bethtastic.com

I don’t play the lottery.  I occasionally buy a raffle ticket from a boy scout.  I’ve only been in a casino once – to walk through to get to the Fudrucker’s on the other side.  But…if I would win the lottery, here are some things I would (and wouldn’t) do…

I’d give a bunch to our church/school and worthy organizations.

I’d pay off our house.  And my parent’s.  And my brothers’.

I’d invest enough to be covered for retirement and to pay for Tara and Tim’s tuition for the rest of their education (through college).

But after all that…

I’d put siding on our house.  And I’d put a fire place in the dining room.  And remodel the basement – to get rid of the awful, awful paneling and get a nice ceiling in the bedroom down there.

I’d buy an Acadia.  I love those vehicles.

I’d re-do the fencing across our back yard.  I don’t like it.

I’d put new flooring in the kitchen.  And it WOULD NOT be white.

But I wouldn’t move.  I love our house.

I’d build a new garage that was deeper and a tiny bit wider.  So my Acadia would fit nicely.

I’d take a family vacation somewhere interesting.  I don’t even know where.  But somewhere.

I wouldn’t quit my job.  I love my job.

I go see Europe.  All the tourist traps.  And I’d take the Sound of Music tour.  I love that movie.

I’d finish the back corner of our house off the office to have a bathroom there.  So when we’re old and still live here we can live on the first floor and not worry about steps.  Or about air conditioning/heating the upstairs.

I’d have more than one cat.

What about you?  After the charitable giving and debt reduction, what would you do?

It has been happening for most of my adult life. Any time I’m experiencing a significant amount of stress or feeling overwhelmed, whether by school stuff or life stuff, I have terrible elevator dreams.
I’m on an elevator that is malfunctioning. In all sorts of random, terrible and life-threatening ways.

The elevator dreams have started.

I don’t write much.  I wouldn’t go so far as to say that I don’t like to write, because I like it ok.  I wouldn’t make a career of writing, but I can write.  I don’t keep scrapbooks because I don’t care for scrapbooking.  I write here on Bethtastic, and while I didn’t intend for it to happen, it is becoming a bit of a scrapbook/journal of Tara and Tim’s lives.  But I wanted something different to keep memories.

I read about a forever journal once.  In fact I think it was Lloyd and Lauren…perhaps even one of Lloyd’s great-grandmas or something…that introduced the idea.

It took me about a year to inactively search for and find a journal that I liked, and then prepare it to be a forever journal.  But I have done it.

There is one page for each calendar day.  January 1 – December 31.  And I record memorable events in it by writing a one-line entry on the day of the event, but keep track by listing first the year it happened.  I don’t write in it very often, but occasionally.  Sometimes something big like a lost tooth, or a new job.  Other times just a note about the weather of the day.  An entry might look like this:

April 7

2005 – Tara Beth Pester is born.  4:43am. 7lbs. 20 inches.

And that’s it.  One liners in my forever journal.  I hope my great-great granddaughter thinks it’s interesting some day.