Fun in December 2010!

This month was chuck full of friends and festivities! From dog-sitting, to family sleepovers, to game nights and goofing off, to more turkey dinners, to spicy date nights, to seeing old college buddies, to handing out candy canes at the beautiful Temple Square, to good friends and past college room mates and friends over for dinner we were busy having fun! And to think I have not even gotten to Christmas yet! It was non-stop fun at the Ostler home this month!

Meet Scout-the poodle we took care of for a few days.

Sleepovers with family at our home and theirs!

Christmas as I knew it growing up…such warm memories flood through me when I see these decorations.

Last minute we decided to spend the night due to a snow storm. The girls were so nice and even cleaned their room (if you know them, this is HUGE), so we could have a room to goof off sleep in. It was so sweet of them. Cami came with us to the store to grab a few toys essentials like toothbrushes, deodorant, etc. and then it was time to play hit the hay!

Ben’s work gave him a huge turkey and since we could not eat such a big bird all on our own, we invited our friend, Austin over for a turkey dinner one night. It was so yummy and fun to have company to share the meal with.

Family even came for a visit one night. Can I just say this niece of mine is completely adorable?!

Date night! I told you we got hooked on this place! SO so so so yummy! The best Mexican in town!

Handing out candy canes at Temple Square. My good friend Jon Case from Snow College invited us to tag along as a big group date. We may have gotten some weird looks, but a lot of people were happy about their candy canes and we all had a BLAST!

We always love our time with Ben and Camille and this time was no different. Isn’t Camille the cutest pregnant girl ever? I was so jealous of her! The craziest part is I was actually pregnant myself this night. I just did not know it yet. :)

Dinner with Sarah and Niels Palmer. Sarah was my “roommate, roomate” (the roommate I shared a room with) my first year at Snow, and Niels was in Ascension Show Choir with me my second year at Snow while Sarah was serving a mission in France. These are two of my favorite people, and I am so glad they met at Utah State and tied the knot! P.S.-I did actually get ready this night, but I am a ditch-the-jeans-and-embrace-the-comfy-sweats-as soon-as-possible-kind-of-girl. Too bad I did not think to get a picture before-hand.

Lot’s of company and fun at our place and out on the town, and we don’t like it any other way!

Ben Pursues His Accounting Degree

Getting our schooling completed was hard with being out of state, and not wanting to pay out of state tuition fees. We decided to wait until we moved back to Utah (but ended up staying a year instead of just for the summer, remember that adventure), but we became official residents of Colorado just a week before moving back to Utah. So, we decided to wait another year until we were official Utah residents once again. That time finally came and we began looking into different schools. A concern we really took into consideration was Ben’s work possibly taking him from state to state to state, so in an effort to avoid messy transfers and lost credits, we decided to go with the pricey, but “efficient” Stevens-Henager. Worst. Mistake. Ever. It is especially agonizing since we ended up staying in Utah anyway. Grrr….

Ben started school with Stevens-Henager mid-June 2010, and I cannot even begin to tell you the knot I get in my stomach even blogging about this experience. Ben was already working very long and hard days as the technician manager for EcoFirst Pest Control 6 days a week, and by the time he got home (late) the last thing I wanted was for him to have to work on school late into the night and often into the early morning hours, which sometimes turned into an all-nighter all together. It absolutely stunk and what it got us, and where we are now absolutely infuriates me to the very core! I try to be positive, but this is one thing I don’t know if I will ever be able to be fully positive about (although we are partly to blame for not reading every live of the contract and trusting the person “helping” us) it was a hard, excruciating lesson to learn. I do not have very Christ-like feelings towards this institution-at all-as hard as I try. Ben spent just over two years and got his associate's (which took 4 months longer than they originally claimed), just to find out that they are NOT accredited in the state of Utah as they have stated. Oh, and did you know they have been in the middle of the 6-month accreditation process for oh….15 years now! Impressive! (note my extreme sarcasm). Did I also mention that (although they promised he could become a CPA in Utah with his degree) he actually does not qualify to become a CPA in Utah with their program? I want to go back in time and give that counselor a big high five-right in the face! Ben worked really hard and received honors and impressive grades. So, here we are three years later, piled high with school debt for a degree, which let’s face it-gets us nowhere! Two years of hard work, time together greatly sacrifiiced and tens of thousands of dollars for NOTHING!!! It is stuff like this that keeps me awake at night  worried, frustrated and depressed. Really wishing we had read that 50 page contract right about now. Don’t you wish people could just be trustworthy?! Goodness! Ben is currently getting ready to start all over again this fall-oh the joys! I could just cry-and I have! I guess we should count our blessings though. We are definitely still very blessed and things are working out and after a long, hard struggle the past two years, I am going to try to focus on that. Sorry for this huge, ugly rant, although, I must admit it feels really good to finally vent all my feelings on the matter. I tell ya, between this blog and my music, I will never need a therapist, and that is a blessing right there. :)

It is really hard writing about the excitement of this time in our life-as we now deal with the devastating aftermath of is all-but at the time, we were actually very excited about it and I was, and still am VERY proud of my amazing husband (who by the way is handling this all much better than me {he usually does}, even though it has definitely affected him more-breaks my heart for all his hard work and good intention). So, I went all out and put together a little “back to school” package for my guy the week he started. 

Bored while Ben works on school…and then goofing off and distracting him. I think we will stick with his short, blonde hair though. ;)

Still SO proud of you and all your hard work babe! I am so blessed to get to call this hard-working stud my sweetheart!

Separate Ways

The romantic side of our relationship took a bit break of a break from fall 2004-summer 2007 with him working in Alaska and then moving on to serve a mission in the Michigan, Lansing mission and me moving forward with my senior year of high school and continuing on to major in MDT (Music, Dance, Theater) at Snow College. I was lucky to get a full ride with an academic scholarship and leadership scholarship for being the show choir president and things stayed interesting a fun with a VERY busy triple major-extra credits, 2 jobs, being the lead singer in a ska band, a lead in the Spring musical, president of 2 choirs and just being the perfectionist but social and fun-loving person I am. Ben and I kept in touch with occasional letter writing.

Ben loved his mission and I loved my 2 years at Snow! We both really grew and developed ourselves so much over those years. Here is a little peak into what our lives were like back then...first a couple disclaimers 1-This is a major picture post. 2-Please don't mind the poor quality photos. I had to scan them in. Enjoy!

Ben playing working in Alaska Summer 2004. 

Senior picture, 17th birthday, and Madrigal Retreat to Bear Lake

Guys and Dolls Spring 2005!

MTC Provo, UT

Madrigals, Halloween fun, Christmas Concert and graduation

Cheboygan and on the shore of the Great Lakes

Summer 2005-Laurel Light Camp-Music Coordinator on Executive Staff and a fun old-fashioned (LOVED it) Relief Society Dinner.

Alpena

Mischief, Pranks and Exploring in Ephraim!

Jackson

Snow College 05-06 Western swing, Game night, Ska Band, Mexican food!

Alpena

Mame: played Vera Charles Spring Semester 2006

Cheboygan and Vicksburg

Snow 06-07  Masquerade Ball, 80's Institute Dance, Vegas Road Trip

More of Ben's mission-milestones, cool random tank and baptisms

Ascension Show Choir 

Vicksburg, Cadilac and Sturgis

Good food, good people, good times-AWESOME memories! Some of the best moments of my life with some of the best people EVER!

Baptisms and Bonfires

Ben got home just after I finished my last semester at Snow at the end of Spring 2007. It really caught me off guard when Ben called me to catch up. I will never forget how excited I was to get a voice mail from him. We talked and caught up a bit but it was a bit awkward since at the time I was dating someone else. We kind of left it at that for a bit and shortly after my relationship ended and I headed off to work at the Bar-T-5 Dinner show in Jackson Hole, Wyoming for the summer and Ben continued to get settled back into normal non-mission life again. We kept in touch over the phone from time to time.

Summer 2007 with Sarah Gwynn1st Dam and Bear Lake!

Jackson Hole Baby!   

skinny dipping swimming, dinner on the town, bike rides and gorgeous hikes in the Tetons by Jenny Lake.

Bar hopping (mormon girl-style-"lemonade, please!"), dancing, aunt, uncle and cousins in town on vacation and cliff diving (at 3 in the morning once-yes I am crazy, but I can't pass up a chance for a little adventure).

Las Vegas Road trip for auditions when I was involved with Craze Agency Fall 2007.

It was not too soon after I got back from Jackson Hole that Ben and I went on a date (our first since High School) in August. He took me ice-skating in Logan (one of our old traditions). I really enjoyed the date, but was a little frustrated and not sure where to take it since so much time had passed and we had both changed so much. We did not see one another much after the date for a couple months, that is until I called him one night after going through a horrible ordeal alongside a girl who has since become a very dear friend. It was awful and I won't go into detail, but it was enough that I was too disturbed to sleep or even feel okay. So I did the only thing that made sense...I called my Ben...at 3:00 in the morning and then sheepishly tried to play it cool once he answered. I ended up bawling opening up to him about all that had happened which also lead me to open up about my childhood hurt and pain (that is what had made the day so hard and gotten me involved in everything to begin with). Ben was a complete and total hero for me during that time. He talked to me until I fell asleep and then took me out the next day on a date to help get my mind off of things. We went black light miniature golfing at the Junction in Ogden. We grew much closer after that experience and began dating again although I was hesitant to "go steady".

 I continued dating several other guys only to call Ben at the end of each of them. On December 7th, everything changed, My last date (with anyone other than Ben that is) I got set up on a blind date (the guy's request upon apparently seeing a picture of me) by my good friends. That poor guy had to drive quite a ways to pick me up in Perry, take me down south for the date, bring me back and even had to get a hotel room in Brigham City because the Snow was so bad. It was at that moment that I realized I needed to just stick to the guy that I really had feelings for even if I was scared and I am happy to say that Ben and I have been "going steady" ever since! Up next: Going Steady and Getting engaged!