what the rich* are doing these days

*that would be us, the newly-minted dunn-dufaults

my mother thinks we have secretly won the lottery.
i'm serious.
she has taken pepper aside and asked her: "Did your mommy & daddy win the lottery and they aren't telling anyone yet?"
. . .
rest assured, mom - we have not been been keeping secrets from you :)
but i have been keeping hoards of money.  ok, not hoards.  but sums.
you see, i am a saver
a saver of the rainy-day type...  actually rainy days
i have numerous savings accounts: one for our next new car ($500 goes in there monthly), one for our extravagant twice-in-a-lifetime trips (every baby bonus and child benefit has gone in there), one for our vacations (rob's bonuses and tax refund cheques go in there), and one is a simple miscellaneous savings account - because sometimes you just can't categorize, and yet i still feel the need to keep saving for that dreaded rainy day...

so these 'sums' have been accumulating.
some over years.
meanwhile, i've had a reverse in my thinking - as in: what the heck am i saving for?
as in: when do i get to spend it? 
as in: what i am waiting for?
as in: sometimes a habit is just that - a habit.  and now that our mortgage is paid, shouldn't i release those fears of unemployment and homelessness and financial calamity?

so, last summer we let the purse strings go and spent all of rob's (unexpected, massive) bonus on a kitchen reno and updated furniture for our living room.   now the most commonly used area of our home is new, and fresh, and ahhhhh - lovely

and then we booked a holiday out west at a boutique dude ranch where, i guess, we'll be hob-nobbing with the real rich because the old me would never have looked into it, let alone afford it.

in all likehood, we'll be buying fierce a new piano later this month.  the only thing slowing us down is where to place it.

and our new fancy-shmancy treadmill (complete with internet access!) arrived today.


look at that stride!
(oh yes, we're converting our guest room into an exercise room.  and we're converting the playroom into a guest room)


yup -
this is our year of being rich
saying 'yes'
living it up