I Have A Dream

Ok. I don't mean to steal the title of the famous Martin Luther King speach, because this blog won't even come close to his eloquence. I'll get to the dream in a minute...but first I want to say that I actually made up my own "I Have a Dream" speech a while ago and it went something like, "I have a dream...that one day I will get a full night sleep. There will be no more crying, no more poopy diapers..." Etc, etc. I don't know why I do these things. I guess to entertain myself.

But anyway, back to my dream. I have a friend, Theresa, who lives in Australia. She used to live here, but when she was 18 her dad got a job transfer to Australia and she fell in love and married an Aussie. So she stayed there and her family came back. Theresa and her family came back here to live for a while, but now are back in Australia and have been for about 4-5 years now. She's been my friend since 4th grade. She's fun, energetic, and positive. I love hanging out with her. She comes back to visit occasionally and we pick up where we left off...like she's been here all along. My dream has always been to visit her in Australia.

One day I mentioned this to Ted. I said, "How will this ever be possible? Will we ever get to visit them?" When we looked at how much it would cost to go there as a family...fohgetaboutit. If we looked at going as a couple we'd have to find someone to watch our kids for 10-14 days...fohgetaboutTHATtoo. Then, my husband spoke some of the sweetest words I have ever heard, "Maybe you'll just have to go by yourself." WHAT? Did he just say what I thought he said?

To make sure he doesn't forget what he said, I remind him about it occasionally. My dream is to go the year I turn 40 which is 4 years away. Sam, Abby and Ben will be in full time school and Mary will be in preschool. Four years is a long time away. Who knows what can happen in four years that will make it harder for me to go?

I've decided to get one of those credit cards on which you can earn miles. I'll have 4 years to accrue enough miles for a ticket. To figure out how many miles I need to earn, you are supposed to take the price of the ticket and multiply by 80. To go to Australia, it can cost anywhere from $800-1600. You multiply this by 80 and you get 64,000-128,000 miles. The first two years you get 20,000 bonus miles, so this makes it 44,000-108,000. You have to charge a penny to get one mile. I sure hope I can get the $800 ticket. The miles expire after five years.

So this is my dream. Four years from now, I hope I'm writing in this blog about the wonderful trip I've taken.