Winning the Lottery

It all began several weeks back when Daddy gave Madi a ride to school one day. He started telling Madi all about the lottery, and the two began to dream their dreams.  Ahhh, the endless possibilities.  Madi's little head started filling up with all sorts of fantasies. She could just imagine having that house with stairs that she's always longed for (this is the long-term goal of her lemonade stand earnings). They talked of house renovations, long trips, and then Madi came up with her prize idea.

"Daddy!  We can buy a hotel!" (pronounced ho-tull in Madi speak)

Her eyes were as big as saucers as she contemplated our future. The fifteen minute drive was packed full of dreams, and then Jimmy handed her a big dose of reality. "Ya know, Madi...winning the lottery is not that easy.  The chances aren't really that good actually."  And he watched her deflate like a balloon poked with scissors.

Madi wasn't about to let her dream end. That night, we had dinner at Bubba and Grandpa's and listened to Madi sort out every detail of her new property. We would thankfully receive free room and board--that is, in exchange for the list of duties we were to be accountable for. Bubba and Grandpa would get free rooms. They would also receive complimentary wine, but Grandpa would be billed $1.00 for his daily fix of blueberries.  The hotel restaurant would be small with just a top-notch sushi bar in place. After all, we don't want to be too busy cooking when we can shuttle guests to and from all of the great dining spots in Delray Beach.  Bubba's the shuttle driver, I forgot that detail.

Madi took many mental notes that evening and woke up the next morning having not forgotten a single detail (typical). She had us so sold on this wacky idea that she actually convinced us to go on the internet searching for bed and breakfast properties for sale in Delray Beach at 9:00 am!  Maybe she should be an attorney?  She's very persuasive...

And then we checked the winning lottery numbers. Our numbers were not included among the winners.  Oh well, it is fun to dream.

As for the lottery, we've had to nip that whole thing in the bud. Madi quickly became addicted to the whole process and started begging me to take her over to that big, bad, black vending machine at Publix where she could get her little paws on some scratch-off tickets! It felt like all eyes were upon me as I had to pry my little junkie away from the machine and coax her over to the bakery for a free cookie.  We explained to Madi that it would be very difficult for us to go get Charlie in China if Mommy and Daddy are locked up for allowing their five-year old to gamble!!