Riding with Shelby

Shelby and I went riding last Sunday. I forgot we took pictures.  Here they are. :)  I love my little cowgirl!

Shelby continues to crack us up.  She does the funniest things.  The other day we were in Ryan's truck and we hear this snorting coming from the back seat.  We look back to see Shelby with a big grin on her face, finger up her nose and she's snorting.  We both busted out laughing!

Last night she learned the word 'up' and the word 'sit', but sit came out more like 'shit'.  Haha!  We'll have to work on that.  She loves to sing and dance too. We try to catch her when she's getting her groove on, but as soon as we put the camera up to take a video pic of her she quits. 

This weekend should be fun.  I have  barrel race in La Porte.  I think Shiner will be healed enough (he pulled the skin off of his leg somehow) to run.  So, I plan to run Twister and Shiner in the first 30 runners.  Then, head back home to drop the horses off and get cleaned up for a wedding.  My friend, Alison, is getting married in Missouri City (just south of Houston) and her reception is in downtown Houston somewhere.  Since Ryan doesn't do Houston, Rebecca is going to go wtih me.  A girls' night out should be fun.

Tonight I'm going to Melanie's house to see if she has anything nice I can borrow. I don't have any nice dress clothes.

Last night was fun too. I got to ride Twister and Cowgirl.  Cowgirl continues to amaze me.  She is such a nice horse and she is SOOOOOO smart!  I love her natural talent. I also love that she's willign to use it and not lazy!  She and I are going to be a great team together!  Y'all wait and see!  In 2 years I'll be saying "See, I told you she'd be great!" :)

Oh how I wish to be able to ride horses full time. 

Many teachers and ITS (what my job title is) are getting more and more worried as our district talks about lay offs and job cuts.  We have a big deficit and they are looking to make cut backs.  I am trying to not jump on the band waggon of nervous people and just going with the flow.  Time will tell and there is not much we can do about it other than do my best at my job. 

5 YOs say the darndist things!

So I had to sub for two Kinder class for about 30 minutes while the teachers were in a meeting.


One of the students walks up to me and this is our conversation….

Student - "I swallowed a pill."

Me "U swallowed a pill?" with the feeling of panic.
Student "Yes, 1st I put the pill in my mouth. 2nd I drank some chocolate milk. 3rd I swallowed the pill. My mom was so proud of me."  "It's going to help me be smart and go to first grade."

The relief finally came for me!  I also have to say that I was impressed with the nice “How To” he did….

Mooooooooo.....

So last night we were supposed to go ride with the girls.  However the horses had other plans.  The back 4 horses broke down the fence between the back pasture and the creek which leads to the very back 5 acres.  We left them out there for a few days, but was trying to get them up so we could go ride at the George Ranch.  Ryan tried for 30 minutes with no luck.  So, i saddled up Shiner, put Shelby on and we made our way to the back.  Shiner was a good boy and took care of us girls. I was a little worried cause he is a high strong horse.

On the way to the back, the neighbors cows were mooing.  It was so cute.  They would Moo then Shelby would be Moo....back and forth.  That was the highlight of my night

I finally made it back and cross the bridge to the creek.  Ryan got Shelby and I tried to 'cowgirl' those horses up to the front pasture.  They wouldn't do it.  After getting hung up in the trees and chasing them a few times around the pasture I decided to do it a different way.  I had brought a halter and I was going to try and catch my mare (who was causing all the problems according to Ryan...it's never THEIR horse! HA)....she wouldn't come to me and Ryan started fussing at me.  He got so mad he stormed off screaming at us (me and the horses) the whole way  while carrying Shelby.  LOL  He had to carry her all the way to the front.  I had intentions of giving her a ride back up, but since he was mad and just new I was wrong he left with her.  Oh well....

he told me on the way back she leaned over a little, then a little more, then a little more til she was directly in his face.  Then she puckered her lips to give me a kiss.  Needless to say he got over his anger fairly quickly.  Daughters seem to have that power over their daddy's!

After he left I got back on and tried to push them up with Shiner again.  That wasn't working and I wasn't goign to mess up his legs just to get these stupid horses.  So, I got back off and I tried to approach them on foot.  By this time, all the horses were pretty tired and it didn't take too long for Romeo to come to me and let me put the halter on.

I had hopes to put the rope on Cowgirl (my mare), but she wasn't having nothting to do with that!  I guess that's the female in her.  I also tried to grab up Twister and Badger but they would get away just as I went to put the rope around their necks. They've been there, done that!

Anyhow, I then decided to walk the two I had up to the front pasture and come back for another one until I got them all up.  Lucky for me, they other three started following me.  So, I kept walking and sure enough when I crossed the bridge they crossed the bridge.

I then got back on Shiner and ponied Romeo the rest of the way and the other three fools walked behind me with their heads hanging low as they were pretty tired.

By this time, it had been an hour since this whole process started, but at least they were coming up.  They eventually all came up to the barn and they are all now grounded.  I moved all 4 of them into the pasture directly behind our house.  I moved Smoke to the pasture behind our barn, but closed off the back two pastures so we don't have to go hunting for horses for a while.  We will fix the fence this weekend.

Unfortuantely, it was too late to hook up and go ride with the girls.  The good news is I got 5 horses worked but only had to ride one!

On a side note, I was pretty proud of Shiner.  He was cutting the horses and getting up in front of them.  he also plowed through the heavy brush in the very back of our pasture where the horses were hiding.  Ryan yelled at me and said I didn't know what I was doing, but I've learned to not listen or care about what he says when he is mad.  He wanted to ride Shiner to push them all forward, but I was not going to let him do that.  That would've been a DISASTER with Shiner's nervousness and Ryan's temper! 

Here's a pic of Shelby I took before we went out that evening....she was eating a grilled cheese sandwich. I said say cheese and she did...too cute!

Rent House in CA

We have found a house to rent in CA.  Nancy just confirmed so it's a go...it looks beautiful!  Here's  pics of the house.  The beach is about 11 houses from where we are staying, so I can see us taking some nice walks on the beach!  I sure hope Shelby is walking by then!  She'll have so much fun playing on the sand and the water.  I wonder how cold the water will be!!!

Buckle Won!

On Saturday we hosted the Rodeo Sweethearts Barrel Bang. It is a fundraiser barrel race we do for the youth fair. We've been doing this race for several years. I always compete but have yet to win one of our buckles.

I am proud to announce that the buckle has been won! Shiner, in his novice year, won himself a buckle!!!! He and Twister also won some cash which will be put towards our CA trip in May!!




I was proud of myself too because I was so sick!! I woke up Friday night at 2 AM with stomach pains. I knew that was a bad sign. I threw up at 2:30, 3:30, 5:30, & 7:30! Yuck!

I knew i had to help run the race, but thought there was no way I would be able to run. As the day went on I started to feel a little better. I thought well mybe I'll just run Twister. I decided to wash twister and shiner and decide if I was going to run both at the race later.

I arrived around 2:30 PM and was feeling better so I decided to run shiner too! He was a bit squirrely but was settling down after I ponied him and rode him down. I then went and got lunch...

As the day progressed I started to feel worse. As I exhibitioned shiner I thought for sure I might be leaning over him to be sick.

Luckily I kept it all down and made my run. He did pretty well and so I made sure to tell him he did well and scratched him on the neck and head before going to get twister for his run.

The nice thing about twister is we go back 9 years and we know each other so well. So we warmed up and then took Shelby for a ride to keep Twister loose and Shelby happy.

We then went in and made our run. Our timing was off a bit on the 1st but the 2nd and 3rd were perfect! I was so proud of him. He has so much heart! If he was just 0.200 second faster he would've had a buckle to bring home too!

At the end of the day shiner won 1st in the 5D and Twister was 3rd in the 3D. Shiner has a lot of 'growing' to do but he is showing a lot of improvement already! I can see it clicking one day and he'll kick butt! I can't wait for that day to come in the near future!

Today we hung around the house. we had a sunny day but I stayed in most of the day. I am just now feeling better.

Here are some pics of Shelby.

Snuggly warm!


Getting sleepy!



Opening Valentine's Day card from great grandma Helmreich. Go figure she likes the envelope the best. The money will go into her bank acct towards her first pony!


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Shelby

I took Shelby for her 15 month check up (she's 16 months now). She got 3 shots and took em like a champ! She is 20lbs, 30 inches long. She is in the 25th percentile.

I talked with her doc about her not walking yet. She said she doesn't see anything wrong with her and was not concerned. She said she is just being lazy cause she crawls well. She said Shelby is close to walking and it won't be long.

I was happy that she wasn't concerned and so we'll continue to practice and wait.

We are getting a boat load of rain today. It started around 5 AM and hasn't quit. YUCK! The water is draining well at the house and it isn't a heavy rain so that helps with my concern of flooding.

The horses are staying warm in the barn, the outdoor cats in the shop, the dogs in the garage and us in the house.

Luna, my dog, is getting old. She hasn't moved from the heat lamp. Poor old girl! She was shivering yesterday.






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Zoo

Amazing how time flies....I can't believe it's been a week since I last wrote. I have been so busy at work and home.

Last Saturday the three of us went to the Houston Zoo and had a lot of fun.  It was fun seeing all of the animals, but I did feel for them. I was dissappointed in the habitats, especially being at such a large zoo. They were small and not very animal friendly.  Poor animals! I kept thinking I hope that they were injured and that is why they are in that environment.

Shelby enjoyed seeing the animals and petting the goats in the petting zoo.  However, the fish were by far her favorite.  I'm guessing because of their bright colors and they move a lot.  She really enjoys watching them.  Uh Oh, I see a fish tank in our future! HA!  I linked the other pictures to "Houston Zoo" on the right.

Here are some pics from our fun day...

This Saturday is our Rodeo Sweethearts Barrel Bang in Rosenberg.  We are giving away buckles to the Open winners.  There are 5 divisions, so hopefully it will be a great turn out!  The weather is yuck and cold, but we have die hard barrel racers taht will show up. :)

I'm also excited to ride tonight with the sweethearts.  I haven't ridden ina  couple of weeks and that is just too long for me!  last night I went out and fed just to get out of the house and enjoy the smell of my barn.  It is getting stinky cause we can't clean out the manure that is accumulated, but it's better than staying inside! :)