Let's talk about money and dreams.

11/15/2013
 photo goodthings.jpg


Let me tell you about this husband of mine. We are so different, my husband and I. Just the perfect amount of different so that he has practically saved my life because of it. You see, I am this pretty god-awful budgeter. Really, I can't budget to save my life.

And then there is my husband. My husband is this guy who is all around amazing. He has this budget that doesn't just pay our bills every month, but it pays more than our bills so that we are owing less money, which, isn't that kind of genius? When we have extra money come in I'm over here like: wahoo let's go shopping! let's go on a trip! eat drink and be merry, for tomorrow we die! And then the hubs is sitting in his black office swivel chair with his arms folded sternly, looking at bank statements, and he's saying: let's pay more bills! let's get out of debt! let's prepare for the future!

And I'm always like, oh. well bummer but, you're right. And if we're being honest he's almost always right. Shhhh, don't tell him I said that.

When we imagine our future for our family life, we imagine it filled with the kind of family time that is trips to disneyland and boating and going out to eat on friday nights together. I don't picture a big home with too many bathrooms and real granite counter-tops, no sir. That's not in my dreams. I don't dream about owning a brand new lexus. I don't fantasize about buying overpriced handbags or real diamond earrings. 

My dream is to live in a cozy home with my sweet little family, shop for our clothes on sale at h&m, make sure we keep our cupboards stocked with good cereal, and use our hard earned money to travel together. Weekend trips to the cabin through the mountains, summer trips to disneyworld, an exotic cruise for new years, a trip to hawaii to celebrate third grade graduation. Those are my dreams.

I love to travel. Don't you?

As a child we spent some time traveling outside of utah, mainly to california where my dad's family lived. We went to univeral studios and disneyland multiple times. Sometimes we would pack up in the car and drive through the night, other times we would fly on an airplane, back in the days of being able to meet your loved ones straight out of the gate.

I distinctly remember one trip to cali when my brother and I flew by ourselves. Halfway through the flight my brother started teasing me, as brothers often do, and somehow I ended up with a big wad of his chewed bubble gum in my hair. I remember the sweet flight attendant taking me to the pilot's cockpit, giving me a cold can of sprite to drink while they tried everything under the sun to get that gum out. Ice and peanut butter and it all ended with a pair of scissors and me in tears. But really, how mean are brothers?! And now it's a memory among many memories that I have of our trips in my childhood.

In my life so far I've been to california, chicago, arizona, nevada, colorado, canada, alaska, mexico, texas, new mexico, montana, and is it laughable to add idaho and wyoming? Because, duh. It's idaho and wyoming, which are so close to my valley that they feel just the same. But I've been to all of those places at least once. I've driven over the golden gate bridge and walked through the alamo, I've dropped a tip in the tin man's jar at huntington beach. I've eaten fresh salmon chowder in sitka alaska and I've accidentally stepped barefoot on a slimy crab on the beaches of mexico. In my life so far I haven't been too cooped up here in utah I suppose.

But yet, there is this big world out there that I still always need to get my hands on. I have vivid dreams of traveling. Flying over snowy mountain tops and green-blue oceans, landing in foreign airports with a passport in my back pocket, eating waffles in germany and chocolate croissants in paris, backpacking through europe. It's all so perfect in my dreams, as I imagine it will be in real life.

I'm excited for the future. We are working hard and making sacrifices so that we can be excited for the future, so that every year that rolls around brings us closer to those dreams. There's something to be said about all of this working our asses off and never giving up, something that demands respect and refuses to take anything for granted.

But let me not take any of the credit for this never giving up business. My husband you guys. I tell you what, he's a good egg.

PS speaking of working hard, I recently watched this TED talk from Mike Rowe and it's just pretty dang awesome. Don't get me started on this topic though, or we'll be here all day.

No comments:

Post a Comment