Mideau Madness

I'm a bit of an alternative music fanatic.

This is a shout out to a new up and coming band
"MIDEAU"
who are from my hometown Logan Utah.

They are in need of donations to produce their first debut album.

I love their sound, a little Indie, eclectic. A good blend of drums, piano, bells, guitar, and electronics. And topped off with their dynamic duo of sultry, subtle vocals.

Check them out!

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/mideau/mideau-debut-album?ref=live

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ZfEPrGvKXI

Grateful for sickness and health

Today I've been thinking about how grateful I am for sickness and health. And how grateful I am for my husband and my mama.

I picked up a lovely stomach bug at the hospital and spent a night by the toilet (I'll spare details), and then a day of body aches. It was just a 24 hour deal. But it made me think back to when I was little and if I got sick my mom would always be right there to comfort me. Being sick, I knew I'd always get through it if she was there to take care of me. She'd come into my room and say "Hoooww's the patient?" and "Tell me your symptoms". I can still hear her say it. Then either she or my dad would bring a little TV into my room and set me up with movies galore to keep me company. She'd make sure I kept drinking water and had some light food in my stomach. She was always so kind a compassion towards me and all of us kids when we were sick.
And even now being all grown up an' all, I still want my mom when I don't feel good. I will always need my mama. And when I tell my mom that, she says she still always need hers. Some things never change.

I am so grateful for times of sickness that help me appreciate my good health, that I truly live in God's blessings everyday, that I live such a happy, healthy life.

I am so grateful for my good husband. He was so sweet to help me with what I needed. I am so grateful for his Priesthood that he holds and respects. That he is worthy to give me blessings of comfort. And because of that, he blesses our home, that the love of God and the Holy Ghost can more easily abound in our home. Our home fills with peace and warmth and love.

And even more Minnesot-ah!

Just a few more pictures from our trip! We also had a fun surprise in the airport going to Minnesota. We ran into my dad in the airport. He was flying a flight to NYC. And he actually got to make it to the Macy's day parade and sent us some fun pics of the balloons.

Mark's house growing up

 Inside the house...the Thanksgiving set up. Delicious food and wonderful company

I took this picture for my dad and his love of Spongebob. This is inside the mall of America. Can you see me? Yeah. This place was huge.

 My dreams have finally come true!!!

Pre-marriage: Our last days

I think I'm going to start calling the posts before we were marriage "pre-marriage". Pretty original, right? Well I want to make sure to document some of the happenings of when we were dating and engaged.

Our last days....

These are some pictures of the second to last day before I left on my humanitarian trip to Vietnam and Cambodia with the Navy. We had been engaged for about a month. And there were a lot of mixed emotions about leaving. I had been planning this trip for about a year and half. I really wanted to go but I also felt very torn about leaving Mark. It was only six weeks. Only?! Six weeks turned into an eternity on the ship. I had a wonderful experience, but I missed Mark dearly. We got to write to each other by email every day and I could call him for 15 minutes a day. It actually turned into a really neat way to get to know each other better. But boy was I ready to see him again after those six weeks. I gained a whole new appreciation for the men and women that sacrifice so much to serve in the military. It is hard to leave the ones you love.

We went to the top of the mountain behind our house and enjoyed the peace and silence of the evening.

A few ship shots!

The monster ship, the Mercy

 Life jackets everybody! Assemble to your life boat!

 In our de-licing gear! Nobody could get on the ship without getting past us!

 Our Latter Day Saint Charities group. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints has its own group of medical volunteers as well as other humanitarian volunteers all grouped into one called the LDSC. I'm in the very back in outer darkness.

 The absolute cutest boy that played by us all day at the clinic we had set up. Can you see the sweat dripping off of us? It was 115 degrees and 100% humidity that day.

Just for fun:)

So fun to see, even more to ride!

Minnesot-ah!

We had a wonderful time over Thanksgiving in Minnesota. It was complete with a Thanksgiving feast with the grandparents, Mark's parents, and Mark's uncle; trip to the twin cities and Mall of America; a hockey game Mark played in with his old buddies; and a wonderful wedding reception with Mark's friends and family. I fell in love in just a few short days with the quaint neighborhood he grew up.

 A really awesome painting one of Mark's friends, Will, painted for us as a wedding gift.

 Opening even more wedding gifts! We have felt so overwhelmed by the outpouring of love!

 Mark's 'get-up' into town in 20 degree Minnesotan weather. Isn't he cute?

 Mark's mom had this set up for us to welcome us home.

For Posterity's Sake: Tis the Season

Christmas is here and it's our first holiday season together! It's been fun to experience together so far. We got our tree up and trimmed it with ornaments and red ribbons.

For Posterity's sake

The tradition of red ribbons began with Munner and Papa. They've been tying red ribbons on their tree for some 40+ years now. And my mom always tied red ribbons all growing up. And so I continue the tradition. 

I'm proud of our cute little home, the lights are my favorite. So happy and grateful to have a nice warm home, good food, great friends and family, and a wonderful husband to share the season with. 

 I made cookies with Katie Powers and Megan Zitting and then frosted them with Mark. And....Mark's coworkers were the lucky recipients.

 Our house all a-glow

 Trimming the tree

AKA

Also known as.....

I made a list the other day of everything I had to change to change my last name. That....was quite the production.

• Driver's license
• Social security card
• BYU employment personal info
• Hospital employment personal info
• Registered nurse license
• Mailing address name
• Delta buddy pass 
• Student loan
• Bank account
• Temple recommend
• Tax forms
• Debit card
• Passport 

Sheesh! 

The fun part was when I compared my old driver's license with my new one. I look different. And I feel different. I was happy before, but I've never been happier than I have been married to Mark. There is a new sense of purpose to our lives.

Pre-Mark                                                            Post-Mark

For Posterity's Sake: A snapshot of our lives

I'm going to start writing posts every so often titled "For Posterity's Sake" that is for nothing except what the title implies. For our posterity. The nice thing about blogging is any blog can be changed into a printed book. It's a great way to keep a personal history. And these posterity posting are just that, memories and happenings I want my posterity to know about Mark and I.

This is just a quick snapshot of our lives right now, what we do, what we LIKE to do, and where we live.
This is what Mark does: he's a project manager for a company called Action Target that builds shooting ranges. This picture says it all.

 Mark's Detroit range....almost finished

This is what I do: I dress like an Indian and pretend to be a nurse (Halloween at work). I work at Timpanogos Emergency Department as an ER nurse. Hopefully you don't wake up to an Indian.

This is what Mark LIKES to do: Play Hockey! One night a week for 7 months of the year at our local hockey rink. And no he DOESN'T like to sit in the penalty box.

This is what I LIKE to do: Ski to my heart's content.

And at the end of the day doing what we do and like to do, we end up here at the Homestead.
My grandma Munner Fox's dad....Grandpa Craft.....built a flag pole to fly our great American flag at Grandpa Bush's farm in the heart of Pennsylvania. Grandpa Bush is Munner's mom, Grandma Craft Corwin's dad. Phew! And so after watching Munner and Papa and my parents faithfully fly their American flags, we carry on the tradition at the Homestead.

And whenever we can.....we vote! Proud to be Americans!

Homeward Bound

Tomorrow we head to Mark's homeland...the great St Paul, Minnesota...for Thanksgiving and our second reception. We're excited to spend some time with his parents up there. Since marrying Mark, I've started to learn and become acquainted with a state I knew absolutely nothing about. Zilch. Zero. He's been convincing me since I met him it might be the greatest state in the Union. Maybe it's the best kept secret, because I'd heard nothing of the place until now.

It's the 'Rule of the Doubles' though. The rule states that the second you hear of something you've never heard for the however many years you've been living....all of a sudden you hear about it everyday thereafter.

Such has been my experience with Minnesota. It seems everywhere I go now I'm meeting people from MN who rave about their great state. I've never seen so many movies set in MN than I have in the last few months....my favorite namely New in Town....it's a good one.

So here's a little shout out to the Land of a Thousand Lakes....to the place where you travel with sporting attire and hockey stick on hand.

The beautiful Boundary Waters, one of the places we hope to go one day.

Minnesota Sporting!



And of course hockey is a league of its own. Don't ya know! You betcha!

But the best part of Minnesota, is being able to experience it with this guy.

Johnson Resort Fun!

Mark and I went up to Logan last weekend for the BYU vs. Utah State hockey game. It was a total blow out Utah State 12-0. But we still had fun being there with the Neilson's, Luke, Mark's friend Justin and the Brown brothers.
Aaannnddd....we got a lovely dump of snow that night and made good use of it the next morning....

We finished off the day with a lunch with Luke at Logan Burgers. Mmmm good.

 Showing off our jumping skills

Ostensibly Ostebo

What changes when you change your name to Ostebo?

1. You go from the #1 most common name (Johnson) to the #1 least common name
2. You join an elite group of only 30+ Ostebos in the US, mainly located in Minnesota
3. Your ancestry includes Norwegian Vikings
4. You become accustomed to looks of confusion when people attempt to spell your name....Mark's taught me the system "O-s-t-e-b as in boy-o." I don't even give people a chance anymore to spell it on their own

Wearing my man's #2....even though he's my #1