What Would You Do With $500 Million?

The Mega Millions has reached a record high... It is estimated to be about 540 million dollars. I don't know about you, but I don't even know what I would do with $1 million let alone $540 million. Well, I decided to buy a Mega Million ticket. After all, what could it hurt? It's just $1 and you never know if you're gonna buy the winning ticket or not.

This was the first lottery ticket I bought. I went in and said "I'd like to buy a Mega Millions ticket," and right away I saw the lady shaking her head. She says to me "Are you 18?" and I proudly brought out my license stating that yes indeed I am not only 18, but I am 20 years old.

And so now I hold two Mega Millions tickets. One for Isaac and one for me. (Isaac forgot his license at home so I bought one for him, though I still hold his in my wallet because we never know when Isaac is going to lose his wallet :P).

I am completely sure I will not win this Mega Million Jackpot, but it still got me thinking on what I would do with $540 million. The possibilities are endless. I would have no idea where to start!
So let me share with you some of the things that I would do with $540 million.

The first thing I would do is figure out how much I'd need to pay for taxes. I'd want to put that money away separately. I know I would not spend $540 million in one lifetime let alone one year but I still would just want to know how much money I needed for taxes so that I could figure out how much money I actually have leftover and how much I could use for other things.

The next thing I would do is pay off my parents house for them. I'd pay off any of their debt they had on anything and then buy them a new house if that is what they wanted.

The next thing I'd do is pay off any of my siblings school tuition and help them pay for the rest of their way through college (or all the way through college since my sisters and Peter haven't even started).

I'm not really sure what order of things I would do next. I'd for sure want to take some exotic family vacation for like a month. Probably not that long, but it would be so fun to just get away as a family for a while.
Then I would start planning on getting married to Isaac. We have millions of dollars so we're pretty much set for life and can have our dream wedding.

There is so much I would want to do for my bestest friends and family as well. I would just want to help THEM in any way I could.

I think the main thing I would want to do with my money is to set up some type of ministry. I'm not even sure what kind of ministry... whether for kids, adults, teens... or what we would even do. I just know I would want to set up a ministry and work full-time for that. I recently found that my spiritual gift is compassion. I always knew it was something along the lines of that. My heart breaks for people who are in need and I wish that I had more resources to give to people what they need. I would like to write a post sometime about spiritual gifts and how I found mine. But like I said, that'll have to wait for a different post :)

If I won millions of dollars I know it would be because God wanted me to use it for his glory. I'm 100% sure I won't even come close to winning this jackpot, but it is still fun to dream about. All I can ask for now is that God will still show me ways that I can help serve him and show compassion on people who are in need.

So now my question is, what would YOU do with $540 million?

Random Musings on a Random Day

I have not had a lot of time to blog but I decided to take a moment to breathe and write a little post.

I feel like my life is pretty repetitive these days. Mondays I work on homework, go to work and then make sure I have all my assignments turned in by 11:59pm. Tuesdays and Thursdays are days that I just stay home all day and do homework. Wednesdays and Fridays are also work/homework days. I feel like I'm stuck in the same routine and it will never change. I know that I won't be in this same routine forever but I still feel like I keep running into the same brick wall every week.

I guess my breath of fresh air that I get each week is through the new college group that I have become a part of at my church. It's all pretty crazy how I became a part of this. Sometime in January I was talking to my best friend Anna about how we both really wanted a college group to be a part of and it would be really nice if Oak Pointe started one since that is the church we go to. Well, lo and behold, the very next day they announced that a college group was starting that very day! Anna and I were overwhelmed with how quickly God answered our unspoken prayer. We realize now that we never prayed about it but God still answered us. We did not stay that first week due to other commitments (more like we were too overwhelmed to stay that week), but the next week we went and it has been such a blessing.

I'm also realizing that I need to simplify my life. I recently went through a week in my devotions that talked about simplicity. I guess you could say that my life is simple in the way that I do not have a lot of activities that happen each week. But I still want to simplify some things at home. For example, I'm currently reading 6 different books. Sure 3 of them are devotion books, one of them is the book that I'm leading a Bible Study on, one is for my own "Christian living" book and then of course a fictional book to entertain me. However, I still feel like I should not be reading soooo many books at once! How can I truly enjoy one book if I'm also focusing so much attention on other books as well? Another way I should simplify is the fact that I'm not even sure how many blogs I have. This is my only blogspot blog but I have numerous Tumblr blogs.

Simplification is just something that God has asked me to work on and I'm determined to try and work on it.
Next week is my spring break so I think I'll try and clean out my room and hopefully get rid of stuff. I'll also work on finishing a few of those books so I'm not reading so many at once :)

Here's a word of wisdom that I'll leave with you all for now:
"But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well." - Matthew 6:33

DIY Tangle-Free Headphones

For those of you who don't know what DIY stands for, it's Do It Yourself.

Thanks to Juliana, I've become addicted to Pinterest. It's this nifty site that lets you "pin" pictures, quotes, recipes, crafts, and basically anything you want. I have about 18 boards that are all different categories. I have a board for recipes, a board for quotes, a board for my bucket list, a board for crafts and many more.

My favorite board to add to is the recipe board and the craft board. I have been finding so many craft or gift ideas, or even ideas to get my room more organized and stuff. I decided that I am going to spend this semester doing school, of course, but in those moments when school gets to be too much, I'll go over to Pinterest and pin some stuff. Annnd the fun part is, this summer I am going to actually make some of those crafts and recipes and do some of those ideas!

Well the first "DIY" thing I did from Pinterest is the tangle-free headphones. Here's what it looks like:

I decided to do two different colors on the "connected" part of the headphones and then one color on each other "separate" headphones part. So like this:

The reason I did two separate colors on the headphone part is so that it is easier to tell which one goes in which ear. Yes, I am one of those people who can't stand to put the right bud in my left ear. So this way, instead of trying to see the tiny little R or L, I can just be like "Okay, this is green so it goes in my left ear." So much easier!

Now I would like to tell you how you can make your own tangle-free headphones. And yes, they do not really tangle anymore! Which is also nice since I always took 5 minutes untangling my headphones.

Materials:

Headphones

Two or more colors of embroidery floss.

Tape

Technically, you can do just one color, or you can do two colors, or you can do a lot of colors. It's totally up to you. I used the entire "roll" of my embroidery floss so if you are going to do only one color, you probably will need two. But if you do two or three colors, you should only need one thing of each color. Unless your headphones are super long in which you'd probably want to use a different roll on the "separate" parts.

So the first thing you're gonna want to do is tape your headphone to a hard surface. (It is easier this way so that it is not moving around while you're trying to tie the string around it.

I started from this end of the headphones.

You'll want to make sure the cord is lying flat too. Obviously it's not flat in this picture, but when you're doing it, make sure it's flat or the pattern of the string is going to look weird.

So next you will tie the string onto the headphones and make sure it's right up next to the edge. Unfortunately, I could not find anymore embroidery floss in the house so I had to use my graduation tassel to show you how to do the "tying."

So even though this picture doesn't show it, make sure that string is pushed all the way up!

Then you will lay the string across the headphones as shown.

Then bring it under the headphones and over the string and pull tight!

And obviously pull it tight and make sure it's right next to the other knot.

If you are doing alternate colors, I would do about 5 knots and then switch the color. Also, make sure the other colors string is being tied into the knot along with the headphones. So hold the string you are not tying, right next to the headphones so that the knot goes over it.

I hope this sort of makes sense. If you know how to make a friendship bracelet, it's pretty similar to that. I'm better at showing people things in person so hopefully my words will make some sense.

I've been using my headphones and absolutely love them. Now I have another pair of headphones that I'll probably do the same thing to.

Happy DIY!

Christmas is Coming!

I usually don't get too excited about Christmas until after Thanksgiving. I refuse to listen to Christmas music until after Thanksgiving, but as soon as the Christmas merchandise came out, I couldn't stop myself from getting Christmas lights to put up in my room.
My sisters and I put them up in our room two years ago but we didn't last year and I really missed them. So this year I bought my own twinkling Christmas lights and hung them up in our room.
Check it out!

Here's what my bed looks like. Sorry my desk and nightstand are a disaster.

I can never quite clean my room and keep it clean for very long.

Here's the ceiling above my bed.

Over by the closet and about the door.

Once again, sorry about the mess :p

And then it goes over Bekah's bed and drapes around the dresser.

We really like it and I can't wait to spend more time in my room enjoying the twinkling Christmas lights.

And yes, our room really is quite small. We've learned to live with it. But the small amount of space is why it's always such a disaster!

Happy Thanksgiving and Merry Christmas!!!

Wow is life crazy busy or what? I wish I could spend time to blog but alas, I suppose other things are a bit more important. Road Trip! Part Two coming soon!

Road Trip! Part One.

This summer the Kaufmann's invited me to go on vacation with them. Of course I couldn't resist a road trip, so I went with them. It was a crazy trip, full of late night rides, sleeping in the car, running away from a hurricane, car problems, history lessons, meeting new people, and lots and lots of McDonalds.

Our trip started on Sunday, August 21st. We honestly didn't leave til after 9:00pm. I can't remember exactly, maybe it was later. I just know we were at the Kaufmann's for a while packing up the car. We were on our way to Vermont first so we crossed into Canada the first night to pass through into New York. Passing the border was scary but thankfully we were able to pass without any difficulties. We ended up driving through the night, which meant sleeping in the car and getting very little sleep. So in the morning we were at a rest stop and we changed and brushed our teeth.

Isaac had such a great night sleep.

On Monday we spent the day driving through New York. We stopped at the Welcome Center when we crossed from Canada back into the U.S. and for lunch we stopped at some roadside place. 

It was rather chilly so  Isaac and I were bundled up.

Then it started to rain but Mr. Kaufmann didn't see any problem with that.

We also stopped in Lake Placid where the Winter Olympics take place, or where the athletes train. We walked up to the ice arena first and when we got there it started to pour so we stayed in the ice arena for a while. When the rain let up, we went shopping in the little shops. I think I just got some postcards and a charm for my charm bracelet.

After Lake Placid, we continued on our way to Vermont. In order to get to Vermont we had to ride across Lake Champlain on a ferry boat. While we were waiting for the boat, we looked into the sky and there was a double rainbow!!

We almost look photoshopped into this picture.

And of course we had to get a Titanic picture.

We finally made it to our lodgings in Vermont. We had a nice little suite in a very nice motel. We ate delicious pizza for dinner, watched TV, I did homework, and eventually we fell asleep after a long day of driving. On Tuesday morning, Isaac and I took a walk on the bike path that was behind the motel. We didn't walk too far but it was nice to be out in the Vermont weather.

Isaac looks super adorable ten minutes after waking up :)

 Happy to be out of the car and enjoying Vermont!

For lunch we got some sort of pasta and Reeses Chocolate Pudding from a shop in town. 

The pudding was so amazing!

 After lunch we went shopping. Isaac and I really liked these snowshoe seats. 

They were very comfy!

This store had a bubble machine. It was really cool to see bubbles floating around everywhere.

On our way back to our motel, we stopped at another strip mall of stores and when we tried to leave, the car wouldn't start! It was quite a disappointment. The lady who owned one of the shops we were by was very nice. She helped drive us and all our stuff back to the motel. Mr. Kaufmann called a mechanic in town and he said he would come to the car to fix it. He wasn't able to fix it til the next day though. The lady who drove us to our motel also was kind enough to drive us to our friends house as well, and our friend would drive us home. We spent the evening at our friends house.

Some of the Kaufmann's and Maria von Trapp and Kukuli.

This is what Isaac surprised me with the next morning. He sang me "Two is Better Than One" and presented me with this promise ring. I love it :)

We spent Wednesday just hanging around in our rooms. Isaac, Esther and I took a long walk down the bike path. 

We were rather exhausted on our way back.

That evening we got our car back and then we went up to Maria's house again. On our way up the mountain, we had to stop to get pictures of the beautiful view.

 Panoramic view of the mountains.

 Isaac and I with the mountains :)

We spent the evening singing and talking with Maria and Kukuli. The next morning we packed up everything and then went up to the Von Trapp lodge to look around and take a walk.

 This is the lodge. I have a lot of pictures of the indoors but I didn't feel like uploading all of them.

 Isaac and I about to go inside.

 It was such a steep climb up to this chapel. It was especially hard in flip flops. 

But the chapel was really neat to see.

When we got back down, Isaac had to show off his modeling skills.

After spending a little time in the gift shop and exploring more of the grounds, we stopped at a place in town for lunch and then were on our way to our next stop. 

This is what the back of the van looked like all packed up.

We left Vermont and were on our way to Connecticut. However, that adventure will be told in a different post.

Not Just a Dog

Her name was Lacey.

When I was younger I always called her a Dalmatian since she was white with black spots. However, she was not a dalmatian. The correct breed that Lacey was from was a German Short-Haired Pointer Mix. I like to say that part of that mix is dalmatian. Lacey had a solid black head, as you can see in the picture. I loved her black head.
I have so many memories that involve Lacey. The story of Lacey really begins before I was born. My family got her before I was born, which means Lacey was about a year older than me. My family got Lacey for free because a family was trying to get rid of her. We soon found out the reason why. Lacey was quite the troublesome dog. She always ran away, she jumped over fences, she dug holes under the fence, she made the mailman hate her. She was trouble. But oh, she was so much fun.

Lacey was always there while growing up. She was someone to cuddle with, someone to play with, someone to talk to. She loved going up north to my Grandparents with us. My Grandparents live in a private cove and there is a gate that is maybe about a mile away or less from their house that you have to enter a code to get in. Whenever we got to that gate, we would let Lacey out of the car and she would race us to my Grandparents. She loved it up there. Exploring in the woods, swimming in the lake, running down the shore. Her favorite thing to do when we were younger was to chase rocks that we threw into the lake. We would throw a rock and she would run in after it and bring a rock back, whether it was the rock we threw or not. As Lacey got older, I remember her walking around my Grandparents house over and over again. It was like she was acting as a guard dog.
At our old house, we had this cable that ran across our yard, with another cable that could roll across the whole thing. We had to hook Lacey up to this cable so that she would stay in our yard. When Lacey was younger she could jump OVER the backyard fence. And if she wasn't jumping over the fence, she was digging holes under the fence to escape. I'm not really sure why Lacey always ran away. I know she loved us, so it's not like she was trying to get away from us. I think that she just liked the adventure and thrill it gave her. The neighbors hated Lacey and threatened the call the police every time she got out. The mailman hated Lacey and carried that spray stuff to keep her away from him. I remember him yelling at my Mom about Lacey one time. Though the mailman was always nice to us kids... Well that cord did it's job. It kept Lacey in the backyard most of the time, but one of my favorite memories was when Lacey dug a hole under the fence and crawled into our neighbors yard, WHILE she was still connected to the cable. It was really funny and we all laughed about it.
Even though Lacey ran away all the time, I think we usually had fun catching her. I remember one day trying to catch her. She looked at me and we're all like "Come here Lacey!!!" And she came running towards us! 'Wow, can it be this easy?' we thought. She was smiling as she came running towards us and right at the last minute, she turned around and ran the other way! So of course, we were after her again and trying to catch her. As Lacey grew older, she became more mature in a way. Of course, she was slowing down in her old age. She hardly ever ran off anymore and if she did, it was a lot easier to catch her. She spent a lot of her time just laying around on the couch.

We had to wrap her in a blanket a lot because she often got cold.

I loved Lacey. She had been in our family for so long it was hard to say goodbye. But it was time. She could barely eat, she could barely walk, she left messes in the house. She was old. So on September 27th, 2007, when she was 17 years old, we took her to the vet to put her down. I can't remember if any of the kids went with Mom to the vet, but I think most of us just said goodbye to her at our house. It was easier that way.

When I think about Lacey, I don't think about her being sick and old. I think of her smiling face, her adventuresome spirit and her constant mischief. I still miss Lacey. I always will. She was the first family dog that I ever had so it would be hard not to miss her. Lacey was not just a dog. To me, Lacey was my older sister. She was a friend. Someone I could confide in. I loved Lacey.

Rest in Peace Lacey. I miss you.