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. :)