Saturday Is a Special Day

Jesse gets up every morning at 6:30 for work. It’s a finely honed system: the first alarm goes off at 6:00, which is promptly snoozed. The second alarm (different device) goes off, and Jesse has to get up and walk to his dresser to turn it off. Then the other alarm goes off about twice, and Jesse slowly gets himself out of bed. And if it snowed over night (and Brighton got more than 8 inches of new snow), there’s usually a loud text message alert somewhere in there.

Given this routine, you’d think Jesse would be excited about Saturdays. And oh...he is. But not for the same reason that the rest of humanity is. At 6:00 am on Saturday mornings, Jesse is laying there, wide awake, mind racing like a kid on Christmas morning. Is he thinking about the sports on TV he gets to watch in his pajamas that day? Nope. Right now, Saturdays are the days that years of Hometime-watching have trained him for.

I'm not sure it's okay to see someone this excited to be holding a nail gun...

He's actually making great progress framing out the rooms in the basement.

The first bedroom all framed!

And, he gets to use his saw. What more do you want?

Girly Tea Party

All of us Sloan girls went out on Saturday and had a "tea party" at the British bakery and tea room downtown. We tried a bunch of traditional English food, like meat pies, Cadbury hot chocolate, scones with cream and jam, shortbread, a tart, and even trifle. (We did share all that...) It was a fun and girly afternoon!








And here was a surprising note posted in the London Market...Kinder Eggs are banned in America by the FDA! How sad is that?

Superbowl Party 2008!!!

ok, so the superbowl seems to me a bit more than just a football game, but a reason to get together and eat like men. Granted I didn't pay much attention to the football games this season, who cares, it's the superbowl. Granted the Giants were the underdogs, they put up an amazing fight with their defense, as well with their offense, and came out on top, ending the Patriots FLAWLESS season... 18-1.... that 1 being the MOST important game of any football player's career. As they were out busting their hinds, we, the viewers, enjoyed a nice comfortable setting complete with hot wings and hi-def satellite streaming. Yes, yes, a superbowl to remember, there was lots of chips. lots of snacks, lots of drinks, and of course, lots of HOT WINGS. This picture is to kind of illustrate how manly we felt as we wrapped up the night, looks like beer bottles and bones from hot wings. For any of you that did not take part in such a tradition, I highly recommend it. "... if you have the means, I highly recommend picking one up. it is so choice" -Ferris Beuller's day off

Dan - "Now that's a man's garbage can!"

Snow Day

One of the things I really like about living in Riverton is the fact that it's technically "mid-valley." Meaning, we don't live on a "bench" of the mountains, so our level of snow tends to be a lot lower than other places. When the benches are getting pounded, we get an inch. In fact, we get away with not plowing our driveways most of the winter (well, we should, but being the "Klopecks" of the neighborhood, if we can get up and down our driveway, we don't care about keeping it clear).

But this year has been a bit different. We've gotten a lot more snow than normal. I knew a storm was on its way, but I was a bit surprised when we woke up to this:



The heavy snow, combined with the wind, created one of those blizzards you see on Christmas movies, and caused a bunch of really weird snow drifts.

Jesse decided this wasn't a day that we could ignore the front walk, so he dressed up in his snowboarding gear (complete with goggles, because of the swirling wind and snow), and shoveled the walk. Can you see that pile behind him? And check out the roof! (As of this second, the gap has almost totally been bridged, and we have a tunnel!)

Then Jesse decided to attack the driveway. We were supposed to be getting ready for church about now. Then I saw the pile that blocked our cars in. Not an impossible depth, but still!

My friend Mandy lives in Seattle right now, and I remember reading on her blog how when it snowed an inch, her church meetings were canceled. I kind of laughed at that (as did she) because, being from Utah, I don't ever remember church meetings being canceled because of snow.

When our phones started ringing, I really was a bit surprised. No church! In Utah? When does THAT ever happen?

Didn't stop Jesse from continuing to clear the driveway.

Here's Jesse in the middle of the snowdrift on the driveway. At least a foot-and-a-half! Again, not particularly weird for Salt Lake, but for Riverton, very unusual.

Our neighbor has a four-wheeler with a shovel attached to it and he enjoys moving snow around. Even he was having a tough time getting shoveled out. Our street is at least knee-deep, and last I checked, a bunch of the neighbor kids were out playing in it!

Gomerville...

Exit here for hosers...