Like most people, I would like a new home. On land that I already own, but one far more efficient, and all on one level. (Told you I was old!)

Help meeting creature comforts sounds good. If someone cooked for me, I’d eat a more healthy diet I’m sure. Massage on a regular basis would be wonderful. I’d like to watch someone else mow and pick up limbs and cut firewood.

Have someone clean out the pasture, build a pond. Oh, this list does go on and on. I’d like to set up some sort of endowment to help families who adopt special kids. Those folks deserve more help than is currently available to them.

I know I’m late to the party – but thanks for this bit of fun.

two chicks at the same time

So this is after all the responsible things right? Being debt-free with a whole debt-free family… ok got it.
1. I would rent the whole entire cruise ship for the Alaskan cruise, invite all of my family and friends to come and go see the beautiful glacier with my loved ones.
2. Buy a full functioning ranch, by ranch I mean very large home on very large property with animals in some distant pasture. Somewhere beautiful, maybe Montana.
3. Buy everyone I know a nice car or truck of their choice. So when I show up in mine, no whining from anyone.
4. Send my husband and brother to Europe to see all the things they are always talking about and that I do not want to see due to flying across oceans.
5. Do some really fun crazy things like take a fully loaded credit card to a grocery store and tell the manager that for the next hour all purchases are on me, but don’t tell the customers until checkout. I figure within an hour the store would be filled with people who heard so time to duck out to another place like walmart! Holla! and not let the customers know who bought their stuff.
6. Be a suprise benefactor in various places randomly. How cool would it be to show up at a random house closing for a family of modest means and after they sign the paperwork, they get their deed paid in full and their downpayment back? And no one to tell them how or who? That would rock.
7. I would indulge in a chef, a housekeeper and a nanny. Yes I would. Ok and a trainer for my obvisiously lazy ass.
8. I would find a cobbler, and have my shoes custom made, so they didn’t hurt me! I would own more then one pair of shoes!
9. I would find out what 1200 thread count sheets felt like.
10. I would get all the things we cannot afford now, like my husband his glasses, and new furniture etc.
11. I would send my in-laws on the most awesome vacation of their lifetime. completely indulging them, you know what I would hire people to go with them to attend to their needs even! They deserve it.
12. I would sleep better at night, cus I wouldnt have to worry how to keep lights on, buy groceries, get the kids school supplies, etc.

I would buy back my STUPID Yukon from the person I sold it to, for a lot more money than he paid me for it. I would then volunteer said Yukon (biggest piece of crap car OF ALL TIME) to any organization who would charge people, for charity benefit, to beat the holy EFF out of the Yukon with baseball bats, sledgehammers etc. Only stipulation? I get the first swing.

My hubby is Mr. Outdoors, and loves to hunt and fish. We’d have to find a cabin in Eastern Washington somewhere of his choice, definitely.

I would pick up another camera body so that I wouldn’t have to juggle lenses when shooting a wedding. And I suppose that I would get more serious about my photography business, and build a studio. I’d also get a big, fat Mac with the huuuuuge monitor screen for home photo editing.

We would stay in our current house because we love the neighborhood and our property. We just remodeled the kitchen, so wouldn’t knock down the house, but I would add some more square footage and a nicer master bath.

I’d pay off our debt. Every cent. We’d enjoy the hell out of no car/truck/house payments for several months before inevitably going back into debt for a new truck or something, lol.And of course we’d secure our retirement plan, and our son’s care fund. But that’s not the fun stuff to reply with, lol.

Re: h1n1 immunizations: I’ve been having the EXACT same thoughts. How on earth can we even begin to comprehend what the long-term effects of a vaccine might be, at this point? Someone mentioned infertility. Shwoo…. that’s a big one. In 30 years, if my daughter is infertile, do I want to look back at this winter and wonder if that was my fault? NOT SO MUCH. “Oh, Gwen, honey, I’m so sorry you can’t ever know the joy of being a mom, but remember when you were 2 years old and didn’t get the flu? That was pretty thoughtful of me, right?” UGH.

Next: that decision-making tool is a great one. I’ve never seen it laid out like that before, but I guess that’s kind of the process I go through. What’s the worst that could happen (if Gwen gets the shot): completely unknown, possibly long-term life-altering side effects that may not even manifest for decades. What’s the worst that could happen (if Gwen doesn’t get the shot): she could get the flu. Umm … huh.

And oh, the windfall fantasies. My husband and I do this all the time. We rarely play the lottery, but the fantasies are pretty much non-stop. Other than the typical stuff – pay off debts, build dream home, start taking both family and child-free vacations – I think my more unusual wishes are to finish my degree (I’ve been taking a BA through distance ed for what, like 10 years now, because I work and parent and volunteer andandandand and fit school in ’somehow’ round the edges), and adopt a child. Don’t want to go through pregnancy again, OR the breastfeeding minefield, but give a child who needs it a loving home? Sure. Sign me up.

1. pay off all of our debts as well as our family’s debts (duh).

2. Make sure all of the kids got the college education they deserve, because, um, ya, even though your parents are stinking rich, you will go to school and have some sort of a career!

3. Put in a people mover from Burnside Circle to the top of the hill at 4-H Camp. This is a fantasy all adults who have ever spent any time dragging their butts back up the hill to camp after campfire has ever had. That is one hell of a climb, getting worse with each year that passes.

4. Build a very large vacation log home on the shores of South Lake Tahoe. Room for everyone to come and have a white Christmas!

5. Go on a vacation for at least 4 weeks and take all family and friends with.

6. Pay someone to invent a pill for my dogs and my kitty that would make them live forever and not get old and decrepit.

7. Go on a shopping spree and take my girlfriends with me and NEVER look at a price tag, no clearance shopping allowed!

Of course I would donate to my favorite charities for sure.

1) Buy a vintage car, like perhaps a 1969 Stingray, or a Judge, or something I can feel dead sexy driving around in. I’d also buy a Jeep Wrangler for off-road mischief.

2) I, too, would like to build my dream house on the Oregon coast. Near Seaside.

3) Wardrobe. An entirely new one, complete with fancy ass shoes & bags and accessories, so that I can look pulled together for the rest of my life and never have another sweats/bedhead moment in the supermarket when my ex walks in.

4) Lastly, travel. Lots of travel. While dream house was being built, I’d be carousing Europe and Asia and everywhere else I’ve ever had a yen to go.