Good Times

It has been a little over a month since we last posted, and I suppose it's about time I got on here and explained why life is so awesome.

First of all, I'm married to the greatest gal I know. I don't want this to get mushy, but let it be known that the number one reason my life rocks is because I have an awesome wife.

Now as for less important things that make life great, the weather has been great the past few days. We're still not into the 60's or anything, but considering the past few months, I will take 40's and 50's with a smile on my face. It's nice not shivering on my way to class.

Another reason? We have some very special people getting ready to tie the knot, in temples. That is so GREAT! I seriously think that is wonderful. So a shout out to Russell & Emilee who are getting married on this upcoming Saturday. I know Beck is unbelievably happy she can be there, and I sincerely wish I could show up as well, but I simply can't. I'll be thinking about you two though. Congrats to the both of you.

And that's not all - my little sister Libby is going to be getting married soon to Paul Hannibal! That is going to be unreal. It's really weird to think my little sister is getting hitched! She is more mature than me though, so I'm sure she will be just fine. I'm happy for the both of them.

To be honest, I've been thinking about my life, and everything, from our apartment, our jobs, our families, our ward, our calling, and everything else just seems so awesome. I even got off of work for 2 1/2 weeks this upcoming summer to have a near perfect vacation, which includes a road trip to Ohio, going to Cedar Point (sweet amusement park),

seeing my family and hanging out with them for a week at the Outer Banks in North Carolina,

and then head down to Georgia to spend roughly a week with the Georgian family.

Try not to get too jealous.

spring fever.

I've decided it's time for spring. For the past couple of weeks I've even started to convince myself that it's coming. I think it started when I walked into the grocery store the other day and saw a giant bouquet of daffodils right by the entrance.

Daffodils are my favorite. I just think they are the most cheerful, happy, bright flowers there are. Maybe it's because they are some of the first things to show any sign of life after the long winter months. Doesn't it just warm your heart when you walk out and see those little daffodil sprigs poking up out of the snow? That's what I think of when I see those things - spring! Hope for a day when I can walk out the front door without spending twenty five minutes bundling up for the five minute walk to school! Then those thoughts start to lead to thoughts of green grass, picnics, sunburn, freckles, flip flops, watermelon, swimming pools, blue skies... it's endless. And I just get so excited for it!

I think it's safe to say I have a serious case of spring fever.

Now, I am well aware that I am no longer in the sunny south where if it is below 70 degrees in February it is a scientific anomaly, and that since it is Utah, thoughts of spring have no place until, say, the middle of April. But yesterday, I was ready to jump for joy when I realized the sun was peeking through the clouds and it was much too warm for the coat I was wearing.

So what if it started snowing four hours later? And so what if I almost fell on my bum after slipping on ice on the way home from work today? I am convinced that spring is on its way! With little twinges of hope like this every once in a while, I can make it another couple of weeks (.....months...) And if springtime decides it wants to come out of hiding and show its face for an early appearance this year, I'd be just fine with it.

Happy Thanksgiving, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!

It's been a while since the last post - sorry Mom. But here I am, once again, with the highlights of the past few weeks. This is going to be the longest post ever...

To start off, we had a wonderful Thanksgiving with the Burt family. Unfortunately I don't have any pictures, but it was awesome. Ruth made the absolute best turkey I have ever had the pleasure of tasting. I don't know how she did it. We ended the night with a frigid game of croquet in the back yard, which I would have dominated, had we not left in the middle of it. I am very grateful to be able to have family so close.

We got a TV! Ben and I had our first black friday experience this year, and I kind of hope to never do it again. After standing outside of Target from about 2:30 to 4:00 am, and almost freezing to death, and then getting lost in a stampede of insane black friday shoppers, we finally got to the TV, just as the last ones were being claimed.


I am not a picky eater. Especially when it comes to fruit. But Ben introduced me to a new one recently: the mango. I tried to like it, but it tasted like carrots and menthol. Like carrot coughdrops, but with a really sick texture. I am not a fan.


We bought our first Christmas tree. It's real cute and it's still up in our apartment, and probably will be for a while. I'm not quite ready for Christmas to be over just yet.


We finished another semester of school! That last semester was a doozie for the both of us. I was taking anatomy, which I absolutely loved - but it's nice to have my life back. Ben's semester was full of a bunch of classes he did not enjoy at all, so he was relieved when it ended as well. We took the last finals hopped on a plane headed to Ohio to spend some time with the fam.

We were there a few days before we got to drive down to Georgia to see my family for Christmas (thank you so much to Ben's parents for making that possible!!) and had a blast playing games, making delicious Christmas food, going to "the across the street", caroling, and just hanging out. I found out on this trip that I am allergic to benzocaine. I had been using some stuff on my lips to treat, what I thought was a fever blister, and it spread all over my face. It was really gross, and scary, and embarrassing, and painful, and it turns out I was just allergic to the numbing agent in the lip medicine stuff. That was also an embarrassing discovery, that I had been causing it myself. Anyway, we had an awesome time in Georgia with my family. It's always so much fun to see them.




After all the Christmas festivities, we made the trip back up to Ohio where we got to spend some time with the Griffioens. It was really the first time I got to spend any time there with them (the three days after the wedding doesn't really count), and I can honestly say that I have got some awesome in-laws. We had a really great time. We watched a TON of football, learned to play Killer Bunnies, watched the ball drop, Ben played basketball with his brothers, we read a little bit, played "the dice game", and just had a very relaxing, fun time.


I wish I were better about taking pictures, but unfortunately, over the entire break, I didn't even take one. The ones that I put on here were stolen from Shauna and Libby - thanks guys.

Now here we are, back in Provo again for the start of a new semester. So far, classes are going well. I have an awesome schedule - no class monday or friday, and only one on wednesday. Of course, that makes for a pretty awful tuesday and thursday, but I think it's worth it. We're still trying to get back on top of things. In fact, we have yet to go grocery shopping since the beginning of December, so we are currently living off of oatmeal, waffles, and Christmas candy. We're getting there though. It's going to be a great year!

Birthday weekend

I hit 23 years this past Saturday (the 30th of Oct), and it was a good one. First of all, I had some delicious cheese cake with cherry topping, courtesy of my awesome wife.



And despite being 23, I can't keep in my excitement when I see a present that I've been looking for since getting married.



It's an ice cream spade! These things make scooping ice cream a pleasure, and this spade has anti-freeze in the handle, so it keeps the ice cream from sticking. It's awesome.



Look at this sweet pumpkin. I wonder what incredibly talented and clever people sculpted it. Oh wait....yeah... it was us. In all seriousness, it's a simple design, and took us about two hours.





We were going for spooky, and I think we nailed it.

Halloween weekend was fantastic. We were able to accomplish a good bit, and to finish off my birthday we went to outback! I love that place. We had some gift cards as well, so we ordered an appetizer, I got soup, and a full rack of ribs. Tack on the free bread and honey butter they gave us, and my free dessert for turning 23, and our table looked like there should have been another couple there. It was great. Operation: Super B-Day was a huge success.

Another great week ahead

This upcoming week has a lot in store. Most importantly could be the new job I'm starting. I've been working on campus since January (excluding the summer) and I've really enjoyed it. But, I've been feeling a change is in store, so I sent out a few resumes and had a few interviews, and ended up agreeing to go work for a company called Doba.

Who is Doba? Good question. They are a drop shipping company. What Doba does is offer a service to people who are trying to start online businesses with eBay or Amazon.com. The idea is to give access to 1.6 million products at wholesale price, which they in turn can sell on Amazon or eBay or whatever for a small profit. The cool thing is that they make it super duper easy to post products on eBay and other sites, and Doba doesn't require users to pay for products until the item has been sold. Then Doba will ship the product, the user pays Doba, and whatever is left after the wholesale price and shipping is the small profit that the user keeps. I hope that makes sense.

So how do I make money? I call people that have signed up for a free two week trial of Doba and offer them a membership for either 40 dollars each month, or 400 (or something like that) dollars each year. I do get a base pay, and then if I can get sales, it boosts my pay more. So there is potential to make a decent amount of money.

I'm excited if it all works out. The hours are better, the pay could be much better, and it's good experience. In the end, if I end up finding that it's a lame place to work, I can quit, and my boss on campus has told me there is a return policy, that they'll take me back. So I don't have a lot of pressure on me right now which is a definite plus.

At any rate, that's my new job and we hope it works out well. Also, we have quite a bit of school work due. I have 3 tests this week and a small paper due, and Becca seems to have quizzes or tests every other day. I've also got an ultimate frisbee game which will be fun.

In the end, I just wanted to get on here and say life isn't too shabby right now. Becca and I are enjoying BYU, we've got a sweet apartment, a great ward, a fun calling, and overall no complaints. I'm a lucky guy.

Six Months!

Ben and I hit our six month anniversary last Sunday. Pretty hard to believe if you ask me. We were trying to decide how long we'll be considered "newlyweds". I think a year is past the newlywed stage, so it has to be sometime between now and then, right?

We celebrated it on Monday, because on Sunday it's hard to do anything. Ben surprised me with these beautiful flowers, which I am still enjoying immensely. We hung out all day and went to Olive Garden for dinner that night. It was great.

I talked to Mom on our one month anniversary and she asked if we still liked each other. The answer was yes. And just so you know Mom, six months later...that answer is still yes. We still like each other a whooooole, whole lot. We couldn't be happier.

It's nice to have a little pick-me-up every so often...

My anatomy teacher emailed this video out to all of us today because it has been a particularly trying week for the class. I thought it was so good. Elder Holland is always able to speak so powerfully, and he gets his point across so beautifully.

It is so important to always remember to trust in the Lord. To remember that he is always there for you, and mindful of everything you're going through. He understands what you're feeling because he's felt it too. His hand is always outstretched for us to grab onto. No matter how small (like a very busy, stressful week of school) or how huge the issue may seem, he wants you to come unto him, and put your trust in him. He will never leave you comfortless.