Taaake me out to the Boston Pops

Because I am not able to access pictures from my trip/graduations/important stuff, I am putting off blogging the big stuff to bring you another date night post. Because I love date night. Have you noticed yet?

Job asked me out on this week's date and took me to sports night and Dropkick Murphys at the Pops last night.

 (I really don't even know what's with that JVD looking thing going on. ew.)

Let's be real, I am not a hugely athletic or sporty person myself, but I love to go to live sporting events, I always get a little emotional at the olympics, Boston marathon, etc... and plus, living in Boston has made me loyal to the awesome teams here.  So this was a really fun night to celebrate the amazing teams Boston has and some great athletes that have come out of this city. And of course, enjoy the fantastic music.

And I really loved it because I got to hold Job's hand, sing 'Sweet Caroline' with my hands in the air, and watch people scrambling all over symphony hall to catch flying t-shirts.

Some cruising around with the moon roof open, nachos, and an episode of Fresh Prince added a nice finishing touch to the evening.

Date night well done lover, I now must attempt to come up with something awesome for next week's date. Be prepared for awesomeness.

A little snippet of life lately

• Relax
• Forget Folger's, this is the best part of waking up.
• My patient made me an Easter egg! Cutest thing ever.
• I spy a jones soda.
• Woody's Pizza cannot be beat. Our favorite place to grab a Boston pie and chat.
• A jaunt about town for date night.
• Craft time.
• 3 cheers for actually doing things you pin on pinterest!
• Fresh Asian noodles and veggies, one of my favorite "go-to" dinners.
• The new yoga position Job learned the other day and came home to show me. Impressed wife here!  (image)
• "I said, hey, I put some new shoes on and everybody's smiling"
• You know, just another chair meal.

Getting on board

Job and I had a wonderful date this afternoon at a hip little sandwich shop in Cambridge, and then to hear Leonidas Kavakos and the BSO perform. 

We had stimulating conversation, took a walk enjoying the Spring blooms in Boston, and just enjoyed each other's company. 

And to top it all off, this is what I got as I dropped Job off to school:

Job:  Oh no honey, we didn't take pictures of our sandwiches!

So cute. I fell in love again. This guy is not only getting used to my taking pictures of everything, he is now reminding me to!


Don't worry hun, we'll remember next time! ;) I love your guts.

{I did however snap this little gem outside the restaurant. How sweet. And to think I didn't even remember to call.}

Summore Vermont Pictures

I wasn't kidding. There really was a lot of singing.  

And oops, two exact same pictures of me. *sigh* I am not going to go back to change that.

Man, I feel like a Woman

Flash Back Friday be darned (just for this week though. Don't darn it for longer than that). I had the greatest Women's Day yesterday and just have to share. Did you know it was women's day yesterday? Cool right?!  Last night before bed I prayed for all the wonderful women in my life and am so grateful for the influence they have had.

So now,

10 reasons why I felt like an awesome woman yesterday: 

1. Had a Doctors appointment in the morning. Taking charge of my womanly health! Go schedule a pap smear ladies.
2. Started a new cleaning schedule and whipped our little home into shape. I love taking care of our little heaven on earth with Job. It feels so good to have a clean home.
3. Ate a killer salad and fruit for lunch. I feel like I got enough vitamins and minerals to last me a week in that thing. I love green food. (it had spinach, feta, tuna, wheat germ, capers, cucumbers, avocado, balsamic and olive oil dressing, etc...) It made me feel recharged and ready for the day.
4. The weather was in the 60's and sunny. Enough said.
5. Took a energizing nap before work.
6. Headed off to work with the sun roof open, windows down, and music blasting.
7. Shortly after arriving at work was given a substantial RAISE out of the blue. Woohoo!
8. Discovered I love blueberry tea.
9. Once I arrived home I was greeted with a kiss and a "Happy Women's Day!" by my sweet Jobito. I didn't even register it was women's day until this point actually.
10. Proceeded to get spoiled like a queen for the next few hours. 

Here's how that went down:

All new natural lavender bath products for me as a gift and part of the night.

Camping out, living room style

P.S. (pre-script) My little sister scoffed when I told her we did this. "pshbm, that's cool". WHAT DO YOU KNOW!? ;) It's cool, ok.
Love you Ren.

We had Grease, a puzzle with alligators, popcorn, colorful little lights and candles, cookies...what else is there to want? (except Grease is a scandalous movie! I had forgotten ;)

Yup, we slept here. And then we woke up and ate panettone bread pudding for breakfast here. And then we canceled our plans for a hike due to rain. And then went back to sleep right here. Good story huh?

We think so too.

P.S. (post-script this time. Sheesh, confusing)

Our little Owl friend missed us in bed that night. Always watching out for us, what a guy.

Triple Play

Last night was a visiting with friends, a fantastic dance performance, and hot cacao at Pavement. 

Last night made me want to create, and dance, and drink more cacao. 

Last night was inspiring, uplifting, and delicious. 

Thanks for the pics Emily!

Unsolicited Relationship Advice: Take it or take it.

Let's get real for a second. Anyone who knows me on a personal level, (or who has ever talked to me for 3 minutes or longer) knows I am a frugal saver cheap-a person. It comes in handy a lot of times, trust me. I am pretty good with making sure money doesn't fly out the window unexpectedly because I keep it on a teeny tiny short leash. A money leash. You can buy one on amazon.

Anyways, sometimes this cheapness of mine causes stress to my dear sweet husband who likes to do things for me. He is not some crazy spender or anything, just not as neurotic as I am about not spending money. He likes to spend money on important things.

And he taught me a little lesson the other day. He was taking me out on a date to the symphony (which is basically free for us, yay) when he told me this date would not just include the symphony. He then proceeded to take me on a beautiful romantic walk through a part of the city I had never been to, kissed me in the middle of a lovely plaza, and then we arrived at our destination which was a nice Asian restaurant. (I am getting to my point here, I promise). He told me how important it was that we go on dates, and not only just dates but fun, interesting dates. And sometimes that requires a little bit of money. Sometimes it doesn't, and we have plenty of those dates too, but he taught me that doing something new, different, and exciting can be stimulating for a relationship. I took a deep breath and didn't think too much about money that night. And he was very respectful and kept things reasonable so I would feel comfortable. We both relaxed and had a wonderful evening (until I feel asleep during the symphony and he was embarrassed by me. Hey, it was a long day! But that's another story ;)

Now I am not saying dates have to be expensive, or even cost money at all. But it is important to go outside the box sometimes in a relationship to keep it strong. Maybe that means getting a babysitter, or going somewhere new to eat rather than the old standby. Maybe it means trying something completely new for both of you. Or maybe that just means doing something the other person really likes (even if you don't).

Job and I love to date each other, and I feel that is one of the things that keeps our relationship strong through the inevitable hard times that come with life and marriage. We are still working on lots of things but I feel very blessed to have a man in my life who makes that a priority. 

Thanks love.

Simple pleasures

This guy likes mango on his frozen yogurt. 

This girl likes cinnamon almonds on her frozen yogurt.

They both like sharing their cinnamon almond and mango froyo and chatting before a concert. 

Simple pleasures.

 (Hey journal, it was the BSO and tanglewood chorus performing Mendelssohn's Lobgesang-Hymn of Praise. So beautiful, remember it.)

2nd Year Anniversary

It appears I have missed documenting our 2 year anniversary! Wha-wha-what?! I assure you, we didn't forget it. It was December 19th and there was plenty of googly eyes, random hugs, lots of kisses, and little surprises. Of course, that's a pretty normal day for us anyways (I am married to the best man) but I would say the mushy level went up a notch.

'Twas a pretty simple day which was nice. We already had a ton of fun things planned for around Christmas so we decided to keep the day low-key. I went to work that morning and Job's first treat was to drive me there. What a stud :) Of course we had to grab breakfast at our local DD. And of courser we had to take a picture.

Later that evening Job picked me up, we went out for steak, and we talked and talked. I love that. (the goofy salad picture is a little joke between us ;)
Later that night I might have utilized the little something I picked up using my VS rewards card. Wait, what...who said that?...
Throughout the week, before and after, we celebrate in little ways us being married. Two whole years! We couldn't be happier.

Ok, ok I'll stop. Here are a few 2nd Year Stats:

Ring in the new!

New Years Eve for us consisted of hitting the streets downtown, followed by a fun get together with friends. Best of both worlds. (Short and a bit disorganized. I am trying to quickly catch up here ;)

Last day of Pompeii (and of Kristin visiting)

 I had to go back to work the day after Christmas but Job took care of my dear sister, and I got off at 4 everyday so there was still plenty of time to have fun! :) Observe:

We cooked, we went to museums, we laughed, talked, watched movies, went out to eat, relaxed from our busy week prior, took late night donut runs; basically had a lot of fun.

In more detail than you want:

• We could spend forever in the Museum of Science. They had a special exhibit of Pompeii going on which was amazing. Kristin and I also reminisced about our dreams of becoming astronauts. 

• Kristin decided The Greek Corner was one of the best places we took her to eat. That is due to the lamb and beef kabob. Explosion in your mouth people.

• We finally went to Kane's donuts. It was super good. And we stood at the counter for a very long time trying to find the donuts before the guys at the counter decided to show us where they were hidden. They thought we were dumb, but ya know what buddy?! It's a donut shop, show me the donuts.

• I am still finding out slowly fun little things Kristin and Job did while I was gone at work. I am glad they had the chance to get to know each other better :)

Thanks for coming Kristin! We loved having you. And we love you. And donuts.

Twelve dates of Christmas: Date Twelve

On the twelth date of Christmas, my true love, my sister, and I....

Celebrated a wonderful Christmas day complete with gift and stocking opening, a big breakfast we all cooked together, a beautiful program at church centered around our Savior Jesus Christ, having the missionaries from our church over for a dinner of tamales, google chatting with family, etc... It was delightful.

{by Simon Dewey}

It was a special treat to have Kristin here for our holiday! It was a surprise for me and I loved every minute of having sister time. Job and Kristin got to know each other better which was nice. We also had a fun week-after-Christmas which I will proceed to put all in another blog post.
I had a lot of fun with these 12 dates of Christmas. Maybe this will become yet another holiday tradition.
I love those.

Twelve dates of Christmas: Date Eleven

On the eleventh date of Christmas my true love, my sister, and I....

Attended our now traditional Italian Christmas Eve Feast (we went last year too ;).
In case you didn't read last year's post let me paint a picture (since no real pictures exist to document the magic :( )  A 7 course, homemade, Italian seafood meal. Feast of the 7 fishes they call it. I call it amazing.
We fed ourselves silly, sat by the fire, read Luke 2, and enjoyed a wonderful Christmas Eve with friends.

And then invited ourselves back for next year. Can't mess with tradition right?! ;)

Twelve dates of Christmas: Date Ten

On the tenth date of Christmas my true love, my sister, and I....


Went to the New England Aquarium to oogle at our favorite enormous sea turtle Andre, and then walked right on over to the North End for a big box of cannoli from Mike's.

And yes, we then went home and proceeded to eat them all.

No regrets.

Twelve dates of Christmas: Date Nine

On the ninth date of Christmas my true love, my sister, and I....


Made a whole bunch of tamales for our friends! And when I say a whole bunch, I mean it ;) We decided to do that as our little treat for friends this year and it was a fun project! We gave a little packet to each one with pork tamales, bean tamales, avocado salsa, and a few sweet pineapple tamales.
I seriously can't believe we didn't get any pictures of the process, but it included lots of masa, lots of corn husks, some interesting conversation, and some Latino dancing in the kitchen!

Que Rico!

Twelve dates of Christmas: Date Eight

On the eigth date of Christmas my true love, my sister, and I....

Went to see the Boston Ballet perform the nutcracker! They were amazing to say the least, and it was definitely a fun way to get in the Christmas mood.

Before the show we hopped on by Sam LaGrassa's (remember, the world's greatest sandwiches?! :) Did not disappoint, that's for sure.

I mean, come on, just look at that happy face :) I sure love that guy!

Twelve dates of Christmas: Date Seven

On the seventh date of Christmas, I had a sister date! :)

Kristin and I got down to business and made some delicious things for our stockings. Our stockings have a sort of old fashioned theme with fruit, nuts, molasses cookies, etc... (of course ours also included some not-so-old-fashioned things like twix and VS eye shadow ;)

Anyways, baking up some homemade cookies with a good friend is just so fun! And molasses cookies are my new favorite, seriously, give them a try!
We also candied some nuts and found a new favorite recipe which I just have to share. So.darn.good.

I present to you:

Mexican Hot Chocolate Toasted Pecans

{via www.simplyscratch.com}

ingredients:
16 ounces Pecans
1 Egg White
2/3 cup White Sugar
1/4 cup Unsweetened Cocoa Powder
1-1/2 teaspoon Cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon Ground Ginger
1 pinch Cayenne Pepper
1 pinch Ground Allspice

preparation:
Preheat your oven to 250 degrees. I lined my cookie sheet with a silpat, but you could also grease with butter or coconut oil.

Mix the sugar, cocoa powder and all the spices in a medium bowl and set aside. Whisk the egg white until it is thick and frothy {small peaks} and add in the pecans. Stir to coat. Next, add the cocoa mixture and combine until the nuts are evenly coated.

Scoop the nuts with a slotted spoon onto the prepared pan and place in your preheated oven for 20 minutes. Remove, toss and place back in the oven for twenty more minutes. After the first 40 minutes, check your nuts to see if the cocoa/sugar doesn't crumble off of the nuts. If it does, place it back in the oven for 20 more minutes, otherwise let cool slightly and serve!

Twelve dates of Christmas: Date Six

On the sixth date of Christmas my true love, my sister, and I.....

Went to enjoy some beautiful art at the Museum of Fine Arts. Boston has a great one and I always love going. The special exhibit going on now is Degas Nudes and many of them were very beautiful (we didn't care for his brothel period however). We also saw the new Jewlery exhibit, the contemporary art, the rest of the impressionists, and some video art. Can I just say, I could spend all day in there!

After getting our culture fix we headed over to our favorite little tea shop for some hot apple cider and herbal tea. Speaking of art, they always show local artist's work in the place which I love.

Now, if watching Job sip his drink from a tiny teaspoon doesn't make me all jolly inside, I don't know what will ;)

Twelve dates of Christmas: Date Five

On the fourth date of Christmas my true love and I....


Hit up two, count 'em, TWO ward Christmas parties :) Since Job works with both the Spanish Branch, and our English ward, we were invited to both. Job led the kids at each party in a song for the program.

Nice form!