Always The Dreamer..

Imagine a fall afternoon, the sun is setting behind the mountains, casting waltzing shadows over a little house with a smoking chimney. The trees look ablaze with their red and orange leaves, and a small stream is alive, seeming to sparkle with thousands of diamonds. The air is crisp and clean, and you can hear nothing but the bubbling of the water and the crackle of leaves swirling on the ground. There is a wrap around porch enclosing the little house, and on it rests two rocking chairs.

Sounds kind of like a Thomas Kinkade painting to me, but it's as vivid and real in my mind as my next breath. It's the picture Josh and I paint every time we talk about our dream home. It's a life we hope to get to someday, a more simple, slower paced life. It's the kind of dream that keeps us moving forward, working hard, and believing.

Sometimes I think we were born in the wrong generation, that we would have fit in better in a past time. Josh believes in the old values, and so do I. I'd much rather talk to a real live person, deal with a human being, than communicate through technology.People these days just don't seem to care too much about each other. A customer is a dollar sign, not someone you want to get to know, someone you value. Josh believes that you should have to work for what you're given, that you should be rewarded by how hard you try, not who you know, or where you come from. He believes in honor, and providing for his family.

I'm not saying that people don't believe in these things these days, it's just not talked about much. People have been driven by greed and power since the dawn of time, but it's a different world today than it was say fifty years ago. People used to know their neighbors, they used to know their Doctor on a more personal level, some doctors even made house calls regularly. We used to hold doors for each other, when did we start asking, "What's in it for me?" before our actions?

I want my kids to grow up in an environment where they're free to explore. Where they can go out in the woods and get lost for hours in their own imagination. Where they can ride their bikes from one end of town to the other without this huge fear that they'll be mugged, or abducted, or run over. I want to go to the store and recognize the people in line, the manager, the cashier, as my neighbors. I want to have an active role in the community and feel like it's Stars Hollow from Gilmore Girls.

This is the world I want to be a part of, and I know there has to be towns like this hidden throughout the country. Where people really care about their neighbors, where we can fit right in, sit on our front porch, and watch the kids run wild.

I have always had an over-active imagination. I also dream big and without limitation. If Josh and I could climb into that Thomas Kinkade painting I know we would.

We've been entering in a contest to win a dream home in a town much like I've described. I've never been there so I can't attest to the people, but the house is that picture, the trees are alive, and I can say without a doubt that I've never wanted to win something so much in my life.

We're not delusional, we know the odds of winning this thing are ridiculous, but it's been so

invigorating just throwing ideas around about who we'd be in this house, what we'd do, where we'd go, how we'd live. It's reminded us that dreaming isn't just fun, it's breath of fresh air when the real world can be so stifling. It's a way to imagine the future with that silver lining, and then laugh over our mind creations.

It's been a fun few days of remembering the dreams we had together when we very first met, the things that we have in common that will never change, and the love that we have for each other that's like nothing else in this world. It reminded us that though things don't always turn out the way you think, we have everything we ever wanted in our kids and our marriage. It's made us feel so very lucky, and so very thankful.

And who knows, we just might win. :)

Until next time, you've been Nicked!!