UPDATE: A couple of you asked what the blog author's top three priorities were, they included a good sized kitchen, three bedrooms on one floor, and a Master bath. It wasn't her priorities that floored me and no one commenter in particular, it was just a thought I had as I looked through the comments. I'll be writing more on this topic later.
There is a blogger that I peek in on from time to time who is following Dave Ramsey's financial advice and has saved up enough to pay cash for a house. 100%. Now I will put it out there that I am dripping with envy that they have managed to do this. I don't deny that.
However, when she recently posted their top three things they were looking for in a house, the post
elicited 300 comments. I realize you have to live in a house (technically you don't) and I realize that is a huge chunk of change and there are
niceties that come along with houses. But I was just floored by some of the "must haves" of the
comments.
Then I was reminded of
Nicole Wick's recent post on
First World Problems. And boy, do I ever have First World Problems. When I have to mop my nice vinyl floor again because one of my utterly healthy boys spilled something out of my abundantly full refrigerator. When I have to lug out my *other*
vacuum cleaner. When I have to wash sheets for *four* beds. And what would my top three priorities in a house be?
I want to say my top three priorities in a house would be
1. running water
2. electricity
3. safe neighborhood
Because really, that's more than we need. But I probably would have a lot more than three house priorities (and those probably wouldn't be it) because I have a ton of First World Problems. We all have First World Problems. If you are reading this, you have a First World Problem.
We started our day off at Krispy Kreme, because nothing says Happy Birthday like a ball of fried dough. The Reader chose a cream filled donut with chocolate icing. The Entertainer and The Thinker chose glazed devil's food. That one with the powdered sugar is mine and had lemon and vanilla cream filling. Mmmmm.
They are always enamoured with watching the donuts go through the conveyor.
Our first park, small and typical so we didn't stay here very long.
Our second park. Just to the right was a sand box. At this point the boys are wondering why their loony mom made them wear their swimsuits.
A stop at a gourmet grocery store for lunch, because nothing says Happy Birthday better than a lunchables for lunch {choke, cough, gasp}. But hey, I did say they could pick out anything. I chose a nice turkey and cheese on a croissant and tried not to think about all the butter that made that flaky pastry possible. I also chose a sparkling French lemonade of which I am officially in love with now. And yes, I did eat that entire platter of watermelon all by myself, why do you ask?
And no trip to this particular gourmet grocery store is complete without a stop at their bakery. Their specialty is Killer Brownies but I didn't point that out to the boys and let them each pick a treat. Mommy's treat(s) is underneath. A Killer Brownie bite which is about 1/16 of a Killer Brownie drenched in chocolate and also an Oreo Ball which was just the weirdest and yet most delightful thing ever, a truffle like with a moist oreo cookie middle.
This was, by far, the best park we went to all day. It had very creative and original climbing apparatuses and also a tiny sprinkler park (we were disappointed with the size of their sprinkler park, we have two others that we would prefer over this one but the climbing part was definitely a bonus).
As was this fantastic sand box which had streams of water piped in for added fun. About this time they were sun drenched and sand covered so we headed home. I had two other parks on my list but we'll have to try those another day!
