Happy Veterans Day

I copied my sister's post from last year because she is a wonderful writer and this post always bring tears to my eyes. Thank you to my wonderful Grandpa, Jackson's wonderful Grandpa and all the others who have served our country. We love you!

"My Grandpa Godfrey served in World War II. It is amazing to hear his stories of sacrifice. When the soldiers would eat their meals,he said that women and children would beg outside of the gate for any extra scraps of food or to offer their services. My Grandpa and a couple of other soldiers paid a woman to wash and iron their clothes. He said that woman was so grateful for the very little money they gave him so that she could feed her children.When soldiers were sent home at the end of the war they were given a sum of money for their service. My grandpa said that everyone wanted to buy cars and he was no different. He had walked all through Europe and was excited to spend his money to buy a car so he wouldn't have to walk anymore. When he returned from the war, his Dad encouraged him to spend his money on buying some farm land rather than a car. He bought and worked the land. Soldiers were also given, if they wanted it, a half of a barracks. My Grandpa drove on the weekends to the barracks and took out every nail, removed the boards and even the plumbing and drove it back to his farm land in Clarkston where he built a small house on the corner of his land. Because of his hard work and sacrifice, my Grandpa has never had a loan for any house or car in all of his life.On this Veteran's Day, I am so grateful for my Grandpa - for his love, sacrifice and work ethic."

cafe rio

I miss Cafe Rio so much I dream about it sometimes. I think the only food Jackson misses that much is his Mom's. This is about as good as Cafe Rio gets out here. Thank you internet for giving me access to many imitation recipes, I appreciate it. Really.

amazed

I will be the first to admit that I love the blogging world. I am always amazed that some people feel that they have the right to make rude comments on other peoples blogs. I have seen bloggers leave comments on oyther peoples blogs telling a person that they are a terrible mother, question and mock a persons choice of spouse and make completely hurtful comments. I doubt these people would post these if they didn't have the option of posting anonymously. I just don't understand why someone thinks that they can say something they would never say to someone outside the Internet. I guess I just don't think it is fair, kind or right to make vicious personal attacks on someone because you disagree with something they posted on their blog. I am not saying that if you disagree with a post you should say nothing, just that we all need to have more respect for other people and not make personal attacks.

In other news, Hobbes got stuck in the ottoman today. Way to go Hobbes.

Reason 3A

Our gathering of happy Utes!
Reason 3A that we love being Utes-Utah can beat TCU
Utah 13 TCU 10
TCU 32 BYU 7

GO UTES!!!!!!

Reason to be a Ute #3

Here are U.S. News and World Report Graduate Program rankings (I looked for undergraduate but I am not willing to pay for that information.) Reason 3 that we are glad to be Utes is we appreciate the better education that is offered at the U of U. Look at the rankings, they don't lie.

The Academic Ranking of World Colleges ranks the U of U 79th in the world, BYU sadly (or maybe not so sadly) is not ranked.

Out of Public Universities U of U is ranked 65
A couple of nice things Wikipedia has to say about the U of U, "Utah's premier research school" and I have to add this being a Political Science graduate "The University of Utah's Political Science department hosts one of nation's leading schools of politics and government." Go Utes!


Business
BYU-29
U of U-not ranked
Law
BYU- 46
U of U- 51

Medicine
BYU- no medical school
U of U- (I have no idea why there are two different rankings)
Research Rank-50
Primary Care Rank- 31

Engineering
BYU- not ranked
U of U- 59

Education (Utah State actually kills both schools on this one they are 24)
BYU- 83
U of U-73

Chemistry
BYU- not ranked
U of U- 36

Mathematics
BYU- they weren't even listed on this one
U of U- 33
Physics
BYU- not ranked
U of U-56

Biological Sciences
BYU-122
U of U- 58

Psychology
BYU- not ranked
U of U- 107

English
BYU- they either don't have a graduate English program or they are simply aren't ranked
U of U- 72

Public Affairs
BYU- 51
U of U- 51

Fine Arts
BYU-134
U of U- 106

P.S. Thank you to Jordan who sent Jackson an e-mail about this!

P.P.S. A special little preview of next week's reason # 4. "Bronco is teaching those young men something that will bring them success in all aspects of their lives. When we are righteous, we are successful, and it so happens they are playing football right now, so they should expect to be blessed in their endeavors."

vote

"The day when I feel most proud to be an American is not the Fourth of July, but Election Day. The right to vote is perhaps the most critical right in a democracy, the means by which we can create the kind of society that truly represents America... One only has to look at the lengths to which people went to deny others the right to vote to understand that we should never take its importance for granted, nor forget that it is an opportunity as well as an obligation."

-Caroline Kennedy, A Patriots Handbook

Halloween Chili Party

Look Mom I made the breadsticks all by myself! I finally found some dry ice. Not at the party store, they don't sell it there.

Our very full house.

We had birthday cake for Jordan. Cade helped him blow out the candles.

Jackson was a modern day Abraham Lincoln while I was a trash bag witch.

Jackson said he wasn't sure if I looked more like a witch or a hobo...