The Most Romantic Husband Award

Ladies and Gentlemen, I have the privilege of presenting Jeremy Steele as a nominee for the Most Romantic Husband Award. The story is as follows. Jeremy came home on Friday and asked me to find a babysitter for Saturday... needless to say it was a little short notice for finding a sitter in the area. But, luckily Tina, the most amazing babysitter on the planet!-was available to watch the kids. Jeremy was acting quite mysteriously all day Saturday, running off to town and off to do other chores. I even told his mother that he was up to no good! When Tina showed up with her cute kids, David, Malcolm and Cassandra - we headed off to the ranch. At that point I was pretty sure what Jeremy had in mind. We took the four wheeler out to catch Miles and Tigger - two very handsome bays, not boys - bays. We saddled up and headed out west on the ranch. Of course, the minute we got to some open country, it was a race! Tigger and Miles have a mutual dislike for each other and there was no way that Tigger was going to let Miles win this one! Of course, I wasn't exactly prepared for the all out race and had to really hunker down and hold on! After Jeremy got the boys settled down, we meandered along with the creek. Of course, I thought Jeremy was lost, but he insisted that he wanted to let me get as much time in the saddle as possible. I still think he was lost! We had a few more races in the open range, but I was prepared for these ones. We startled a mom with three, yes three, fawns down near our destination. Our destination? A secluded section of the creek with a small waterfall covered by a thick canopy of trees. The wind was still in the opening and we could hear some raccoons scratching around for some grub. Jeremy had set up earlier in the day a fire with some chairs, which were waiting for us. Jeremy had cooked up some foil dinners at home and so he just had to heat them up on some coals. We had a wonderful dinner with some of the "bubbly" (sparkling grape juice) and sat by the fire enjoying listening to the crickets which really was our peace and quiet. As it started to get a little darker, we decided that riding home would be a good thing to do, even if it was by moonlight. As we started back up to the house, we startled an entire herd, buck and all, of white tail deer. Tigger was not so into them and snorted his dislike for the interruption. As the last of the sunlight faded, Miles was content to just trudge along with Jeremy. Tigger was not so willing. The smallest sound or even a fence post would startle him enough to make me hold on. As we rode out of the trees and into the open, the wind picked up and added to Tiggers apprehensions. Jeremy and I held many conversations to calm Tigger down and it helped, until he heard something in the cornfield and he began to be tense all over again. I even tried singing to him. I don't think he enjoyed that so much... We finally made it back to the house and gave a very high-strung Tigger a good brushing and sent him off to join the safety of the other horses. The evening was one of the best of my memory and for that I have nominated Jeremy for the Most Romantic Husband Award.