Do Good, Run Fast...DONE! :)

I'm sooooo proud of Badger! He has really stepped up to my challenges this year and met them all with ease. Badger and I went from running in the 5D (in the 17s)...to the 2D (in the 15s-to low 16s)....Now, to you non-barrel racers that doesn't sound like a lot. But if you run, you understand what a big deal that is for me, us.

This weekend we had two runs in Fulshear and a team roping in Katy. Saturday, I ran a 15.8 to place 2nd in the Open 2D and 2nd in the Novice horse. That moved us up to 2nd (tie) in the standings for Novice and only 11 points behind the 1st place Novice horse. We were barely in the top 10 just a couple of races ago! We had a great run. We had a great run and brought home a check, so we can't complain. I'll add the video later this week.

Sunday morning we had to get up early to be in Katy by 9 AM. We got there only to sit til 11 AM for the roping to start. It was hot, so i spent most of the time in the truck with the a/c running while Shelby took a nap. Ryan's first heeler missed in the 1st round and his 2nd heeler legged (caught 1 leg instead of two). So, by the time he got to the 2nd round I was able to get Shelby in the stroller, pull her up 10+ steps in the colliseum just in time to watch him rope and his 2nd heeler miss. That was dissappointing, but that is how roping is. The bummer is 1st paid $3,000 a man. We sure could have used that!

Speaking of, we have had his condessor on his truck go out, the big window unit in our living room quit working (probably the compressor), our generator for the trailer is not working, I ran over a nail and blew out the tire on our car, and I smashed the side mirror of my truck. So, it was even harder to watch that money slip from our hands. Then, somehow, $80 came up missing out of our winnings/rodeo money. I have looked everywhere and have no idea what could've happened to it. Whoever has it, hopefully, needed it more than us I guess.

Anyhow, sticking with the positive....We then loaded up and headed to Fulshear for the NBHA barrel race. I felt confident after Saturday's run and was looking forward to the run. Again, it was hot, so Ryan got baby duty as I made my run. I wish I had it on video because it felt really good. I felt it was even better than Saturday. The pattern was a 1/2 second bigger, so my 16.418 was a good run in my opinion. I believe we were about 1/10 slower, but can't blame Badger. He had already been to a roping that morning! Anyhow, we placed 4th in the 2D and brought home another check.

I've decided Badger is very good with the average races because he is so consistant, so that will probably be my focus next year. Ryan and I both would rather go to the bigger races and have a chance to win bigger money.

Our weekends are quickly filling up with barrel races and team ropings. So, now it's time to start picking and choosing where to run Badger. It is hard to not run when I'm in the standings, but I need to take care of BAdger. I still hope to run some rodeos and running him two times a weekend is not good for him and will wear him out quickly. I have other horses in the barn, just no time to ride them. In time, right??? :) With that said, I'm planning to back out of the Wharton Rodeo. He doesn't like that arena. I'll also have to skip the Rodeo Sweethearts race. If you remember, I missed out on a 1D buckle my like 1/10 of a second or something like that.

Oh, that reminds me...that will be a fun weekend...3 barrel races in 2 days...I'll probably run at 2 of them. We'll see how Badger feels.

Anyhow...busy, busy, busy...We have got to get some horses sold or ridden to meet the demands of our life.

On to Shelby - She was an angel through this weekend. She had to take a lot of naps in her car seat in the truck and I was very proud of what a trooper she was! She just loves seeing all the people and showing them how cute she is. I always have to stand there as they talk to her amazed at how much she smiles. Of course, some want to hold her and talk to her. She really likes that! I can see the heat being a real challenge for us and our rodeo life with Shelby, but we will get through it.

The good news is we FINALLY got a picture of her tooth. It's not the greatest pic and it's blurry, but I thought y'all would enjoy it. :) She wants to hold and chew on the camera or put her tongue over her tooth, so it's hard to get the pic just right. This has been my most successful attempt and I've been trying for weeks!

Here's a video of her...again, attempting to show the tooth...with no luck!!!

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.