For All You Doubters

I know people doubt me in a lot of things. After Thanksgiving I feel like I have proved a lot of people wrong in a lot of different areas. Here we go.

1. "I Can't Help In The Kitchen." Are you kidding me? You must have forgot that I worked at the exclusive and exquisite Chuck-A-Rama Buffet. I put my potato-peeling skills to work and dominated them.

2." I'm not famous, so nobody will ever name a kid after me." WRONG AGAIN. I keep coming to these family reunions and I meet one of my cousin's kids. What do they name him, R-Y-A-N. Hmm....interesting. Does that mean i'm famous, I dunno. Interpret that how you would like.


3. "I take it all the time, and never retaliate." I'm pretty sure you might have to ask Koy about this one. He tried putting me in a headlock. I quickly escaped due to my lightning quick reflexes and put him in my favorite hold, "The Atomic Wedgie Hold." This is easily done by giving him a wedgie and placing his underwear over his foot. Pretty hard for him to get out. He definitely learned his lesson.
4. "Ryan, can't gain weight." Guess again my friends. I cracked 170 before Thanksgiving dinner. Next Goal 175? haha. I dunno. But I have been eating 4 meals a day, drinking protein shakes and drinking lots of water. It seems to be working for me. It's only taken me 5 months to gain 8 pounds. haha.
5. "Only Asian Men Can Become Pregnant." That's where your wrong my friend. I woke up this morning with some morning sickness. I thought it was because I was hungry. Nope. I'm pregnant. haha.


PS....."NONE" of this is sarcastic at all.

Give and Take.....And a Little Patience on Her Part :)

It's been a while since I have updated this...and well for those of you who knew dating retirement wasn't going to last very long, i'd hate to say it but YOU'RE RIGHT. Remember how i said I wasn't going to come out unless someone swept me off my feet. Well it happened. haha. The young lady in the picture is my "special friend" Jamie. She has been chasing me all semester, dealing with my bitterness towards the opposite sex and she was very persistent. She wins the award for never giving up. We've been together every night for the past three weeks. Did I mention she is an amazing dancer? Well she is. I might have to get me a pair of comfortable shoes, because after a night of dancing with her, I'm sure my feet will be sore. haha. She's a great ballroom dancer, and although I have yet to go to one of her performances (what a jerk huh? I know...i'm workin' on it...) the videos that are made of her by her mom's camera are good enough. To move like that, I think she has to have a little latin blood in her haha.

School is going great. Thanksgiving Weekend is just around the corner. Wow. Crazy. I'm excited to have a week off from school. I have no desires to do homework this week cause i am looking forward to the break so much. But i think once I pop a little Mt. Dew in me i will be fine i guess. I just gotta get through the next 2 days of school.

Ps....I'm getting dragged by Jamie to go to the Twilight premiere at midnight thursday (techinically friday) but in return she's going to the state football championship to watch my high school play. This is the furthest they have gone in the schools 18 year history. So it will be fun because it's in the Dome in Pocatello. Nice and warm.

Karma----It's supposed to come back around

I'm not going to lie. I comment on everyones blog but it's like a give give give situation. Seriously. Where are the comments. I have Melaleuca Marketing Executives commenting on my blog more than my friends, something is wrong here. haha.

Today is my brother Glen's birthday. I'm not going to lie, I wish he was here so we could do something for his 21st birthday. He has a little over 7 months left in his mission, to me that is CRAZY. I remember the first few weeks i was home I was able to see him in the MTC. It was a great experience, tougher for me than for him because now I have nobody to hangout with at family events. But i guess that is what he went through the last few years while i was on my mission.

Karma right.

Fall Ball---Dating Retirement

What can I say, Momma Bennion loves me. She took me to Albertsons to get me some groceries so I could live and eat like a normal human being. Sometimes we take for granted all that we have until we are in the dumps. I am currently paying back my books from this semester still, so it was nice for mom and dad to give me a lil boost, paying for a tank full of gas and groceries.



This is me playing intramural ball. Yes i got fouled on that three point shot, and i nailed all three free throws baby. Our team is doing decent. We started off in a league below because we are a small team, and we run people to death. But we were beating teams by more than 35 points so they moved us up and our games have been tougher. We had to play the last game with 5 guys and they had 9 or 10, so they just ran us to death. We kept the game close but we lost by 9. But we did well. Tournament starts soon, ill keep ya posted.

School/Work----
Well, things are going great. It's been a while since i've updated. Midterms have just passed and that was a great relief of stress. I'm not the best test taker but if i buckle down, study my brains out and visit a tutor it usually makes for a pretty good test score. I currently have all A's in my classes. Which is a great accomplishment for me. I'm working 20 hours a week at Melaleuca and taking 13 credits. Sometimes my hours at Melaleuca get up to 25 or 30 depending on when month end falls.

Dating---

Well Dating is non-existent in my life right now. More by choice haha. Things are going well though. I figure i will just make friends and associate with people and when some girl shows interest we will make things happen. I think part of my problem is i was forcing things. So I think focusing on studies and continuing to meet new people will help things just fall into place.

Things I'm Grateful For--

I've just been really blessed in my life. The more i think about it the more i realize how truly blessed I am to live in a country where my opinion matters. Where i can select my leaders and enjoy the rights we all take for granted each day. I'm glad I don't live my life in fear and that I can walk around Rexburg and not have to worry about getting jumped or getting my face kicked in. I'm so grateful as well to be a part of the true gospel. It truly scares me to think where I would be without it and glad I have never had to experience the life outside of the gospel. I'm grateful for Christ, for his Atonement, and the many blessings I recieve daily because of it, and the thought that although I fall short of many things, he is there to pick me up and complete what I can't do.

Lovin' Life. How you doin'? haha.

Conference Weekend--Mission Reunion

Well I can't believe that it is October again my friends. Feels like yesterday i was coming off that plane from Guatemala and it has been 15 months. My brother Glen has 8 months left in his mission. Thats crazy. 

So this weekend i went down and saw my mission president and his wife. 

I was also able to reunite with some of my good friends from the mission. Some of my best friends that I was with during my whole mission however weren't there. I missed seeing Elder Moss and my trainer, Elder Hansen, who both seem to have more important things going on right now. (I guess hunting and going to Guatemala are more important)

Here I am with Elder Petty. He replaced me as Branch President there in Joyabaj. Elder Peck and I drove down with his friend Spencer Rammell. In the middle is Elder Caldwell. You can't see it very well but he is supporting a "I Love Jesus" hat. Gotta love that kid. Then there is me. and my good friend Elder Ellis. He's married, and since he's been married I hardly ever talk to him. But i assume married people are very busy. You know with all the work and school. (Riiiiight...haha)

I was also able to see my old roommate Brad Kramer. It is cool to see people you have not seen for 3 or 4 years and see what a mission does to a person. We are all more mature and have the same goals it seems like. It's just taking some of us a little longer to get there. But it's cool to see some people get married that were Dear John'ed on the mission and felt like they had no hope if that one didn't work out. 

I LOVED conference as well. I think that the First Presidency and Quorum of the 12 focused all their talks on me this time. I think it is like that always if we pay attention to what the spirit tells us. Every talk can be personalized I believe. But I really liked President Eyring's talk in the Priesthood Session. Sometimes we feel overwhelmed with things. School, Work, Dating, Fulfilling Church Callings, Attending the Temple regularly and we think "well when I get older it will get easier." It's not that way. In fact, it is the opposite. I have just come to the realization that I need to get back to planning every hour, every day just like i did in the mission. I seem to have achieved everything I had set out to do when i organized myself like that. I recieved so much comfort from the speakers this weekend. The world with the economy as it is can be such a scary thing. But conference gave me a whole new aspect. The Lord will protect us if we are keeping his commandments and trying our hardest to do all those necessary things we need to do in life. He won't let us fail. I'm excited to see what life has in store for me these next few years. Well, until next time. :)

Melaleuca----Taking Over My Life On The Last Day of the Month

Let me tell you about this place called Melaleuca. Every last day of the month it takes over my life. I work from 6-10 in the morning everyday here taking calls in Spanish and helping customers with many issues: placing orders, finding lost packages, cancellation information; you name it in the company, I help them with it. But the last day of the month Melaleuca takes over my life. I work the lastday of the month from 6-10 in the morning, go to class from 10:15-1:30---then come back to Melaleuca, eat food (which is always good that they provide and I can't complain about, unless it's from JB's) and finish my shift from 2-10. wow. Words can't express the relief I feel when 10:00 is up. I love my job, because i love working with Spanish people and really the products are great, but 12 hours at any job takes it's toll on ya. Especially when you don't move anywhere and are seated for that long.

I remember working construction and 12 hours passed by like a breeze because we were so active. I loved it. The only downside was my crew wasn't mexican so there was no way to keep up my Spanish.

So really, the tribute to Melaleuca is: please find some way to help me not sit on my butt for 12 hours. It's raw. It hurts. But at least I get paid for it. Tuesday and Wednesday in 30 hours I had spent 16 of them at Melaleuca, 4 at school, 6 sleeping and two at home getting ready for bed and doing homework.

One day I will hopefully have a real job that I will LOVE. But i'm sure no matter how high i get up, work is work and will always get redundant. I guess I will just have to live with it. It's part of life.

Good Thing I Have My Friends

What can I say, I love driving down main street and screaming out the window at people. I love seeing people's reactions. I don't know why. I guess I am still mature. haha. I know, "soooooo high school right?" I will mature, one day I guess. Maybe that's why I am dateless. But good thing I have my good friends Nat and Steve to go on Horkley's runs. Best $0.65 cents I have ever spent. (For those of you not familiar with the Horks, you can get a 44 oz. soda for $0.65.)

General Conference is this weekend. So you know what that means? Ok, maybe not, but it means Mission Reunion. The place where everyone shows up with their significant other and shows off how good looking they are. Well me, I got myself. Yeah, thats right. Flyin' solo baby. I'm prepared for the marriage questions, i get them everytime I go back to my home ward. No big deal. Life's a Garden, Dig it.

Ps....this is two nights in a row i have blogged.

Drama=Dating Retirement

i can't help it. It follows me wherever I go. I leave high school and think, oh people are going to be mature in college and i am not going to have to deal with drama, I was wrong. So I thought, hmm....well, at least i'll get a break from drama while i go on my mission. haha. Guess again Ry-Ry. Babysitting some elders just created drama that nobody wants to deal with on the mission. So i come back from the mission thinking there will be a little drama, man was I wrong. There's a lot of drama.

What am i going to major in? Does she like me? Did I make a wrong move? Should I wait for them to be aggressive cause my aggressiveness could be creeping them out hah? I just don't know. I think i have came to the ultimate conclusion.

RETIREMENT.

Unfortunetly this isn't your typical "old man going to do nothing with my life" type of retirement. It's dating retirement. Michael Jordan has retired an extreme amount of time, but has came back out twice. Therefore i think, I'm going to retire and just "hangout" with girls.

Now I know what your thinking. "You need to date Ryan." I will. Just not right now. For the moment, i'm hanging up the free dinners, the keys to the car and for now, most of all the relationship issues. Now i can just be free, hangout with whomever i want, and life will take care of itself. Plus, i'm going to college to get an education, i'll just focus on that, so that I don't end up wasting my hard earned money.

So in other words. Now is not the time to set me up with girls. Not interested. If they wanna hangout thats cool, i'll go meet em and maybe we can go watch some college football games together. But unless a girl comes up and totally sweeps me off my feet, i'm done for a while.

Thanks for understanding. :)

well friends and family, I should first apologize for not updating my blog. A lot of things have happened and i guess i have just been so involved I haven't had time to update this. My new picture is from my new Macbook that i bought for school. An investment that will be totally worth it because it won't break down like a PC, and might last me 4-5 years hopefully. But Mac's are so simple. I don't think I will ever go back to a PC. haha.

Three weeks ago I had the opportunity to go with my friends to San Diego to get away for a week or so for the "summer vacation." It was awesome to just spend time with the guys. I love being with girls, but us guys, we definitely need GUY time every once in a while. We went and stopped in Vegas to eat at the Bellagio Buffet and i was blown away by the elegance of the food. It was so good. (It better have been for $30.00) haha. But we made some contacts in the line. We started talking to people about how we were planning on going to Mexico and they asked us if we were scared and we told them no because 5 out of the 6 of us spoke Spanish. Which of course lead us to talk about our missions, what church we represent, and answer a few questions. They were from New York. But we decided to plant some seeds. It was a great experience and gave us a little taste of that missionary spirit we all miss.

We spent some time down in Tijuana and Rosarito, Mexico. We made a few contacts there as well because many people were so impressed with our Spanish. My good buddy Austin served his mission in that area, so we traveled with one of these families that he baptized. They picked us up in Chula Vista, California and drove us across the border to Mexico and showed us the good things that Tijuana and Mexico have to offer. We went down to Puerto Nuevo, like 15 minutes from Rosarito and ate some seafood there. Probably some of the best seafood I have ever tasted in my life. (we definitely ate good on the trip:) When we came back to San Diego we attended a session at the San Diego Temple as well.

I was also able to see my good friend Trish one more time before she entered the MTC. Which was good for all of us. Her, Austin and I have become great friends over the last semester.

Well a new semester has begun. Only time will tell whats in store.

PS....I love comments, and hearing about how everyone is doing so don't be shy. Miss you all.

I Hate Goodbyes.....

Well this is dedicated to my dear friend Trish. She left Austin, Nataley and I alone in Rexburg. But no worries, I told her I would wait for her. She leaves to the MTC on September 3rd. I had an awesome opportunity to go with her and her fam and a few other people through the temple as she recieved her endowment. What a great example she is to all of us, and I know she'll be a great missionary. Summer Semester begins so I will have a 7-week summer to just work until classes start in the fall. But life is moving way to fast sometimes. I can't believe it's been a year since I returned from my mission. Time flys when your having fun I guess. What a difference a year makes. It will be exciting to see what this year has to bring.

Oh Finals Week

After studying for so long I decided I needed a little 20-minute break and with that I would update my blog and add some pictures from the last semester. We went boating a few times and also went to Rigby Lake, the place with the closest similarity to a beach around here. Definetly have had some crazy times here and with a seven-week-break on the way in-between summer and fall, only more are on the way.

PS...I am now 22. Yeah.

Carolina Blue -- Quest For A Title -- Part 2

For those of you who don't know. I'm a huge North Carolina Fan. They had no starters graduate, and three players decided to "test the waters" of the NBA Draft and have fulfilled my personal request to remain in college instead of jump to the NBA. Making them the favorite to win the national title next year. I am excited to see what Carolina Basketball will do in 2008.

I Call Them My Best Friends---They Call Me Their "Baby"

These are my best friends Nataley and Trisha from college. They are both graduating this semester and I really don't know who I am going to be able to vent to after they leave. Maybe Kiersten (the girl I'm carrying on my shoulders) will grow up WAY fast and come and be my little counselor. haha. They thought this was funny to put this as their Facebook profile picture so everyone can see, with the caption, "I love Ryan Bennion." And they felt it was important to text me at 2 in the morning to tell me this. haha.

The Fabulous Grandchildren

The beautiful grandchildren. Some married. Some not. But everyone brings something different to the table. I'm in the middle.

My 2nd Cousins---Who Worked Me This Weekend

These guys wore me out. But I loved every minute of it. What a stud this little boy Hunter is. I wish i could voice record his laugh and send it to everyone, it would definetly brighten anyone's day. haha. Kaeli is the girl in the background. She, along with Hunter's sister Kiersten, were my entertainment for the weekend.

Koy's Smarter Than We Are At Times

We went on the Log Ride here at Lagoon. Koy was the smart one who ducked under so he didnt get wet, but it was a good way to cool off. Koy kinda ruined the picture. It would have been a good one if he would have looked up.

Starting off the good 'ol trip to Utah with a little McGriddle, Sausage style with the fam. We took off Thursday to go to Lagoon. Then we had a Family Reunion Friday and Saturday in Tooele with all of my dad's side.

Glen and I in the MTC when i came home from my mission. I saw him for 15 minutes for 4 years. wow. What a great experience for both of us. Forgive the yellow shirt with the $0.12 tie. haha.

My First Blog!

Well. I guess i convinced myself it was time to get a blog. I've been back 10 months from my mission to Guatemala and am just getting used to all the new sites we have to keep in contact with each other. I'm currently attending BYU-Idaho, majoring in Communications with a focus in marketing, and a cluster of Spanish-French, with hopes to eventually go into International Business and attend Thunderbird in Phoenix, Arizona when i graduate. Life is moving fast. Hopefully i can keep this updated well enough for those of you interested to see whats going on in my life. I also have a facebook account that i check regularly. hope to hear from you all soon.