What Would You Do?

I listened to news today about the Powerball winning ticket, which was purchased in a nearby town. Every once in a while, when I hear these stories, I think "what would I do if I had that much money all of a sudden".

Now this is a purely theoretical question for me, since as an elected official (I've been serving on my local school board for the past 11 years), I cannot legally buy lottery tickets, but that's beside the point for this mental exercise.

Today on the way home from the grocery store (boy have grocery prices shot up or what?), I heard the man who won had stepped forward to claim his prize, which started my mental "what would I do" list again.

Here's what I came up with:

1. I'd encourage my husband to buy a new vehicle for himself. His car is still running fine, but it's the oldest car we have, and has lots of miles on it, so I'd encourage him to buy something new. I wonder what he'd get?

2. We will have 2 kids in college this fall. I would set aside enough money for them for undergraduate, and graduate/advanced degrees so they would have lots of options without worrying about future debt.

3. I would ask my Mom what she would like. She would say she doesn't need anything, so I would ask her what she would like.

4. I would set aside money so that we wouldn't need to worry about our financial future - retirement would not mean monetary stress. I suspect part of this retirement picture would include buying a large enough boat that we could spend extended amounts of time on the water. Nothing fancy, but I would require a working bathroom...... If you missed the fact that I'm married to a boat/water man, just look back at some previous posts.

4. I would sign up for classes. Spinning classes, jewelry making, dyeing, maybe try some weaving. Places like Madrona, SOAR, maybe Haystack, Arrowmont, John C Campbell Folk School, or Penland. I love to try new things.

5. I would seriously consider going back to school full time.

6. We would travel.

And that's when my mental list stopped. I know. Shocking. Given millions of dollars to consider, I can only come up with 6 things I would do with it. Just reminds me that I am in reality lacking nothing in my life & that I have no right to complain.

So what would you do if you won the lottery?

Still Here? Why Yes, I Am, Thanks for Noticing.......

Poor neglected blog. Soo much has happened since I last posted and I've shared basically none of it. I kept trying to think of the best way back "in". Try to start where I left off and, through a marathon of picture sorting and blog posting, catch up to real time?

Much too intimidating. This kept me away from here for months.

Randomly post stuff from the past and later give everything "real" dates so they'd be back in chronological order?

Why bother - no one else knows or probably cares the real sequence of events anyway.

So, here's what I'm going to try to do: Just jump right back into posting and see what happens. Sounds simple enough, right? Thanks - I think so too.

So if you've visited my blog before, I really appreciate you coming back again. If you're here for the first time, I hope you'll add my page to your blog roll so you'll get notified when I post something new. I'd love to have comments filling me in on some highlights of your past year.

Alright, let's get started on catching up with one another already! Here are 10 things that have happened since I last posted. They are in no particular order, since I'm trying to just post and not worry about all the details:

1. I spent three challenging but really interesting weeks in South America with both my kids. Argentina, Bolivia and Peru. I will probably share some photos & stories every once in a while, but feel free to nudge me for them if you're particularly interested in seeing some.

2. My daughter spent two additional semesters abroad after Argentina. She spent a semester each in Mexico and England. I was lucky enough to be able to visit her in both places. She's back stateside now and moving into her college apartment soon.

3. I have been pretty consumed by knitting and crochet projects. Mostly knitting, which is odd, because I actually enjoy the process of crochet more. I think it's because there are so many more knitting patterns out there that I like than crochet patterns. Someone do something about that please.

4. I bought a spinning wheel and learned how to spin my own yarn. My husband thought I wanted to do this so I could save money on yarn. He's usually a smart man so I don't know what happened there.

5. Within 3 weeks of buying my first spinning wheel, I bought another. Now I own three. Before I was a spinner I said I didn't want to be one of those people who had multiple wheels. I'm sorry I ever said that. I swear I get it now. Each of the wheels is different.

6. I worked a full time temporary job with the Census Bureau. I had a blast and I have money in the bank to show for it.

7. My husband built an outdoor studio space for me. Running hot and cold water are included.

8. Our boy turned 18 and graduated high school. He's off to college in the fall. Two kids in college. At the same time.

9. My husband and I are going to be empty nesters.

10. I rescued a dog from the shelter last week. We call her Blu.