Hmmmm

Where to start? It's Monday night. First day of school. And I find myself vegging on the computer while Mikey is getting in a power nap. We NEED to be getting the kids their school blessings, getting them to bed (I wouldn't be surprised if I go into the family room and find him asleep-BAD). So, instead of doing what I NEED to do...I'm going to post!

I want to remember that we went to lunch with a bunch of our fun friends for Mikey's birthday a couple of weeks ago. We tried to gather all the August birthday friends and Mike's friends-Kerry & Reed (and their wives), but in the end...this was the crowd. Elise & Darin J., Emily & Scott H., Kerry & Makell W and us. We went to Market Street downtown (we love that place), but found it weirdly not busy, probably due to the insane amount of construction. We had a GREAT time! Good food and fun friends...thanks to all that came...you made it a memorable birthday for Mikey!

We spent the next night (Sunday) at a neighborhood gathering at the Jarmans. We first drove to North Fork...the site of the upcoming ward campout...to check it out one more time. When we got home, we had Mikey's parents come to wish him Happy Birthday! So, we had an impromptu dinner with them before we ran to the neighbors. Thanks to Jim & Renae for doing the dishes....completely unnecessary, but absolutely appreciated. We had a great visit at the Jarmans and with the neighbors that only live on the next street, but because they are in the 'other ward' we hardly get to chat.

Now, Mike has arisen from his power nap and we are going to do FHE. I will continue to update at a later time! Ciao!

Yum-O

Mike & I went to dinner last night with Casey and Nicole and they introduced us to a yummy new(er) restaurant downtown, Faustina. It's kind of off the beaten path, but everything we had there was Yummy! The decor has a modern edge and the prices are $18-$25ish for dinner, but delish! Mike had a filet mignon...oh...so great. And I had butternut squash ravioli that tasted like Thanksgiving/Christmas. It was hard to explain, but it was comfort food that transported me to the holidays. Don't blink or you miss it at 454 East 300 South. I know, I should be a restaurant critic!

Happy, Happy Birthday Mikey dear

Party Central!

Today is Mikey's birthday! I am so lucky to married to such a wonderful man! He didn't want me to give him anything for his birthday

(he would like to forget them, but we aren't like that here....we like to party!),

but the kids wanted to make his day special!

So, Friday afternoon we picked up his special Mrs. Backer's birthday cake.

Amazingly enough, it has lasted until his actual birthday!

The kids woke up EARLY and waited for me to come get them. We made him breakfast in bed. Quite the accomplishment for us since our church starts at 9am. Then, the kids gave him his presents, an AC/DC rocker shirt, a Guitar Hero shirt, an iTunes gift card and wrote him an AWESOME candy poem. The girls remembered how cute Lindsey N's candy poster was when we were in NC on her birthday, and wanted to do one for their Daddy.

The girls reading their poem to Daddy.
It says:

Happy Birthday, Daddy.

You are one 'Hot Tamale'

You are an 'Extra' fun Daddy.

We like to give you bunches of 'Kisses'

You are a 'Life Saver' and a 'Sweetart'

All the other Dads are 'Lemonheads' and 'Nerds' but you are totally 'Chill'

You are a 'Whopper' of a good Daddy to all your 'Junior Mints'

The hugs you give us are 'Good & Plenty'

We like to see you 'Skittle(s)' around the house

You are a 'Whopper' of a good person

Everyone knows you are not a 'Gobstopper'

You are an 'Extreme(ly)' good Dad.

Love your 'Sugar Babies', the '3 Musketeers'

We went to church and both Mike & I had to substitute different Primary classes. He was in sharing time first, so I slyly talked to the Primary leader who was conducting before I went to class. When it came time for the birthday kids to get a song sung to them, they called up Mikey! He wasn't alone, however, our good friend, Casey, who is a Primary teacher has a birthday this week, also. I just wish I could have been there to see it. He said he was surprised!

So, we are going to let Mikey do what he enjoys doing on a day off....resting, watching the Olympics and I'm actually cooking dinner for his birthday!

Happy Birthday Babe! We love you so much! XOXOX

Doesn't feel like 20 years!

Last weekend we had the Colts Class of '88 reunion. I'm sure I mentioned before that Mike and I were asked to help with this endeavor. I don't have pictures of the reunion. They are posted on google picasa...so if you want to look, e-mail me for the link.
Friday night was an Alumni Only night at the high school. It really felt like the first day of high school walking in the front doors....except that Mike was with me (I didn't know him on the first day of high school!). The only thing we had to do for this night was take a turn sitting at the check-in desk...which was fun because you got to talk to everyone coming in! It didn't take long and there were over one hundred people there. Everyone was talking and having a good time remembering the good ole days. The guys were hard to recognize because they had changed so much (balding, spare tire, filled out in the shoulders), but the girls looked fantastic! There were only about 3 of us that were chubby. Anyway, I was not excited about going to the reunion, but Mike really wanted to go. I was so surprised how much fun it was! We had a great time chatting with everyone and catching up on their lives for the past 20 years. Jeralyn Alvey from Mike's Butler ward had me take a picture of everyone that was there from their ward growing up. They had a great ward with A LOT of youth! I'm hoping to get that picture from her soon. When the current VPrincipal kicked us out of the building (because he wanted to go home), he told me that we had the biggest reunion that they've seen yet! Everyone just moved to the front sidewalks and chatted there. Some people went to a bar (open invite to everyone, but of course we passed), and we hear the last person left about 11:30pm (the party was supposed to end at 9pm). My parents were nice enough to have the kids at their house, so after picking them up and then waiting in traffic because of a crash, we got home around 1am.



These flowers are from the Country club night...courtesy of Jami
Saturday, was the Alumni/Spouse or significant other night at the Country Club. We were in charge of the check-in desk (thanks to Kat & Cozette for helping with that!), the name tags, and the cd favor. It got kind of crazy checking 200+ people in as everyone was showing up on time! But, again, fun to be at the check-in desk to chat with everyone.
We took a class photo on the golf course...that was fun as we also had the class photo from 1988 there. Good times chatting with everyone again.
The Country Club ran out of food, but we had plenty of desserts thanks to Jami. (A few of us girls went to help her put together desserts on Friday morning). They were delicious and we had enough that we got to take some home! Our kids loved the little cupcakes.
Ok, back to the night. It was outside all night, which was fine except that it was 100 degrees and humid, so I wasn't in good shape for hugging people! That made me a little self-conscious, but then I had to get up and help with the program! I gave the stats of our class and then helped with the 'prizes' for things like: most marathons run, most kids, who had a kid that goes to Cottonwood. We then watched a video put together by Jodi C.'s brother and Matt Murdoch. It was a jaywalking type video where Heather H and Brad S. went to the school and asked current students things like: what do you think of when you hear Depeche Mode, or 1988 (the kid said Vietnam!), and would you go out with this person (pointing to Heather's picture-they said no way and that her hair was big!)
They also added the yearbook photos of classmates who have died-13...I hear that's a lot. Along with 'We will always be friends.' at the end of the show. Luckily, a lot of the 80's music we put on the cd, was also in the video...that was fun!
Back in Black from AC/DC was kind of a good theme from our class!

We finally left about 12:45/1:00am-ish. Mike's folks were nice enough to be at our house, so we felt like we needed to get home. We probably could have stayed and talked and helped clean up for another hour. The next day, the committee kept sending around e-mails saying how great it was and also that we were so sad it was over and we'll miss seeing each other and chatting. One gal said it best when she said she doesn't want to lose these connections again. Hopefully we'll be able to keep in touch better. I'll see if Mike has anything he wants to add, but we just had a fabulous time and the reunion couldn't have gone any better!

Let's catch up! Gib family bbq

We had the Gibby's up on Monday night for a bbq and waterslide. We got lucky and had cousin, McKenzie, too! Amanda likes to pal around with Kenzie. Here are some photos of the sliding fun. Roger got Brandon upset about something and he wanted to go inside and change out of his swimsupe (what he calls it). So, Roger had to get his suit on and slide with the kids!

Brando

Mom and Garrett

We had a nice time! Grandpa ended up inside for most of the night because the noise level outside was too much! We missed D & Kat and kids, but we'll do it again before summer's gone! Love you guys!

Did ya like it?

So, I'm thinking I would have like this book to go differently......it had some interesting twists, but overall I felt like the fun love story between Bella & Edward got lost. The story didn't

suck me in like the other books. (I could definitely put it down at night and get some sleep). So, I didn't love it, but didn't hate it. I am glad that Bella & Edward ended up together.

(The last 2 pages were good)

What did you think?

PS: I ordered it twice by accident, so if anyone has yet to buy a copy, you can buy my extra!

Wanna play?

Two down! I have a lot to update on the reunion (it was super fun!), but for now: wanna play?

Memories, on the corner of my mind...
Here are the instructions:
1. As a comment on my blog, leave one memory that you and I had together. It doesn't matter if you knew me/us a little or a lot; anything you remember.
2. Next, re-post these instructions on your blog and see how many people leave a memory about you. It's fun to see the responses. If you leave a memory about me, I'll assume you're playing the game and I'll come to your blog and leave one about you.