Bar Stool Economics

Bloglifted from my sister-in-law, Julianne...

Suppose that every day, ten men go out for beer and the bill for all ten comes to $100. If they paid their bill the way we pay our taxes, it would go something like this:

The first four men (the poorest) would pay nothing.
The fifth would pay $1.
The sixth would pay $3
The seventh would pay $7.
The eighth would pay $12.
The ninth would pay $18.
The tenth man (the richest) would pay $59.

So, that's what they decided to do.

The ten men drank in the bar every day and seemed quite happy with the arrangement, until one day, the owner threw them a curve. "Since you are all such good customers," he said, "I'm going to reduce the cost of your daily beer by $20."Drinks for the ten now cost just $80.

The group still wanted to pay their bill the way we pay our taxes so the first four men were unaffected. They would still drink for free. But what about the other six men - the paying customers? How could they divide the $20 windfall so that everyone would get his 'fair share?' They realized that $20 divided by six is $3.33. But if they subtracted that from every body's share, then the fifth man and the sixth man would each end up being paid to drink his beer. So, the bar owner suggested that it would be fair to reduce each man's bill by roughly the same amount, and he proceeded to work out the amounts each should pay.

And so:

The fifth man, like the first four, now paid nothing(100% savings).
The sixth now paid $2 instead of $3 (33%savings).
The seventh now pay $5 instead of $7 (28%savings).
The eighth now paid $9 instead of $12 (25% savings).
The ninth now paid $14 instead of $18 (22% savings).
The tenth now paid $49 instead of $59 (16% savings).

Each of the six was better off than before. And the first four continued to drink for free. But once outside the restaurant, the men began to compare their savings."I only got a dollar out of the $20,"declared the sixth man. He pointed to the tenth man, " but he got $10!""Yeah, that's right," exclaimed the fifth man. "I only saved a dollar, too. It's unfair that he got ten times more than I did!""That's true!!" shouted the seventh man. "Why should he get $10 back when I got only two? The wealthy get all the breaks!""Wait a minute," yelled the first four men in unison. "We didn't get anything at all. The system exploits the poor!"The nine men surrounded the tenth and beat him up. The next night the tenth man didn't show up for drinks, so the nine sat down and had beers without him. But when it came time to pay the bill, they discovered something important. They didn't have enough money between all of them for even half of the bill!

And that, boys and girls, journalists and college professors, is how our tax system works. The people who pay the highest taxes get the most benefit from a tax reduction. Tax them too much, or attack them for being wealthy, and they just may not show up anymore. In fact, they might start drinking overseas where the atmosphere is somewhat friendlier.

For those who understand, no explanation is needed.
For those who do not understand, no explanation is possible.

Vote wisely on Tuesday...

Thanks Beutiful!

Kerst brought in the cannibals that Beutiful saved for him. He was so excited! Thanks Beutiful!!!

Jaley heads out

Jaley headed out to Outdoor Education today. She has been looking forward to this since 4th grade. When we moved, outdoor ed at the new school was during 6th grade so she had another year to wait before she could attend.

Her grade chartered 10 buses. The first group left at the beginning of the week. The final group left today with the final 5 buses. I hope she doesn't get bus sick!!!



I'm going to miss her!

Salt Lake City trip

I have to admit, my kids aren't very good tourists... so I thought I would torture my mom and take her along with me during our Salt Lake City trip.
I've never seen the Conference Center. It is an amazing building! The tour guide took us all over and shared some neat information about the building (Imported Pear Wood and Cherry Wood are the woods used throughout the paneling on the walls). It seats 21,000 people. There are pipes from different churches of all faiths from all over the country used in the organ pipes.
Our tour guide loved the artwork displayed in the Conference Center. He told us that the artwork in the conference center are all originals.



One of my favorite photos revealed a surprise to me! I have always loved the painting by Arnold Frieberg of Christ visiting the Nephites on the American Continent after he was crucified and resurrected. The print I have of this painting in Kerst's room reveals a very bright spot where Christ is pictured. Upon further and closer investigation of the original, you can see that Frieberg painted Christ in the bright spot. It was amazing!
We also walked through the "Hall of the Prophets" where paintings and sculptures of the latter-day Prophets are displayed. Julia had the camera and took most of the pictures of our tour. I was touched to find the following photos. She captured the moment beautifully.


We stopped near the Joseph Smith Memorial Building to eat the lunch that Grandma M lovingly prepared for the crazy tourists. It was a much needed fuel stop!

We headed over to the Joseph Smith Memorial Building and visited the Distribution Center in the basement of the building. Kerst insisted that I buy him his own Book of Mormon with a case. I was going to hold off until he turned 8, but he was so excited to have his own copy. He wants to finish it before he turns 8 (just like his cousin Amelia and Max). How do you say no to that?!?

We also watched the movie Joseph Smith the Prophet of the Restoration. It was very moving; one of those "must see again" type of movie!

Fun Wednesday

We headed out to visit John's sister, Gretchen, and take a peek at her fun Halloween decorations. We had a great visit and got to play in her toy room and on her frozen slide outside. Her yard reminds me of the Secret Garden; it is so peaceful!

Julia was going through piano withdrawal and was THRILLED to find a piano at Aunt Gretchen's! She was going crazy after not being able to play a piano in over 24 hours!
In the afternoon we headed to the park and played for over 2 hours with our cousins. The kids didn't want to leave!

Kerst, Max, Emily and Jaley

I love this photo of Kendall; can't you hear him giggle? ... notice cousin Hadley and Jaley looking down at him.

My overly talented hair cutting sister, Kelly, treated Jaley and Jenna to a much needed hair cut.

Fall Break - heading to UT

We decided to go visit (aka bother) our family during Fall Break. We packed up what we thought we'd need and figured we could live without anything we forgot (maybe).


We headed out for our 503 mile, 7 1/2 hour drive to UT after Julia's morning ortho appointment (no, the braces aren't off...hopefully soon!). Jenna was excited about the drive. What? Excited about the drive? She then explained that she was going to have 7 hours to read the book she was bringing - for enjoyment! (I know, I had to pick my jaw up out of my lap; Jenna has recently found a series she LOVES!)




It wasn't long before I had the first "complaint". Jaley tends to get carsick so I gave her some Dramamine. She asked me what it would do to her. I told her it would make her tired and that she would most likely sleep about 4 hours. After she took it we all told her "goodnight, see you in 4 hours." It was only an hour later when she woke up and saw this:




Groggily she asked how long she had slept. Julia replied, "Merry Christmas!" We had a good laugh.


In previous trips, we only do one bathroom stop. This time we had to add another...in the middle of no where; it was an emergency (so he said).




Kendall discovered that he LOVED the rumble strips along the side of the road. I would run over them every so often just to get a stir out of him. He would say "again again" after each time.

We arrived just in time to watch cousin Jadey play in her soccer game. It was chilly and windy but that didn't stop her from being amazing! Grandma M's homemade stew hit the spot (a favorite of Jaley's!)

Booing

For Family Home Evening, we went out "Booing" (aka ding dong ditching with a Halloween Treat).

We were sneaky...sort of. We were caught almost every time!

Something missing?

Do you notice something missing? I do!

We finally can fit the cars in the garage!!! HUGE IMPROVEMENT!

Our "to do" list is slowly shrinking (but then I find more to add to it...)

Rave Reviews

I have attended several Parent/Teacher Conferences over the last couple of weeks. It is so nice to go in and hear such wonderful feedback. I know I have great kids; it is certainly nice to know that others feel the same way!

It was fun to visit with Kerst's teacher. Here is her report:
Kerst can't keep his nose out of a book at school. I'm not surprised. We have the same issue with our bedtime routine; that is one big reason why I haven't fixed his light in his bedroom.
He always has a grin from ear to ear and a twinkle in his eye.
Kerst reads SUPER FAST with 98% accuracy....he forgets to pause at periods. I always wonder when he would breathe when he reads out loud at home.
He sits in between 2 little girls; they are considered "The Three Musketeers".
His teacher reported that the class is doing a great job collecting cannibals.
I'm so glad Kerst has such a wonderful teacher to love and teach him during the day while he isn't home.

Julia's teachers were equally impressed. My favorite report was from her speech teacher. She said that Julia was amazing. She wasn't sure how she would do because in class typically her reserved, quiet students tend to have difficulties with presenting speeches. Julia has a 99% in that class! Julia is a perfect example of how to prepare and present a speech. She has a pretty tough rubric for grading. Julia follows it to a "T". I told the teacher that Julia has been giving speeches since she was 3 years old. Thanks to our Primary Organization at church assigning the young kids 2-3 minute talks during their opening or closing exercises of the youth program on Sunday. Hopefully the don't start teaching her how to debate; she is pretty persuasive without any formal training!

Jenna and Jaley's conferences were student led. I was able to go to their school and see what they are working on in their classroom. In middle school, the student presents all information at the conference, the teachers are in the background (this is not my most favorite way to get "dirt" on my kids...although there isn't much dirt on them).

So after listening to the teachers and seeing what the other two are up to, I give my kids two thumbs up!

Gross-out Feast - Dessert

And now my favorite part of the dinner....the reactions were a riot! Jaley and Grace's reaction was priceless. So was Kendall's.

So what was dessert? Kendall said 'Ewe." He knows better than to eat THAT!

Or does he know better?.....

Gross-out Feast - Main Course

We served Ghosts (mashed potatoes with pepper corns)

Bones (remnants from the meat portion of the main course)

Brains (also remnants of the main course meat dish)

Road Kill...in honor of Blakelee.

Blakelee hit a raccoon while she was driving (actually driving!) a couple of weeks ago. She called Julia right after it happened. It really shook her up.

Gross-out Feast Menu - Appetizers

Appetizing? You be the judge....

Monster Puke (which really did look like puke to me) and Monster Snot was served with Bat Wings.


We also had Monster toes.

Gross-out Feast...a success!

It was a BLAST! And the kids didn't throw up in front of their friends. I have to admit that I am a bit more tame than my good friend Jean K. back in IL. I can't wait to hear how her kids reacted to their feast this year. I heard what she was planning on doing, but I don't want to spill the beans just in case a friend might come across it and tell them ;o)

Kerst (Edward from Twilight) invited Lauren (cowgirl) and Camille K. (elephant) to be his guest at the gross-out feast. They are good friends from his Primary class in church.

Jaley (a beautiful princess...recycled from last year) invited Grace B. (another beautiful girl)

Jenna (being her normal goofy self with hair painted black) invited her friend Kelsey L. (Spider man)

Julia (Bella from Twilight...she painted bite marks on her neck; she looked up on youtube.com to see a tutorial. It was pretty realistic!) invited Blakelee (a superhero)

Kendall (Frankenstein) Such a happy little guy!

He's not so happy here...I put the rest of his costume on (the bolts via suction cup)

Now I know why he was so sad! Poor guy...all for a photo op.

Bella and Edward aka Julia and Kerst

Out our gross-out feast, the kids wore costumes. Kerst went as handsome Edward (the vampire from Twilight) and Julia went as Bella (the human girl who is in-love with Edward).

In the book, Twilight, Edward writes Bella a lullabye. Here is a goofy clip of Bella and Edward... my drama queen... she is so goofy. Kerst is a good sport!

Transcript:
Julia/Bella "Oh Edward, that is the most perfect Lullabye ever!"
Kerst/Edward "Ahhhhh"

New Calling

In our church we are extended callings to serve. We are not paid and we don't seek after positions. It is through inspiration of the leaders of the ward/branch that these callings are extended. I have found that the callings that I have been extended have helped me grow and develop in so many different ways that if you had asked me years ago, I would have never thought is possible that I could do such service. But then again, it wasn't just me doing the service...

When I was released as Laurel Advisor today (I taught the Young Women ages 16-17), one of my Laurels was sitting right behind me. It was so sweet to hear her sigh and whisper "no" at the news. As I was extended my new calling I could see Kerst beaming from ear to ear and whisper "yes"....it was a bitter sweet moment.

I will miss the sweet Young Women. I am really excited to be back in the Primary Organization (children ages 18 months-11 years) serving as the Music Leader! Hopefully I can switch gears!

What's for dinner?

When left to your own devices, one can become creative...when desperate.

I came home from Julia's singing of the National Anthem tonight to find Kendall helping himself to some dinner... his way. He did start out with a spoon until it wasn't producing any food from the jar, so he used his hand.

So, what's for dinner?

Want some?

(He wasn't desperate, he LOVES pickles)

Anthem again

Julia's high school choir teacher called in a panic at 5:15 this evening asking if Julia could sing the National Anthem at the football game. She had to be there in 30 minutes. The game started at 6:00; we are 20 minutes from the game field. Julia wasn't home from school yet (play practice) so I said yes for her.


I rushed to pick up Julia and that is when I discovered she was losing her voice.

She still did an AMAZING job! I'm so lucky to get to go and hear her sing!

Next week she has a choir concert and is singing the National Anthem (duet this time) at their VB game on the same night!

Spookified

I am finally decorated for Halloween...it was fun...but won't be anything like my love for Christmas (nativity scenes, ornaments, etc...).

Here are cobwebs on our pictures...

(The pumpkin is one of the 3 original Halloween decorations; I didn't have much)

ready for our gross-out feast on Saturday!

The bottles have funny labels on them. I found the stickers at a Halloween store: Rat Poison, Ye Olde Spider Venom, Truth Serum, Zombie Virus, Liquid Phantom, Sulfuric Exlixir, Embalming Juice, and Red Blood

John helped me by hanging the cobwebs on the chandelier

Jaley and I worked on these "RIP" chair backers. The goofy pumpkins are on the kitchen table.

Here is the fireplace screen I made several years ago with one of my "favoritest" painting buddies/cohorts, Katie W.