shopping. I need some more pants as i only have two pairs for work. I don't like buying pants online cause they tend to be short and I need to try them on.

That's about it. I woke up this morning at 3:30ish and tried to go back to sleep with no luck. So, I'm up writing this, checking my email, facebook, you know the usual stuff to make me sleepy again. If I take Tylenol I can sleep all night, but w/o it I tend to wake up from all the aches and pains I'm experiencing. (I am not sure if I should take Tylenol everyday...probably not...I need to ask my doctor.) It sure is going to be tough going back to work. God Bless all my friends that had to work through their entire pregnancy. I am very happy that I had these couple of months off to rest. It's funny....we can plan and plan...and then when it doesn't go are way we might become frustrated...only to find out that God's plan is ALWAYS better. Having the summer off was definatetly better. I call it my "Last Peaceful Summer"....hehehe....

Shelby's Crib is Ready

We finally have put together Shelby's crib. I was so excited. The day I received it I washed everything and put it on her crib.


We also received car seats from one of my best friends, JoLynn along with a lot of fun toys and other useful baby things. Oh my, kids do require a lot don't they?


Cubby Bear had to make sure the car seat was safe and comfortable for Shelby to sleep in. I thought it was too cute and had to share. :)


Oh, I almost forgot...I got the results from my 3 hour glucose test. I past and do not have gestational diabetes! YES YES YES is all I can say since I crave sugar and chocolate whether I'm pregnant or not pregnant. My blood pressure is holding very well too! It has been in the 110/77 range which is good. My only concern is my heart rate seems to rise quickly. At rest it is around 77 (which is good since it goes up 10-15 pts when you are pregnant) but it rises to 95ish when I walk around or do minor physical work. So, I'll ask the dr. about that next week and see what he has to say.

I have switched doctors again as well. With Dr. Giammarco still being out I decided it would be best to switch to a different doctor than the one assigned to me when Dr. G went on medical leave. I have heard good things about this doctor so I am hopeful he will meet our needs as an OBGYN. I'll meet with him for the first time next Tuesday.

Hurricane Dolly Update

As you have probably seen on the news Dolly ended up being a little stronger than we had planned down here. She made land fall yesterday around noon near Brownsville as a Category 2 (100 MPH winds). She did quite a bit of damage down there with the strong winds and 15 inches of rain.

As for us, 6+ hours North of where she hit we did get some rain too. Yes! Not too much either. So, we are looking forward to greener pastures. What a blessing for us as our pastures were looking pretty bad.

It was interesting watching the clouds and how they move in relation to a hurricane. The last couple have hit at night so we weren't able to watch them. Yesterday Ryan and I went up to "The Ranch" as we call it, which is a big ranch our close friend, Eloy, works for so Ryan could shoe a couple of his stud horses. Anyhow, we were able to watch the clouds move in their circular motion as they dumped the rain on us, rotate to just cloud cover , and then an hour or so later more rain. It was pretty cool watching them move just like you see on the news casts.

Watching what a category 2 can do really made me realize how strong these hurricanes are and how much damage they can do. We are only about 45 min. from the Gulf Coast so we could really get hit hard if a hurricane were to come our direction. It was a reality check for me as to what we would need to do to protect our house and barns as best we could if one were to come our way. What is scary is sometimes the only thing you can do is make sure you have enough insurance.

I was going to take pictures to share with y'all but it just looks like a dark, rainy day so I didn't think it was worth taking pictures.

Well, time for me to sign off. My cats are looking outside right now as if to say "You promised you'd take us out today!!!" They love being outside, but can only go out when supervised because Cubby Bear (the big, long haired cat) jumps the fence and sneaks off. We live on a busy road so that makes me nervous that he might wonder in the wrong direction.

Hurricane Dolly

Well, we have our first minor threat of a hurricane for this season. Like last year, it has been quiet. That is good. However, it has been EXTREMELY dry here in Boling. So, that is not good. Damon, about 12 miles from us has gotten plenty of rain. Our friends are working on their 2nd cutting of hay this season and we have yet to cut our first. We got 3 days of rain last month, but it was not very much. We haven't seen any rain since then! So, everything is beginning to die. (Sorry, for some reason my computer is not letting me put in paragraphs...very annoying!)...anyhow...Hurricane Dolly is going to come to shore south of us later this week which means we should get some of the rain. So, are fingers are crossed! We hope to get lots of rain on Wed. and Thurs. Hopefully we'll get the rain and the Hurricane will continue to be fairly harmless!!! Well since this computer is not cooperating I'm going to sign off early...I'll share more another day.