Let's take Adrianne's question about what we think we will be doing in 5-10 years and start a new post here. What do you think you will be doing in 5-10 years and where do you think you will be?
This question has been kind of haunting me lately. All I see is "old." I don't like that scene but as the years go on, I worry about Jim's health and Ammon's health. If they maintain how they are doing, we'll still be doing the same thing - quiet nights at home, rushed mornings to get Ammon ready for school, work, etc. I will not be able to retire until they kick me out of here so for at least 5 years I don't see much change in my life.
I do worry about being unable to care for my family properly. I worry about caring for myself. I don't want my kids to have to take care of me. That is a HUGE concern to me. There was a really funny Sponge Bob episode night before last where Sponge Bob and Patrick decide they want to become entrepreneurs. They try to sell chocolate bars. It's a disaster all the way around. They decide to stretch the truth a bit like other salesmen do and come to a house where an old lady answers the door. Sponge Bob says, "How are you today? Is your mother home?" (He winks at Patrick for that stretched truth.) She turns and hollers "Mom, somebody is here for you." Sponge Bob is shocked that somebody older than this woman is there. The mom comes around the corner - she is in a wheelchair and shrunken to be a skeleton. She can't hear. The daughter has to shout in her ear. When the old lady learns that Sponge Bob has chocolate to sell she tells him that she doesn't like chocolate. Patrick said, "Oh, this isn't to eat. It's to rub on yourself to make you younger." The hilarious (but very sad) part is that the daughter is in the background shaking her head, gesturing wildly indicating that she doesn't want this mother to live any longer. She informs Sponge Bob that she hates him after the mother buys a bar.
I laughed my head off while I was watching it, but afterwards, the reality of my life hit. I'm not so far from being that old. It's a scary thought. I would love to serve a mission after I am through working and I'd love to travel all over. Those are merely dreams but it's kind of fun to dream.
So the rest of you share your hopes and dreams to perk this thing up a bit. I don't mean to be maudlin - just facing the facts. I think you will all be surprised to see if you will actually be where you want to be in five years or ten years. I think the Lord will definitely direct you and it might shock you where you end up.
7 comments:
In 10 years, Michelle and I will almost be empty nesters. Scott will be a senior in High School. I don't know where we will be or what we will be doing. Maybe the same things are we are presently but if I had my choice, I would own a fitness facility somewhere. Provo is vastly under served and I have lots of good ideas. The problem is that I don't have any money to pursue those ideas yet. Maybe someday.
Who knows where we'll be. We didn't think ten years ago that we'd be where we are now! And we're moving in the wrong direction. I thought we'd be going back west.
10 yrs from now we'll hopefully be back in SLC, Jake will be 14!, with Geoff and Sarah in college. That's the plan anyway, right? I know it NEVER goes as planned though, so we'll just roll with whatever comes our way! Maybe I'll make it back to school myself and doing something new. I'll work at your gym for ya Jason! I've worked at a gym before in Provo!
Five years: wherever the army decides to send us. Maybe overseas somewhere else, maybe the states. I'll probably have one more kid (but not for another couple years).
Ten years: If Hans decides to stay in the army, he'll only have about three years left before he can retire. The kids will be older and hopefully easier to handle (ok, I know I'm just dreaming. In all actuality, their problems will probably just be bigger). If Hans doesn't stay in the army, maybe we'll end up in Texas. I wouldn't mind living down there. As for me, I'm really hoping in ten years I'll have my helicopter pilot's license. Wish me luck!
Lindsey
What? Lindsey, how random. I would have never known that about you.
-Gillian
I wrote a reply yesterday, but apparently, it didn't post. So...
In 5 years we will be wrapping up our time Colorado Springs. We'll probably have a couple more kids by then. Hopefully Adrianne will have published some children's books and I will have published a novel or two by then. If the academy likes me and I like them, they will sponsor me for a Ph.D. I'll go to some (probabaly civilian) school for the following 3 years. Then I'll have to do what they call an Intermediate Operational Tour--3 years actually working for the Air Force--and then back to the Academy to teach for another 4 years. That lays out the 15 years of our lives (or so).
If the academy and I don't get along for one reason or another, after 5 years I'll go somewhere else, though I don't know where.
Mike
In five years I will be 36, Abby will be 11, Leah 9, and Lauren 8. Oh, and Austin Cole will be 5. Just kidding. There's no announcement, trust me.
I will be a GS-13 somewhere in the US Forest Service, working on geospatial technologies and hopefully still working in the fire community. Jen and I hope to be ward librarians -- our ideal callings. We will probably be in a different house by then, but who knows. We kinda like where we are.
Hopefully Jen will be willing to go on vacation without the kids again. Better yet, it would be nice to be able to afford to take our kids with us (to the beach Chelsey was talking about...).
Hopefully we will be in a different house, one out in the country with a mud room and a same floor laundry room.
I would like to be a personal trainer by then because I can't see still teaching aerobics when I'm 47, would like to still be in shape and teaching others about proper fitness. Maybe when all the children are out of the house I'll go to hair school, have always wanted to do that. But I don't really see that happening since we will have major mission bills for all the children by then.
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