Dad's 60th Surprise(s)

My Dad turned 60 on Saturday, and it seemed like everyone close to him wanted to make it extra special for him. His friend Bob Klein called me about three months ago, and said it would be really neat if we could re-finish my grandpa's truck for dad's 60th. My grandpa Mac passed away 15 years ago and dad has had his truck ever since. Dad drove it for a few years, I drove it at BYU, and then Forrest (the man that built dad's cabin) drove it as well. It was in great need of repair. There were rat's nests in the glove box, the windows were broken out, and it was rusted and laying in pieces at the repair shop. My dad became short on money and the repairs didn't happen. Bob got contributions from my dad's friends for the truck, and then Cade, Bob, and I split up the leftover amount to get it to pristine and working condition. Bob was giddy like you couldn't believe. We decided that we should surprise my dad with the truck at his 60th Birthday party.

I wasn't sure if we could make the trip out for the party, but Honeybee wanted to go as well and we figured it was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for good fun. We drove and arrived at about midnight on Thursday. I could hear dad's voice upstairs alerting my mom to people in the house. Dan thought we'd get shot for sure.

The next night was Friday, and my brother Cade came in from California. Cole, Dan, and I picked him up from the airport and it was another surprise for Dad in bed.

Saturday was his party, and it was an emotional day for dad. No one knew how he would react to the surprise of getting his dad's truck. We were all a little worried that he'd collapse or something. I'll have to post the video because it was really cute.

In all it was a perfect weekend. All too soon it was time to go back home, but it was so much fun to see Dad get surprise after surprise. I think we really showed him how special he is to all of us.

I was also able to give him the book of memories that I had gathered from friends and family over the past few months. He still hasn't read through all of them because he gets emotional every time he does. I think it was such a neat gift for him to be able to pour over with my mom.

Happy 60th Birthday, Dad! That was a great memory!

Axton's 1st Day in Sunbeams, Gabe's 1st day in Nursery

...and I didn't get any pictures. ;)

Gabe is at about 22 months old now, but I haven't put him in Nursery because he still isn't walking well. I didn't want him to get trampled. This last Sunday was our opportunity because Axton's age group moved up to Sunbeams.

Primary and Nursery teachers/leaders are Saints. That's all I can say. I'm so grateful for them. Both boys did great (as far as I know), and I got to sit through Sunday school with Dan for the first time since I can remember.

God Allows Tragedy

I'm feeling older this year. Not only because I will be 30 in May (another post on that later), but because each and every year brings more blessings and more tragedy.

Tragedy and pain to me is something that I didn't quite experience until married life. Not to say that Dan has brought tragedy into my life, but that with getting married and having children comes life experience. With life experience and added associations come the risk of greater loss. Because of the loss I've found myself to be more understanding, less judgemental, and every day closer to the person I set out to be in the first place.

The profound realization I've come to this year is that tragedy, pain, loss, and trials cause me to experience a type of love for people that I couldn't possibly fathom without having endured them. Call it EMPATHY, but I never truly understood the word until recently.

I'd say that EMPATHY is the same as HUMILITY. When you see someone you love endure something that you've had a similar experience to, which thing pushed you to your personal limit and humbled you to your core, you wish that they didn't have to experience the same. But since thy do, you have increased love and understanding toward them. So much love and understanding that they couldn't possibly understand. In fact, I think it could come across as a competition to them. "My struggle was harder then yours."

I suppose this is where Christ and the Garden of Gethsemane come in, and I can see why it was important for Christ to endure every pain that we would experience. BECAUSE THAT EXPERIENCE CAUSES LOVE/EMPATHY - "THE TRUE LOVE OF CHRIST."

Therefore, how could we ever become "perfect" if we could never attain that love. And how could we ever attain that love had we never experienced the tragedy.

And now I think back to my darkest moments when I was pushed as a person farther then I thought I could ever endure, and I wondered to myself, "how could God let this happen?"

I understand now.

Christmas Eve

 

New traditions in the Griffin home. This is the first Christmas we've had at home with the boys. We opened one gift (jammies), made a graham cracker train (awesome idea Jen!), and sprinkled reindeer food. We pulled out the Bible for the story of Christ's birth, and now off to bed!

Merry Christmas!

A Post in Mobile Uploads

The month of October flew by...wait, is it almost December? The monTHS of October and November flew by. I guess the best way for me to show you what we've been up to is to upload my mobile pictures...

Axton and Gabe's Monster Hats came and they've been wearing them ever since.

 The entire month of October was spent planning and preparing for Adobe's Halloween BAZAAR. Our team won best decorated area, and we decided to spend our 5K prize money going out to paintball and dinner next Tuesday.

 Above is a bad upload of hearts being spray painted red. Above that is me looking really really tired as I try on the completed costume for the first time.

 The night before our Halloween party at about 2AM, I took Axton to the ER because he wasn't breathing well. Turns out he had croup. They gave him steroids that made him bounce off the walls and sent us home.

 Me making Dan try on his Hatter's hat while he was busy talking on the phone...

 My boss and co-worker had a grill-off in the month of November. This is my boss preparing 6 salmon fillets in his office. It smelled really good, I promise.

This is Thor after a couple of days with Rex.

 Did you know that nail polish remover works well as windshield de-icer?

The wreath that Erin showed me how to make last year still looks fantastic.

I lied to Dan and got caught BIG TIME. I pretended to go to work in the morning and left him with the kids. Instead of going to work, I picked Tara up and we went to the new H&M. It worked really well until Dan called and said he was on his way to my office to get something out of my car....AHEM. "Honey I'm not at work, I'm shopping with Tara today in Salt Lake". It went over real well. ;)

I'm Convinced

It took me about 10 years to come to grips with the fact that I live in Utah. I have a lot of Colorado pride, and I haven't been willing to admit for a long time that Utah is just as beautiful and more then Colorado in some places. I think most of my appreciation for Utah started when I started working at Adobe. We have a lot of people in our offices that moved here for their job, and they are always saying how beautiful Utah is, and how awesome it is to live here. I have started to appreciate the mere 5 minutes that it takes to get to a good mountain hike or lake to water ski on. Utah is a wonderful, beautiful place - and I'm proud to live here. Lately the Utah economy has made me proud as well. In the midst of a still-declining market, we've managed to create jobs and add growth to Utah County. Visiting Adobe executives had made the comment that "Utah County is the new Silicon Valley" I commend our local political leaders for setting goals when it pertains to unemployment and market growth and achieving them. They don't just talk about it. At the same time, and as much as I complain about it, Utah County has been able to allocate budgets toward new construction - putting money back into our local economy and giving people jobs. Our political leaders have made some good decisions and it's quickly showing as other places in the United States are continuing to struggle in this economic crisis.

I'm proud to be a "Utard", as my brother would say ;)

God Delivers Kleenex

I'm a person who works through things. Rarely do I run into a problem that I can't solve by working harder, trying harder, "being gooder", giving more, or praying harder. This last month I found one, and little by little its worn me down. It's nothing big or life changing, but frustrating. I feel like stressful things in my life are gathering up to an inevitable breaking point, and I've been avoiding the breaking point. I feel like the UNIVERSE wants me to break, and it won't give up until I do. I've switched my energy from trying to avoid to breaking point to trying to delay my breaking point until the most convenient time. I had a voice message from my mom this AM that I stopped listening to mid-message knowing that it would break me down at work.

I decided to do something mindless for a moment and went onto Facebook to take my head elsewhere. There, on FB, was my breaking point by way of sweet message from a friend that I poured my soul out to this morning at 5:30 when we walked instead of ran because my stomach was so upset from all the stress: "What I wanted to say this morning but couldn't find the words for was: Find your strength. And then do it tenfold. You can't be strong unless you have the power to back it up, so find your power."

The tears came.

And that's when I looked down at my desk to desperately grab for a napkin or paper to hide my tears, and there was a brand new box of Kleenex planted there front and center. I know where it came from, but the unusual circumstance that it was there just when I needed it was enough for me to feel loved by God.

So now that I'm broken, the universe can go elsewhere and leave me alone.