My handsomely, rugged Dad!

My mom sent me this picture this morning and I couldn't help but share it! My dad is awesome! I can't believe that he is only 17 in this picture. He and his buddies would always trip it up to Alaska from Southern California to go fishing.
(he is the one with the beard)

Princess wands

So for a while now our nursery kids have had nothing to play with after our lesson and before their parents came to pick them up (we don't want them to pull out the toys again for just a few minutes). We have bubbles for them but they need something else. The solution, princess wands for the girls, and manly-man wands for the boys. They were very simple to make. I think I did 14 of them in less than an hour. A blog that I follow posted how to make them, they are super cute.

Our new toy!

So we had the eventful weekend- Saturday night's football game will not be talked about. On Saturday morning we went to our stakes annual Family Expo. I loved it! We were able to chose workshops to attend and we were blessed to hear from out Stake Presidency. They are wonderful men of God and it is such an experience to hear from them and feed off of their words. When we listened to President and Sister Ehat, there were maybe six other couples in the room, so it was such an intimate and personal setting to be able to talk with them. After we had a delicious lunch and enjoyed the company of some close friends and a few new friends.

But back to Friday night, I came home from work with...a DVR! We love it! The best invention ever. Since we are at work all day and have commitments most nights during the week, we miss a lot of our favorite shows- namely PTI for Evan and Judge Judy for me. We also enjoy watching all the movies that they play on TV without the commercials.

My favorite part of the whole DVR, while I was setting it up and reading the instructions, this is what a part said (no joke, this is word for word): "When batteries need replacement, the remote control will stop operating." All I can say about that is WOW and DUH.

As soon as I can find my cord for our camera I will post some pictures from the unmentionable football game.

I love America!

As I was driving to work today, I was reminded of such a great country that we live in. There are flags on people’s lawns and every flag pole has the flags at half mass to honor all the men and women that fell that fateful day of September 11, 2001. I can’t believe that eight years has passed by.

Ten days after 9-11 President Bush gave an amazing, patriotic speech to our country. He said:

"Great harm has been done to us. We have suffered great loss. And in our grief and anger we have found our mission and our moment.
Freedom and fear are at war. The advance of human freedom, the great achievement of our time and the great hope of every time, now depends on us.
Our nation, this generation, will lift the dark threat of violence from our people and our future. We will rally the world to this cause by our efforts, by our courage. We will not tire, we will not falter and we will not fail."

I love this country! I am pumped up and ready to fight just reading his words from 2001. Thanks to all of those soldiers that have had the guts to fight for my freedoms. I love you little brother you are amazing!

Since our kids and younger siblings are not allowed to share the Pledge of Allegiance in school, I think that sometimes we forget about what this country is based on. As I was reading today about the history of the Pledge of Allegiance, I forgot that it had changed over the years. The Pledge of Allegiance was written in August 1892 by the socialist minister Francis Bellamy. It was originally published in The Youth's Companion on September 8, 1892.

It originally read:
"I pledge allegiance to my Flag and the Republic for which it stands, one nation, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all."

In 1923, the words, "the Flag of the United States of America" were added. At this time it read:
"I pledge allegiance to the Flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all."

In 1954, in response to the Communist threat of the times, President Eisenhower encouraged Congress to add the words "under God," creating the 31-word pledge we say today. Bellamy's daughter, the original author, objected to this alteration. Today it reads:

"I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all."

10 Signs School is Back in Session

Here is my list of things that were observed this weekend reassuring my assumptions that Provo is a different world in the summer time.

10. It takes almost 2 hours to go to the Walmart or Macy's
9. We need to exit the back of our parking lot a lot more now- no more quick turns out onto 5th west
8. The extra 10 minutes added to my drive to work- all of it from home to Bulldog and sometimes University Pkwy
7. Realizing how much older we are than the freshman
6. More often then not, there is a car stopped in the middle of the intersection of 550 W and University Pkwy (the one by Albertsons and Olive Garden)
5. All the mac and cheese, top romen, and pot pies are sold out at every grocery store- yes Evan does still eat like a college student some times and I love it!
4. We can't go somewhere without running into someone from current classes, old classes, old jobs, etc.
3. No more open parking at our complex
2. Seeing all of our old friends that have been gone all summer at internships
1. I lost my husband on the weekends to COLLEGE FOOTBALL

And along with the football, it is always funny to hear what the ESNP announcers have to say about BYU. For example, last night a really good play was made and the announcer said, "Max Hall just said 'Oh my gosh', or whatever they say down in Provo". Gotta love the clean reputation that the town has.