Ft. Bend Fair and Baby Shower

These last few weeks have been very busy. Thursday night Shelby dropped so now I can breath again! Yes! It sure does feel good...can't wait to have my entire body and energy level back! Anyhow, because she dropped Nancy decided to change her ticket and come early. She flew in on Saturday morning.

Friday night Ryan was in the open rodeo for team roping. No luck there. His header missed on the first steer and he missed for his header on the 2nd steer. It was still fun being out with all of our friends. The fair is like a big reunion...everyone you know but don't see very often is there. I love it! It's my favorite time of the year.

Nancy decided to fly in early since Shelby had dropped. So, Saturday after we picked Nancy up from the airport we went to Olive Garden (Yummy...I had been craving that for a while!)...we went home for a while then went back up to the rodeo for the 2nd night. Ryan didn't compete...we just hung out with friends and watched the rodeo. I had all intentions of watching Johnny Lee in concert but by 10:30 I was ready to go home or should I say Shelby was ready to go home!?! Since Nancy was too Ryan had to go home! HA!
This pic was taken Friday night at the fair. Ryan and I don't always get cleaned up so I thought I better take advantage of my clean shaving, good lookin' husband! :)

Sunday was our 'make up' day for our personal baby shower. It was a lot of fun and we had about 20 people come out for the big event. I'm so grateful to have such wonderful 'family' down here in Texas. The biggest surprise was when my 5 hosts (Donna, Erin, Glenda, Pam, and Rossy) bought us a rocking chair! Yes, a wood rocking chair! It is awesome! I had been wanting one but haven't taken the time to buy one. I guess there was a reason I procrastinated!

Here is a pic of me sitting in the rocker.


Last night was the ranch rode. Ryan was on a team of 4 men. There are 4 events and all the teams try to get a fast, qualifying time. The first event was cutting...they had about 10 cattle and as one man walks over the white line they call a number. They then have to get the steer with that number on his back plus the additional 2 numbers (ex: 4,5,6) out of that area and across the white line. They got DQ'd cause the wrong cattle went over. The 2nd event they had to rope a steer and pull the rope over a yoke then tie the steers head to the yoke (which is like a Y shaped tree stump) and then pull the heading rope off of the steer. The 3rd event 2 men have to head and heel the steer and stretch the steer out so he's lying on his side on the ground with his head and heels roped. Then, a third man has to put in X on the steer. The 4th event I missed cause it was late and I went to sleep in the horse trailer. So, I can't remember what they did for that. Overall, they got a time on 3 out of 4 events. Not bad! Ryan had so much fun too. He loved it...so maybe he'll start doing that more often. Ranch Rodeo events are very popular with the ranch cowboys because it's what most of them do everyday or, like Ryan, do it whenever they get an opportunity to work cattle.

Like rodeo events, each event originated from when cowboys had to do this for a living and they made a sport out of it. It's a lot of fun to watch too. I may upload some videos for you to watch, but that depends on how much time I get in the near future. Ha! My days are numbered!

Finally, I have my doctors appointment today. Probably my last one. If Shelby doesn't come this week I'll be induced next week. So, we're almost there. She is giving me all the signs she's getting ready so I'm anxious to see what doc says today. :)

I am in the process of adding pictures of my last two showers as well as this weekends events. It may take me most of the day, so be patient and enjoy. I'll add the shower pics to Shelby's link and I'll add the fair pics to "Texas"...enjoy!


Stacie

It's getting closer

Last night I did not sleep well. I was so glad we had today off for Ft. Bend County Fair Day. I tossed and turned a lot and my hips hurt so bad. I also got up a lot to use the restroom. Thank God our restroom is in our room. What a blessing something so simple as that is for me.

Then, I woke up this morning and it looked like my belly had downsized to about half the size. Shelby had managed to move way down and is getting ready for her decent. The doc said I had nothing to worry about before Tuesday, but I'm not so sure now. She's definately ready. I called my sister, Shelly, to ask her about it and she said it could be up to 5 days. That's fine with me. I would really like to just get through the weekend so Ryan can rope tonight and we can have our already rescheduled baby shower on Sunday. But, that will be up to Shelby.

I guess this means I should pack my bags for the hospital. I have started on Shelby's stuff, but haven't even thought about mine. I also have that surge of energy I read about. It feels so good to have energy again and to be able to breath again! We'll try to keep you posted. Keep your fingers crossed it is not for a few more days or longer. :)

Getting Closer to Shelby

I had my doctor appointment yesterday for 37 1/2 weeks. Doc says still no signs of having a baby, but I am getting closer. He expects me to make it to my appointment next Tuesday. We'll see where I'm at and decide what to do from there. He says he wants to induce me if I don't go into labor by the 39th week. So, if nothing happens we'll plan a day to have me induced the week of October 5th. That will be weird picking out her birthday if that happens.

Last week was my week to panic. This week it was Ryan's. :) I was relieved to hear that the doc didn't expect her to come between now and next Tuesday. Ryan is roping in the rodeo on Friday night and he's in the ranch rodeo on Monday. We've also rescheduled our baby shower to Sunday. We had to cancel because of Hurricane Ike. I also had hoped to make it to the PRCA Rodeo before Shelby came the weekend of Oct. 3rd. So, it looks like I'll be able to make it to all of them. Also, Mom Boudrie is coming Oct. 3rd and I was hoping to have a few days with her before Shelby's arrival.

I've added some pics from my ITS baby shower under Shelby's name. Enjoy.

I

Galveston Pictures

I have added pictures of my friend, Alison's, family beach house. This is the house I went to back in June for the day. I cannot believe how different everything looks. I have added the pictures of her beach house to "Hurricane Ike" but I wanted to show you this picture. I took the pic on the left when I was there in June because the view was so beautiful. The pic on the right is what it looks like now.

Most of the damage was done by the storm surge, but they also had hurricane winds up to 120 MPH. Although her family's beach house has damage it was minimal compared to those around it. This house has withstood many hurricanes including Hurricanes Alicia, Rita, Katrina and now Ike. Ike was only a category 2 (1 MPH from being a cat 3)...and look at the damage. It was such a big hurricane (500 miles wide) which is what it was as destructive as a larger hurricane.

In Memory of Diesel

Yesterday evening we lost Ryan's beloved dog, Diesel. He was one in a million and will be missed GREATLY. Ryan had just left with a friend and I went inside for just a few minutes to get some things together. I was leaving just a few minutes behind him. When I called for the dogs Diesel (aka Booze) didn't come like he always does. After calling and calling for him I went out to see if he was on the road. Unfortunately he was. We are both heart broken as this dog was not just any pet. He was our friend, Ryan's buddy. Just writing this brings me to tears and I know the next few days and weeks are going to be extremely hard for both of us. D brought a lot of life to our family and we are saddened that he will not be able to meet our daughter. We even made jokes of how he would be Shelby's first horse.


I know those of you that have had that special animal that left you way too soon can understand our hurt and pain.


Diesel loved playing fetch with Luna our other dog and Ryan or me every night, going for "Booze Cruises" as Ryan called them (which is a ride in Ryan's truck), playing with the kittens in the barn, and taking long, fast runs in our back pasture to stretch his legs. No words will describe how much we will miss him.


Here is a fun picture of our D just taken a few weeks ago trying to catch the tennis ball in the air. He wasn't very good at it but tried with all his heart and sacrificing his body 'for the game' as we always said.

More Pics of Ike

I thought I would let you know that I have snagged some pics from my friends around the Houston area and added them to my Hurricane Ike picture gallery. I will add more as they come up.

I had my ITS baby shower yesterday. ITS is my job title and there are about 25 of us in the district. Two of my close friends (Monica and Kaylene) hosted the shower. I was so surprised to see many of my co-workers to the party because many of them are still dealing with the aftermath of Hurricane Ike. Many of them have family members staying with them or they are staying with family members due to no power. It meant a lot to me for them to take time out of their very crazy week to come and spend some time with me to celebrate the upcoming birth of Shelby. I also appreciate those friends who planned to attend but were not able to. My prayers are with all of you during this trying time.

We took lots of pictures and I plan to upload those pics in the near future.

As for Ike news....We still have 25 out of 60 schools w/o power in my district. At this time FBISD plans to open up and get back to normal life. However, our superintendent was going to talk with Centerpoint Energy to find out the status of the schools w/o power and would make a final decision today. Either way, faculty and staff will go to work on Monday.

We have one school that lost 60% of its roof (Christa McAuliffe MS) and the students at that school will have to attend Willowridge until repairs can be made. I was told they plan to reopen the school 2nd semester. I'll be impressed if they are able to do all that construction by January. Kudos to them if they can! I don't believe there was any major damage done to any of the other schools, but I could be wrong.

As for us...the roofing company came out and did the measurements on our home and will have an estimate for us on Monday. I talked with our insurance agency and they are having more adjusters come to this area to help with the work load and plan to have adjuster come out sometime in the near future. So, we'll see what happens with that.

I'm still waiting to find out if my friend, Alison's, family lost their beach house on Jamaica Beach. I went to visit her back in June for the day and really enjoyed the home and the beach life. I am still hopeful that their home will be standing. It has withstood many other Hurricanes. They are allowing home owners to go to Jamaica beach today, so hopefully they'll find out today what the status of their home is.

Here is a pic I took from her deck back in June.

Hurricane Ike Pics and Video

Here is a video by our place of Hurricane Ike last Friday evening. It's not too exciting, but it is still interesting to see and hear the changes as the hurricane came in.

I have also added a place on the right for pics of Hurricane Ike. My friend's have pics from various places around the city. I plan to snag them so you can see their damage as well.

We are back to work today. So far, the kids are to come back on Monday. However, I don't believe all schools have power in our district yet. I'm not sure about the damage yet either. I'm fortunate as my two schools don't have any damage that I know of. PHEW! I also found out one of the middle schools in FBISD lost its roof. I don't have anymore details, but will share if they arise.

On a side note, I had told you about our sick kittens. Come to find out the Momma cat (Scrappy) had gotten in infection on one of her nipples and that, in turn, made the kittens sick. They all died. Scrappy is doing ok and is nursing a hole she has in her belly. She is still in pain but is looking better. Since she is basically wild we are unable to treat her. Poor Momma...