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.

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.