Happy Halloween

This year we decided to be....

A tree and a tree hugger--look how cute a tree ben makes.

*Warning* some trees may have been harmed in the making of this costume



what's a tree hugger without duct tape sandals?




Ben and "cereal killer" Chase


Intramural flag football champions

apparently we were having a contest of who could get the dirtiest

Return to P-Town!

The match is finally over! After much anticipation, we found out we will be doing clinical rotations in Provo for the last two years of medical school! We are so happy that we got our first choice--it was a really tough decision between Provo and Arizona, but Provo won out in the end. It is still a ways away- we will be moving around the end of June of 2010. We're excited to be closer to family and mountains :) We will try and soak up Kirksville until then.

Since U Been Gone

Who says nothing exciting ever happens in Kirksville? My good friend Steph came to visit today! She was here with her husband who had family that had been living here. I love the small, Mormon world. It was so good to see the Portwood family! In honor of our visit, I thought I would dedicate the post to Steph and the many good times we've had.

Steph was the first friend I had on the BYU soccer team and we had some good times having most of our classes together, playing on the soccer team, and rocking out to Kelly Clarkson, hence the title. We listened to that song way too many times, but still brings back great memories every time I listen to it. Here are some pics of the good ol days


Shout out to Class of 2008


Edna Mode and Mrs. Incredible @Halloween Practice


I have no idea

Double Agent

Background:
I work for an Attorney- we'll call him *"Jim" who is a die hard Nebraska fan. I also am in Young Womens with a lady named *"Pam". Everyone is in the same ward and are friends....well, maybe until today :) the Nebraska/Mizzou game.

*Names have been changed to Jim and Pam in honor of "The Office"

me= neutral on Mizzou v. Nebraska
Pam= Mizzou enthusiast
Jim= my boss, and Nebraska enthusiast

The Situation - Pam's husband informed me of a little rivalry between their family and Jim's regarding Mizzou and Nebraska. He asked me to let him borrow the keys to Jim's office so they could "decorate' for the game. Could I be a traitor and let them decorate his office? I found that I could.

Below are a few pictures of Jim's office:





so, Jim obviously knew that I had given them the key, and in order to redeem myself, we did this to Pam's family's house.






So, this was what I did at work today

Moral of the story:
I love my job

I am still a neutral fan, and now have a greater appreciation for the Mizzou/Nebraska rivalry.

Much too good for children

I was recently informed that September is "Roald Dahl" month. This being the case I will take advantage and express my gratitude to Mr. Dahl who has written so many books that I continue to enjoy. My dear mother sent me a package of See's candy today ( Thank you sooooo much, Mom!)and I remembered a great line from Matilda that my family has adopted with chocolates. Miss Honey recalls that when the Trunchbull had chocolates in the house she would take one to her lips, and while eating it say, "Much too good for children" ..... so true. Although, I would also like to add the line, "and husbands"


I would also like to give a shout out to two other books that I absolutley love.
"The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar" and "Danny the Champion of the World."

Match… Goal…Touchdown!!

Wow, what a sports day we had today. To start off, the 17-year-old Melanie Oudin beat Sharapova in the U.S. Open today. There is something about watching an underdog win in her home country that makes me teary-eyed every time I see it. I get that from my mom.

Next up was the simultaneous watching of the U.S. vs. El Salvador World Cup Qualifying match and the BYU vs. Oklahoma football game. What a night! It’s always fun when the U.S. plays El Salvador since my mom is from the U.S. and my dad is from El Salvador. The U.S. pulled out the victory 2-1.
The highlight of the night, however, was definitely BYU beating Oklahoma 14-13. We had our bases covered with the soccer game on our computer and the BYU game on T.V. It was a great night!

Ratatouille

After seeing Ratatouille a couple years ago, I decided that I wanted to make it one day.   

I was the "little chef" today.  I loved it!  Ben, although leery to try anything that was squash-based, actually enjoyed it as well.  The same could not be said when I experimented with black bean burgers...but that's another story. And in honor of our dinner, we had to watch "Ratatouille" while we ate it.

Fun times at Mutual

Ben and I love our callings.  We work with the youth, which means we get to go to mutual.  Our ward has some pretty intense Wednesday nights.    

Slip n Slide kickball, Marshmallow war, capture the flag, mud volleyball etc.  The youth are great and it's a nice break for Ben from all of his studying.  

BEN IS ALMOST DONE WITH HIS FIRST YEAR!!!

This morning Ben looked so worn out, he has been studying like crazy for his last week of finals and after some convincing, he gave me his best I'm-too-tired-to-even-look-tired face. He's almost a second year!

What a catch

Ben grew out a beard recently for a yearly tradition that his school does.    Here is Ben with the full on beard

here he is with the handlebar 'stache. ( Haylee, I thought you would appreciate this apostrophe)

sick handlebar mustache with appropriate plaid shirt

*Ben is now back to being clean shaven...we could only take the mustache for a few minutes...the first and last time he'll have one!

Christmas colors...(shudder)

For those of you who don't know, I can't stand Christmas colors ( when it is not Christmas that is).  From Thanksgiving to Christmas I have no problem with red and green, but any other time, I cringe at the sight of the two being put together somehow.  It doesn't necessarily have to be clothes either.  When I was in elementary school, I even hated it when the teachers used red and green on the same whiteboard.  It is a nail-on-the-chalkboard experience for me.  I have had this phobia/annoyance with Christmas colors for as long as I can remember, but I think I can pin one experience down that sent me over the top. 

I was around eight years old and I went to stay at a friends house.  I was a very shy little girl, especially around the older brothers and sisters of this friend I was staying with.  We had a great time and in the morning when I went to put on my clothes, to my horror, I saw that I had accidentally packed a red shirt with green shorts.  I remember searching my bag for any other alternatives with no such luck.  So, reluctantly, I put on the forbidden outfit.  I was not even in the outfit for ten minutes when one of the teenage older sisters ( of whom I was very afraid of) said, " What are you, Christmas?"  I'm pretty sure I started to cry.  So, from then on Christmas colors were my nemesis.  

Ben, of course, knows of my double colored enemy and thought it would be funny if he wore this outfit to play tennis in yesterday.  Good one sweetie.  

Vacation!!!

Well, I've had a great 5-week break that is unfortunately coming to an end tomorrow. Jessica already wrote about the fun we had in California with her family. We also had a fabulous time visiting with Jenny, Katie, Abby and Grandma Lee. I went one day with Jenny, Abby and Katie to visit relatives and on another day we all had a great time at the beach! I had terrific sisters and little Abby is so cute! Unfortunately I don't have too many pictures, but here is a little sampling of the fun.

I left for Utah a few days before Jess to spend some time with my parents and visiting friends. We hung out with Jill and Mike a couple times, which was a blast. It was a nice relaxing week. Jess came to Utah with her family to drop her brother off at the MTC. A couple days later Jess, my parents, and I flew back to Missouri. On the way to Kirksville we stopped at Adam-Ondi-Ahman. It was very beautiful and very peaceful.

Unfortunately, Jessica started work right after we got back, but my parents and I were able to go see some sites. We visited Hannibal - the hometown of Mark Twain. It is a beautiful little town on the Mississippi river. We also went to Nauvoo for a day, which was obviously a lot of fun! Unfortunately I forgot to take the camera to either place. We were very happy to have them here for a few days!

Since then I've been trying to enjoy the time off as much as possible - i.e. doing as little as possible. Life is good - at least for another few hours!!

Visit to California with Elder Aquino

Last week we visited California and had a great time seeing family, especially Adam for one last time before his mission. He is going to the Dominian Republic and are so happy for him! We had a great time seeing family and getting a break from the humidity.

The boys in their matching ties...precious

Sisters back together again

My cousin nicole, jacki and I

Jacki and Casey
Twinners

cousins on the couch
Cousin Gavin at the beach, I hope that is all sand :)

Disneyland and California adventure

Jonah was just too busy to keep a hold of for a picture!

Ticks 'n chicks

TICKS

What a week. Ben was at a week-long preceptorship in Quincy, Illinois last week while I was a Bachelorette at home. The young women in my ward went on a camp out one night and I decided it would be fun to go with them. I had never camped in Missouri before. People had warned me of the bugs, but I had no idea until I was actually out there. The camp out was way fun, we made some tin foil dinners and smores. However, the next morning while I was at work I found two ticks on my body! One was on my leg and the other was in my hair. I'm shuddering just thinking about them. So, I probably won't be camping in Missouri anytime soon :)

CHICKS

Last month we did an Embryology and Incubation unit at my school. It was really neat to have the baby chicks hatch in the classroom. It was also a nice incentive to keep the kids quiet. All I had to say was, " Shhhhhh....the baby chicks are trying to sleep." They would all the sudden start to whisper and tell the other kids, " Baby chicks sleeping "

BEN'S VISIT TO THE CLASSROOM

Dr. Ben came to visit the class the other day. It was nice have the kids meet him. He brought his stethescope and "heard" their heartbeat in their heart, arms, legs, head, etc. They loved having their visitor.

MY BIRTHDAY PRESENT



Ben got me some new golf clubs for my birthday! We tried them out yesterday and I got two pars. Still a lot of room for improvement though.

SUNBURN


I don't think he'll forget sunscreen again

Mommy's visit, Benny's b-day, Jessie's joy

What a perfect weekend! We were so excited to have my mom come visit us! She was our first visitor. I was so happy to see her. Anyways, we had a great time visiting Nauvoo, Carthage, Quincy and Columbia. The latter two were for shopping purposes. Those who know me know that I am not much of a shopper. However, living in Kirksville for the past year has changed my tune. I was visibly excited to see a mall ( for reasons other than Pretzelmaker) Here are a few pics from the weekend.

I just had to get my hands on the gold plates

I kept switching which outfit I was going to wear on this day. I know now why I chose the pink shirt with black shorts. What a wonderful coincidence...I saw my good friend from BYU MerryBrooke in Nauvoo. Our outfits were truly inspired. It was so nice to see her! Shout out to MerryBrooke!

Mom and I on the Mississippi river

Mom and I at the beautiful Nauvoo Temple

My cute mom texting

Trail of Hope: where the saints walked as they left Nauvoo to head out to the West



Mom in front of the Carthage jail in Illinois.

BEN'S BIRTHDAY


Ben in his new clothes that he got for his birthday...aka birthday suit

I love my husband, Ben. He is the greatest for so many reasons. I won't get too mushy, but in a nutshell, he is the best. I am so proud of him for all of the hard work he puts into studying. I know that he gets burnt out, but he keeps plugging away and is almost done with his first year of medical school!

Ben in his study mode


Ben is a master rock skipper. He made me call him the skipper. When I said I didn't want to, he said, " You have to , it's my birthday" You can't argue with a birthday wish.


We didn't have any writing icing, and since it was Sunday, I couldn't go out and get some. Luckily, we had some sprinkles that I got creative with.

Whirlwind Week

Well, some of you may have heard that we had a tornado come through town this week. Apparently tornadoes almost always avoid Kirksville for whatever reason. I guess there are too many hills or something. It has been 25-30 years since the last one came into town, and a lot longer than that since the last serious twister.

Armed with this knowledge, I was not the least bit worried when people at school started saying that there were tornadoes in the area. The tornado sirens went off too, but they always go off at random times for no reason, so I was still unfazed. Jessica on the other hand, was getting more and more worried and wanted to hide in the bathroom like all of the warning signs posted around campus tell us to do. I however, wanted to go outside and see if I could actually see anything, but Jessica wouldn't let me. We never saw any signs of tornadoes other than dark skies, and the guys on the radio made it sound like the tornadoes were north of town, so we just assumed that nothing really happened. It wasn't until later when I started getting a bunch of emails about helping out those who were affected by the tornado that I realized that it did in fact hit the town.

The tornado made it's way down one main street where many students from my school live, including some good friends. I still didn't realize how much damage was done until some of us went to help out the next day and this is some of what we saw.







We feel blessed that we were kept safe and didn't suffer any affects from the tornado. But we are also very sad that some of our friends and fellow students lost their homes and other possessions. Please keep them in your prayers.

I...am a gentleman

Sorry in advance if this post is a little jumpy, but bear with me.

For those of you who have not seen "The Tale of Despereaux" this post may not make as much sense, but basically the main character, Despereaux, is the littlest mouse in his village and doesn't ever acknowledge or realize his tininess. He is also the bravest mouse and when people ask who he is, he says, " I...am a gentleman" Ben and I thought it was the cutest movie. I especially liked it because Despereaux was small, and I am small.

Anyways, back to the point of this blog. As you know, I am a Head Start teacher and I teach 20 kids ages 3-5. My job can be somewhat difficult at times and I feel totally lost most days, but today was a really good day and I'd like to share this little story that made my day today.

Lately, I have been having a lot of problems with the boys hitting/pinching/kicking/flicking/spitting at the other kids while they wait in line during transition times during the day. I have been thinking of different things I can do to lessen the violence during transition times in general. I have also discovered through having this job, that kids love to listen to made up stories that involve familiar television cartoon characters. (I love telling them stories about Jessicaella and her evil sister Jackistasia)But I'm getting off topic.

So here I am with my group of four year olds who are terrors in line. So, I started to tell them a story of a gentleman mouse named Despereaux. I changed the plot a little and added in a princess who had lifesavers in her hair for a crown....the point that I got across to them, though, was being a gentleman. The boys were totally engrossed. I told them that a gentleman was very brave and that he had a sword to protect the people. I told them that a gentleman let the ladies go first, especially while waiting in line. I also told them that gentlemen would help people when they fell, and hold open doors. I also said that gentlemen would keep his hands to himself. They were listening so intently, I was thrilled. One of the little boys said, " But teacher, how can I be a gentleman, I'm just a kid?"

So, here came the test, I said, " Okay, are we ready to line up to go outside?" They excitedly said, " Yes!" There were five boys in my group. Three of them raced to the front of the line, pushing and shoving all they way there, obviously undeterred by the story. But the other two boys quietly walked to the back of the line and as I approached them they held their hands out in front of them indicating that everyone could step in front of them in line and said, " I am being a gentleman" It was quite possibly the cutest thing I had ever seen. These two boys were usually my two rowdiest.

For the rest of the day I watched these two little gentleman boys and they said and did the cutest things. One of the boys came up to me while we were outside and said, " Teacher, I helped my friend up when he fell." I told him how proud I was that he was being such a gentleman. Lastly, when the mother of one of the boys came to pick him up at the end of the day, I was all to eager to tell her of her son's chivalrous acts of the afternoon. He blushed as I told her, and as they walked out he held out his hand and said to his mother, " Go ahead" and walked behind her and then held open her door. I was almost in tears ( I know I'm emotional) . So there is my plug for " The Tale of Despereaux".

Priceless, Nacho, Golf

Registration cost for half marathon: $35.00
Gas to go to half marathon: $21.67
Energy gel: $1.00
Knowing I will never run a half marathon again: priceless

Alright, so it wasn't all that bad, but I have decided that long runs may not be something I want to pursue. I am glad that I did it, and that Ben and I could have a mini vacation of sorts this weekend. Unfortunatley I forgot my camera, so sorry, no pictures.

NACHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
What a cutie I'm married to.

Recently, some of our medical school friends and us got together to watch Nacho Libre Ben, in the true spirit of Nacho, wore the mask.

My brother, Adam, got together last week with my cousins and they had a Nacho night as well....corn in the face and all.



GOLF



A few weeks ago, Ben and I went golfing on his spring break. We had so much fun! Ben got his first ever birdie. It was a par 3 and he sunk a 20 foot putt for the birdie. I, however, still have a lot of room to improve :)



notice what Ben is swinging at...
a random dead fish out on the course, that made us chuckle :)

Sisterhood of the Traveling pants

I have really been missing my baby sister, Jacki, ever since moving out here to Missouri. We are only 11 months apart, so naturally we are very close. This weekend, I was at a conference in Lake Osage, Missouri for my work and decided I wanted a new pair of jeans. I found a pair that I loved and decided to go ahead and get them.

The exact same weekend, Jacki ( in California) bought the exact same pair of jeans from the exact same store in the exact same size and for the exact same price. We both pictured texted each other the jeans to verify. The only bothersome thing here is the " exact same size" aspect. Jacki is a few inches taller than me. Either these pants truly are "magical" and can fit anybody no matter their size (as the movie suggests) or I have a bigger butt and hips proportional to my body than Jacki. Hmmmmmm...These pants must be MAGICAL!


Here's a few classic sister pics







Tan-tar-a!

I had a work conference this weekend, "Conference on the Young Years" It was my first conference for work, I felt pretty grown up :) It was a lot of fun. We had a really cool room right on the lake. It was so beautiful, I even got to go to the golf driving range to work on my tee shots!
My co-workers and I by the lake

As some of you know, I work as a Teacher for Head Start. Fortunatley, this was not our van, but wouldn't it be funny if it was? :)
Beginning of the day
and the end

Ben's Spring Break!!


Hooray for Ben! He worked so hard this semester and now he is free for a week! I am so proud of him and for all the studying he does. We are both looking forward to no school for him this week.

Two white roses and one Pinkeye

Ben and I had a great pre and post Valentine's day. On the actual day, I hardly saw my sweetheart due to his ensuing physiology test. Studying became his one true love that day. Ben got me flowers--10 red roses and 2 white roses. When I saw these beautiful flowers I wondered what the significance behind the 2 white roses could mean. At last I figured it out. This was our 2nd Valentine's day together since we have been married. How sweet! So when I told Ben that I had figured out his symbolic flowers he said with a smile, " Oh, yeah, well they had just run out of red roses, so I got two white ones" We both thought that was pretty funny.

Maybe next year he'll get me some pink roses to go with my pinkeye. That's right, I have pinkeye.


Pinkeye Pete from one of my favorite cartoons...

Pepper Ann really is one in a million!

Anyways, back to the subject at hand. Pinkeye is so gross, yet funny at the same time. You really can't get any sympathy with a disease with such a wimpy name. I used to make fun of people with pinkeye, today Karma has caught up with me. I knew that it was inevitable that I catch it( working with 3-5 year olds and all) I am surprised that I lasted this long :) I was going to post a picture of my eye, but I think Pinkeye Pete's is enough. At least I got out of work for a day!

Food from the outside

Since we only have one store out here in Kirksville..."the Walmart", we have started craving foods we enjoyed out in the West, ie Sees, Hot Cheetos (with Limon) and Craisins. Okay, they have Craisins, but not the motherload, like this bag. We were so excited this week when we got a Pre-Valentines day package from my Mom. Thanks Mom! By the time I took this picture, I only had one bordeax left :)

We have been doing pretty good lately. Ben has been super busy with school; we are getting excited for his Spring break coming up in March. I have been trying to figure out why my nose has been stuffy for like 6 months and I think I have finally found a cure...Allegra. I know, so simple right. I went and saw the Allergist a few weeks ago and he said what I had suspected; I am allergic to a few Missouri weeds and I pick up every new cold virus that comes into my work. I was hoping he would tell me that I was allergic to 3-5 year olds, but no such luck :) So, Allegra, combined with eating no dairy products ( except chocolate...please refer to "Dilemma" post) has seemed to cure me of my constant stuffy noses!!! I have been much happier and have finally gotten to exercise on a consistent basis.

Post Christmas with the Aquino family

A few days after Christmas, I went and visited my family out in California. It was so nice to see everybody and to enjoy the SUNSHINE for a few days. My mom had definitely noticed my skin color had lightened a shade or two since living in Missouri :) My brother, sister and I had some good sibling bonding time. We needed to get all of our brother/sisterly love out before Adam goes on his mission.

Oh Jacki

Adam and Rufus resting at the top of Mt. Rubidoux

Dad and I eating at Mimi's

Rufus in his element

One of the days I was there, we went out to a few historical landmarks in my mother's history--Chiriaco Summitt and Eagle Mountain. We took the journey out to the desert and were provided with firsthand narrative of what it was like to grow up in Eagle Mountain, CA. It was a trip to remember.
It was so nice to see my cousins, my dear Aunt Sharon--and cute Jonah!

Oodles of Christmas Fun!

Welcome to Ben's first-time-blog-entry extravaganza! Don't get too excited. There is a reason I chose science over the arts. But hopefully you enjoy the ride.

Speaking of rides, we decided to see what it would be like to take the train home for Christmas vacation. I'm not sure who's idea it was (okay, it was mine), but let's just say that it was somewhat less than the best experience of our lives. The scenery was actually really beautiful, and we enjoyed watching movies on the laptop and eating in the dining car. However, that didn't make up for all of the less enjoyable aspects:

1) It is really hard to sleep on a train. The chairs don't recline far enough and there is just barely not enough room to stretch out - very annoying.

2) The train was delayed by about 2 hours in each direction, which is on top of a 29 hour train ride.

3) The customer service was not very good. Some of the attendants were very nice - others not so much. Like the one who was annoyed when I interrupted her personal cell phone call to ask her a quick question.

Here is some of the nice scenery from the train!

The important thing is that we arrived safely and had a great time with the fam. On Christmas Eve and Christmas day we had Grandma and Grandpa Jewett over for gift opening, dinner, etc.

The whole family was there as well: Mom, Dad, Jenny, Jenny's husband, Abby, Katie, Jill, Mike, and I.

We had a lot of nice things to open on Christmas - too many to list in the blog - and later on we had a white elephant exchange. We were lucky enough to end up with the tuna strainer - happy day!

My little niece Abby was cute the whole time. Jessica helped teach her the basics of ping-pong.

She loves cell phones too.

I also spent some time constructing an expert sledding run along the side of our house. Jessica was too cold to come out and play, so it was mostly just me sledding alone - but I still had fun. (P.S. Katie and Dad did come out sledding for a little while too, which was lots of fun!)

Over the New Year Jessica flew out to California to spend some time with her family. On New Year's Eve Mom, Dad and I went to see the Body Worlds display in Salt Lake. It was very cool. We have been dissecting cadavers at school for a while now, so in that respect it wasn't really a new experience. That being said, they do a phenomenal job of preserving the bodies and presenting them in interesting ways. I would recommend it to anyone who has the chance to see it. After that we went out to eat and wandered around Temple Square where we caught a few performances. We made it home before the New Year struck and enjoyed some Martinelli's.

Other highlight of the break included watching some college football and movies at home, going out to a movie or two, and eating out a couple of times. It was a very nice break, which made it hard to head back to medical school and work, but we're starting to get back into the groove now.

Thanks for reading the blog. I wish I could say that I'll write more soon, but given my history it might be a while until the next one. So you'd better soak this one in!

Poor Jetta

This weekend was our first ice storm. It was so cool! I got to miss work on Friday because of it--YAY! As you can see from the pictures, our California born Jetta had to go through a lot that night. It basically looks like Mr. Freeze shot his ice gun at everything. We figured that this might be the only time that we think an ice storm is fun :)

ALL PACKED AND READY TO GO

We are so excited to go home for Christmas and see some family!

Winter fun

Even though it has been much too cold here lately, we have been enjoying this Christmas season. I was feeling especially nostalgic today and found some of my favorite Christmas cartoons( ie. How the Grinch stole Christmas, Disney's A Christmas Carol etc.) on Youtube. I was so excited! I guess working with 3-5 years old has made me want to watch any and all cartoons having to do with Christmas :) We have our tree up and even a few presents under there. We decided just to put the presents in bags until we left for Utah and had to pack everything up.

The first Greenfield family tree

Earlier in the week Ben had a 3v3 basketball tournament...I was the embarrassing wife taking the pictures

One of Ben's many 3 pointers that night

This weekend we went to the ATSU winter ball. We had a great time eating and dancing. We both discovered that we are not very rhythmically inclined...it was a pretty funny sight to see us dancing! We have now been inspired to take up lessons in our spare time!

Winter Ball with some med school friends

A bigger city!...St. Louis

We had a very relaxing week, Ben had the week off from school and was so happy to be done with his first quarter! We did celebrate by going to Twilight...and I know that a lot of people didn't like it, but we both really enjoyed it. It probably helped that it was the weekend and Ben was in an extremely good mood from taking his last final earlier in the day :)

Ben holding his notes that he studied for finals.

I am very pleased to write that our first Thanksgiving dinner on our own was a success. The turkey turned out great as well as the rest of our food....well except the homemade rolls--I don't know what I'm doing wrong, all I know is that they are not good :) Other than that, we had such a good Thanksgiving because we have so much to be thankful for.

Notice that the Pumpkin pie had a little morsel taken out of it...Ben got hungry the night before.

Over the weekend we went to St. Louis. It was so nice to be in a big city for a change. It must be the Californian in me, but I got excited to see traffic :)

The St. Louis templeWe had to stop in Columbia when we saw this!Gas prices made our trip all the more enjoyable.

Ooooooh la la

The Dilemma

So, here it is. I love dairy products. Milk, cheese, sour cream, yogurt, cottage cheese and last but not least,milk chocolate ( preferrably Sees chocolate) are pretty much staples in my diet. For the past several months I have had a chronic cough/stuffy nose like no other. I have gone through 500+ kleenex since October. I think Ben is getting pretty grossed out....he even said he heard me down the hall ( outside of our apartment) coughing/blowing my nose. I have been so frustrated with this, I can't even kiss Ben goodbye without wiping my nose...he's been such a trooper :) I finally went to see that Doctor about this problem. He said I am probably allergic to the Missouri air or I catch every single cold that gets brought into the place that I work ( a preschool). Either way, it's not likely that it will get that much better, just something to get used to. I have tried the sprays, pills, sinus flushes etc. Nothing really seems to work. Then the doctor told me what I have been dreading the whole time...cut out all dairy products. Which now brings us back to the dillema. Dairy products vs. Stuffy nose miserableness. I went three whole days without any dairy. I realized during these three days that I am addicted to the afformentioned dairy products. Every last one. My nose was clear...but how I missed my glasses of milk,cheese enchiladas, key lime pie yogurt, and chocolate treats. I caved in last night and haven't looked back. My resolution: Soy milk should cure my milk craving, I'll try and cut back on the others...but I can never give up my milk chocolate. So what if my nose is stuffy...at least I have my chocolate!

Only 5 more days--double meaning

Ben only has 5 more days of school left this quarter. He is going to be one happy guy if he can survive his first finals of medical school. I am very proud of him for being so hardworking this first quarter. I couldn't think of a better way to celebrate the end of finals than to go see the Twilight movie!!! I'm sure he could think of plenty other ways to celebrate....but that is the good thing about living out in the middle of nowhere. This was pretty much our only choice :) We are both very excited for Friday. I have loved reading the Twilight books and can't wait to go see the movie!

Halloween & cooking that actually turned out!

With Halloween being this week, I decided to try baking pumpkin seeds. It seems easy enough, right? Well, I tried making them a year ago, and they were awful. I don’t exactly have the best track record with cooking. Breads in particular seem to not want to cooperate. I tried making cinnamon rolls a few weeks ago...yikes is all I have to say. Slowly but surely I am getting better. Ben has been gone all day studying, so I decided to have another go with the pumpkin seeds. While I was at it, I tried my luck at banana bread. And to my wonderful surprise, they both turned out! They may not look like much, but I didn’t leave out any ingredients ( or add any for that matter) and neither one was burnt, so I would call it a success. The final test was if Ben liked them, and he did! (He pretty much likes anything though, so I think I should find a new test :)
I have also learned a few “techniques” when it comes to chopping onions…finally, a use for the random goggles that we have.

For Halloween, we went over to Chase and Jessica’s house. We had a great time carving pumpkins and hanging out. Earlier in the week we went to the ward Halloween party. We were originally going to dress up as Woody and Jessie from Toy Story, but this was as far as we got with the costumes…maybe next year we’ll add some hats!

I snuck up on Ben with this picture…this was a coloring booth for children, but he really wanted some candy from the bowl! Aw.

Field trip...Super Saturday

Ben and I have been called to work with the youth in our ward. Ben is the Duty to God advisor for the Young Men and I was called to be the Laurel Advisor/ Teacher. We are also responsible for taking a few of the kids up to Nauvoo every month to help plan the upcoming Youth Conference. We are very excited to be working with the Youth. I was so happy when they called me to the Young Women's. They'll keep me young :)


Here's a funny story...so, this was my first time going to a Stake Youth activity or Super Saturday as they call it. We all received name tags when we got there--the adults' name tags said,"Mentor" on them. So when I went to get mine, the lady passing them out gave me a youth name tag. I was very flattered...so I didn't ask for an adult one :) I then went into the bathroom where there were a few teenage girls checking out their hair/makeup etc. They thought I was a new young woman in the Stake and we exchanged pleasantries. I hope I didn't cause too much gossip when I went over and held one of the "adults" hands :)

After the activity Ben and I went to the temple and had a wonderful time.

It was the perfect evening when we came out. There were a lot of people out taking pictures....I wished at that moment that I was a better photographer, but alas. There were also so many geese flying around and forming "Flying V's"



Here is a video of a Flying V we saw forming. It was so cool. It reminded of the "Mighty Ducks" movie when they formed the "V" to beat Iceland.

Field Trip to the Fire Station

Here is a picture of my class when we went to the fire station. The kids were so cute---they loved it!

We thought this was kind of neat....one of the Amish families in the area going to church. There are quite a few Amish communities around here.

Nauvoo, parade, anatomy etc...

Today, we went to Nauvoo for Stake conference. I was really excited to go because it was my first time visiting Nauvoo! We had to leave at 7:30 am to get there on time for the 10:00 am meeting. We are loving the Missouri sky. It was so beautiful this morning...since neither of us are ever outside at this time, it was a pleasant sunrise surprise. So, since we saw so much road kill on our trip out to Missouri, we decided to make a game of it on our mini road trip to Nauvoo. By game I mean we just counted how many we saw. There were 36 road kill on the way. We are for sure playing this game when we have kids, to teach them about animals and death at the same time...kill two birds with one stone if you will...no pun intended. After Stake conference, we went and had our lunch at a park just across the street.

We also saw the Nauvoo City Hall and Police station-- Shout out to Mommy!

We had a great time, and are excited for many more trips to Nauvoo in the future.

We thought this was pretty random...a pair of pet camels on a farm.

Parade

Last week was Truman State's Homecoming Parade. I was able to be in it through work--we had the Big Wheel Rally float. I have never heard of the Big Wheel Rally, but it sounds fun-- the motto is " Big People, Small Toys." I really like the people I work with, they have been really helpful. I'm still getting used to being around 3-5 year olds though--they definitely keep me on my toes!

Anatomy

Anatomy time!

You know you're a medical school wife when your Saturday night was spent quizzing your husband on which nerve innervates the Pronator Quadratus muscle, etc. Ben has a big Anatomy test on Monday, and since I have taken a few anatomy classes in college, it's been kind of fun seeing how much I can remember.

Ben with his "Osteostache" as they like to call it here

A much needed weekend

After a long week of teaching the kiddos, this weekend was a very nice break. It was a good, sports-filled weekend. To start off, we had an intramural flag football game...which we won. The Greenfields represented well, between the two of us, we had three touchdowns, and some other pretty sweet catches. We are playing 3 intramural sports this semester, so it keeps us semi-in shape.




We also enjoyed 13 holes of golf. I know, that's a wierd number...we had paid for 18, but after the football in the morning, and seeing all the bugs at the golf course...we decided to stop at 13.

After golf, we came back and Ben made chicken bacon ranch sandwiches for us. They were amazing.

What's a Ronza?

Last week, Ben and I stopped by the town pizza place. It was a very nice restaurant...it's like the "cool" place to go after a football game or something. What caught our eye though, was something on the outside of the door that said, "Home of the Ronza." Hence the question. A new type of food I have never tried? Impossible I thought...also intriguing. So, we looked on the menu, and it said, " It's a sandwich...but it's not" Okay, sold. When we got home and opened up the Ronza. We discovered that a Ronza is ( drum roll....) a Calzone. Don't get me wrong, it was delicious, but it was a Calzone. Which leads me to my next question. Which came first, the Ronza or the Calzone? I have not yet solved this mystery, if anyone knows, please enlighten me :)

Ronza =Calzone

We are now in the full swing of things. I just got my first paycheck today, woohoo! Ben has been in school for a month now and just got done taking his fourth test. He has done very well so far and I am so proud of him. He studies a lot at home, so that makes me pretty happy.

The other night we saw this sunset, we thought it was worth posting on the blog. That building is the fitness center for the students and their spouses. I love it because it is about 100 yards from where we live.

A visit home

My cousin Nathan is getting married in two weeks, I am so happy for him! Unfortunately, I got a plane ticket home for their wedding fairly early ( to get the better flights) only to find out later that the date had been changed. So, long story short, I came home this weekend regardless and had a wonderful time. It was such a good trip, I was able to see all of my family. I was feeling like it was the perfect time to go home because I was really getting frustated with the job hunt. Luckily, though, while out there I was offered a job and am set to start tomorrow working as a teacher at a preschool. I'm way excited/nervous. That was a load off, I soaked in all the California sun I could before I came back to Kirksville. My mom and I enjoyed a wonderful day at the beach, we had a tanning competition and I'm pretty sure I won :)

Kate's bridal shower

We loved watching her open the lingerie

it was almost as fun watching the ladies from church blush as she opened them.

Aunt Sharon and me at the bridal shower.

My mom gave Ben and I a hefty grocery bag when I left...we were both really excited about that. Thanks mom! And now...let the work begin.

First week observations

We have now officially been in our new town of Kirksville for one week. It seems like a lot has happened, yet a little at the same time. First off, Ben had his White Coat Ceremony. It was very nice to see all of the future doctors in their white coats. Ben looked the best of course. I got my first taste of aloneness while sitting by myself trying to take pictures as he went up onstage. Unfortunately, I haven’t exactly mastered the taking-pictures-of-moving-objects yet. So, most of my pictures didn’t turn out.

These are a few things I have observed while in my new town:

1.The people are friendly. His school especially, more than I am used to I would have to say.
2.They have bugs here. The bugs are really big and loud. One bug in particular sounds like it is electrocuting itself.
3.They have a store called Hy-Vee. It is a pretty popular place.
They don’t have many major businesses. To get to the nearest Wells Fargo (our bank) it would take an hour and a half.
4.The stop lights are different. They don’t really have the red-yellow-green lights like I am used to; rather they have a lot of red flashing lights.
5.They value their deceased. They put their obituaries on the front page of the newspaper. (the school pointed this one out to us in orientation)
6.We are one of the only couples in student housing. We think this is kinda funny. It’s good because it stays pretty quiet for Ben to study.
7.Mormon Pride. There are a lot of Mormons at his school. About a fourth of the school I would say are LDS. This is way cool to see so many BYU shirts in Kirksville, MO.
8.So many BABIES! I guess I had to know that with a lot of LDS couples, there would be a lot of babies. The ward we went to on Sunday had, easily, 40 kids under the age of 5. It was the loudest sacrament meeting we had ever been to!
9.We love the ward already, it reminds me so much of the ward I grew up in.
10.People talk a little differently. This was part of an actual conversation I overheard in a store. “Hey Cathy, I heard you was down in Branson, wasn’t you?”
11.Nose rings are “in” I was surprised to see so many with nose rings, even in Ben's class.

I could go on, but I’m sure there will be other posts about my musings and observations.

Starting school/Looking for a job

So far, it has been great out here. Ben just got started with his first class yesterday. We have really been impressed with his school so far. Everything has been very family and relationship oriented. Ben was saying that one of his Professors told them that if they were given a choice to get a 90% on a test, or spend time with their family in a time of need, they should always take the family option. That is their mentality here. They want them to work hard, but to be balanced at the same time. He has been getting busy and likes getting into the swing of things.

An expensive bag full of goodies ( stethescope, blood pressure cuff, and something to stick in ears with a light on the end of it) All of this, plus a few little extras was required and cost $1,ooo. Bring on the expenses.

I have been actively looking for a job since we have arrived. It’s kind of funny how roles have flipped for us in our marriage. I am so used to being the one with my usual routine of going to classes and playing soccer. Now that I am around a school setting again it makes me miss it. Not that I want to go to medical school, I’ll leave that one to Ben :) Looking for a job has been very frustrating. It is weird not knowing anybody to ask them for a connection to get a job. I have made more calls than I would like to admit. I have gone into a lot of places. Sometimes I will walk into a place and immediately walk out due to the strong smell of cigarette smoke. A lot of people smoke here. Luckily, Ben’s campus is tobacco-free, so we don’t notice it too much. I figure I will enjoy the time I have while being unemployed. I am practicing the piano, reading, working out, cooking, and trying to get to know people around here.

Here is a picture of our housing

Get that corn outta my face!

For those of you who are "Nacho Libre" fans, you will appreciate this title. While on our 20 hour road trip this past week, we passed through Wyoming, Nebraska, Iowa, and Missouri. Basically the only thing we saw during the whole trip was corn fields. We are a little sick of corn by now. Don't get us wrong...we love corn, but we saw way too many corn fields on our trip...it was pretty amusing. I was a little disappointed though, because we did not see 1 scarecrow in any of those corn fields, I couldn't believe it. We also saw a record number of road kill while driving.

Well, our road trip was very long, but we made it to Missouri safe and sound. The people are definitely a little different from what we're used to out west. Everyone has been way friendly, though. We like our apartment except for the fact that our shower water got stuck in the "on" position all night long our first night. Luckily the maintenance man was there first thing in the morning to fix it for us. We've already been to the Wal-mart 3 times getting little odds and ends for the apartment. It's weird because the Wal-Mart basically looks the same, but the people are so different. There is a lot more NASCAR brand items throughout the store and the sports section is decorated in antlers. The price of gas, however, is a major benefit to living out in the Midwest. Currently, super-unleaded is $3.49 a gallon. We've noticed that in Missouri at least, super-unleaded and regular-unleaded are the same price in some places. We don't know exactly why that is, but we'll take it! I've put up a few pictures of our new place. It's not all the way put together as you can see, but it's home for us now for the next two years.

Brother Sister Night!

For those who don't know my brother....this is Adam

Last week, Ben and his dad went on a camping trip. That left the apartment and my night wide open. So what do I do? Have a brother sister night of course! Brother sister night was an instant hit. To start off the evening, Adam and I enjoyed our usual French Onion soup from Mimi's. Comfort food if you will.
We then headed over to the cinema and watched "Mama Mia"


The perfect movie for Brister night. Afterwards we came back to the apartment and (as you can see from the picture above) we had a pillow fight. Even though he is a foot taller than me, I came off as the victor. The phrase, 'respect your elder' comes to mind :)
We were getting pretty tired by now, so we decided to play a game of Yahtzee, a favorite family pastime.

We ended our night by watching "Holes" and I watched Adam do his impressions of the warden saying, "excuse me". I loved having brother sister night, especially since I won't be able to see my brother for awhile. It's been so fun to have him up in Provo with me for the summer. He is the best brother ever!

There's only one Lagoon

This weekend was a fun one with our families. To start off, on Friday, we went to "Lagoon" with Ben's family. Ben's parents, and sister Katie were with us. I had never been to "Lagoon", so it was a whole new experience. It was REALLY HOT! I was so glad that there was a "Lagoon-a Beach" and "Rattesnake Rapids" to cool off at. Our favorite ride was "Wicked". Lately, my stomache hasn't agreed with big roller coasters, so I was getting a little nervous as we were getting closer to the ride. I toughened up once I ran into one of my little cub campers in line for the same ride :) She was seven. I couldn't very well chicken out now! I was glad I didn't, and we loved it.

Day at the zoo/calm before the storm

The Zoo
Last Saturday we went to Hogle Zoo with Jill and Mike. We hadn't been to the zoo in years, so it was a fun, but HOT, experience. We're glad that we finally were able to hang out with Jill and Mike, too. It was funny seeing all the little kids there who were still making up their minds whether they liked seeing strange animals or not.




Our favorites were the penguins and the sloth.


You just have to love sloths after seeing "Ice Age".

I really got to missing my sister Jacki when we went passed the giraffes. J/K Jacki, you know I love you more than my luggage.

After the zoo, we enjoyed Nielsen's Frozen Custard in Bountiful...which was to say the least, amazing. Probably one of the best ice cream things I had tasted.

Calm before the storm

Soccer camps ended last week, which leaves my schedule very open . It has been great!! We will be moving pretty soon, so things are going to get hectic real quick. Right now Ben and I are enjoying the time we get to spend together before he starts Med school in less a month. I've been getting things done around the house. Things like making dinner...that doesn't come from a box. I have also gotten back into reading books that don't have the words, "anatomy", "anaerobic" or "citric acid cycle" in them. I have mostly been reading the "Twilight" series...and am anxiously anticipating the release of the last book "Breaking Dawn" in three days, but who's counting?

"New" golf clubs

These are not the "new" golf clubs...but the rentals I got a few weeks back, don't be fooled



Lately, I have taken up golf. I had never played golf or even thought about playing until a few months ago. I never thought I would be a golfer...I usually made fun of those who golf. I have since remedied my ways and am trying to learn how to play this sport. Ben got me hooked a little while back and we've gone out a couple times. He has very patiently tried to teach me. So, this past Saturday we went out and bought a nice "new" set of golf clubs for yours truly. We hand selected the best the store had to offer. For all my clubs and my bag we paid $12. What a bargain! You guessed it , the store we went to was the DI.



These are my real clubs...black beauty as I like to call them



One day...we'll be able to afford golf clubs from a retail store...one day...we will look back at those $12 clubs, and probably give them back to the DI. One day. Until that day, we play with the DI clubs. We went out on Saturday and I made par on one hole! It was great, I usually go seven strokes over ( which I did several times Saturday as well). So I hope that in a later post (several years down the road) I can post an actual NEW golf club set.

Happy 90th B-Day Grandma Lee

Last weekend Ben and I were able to attend his Grandma Lee's 90th birthday party. We had such a good time and loved spending time with his family (four generations included). It was nice to see our niece, Abby, and for Ben to teach her how to say Ben...or Bah-en, as she would say. You would never guess that his Grandma was ninety either...she could definitely pass for a seventy something...easily :) The highlight of the weekend was probably Karaoke...not so much for me but for Ben's family. Those who know me know I don't have the greatest singing voice and didn't exactly want to tip all of my in-laws off about that problem quite yet. I'm still having nightmare flashbacks of the last time I Karaoked. I can still see the sympathetic smiles now (shudder). So I was more of an observer than a performer. Ben, however, had no problem getting up and busting it out.
I felt like I was doing good through him. He started to bring out all his dance moves during, "My Girl".

I was eventually forced to go up and notice the amount of space between me and the next person...yeah, I'm just a little awkward when it comes to singing and dancing.







Enough said. I was in my element when we started playing sports...just let me run after a ball...that's much simpler. We all stayed in two Condos up in Midway and, like any family function, we ate way too much. One evening we enjoyed a video tribute to Lee with pictures from her life and of family. Stories were also shared from the family that helped us remember her and her life. Happy Birthday to Grandma Lee!

What a hike!

Over the 4th of July weekend, Ben and I hiked Mt. Timpanogos with Ben's dad, Don. The last time I went on a hike that lasted longer than an hour was at girls camp my Sophmore year of high school, so I was a little nervous for this one. Fortunatley it was the perfect day for a hike and I only got mildly tired. We didn't hike all the way to the summit because there was more snow than we would have liked to hike through...which was just fine with me! Don was definitley an experienced hiker, which was nice to have on a longer hike. Ben and I were wishing we had his hiking sticks ( I think that's what you call them) on the way back. Although we didn't quite get to the top we enjoyed beautiful scenery all the way up. We were all hiked out by the time we got done, about seven hours later.






Here we are at the highest part we hiked.

We even got pretty close to some mountain goats.

Stadium of Fire Spectacular!

I had the opportunity to perform in the Stadium of Fire on 4th of July. They had some of the soccer girls do some soccer tricks for like 30 seconds and in exchange we got tickets for ourselves and a guest to get into the show. So Ben and I enjoyed the show which featured Miley Cyrus, the Blue Man Group and Glenn Beck. It was so much fun! Our seats were on the field, so we had a pretty good view...well except when people started standing when Miley Cyrus got on stage.

Ben could see a little better than me the shorty. He offered to put me on his shoulders, but I think we both would have been equally uncomfortable! We were standing next to a few preteen girls that looked like they had died and gone to heaven while she was performing, it was pretty cute. Despite both of us only really knowing one song she sang, we enjoyed the concert very much. We even threw in a few concert head bobs and arm flails towards the end...good thing it was dark. Afterwards, we saw an amazing fireworks show to finish off the evening. We love the 4th of July and are so grateful for the country we live in. God Bless the USA!

California Trip

We took one last trip to California before we left for Missouri. We had a wonderful visit with family. The day after I got in my Mom and I went straight to the beach with my Aunt Tina. I have really missed the beach while I have been living in Utah, so it made me extremely happy to go to the beach a few times while I was down. The weather was perfect and I got a little tanner too. Unfortunately not all of us got tan. Sometimes I forget that Ben isn't half Salvadoran and can't tan at ease. So me, being the ignorant wife I am, told him to keep his shirt off the whole day and "tan that white body." Big mistake. I just assumed that since he wasn't looking pink, he was okay. Another mistake. Here is a picture of "white Ben" at the beach


and here is a picture of red (and sad and in pain) Ben after we went to the beach. I felt awful. It's funny now that he's out of pain, and tanner! Sorry Ben!
We were able to visit Ben's family as well while we were down. His sister just moved to Carlsbad, so we got to see him with our cute little niece, Abby. We're getting some practice with babies after seeing little Abby and Libby(my cousin's baby) this week.
On our last day in California we went to visit my cousin's family in L.A. While there we drove through Bel Air and saw some of the twenty million dollar homes. Hmmmm...one day :)
Well, despite Ben's sunburn, we had such a good time swimming and enjoying Karen's kitchen. We had a great trip to California and are now eating the oranges, grapefruit and avocados we got from my Aunt Sharons house...thanks!!

Disneyland

Ben and I celebrated our 1 year anniversary by going to the happiest place on earth. It was a perfect day. There wasn't too much traffic on the 91 freeway (which is a miracle), the weather was absolutely perfect, and it wasn't too crowded. We got to ride every ride we wanted and then some. The only down side was that I had chili in a bread bowl for lunch and then rode Space Mountain right afterwards.
Ben and I both agree that fastpasses must be one of the best things to happen there since the Electrical Parade. One of the highlights of the day was when we fastpassed the 2 hour line for Splash Mountain and got on in ten minutes. It was so much fun watching all the little kids, it made me excited to take our future little ones there. We noticed that we were the only ones going on "Pinnochio" and "Peter Pan's Flight" that didn't have children with us.
I did get my picture trying to pull the sword from the stone. I thought for sure that at my ripe old age of 22 I could pull the sword from the stone. I guess I'll have to wait til next time.
Yes, we seemed to enjoy the kiddie rides just as much as the big kid rides. Ben creamed me on the " Buzz Lightyear Astroblasters." We also loved "Toontown" and seeing the strength of Ben.
We ended the day by watching "Fantasmic" (which was much more extravagant than I ever remembered) We were so impressed by the show that Disney puts on. Everything they did was quality and we had a blast. That admission ticket didn't seem so expensive after all.

Baseball, Birthday, and Blue Dragons

This week has been pretty busy, but way fun! To start off with, Ben and I have been having a lot of fun playing intramural sports. I think we had five games between the two of us in a span of two days. Since both of us are competitive ( that puts it lightly) we have sustained a few battle wounds and have been limping around the house lately! Ben had a pretty sweet hit in his softball game the other day. I'm putting it up for all to enjoy. What a stud. My birthday was last Saturday, and it was a blast. Ben and I went golfing on a beautiful day, and later had Red Lobster, thanks to my Mommy. I ordered a pretty heftly meal and I don't think the waitress thought I would finish it, but I did. Later that night we saw "Ironman" with Jacki and my cousin Julianne and a few friends. Then we came back and had cake and ice cream, courtesy of Jacki, what a good sister. It was a great birthday, thanks everybody! Soccer camps officially started this week. Let the craziness begin. I love doing the camps every summer, they are extremely fun and entertaining, but they can also be very tiring. Especially when it is the "Cub camp", kids ages 4-7. We pick team names every week, this week was "Blue Dragons" We had a really fun time. I had a few campers that didn't exactly want to be there :) One of the boys just wanted to suck his thumb the whole time, whatever you want to do I guess. That age is so fun to work with. They don't exactly have their motor skills down yet, so trying to dribble, pass, and shoot a soccer ball can be pretty funny. They also get bored easily, and both the campers and the coaches anxiously await popsicle break. I tell all the little kids that my name is "J-flava". It's so funny to hear them say that and think that is my real name. I saw my favorite camper, Josh, this week, and it made me so happy. He was so well behaved ( I've learned to become very grateful for these ones) and cute, I was sad he wasn't in my group this year, but at least I got this picture of him and me.

Birthday Boy

Well it was Ben's birthday this past Saturday and we had a great time spending the weekend up in Bountiful. Ben's parents had a little birthday party for Ben, myself and his sister Katie. We all have birthdays within 10 days of each other. Unfortunaley I forgot to take pictures during the actual celebration, but that's okay. I always usually find my jokes to be funnier than they really are....the same goes with cards, which is why I have to put the card I got for Ben on here. I was dying when I first read it. We went and saw Prince Caspian and Indiana Jones over the weekend. We loved both of the movies, Prince Caspian was probably our favorite of the two. I made the mistake of reading Prince Caspian the day before I went and saw it. I always tell myself not to do that because I am constantly thinking 'that wasn't how it went' or 'why didn't they put that part in' all in all it was a great movie going experience. I got Ben "The Office" season two for his birthday, we both loved it :)
Ben's old roomate Sam got married on Saturday and we had a great time in Salt Lake attending that. We got some good pictures of the grounds around temple square. Ben imparted some of his knowledge of the flowers to me. I am ashamed to say that I know nothing about flowers! I basically know what a sunflower and a rose look like. Ben, however, worked the grounds for both BYU and temple square,
so he is pretty savvy when it comes to a garden....what a guy! It was a great weekend, Happy Birthday Ben!

Graduation!

Last month I graduated from Brigham Young University with a degree in Exercise Science. I just got my diploma in the mail, so it's official. Needless to say I was extremely happy to be done with school forever! I loved being a student and the whole college experience was one of the greatest of my life. I will miss it. A lot of fun memories happened while in college. I got to end my senior year on a great note with winning the soccer MWC championship on our home field. I'll certainly take many fond memories from the past four years...as well as a husband I met my junior year :) I was proud of myself, I didn't cry at graduation like I thought I was. It was really fun to walk with my cousin Jared in the Law School. Most of my family was able to come as well, so that was really nice having them all there in Utah for the big day.

Italia

CIAO! My mom and I went to Italy with the BYU soccer team for our foreign tour. It was perfect timing for me because we left a day after I graduated. We spent 2 days in Paris and about 10 days in Italy. We went to Naples, Sorrento, Capri, Pompeii, Florence, Rome, Venice and the Vatican. It was a pretty rigorous schedule, we got in every night around eleven and had a wake up call around six thirty or seven. Nobody really cared that much because we were all on vacation! My favorite place was probably Sorrento/Capri area. I loved the coastal areas in Italy, so beautiful. By the looks of it, their beaches were a lot less crowded than ours with much bluer water, and hairier women!
Our Mom-daughter group took a private boat around part of the Island of Capri that turned out to be one of my favorite parts of the whole trip. Our trip to Pompeii was really neat as well. The city was destroyed by a volcano in 79 A.D. and it was amazing to see how much of it had been preserved. Some of the mosaics were still there as well as many of the architectural structures. Some of the bodies that had been covered and preserved in ash were there with the gestures still visible. In Rome ( The Eternal City) a few of my favorites were the Pantheon, the Coliseum and the Trevi Fountain. I think the Coliseum was the coolest to see in person. Everything we saw in Italy and France was much bigger than I thought it would be. It was no different with the Coliseum. It's too bad that a big chunk of it has deteriorated though. The last place we visited in Italy was Venice, the city of water. It was really neat to see streets of water with gondoliers instead of cars for a change. The driving in Italy was a little crazy sometimes. My mom and I had a lot of pasta and pizza while we were there, although by the end we were really craving some Mexican food. Although it was tough leaving Italy, it's been nice to be home and shower in my own bathroom again. I do miss the gelato, pizzas, saying "Grazzie", spending time with my Mom, and Italian names like Gianni and Massimo. While we were there we won all four of our games against the Italian clubs we played. So all in all it was a fabulous trip.

The Greenfields

So I have officially joined the blogging world! It's a little overwhelming because every blog I have seen has been way cute and creative. I hope I don't ruin the trend in any way. Well, Ben and I are way happy right now...mainly because we both aren't in school and I actually started to do domestic things, such as cooking. The other day I marinated chicken, made homemade bread and my latest was scones! Even my sister, Jacki, liked them. Ben and I really enjoy sports. We like playing, watching, and talking about sports. We have had a little bit of the Jazz fever lately. The Jazz is Ben's favorite team and he has successfully converted me to be a die hard Jazz fan as well. We also are currently on an intramural soccer team and hope to start tennis mixed doubles next week.

Besides sports, we love to watch "The Office" and "American Idol." Ben does some pretty good impressions of "The Office" cast and could replay a select number of entire episodes which keeps his family and I pretty entertained. As for American Idol, we are all for David Archuleta. We both have our cell phones out after Ryan Seacrest says his last word. Right now Ben and I are trying to spend as much time as we can together before he starts medical school. Almost everybody I talk to that has a husband in the medical profession likes to remind me that I will hardly ever see him once he starts school. It's a long road ahead, but we are excited to move and start a new chapter.