Needs versus Wants

I have never been good at distinguishing needs versus wants when it comes to spending money. For example, our point and shoot digital camera is on the fritz. Having a kiddo, we definitely need a camera. But when it was time to buy a new one, I insisted on an SLR. Did we need an SLR? Of course not, but I justified it, because I want a camera to really capture The Monster’s infancy. I can justify anything by saying it’s needed for The Monster or for safety. I took a couple of safety engineering classes in college (with Mommy Bee’s husband, actually!), and that was enough to get me on my high horse about safety.

Speaking of safety, I live somewhat near the gulf coast of the U.S. “Somewhat near” means that if something really, really big were to hit just right, we’d get hurricane force winds at my house. Chances are not huge that we’d get any significant damage. Other than college, and a brief stint afterwards, I’ve lived on the gulf coast my entire life. So has Big D. I don’t recall ever boarding up windows for a hurricane. Neither does he. And he has lived even closer to the coast than I ever have. But all of a sudden, I’m looking into plywood alternatives should a category 5 be projected to hit the coast at just the right spot. I am not a fan of plywood, because it makes it dark inside your house, it’s harder to get out if there is an emergency – such as a fire (“I’m a safety girl.”), and ugh – the nail holes left behind! Also, plywood is only good for a season or so, before you have to replace it. So I got a quote on a plywood alternative. To cover all of our windows (34) except for one in the living room that we couldn’t reach anyway, will be a whopping $2,800. Crudola. That’s way beyond our budget.

Since having The Monster, I’ve come to realize that life is really freakin’ precious. That’s why I’ll spend weeks and weeks researching a car seat before I finally commit. I’ll do anything to protect this little girl. So what if a hurricane was to be big enough and strong enough to cause damage in our neighborhood? Should I spend the $2,800? Wouldn’t it be a tragedy if I didn’t and something bad happened? The point of the window coverings is to protect the windows from projectiles, not only to protect our lives, but also our home. So it’s time to determine what’s a need versus a want. If the right combo of bad shit were to happen, we would be holed up in the master bedroom/bathroom with the cats. So maybe we’ll buy just enough to cover those windows. I need to protect my family; I want to protect my house. Aren't you proud of me for this revelation? Maybe next year, or the year after, we can protect the whole house. But for now, I suppose I’ll get a quote just on the master suite and then hope for the best. Don’t you just love how I’ve taken the itsy bitsy risk of a storm hitting just right with just enough strength and turned it into a huge safety campaign? I'm sure I'm overreacting. I’m going to try out a poll question on this topic just for fun (see somewhere on the right). I expect each of my 7 readers to vote. If the poll goes over well, maybe I’ll post a poll of what The Monster should wear to her friend’s birthday party on Saturday. Despite the fact that her friend “R” is turning one on Friday and is too young for such a toy, I plan on purchasing her a huge, loud drum set so that her parents curse us for years to come. I could see them dumping it in our yard after a few hours.

In other news, when I was visited Big D’s mom and grandmother this past weekend, I took possession of his mom’s memory cards from her camera. She’s got pictures taken the day The Monster was born that I haven’t even seen yet. Shame on her for not sending them to us; shame on me for not asking. We’ll I’ve got them now.

And I’ve also got some pictures from a garage sale we held in April of last year… I was about 4 months preggars, I suppose. We made about 400 bucks. Not too bad. Check out me counting the cash…

There’s also a picture of The Monster when she was a month old…

And here are some pictures of The Monster attempting to rock on a little elephant thingy I got from Baby Center recently.

Here’s a picture of me on my birthday in 2006. Mmm... cake. I got that shirt in Kansas.

And here is Big D and me, Christmas 2006. Like the Santa party shirt? Me too…

Can you believe the variety of pictures I got from Big D’s mom’s camera?

And then I went through my cell phone and pulled off a bunch of pictures. These were taken about 3 weeks ago during a Monster snoozefest where I could only reach my camera phone to record the sweetness. You can see a scab from where she scratched the inside of her ear, despite my daily attempts to keep her Freddy-Krueger-like nails at bay.

These were taken at the pediatrician’s office for a follow up from her ear infection a few weeks back. I don’t know what possessed me to take them. I started randomly sending them to Margaret. Maybe she'll get more next week when The Monster goes in for her 9 month checkup.

That's all for now...