Old Lane Get Together

Sarah, Alicia and Me in 1986


I had a final swim party and barbecue for the summer at my dad’s house last Saturday. This time it was a get together with some good friends from “the lane.” I grew up on a dirt lane in Draper. It sounds a little hill-billy and maybe it was, but I had some great times growing up together with the Taft’s, Glenn’s, Pholman’s, Hunsaker’s, etc… “The lane” has since been torn up and town homes now sit where our houses used to be, but we used to play and play for hours together running up and down the lane to each other’s house. We would go bum sliding in the ditch, play in the tree house and sandbox, hunt for grasshoppers in the fields, play kick ball and night games in our yards and lots of other fun that kids do. It was fun to get together and talk with everybody and find out where life has taken them and their families.


Jenni, Jake, Zane, Will, and Me in 1988

My Man!

MY MAN

I got this from Cassie's blog and thought it was fun.
Mike would have a cow if he found out I was posting all this information about him, but since he never reads my blog I should be ok. :-)


My Man:

1. Who is your man? Michael Stephen Slade

2. How long have you been together? 3 years and 1 month

3. Dating/Engaged/Married? Married

4. How old is your man? 28, same as me.

You or your man?

1. Who eats more? Mike. I can skip a meal and be ok, but he needs to eat breakfast, lunch and dinner or he gets too hungry. However, when he is playing computer games he can go a long time without eating.

2. Who said "I love you" first? Mike did.

3. Who weighs more? Mike and it better always stay that way.

4. Who sings better? Mike. However, I really like to sing, I’m just not that good.
5. Who's Older? Mike, by 37 days.

6. Who's smarter? Mike. I have a terrible memory and can't remember anything, so even if I am smarter I can't remember. :-)

7. Who's temper is worse? Definitely Mike. I'm sugar and spice and everything nice.

8. Who does the laundry? Me, but once in a while Mike will do it too.

9. Who does the dishes? Mike is supposed to do them since I cook, but sometimes they are still in the sink long after dinner is over.

10. Who sleeps on the right side of the bed? I do.

11. Who's feet are bigger? Mike's

12. Who's hair is longer? Mine.

13. Who's better with the computer? That would be Mike.

14. Who mows the lawn? Mike does. He takes care of the outside of the house and we both take care of the inside. (I know I got a good thing going.)

15. Who pays the bills? That would be me.

16. Who cooks dinner? I do on Thursday's. But on Monday's Michelle does, Tuesday's Cassie does and Wednesday's Lindsay does. (I just love dinner group.) We eat left over, go out to eat or try to get an invite from one of our parent's on the other three days.

17. Who drives when you are together? Mike always does.

18. Who pays when you go out to dinner? Again, Mike always does.

19. Who's the most stubborn? Mike.

20. Who is the first one to admit when they're wrong? Me.

21. Who’s parents do you see more? That's a toss up. His parents live 15 minutes North of us and my dad lives 15 minutes East of us, so we see all of them a lot.

22. Who kissed who first? Mike kissed me first. I was leaving the next day on a 3 week vacation to China with my family so he had to get a kiss in before I left.

23. Who asked who out? We made a bet and I won, so he had to take me out to dinner. However, I think he knew the answer, but got it wrong on purpose so he could take me out.

24. What did you do? We went out to dinner at Chili's.

25. Who's more sensitive? I am of course. He's a guy, I'm a girl.

26. Who's taller? He is by 6 inches.

27. Who has more friends? I would say we both have about the same amount of friends.

28. Who has more siblings? He has one more sibling than I do. I have 2 brother and 2 sisters. He has 1 sister and 4 brothers. (Note: Mike is the baby of the family.)

29. Who wears the pants in the relationship? I would say I do and I don’t think Mike would disagree. I’m a pretty easy going person, but there are a few things I like to have go my way and I think Mike has learned that things are just easier if he will do what I want.

Ok, now it is your turn to copy and paste the questionnaire. I’d love to learn more about your other half.

10 Year High School Reunion

I attended my 10 Year High School Reunion last night. It was one of those things where I had to go. If I hadn't I would have always wondered what it was like and would have regretted not going. Needless to say after a half an hour of being there, I would have paid someone $50 to take me home. As rude as this may sound, I realized I don’t really care what people from high school are up to. However, give it another 10 years and I will have forgotten what it was like and want to go to the 20 year reunion. I’ll see you then.

A House Full of Toys

Well, maybe I shouldn’t go that far, but definitely more than we had a week ago, which was two stuffed animals. As I've said we don't have any children at our house so I never have had any toys to play with, so when kids do come over they get really, really bored. I finally decided that I needed to break down and go to the store and buy some toys, so last week I went on a little shopping spree and bought some. I purchased a Barbie doll and a My Little Pony (I was so glad to see those were still around), I got some blocks and puzzles and books. One of the best toys, in my opinion, is a city road map I got at Toys R Us. When I was a kid I remember playing cars with my brother on a piece of canvas my mom made with a city and roads drawn on it, so when I saw my friend’s son playing with one at their house I knew I had to get one of those too. (Thanks Michelle) To go along with the road map I had to buy some Hot Wheels cars, a truck and an airplane. I went a little crazy on the Hot Wheels because they were only 99 cents each. I also bought a cute Noah's Ark and Animals set off e-bay, so I think we’re set to entertain at least a couple of kids over at our house now.

High School Musical

I can officially say I’m cool now because I’ve seen High School Musical and High School Musical 2. We are really old fashion at our house because we don’t have cable and can’t keep up with all the hot new shows. However, I have been hearing a lot about these two and how good they are. My friend Michelle, who is a big fan, has the first one on DVD and the second one recorded on Tivo. We took two weekends and watched them while our husbands played WOW. They are both filmed in Utah, which is totally cool, the songs are catchy; I caught myself singing one in the shower the other day and as long as I am being honest, if I were 10 years younger I would think that Zac Efron is kind of cute with his shaggy hair.

Finishing the Basement

After Mike graduated from college in May I gave him the option of either finishing the basement or putting his accounting degree to good use and getting a job. Since he had quit working to go to school full time his last semester, I thought it would be a great time for him to finish our basement. He wasn’t committed to a job and I thought he could finish the basement and save us a little money by having him do the work and then after he finished he would start working again. Well a few months later with only the duct work and a little framing done we decided it would be easier for Mike to get a job and use that money to pay someone to finish the basement. Had I only known how easy and fast it was, I would have hired someone a long time ago to do it. I made a few calls a couple of weeks ago to get some quotes on framing and I found a company that would do it for $20 an hour per person, which to me seemed like a great deal. We set the date and they came out on today. They brought a group of five guys and you know what, they finished framing in one day. It is so awesome, I left for work in the morning and when I came home the basement was framed. I mean all this time I could have had a crew come out and finish it in one day. Oh well… The company also does drywall so you know I’ll be hiring them again soon.

Family Parties

Mike has a big family with lots of nieces and nephews. We don’t have kids and our house isn’t really kid proof, at least not for 19 of them, so we don’t host any at our house. However, I like to contribute to the family so during the summer time I volunteer my dad’s house (he has a swimming pool) for parties. This year we had three of them. And what family party is complete without eating? Correct Answer: They're not, so we always have a BBQ too. We had our final party on Labor Day. The day was nice and hot so the swimming was good, plus my dad’s pool doesn’t have that yucky bacteria in it, so no one had to worry about getting sick. The food was tasty too. We had lots of good stuff like corn on the cob, peach cobbler and homegrown tomatoes and watermelon. It’s so much fun and as we always say, the more we get together the happier we’ll be.