A whirl-wind Holiday Season! And Oh yea, we’re Officially Engaged!!!!

I feel like Jonathan and I have been going nonstop since December 24. It has been crazy here in our family! No rest for the weary, or the sick for that matter. As you all now the 24th was Christmas Eve, which we spent at Aunt Jill’s house. That evening we took the time to continue our Hendrickson, Ostler, and Migdat family tradition; of sharing a light supper together, then putting up a little paper doll nativity scene and singing about the story of Christ’s birth. We have been carrying out this tradition ever since I can remember. Our family has used the same nativity set every year, from the time cousin Amy was four years old.

The Christmas Eve nativity night has been carried on year after year, much like Christmas Caroling Monday. Christmas Caroling Monday is always done the family night before Christmas! This is a tradition that has been set in stone by the Shaw/Sharp & the Ostler family. Every year they would take their kids and their friends Christmas Caroling to any families who needed a little cheering up. Both the Ostler and the Shaw/sharp families have always shared a love of music and singing, which they passed on to their children. Now that same love of music has been passed down to their children and so on. And so the Monday night Christmas Caroling has continued over the past 40 years or so! It was so fun to have the little boys, Teague and Corin around to share in each of these activities with us again this year. I know they were the Hit of the Caroling night, with their cute little voices and mispronounced words!! I love kids!!!
On Christmas eve Marina and my nephews spent the night, so that they would wake up at G.G’s house on Christmas morning! It makes it much homier to have little people to wake up with on Christmas morning, Grandma and I enjoyed it very much. In fact I think we all did. It was really nice because I spent that night talking with Marina. We talked for a few hours, late into the night. It was comforting to have that time to catch up with her alone.
As you can see in the pictures that will follow; this year’s Christmas morning went off much like many others. We all woke up and waited for Kate (Marina’s mother) to get to the house, so that we could all open gifts together! She arrived and we each began to open our gifts. A short time later, it started to looked like CHRISTMAS WRAPPING HAD EXPLODED IN LIVING ROOM!!!! It was awesome to see how happy each of the new presents made the boys. Their little faces lit up, with each unwrapped package!

When we were each done opening all the gifts, we sat and ate some breakfast. After that, we all went our separate ways to continue our own Christmas celebration. Marina and Teague and Cory went to her Grammy and Papa’s house, to visit with her family. I waited for my Jonathan to come get me, so that I could open presents with the Robbins family.

On the 26th of December my cousin Kristie received her endowment. Jonathan and I attended a dinner that night to show our support to her and her soon to be, Bradley Corbett. It was fun to be there and learn a little more about the happy couple, before they tied the knot that very next day! WE LOVE YOU BRADLEY AND KIRSTIE!
The 27th was the day Bradley & Kirstin were sealed In the L.A. Temple for time and all eternity as husband and wife, in the presence of the Lord and with the love of many family and friends around them. Jonathan and I love both the Corbett and Perry families very much! We are so happy that Brad and Kristie have found each other, to share their life together. We love you lots Kristie! Bradley, we are so grateful that you are so nice! You have been so warm, loving, kind, and down to earth, with both of us. It has meant a lot to both Jonathan and I! We are glad Kristie found such a good man! Take care of our cousin! We are counting on you. We know you will do an amazing job! :}

Before MR. and MRS. Corbett’s wedding reception, Jonathan and I had his family reunion to go to, at 1:00 p.m. It was clear out almost to Temecula! We spent some time over with his family, and then we shot over to Glendora as fast as we could; to see the bride and groom and share in their special day with them. Needless to say, Jonathan did a LOT of driving that day! He said we put about 180 miles on the car that day; but it was all well worth it. We had a really fun time sharing in the special events with both the families. At the end of the great day, we were both extremely tired though!! As you can tell, Jon and I have been very busy!

Now that I have had a chance to breathe a little, I want to tell you a little more abbot all the gifts Jonathan gave me for Christmas! As I said before, after I finished my Ostler Christmas morning, I went over to Jonathan to open presents with his family! Everyone had finished opening all the other gifts except one. Jonathan had put all my presents from him, in one huge box. Each box that was in that big one, got a little smaller. Each gift had a note that was numbered from 10 to 1. These are pictures of what I found in each box:

Gifts number 10 & 9: Green sweat pants and a matching jacket. Gift number 8: A package of my favorite kind of socks! With the cute pink toes, which he likes.

Gifts number 7 & 6: A toothbrush, because I am obsessed with keeping my teeth clean and he knows that! The other was the Twilight soundtrack, because I LOVE that movie! It's awesome! Gift number 5: A set of walkie-talkies: This is so that we can keep talking, even when Grandma tells us to get off of the phone!! I LOVE THE IDEA!

Gift number 4: A package of my favorite hipster underwear: I use theses to protect my Garments during that "special time of the month" that every woman experiences. Gift number 3: The Bee Movie! This was the movie we went to see on our very FIRST DATE :-) Gift number 2: A stained glass heart: He said, "You can have my heart for Christmas!"
As you can see the number 2 box had a heart in it with the note as pictured above; then he told me to turn the card over and this is what it said:
At this time, I turned to look at him. He was down on one knee, with the Ring in his hand and he said “WILL YOU MARRY ME??” I THEN SCREAMED IN HIS FACE, CRIED, SCREAMED AGAIN AND THEN, SAID YES!!!!!

He caught everyone off guard, including me! I had no idea it was coming on Christmas Day! He caught his dad so off guard, that he missed getting the WHOLE THING on film! Philip asked us to act it out again, but it's just not quite the same!! You can’t redo a reaction like I had. :-D Jonathan says my reaction was priceless and so worth it!! His knees were shaking for a while, after he proposed. It took like 20 minutes for my heart to find my chest again; but after the shock had worn off somewhat, we were both okay!!

We are both so EXCITED and it is still hard to believe that we are now FIANCEE'S!!!!!!! We are both happy, excited, overjoyed, and overwhelmed nervous, and a little scared all at the same time! It’s more a fear of the unknown, kind of thing. Despite our nerves, we both know that, with a little determination, faith in our Lord, and lots of love for each other, we can get through any challenge that may pass our way!!!

WE ARE ENGAGED!
THE TEMPLE SEALING IS, MAY 16 2009
10:30 a.m. In The L.A. Temple
Mark it on your Calendars!

METALLICA!!!!!!!!!

Ok for those of you who know me, I love my music and wont be caught without it anywhere i go. This is my first concert experience and it was so good, I think im going to turn into a concert junkie :-)

All of you know that I went to a Metallica concert on the 15th of this month. Candice was woried the whole time I was gone. I took my two brothers, craig and spencer with me to the concert, we also took craigs friend Jonathan. The concert started at 7:00 PM and we knew there was going to be traffic, so we left at 4:00, 3 hours early. The drive to San Diego was a long one and there wasn't much traffic untill we got closer to the concert arena. We got to the off ramp and there were tons of cars and people waiting to get into the concert. It took us 45 minutes to go 1/2 a mile into the concert parking area. I was excited about the show so i wasn't stressing about the traffic. So we get into the concert and there are people everywhere, the arena was pretty big and i couldnt even guess how many people it could hold.

The opening act was a band called Lamb of God, the lead singer comes out and introduces there band, everyone starts to scream. The speakers start to sing into my ear drums and im blown away with the intence sounds coming from the stage. My heart immediatly starts to beat faster as the thud of the base gets stronger. Wow i said, "this is cool", the lead singer starts to sing and run around the stage, the guitarist is at the bottom left corner head banging with his long hair. The drummer is just going down on the drums like no other. Me heart fills with excitement as the show goes on. Lamb of God sung about 7 or 8 songs, they where loud and they put on a good show. The band finishes off with a drum solo, than the drummer threw his sticks into the crowd of people behind him. The band leaves and all these people come out and remove equipment from the stage, they also set up the stuff for the next show.

Metallica enters stage

Here they are, first act to the start of a long and exciting show.


They start off with a crazy lazer show, I was trippin out because these lazers where everywhere. they had a fog machine going too, so you can imagine how it must have looked in there. Spencer my brother was rocking out, and the band wasnt even on the stage yet, but a song was being played while the lazer show was commencing.

I dont care what anyone says about matallica they are one of my many favorites. There music is heavy metal, but they aren't all about screaming at the top of their lungs and singing so you can't hear what they are saying. Craig looks over at me and punches me on the arm and he says "HELL YA"

Metallica played about 12-15 songs that night, they played some from their new album "Death Magnetic" they also played all of their classic and original big hit songs from all of their albums.

There where lots of people there as you can see, there where a couple of mosh pits to the left and the right of the stage, people where head banging and running around smashing into each other. I said to craig, "next time we come to a concert I want floor access" of course he agreed with me because he wanted to go down to the pit and throw some people around, if you dont know my brother is 6' 6'' tall and he is built like me, BIG.

The band played sandman, one of my alltime favorites, they also played, "One" from their album "and justice for all" that got the crowd cheering and screaming and head banging. There where these people in front of us that where smoking pot, they just lit joint after joint, I almost couldn't believe that this kind of thing would be going on, but that i realized, Im at a frickin concert, of course people are going to bring drugs in with them, durr.

If anyone knows metallica, than they know that the band does allot of solos, this is a guitar solo played by the one and only "Kirk Hammett" He sure does know how to rock and roll all over that guitar, WOW talk about a show.



At the end of the show the band wanted to see all of San Diego, so they turned the lights off of them and put them on us, it was awesome the last song, so i thought, the band came back for a second time and said you want one more song, and of cours we all screamed yes, so they played a song from their album "ride the lighting" and it was called "fight fire with fire" the crowd roared as they played this last and final song.


The concert ended and it was an experience i will never forget. Metallica sure does put on a good show, so i beleive i got my 150$ worth out of this concert. As we were heading back to the car there where all these guys selling concert T-shirts, I had to get one, It was only 10 dollers 75% cheaper than inside the concert, can you believe that. The drive home was long, and i started to fall asleep, I pulled over and let craig drive the last 40 miles. We took jonathan home first and than I took craig home. Spencer and me didn't get back home until 3:00 AM this wasn't too good, cause than i had to go to work at 5:30, I would't take the day off from work because i need the money for our wedding and new life together. I love candice and I cant wait to take her to the Temple and marry her for time and all eternity, that will truly be one of the best days of my life on this earth.


Well thats about it, I made it back from the concert safely and with not too much ringing in my ears, but my neck hurt quite a bit, Guess there was too much head banging going around in the concert :-) its contageous.

Oh Tannenbaum, Please Fill my mind with Christmas Memories!

Okay so, I am going to try and put the events of this past week in chronological order. Let’s hope I can do it in a way that makes sense, in a cohesive manner. Here goes! :-)

Last Saturday, the Migdat family came over to put up the Christmas lights on our house Jonathan was here too, but he decided the three boys on the roof was enough; so while Tyler, Mikey, and Matthew were doing that, we took Dunddle for a walk. It was a very windy day on that day! When we got back from our walk, we stayed outside to oversee the rest of the light hanging. (and to make sure that no one slipped off the roof because of the crazy wind.) Grandma was very nice and served everyone pizza and root-beer for lunch! That was her way of saying thank you, for all the help. It was a nice day all around.

On Monday, Jonathan went to a Metallica concert with his brothers Craig and Spencer. They went all the way to San Diego to see them play. Metallica is one of Jonathan’s favorite bands and this was his VERY FIRST CONCERT EVER! This trip had been planed since the summertime; he had been DIEING to go the whole time.
I on the other had was worried SICK, because I was smart enough to know that there would be major alcohol and drug use at a concert like this! (There definitely was) All I WANTED was for all of them to come back, well, whole, and of sound mind! I knew that they could not help but pick up the “sent” of a few drugs, when so many people are using drugs around them. :-/

To try to help keep my mind off of the environment Jonathan and his brothers would soon find themselves in, Grandma and I decided to occupy our time by decorating our Christmas-tree! :-} We listened to Christmas songs as we decorated. As we did, I kept asking the Lord to fill my mind with memories of Christmas past, so that some of the worry would leave my mind. It worked for part of the time, and I think the tree looks GREAT! We got a beautifully full and gorgeous tree this year. Thank you, Jill and Scott for picking it for us! In the end, the boys came back from the concert with NO voices and completely WARN OUT, but they were SAFE! It sound to me like they all had a Blast!! Jonathan came home and said “…I definitely got my money’s worth, that’s for sure!” :-D

On Tuesday of this week, Marina and the boys dropped in to visit with us. It was so NICE to see them. They are both SO Big now! Teague is 3 years old and Corin (Cory) is 20 months. The first thing Teague said to me when he saw me was “Hi Auntie! I Teague, I big and strong now!" (With a HUGE smile and showing me his muscles) and when Cory saw me he said with his arms out, “I superman!” My little nephews are so adorable! I love them so much!! Teague was being my little “helper boy” that day, and Corin is just a doll with his big eyes and cute little face. I am so glad they are living here in California now, I will get to spend a lot more time with those little guys. They're growing up to be such talkative, fun loving, well mannered (lots of please and thank you) little boys! Marina, Kate, Teague, and Corry will be spending Christmas eve/morning at our house again this year. It will make it so much fun to have them all here. That makes me Very Happy! :-D

Teaue is seated on my lap & Corin seated at my feet.

SMILE nice for G.G. Boys!

I Guess I Didn't Run Fast Enough!

I HAVE BEEN TAGGED AGAIN!

This time I was told to list SIX random things about myself. Here is the list I came up with.
(It was harder to do, then I thought it would be.)

1. I HATE the color Bright orange!!! I could never color with an orange crayon as a kid, because just looking at it makes me agitated and angry.

2. Jonathan and I have been dating for almost a year and Even though I know our little “corks” can bother each other sometimes, I still get butterflies when I see him. To this day, my heart breaks a little every time we have to be apart. I LOVE HIM SO MUCH!

3. I am a freak about clean teeth, I brush mine more than anyone I know!!

4. I sing Really Loud in the shower sometimes. (okay, a LOT!)

5. I don’t like my feet much at all, but Jonathan has an obsession with all things feet; especially MINE!

6. I LOVE the smell of new books and tires and I still love watching Disney Movies :)

Now I tag: Amy, Sunnie, Aly, Rae, Jessi, and Leah!

The Rules:

1. Link this post to the person who tagged you: Palmyra http://calebnpalmyra.blogspot.com/

2. Post The Rules on your blog

3. List 6 random things about yourself.

4. Tag 6 people at the end of your post.

5. Let each person know they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.

6. Let the tagger know when your entry is up.

Urinetown: "Where It’s a privilege to pee!"

You might be looking at the title of this post and thinking, what is she talking about?! Believe me, when I first heard the name of this musical I thought the same thing. Urinetown; “What the heck is this? This is a musical about pee!? Who would write a play about that? That is so SICK!"
On Saturday I and Jonathan went to the Whittier community center with his family, to see Urinetown the Musical. This play was being presented by the students and musical arts teacher (Mr. David Carter, my old chorus teacher) at La Serna High School. Spencer had seen it the night before and said it was funny, so we all decided to see the Saturday Matinee at 2 o’clock.
This was the first play Jon and I have ever seen together. Urinetown is indeed a musical about pee!

There had been a horrible drought in the land for something like 20 years; because the drought, the people of this town, where no longer able to have toilets in their homes. Everyone was then forced to use the public Amenities (public restrooms) around town. Each public amenity has a tax placed on it by Mr. Caldwell, owner of the Urine Good Company. (U.G.C.) This meant that every time anyone in the town had to pee, they had to wait in line and they pay a fee in order to use the facilities. Anyone who could not pay the free and got caught “doing their business” outside of an amenity, was arrested. Repeat offenders were even sentenced to death! (Very sad I know. This musical was quite odd; funny though)
As you can imagine, in the poor parts of town times where tough; so that made it very hard for any residents to pay the fees. Especially due to the fact that Mr. Caldwell continues to raise the toilet tax. Joseph Strong, an old man who is continually unable to pay up to Ms. Pennywise, (the owner of public amenity # 9) is arrested and put to death. For in this town says Ms. Pennywise, “It’s a privilege to pee!”
After the death of old man strong, the people become even more TIRED of being controlled by Mr. Caldwell! A revolt led by Bobby Strong (son of old man strong) begun. The poor people of Urinetown capture the daughter of Mr. Caldwell and hold her hostage, in hopes that he will end the toilet tax. They threaten to kill his daughter Hope if the tax is not lifted!
Hope decides to lead the mob (after the death of bobby strong) She got the mob and the police on her side. They broke into her father’s company, took him down and had him arrested. Hope takes over the U.G.C. Little Hope lifts all the amenity fees and everyone can pee for free! Evan though the fees are no more, there is still a Big problem. Despite all the happiness in the town, there is still a major drought in the land! Due to the fact that the amenities fee is gone, the water reserve continues to become lower and lower until there is nothing left. Without any water many people become ill and pass away!
Wow, right? As the narrator says throughout the entire play, this was not a happy musical and it was never meant to be one. Yeah, I know this play is very odd! The humor was all in the acting. You had to be there to understand it all. It was so strange!
Jonathan and I just have to laugh, because the first musical we have seen together is about urine! NOW THAT IS A STORY TO TELL YOUR CHILDREN!! LOL =)

After the show, we went in such of a new place to eat. Crapes and Grape it was fairly good. We spent the rest of the day walking around and looking in the sops in uptown Whittier. SOOO FUN!!

(Photos shown here are from the Broadway production of Urinetown)

An Unexpected chance to hone my Wifely Abilities

Many of you know that Grandma Ostler fell and hurt her ribs and hip on her right side; last Saturday. She was going up the ramp from our patio into the house. She caught her toe on the edge and in the shoes she was warring, she could not catch her balance. Kai reached out to grab her, but he was a split second too late! Grandma tumbled backward and hit her back on a lamp table.

When she first fell, she didn’t want anyone to help her get up right
away. Dunddle was very worried about her and he knew something was very wrong!! Cousin Amy says that Dunddle sat right next to her on the floor, until she was ready to try and get up. The Dog was acting as a protective sentinel to our Grams!
I am so glad that Amy, Kai, and their kids were here visiting with her, because I was not home at the time. Jonathan and I came home after it had happened. Once Grandma was able to get up, Kai, Sean, and Jonathan gave her a blessing and Aunt Jill drove her to the Hospital to get x-rays and things. The doctor said that nothing looked broken and that it is probably a lot of soft tissue damage. She is going to be in a lot of pain. They sent her home with medicine, and told her to take it easy.
As you can probably guess, this means that a lot more of my help has been needed around here. I have had to take on the daily house tasks such as: Heating and bringing her, her meals, doing laundry, doing dishes and MORE. It has been somewhat of a challenge, but I am more then up to all the tasks at hand. I would do anything I possibly could to help Grams; especially after all she has done for me over so many years! :-)
In fact if you think about it, this has all been somewhat of a blessing in disguise for me; because having to help out more, has given me the uninterrupted chance to hone my homemaking skills. It has given me lots of much needed practice, on performing my future “wifely duties.” For this past week or so, I have had to do the majority of the necessary house-work. I don’t think Grammy has ever evan realized that I am so capable of all the things that I can do! (She has never really given me the chance to prove myself before) I know she is very proud and thankful for all I have done. She is also much more confident in my skills as a future wife as well. (This makes me happy)

It has been an extremely rough go for our sweet matriarch this past week. I think today was the first day she has actually truly started to feel more like herself. She woke up this morning and said, “This is a great day, I think I am starting to feel better! The pain is still there, but I actually feel better! My body, my spirit, my EVERYTHING is starting to feel better!!” This reaction to her day made me feel much better for her, myself. =)

We know that Grandma Ostler will not be running any marathons, doing cartwheels, or doing the splits just yet, (SMILES and GIGGLES) but I am sure we are all glad to hear, that she is doing well. Let’s all hope and pray that things stay on the upside and mending for her. Let’s also hope that I can keep her from over exerting herself and doing too much, too quickly. Do you know how hard that can be sometimes?!

Lastly, I know we would both like to thank all the family and friends who have so willingly lent us a helping hand, while Grandma Joan is on her road to recovery from this injury. It means SOOO much to us! We appreciate it all, more than words can say!! We love you each very much!

Please keep the get well wishes, calls, and cards coming. She really likes those and I know that it will help continue to lift her spirits. ~Thanks =-D

Raise your hand, If You Believe in Fate!

This year the Whittier California stake of Zion celebrates its fiftieth anniversary! In honor of this celebration, each family in our stake (and the singles too) was asked to come down and have a professional family photograph taken. Each person or family then got two pictures taken of them. One of the photos was then placed in a beautiful pictorial directory. Everyone also received a free 8x10 to have for themselves.
The pictures for the 2008-2009 directory were taken earlier this year. Yesterday at church, we finally got the final product and it is beautiful! Each person who got their picture taken, got to have their own color directory for free. They are SO NICE! When the Robbins family got their family photograph taken, I got to be in one of the one they took (and bought) they took a few, then Jon’s day, (Phillip) Said “Jonny, why don’t you bring Candice in here.” It was cool, I really liked it, and it made me feel like I was already a part of the family. =)
It was funny because, by the time I had gone to have my family photo with Grandma; the photographer laughed and said, “boy, I have seen you around a lot!’ By this time I had, had my pictures taken twice. His reaction was great! =-D
Jonathan and I were looking through the directory and we had to smile, because our photos were right next to each other in the Mar Vista singles ward section of the book. When I went to Bishop Smith and asked him for my membership record number; he commented on how our info was all right next to each other in his big book as well. He gave a little chuckle when he noticed that. Now every time I ask him to look something up, he comments on it in some way. I like it, I think it’s cute and it makes me feel good!
Now is it fate, coincidence, luck, or divine intervention, that alphabetically our last names are right together; and that we ended up wanting to be together forever? One may never know the true answer to this question lol. All I know for sure, is that our Fatter in Heaven definitely had a hand in bringing Jonathan and I together!