The 5 Million Dollar Plan

I overheard from somewhere or someone that the lottery has a ridiculously high amount up for grabs right now. We do not play the lottery nor do we have any intention on starting, but its still nice to dream right?


I found myself baffled at what I would actually do with a large sum of money. I settled on 30 million since 400 million seemed overwhelming. What would I do if (after taxes of course) I had $30 million sitting in my account? Justin and I disagree on the order of these things, but I’m going to share wit you what I think I would do with that money – in the order I would intend to do it with.

I could only think of $5 million worth of things to do easily – after that I would probably consider buying 3 more houses (for my kids, but letting friends live in it for now rent free or something) and then donate the rest to whoever we can find to donate to.

I would not stop working – I love my job, but I would try to make it a part time thing so I could be home more with my kids.

So here it is, here is what I would do with $30 million (well $5 million really)

Pay off debt $20,000


Buy a house $600,000

Buy new furniture for house / paint / remodel $50,000

Buy new hybrid cars $75,000

Finish Emergency Fund $20,000

Pay for Justin's School $75,000

Create "School" account for kids $180,000 This will be about 13 (K-12) years worth of "Private" school for the kids

Create Child Savings Accounts $750,000 Max "insured" is $250,000 per person so they'd only get that much each and transfer the interest back to our account

Create "Retirement" Account for both of us $500,000 Max "insured" is $250,000 per person so I'd only put that much in account for both of us and transfer the interest back to our account

Help family pay off debt $500,000

Buy a house for family that does not own one $500,000

Help friends pay off debt $500,000

Fun Money $200,000 For vacations, new "toys", programs for kids, passes, etc

Adopt another kid $30,000

DONATE $1,000,000 To church first for some needed "upgrades" and then other things



And that only makes up $5 million.  What in the world do people do that make $5 million a year?! Sam just told me to "dream big" - apparantly I'm not a dreamer haha.

Jordan's Annual Ingestion

So if you are reading this you probably are also a facebook friend. Other then 1 person I know of, I don’t think I have any non-facebook friends that actually read this. If you do read, and you aren’t a facebook friend, that’s pretty awesome. I appreciate that you go out of your way to read this.


I’m really good at getting off topic. Facebook was only mentioned really to say – You probably already know that Jordan did something stupid yesterday, and now I will fill you in the details (the ones that I have at least).


Justin called me yesterday shortly after I arrived at work and informed of Jordan’s decision to drink cough syrup. It was children’s cold and cough. I am 95% sure the bottle was only half full and since there was only ¼ left we were assuming that meant she only drank ¼ of the bottle.


Now…this is the second time Jordan has decided to inject a non food item that could potentially harm her. The first is noted in my blog from almost a year ago (The Bengay Incident). It was that incident that made me realize that I did not have the number for poison control and I did not have anything in our house that could make the kids vomit if we need them to. I swore at that point I would fix those issues.


So fast forward a year later and you’ll see I did not fix those issues. So when Justin called me I had to Google the number for poison control. We found out she could drink half a bottle and be fine. Since we assume it was only ¼ bottle she should be ok. The man suggested that just in case there was more we should monitor her closely, make she doesn’t fall asleep, and if she starts to have trouble breathing call 911. I thought the last part was silly. Why would he have to tell me to call 911 if my daughter couldn’t breathe? Isn’t that just what anyone would do?


Justin was awesome and kept her awake – it was NIGHTTIME cough and cold after all and the point is to get you to sleep. And Jordan went ahead and took like 10 doses worth. She was/is fine. And I have made progress in my goal from a year ago… I now have poison control’s number on my cell phone at least.

So Sayith Tay and Jay #20

What did God make?

Taylor: God made us, but wait mommy... I thought you were going to give me some popcorn.  God made your nose.

Jordan: Sun, flowers, the sky, ground, the feet, the hands, the face.

What animals live in the sea?

Taylor: Dolphins, fish, sea turtles, sharks, whales, ummm that's it. I mean octopuses.

Jordan: Turtles live in the sea.  Dolphins live in the sea.  Turtles live in the sea.  Frogs live in the sea - frogs don't live in the sea, they live on the ground.

Why do you brush your teeth?

Taylor: Because, so we can get the stinking breath out and get germs off our teeth.

Jordan: I already did brush my teeth! Because I could brush my teeth.

What's your favorite thing to do outside?

Taylor: Play with mud.

Jordan: My favorite thing is chopping and mixing.

What's your favorite thing to do inside?

Taylor: Play fetch with Jordan...she pretends to be a dog.

Jordan: To eat dinner and sprinkles. COOKIES!

Why does mommy ask you all these questions?

Taylor: Because she's rally nice on blog night.

Jordan: Because she always the doggies and the face and the hands an my feet and sumtin.

Is there anything you want to tell mommy's friends?

Taylor: Why you will shoot fish out when you eat it.

Jordan: I want to tel mommy's friends I have yucky foot. Stinky foot.  Yeah that's what I got to tell your friends.

Good ol' Saint of Patties

AHH I’m trying to catch up!  We totally went from pretty relaxed weeks to crazy hectic weeks with soo much going on in one day I couldn’t possibly fit it into one blog.

SO the question is do I talk about the day o’ green or gymnastics?

Since I didn’t get gymnastic pictures I’m going with the day o’ green.  First I do want to state a pet peeve.  There is a sign on a store – a big store – by our house that says “Now Open til’ 10:00 PM”.  Do you see it?! The horrible use of the ‘ in the word til.  Hey people running a store…if you are going to make a sign know that an apostrophe is used (in this case) to show where a letter was removed…like runnin’ or don’t.  The “til” stands for until…which means the un was removed… so please fix your sign and do it right ‘til.

Anyway, back to St Patty’s Day.  We headed down (up?) to Riverside for some long overdue time with the Keys’, Webster’s and Pfeffer’s.  Now it never fails that when we make these trips to Riverside what should be a 45 minute drive always turns into 1.5 – 2 hour long drive because people don’t know how to drive on the 91 freeway or we have a kid vomiting in the back seat or its raining.  For you non-Californians reading – Californians don’t know how to drive in the rain.  It’s like the second a single drop of rain falls we all forget how to drive.  Seriously, within minutes of any rain there is an accident on every freeway (this is not a fact just a guess based on experience).

Anyway, wow I am sure getting off topic really easy.  We headed to the Keys’ for some Irish food and not so Irish fun.  I’m pretty sure none of us are Irish, but I may be wrong.  The food was amazing, the kids were crazy, and the conversations were fun.  I say that’s a Win – Win – Win.  Now I’m not only getting off topic I’m saying lame things.  Forgive me!

We had fun.  The kids were particularly rambunctious which caused a lot of havoc.  I’m 99% sure my kids were the instigators and would not blame the Keys’ for declaring the Davis’ children banned from certain rooms in their house or the house completely.  I’m not opposed to leaving them outside…

Some interesting things to note of the night?

1. Elijah went potty in the toilet (3^rd time so far!)

2. Jordan poured soap onto a mirror and convinced Brendan it was a good idea to taste some

3. After said soap tasting Brendan proceeded to remove the fluid from his body via his mouth into his mother’s hands

4. Sammy boldly announced his denial of Jordan via his new attachment to Taylor

5. Pear with Cream Cheese filling and Jello is amazingly yummy

6. There are way too many apps for phones

And that was our day o’ green.  Enjoy some pictures.  And yes, my kids are not wearing green because apparently we don’t own any green in our house.

 

Yeah...you try to get 10 kids to sit still for a picture!

Jen and Andrew

The Websters
Jordan and Andrew had a lot of fun

Best Friends!

Isn't he the cutest!?

Shark Hair for Eli

The awesome hosts

Wave of Germs

Do you ever watch Yo Gabba Gabba? I really hate that show, but my mom (yup mom I’m blaming you :)) got Jordan hooked on it a year ago or so. So now my kids ask for it and watch it occasionally.



The worst is the stupid songs that get stuck in your head…they are really STUPID songs. One of them is about “we are the tiny ugly germs”. Its lame, but now it is stuck in my head as I prepare this blog for you.


THANKS MOM!


Anyway, if you couldn’t tell by our last post germs made their way through our house recently. Sunday night Jordan started by not feeling well which turned into the flu – so Justin and I took turns getting up with her all night. Justin handled the clean up and I handled the water refills and kisses and hugs as needed. I was exhausted on Monday at work and asked to work from home on Tuesday. By awesome boss (and no she does not read this – she is just actually awesome) was totally cool with it. Which ended up being a good thing. Tuesday afternoon Taylor started with the flu and by Tuesday night Justin was right along with her.


By Wednesday our family had recovered…so we thought ::insert scary music here::


We finished our Wednesday just fine, but on Thursday night at dinner Elijah sat in his chair at dinner and threw up what he was eating right back onto his Tray. I had actually come home feeling a little woozy too by that night the flu had struck the last of the Davis’. I took the day off on Friday to sleep and rest. But you know how much sleep is possible with 3 kids running around the house excited to have mommy home.


As Jordan asks every morning “Mommy, is your work open or closed?”


Saturday was fine and filled with lots of fun things (posts to come later) but Saturday night at about 2 AM I woke up with a stuffy nose and cough. I couldn’t fall back asleep and finally took some cough syrup with codeine, which means I was worthless in the morning since my body was on medication that made it want to sleep at least 8 hours.


My generous hubby let me sleep and we stayed home from church. I got up in time to meet friends for lunch, but took some medicine for the potential cold that was developing. At this point, although tired, I felt ok. About 30 minutes into lunch I could barely stay awake so Sam, being the awesome person he is, took me home so Justin could stay in the area and have dinner with his dad. I got home and fell asleep. I didn’t wake up again until after dinner.


I can probably safely say our house is no longer sick, but recovering (at least I am). I feel fine, just a little drained still.
Boy am I glad its over though!

So Sayith Tay and Jay #19

How do you get sick?

Taylor:  I get sick because germs come in my mouth.

Jordan: I get sick when dust comes in my mouth.

What's the worst kind of sick?

Taylor: The worst kind of sick is getting really sick.

Jordan: My worst kind of sick is coughing

Where do germs come from?

Taylor: Germs come from anything that is yucky like things that get dirty.  If something else is dirty and it touches something that isn't dirty then it get's dirty.

Jordan: From aliens

What does Taylor/Jordan do when they are sick?

Taylor: She just coughs and just gets up when she lays down and goes to the shower by herself.  And she waits for you to turn the shower on for her.

Jordan: She's sick when she coughs.

How do you get better?

Taylor: By eating a good sandwich.

Jordan:  I get better when the dust goes away from my mouth.

How do you get rid of germs?

Taylor:  Eating something good like broccoli, sandwiches, bread, hot dogs, fruit, and it stops them and kills them.  And when I eat those things I feel better.

Jordan: I kill germs at the store.

My Big, Little Man

I have failed at my commitment to update you all on Elijah and his big boy bed. So although there is something else I REALLY want to blog about I decided it’s about time for just a general Eli update right?


I love all my kids and think they are all pretty stinkin’ cute, but (I hope it’s not just me) sometimes my kids just look awkward. I think Elijah can make faces that make him look a whole lot like a monkey and I think “huh, well that’s less cute then usual”. Also note, I have no idea when to use “then” and when to use “than”, sorry.

You can tell that Elijah is fast approaching age 2. He has his moments of laying on the floor crying and throwing a horrible fit for whatever reason. He is also talking a LOT more which makes things significant easier in my opinion since he can tell us what he wants. If you have (or had) kids that are going through this phase you know that each kid develops their own type of language that only the parents or friends that see them all the time understand. I know that “ab el joo” means apple juice, but who knows if anyone else would.

He has now successfully used the potty only twice, but he told us he had to go. Granted he looks at you and says “poo poo” and grabs his butt, but when you sit him down he pees instead. He’s getting there and my plan is to potty train him after our 3 week family vacation plans in June/July. I mean it would be horrible to start and then have to deal with a 10 hour long drive to Nor Cal and a 4 hour long plane trip to WI.

He’s getting a lot more cuddly which I love. At night when we relax before bed he’ll come sit next to me on the couch and cover both of us with a blanker with a huge smile on his face. Man o man I love that kid.

And now for the big boy bed. I can’t remember if I told you all why, but just in case:

Elijah transitioned to a big boy bed a few weeks ago since his lovely sisters figured it was a good idea to teach him how to climb out of his crib (amongst other things). We have a song in our house that the kids call “the crying song” since I always sang it to them to calm them down or soothe them. It’s really just a Veggie Tales song, but it does the trick. Well, for the last few months I’ve been singing that song to him before laying him down in bed. So now if Justin or I start singing that song he climbs into bed and generally stays there. It’s rather fabulous actually. A few nights here and there he wakes up and asks for “ab el joo” and won’t go back to sleep without a drink of something, but those nights are rare.

I also decided to celebrate this transition into boyhood he should get new bedding. More mature bedding (from baby to toddler) so we got him a Cars themed bed set (for only $20 on Amazon!) He loves cars – not necessarily the movie, but the toy/vehicle. It’s not uncommon to find a car in his hand or in his bed. However, since he does drag them all over the house that means we are often finding ourselves with a short supply since they are hidden all over the house. So I think he needs a larger car supply – but not the baby/toddler kind of cars. He doesn’t like those. He likes the Hot Wheels, die cut cars (I think that’s what they are called). So if you have an older boy that has outgrown his and want to hand some down I wouldn’t object :)
So that’s my Elijah blog – of course with tons of pictures to go with it. And I don’t expect you to think all of them are cute, because like I said…kids can have some awkward looking moments.

So Sayith Tay and Jay #18

Tracy Fox - You went to Jacki and Dan's anniversary party on Sunday. What is an anniversary?

Taylor: its a celebration when you get married, I mean when you're married, I mean for when you're married.

Jordan:  Its when you get a party.

Buck Baker -What does the Facebook do and why do so many people like it

Taylor: Where sharks live in space and there are space charts and plants. (I think she thought I said spacebook)

Jordan: Its when you read a book.

Celeste Nuffer Lavacot - What your sister/brother love about you?

Taylor: Because I get a lot of energy when I sleep.

Jordan: She loves Tracy and me.

Where do you want to go tomorrow?

Taylor: Easter Egg hunt.

Jordan:  Go to the park with Grandma and Kadance and Sarah and Papa, and Elijah, and daddy, and Taylor.  Hello princess head.  I love you because I love you.  Bye.

When we go camping who do you want to go with?

Taylor: Mima and popo

Jordan:  Sammy and Brendan and Tawni and Rob.

Who do you miss most in the whole world?


Taylor: Grandma

(Jordan in background) But I love Grandma and miss her more.

Jordan: I miss grandma and papa and Kaydance and aunt Genny. Oh and Tracy.  I know Tracy...you're not here. ::another voice:: Hi Jordan
::Jordan voice:: will you come over
::another voice:: I'll come over tomorrow
::Jordan voice:: ok see you tomorrow Tracy
::another voice:: goodnight Jordan, see you later alligator
::Jordan voice:: see you later crocodile

So Sayith Tay and Jay #17

What pet do you want to have?

Taylor: A blue pet.  A dark blue dog.

Jordan: I want a pink pet.

What did we do for Daddy's Birthday?

Taylor: We clapped after we singed the song.  Play games and dance together. We played with Kyle and Sammy and uncle Sam and I can't remember every body else's name...oh and Rob too - I mean Pablo.

Jordan: Get cake for him. Get cupcakes and chicken nuggets for his birthday...wait chicken nuggets are for birthdays! (we didn't do any of that)

What do you want to do when it's summer?

Taylor: Um, play with Sammy outside in the park.

Jordan: The sun will come up and I want to play in the beach.

What does daddy smell like?

Taylor: Cheesy pepper and old milk and he smells like (starts singing veggie tales intro) broccoli, celery, gotta be...

Jordan: Flowers

What is your favorite game on the computer?

Taylor: I can't remember my new games.  Typing game.

Jordan: I think its Jordan.

What will you learn when you go to Kindergarten?

Taylor: We will learn science and we will learn English.  We can learn lots of things. And I will learn to run fast.

Jordan: To go to up the teacher and go up to the mountain.

What is your favorite thing about Elijah?

Taylor: My favorite thing about Elijah is laying with me.

Jordan: My favorite think about buddy is what Elijah painting, but I like Sammy better.

Happy Birthday Justin!

I know you have all been waiting anxiously for Elijah’s big boy bed update.  It is coming.  I keep writing it here to make sure I actually get it here…eventually.

The truth is the pictures were on the camera along with a lot of the videos I needed for Justin’s Birthday Surprise this year so I couldn’t put the videos on our computer or he’d find them – so I didn’t put the pictures on my computer either.

However, I can’t use that as an excuse anymore, but since my hubby’s birthday was yesterday you get a birthday post instead of a big boy bed post.  But it is coming.

Justin and I aren’t huge “celebrators”.  Beyond saying happy birthday to each other and sometimes a small “thinking of you” gift we don’t usually make big deal of birthdays.  By that I mean each other’s birthdays – we go crazy for the kids.

This year I wanted to do something special for him so I had a bunch of friends and family create videos singing/saying Happy Birthday and I edited them all together to make a birthday song for him.  It was a ton of fun, and thank you again to everyone that helped!!

Yesterday, Justin’s Birthday, we went to church and about half way through our church morning we figured it might be a good idea to do something with friends since we weren’t doing anything that day.  So in the true Davis’ fashion we put together a last minute birthday game night. 

Sad Note: Our house is small and since this was very last minute a few of our friends were not there/invited – not because we don’t love you, but because we had no time to plan.

Happy Note: We had a few new people come!  We really just mentioned it to some friends from church so we had some new faces join the mix.  Really it was all church friends (with 1 family exception).

Although I was super exhausted we had a lot of fun.  Matt brought leftover Stonefire Chicken and Tri-tip, and salad - and we ordered a few pizzas. I made chocolate cookies and served them warm with ice cream to substitute “cake”.  Taylor was not a fan of not having cake until she realized she was getting cookies. The kids were more rambunctious then usual so we didn’t really get any games in until Ed and Kyle (kid) left and Elijah was in bed with a movie on for the rest of the kids.  But we got in one good round of a fun game that either Sam or Matt won…I really don’t remember who.

Since I was the only exhausted one a few people left after the first game so we were down to 4.  We played a great round of Small World and then called the night quits.

I’m sure Justin had as good a night as I did.  So thank you all for showing up at my house last minute and making Justin’s birthday fun.

I love you Babe!! Happy 29^th Birthday.

And I didn't take any pictures, but the video I was refering to can be found on Justin's or my facebook wall.

A Friday Afternoon List

I don’t know what I blog most about.  It is my family as a whole? Is it my kids? Is it me?

I feel like I don’t really talk about myself all that often. I mean I do as a part of the whole family, but not just me. Or do I?  ::shrug::

Well if I do I don’t mean to, except today.  Today I totally plan on talking about me.

I sit here munching on a giant cup of little ice cubes and think there are things I’d like to share with you that you may or may not know.  A Shanda style list of random things for you – I will refrain from changing text color so that it doesn’t look like I completely stole the idea from Shanda.

1. I find Shanda fascinating.  Not in a “she’s crazy and I can’t take my eyes off her” kind of way – although I’m sure she’s appreciate that too, but a “I want to run around in her shoes for month” kind of way.  She lives her life so different then me and I’m curious what it would be like to live so free.

2. I have THE best friends in the world.  I don’t care what you say.  My friends are far more awesome and great then your friends.  I hope you can accept this reality, because it is true.

3. I love ice.  Not big ice, but the small little ball type ice cubes you can get at AMPM.  How do I know they have them at AMPM?  Because Justin would intentionally stop there when we were dating to get me a giant cup of them.  I’d munch until my whole mouth was numb then stop only because I was scared to bite my tongue off and not notice.

4. My face can only be wet if I’m in a shower or pool.  Anything time freaks me out…like jump around screaming like a 5 year old with a spider on her nose kind of freak out.

5. Sylvester Stallone and Drew Barrymore annoy me.  Like I see them and my body cringes.

6. I’ve recently realized there was a dramatic shift in my life.  In high school I spent many Friday nights with my crew (Bryan (Moose), Nick (Dooty), Sarah (My BFF), Megan (Meguna Beach), Greg (Green Goo), Veronica (Roni), Josh Bell (Josh…poor nicknamless bloke), Allyson (Ally), and occasional appearances by the other Josh (PBJ – Pink Ball Josh), and Todd (Also without a nickname, but also the only younger guy in our group).  We’d watch movies (usually scary ones) at my house and use towels to whip each other – you know normal teenage stuff.  At some point in my life that transitioned to a “game night” with a completely different group of people…like not a single person stayed the same.  The “game night” crew has also evolved, but that is a story for a different day.

7. I went from having a very event free weekend every week to rarely an event free day in my week sort of life within a year.  It has been a quite chaotic transition, and I like it.  Actually, when that 1 day a month comes around that we don’t have something to do I feel weird and try to make last minute plans – this is usually successful…so what are you guys doing tonight?

8. Watermelon Madness smoothies from Juice it up are incredible…like my mouth instantly starts watering when I think about the deliciousness of it even though I haven’t had one since I was pregnant with Elijah because its pretty ridiculous to spend $4-$5 on a smoothie.

9. I’m a gamer.  I used to try to hide it because it was sort of embarrassing to admit I spent hours a week playing an online game, but I got over that because my gamer friends (KORT CREW!!!) are real friends that I spent a lot of time with.  You’d be surprised the kind of things you learn about people in that setting.  I love my KORT and Wrath and Ret peeps.  I also miss those long nights with those peeps.

10.  I’m running out of ice so I will now end my list.  I don’t understand the word ‘afternoon’.  We have morning, afternoon, and evening.  To me:

Morning Means: early morning like when you wake up or around 6AM (if you wake up early) to like 10AM

Evening Means: around dinner time.  Like 5PM to bedtime and while you sleep

So to me Afternoon is the gap of time in-between from 10AM – 5PM.  I don’t take afternoon to mean after noon (12).  But a phase in the day instead.  Justin disagrees and get’s irritated if I refer to 11AM as afternoon, but its not like there is another word to explain that time of day and 11AM is not still morning.