It's here! It's HERE!

The saga started last week. I'd made my decision to get Sparrow ready to sell in the spring so that I could finally make my dream come true and have a riding horse of my own.

Let me explain how huge this is: I have only ever wanted ONE thing with an undying passion and desire in my life... a horse. I have pined for my own horse, ached for my own horse, cried myself to sleep as a teenager for my own horse. I have had brief moments in time where i had that hearts desire in my grasp but they always always always slipped away. But now... it is a possibility. And I am intent on not only making this dream come true (which is part of what I am documenting here) but by finding a way, someway, somehow, to get my DREAM horse. My hairy little drafty pinto marked horse. I have one in mind that I am trying to get the money together for. First we have to pay back some money we owe, but that shouldn't be too tough (yay tax refund!) and then I can work toward my goal.

At any rate, with this in mind I was daydreaming about things like fat sassy hairy horses and shiny tack and I wandered onto a saddle on ebay. My favorite saddle ever was an Australian Stock Saddle. So I wanted another one. This saddle was black with light stitching, western style panels, and a strap instead of a horn. EVERYTHING I wanted and at a great price.

So, Tsu had asked earlier what I wanted for Christmas and I had said, "To get my ring fixed." My lovely ring that I designed has a chipped emerald and I would like my engagement ring and the band to be welded together plus since I lost some weight it is a little loose. But... the saddle... *ME WANT*

So I sent him a message at work and said, "Would you mind if I changed my mind and had you try to get me this instead?"

He checked it out and asked if I was sure. Of course I was sure. So the next day he bid on it, and set it up to auto bid up to a certain point. The next night he came in from hunting and said, "Someone out bid us. I got a page." Oh. *sad face*

I didn't want to get into a bidding war so I told him, "Let's just hold off and see what happens, and if there are no new bids we can try and get one in at the last minute. If not than it was never meant to be."

Every 5 minutes for two days I checked it, there were no new bids. Then, the day before the auction ended I went to check it and.... all the other bids were gone and the price was set back to the bid we had put in before and we were the high bidders!!! I have no clue what happened but I was giddy with delight. (A lot of things make me giddy with delight. I am easily giddy-fied.)

So originally the delivery date was suppoed to be friday. Of course we had the worst snow storm of the year to date on friday and our driveway was completely impassable. I was so worried about MY saddle! Tsu checked the delivery status for me and it said projected delivery had been changed to Monday because the saddle was still in Ohio. *PHEW!* Tsu plowed the drive saturday and then sunday we were gone all day only to come home and find the driveway completely drifted over. *sad face again*

Well, there was no way he could get out this morning to plow before the UPS delivery truck made it's rounds and I was so concerned that they would either not deliver OR would try to and would end up stuck. About 10:30 Nigel starts to bark. I jump up and run to the door and look out to see the UPS truck at the end of the drive! I panic! I'm jumping around the livingroom trying to find a way to get into my snow suit before they give up and leave and take my saddle with them!

I manage to get my feet into Tsu's boots since it would take too much time to get into my own, dash out the door and see: Two UPS guys walking back to the truck and a hug box on my porch. *pass out* I squealed with joy. These poor men had tromped up my almost 1/4 mile driveway with this huge box, and unknowingly made me one of the happiest girls alive, and they were too far away for me to let them know how much I truly appreciated it.

So I dragged the box into the house, hands trembling in anticipation, and opened up the box.

Angels sang a triumphant chorus. Stars twinkled. Birds joined the angels in their glorious melody. OK, maybe that is going overboard but inside I FELT like all of those things were happening.

It's beautiful, and far nicer quality that we deserve for what we paid for it. I am so happy with it that I want to cry tears of joy. Unable to resist I strapped it around my Swiss Stability Ball that I use to work out and for an hour I pretend rode my pretend horse on my REAL saddle. Now I am using it as a foot stool as I write and when I am done here I shall be pretend riding my pretend horse again.

The only thing that would make this Christmas better would be waking up Christmas morning to find my dream horse in my barn. But seriously, between my saddle and my muzzle loader this is without a doubt my best Christmas so far. Not because of the STUFF I have been given but because the things I have received have been things I have dreamed of, and wanted, and the people who love me paid enough attention to KNOW how much they would mean to me.

My heart sings.

I'm going to go pretend to ride my pretend horse again. I may be almost 40 but you are never too old to pretend.