Roping or Riding

Epilogue

I mounted the gelding waiting on my husband. That has a really nice ring to it. I scratched his shoulder and watched as Charlie came out with his heeling horse. "Ready to go?" He asked. "Yeah." I told him. "You sure?" He asked. "Charlie I can still rope at six months. If I was carrying twins instead of one then I wouldn't be." I told him. We both were kind of worried about when we were going to start having kids. But around the last day of June/first day of July was apparently when we started the road to parenthood.

During Calgary I got so sick before deciding to take a pregnancy test to see if I actually was. And low and behold, I was pregnant. At four months I stopped bronc riding. Right after NFR is when I'm going to stop riding and just relax to let the baby grow without the saddle horn in the way. Hopefully we win the roping events and take home some cash and buckles. Life's good and only a few spats here and there about the nursery colors for our little one.

Charlie honestly can't wait to hold our baby in his arms and hopefully I don't go into labor eleven weeks early. Soon it was our turn. The announcer was droning on to the audience about how I refused to let my husband down by continuing to rope with him for this occasion. I looked down at the steer and glanced up at him before calling it. As soon as the perfect loop landed over the head and around the neck I made sure not to hit my belly on the saddle horn.

Luckily it was the second to last event since bull riding was first. Our time was down and our score was good. We exited the ring and went to put them away while saddle bronc was going. "You did good out there sugar." He said. "You too." I told him. "I still can't wait for our child to be born." He said. I chuckled walking with him back to the arena.

In no time the rough stock riders were named. Then the barrel racer and steer wrestler. "We have a special announcement for the tie down and team roping. Charlie Mote for tie down and both he and Dallas Mote his wife won team roping and are expecting a baby girl!" The announcer said. What? That's honestly one way to reveal the gender. We both had no clue what the baby was and wanted it announced during NFR. "Congratulations to the new parents." He said before we got our buckles and later posed for pictures.

Charlie didn't want me to even lift anything heavy this whole time so I'm not completely over working myself into labor early. I leaned against the truck hoping that was the Braxton Hicks contractions and not the real ones. Every ten minutes it intensified. "Charlie." He came over to me. "What's wrong?" He asked. "I do believe that it's going to be eleven weeks early." I told him. "Now?" He asked. "Yeah. Now." I told him.

So she'll either be roping or riding....

or even both....