Reason #256

Nicole is awesome because.... well, she is!  A sweeter person doesn't exist.  She loves to have a clean home and take care of her things.  She respects people's possessions and that is pretty awesome!  Wednesday is cleaning and laundry day without fail, and she gets a lot of satisfaction out of that day.

She is awesome!

Another reason....

Cookies!

Nicole is the type of gal that loves cookies.  She always has the ingredients ready to go, we might not have food for dinner, but you better bet that we have stuff to make cookies!

I love her cookies.

That's why Nicole is awesome!

Sweet Little Nikki Was Born!

Sweet Little Nikki Was Born!

Nicole and me—she is a darling baby!!!

Our sweet baby Nikki is born June 22, 1979 and weighed 8 pounds 6 ½ ounces.
We named her Nicole Christine Burke. She was easy to fall asleep and cried so
quietly and sweetly. Art would get her and put her in bed, which was a no-no before
that.
I spoiled both Nicole and Jennifer thinking that Jenn would be our last child. So,
they both demanded my attention. I use to carry one on each hip plus my diaper bag.
I carried Nikki until she was 10 years old—her foot reached my ankles.
Nicole was and is a fiercely independent girl! When I dropped her off to
kindergarten she wanted me to leave before she got through the gate.
She is very artistic in every way—drawing pictures (her artistic talent was pointed
out by her nursery school teacher and primary president, Kathy Miller); taking pictures;
decorating; and creating things. She will read up on how to do something and do it—
that is what her Dad does, a very good trait to have. For instance in 2011 she started
a part time job with Paseo Pacifico, a non-profit environmental group, and she had to
put a year and a half of accounting into QuickBooks and she watched and looked at
tutorials on how to do it and she did! It is amazing! Then a few months later her boss
sent her to Nicaragua to teach the accountants there how to use quick books but later
realize that they need to something that did the money exchange rate. Oh well.
Nicole graduated from Santa Barbara High School with honors and was

accepted into BYU. She attended for 3 years and decided to go on a mission. She
was called to go to the Colombia South Carolina Mission from July 2000 to December
2001. As she reflect on her mission she said it was hard work and exhausting but
worth it.
After her mission she went back to BYU and got her degree in Sociology and a
minor in Business. Since there were not job available to her she decided to go to
Taiwan to teach English to little children. She was there for 6 months—so far, and that
was hard on me to have her so far. She came back and a job was difficult for her to
find—she was home for a while, to Salt Lake City—where she lived nicely in a two
bedroom two bath apartment for $500, but she just didn’t feel right about it, she
decided to go to Architecture school in San Diego and came home to make money and
move to San Diego. It was hard at first to move to San Diego—she was new there and
lonely and school was not at all what she thought it would be and she realize her heart
was not into Architecture. But she started establishing herself there and found many
church friends that she is still friends with. She worked at a photographer for schools—
which she received several monetary awards for her photos, she taught dancing to
elementary school children—they performed at the Del Mar Fair and they were cute,
she also worked for financial planning insurance company, I think it was John
Hancock. She was playing sports, had a lot of friends so she was sad to leave San
Diego. I think it was her favorite place to live.
Nicole has worked for Weight Watchers first as a receptionist and now a leader
for 2 or more years. She has a meeting in Carpenteria and in Thousand Oaks—she
visits with Jenn and the boys when she is finished in Thousand Oaks. Last year, she
had a meeting at Westmont College in Montecito. In September she had 57 WW
members show up at her meeting—that is very good. Russ and Hina for a year or
more did Weight Watcher by themselves with help from me and mostly Nikki. They
lost a lot of weight but they plateaud and wanted help so they actually joined. I believe
they have lost close to 80 to 100 pounds together.
One of Nicole’s sweetest traits is her extreme sensitivity but yet it brings her
sorrow and tears because she is easily hurt by things and by people. She even hurts
and cries for other people. She works hard to be positive and still works on it on a
regular bases. Sometimes I don’t know what to do. When she turns this into her
strongest trait, she will be incredibly awesome! Well, it is July 2011 and Nikki has
made great progress in her life—it is rosier and better. I feel she is happy. She gets
the credit for working so hard but I wonder if it helps to know that her friend, Stacie and
her sister, Jennifer, are in California. And Jennifer is only 20 minutes away for her
now—that is a great blessing. She says she is happy about it!
One of Nicole’s strongest points is in all her difficulties dealing with what life has

dealt her she is always faithful—she prays and studies her scriptures, goes to the
temple on a regular bases, reads the Ensign all the way through every month for
several years, does her calling as a teacher and a leader, supports Andy in his
leadership calling, has and does read a lot of spiritual books, etc. Jenn and I are
impressed with this since we fall short of doing all this.
November 2011 has been very difficult for Nicole, she is very ill and her liver
count is very high. They ruled out hepatitis and not quite sure it is mono. She is still
slowly recovering after a month. She still isn’t working her full 30 hours yet at Paseo
Pacifica. She wasn’t feeling well, then she had to travel to Nicaragua for business and
when she got back she was worse, that is when they found out that her liver account
wasn’t right.

Nicole was sealed to Andres “Andy” Jose Salazar in the Los Angeles Temple on
July 11, 2009. It was a beautiful ceremony in the temple by Brother Payne and a
wonderful luau style reception at the Santa Barbara Building garden area. Ikaika,
Hina’s brother, did the catering. Hina was in charge of the program—Hawaiian
dancing and singing. Nicole did a beautiful dance that Hina choreographed. Many of
our friend and family showed up and it was extra wonderful. The day was perfect—not
too hot, just right.

Art introduced Andy and Nikki to each other through email after getting Nikki’s
permission. We knew they would hit it off and they did. Nicole moved back home after
about 7 months. It was hard for her to leave San Diego—she had many friends and

had established herself there and had so much going for her. But Andy wasn’t there.
He lived in Ventura and moving back home was a good decision. We knew Andy and
his family when Art was the Bishop in the University Ward, then we met him again at a
Single Adult Conference dance and was very impressed at the growth he made
dealing with his divorce. He has two beautiful daughters, Isabella “Bella” and Helenna.
They are easy to love and Helenna said she enjoys talking to me because I listen and
talk to her. She is so sweet!

Since Andy and Nicole got back from their honeymoon, in Hawaii, they have
been struggling. Andy was laid off the day he got back from their honeymoon and he
just got a permanent job a few months ago in 2011 that he is not very excited about.
But with the economy being so bad—it is good he has a paying job. I don’t think they
think they are so lucky.
We are very fortunate, Nicole and Andy live only 40 minutes away, in Ventura,
from us and I am able to stop by and visit her almost every week. Now that Jenn is
here I visit with her, and then go to Westlake to visit Jenn and boys.

Why Nicole is awesome Blog!

Because it's her birthday!

Stay tuned for this place to see more reasons's why we love Nicole!