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.

Happy Saint Valentinus Day (I've learned Latin since you've been gone)

Hi Love. It is Valentine's Day. I went to work, you went off to play your heart (and violin) out in NYC. So I haven't seen you much today. But the great thing is, we can celebrate Valentine's all year round. You're a pretty great Valentine. The best I've ever had actually. (let's not get technical and go into the fact that you are the only real Valentine I've had. You would be the best no matter. I just don't like to waste my time on less-than-Job-Valentines ;)
So anyways, I miss you, but let's party tomorrow, and the next day. And then forever after that.

Love you.


P.S. Sushi's in the fridge.

Happy 2012!

I've got a whole host of catch-up posts to do, but I couldn't let this day go by without acknowledging this new year! Happy New Year!
2011 brought a ton of fun and exciting things for us! Job and I reminised about them all last night/this morning and enjoyed thinking back and counting our many blessings.
I have a suspicion 2012 will bring even more big changes and good times. We already have some fun and exciting life-changing things coming up this year! Woohoo, bring it on!!

Ice Sculptures, Boston Common, New Years Eve

For Unto Us a Child is Born, Unto us a Son is Given

Our ward (church group) is doing an advent candle this year. Each day starting Dec. 1 we burn down a part of the candle while we read from the scriptures about the life of our Savior. This has been such a beautiful and special time for Job and I to reflect on Jesus Christ who's birth and life we celebrate this time of year. Reading these passages each night has really helped me focus more on Christ and less on fluffy, commercial things. I still love other Holiday traditions, don't get me wrong, but keeping the focus on Jesus brings a lot of peace. I thought I would include the references here in case anyone else wants to join in. It really brings the spirit into our home and lives. Enjoy!

          Day/Event                                  Reference          Jesus Christ...
Day 1-Raising the daughter of Jarius, Luke 8:41-56, was compassionate
Day 2-Forgiving a sinful woman         Luke 7:36-50, was forgiving
Day 3-Healing a nobleman's son         John 4:46-53, had power to heal
Day 4-Cleansing the temple                 John 2:13-17,was reverent and opposed evil
Day 5-Calming the storm                    Mark 4:35-41, had power over the elements
Day 6-Blessing the children                Mark 10: 13-16, loved children
Day 7-Dining with Mary and Martha, Luke 10:38-42, made people happy
Day 8-Suffering in the garden,            Luke 22:41-45,was submissive and sacrificed for others
Day 9-Washing the feet of the apostles, John 13:3-17, was humble
Day 10-Choosing his apostles,             Luke 6:12-13, was prayerful
Day 11-Advanced in learning,              Luke 2:51-52, obeyed his parents
Day 12-Was baptized,                           Matt. 3:13-17, was obedient to God's law
Day 13-Sermon on the Mount,             Matt. 5:2-16, gave counsel
Day 14-Christ in the temple,                 Luke 2:42-49, taught when he was twelve
Day 15-The Lord's Prayer,                    Matt. 6:9-13, taught how to pray
Day 16-The sower,                                Luke 8:5-16, taught with stories
Day 17-The lost sheep,                          Luke 15:4-7, helped sinners
Day 18-The Good Samaritan,               Luke 10:29-36, was kind
Day 19-The Comforter,                         John 14:26-27, promised the Holy Ghost
Day 20-Fishes and Loaves,                   Matt. 14:15-21, performed miracles
Day 21-Lazarus,                                    John 11:40-44, raised the dead
Day 22-Mary's visitation,                      Luke 1:26-33, is the Son of the Highest
Day 23-His birth,                                  Luke 2:1-11, fulfilled prophecy
Day 24-Shepherds visited and wise men brought gifts, Matt. 2:9-12, Luke 2:12-16, was worshiped.

The Twelve Dates of Christmas: Date One

This blog does the twelve dates of Christmas, and really, how cute is that! I couldn't help but take a page out of their creative book and do our own version, Salazar Style and all that.

And so....

On the first date of Christmas my true love and I*....

Saw the Holiday Pops concert! Nothing like some Christmas classics played by a world class orchestra to put you in the Christmas spirit. I just might have teared up while they played "It came upon a midnight clear". Scratch that, I definitely did. So beautiful.

We also splurged a little and got hot chocolate and toasted marshmallow ice cream, and a chocolate chip cookie for a treat during the show. So fun!

Amazing Thai food beforehand only helped make this date more fantastic. This is the first day I am really getting in the Christmas mood, so I am excited for all the fun that is to come!

Stay tuned for date two!


*Despite lack of photographic evidence, I really was on this date with Jobito ;)

New York City for Thanksgiving: Part II

Day II-Another gorgeous day, another bagel (so good.)
We started off this day of site seeing with the Metropolitan Museum of Art. I love, love, love art and museums are my fave. So art museums? Fabulous. Job was so excited to see the Golden Harpsichord in person (it's a music nerd thing apparently).
Impressionist paintings are some of my favorite so we enjoyed that beautiful section of the museum for the longest. In addition we went and saw the cool Egyptian exhibit they have there. The museum itself is a work of art, some of the rooms are gorgeous!

Next we did some more soulful gazing in Central Park. I just can't get enough of it.

Battery Park to take a look at our lady liberty was next. We didn't have time for a ferry ride over, but she was pretty from afar. I love what she represents.
Battery Park also has some great skyline views of the city.

We took a look at the Brooklyn Bridge and got to see some street performers who's main talent was asking for more and more money. I think they made a clean sweep that day. Maybe Job and I could have a future in street performing?!

Bleecker Street Pizza in the West Village was so yum. Plain cheese was our favorite believe it or not so if you go there make sure to get a slice. Something about the spices they put on it...I'm in love. 

Magnolia Bakery for dessert thankssomuch (Red velvet and German chocolate. Since you asked). We were happy food lovers that day.

The West Village also reminded me of Newbury Street here in Boston. I kept expecting Beyonce and her belly to walk by shopping or something.

So there you have it, our Thanksgiving 2011 trip to NYC. I'm already looking forward to next year :)

New York for Thanksgiving-Part I

Night 1-Job and I took our traditional Thanksgiving trip to New York City last week and had a blast. We got to stay longer this year, 2 nights and 2 days, which was a lot of fun. We started out taking the bus Wednesday night from Boston and got into New York around 11pm. We went on this trip with some friends, who has a friend, who lives in Harlem so we got to stay there which was so nice :) It was a really cool apartment, newly renovated and complete with exposed brick. Thanks Megan!

Day 1-After staying up way too late talking we slept in on Thanksgiving day. No parade for us this year. Which was ok, it was nice to relax and skip the crowds. After rolling out of bed we went to a little deli and got a bagel (me) and muffin (Job) for breakfast, then wandered on over to Central Park for a leisurely stroll. The weather was PERFECT our whole trip there. Seriously, we could not have asked for more beautiful days. The sun was out, it was cool but still warm, ahhhh so lovely.

Then we made our way over to our Thanksgiving host's apartment in the upper West side of Manhattan (she was our friend's aunt. Yup, they had all the connections ;). Aunt Kay was so nice, and the food was awesome. She had a big group over for the meal and let me tell you, it was the most eclectic, interesting group of people. Job and I loved it! Just what you would expect from a group of New Yorkers. They knew the city well, they all had interesting, unique personalities, they were talented, they enjoyed the arts, had interesting style, they had traveled all over the world; such a fun experience talking to everyone.

Night 2-After dinner and games (Charades. Awesomeness.) we headed out to wander the city for a few hours. Rockefeller center, Times square, Radio City Music Hall, 30 Rock, the cute LOVE statue thing (you know the one I mean?), etc, etc... Some street food to finish the night and we were set.

To be continued in part II :)

That holiday in October

Halloween has come and gone. Here's some hard cold facts about the Salazar family on this slightly odd, slightly fun, slightly creepy, and slightly sweet holiday (in no particular order): But first, you have to look at us.

1. Ward Party! Highlight of this aforementioned holiday. It's always a good time to see your fellow ward members (who you usually see in dresses and suits) rocking crazy costumes.

2. I put together Job and I's costumes (I made Job's shirt). I was a #2 pencil (note the green socks and pink eraser shoes ;) and Job was a piece of notebook paper.

3. Little announcement: I won the chili cook-off at the party! :) Ok I know this is tooting my own horn but I just had to throw that in there. I wasn't expecting to win and it was a fun surprise. I'll have to post the recipe here sometime. It was Chocolate Chipotle Chili. Yum. Oh, and I won a legit apron for it! Nice huh!

4. We passed out candy from our trunk to the kids from church which was fun. I made some flour-less PB cookies with kisses and reese's on them, wrapping them up all cute, but I underestimate the amount of kids so we ran out of those really quick. Primary president to the rescue with back up candy :)

5. At work on the 31st we went around the hospital and the kids did trick or treating. My patient suffered through it, frequently asking about Christmas haha :) Halloween is not his favorite ;)

6. I actually don't like sweets all that much. Only in small quantities and spaced out. WEIRD-O. I know.

7. We sadly didn't get any trick or treaters at our flat that night. We had a bowl full of candy all ready and everything. Oh well.

8. Our scary movie for this Halloween-The Witches. Remember watching that as a kid? Yeah I know, CREEPY! Though not as creepy as I remember it being as a kid. I guess because I am not longer a kid and out of danger of being turned into a mouse.

9. It snowed a few days before Halloween which made for some shivering trick or treaters. What? Last year we didn't get snow until December. It has been odd weather. (luckily the snow didn't stick)

10. Happy Halloween. Belated. (I just had to have a #10)

'Twas my man's birthday

We kept it chill. I wanted to be super wife and do a lot more, but alas I got as far as shopping for fun decorations and such but didn't find/make the time to actually put them up. But Job is relaxed and just wanted a simple birthday anyways so hey, my bad party planning skills work out o.k. I did make time to wrap his present at least :) Lace make it too girly ya think? haha I was having too much fun making the pom poms and using up scrap pieces of fabric.

The lowdown: Dinner at Not Your Average Joe's, watched Contagion, Gipsy Kings c.d., cake and ice cream with some friends (I made some German Chocolate icing that turned out pretty yummy, yay!).  Simple and fun. 27 is a great age. So I've heard. This guy pulls it off quite nicely.

Distinguished, but still loads of fun ;)

 Happy Birthday Jobito! 

I love you.

Father! - to God himself we cannot give a holier name. ~William Wordsworth

On a family trip to Disney Land. My dad LOVED Disney Land :)

I know I've posted this picture before. But can you blame me? It is a great representation of my dad and I's relationship. Fun, playful, loving, caring, close etc. He is also incredibly smart, funny, goofy, kind, outgoing, spiritual, musical, and adventurous. He passed away 1 1/2 years ago, but I  am so grateful for the knowledge that I will see him again someday. So while this holiday can be especially difficult, it also makes me appreciate all the great years I did have with my dad, and all the fun fathers days that I gave him tie cards and socks. He has made a huge impact on the woman I am today.

The longer I am married to Job the more I realize how much my dad and he are alike. In so many ways! (down to having "unique" names that people have a hard time getting correct ;) Might not look like it at first, but if you know each of them you can tell they have so many of the same wonderful and fun qualities. This gets me so excited to bring kids into our family someday because I know that Job is going to be an awesome dad to them, just like my dad was for me. Those lucky kidlets!! :)

Job with one of his nieces in his hometown of Monterrey, Mexico

My father-in-law has taught me so much in the short time I have been able to spend with him. He is patient, kind, hard-working, strong in the gospel, and a friend to his children. I know that Job has learned so many qualities a good man should have from his padre. So thanks Jose for teaching Job to be a gentleman! :)

The 1 week I have spent with mi suegro Jose when we lived in Las Vegas. I can't wait to spend more time with him and get to know him even better! :)

To my brother-You have the cutest kids ever! I take that to mean you have done something pretty great in being their dad ;) You are a good example to them, play with them, love your wife, provide for your family, and so much more. I am so proud of the wonderful father you are :)

Happy Father's Day!

Why June and I just mesh

June has some pretty persuasvie arguments on why it is the best month. *ahem* allow me to illustrate:

• My birthday (duh)
• It is in the middle of the year. We all know things in middle are the best (Why yes, I am a middle child, how did you guess?)
• My dad's birthday-he is one very cool guy
• Father's day-R-E-S-P-E-C-T, I like this holiday
• Flag Day-I love flags. Who doesn't?
• My mum and dad's anniversary-"they say when you marry in June, you're a bride all your life!!"
• Other important birthdays such as my precious niece, my bro-in-law, several good friends, a former prophet of our church who I loved a lot (President Hinckley. We share a birthday! I always felt cool about that.)
• The official start of summer-HellO!

This month also happens to be:

• Aquarium Month
• Candy Month
• Dairy Month
• Fight the Filthy Fly Month
• Gay Pride Month
• National Accordion Awareness Month
• National Adopt a Cat Month
• National Fresh Fruit and Vegetables Month
• Rose Month
• Turkey Lovers Month 

And boasts holidays such as:
National Bubba Day
Repeat Day (I said "Repeat Day")
Hug Your Cat Day
Name Your Poison Day
Flag Day
Eat Your Vegetables Day
International Panic Day
National Hollerin' Contest Day
National Splurge Day 
World Sauntering Day

And a host of others I have not included. Come on, how can this NOT be the best month?

Happy birthday/fathers day/holiday to everyone who celebrates something in June (everyone?)! Oh and for today, Happy Smile Power Day! :D

My Angel Mother

I am a day late with this. I could never be a "real" blogger because I am always at least a day behind everyone else.  Last night it was just because I was too busy having fun to blog. My dearest mum just happens to be here in Boston right this minute. And she was here yesterday for mothers day which was just fabulous. I have missed her so, so much since moving out here. She's amazing. I could go on for pages (do blogs have pages? hm.) But I will just say she is the best mum I could ever have and I will forever appreciate her sacrifice and love for me. I love you mum!

We have lots of fun Boston plans for this week since my mum and 3 younger sisters are here visiting. I can't wait to spend a whole week with these ladies that I love.

Girls trip to Rome years ago.

Wedding day. Obvi.

Mothers day in Mexico is the 10th of May. So to my sweet Suegra-Feliz Dia de las Madres! You raised my amazing husband and for that I will always be grateful :)

Easter Recap

Easter is such a beautiful holiday! With Spring in full force the weather was just perfect for the reason for the holiday-Christ and his Atonement and Resurrection for each of us. Job and I really tried to focus on Him this year and as such we had a wonderful Easter weekend. We did sneak some worldly fun in there as well ;) I wanted to start a few traditions with our little family of two.

Good Friday we went to see the BSO and Tanglewood choir perform Bach's Saint John Passion which is a piece about the crucifixion of Christ. It is traditionally performed on Good Friday so it was the perfect day to go. It was a beautiful concert! It made me so grateful for what Christ did for me, and excited to celebrate his resurrection on Sunday.

Saturday I went to the temple while Job did some school duties. After that we met up to take a friend out to the Natick mall and surrounding stores. We definitely stopped to eat Five Guys before shopping. Couldn't resist ;) Of course it was several dollars more expensive than it is in UT/ID, and no free fries, but I think I am getting used to the whole everything-is-more-expensive-here thing. It's life. And this place is so great that other things make up for it ;)

 When we got home I went into Easter bunny mode. I would have liked to do our secular celebrations (eggs, bunnies, chocolate etc.) on Saturday so as to not take away from Sunday's celebrations, but I was not organized enough to get things ready on Friday. So I dyed eggs and made our Easter baskets Saturday night. We hid each others so we could both have some fun in the morning.

Sunday morning we turned on Music and the Spoken Word (mormon tabernacle choir performance) and some Mormon Messages to help bring the spirit. We also searched for and found our little easter baskets, and I took my eggs out of their onion skin dye (yum! ;).

Church was excellent. I always feel so refreshed after attending church! Which is quite amazing considering it is usually a 4-5 hours block for us with meetings, choir practice, church classes etc. But I really do come home feeling so good each week. Job played his violin along with a mens quartet and a cello. They performed "This is the Christ" and it turned out really well.

Job made fish tacos and spinach soup for dinner, and then I made some strawberry shortcake for desert. Que rico!! (Dear posterity, What we ate for dinner is very important information to us. Just in case you couldn't already tell)

I now interrupt this normal programming to bombard you with a mass of pictures:

At the Symphony. Hello random head.

My onion skin dye. Appetizing, I know.

I made some little treats for a few friends. Little rice crispy treat "nests" with M&M "eggs". I also included a quote and scripture about Easter. Pretty cute if I do say so ;)

I like how these turned out. Soft and natural. I want to try more natural dyes next year.

I hope everyone had a wonderful Easter!

Patriot's Day! Part 2

The second part of our Patriot's day involved going to watch the runners of the Boston Marathon and cheer them on. It was amazing. They are amazing. The human body that God has given us can do amazing things! And there are all sorts of people running- old and young, in a wheelchair and on their feet, man and woman, it was just a cool thing to see. It was very inspiring and really made me want to take better care of the healthy body God gave me.
Job's dad is a really great runner so he got so excited when Job told him we were going to watch. We took a whole bunch of pictures for him and I can't wait to send them to him. 

As you can see, we were near mile 19 to watch the race. This is part of what is known as "heartbreak hill". It is a very difficult point in the race for most runners but they just kept going.
After the marathon we headed back home for some delicious Mexican food made by Job, and watched a little movie before Job had to go rehearse with his sextet. The day was awesome from 3:50 on and it was so fun to enjoy the wonderful activities Boston had going on. I love this city!

Patriot's Day! Part 1

I have never really appreciated Patriot's Day until this year. Boston has a whole slew of fun activities and events to enjoy :) A lot of people get the day off, including Job's school (yay!), so everyone was out enjoying the gorgeous Spring day.
We had to take our friend Spencer back to the airport that morning to catch a 6am flight so we were up at 3:50am to start our day. After we dropped Spency off we headed to Lexington, MA for a reenactment of the Battle of Lexington. Quick history lesson: It was the start of the revolutionary war, the first battle. And it happened after the famous Paul Revere and William Dawes midnight ride warning everyone that "the regulars are coming out!" (everyone was still British then remember? But the Redcoats/Regulars were the "badguys") . The reenactment was at 6am at the battle green in Lexington. It was so cool to be there where this huge part of history happened! The old tavern still stands across the street, and there is a cool minuteman statue at the corner of the green.
Job and I were not well prepared for the chilly morning, but we huddled with the crowd of people so it wasn't too bad :) I also realized that the batteries on our camera were dead once we got there. Gahh I was kicking myself. But luckily a little trick I use worked for a few quickly snapped pics. (Take out the batteries, switch places, put them back in, wait a few minutes, quickly take a pic, repeat :)
So here are a few we managed to get with our dying camera.

very hard to get a pic in the dark with a dying camera ;)

The sun rose as the battle commenced and it really was a gorgeous day! We are so glad we just went for it and decided to go even though we were dead tired. Totally worth it! :) After the battle we did go home and sleep for a couple of hours, building up energy for the next part of our day, the Boston Marathon! Yup, we built up energy to sit on the side lines and eat snacks as we watched other people run their hearts out ;) Another long winded post with a ton of pictures soon to come!

P.S. This was on our Bucket List! So we crossed that one off the list :) Though I think it will become a yearly tradition while we are here in Boston.