Thursday, October 27, 2011

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!

Sunday, October 16, 2011

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:


Tuesday, October 4, 2011

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: