RV Family Life

Friday, July 31, 2009

Food for thought- Obama Economics

11:03 AM by Amanda Bush2 comments

A professor at a local college made a statement that he had never failed a single student before, but had once failed an entire class.

That class had insisted that Obama's socialism plan would work and that no one would be poor and no one would be rich....... a great equalizer.

The professor then said, "OK, we will have an experiment in this class on Obama's plan".

All grades would be averaged and everyone would receive the same grade so no one would fail and no one would receive an A.

After the first test, the grades were averaged and everyone got a B.
The students who studied hard were upset and the students who studied little were happy.

As the second test rolled around, the students who studied little had studied even less and the ones who studied hard decided they wanted a free ride too so they studied little.
The second test average was a D!

No one was happy.

When the 3rd test rolled around, the average was an F.

The scores never increased as bickering, blame and name-calling all resulted in hard feelings and no one would study for the benefit of anyone else.

All failed, to their great surprise, and the professor told them that socialism would also ultimately fail because when the reward is great, the effort to succeed is great but when government takes all the reward away, no one will try or want to succeed.

Could not be any simpler than that!!!

Spontaneous!!!

11:01 AM by Amanda Bush1 comment

Had a blast!!!

Saturday afternoon Brady called me from a lay-over in San Fran, to ask me to meet him in Denver that night for a weekend getaway. There was a DJ playing there we both really wanted to go see. Jumped online, found a $50 ticket, and made several phone calls to find a variety of friends and family willing to help with the kids. Dropped them off with friends and headed off to the airport to catch my flight!

Brady picked me up at the airport and we headed off for the club. Brenda and Chad are regulars at the club and have a VIP table up on the catwalk. The place was PACKED. Benny Bennassi was awesome!!!

We showed up at the club at 11, and the line was around the block. Even the VIP line was around the corner. We walked straight up to the front of the line and were given immediate access to the club. We had a lot of fun. Brady handed out several demo disks and talked up Burning Yang. It was really neat to get to meet some of the players in the music industry that are helping Brady get his music out.

Got to admit, it wasn't quite what I expected. We met a ton of people and everyone was really friendly. Beta is a smoke free club and though there was drinking, we weren't the only ones not drinking. It's so much more about the music, the socializing, networking and dancing.

In addition to all that, it was GREAT to just spend that time with Brady. We were on a date, like a real one from before the marraige, 3 kids and the mortgage. It was just about us, rekindling the old flame and just spending REAL time together. It was fabulous and just what we needed!

I'm looking forward to the next trip and evening at Beta.

House Music 2

2:56 PM by Amanda Bush1 comment

So I've had a couple people ask what is house music? and I know the definition of "dance" music doesn't say much, so I've added a couple top 40 songs that are "house." Click on the playlist to the right to hear some of the most popoular dance songs in the country that are also "House" songs. When you listen you hear the songs move from one beat or song to another, this is the transisiton, as well as all the background beats and sounds. This is what the DJ does. He takes the basic song and adds to it, creating the final project. It's all done digitally with the use of software, hardware and a lot of talent.

House Music

3:57 PM by Amanda Bush3 comments

One of our changes in life lately has been Brady's decision to pursue a long time dream of becoming a "house dj." House is basically "dance" music, (an easy definition for the lame man.) House DJ's use a variety of music from their own library and mix the music together to create their own original music. House has become very popular over the last few years. Brady attended his first House concert in Miami about 4 years ago, but it's been around for a lot longer than that. It's recently becoming more main stream with artists such as Brittany Spears, Black Eyed Peas, and Lady GaGa adding House Dj's to their acts.

Brady has been mixing as a hobby for about 4 years, and has Dj'd for friends at local parties and get-together's, but in the last few months has decided to really pursue it. I have had a hard time getting behind him on this due to what I thought was the obvious reason, the environment he has to be in to get this thing going. Like any musician you have to start at the bottom, playing local bars and nightclubs to make a name for yourself.

We have had many conversations where I have had to really take a look at myself and where my issues where coming from. I know how much he wants this, but I also know he is telling me the truth when he says that if I can't stand behind him, he won't do it.

I had a conversation with a friend the other day about this whole thing, and really tried to figure out my issues. I know Brady would never cheat on me, I know that he has a testimony of the gospel and the word of wisdom, and would never do anything to jeopardize our life together or our eternal family, so where is all this fear coming from and what am I really afraid of?

Here's what I have found out.

I am afraid of is the way people perceive this. I am afraid to discuss this with our LDS friends and family for fear of the judgements they may make.

Hmmm... Time to get over that fear, and just put it out there.

I am excited for him. I am so glad he has found something he truly LOVES to do, and has the potential to make money doing it. I am SO thankful to his sister and brother-in-law, and their support and help in introducing him into their circle, which will allow this to happen much faster than he could do it on his own.

So now- it is out there... My husband is Burning Yang, an up and coming House DJ, and I am so proud of him and excited for whatever the future holds for us.

no more maids

10:02 PM by Amanda Bush2 comments

Today we turned over a new leaf. We have been going threw a lot of changes in our lives, both professionally and personally, the last few months. And after many late night discussions about goals and where we are going, we started this new week with our first FEC. We started with a discussion of goals, taking turns suggesting things we each thought we could improve on as a family. We came up with 10 goals we will work on over the rest of the year. One of those goals was controlling our finances, another teaching our children.

We have been married for almost 13 years and have been threw many phases. As newly weds we were horrible housekeepers. Our house was ALWAYS disgusting. I hated doing dishes, laundry, and cleaning bathrooms. Looking back I think we were just VERY lazy and immature.

Then came children and our first house. I started getting the housekeeping thing under control and actually did OK at it. I will be the first to admit, I was not Amy, but the house stayed presentable... most of the time. 3 years ago Brady left his full time gig to work from home for himself, 2 years ago I started working for him full time and picked up a part time job as a gymnastics instructor. At that time, we had to create some priorities, and my extra income made it possible to hire a bi-monthly cleaning crew, freeing up our spare time to be spent as a family.

So- I have not scrubbed a toilet in 2 years and have loved every minute of it. Now my children are older, the economy has caused some down sizing of our business, and we are saving for the down payment on our home. Today one of the big decisions made was that we would no longer use the maids. Many other decisions and goals were set, but none with such impact, (on me.)

We will teach our children the value of work, and how to clean a toilet, along with adding a couple hundred extra a month to our saving plan. But I will sadly say goodbye to a bi-monthly habit that I have cherished for 2 years.

Fathers Day

3:25 PM by Amanda BushNo comments

Brady was out of town all last week. We got back from Steamboat Sunday night and he left early Monday morning. He was supposed to return on Friday, but due to some shipping delays... hence equipment delays... he didn't get home til Saturday night. By the time he got home he'd had 3 hours of sleep in 72 hours, trying to wrap up the job in California.

I spent Saturday at the State Compulsory meet in Ogden, Utah. It was a lot of fun, but I fought a migraine the whole time. One of my friends gave me a couple Excedrin Migraine that kept it at bay, but I could feel it nagging in the recesses of my brain. By the time I got home (12 hours later) and Brady got home, we collapsed with the children in front of the TV, I could no longer hold back the migraine. It came rushing forward and took over the left side of my head and my vision. I popped a couple Loratab and climbed into bed but slept eluded me.

For those of you who have never experienced a true migraine, count yourself lucky. The pain was focused behind my left eye and despite the drug induced trance, the pain was too great to allow me to sleep. I finally fell comatose around 3 am.... lets just say Fathers Day did not go as planned.

Brady and I slept in, but I woke with the migraine "hangover," wincing at every sound and at the light but trying hard not to be a complete Ogre. I found our children quietly watching TV at 10 am. They informed me we had nothing for breakfast but they wanted to make Daddy breakfast in bed. Upon closer inspection of the fridge and cupboards, I found they were in fact bear.

So we made Brady a breakfast tray with an empty cereal bowl and juice glass with a note that read, "How 'bout IHOP?" We ate breakfast out. After a short while my head started to throb again, so we headed home to have a lazy day of me napping and the kids watching television.

Steamboat Springs

8:21 PM by Amanda Bush4 comments

My Very Generous Sister-in-Law and her Husband invited us to Steamboat Springs, Co. for the weekend to celebrate their daughters 9th birthday and my 21st!!! We had a GREAT time.