expanding.

I distinctly remember my first hundred dollars. 

It was summertime, it was dark outside, and 

my family had just gathered for an evening prayer. 

I was sitting on my bed counting my money. 

Only five minutes before I'd emptied my bank- it was a little tin thing with a slit on the lid.

It had sayings like peace, cool, and groovy written in funky fonts.

(Obviously heirloom quality.)

I remember being asked to kneel down, close my eyes, fold my arms...

And I remember doing just that- until the prayer actually started.

As soon as those governing eyes were shut- I was right back to counting.

When the prayer began I was at ninety seven dollars and change, 

and right around "amen" I hit one hundred. 

I remember being shocked... amazed... and so darn excited.

When everyone else said "amen"

I blurted something like, 

"Mom! I HAVE ONE HUNDRED DOLLARS!"

The comparison twenty years later is comical. 

Yesterday for example... I paid one hundred sixty dollars here, three hundred there,

received an estimate for several thousand by next week,

and I'm getting my checkbook ready for a couple hundred more 

around ten o' clock this morning.  

...So much has changed since that first hundred.

And yet we're doing a lot of the work ourselves
to save a couple hundred dollars.

Which tells me that really nothing has changed...
It just says my level of shocked... amazed... and so darn excited has expanded.
It's about two stories tall now with lots of windows and a backyard.