About Us Griffins

photo: Jane Z. 2010. 

I'm Julie, and the guy on the right is Daniel.  Friday night May 21 of 2010, he asked me to marry him and  soon thereafter I started this blog to share our story during the engagement stage of our relationship... about becoming Daniel's wife, becoming Julie Griffin [get it?]

When Dan and I were newlyweds, I remember thinking how profoundly different “getting married” was than I always thought it would be. As girls and young women, I think a lot of us spend an unfortunate amount of time preoccupied with boys / the search for a husband, like we are actually going to “find” him.  I know I, myself, wasted a lot of years fixated on being with “the one” (until I stopped searching, and my husband found me… but that’s another story).   Then marriage comes and it's nothing like the rom com fantasy we had playing in our heads.  It's harder, it's better.

I suppose the same goes for having children.   It's something most girls dream about and practice for their whole life. I know I did. Playing “house” as a kid and then M.A.S.H. as a tween. Even when my little sister was born (I was ten) I wanted to help with everything and hold her and play with her as much as possible.  Motherhood has been calling me for as long as I can remember. I couldn’t wait to have kids. I even think one of my college entrance essays was about having children. My hypothetical children had hypothetical names and faces and futures… Not in a creepy way. It was just that the certainty that someday I would be a mom was always present in the back of my mind.

Now I have two children… and it’s nothing that I could have ever prepared for or dreamed up in some hypothetical fantasy.

But there’s no way to know what being in a marriage, or being pregnant, or being a mom will feel like until you’re doing it. We romanticize marriage and parenthood throughout our younger ages, without a clue that it’ll be NOTHING like the futuristic highlight reel running through our brain… that it’ll be so much BETTER.

photo: Melissa Young Photography 2015

More about us...

I grew up in Arizona: it's home and I'm so glad I still live here, though I might tell you differently during August four months out of the year.  I like following rules and making spreadsheets and baking. I'm a recovering perfectionist. I love to sleep in. I hate shoes and my fashion sense is pretty regrettable.  I used to work in corporate America but now I take photos for money (and a lot of photos NOT for money).

Dan's from California.  He likes literature and underground music and doing anything that end with -board.  He sells drugs (the good kind) for money.  He's a morning person.  He listens to NPR and reads all kinds of tech blogs and woodworking sites about things I'm not that interested in.  He's awesome at writing letters.  He's amazing with children, he's amazing with people.

I adore him.  We need each other. 

We found out we were pregnant right before Christmas of 2011.  Penelope Jane (referred to herein as "Penny") was born in July of 2012.  It was a wild and joyful ride with just our Penny girl, then on New Years Day 2014, we found out I was pregnant with baby number two!  Josephine Lucille ("Josie" or "Josie Lu") was born in September 2014.  So now there are two.

I believe that being a spouse and being a parent are the two most important jobs in the world.  I don't claim to be great at either one but I do my darndest.

There's not much too extraordinary going on here, but I love our little life and I love to share and I love to write. I changed my last name and officially became Julie Griffin over four years ago now, but I believe I'm constantly in the process of becoming and fulfilling my vocation as wife and mother... so I kept the blog title right where it was.

I hope you enjoy our story!