'Tis the Season

Anyone that knows me well, knows that I LOVE THE HOLIDAYS! My favorite time of year is from Halloween to New Years Eve. I love the parties, the music, the decorations (of course!) and most of all the spirit of the season. Everyone just seems to be happier and nicer in general. I start my Christmas music now the week of Thanksgiving, and that's all I listen to until after Christmas. It drives Jason a little bonkers, but that's ok, haha! I've got the house almost fully decorated, and I'm so excited this year about our tree. We bought it for close to 75% off last year the week after Christmas and it's pre-lit with white lights. I love it! I also found some great deals at Home Depot last year on Christmas decor, (thanks DEZ!). It's so fun to see what I can find right after Christmas for the following year.

Ang and the kids have been in town, and we have had such a fun time! She took some pics of me and J last week, and I really appreciate her. I should have our Christmas card mailed out in a few days, and every year I look forward to everyone's Christmas cards and pictures.

This will be the first Christmas without my grandma. I have missed her so much, and I think about her all the time. She is one of my most favorite people in the world. She always made Christmas special for us kids. I will be missing her terribly.

My anesthesia lab is almost over for this semester, and it's been very interesting. For the most part it's been great, but we have a few "cry babies" in the class. One in particular - SO DRAMATIC! Just buck up, and take it in the mouth! haha. They have to give each other injections every Wed. and it takes me back to my days in school. What a time! The semester is over in January, and then my little babies will be in their LAST semester before they graduate as hygienists! I think this class will always be special to me because I started with them on their first day on my first day as an instructor. We will be welcoming a brand new class in Feb. to start it all over again. Wow!

I hope everyone is well and that this Christmas season will be happy and bright for all!

Too much to blog....SO

I am completely overwhelmed right now. I was thinking I really wanted to update my blog, but I have about 100 things I wanted to post about and don't really know what to start with. Jason and I have been SOO busy and a lot has happened in the last month.

So until my brain feels less overwhelmed and I can sort through my pictures, here is what I wanted to blog about.

My fabulous sister Angela is an AMAZING photographer and will be here in town the week of Thanksgiving through the following week which is the first week of December. She is already booking appointments while she is here, for family photos for Christmas cards, etc. So I wanted to let all my peeps know if you want some pictures taken for Christmas and you want a really great job done, for VERY reasonable prices. Contact me, or you can contact her directly through the link below.

Check out her photography blog and on the right hand side there are categories; click on "Family" and you can see examples of different family photos she's taken recently.

Angela Salazar Photography:

http://imcapturingmoments.blogspot.com/

Until next time.... :)

We will miss Grandma Jo -

Today Jason's grandma Jo passed away at the hospital in Primghar, Iowa. She will be missed so much, especially I think the most by Jason's mom - they are best friends. But I am so excited that her spirit has been able to meet up again with her husband whom she has missed so very much for 9 long years. When we got the call this afternoon, I was picturing their reunion, and how sweet and joyful it must have been! They are together again, and I KNOW she is SO happy! I never met Grandpa Gordon, but I've heard so many stories and I know how much Grandma Jo loved him.
I will never forget how loving and caring Grandma Jo always was to me. She is one of the kindest people I have ever met and she was always thinking about others. She loved her family with all her heart. The first time I met her, she told me that she had told Jason a while before that he would meet his wife at church, and sure enough he did!
We are going to miss her sweet smile and seeing her when we visit, but I'm so happy she is in a better place. We love you Grandma Jo!

Sisters Weekend in Vegas

I had such a fun weekend with my Ang, Ash, and the kids this weekend. It was a nice break from here, even though I was missing my Jason like crazy!

Ash wanted to get a happy meal with the lego toy in it. Well, it ended up being a little toy gun
that got tossed out the window on the drive back. hahaha, sorry Ash.


The kids were taking naps so we thought we would try to get a few pictures of all of us.

I love this picture!

I can picture Ashlee saying, "mmm, uh huh"

These 2 little cuties love to watch their videos together. They were watching Lion King here, and about 5 other times during the weekend!

Cute little friends sitting in their "hippo" pool in the living room watching a church video on Sunday.

Angela and Christian went out on Saturday night, and Ash and I watched the kids. We had so much fun! We took them to the park to play and then they wanted "The Golden Spoon" (we had nothing to do with the choice of the place, haha!) Kayla insisted on having a cone and so we got both of them a cone. They looked so cute with their chocolate coated faces!

Oh Buddy!

Sweet little girl!

We took the kids to The Mirage to the dolphin habitat and also to see the lions and tigers. It was only $15 to get in and free for kids! It really was such a neat place. The kids loved it and so did I. There were tiger cubs that were a few weeks old and also a baby dolphin who had just been born not even a week before. It was adorable swimming with its momma - when the mom would come out of the water so would the baby. The kids loved it! There was also an underground part where you could see the pool where the dolphins are from underneath. This is my absolute FAVORITE picture. Notice the dolphin's face in the above picture. It was swimming right toward the window with this look on its face like, "Hello, I'm totally oblivious to everyone and everything and I'm just swimming along minding my own business." Then of course Ashlee had to imitate, so we took the next picture...........

Seriously, it's one of those "you had to be there" moments, but nobody can appreciate this picture like I can! haha, I was laughing so hard uploading the picture :)

You could get right up next to the pools, and see the dolphins swim up really close.

Show off

The trainers come out periodically and feed the dolphins and have them do little tricks.

Baby tiger cub

This lion wasn't concerned with modesty that day....

Sleeping white tiger

In the lobby at The Mirage

LOVE THIS PICTURE OF ASH!

I love my sisters! (Annie, we missed you! But we know you are having much more fun at BYU!)

Sweet baby girl

Baby Whalen is here! I had the chance to go down and see Hillary today and see the new baby. She is so precious! Even though she remains to be nameless, she is a little angel. She made little baby sounds as she was sleeping, but that was it. Not a peep! Hillary's mom was there and put a beautiful pink bow that she made on the front and back of Hillary's door - it was so cute. Of course I had to open the flood gates when I first saw her. It is such a neat and spiritual experience to be around a brand new baby. I think she looks like Hillary :) Love you Hill! I'm so glad she's here and that you both are doing great!

Fabulous Girls Night Out

Last night, we took Sara out for her birthday which is tomorrow, August 7th. We had SO much fun! We went to Oregano's, Sara's choice, but we definately all agreed on it - it's one of my fave's! Sara got her favorite, The Big Rig pasta with shrimp and I had it with chicken. DELICIOUS! Chelsea and Hillary shared the yummy picasso salad.

I had a stressful 2 days of work, and I really needed a fun night out with my girlfriends. We had some really good laughs and my favorite was when we got on the subject of laser hair removal. **IF YOU ARE EASILY OFFENDED DO NOT CONTINUE TO READ!** HAHA
We were picking Chelsea's brain about how it feels and what the process is like and all the details of it, since Chelsea is the expert. Of course pubic hair had to come up, so right as our PIZZA COOKIES came out, Sara blurted out, "There's just something about pubes..." and right then our waiter said, "ok, here's your pizzookie" I think we all peed our pants just a little because we were laughing so hard!

Hillary gave us some "good" insight on the joys of pregnancy as well, so we're all real excited now about giving birth. haha!

Thanks girls for such a fun night! Love you all! There's nothing like having wonderful friends in my life - I am very blessed :)

PS. Happy Birthday tomorrow Sara!

Last day of Primary

Today closed a very fun chapter in my life with my CTR 5 class in primary. It seems like just when I get comfortable in a calling, I am called to something else. But I have learned that this is how we grow the most. I wish I had a picture of the little cuties in my class to post, however I don't! Even though I don't have kids of my own yet, Heavenly Father has sure blessed me with some wonderful children in my life. So Case, Elise, Max, Kaylynn, Erin, Umbin, and Courtney - I will miss you a lot and will come visit. I love you all so much, and am very grateful for all that you have taught me!

I will now be in Young Women again, and I am really excited! I am back as the YW secretary and it was fun being in class with the girls today. With a new presidency the dynamics will be different in there, but for the good! It's good to be back :)

Jury Duty

Yesterday I had the lovely opportunity of serving my community by being a trial juror. I was really nervous that I would be selected because I knew that today I was working almost 12 hours at the school and had special tutoring sessions lined up that have taken weeks to schedule.
When I first got there, we had to watch a short video on the whole process and then you just sit and wait for your name to be called. About an hour later they put in Miss Congeniality for whoever wanted to watch it, and I was so excited about that! I love that movie! Then about 30 minutes into the movie, my name was called along with about 40 other people to go up to a courtroom to possibly be selected for a jury. The process was very long, with tons of questions from the judge and attorneys. It took the rest of the day until about 3:30 just to select the jury! The whole process was very interesting, and had it been one of my days off for the trial, I would've loved to have seen the outcome. However, since I told the judge about how when I was 11 years old I was shot in the hand by my neighbor and thought the whole thing was handled poorly by the police, I was excused. YEAH!!
Some jobs will pay their employees for jury duty, but not with my schedule. It's great working part-time, but I have no benefits, vacation time, or personal time to take. If I don't work, I don't get paid, so the days I do work are very precious!
I think my favorite part of the day was hearing people's excuses for why they could not serve on a jury. I realized a lot of the general public are morons ( I already knew this) but the guy that exclaimed, "I don't believe in the justice system" almost got a laugh out loud from me. I was grateful to do my duty for one day and am glad it's over! :)

Long time no blog...

Things I've been grateful for lately:











Well helllooooo! It's been a long time, and after being almost stoned to death about not updating my blog, (not naming any names, Hailey and Sheri - hee hee) I am FINALLY posting.

This afternoon after work I went to visit my friend Chelsea W. at her Med Spa - she is an AWESOME esthetician. I had my very first Microderm Abrasion. It was FANTASTIC! The picture above is me after I got home from the procedure. The way Chels described it was like the feeling of a cat's tongue on your skin, which is exactly what it felt like - scratchy. But in a good way. I was so relaxed I almost fell asleep. After the treatment she put this cherry serum on that is full of antioxidants and helps your skin breathe in oxygen better. My skin feels AMAZING and I can't wait to go back. Thanks again Chels!

Things I'm SO grateful for also that are not pictured above: DEZ!! and Geoff too, (dang it, my pictures would not upload right), Angela (your arm is in one picture ha!) my mom, the best FRIENDS, music, the gospel, my jobs, family, grandparents, tender mercies, GOLDEN SPOON, babies, LOVE, understanding, Seinfield, The King of Queens, laughter, smiles, students, cell phones, home phones - hee hee, CHIEN & KODI - congrats on your new bundles of joy - can't wait to talk to you both!


**COMING SOON - Pictures from NY... I promise!!**

Happy Birthday Jason - Wed. May 28th!

I am 2 days late writing this, but I know that Jason understands. Happy Birthday to my honey! Wednsday was a good day for Jason. I made him chocolate chip cookies and brought them to his office. Then we went to lunch at Rubio's (yum!) Later I made Jason's mom's recipe of Goulash for dinner. His exact words were, "MMMmm, just like mom's :)" Jason doesn't like birthday cake, so I made another one of his mom's recipes - cherry dessert which also was a hit. I'm glad it turned out because it was my first time making it. Then a couple friends came over to have dessert and open presents. We were both exhausted at the end of the day! So I wanted to share some fun things about Jason to celebrate him and his birthday.

-Jason is one of the most honest and sincere people I've ever met. I admire him for that.
-I can talk to Jason about anything - He is my best friend and I love him for that.
-He always puts a different perspective on things, often helping me make decisions for the better.
-He is a loving son, and loves and admires and respects his parents very much.
-He is a momma's boy, and is very nostalgic about him mom and the food she made him growing up! haha
-Jason has an open mind about so many things. When I really like something and want him to try something, or have an idea that I want him to listen to, he ALWAYS will. And most of the time, he likes it or agrees with me which is fun.
-Jason is a great listener, and usually gives me his full attention (unless golf is on or he is thinking about golf ) haha
Ok, so now on to the golf subject...
-Jason LOVES golf, anything to do with the sport.
-He is a FANTASTIC golfer and really has a talent for it.
-He always looks great and he says no matter how you play, you always have to look good! He owns probably a 100 golf shirts and over a dozen pairs of golf shoes!
-He fits in great with my family, and I LOVE that he loves my sisters so much.
-He is a wonderful brother-in-law and my sisters love him very much.
-Unlike me and most of my family, he is pretty quiet during things that are funny - movies, comedy stuff, whatever.. but then he will laugh out loud hours later about something - it cracks me up!
-Jason pretty much saved "our little boy" Will the cat. I thought he was dead and told him to go dispose of him, but he paid close attention and realized he was still breathing. At 2 days old, it's hard to see a tiny kitty breathing!
-Jason is the hardest worker that I know. He is so reliable and you can always count on him. Often times, he has been the only person to show up for service projects!
-He is always willing to serve, and helps people move all the time. He would do anything for anyone.
-He loves to travel and see new places.
-He is very organized and this is another reason why we are good match - that is not one of my strengths and he balances me that way.
-He is so intelligent and he knows so many facts about so many things. He often refers to them as useless facts, but I call it knowledge.. hee hee
-He can beat anyone at trivial pursuit - Dad, I think he could even take you!
-He loves airplanes and can tell you any model of any one. Impressive!
-He loves movies and just hanging out at home.
-He loves the church and the gospel and knows more about it than I do only being a member for about 5 years.

Jason I love you and am so grateful you are apart of my life. It wouldn't be the same without you!