When we reap our millions

When our ship comes in and we're suddenly drowning in cash, here is what we plan to do. How about you?

1. Build a new home completely powered by solar and geo-thermal energy. Perhaps even built with straw bale technology.

2. Give our current home to my friend Lindsay.

3. Hubby as always dreamt of having a consulting business focused on helping others get their ideas off the ground. He wants to start a foundation for small business entrepreneur's to get low-cost loans, grants, and free advice. It would be housed right here in downtown Northfield. In fact, the building I pictured him working from is now available, how cool is that?

4. We have our eye on another currently empty building in downtown. We would open ANGELINA's Italian Ristorante. It would be the most comfortable, easy going family restaurant with a kick-ass menu and wine cellar. It has room for the perfect outdoor seating area. Upstairs are two recently finished condos that we would loan out as crisis housing. We would hire chefs and a manager at wonderfully good wages and let them run the show, because frankly we just want to OWN the place, not run it. We'd screw it up royally. All the wait staff and kitchen staff would make fantastic livable wages. We'd give away meals often to those in need. There would also be a fantastic deli and prepared meals-to-go section.
This is the place. What you can't see is the ample parking and recently installed awnings. You also can't see that this building is HUGE.

5. Build Northfield a community rec center that is affordable for ALL. Complete with 3 sheets of indoor ice, an indoor park for tots, plenty of gym space, a pool, a walking path, etc. We wouldn't want naming rights, just to get the thing built.

6. We would have a philanthropic foundation aimed at helping families in need. I know exactly which banker/businessman in town I would hire to run it, although he has no idea of my plans.

7. I would set up scholarship funds at Carleton College, because they have been instrumental in keeping my little family afloat lately. And because they send the brightest kids into our future equipped to make the world better.

8. I would also set up scholarship funds at The University of Iowa, because it IS my alma mater after all.

9. We would give each of our siblings a giant chunk of money. And my mother-in-law would get the largest chunk.

10. And last, but it should be first, we will give everyone who loaned us cash a TEN-FOLD return on their investment.