7 Quick Takes Friday
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Article found here.
So apparently this week an Arizona couple won the million dollar lottery for the second time! The second flipping time and this Oscar the Grouch couldn't smile for a single picture taken of him. After this Christmas card worthy shot I had to read the whole article. Ok, fine. This is what bed rest really does to a person. I don't really care about the lottery, but let's be honest, I have little else to do...
Since you don't have the same time on your hands as I do I'll spare you the research and tell you their secret to how to win the lottery jack pot not once, but twice. You spend $200 per week on lottery tickets. $200/week. Yes, folks, that is correct. We don't even spend that much on groceries for a family of almost 6. I say almost 6 because I am one of those people who eats for two when I'm pregnant...
Anyway, these self-proclaimed "simple folks" who pride themselves in driving 10 and 13 year old junkers, not having nice clothing or fancy houses consider themselves to not really be "big spenders." True, $200,000 on lottery tickets in 20 years is pretty modest spending. Most people can't even pay off their $200,000 homes in 20 years.... If I had $200 extra a week to spend on whatever I wanted I might use a slightly different investment strategy. But that's just me and they claim this is their investment strategy and it's not luck. It's persistence. Or insanity. Congrats grumpy couple. Money clearly doesn't buy happiness and neither does gambling.
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One of the reasons I love my husband so much is his inability to hide his endearing nerdiness.
It goes beyond his shorts always being slightly too short. Or that he really likes short sleeve button up shirts. And sometimes (always) tucks his undershirts into his pajama pants for bed....
It's also because he sees me posting things like QT #1 and immediately pulls up a Future Value Calculator on his phone to compute just how wise the Lottery Grouch's investment strategy really was.... guess what? It turns out that luck put aside just investing $200/week into a basic 8% interest bearing account would only yield $515,070.59 in 20 years... so even their first lottery payout after taxes was a pretty darn good return.... shoot, there you have it, maybe there is more than one way to skin a cat after all.
It's also because he sees me posting things like QT #1 and immediately pulls up a Future Value Calculator on his phone to compute just how wise the Lottery Grouch's investment strategy really was.... guess what? It turns out that luck put aside just investing $200/week into a basic 8% interest bearing account would only yield $515,070.59 in 20 years... so even their first lottery payout after taxes was a pretty darn good return.... shoot, there you have it, maybe there is more than one way to skin a cat after all.
But for the record I'm still sticking with my accusations of crazy and that I'd put an extra $200/week to much better use than lottery tickets and probably have a happier picture taken of me doing it!
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Speaking of nerdy and of awesome duo portraits....
This is beauty is a picture of me and my sister circa 1980-something. As I mentioned last week, she was here visiting this week and I'm proud to report that like it or not both of our hair looks exactly the same!
Hum... maybe I'd use an extra $200/week to somehow tame that natural wave... nah, probably wouldn't!
This is beauty is a picture of me and my sister circa 1980-something. As I mentioned last week, she was here visiting this week and I'm proud to report that like it or not both of our hair looks exactly the same!
Hum... maybe I'd use an extra $200/week to somehow tame that natural wave... nah, probably wouldn't!
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Other fun facts about me and my family.... We really like to eat at In n' Out... like almost weekly (don't judge, it could be worse). So the older kids are getting pretty good at doing the sticker puzzles all by themselves while we wait for our food. After showing us his completely finished number puzzle we exclaim with the usual parental exaggerated excitement, "Good job, Jonah! You hit that right on the nose!"
Bash overheard and wanted attention for hitting the stickers "right one the nose" too,
"Luk! Luk! On Nose! On Nose!"
Seriously??! I'm still melting! I really love this little guy!
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It's gettin' hot out here! So bribe with otter pots! I am getting so hot, I'm gonna behave for otter pops!
Or "juice sabers" as Jonah prefers...
I said this already about another child, but I'm a mom so I'll say it again, I really love that kid and his 3 year old devotion to a show I'm sure he barely understands.
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On the more serious side of the week...
God bless Pope Francis!
I was in the middle of converting or maybe just recently baptized when Pope Benedict was selected, so I really don't remember a whole lot about it. I'm sure I heard who he was weeks after he became Pope... I guess I also didn't really get what the role of a Pope was exactly ?? Shame on me. But you know, I had a little more to take in at the moment than what was happening in the Vatican... it's all gradualism right? But this time around I was glued to the news, praying, waiting and hoping. I didn't expect it to be such an emotional experience! I actually had tears in my eyes when I saw that white smoke. I am not a crier. Really, not even pregnant. I rarely cry, but there I was wiping tears of joy and thanksgiving before I even knew who had been chosen. I almost crashed facebook with status updates and declarations of excitement, which I'm a little embarrassed about looking back, but this is a big deal!
And, not to make any part of the glory surrounding our new Papa Francisco about yours truly, I just wanted to throw out there the exciting connection that my family IS from Argentina. Not like, oh, my distant relatives lived there 100s of years ago. My family is from Argentina as in the majority of my mom's extended family still lives there, I've BEEN there to visit them and my mom herself has still never made the effort to become a US citizen... Don't worry, she's legal ya'll, but just doesn't vote and gets to show off her green card when she signs employment papers. So that's also pretty fun to selectively play up my latin americanness for this occasion :) Sorry, it's not that I don't have Latina pride... it's mostly that my physical appearances are clearly from my "US caucasian-mutt pride" side of things. I've been to Buenos Aires. One clothing store owner thought I was a drag queen. True story. They don't make many female Argentineans 6' tall... And of the ones they do make they're usually singled out to become famous models. That and when I went off to college I checked that I was 1/2 latin american on my application... then got to college and was apologized to by the director of Latin American Student Affairs the first time we met for the "error"- someone accidentally marked me as Latina and he wanted to know "If there was an ethnic group I intended to identify with?" So I keep my latina on the hush unless occasions like this pop up...
I'm linking up with Jen at Conversion Diary :)
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