Metzger, Ben

After graduation, I started working for Provo Craft. In 1990 I went on an LDS mission to the Dominican Republic. I returned in 1992 to a newly opened supervisor position at Provo Craft; and began my life’s career--saving the world, one craft emergency at a time. Where would we be without Tole Painting, Scrapbooking, or the Sizzix and Cricut machines? I am now an Assistant Warehouse Manager. Work, and an on-again/off-again relationship with BYU, pretty much summed up my life until the early 2000’s. I graduated from BYU with a BA in History in 2000-something. I forget when it was.

In late 2002 I met my wife, Angel, at church services. Her husband of 14 years had left her and their three kids, Cameron (then 13), Lindsay (then 10), and Ian (then 7); so they moved from Salt Lake to Provo to live with her parents. She is very social, and we started talking while I managed the Bishop’s appointments—she had me trapped. I asked her out by mistake in November. By December we were talking about marriage. In late February we appealed to the First Presidency to have her previous sealing cancelled, and concluded that we would wait and see how that process worked its course, before setting an official wedding date. To our surprise, the cancellation was approved a few weeks later. So, we decided to elope to the Bountiful Temple that weekend, March 15, 2003!

Being a step parent can be difficult, but it is very rewarding at the same time. It’s the perfect second job because I am getting paid to do something I love. In December 2004 my first child, Samuel Forestal, was born. In 2007 my daughter Emily Meredith was born. The children have been really fun. Raising the little kids has been rather uneventful; except for the Provo City Police returning Sam home after a kind woman found him playing at the park across the street at age 2½; followed by him being hit by a car when he was 3. Sam’s scared of red cars now, but not strangers, firefighters, or police officers!

In my spare time I enjoy playing games with my children. Age of Empires II and Civilization III are favorites with the older kids. The younger kids like to play imaginary games where we cook, paint, and pretend we are animals in need of rescue. They also like Dinosaur rides—I plod along instead of galloping, and I’m way too slow to be a horse. =) Over the years, I have lost a lot of hair, gained a lot of weight, and created a ton of memories. I have really enjoyed reading everyone’s postings. If you haven’t posted yet, please do!

Ben Metzger