New Year's Resolutions

So last year I listed Brandon's and my resolutions for 2011. Let's see how we did:

Dana's:

1. Read at LEAST one new book a month outside of classes. (Nope, I was probably pretty close but reading for classes took up a lot of my time.) 

2. Run a half-marathon in April! (HA! I think I was committed to doing this for like a month.)

3. Don't do drugs. (I did do this one! YAY!)

Brandon's:

1. Do better in classes and at work. (He did accomplish this. Last semester was his best semester so far and he has done well at work and will be starting at H&R Block next week.)

2. Get into better shape and run the St. George marathon. (He did half of this. I think he has gotten into better shape, but he didn't run a marathon.) 

3. Not to commit a hate crime. (As far as I know he did not commit a hate crime.)

Well, maybe this year will be better. Here are my resolutions for 2012:

1. Read 26 books. This means I will read one book every two weeks. I really think this will be doable because I am done with my literature courses.

2. Get into better shape. Basically for this I want to build some muscle and get into a more routined exercise habit.

3. Break some really bad language habits I have:

a. I never say the word "to" so basically a sentence I might say is "I go Montana." Yeah, it is pretty bad...

b. Work on pronouns. I have found that if I am tired or if I am talking about multiple people I mix up pronouns (like I will refer to a guy as a girl). 

c. Stop ending sentence with either "so" or "and such." I keep reminding myself that this now how I should end a sentence. When I am done with a sentence I should just be done and not insert filler words.

3. Do my 60 days for student teaching consecutively. This is an easy one. Basically I need to be at school during a regular school day for 60 days. If I don't miss a day I will be done April 2. I don't plan on missing unless I am deathly ill, but I have started taking airborne and I think that has been helping my immune system.

4. Don't do drugs! (This way I know now that I will keep at least one resolution for sure.)

Brandon's:

1. Get into better shape. 

Happy New Year Everyone!

Sleep Talking: Round 2

I had written before that Brandon often talks in his sleep, but the other night he probably did the strangest thing I have ever seen him do in his sleep. As you know, we recently got a cat and one night I woke up and for some reason I thought Brandon's arm was our cat so I started petting it (obviously I do weird things too when I sleep). Well, I guess this kind of startled Brandon and he put his hands on my cheeks and stared at me and screamed, "Stop looking retarded!" He then went back to sleep.

Cooking Efficiently

This might be a really lame post, but hey maybe it will inspire some people.

So the past couple of months Brandon and I have been awful about cooking and eating meals at home. For the most part Brandon would just have Panda Express every time he worked and I would get some other fast food item. Of course this isn't really healthy and isn't so good for our bank account.

We started discussing what we could do to improve this and Brandon came up with the idea that on Sundays we make three meals and freeze some of them and put the rest in the fridge. Today marked the second week of doing this and so far it has been great!

AND that is it for this blog post. We really are boring people. This is the most exciting thing going on in our lives besides having a cat.

Meet Sam

For the a while now Brandon and I have been talking about getting a dog when we move up north. We have been doing research on it and then we actually started looking at cats. Brandon's parents have a couple of cats and even though I consider myself more of a dog person depending on the cat I actually do like them (even though no one in my family does and I am pretty sure they have all disowned me). After talking some more about it we decided while we live in an apartment we will have a cat and then when we get a house we will eventually get a dog (and keep the cat). 

When we moved into this apartment our lease said no pets; however, our landlords are getting a divorce and they are splitting up all of their properties and because of this there have been some minor changes. Brandon and I decided to take a risk and ask what the chances would be of getting a cat. At first our landlord was kind of hesitant because she had learned recently about her soon to be ex-husband saying that some other tenants could have 24 chickens in their duplex. That's right, 24 chickens. After thinking about it though she decided a cat would be okay.

Brandon and I decided we would adopt a cat, and we decided we also wanted to get a full-grown cat because we wouldn't be able to give a kitten as much attention. We found an animal rescue place in Cedar City and we found the sweetest male cat who is almost two, is neutered, has had his shots, is litter box trained, and is house trained. We decided to name him Sam.

Now, we knew that for a couple of days Sam was going to be more shy at our place than the center because it is a new environment. He explored the apartment some (and was actually very good at listening to me when I told him not to go somewhere, like around power cords) and after exploring he decided he just wanted to chill under our guest bed:

Brandon was able to get him to come out some this morning. We got really excited about this and actually ended up scaring him and he went into hiding again; unfortunately he didn't go under the bed and we couldn't find him. We searched EVERYWHERE and a few hours later I finally found him hiding in a little space in our TV stand, and by the way he is not in this picture I just wanted to show where he was hiding:

My guess is that he liked how warm the computer is. Well, I moved the computer and he sprinted underneath the bed again. Luckily, he didn't chew on any of the computer cords or go to the bathroom. Once he isn't as shy I will teach him that he can't hide back there. 

Halloween!

I normally am not a huge fan of Halloween, but this year was actually a lot of fun! The Thursday before Kenzie, Christian, and Kyle came over to carve pumpkins. Kyle actually made a casserole that was baked inside a pumpkin; it was really good! 

Kenzie getting really excited about carving her pumpkin:

 Kyle, Brandon, and Christian:

Here is Brandon and me with our pumpkin. I actually don't really like carving pumpkins and so Brandon gutted it, I drew the face, and Brandon carved it:

Kenzie and her vampire pumpkin:

Christian also did a vampire, and this is him imitating his pumpkin's face:

This is Kyle's pumpkin, which is a hillbilly:

All the finished pumpkins:

We also got cupcakes and they came with rings, and this is me wearing the rings from the two cupcakes I had:

On Halloween we went over to the University Journal's operation manager's, John Gholdston (Captain), house. He LOVES Halloween, and actually his anniversary is on Halloween. Unfortunately, his wife died five years ago, but despite that he still loves the holiday and has a party every year. He also has one of the most elaborately decorated houses I have ever seen:

 (There was actually one trick-or-treater who called it the best Halloween house.)

Captain's kid Buddy, Buddy's wife, and their adorable son John live with Captain. He is seriously one of the cutest kids I have ever met, besides my nieces and nephews:

I know everyone in my family will make fun of me for this, but we had a group-themed costume. All of us were characters from Buffy the Vampire Slayer:

I was Buffy's best friend Willow, who is a witch, and Brandon was Willow's boyfriend Oz, who is a werewolf:

Kenzie was Buffy:

Captain was a vampire:

Kyle was Angel, a vampire who I am pretty sure Edward is based off of (except Edward is more of a wimp). I think Joss Wheddon should sue Stephenie Meyer):

Christian was a villain named Caleb who poses as a priest. After being introduced to Caleb I developed a fear of southern priests:

Overall it was a great night!

Camp Kesem Update

Sorry another solicitation; I am going to blog about Halloween this weekend.

This week we learned about Friends of Kesem, basically it allows people to make donations online! So if you are interested here is the link, please make sure to select Camp Kesem Southern Utah University with the donation.

Just an update on camp, because this is a big part of my life right now. We finally have all the coordinators we need and we are doing our FIRST fundraiser next week! We worked with Panda Express and next Saturday anyone who brings in a specific flyer Camp Kesem will get 20-percent of those proceeds. I am really excited for this and I am even going to force myself to buy/eat some just for the cause!

Camp Kesem

I will warn readers now this is a solicitation, but I would appreciate it if you read it:

This year I have volunteered to help out with a children's camp called Camp Kesem. Camp Kesem is a children's camp for kids who either have/had parents suffering from cancer. The camp is run by college students (only selected universities) and the goal is to allow kids to have some time to just be a kid and to interact with other kids who can relate to how they feel. It is a great opportunity for these kids and I am privileged to be one of the co-chairs so I am helping quite a bit.

Now here comes the solicitation...for our camp to be successful this summer we need to raise at least $20,000; thankfully LiveStrong has offered to help Camp Kesems across the country by saying once an individual college raises $10,000 then they will match that amount. At SUU we are going to be doing a lot of fundraisers but one of the fundraisers is a letter campaign. What each of us are supposed to do is send letters to people we know asking if they might want to donate. I really have never been the type to just bother people without notice and so what I am asking if any readers are interested in donating (or knows someone who is interested) would you please either leave a comment with your address or send me an e-mail to dana.s.savage@gmail.com. I am not asking for large donations (unless you want to), I am planning on donating but we do need more.

Here is some more information on Camp Kesem if you would like to know more about the organization.

Thank you for reading and for any help you might be willing to give!

Fish and Study Group

Backstory time! Over two years ago two of our really good friends Jen and Lance Empey got married. I have known Jen since I was 17 and we both started dating our husbands around the same time. We would go on double dates whenever I came up to Orem and we all got along really well, which Jen and I both loved. When Jen and Lance got engaged she asked if I would be a bridesmaid and of course I said yes and Brandon and I made plans to make sure we would be up there. On the day of the wedding I let Jen know that whatever she needed help with Brandon and I would be happy to do whatever she asked. She actually did ask us if we could go buy some goldfish that would be put in flower vases which were the centerpieces at the reception. We ended up buying I think close to 20 fish and I thought they looked really nice with the centerpieces. On that day Brandon decided he really wanted to buy a fish so a couple of weeks later I went with him to Walmart to buy a beta fish and over two years later this fish is still alive.

Brandon named him Fishy (creative, I know) and Fishy has gone through a lot. First off, when Fishy lived at Brandon's, Brandon wasn't very good at taking care of him (such as cleaning the bowl and feeding him). When we got married we came up with a system to take better care of him, but still Fishy has survived when we leave him to go on vacations and such for days at a time. Here are some pictures of our first pet:

On to the next topic...this semester Brandon has been really busy with his courses and him and some classmates have made a study group. They meet a couple times a week for sometimes for like 5 hours. One of the members in the group is in our ward and I am friends with his wife. Her name is Randee and I actually consider her one of the first friends I made in my ward. Well we decided that we should start hanging out during these study groups if we didn't have too much homework. So far we have only hung out once, but it was a lot of fun. One of her other friends came over and we actually did a Halloween craft. We made a pumpkin by using toilet paper, newspaper, material, and cardboard. I though it turned out really cute:

Brandon's 25th Birthday!

On Sunday it was Brandon's 25th birthday! Since it was Sunday and also General Conference weekend we just stayed home all day and relaxed. 

Here is a picture of me with the birthday boy!

Later that night we had some friends come over for cake and ice cream. Brandon requested that I make this cake that I made on Valentine's Day. It is a really good chocolate mousse cake from a family cookbook and I think it turned out really well:

Us with the cake (yes, I was very proud of it):

Singing "Happy Birthday" and Brandon blowing out the candles:

Rappelling

On Wednesday I went rappelling with my friends Kyle, McKenzie, and McKenzie's friend from her mission Ixel. (Brandon wasn't able to come because he was working a double that day.) This was my first time rappelling because I don't count the time at Girl's Camp when I rappelled off of a board. Our friend Kyle is an Outdoor Recreation major and has a lot of experience with rappelling and other outdoor activities. He actually used to be in charge of the ropes course at a Boy Scout camp in Beaver. 

Getting ready:

Me!

It was so pretty up there!

Some pictures of us waiting to start:

This was the cliff we went down it was about 30 feet:

Kyle and McKenzie going down:

This is me before I went down. I was the last one to go so I was the only one at the top:

I hated it the first time. I got down to the bottom and I felt like I was going to throw-up. I am pretty sure that had to do with the fact that I hadn't been drinking as much as I should've that day. It is actually kind of ironic because it seems like whenever I do an active activity with Kenzie usually that day I don't eat as well or drink as much, any other day I usually do a lot better. I really didn't want to go down again but then Kyle showed Kenzie a couple more techniques to make it a lot easier so I decided I would try again and do these new things. It was A LOT better after that. 

Here are some pictures of me rappelling (this was my second time):

Camping!

Last night Brandon and I went camping at Cedar Canyon with our friend Christian. Even though I don't go very often I really do like camping. I love being outdoors, the smell of nature, seeing wildflowers, campfires, the food, and sleeping on the ground inside a tent. Even though this site was a pretty one of the things I didn't like is it was kind of close to a switchback on the road. It wasn't too bad but next time I want to go somewhere that is a lot further away from the main road.

Here is a picture of our campsite and a very attractive picture of me:

Brandon and Christian decided to get the fire going. So here are some pictures that go along with that:

 They were entranced by the flames:

We don't have a lot of our camping supplies so we rented some at the Outdoor Center on campus. For the most part they have good quality products. This "circus tent," however,  is not one of them:

(note all the openings along the bottom of the tent.)

Now, here comes the part where everyone has permission to hang and shake their head and think, "Oh Dana and Brandon what were you thinking?" The reason why you can do this is because as the night went on it started to have some scattered showers. We realized our tent was most likely going to leak and we knew it would be uncomfortable. We started talking about what to do and then Brandon and I decided we might as well go buy a tent. Brandon had gotten a nice bonus check that day and we really do want to go camping more so we figured might as well. So Christian and Brandon went back to town to get a tent. (Random side-story after they left within five minutes the fire went out. I then spent the next hour trying to get it going again. I never could and I realized my days at girls' camp had failed me.) 

Here is our new tent though where we stayed nice and dry all night:

These couple of pictures are kind of random but during the night I noticed a tiny green light on the ground:

It was on a stick and so Brandon picked it up and we realized it was a glow worm! I have never seen one before and I thought it was so cool. Here is a very blurry picture of it:

(after taking a picture we set the stick gently on the ground out of harms way. Some bird probably ate it this morning though.)

Another thing I LOVE about camping is I love making smores! There are a few people I want to meet and thank when I get to heaven and one of those people is the man/woman who invented smores (I also want to thank the man/woman who invented maple donuts.)

We found these freakishly large marshmallow at the store and so we got them:

In the morning we decided to drive up to the overlook and that shows quite a few features of Zion National Park:

Here is Brandon and me at the overlook:

(I wanted to do a group shot but Christian refused to be in it.)

To wrap it all up, here is Brandon at our apartment this morning trying to fit one of those marshmallows in his mouth:

We are planning on going camping again in September and go to Bryce Canyon and stay there Friday and Saturday night. We just need to pick a weekend that isn't Labor Day weekend because I rather not deal with those huge crowds!