Trevor!!

Trevor Benjamin, Big T, T money, Trev, etc was born on Christmas (7 lbs 10 oz, 19 in.), and we still haven't gotten any pictures up. So, with a bit of my free time I set up a photobucket account to get you guys some pictures so you can see him. I love this kid!

First and foremost, Becca 4 days before the day



Here he is, the first picture of his life!



The happy father



And mother



And a couple more while we were in the hospital







And getting him ready to go home



Then, the day after, we learned his bilirubin (or however the heck you spell it) was high, so we needed to put him under some lights. It was no fun, but a blessing because it helped so much and we only had to do it for one day!



He's a cute kid!







One more with mom, who was a HUGE help! Thanks again, mom.



One more with each parent





He's a keeper!

another move

We moved again! Surprise! I think this makes something like six moves since we've been married. That averages out to like 3 months per residence. Crazy. But this one will be the last for a while. Guaranteed. We were promoted to Resident Managers at Cinnamon Tree Apartments in November and it came with an awesome new 2 bedroom 2 bathroom apartment and we are loving it. It definitely could not have come at a better time. So here is a tour of our little apartment 8 1/2 right before we started packing up to move out. Some of the pictures are a little stretched, making the apartment seem slightly bigger than it actually is, just because without the stretching, you wouldn't be able to see a thing due to how tiny the apartment was.

Living Room/Kitchen

Kitchen

Hallway/closet

bathroom

bedroom

Entire house

Then we sold our futon and bought a new couch and loveseat. ksl is a wonderful thing. We got the furniture for pretty cheap - it is super nice, but definitely needed to be cleaned. And microfiber is not an easy thing to clean. But Ben, being the wonderful husband that he is, researched it and cleaned them all. They look incredible.

Before

After

Once we moved into our much larger apartment, we got the TV set up. It didn't look bad, but it certainly didn't look that great. The big white wall behind the TV doesn't have anything on it, so it all looked kind of bland. But, KSL came to our rescue again! For a pretty cheap price, we got a great entertainment center that makes the living room really come together. The difference it makes is huge!

Before

As a side note, while we were getting all the chords and such put together, we temporarily put the TV on one of the "towers". She must have forgotten about them, because once when standing up, she hit her face precisely on the corner of the TV, and got herself a really nice shiner. I felt bad, but at the same time it was really really funny. She was upset for a while, but she started laughing about it after some time.

Back to the point though - this is the after picture. Not too shabby

I don't know why it's suddenly writing everything bold and I can't make it stop. Anyway, we finally finished unpacking the last box a couple of days ago, and we absolutely love this place!

33 weeks down...

...less than 7 to go!

Awesome weekend

Well this weekend was awesome. No complaints whatsoever. Let's start with Friday:

After a long day with school, work and a test that I did pretty badly on, Becca picked me up and we went to a pretty good Barbecue place called Good Wood. It's near University mall. I got beef brisket, and Beck got pulled pork. The food was fantastic, but one of the main highlights was their BBQ sauce. It was SO good! And the best part is they have bottles of it at your table. By the end of our meal, the once full bottle was more than half gone. Also, Becca told them it was my birthday (which wasn't for another two days but who's counting?) and they gave us an enormous brownie sundae with whipped cream, caramel, chocolate sauce, and a cherry on top. It was dee-lish.

Then we went to Ruth and Dan's house (sister and bro-in-law), and visited with them, as well as my Mom who is in town. It was really fun to hang out with them, chat a little bit, and then watch a movie.

Then on Saturday:

I started by playing a good game of Ultimate Frisbee. It was super fun, and I had some plays that would have made the ESPN highlight reel if ultimate frisbee mattered. Afterward, Becca and I met up with my mom and we went to Rodizio grill (it's like Tucanos) to celebrate my birthday (a day early, but I'm not complaining). It was really great to spend some time with my mom, and to have Becca there as well. And the food was great to boot. Then, after we finished eating, we got down to the real treat of the day: football.

Now, I'm not sure if some people knew it was my birthday, but Saturday was pretty darn awesome. I was watching several games throughout the day, like Michigan State vs. Nebraska, Michigan vs Purdue, Illinois vs Penn State... But the two games I was really interested in were Georgia vs. Florida, and Ohio State vs. Wisconsin.

I don't generally root for anyone in the SEC. I hate most of them. But Georgia? I've always hated them much less than most, and then I married a Georgia fan. So, I've read a lot about them, I like Mark Richt more than other coaches (I can't Spurrier or Chizik.), and I enjoy watching them quite a bit. I've grown to like Georgia quite a bit, and I think Uga is pretty cool. That, and I've always hated Florida, so I was eager to watch the game. Georgia played a pretty sloppy game to be honest. But it was incredible to watch. I'm not sure if anyone reading this watched the game, but the whole game was worth it to watch 2 plays on fourth down in the opponents field. Instead of going for a field goal, they went for the conversion. And both times, they didn't get the conversion. Instead, they scored. Those were two of the nuttiest plays I've ever seen, and I was thrilled to see Richt pull in a win for the Bulldogs.

Side note: This is the first time the Gators have lost 4 straight since 1988. It makes me so happy I want to cry.

However, anyone who knows me, knows I love Ohio State. I feel like I'm writing way too much about football, so I'll keep this one shorter. Here's the skinny: Ohio State has had a rough season, despite having all sorts of talent. Wisconsin was #12 and has the most balanced offensive attack in the nation (up until last week they were averaging over 250 yards in rushing and passing per game). OSU was a huge underdog, and they played a great game, and beat Wisconsin. OSU was down 29-26 with 1:18 to go before the game ended. They got the ball, returned it 42 yards, and a few plays later, landed a 40 yard pass to win it. It was amazing, and I was jumping and screaming like mad! Go Bucks!

On to Sunday:

My birthday! 24 is a cool age, I feel. It's kind of like turning 17. Nothing special happens, but it's better than being 16. I woke up to breakfast in bed, courtesy of the greatest wife in the world. Breakfast burritos and orange juice. The unbeatable combination. She knows me so well...

Then we went to Church, and came home and she gave me my presents! I was excited, but I felt bad because I gave her nothing to work with. I didn't really want anything, but she managed to get me some good stuff! I got a Georgia T-shirt, some sweet mint gum, a homemade coupon book, a Calvin & Hobbes book, and a red pen to mark my scriptures, among other things. She really did a great job, and I was thrilled with each gift she got me. Becca is so great.

Then we went over to Ruth and Dan's again where we spent a good bit of the night, and they gave Beck and me and early Christmas present (no joke. It was made very clear to me that this was not a birthday present, but our christmas present). It was a new camera! There is a story behind that, too... but maybe I'll post it later.

The camera is awesome! So we've been taking more pictures. I realize the irony that there aren't any pictures on this post. But, in the future there sure as heck will be! The camera is waterproof, shock proof, and takes HD video and all that jazz. It makes Beck and me look like pro photographers despite not having any idea what we're doing.

In the end, I know this post seems super long, but the past few days have been so great! I feel super lucky, and very blessed, not only for the great events that happened, but that I got to have them all with my wife. She makes even the greatest events more fun and just overall much better. Life is great. There are more things happening, so I'm sure there will be another post on here shortly.

I'm 24. Not a bad start, I'd say.

Game changer

GUYS!!!!! This is huge news, and you may want to go write this down in your journal as the biggest single event in your life:

Youtube lets you play snake on their videos.

Too good to be true? I thought the same thing. But it's true! Let me explain.

We have very slow internet. So, often times a youtube video has to load. It brings up that spinning circle thing to show that it's loading. Simply press up (the directional key up) and the circle will change into a moving line of dots, and there will be a dot that you can go "eat" to make it longer. It's the game snake! And you can even play it while the movie has loaded. It's pretty awesome.

If your internet is too fast, perhaps if you jump ahead in the video and then try it, you may have a split second before it loads.

This is amazing.

we moved!

I realize I'm about 2 months late posting this, but we moved in the middle of August. It was really quite an ordeal - this post could be really long. But we should record it for posterity I think. We loved our old apartment at Harmony Square, especially because it was literally a five minute walk to campus, and they were pretty nice apartments. But we decided that with a baby on the way, we wanted a little bit more space. After selling our contract, we searched and searched for a new place to live. It was a very stressful process, and we were having an awful time finding something livable. Housing in Provo is horrible, I just want to say. People think that since so many students have to live relatively close to campus, they can find an old shack and put a lock on it and charge you an arm and a leg to live there. And they're right! That's the sad thing. People definitely overpay for housing here. Anyway...

After a long time looking for a new house, we stumbled upon a small apartment complex about 4 blocks from campus, the same price as what we were paying previously, but with two bedrooms! It was miraculous. We loved it. It was everything we had been looking for. We called up the land lord and signed a contract. I spent the next few weeks planning how it would be decorated, where we would put everything, what new furniture we could buy, etc. It was awesome.

We started packing up all our stuff the week before the big move. The Thursday before we were supposed to move in (we were moving on Saturday), I get a call from my old roommate, Becky. She works at a singles complex in Provo called Cinnamon Tree. She asked if we had found a place yet. I told her yes, and we were moving on Saturday. She proceeded to tell me that at Cinnamon Tree, they hire a couple to come live and be in charge of the cleaning checks, as well as general upkeep of the complex (cleaning the laundry rooms, the lounge, sweeping the parking lot, etc). Their old couple was moving out, and they needed to fill the position. I wasn't really listening too intently until she told me how much rent was. Not only would they pay us for the work we did in the complex, but rent would be less than half of what we were currently planning on paying. Plus, they'd knock off another hundred bucks if we could be in charge of the phone a couple weekends a month. It was unbelievable! So I called Ben, and we decided to check the place out.

Becky told us before we got there that the apartment was pretty small, so we should be prepared. "Pretty small" was a huge understatement. It is apartment #8 1/2. That's right. 8 1/2. It is teeny. We could barely walk in the door. The couple living there had a gigantic wooden table right by the door, with a piano on the other side of the room. With those two pieces of furniture, we had a hard time squeezing through the living room to see the rest of the apartment. We were crawling all over each other the whole time we were there, and starting feeling just a little claustrophobic. When we walked out, I think our minds were about made up that there was no way we could make that place work - not with a baby at least. But we went in for an interview with the manager anyway. She told us the job responsibilities, again reiterated the awesome deal that it was. We went home, not sure what to do. After a couple days of going back and forth, we decided to give the tiny apartment one last chance and went over again with a tape measure. We wrote down dimensions, drew out a floor plan and played with it until we discovered how we could get our furniture to fit. We kept discussing, and praying, and flip flopping, and finally decided it was too good of a deal - there was no way we could pass it up. So we signed with Cinnamon Tree.

We were able to sell our contract at the other place really quickly (miracle #23409 of this whole adventure) and we moved in the next Tuesday (thanks again to Ruth and Dan for letting us live at your house for a couple of days). We only had to throw out a few pieces of furniture and I believe we have succeeded in making it feel like home.

We absolutely love it here. There may be times where we get frustrated because we are on week 9 with no bathroom light, or we have to pull everything out of the kitchen cabinet in order to maneuver the cookie sheets just right to where they will fit out the door. But overall we are extremely happy with our decision to live here, and we continue to receive countless blessings as a result of that decision.

Our wreaths - there you go, Mom.

Famous

For those of you who don't know, the lovely lady pictured above is Sister Janice Kapp Perry. Composer of tons and tons of music, including classics such as "I Love To See The Temple", "Army of Helaman", "Child's Prayer", "I Belong to The Church", and the list goes on and on and on. She is incredible. AND... she is in our stake. Making us super famous, especially since we went to a fireside with her on Sunday. The fireside was spectacular, and she is awesome.

Baby Bump

I have been putting off the much requested baby bump pictures for weeks because let's face it, I was 24 weeks along and still didn't look pregnant. But this past week or so I feel like it's finally started to show! In fact, I even bought some maternity clothes the other day. It's getting closer!

5 weeks

20 weeks

26 weeks

I have now, for the most part, moved past the point of people being blown away from hearing how far along I am because of how little I'm showing. It has now moved into what I believe to be phase 2. In the past week or so I've had two favorites:

1. From a girl in class: "Oh yeah, you are getting bigger! You really don't look pregnant though, it just looks like you've got some holiday fat or something"

2. From a co-worker after eating his third donut: "Rebecca looks like she ate an entire box of donuts by herself"

Real funny. Hopefully we'll move on to phase 3 pretty quick.

Some tender mercies

There have been a few tender mercies in the last few months, that I would like to mention to the few people who actually read this blog. They really aren't huge, but to me and Becca, they have made 2011 a very memorable year already.

One awesome thing - Becca is pregnant! I know we have mentioned this already, in fact the previous post (like an hour ago) has pictures of Becca looking somewhat embarazada (Spanish for pregnant). But I had to put it on the list somewhere, because it's sort of a huge deal.

Another great thing was the fact that we were able to have a kick-butt vacation. We're talking like nearly 3 weeks of vacation. In my job, I'm not supposed to be able to take more than 4 days off in a row, so to have gotten nearly 3 was really fantastic. We were able to spend some time with the Griffioen and Mingledorff families, and it was seriously fun. I would even go as far to say that it was super duper fun.

The last thing is the fact that when we came home after 3 weeks, having paid rent, insurance and other bills, we saw our accounts start to drop a little more than expected. So, I was sincerely asking for help in my job, and in the last two weeks I have had my best day ever, my best week ever, my best 2 week consecutive ever, and am on my way to having the best month I've had yet. I'd be willing to say I've had some major luck, but I know I need to give credit to the big man upstairs. It's really been surprising to me.

One funny story - at my job, they have incentives to make sales (much like any sales environment). For each sale, we get to choose a random piece of paper which will have an amount on it (usually $1). Whatever the paper is, you get that in cash. We also have a little putt-putt thing in the office. When you choose your amount, you can putt to double it. Well, I made two sales, and I managed to choose one piece worth $1, and then another worth $10. Then I made the putt, so I got $22 in about 2 minutes. It's not a ton of money, but considering I usually only get $1, $22 was pretty dang awesome. As if that weren't enough, Becca got a raise! So she is seriously bringing home the bacon these days. Life isn't too shabby, if I do say so myself.

Here's a picture of me makin' it rain with a bunch of my one dollar bills.

20 weeks

I just want to say, I think it's finally starting to look like I'm a little bit pregnant, even though everyone keeps telling me otherwise and it makes me want to punch them. Also, we find out the gender THIS WEEK! Wednesday!! Which also happens to be the halfway mark. Woohoooo!

5 weeks

19.5 weeks

21.

We are so behind updating this thing, it's awful. So we'll catch up starting with the most important thing: I had a birthday! I am 21 years old. That's right. I can now legally purchase alcohol, I can supervise someone driving with a learners permit (except Jenna - no thank you), I can get a hotel room (actually, I think that might be 18), and probably some other things. 21 is like 18 on steroids. Very cool. AND, I had an awesome birthday, thanks to my wonderful husband.

First, he brought me breakfast in bed. My favorite. Then we had to go to work, but we left a bit early, which was nice. Then, we mostly just got to chill all day long, and I got my hair cut. Ben made me a cake, which we ate nearly half of (an impressive feat for just two people) and Ben brought out the presents. Now, if you'll remember, I got Ben an ice cream scooper for his birthday. I thought I was setting the precedent for how the rest of our birthdays together would be. Meaning, we'll get a little cheap-o gift and love it. Apparently, he had other ideas. I am officially in debt as far as gifts go. He went above and beyond.


First of all, he got me "The Best of Whose Line Is It Anyway," a show we were hooked on while we lived in Arkansas. I'll have to post some links to some of my favorite parts and share the love. It is hilarious.


Second. About a week after we bought our bedding, one of the little throw pillows ripped and the stuffing was falling out. I sewed it up. About 2 days later, another side of the pillow ripped (yes, we bought our bedding on clearance), so I told Ben it was his turn. He laughed. But I am a little bit stubborn sometimes and decided that I was not going to be the one to sew it up again. So it's been ripped with stuffing falling out for well over a year now. And guess what. Ben sewed it up for my birthday! What a sweetheart. I love it.


Third. The big one. There has been one thing that has been missing from my life since I left home. And Ben filled the gaping hole. I got a sewing machine!!! It was definitely a huge surprise. And I am so excited. I've finished one and a half projects, pictures to be posted later. But I love that thing. It is awesome. Have I got the best husband, or what?

school's out for the summer!...and other exciting news

Finals are over! That means no more school for 2+ months! Woohoo! Never before in my life have I been so excited for a break from school (that may not be true – 6^th grade was a doozey). And THIS summer break is going to be the best ever. In fact, in less than 24 hours we will be on the road (as seen in Ben's previous post, here) headed for Ohio, then to North Carolina, Washington DC, and then on to Georgia! It is going to be 18 days of awesome. Without a doubt.

In other news, I believe it is finally time to spread the word: We are having a baby! Due date is December 21 and we could not be happier! Ben and I are both thrilled and cannot wait to meet the little one.

Right after we found out!

i can't think of a title...

It's been a busy past few weeks here. That's my excuse for not blogging in a month and a half, but mostly it's just because I really have a hard time ever coming up with things to write (although somehow my posts always end up being way long. I don't get it). But I will continue to do it for our (something like three) loyal readers. Plus, I really think I'll be happy I did it years from now when I look back to reminisce on life.

We've had the pleasure of being able to visit with a ton of family lately. Libby, Ben's sister, was married to Paul Hannibal a couple of weeks ago and most of Ben's family was able to come out to see it happen. It was great to see everyone! Although we do wish they'd been able to stay a bit longer. The wedding was wonderful, and Libby was absolutely beautiful. I wish we had gotten some decent pictures, but you'll have to take my word for it. It was gorgeous. Congrats again Libby and Paul! Ben's Mom got to stay out here for another few weeks after the wedding to be here for the birth of the newest grandchild, Ian. He is adorable. Congrats again Ruth and Dan!

During the week Ben's family was here, we also got to see my sister, Shauna, and her family. We got to meet her newest little one, Jackson, for the first time. And boy is he a cutie! It was great to see them.

Spring term is almost over! I don't think I have ever been more excited or more ready for a break from school. I've been taking three classes this term, which doesn't sound too bad, but when you take in to account the fact that those three classes were crammed into a period of seven weeks, it sounds a little more scary. And this term was, in fact, scary. Particularly one class. Methods of Health Promotion. The main project in the class was a group paper, 25 pages, on increasing access to healthy food in inner city America. Fascinating, I know. The problem with the paper was that there was really no direction on how it was supposed to be written. He gave us an example of another student's paper from last semester, so we followed that format and called it good. It wasn't until we showed it to him this week, the week before it is due, and asked him one question about it that we find out that the example he had given us was actually completely different than what he wanted us to turn in, and that we“have really good information here, but it's not written quite right” and we have to re-write the entire paper. Not cool. Basically, I am looking forward to the final on Tuesday, because it means that class is behind me for the rest of my life. Woohoo!

There have been good things about the semester though. For instance, in one class (Health Behavior Change) our teacher was doing a study to find out if the iPad could be effective in helping people improve their diets. So, he gave everyone in our class an iPad for seven weeks to find out. Overall, I think it was not very effective, because there are much cooler things to do on the iPad than look up nutrition facts on everything you put in your mouth, but it was still a fun project. Also, I read a great book. It's called “Influencer” by... I can't think of the guy's name, but he also wrote “Crucial Conversations” which is a book that Ben has been reading lately. It was a great book and I highly recommend it to anyone who ever has any reason to change behavior. Your own, or someone else's. Very interesting.

In other news, despite the fact that Church starts at 2:30 in the afternoon, we are in an awesome ward right now. The people are great, everyone lives super close to each other, and the bishop knows my family. I was in an interview with him last week and I learned he went to graduate school at UGA and he was in the same ward my family was in back in '87. He said something like, “I bet we may even know some of the same people! Do you know... the Mingledorff's? Currie and ViAnn?” Ha! What are the chances? Turns out Dad was his counselor in the Elders Quorum way back in the day. Small world.

Ben and I both got callings a couple weeks ago. We miss being in the same calling together, but our current callings are definitely helping us to grow. For instance, I will go ahead and admit, I am the worst visiting teacher on the planet. I don't know what it is, I am just super lazy or something and visiting teaching frequently slips my mind, or I come up with some excuse why I can't go that month. It's awful. And I just got called as a visiting teaching supervisor. Great.

Ben's calling is a little different. He was called as the ward service coordinator. He sets up service projects for the ward, and takes care of the building. That means after church, he takes out the trash and cleans up, turns off lights, locks doors, etc. Sounds like it wouldn't be a big deal. But I am shocked by the number of putrid diapers left in trashcans all over the church building. I'm pretty sure there are about eight wards that meet in our building, and the babies must really add up. It is disgusting. But Ben sure is a trooper. I even walked in on him vigorously working to unclog a toilet in the women's restroom today, and he still managed to leave church with a smile on his face. He fulfills his calling dutifully and humbly (whether by choice or not). I sure am lucky to be married to that guy. He is awesome.

I feel like I need to throw in a little bit of a shout out to one of my very best friends ever/my dear old roommate, Caitlin Olson. This girl is incredible. I don't know how I would have survived these first few years of college without her. She is the sweetest, most hilarious and loving girl you will ever meet. She has been called on a mission to Argentina, and reports to the MTC on July 27^th. She will definitely be missed, but I have no doubt she will be a fantastic missionary.

From the last post til now

Interesting tid bit - canceled and cancelled are both acceptable words, but canceled is the American English form, while cancelled is the British form.  Cool, right?

And that's just one of the many things I've learned the past few weeks.  College is great.  Anyway, quite a bit has been going on in the Griffioen's life, so buckle up.

First and foremost, we finished winter semester.  And although my class load wasn't too tough, it's always nice to get another semester behind you, and get closer to graduating.  Just another year and a half or so...  Alas, the break from school didn't last long, so after finishing finals, we had a few days (pretty much a weekend) of break then back to classes for Spring term!  But in that short break, Becca and I had our ONE YEAR ANNIVERSARY!

I would definitely nail this bad boy as a land mark, because I think this counts us as no longer being newlyweds.  I'm glad we can start using years and fractions of years to describe how long we've been married instead of months.  It may seem pretty unimportant, but I'm thrilled.  Being married is the greatest thing ever, and I'm stoked to rack up the years with my wife until we're old.  I love her an awful lot.

Now, since we didn't have a whole lot of time to go anywhere like Yosemite or even Yellowstone, and gas prices were pushing $4/gallon, it was kind of hard to find a place to go to, so we went to a resort in Park City and it was absolutely fantastic!  It had a private hot tub, a fireplace, a kitchen, and was one of those places that was way out of our budget, but thanks to expedia we were able to book it.  In the end, our anniversary was marvelous, and it was hard coming home because the 3 days in Park City absolutely flew by.

In other news, we went to the Draper temple, and the Salt Lake City temple.  Both were gorgeous, and I'm really glad we were able to go.  Going to the temple with Becca truly is a blessing and uplifts me each time we attend.  I'm glad I have the kind of wife that loves to do such things.

Today for church we met in the Marriott Center with a bunch of other married wards, and they switched around a bunch of boundaries and wards and stakes.  BYU wards and stakes are no more, but rather are Provo Married or Provo YSA wards so there won't be so much confusion about what ward to attend.  Apparently there were problems with students being able to attend up to three wards, so this is going to handle that.  At any rate, we changed our bishop today, and our ward, so instead of meeting at 12:30 pm, we'll be meeting at the unmissable time of 2:30pm.  Even if I sleep in with all my might, I could never get passed noon, much less 2:30.  But holy cow, it is so late.  Becca has already been through this, and seeing as how we'll get out of church at 5:30, come winter it will be dark by the time we get out of church.  Yay!

Let's see, I believe those are the big points in our life the last couple of weeks.  As I reflect on these and other things that have recently happened, it's hard for me not to mention once again how blessed I feel.  Our life isn't perfect, but as we are passing through trials or other small problems, it seems like things may not work out, but in the end they always do, and I become a better person because of it.  And lastly, my wife is the bomb.  She is the greatest thing since sliced bread.

our life in 3 minutes.

I always seem to become slightly overwhelmed when it is my turn to blog. Probably because I put it off for months and months before I finally sit down to do it. I should really work on that. But here is a report of what has been going on in our lives for the last little bit: Ben and I decided, as long as we are living in Utah, we should take advantage of the trillions of temples in such close proximity. Here is the beginning of our quest to visit all of Utah's temples. #1: Mount Timpanogos Michelle and her family got to come down to Provo a while ago to see the Carl Bloch exibit in the Museum of Art. It was so much fun to see them and to spend some time with their kiddos. I got to go to Georgia to see Russell get married! It was awesome. I'm so glad I was there to welcome my new sister-in-law Emilee to the fam. Last picture with a single big brother:

Getting ready for the sealing: The newlyweds!: The open house: Just hanging out. Man, I love Georgia weather:

I feel that it is important to record for our posterity that we were in fact, in Provo for BYU's 2010-2011 basketball season. Jimmermania. That's all I have to say.

In other news, this past weekend was General Conference. It was wonderful. It's always so nice when Conference comes around to give me a much needed spiritual boost, as well as to provide me with a swift kick in the rear as a reminder to continue striving for perfection and to never become complacent. It's amazing to me how every talk is always so applicable to my life. We are so blessed to live in a day where we have a living prophet on the earth serve as a mouthpiece for the Lord, and to guide us in all that we do.

We had beautiful weather on Saturday, and spent our time between sessions outside, throwing around the frisbee. It was perfect. I made a picnic lunch for between Sunday sessions. Then we woke up to five inches of snow on the ground. Not exciting. So Ben put together a nice indoor picnic for us to enjoy instead. Other than that, not too much has been going on. We are finally coming to an end of the semester! Only five more days of classes (three for me!) and then we are free!....for four days until Spring term starts. But we will be living it up those four days, let me tell you. We will be celebrating our first wedding anniversary on Easter this year in Park City, where we keep finding incredible deals on everything because nobody is coming to ski anymore. It's going to be a blast.