Valentine's Day Gift For Him

I looked around for ideas for gifts for my husband for Valentine's day, but I couldn't find much that was up his alley. Most of the ideas people gave seemed like they were a bit of a joke. Gag gifts are fun, but not for the prices these were asking for. Others were thoughtful, but not something my husband would really appreciate. (Per example, an engraved guitar pick. Really neat, but neither of us play guitar.)

I'm an interesting combination of my parents when I'm trying to think of a gift. Like my mom, I try to think of something that is meaningful and sentimental. Like my Dad, I like to get people practical things that they have mentioned wanting or needing. So, I've tried to come up with both of these for Cam.

He's been saying that he wants a few pictures for his desk at work. He also likes motivational quotes and scriptures and things to work on memorizing. When he's at work I try to send him encouraging emails whet he get's tired or bogged dow, but I have a feeling that will be harder to do frequently once the baby is here.

So, I got a whole bunch of pictures printed of the two of us (I'll get him some of Baby when he comes) and printed out some nice quotes to go with them.

I was originally going to write all of the quotes by hand, but I've been teaching myself how to use photoshop and I love it, so I ended up doing them on the computer and then printing them with the other photos. I forgot that to get good quality you need to save it as a JPG not a PNG. Whoops.

Some of the quotes are motivational, others are just silly and hopefully will help him laugh and smile when work is boring or hard.

Same with the pictures. Some are sweet, and others are silly.

I was going to hang them all on one big piece of paper so that Cameron wouldn't have to pin them each individually to his cork board in the office, but he wanted to take them this morning when I showed them to him, so I guess that leaves more time for me to finish tidying up the house and getting ready for dinner tonight.

For our Valentine's Day date we went to see Frozen this afternoon (finally,) then tonight we're making breakfast for dinner! I may or may not also have plans for some 'better than whatever' cupcakes from the Cocoa Bean at some point this weekend. YUM.

What are some of your favorite Valentine's day gifts for your husband? What are your favorite gifts that you've received?

Puffs Plus and Peanut Butter M&Ms

I'm a little bit of a tissue snob. I got sick a lot growing up, and in the last 24 hours I used an entire box of tissues, pretty much single-handedly. I think Cam used less than 5 of them. And when you use that many tissues, your nose can tell the difference between knock-off brand lotion tissues and the real deal. My face is pretty red at the moment. Last night around 9pm I finished off our last box of tissues and had to ask my poor husband to go get more because we choose not to shop on the sabbath. I was so surprised and happy when he came back with a big box of my favorite brand of tissues (I must have mentioned it amidst my complaining over the last few days).

And then he pulled out a bag of Valentine's day themed peanut butter m&ms. Which are obviously the best kind.

I'm so grateful for my husband who takes such good care of me, and loves me and tries to do everything he can to make me smile. Especially when I'm under the weather.

Thank you sweetheart! Te amo, ich liebe dich, I love you.

BYU Women's Chorus

I love being in Women's Chorus. It fills me with so much joy! It doesn't matter if we're singing beautiful hymns, crazy chord clusters, fun pop songs, or if we're going super crazy nuts having fun together and pigging out, it's always a fun and uplifting experience.

Here's the commercial for our upcoming concert. Hope you can make it!!!

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=zV-J_nDeFOw

Valentines Day for reals

Today was valentine's day (duh, read the title Dana, no need to state the obvious). Anyways, I woke up in a decent mood, and turned on my iPod and began listening to a rather romantic playlist because I didn't know what else to do and my stupor began to form into a dreary, grey sort of mood. I felt that I should be in a much more giddy, guy-oriented mood, so I decided to reading the letter I had received on valentines day last year from a friend who is on his mission, but the fact that we're no longer pen-pals made me even more distraught.

Kicking myself mentally for being such an idiot, I slowly began to trudge towards campus. I saw a friend coming towards me, but being in such a fowl mood I considered trying not to make eye contact. He, however, had different plans. "Hey! Hi Dana! How are you? Isn't it a WONDERFUL morning? I'm having such a good day already." He was absolutely beaming, and I couldn't help but be infected by his sheer joy. I began half-dancing to class whilst humming the Glee version of "Marry you" by Bruno Mars.

After my first two classes, I was still in a wonderful mood and came home to make lunch, and listened to an up-tempo Glee mix as opposed to the slow sappy stuff that had put me in a poor mood that morning. I practically flew to ballroom afterwards, and cheerily slipped on my heals when a very nice boy and great dancer, whom I very much suspect has a crush on me, sat down next to me as usual and we began talking. Long story short, he pretty much asked if I wanted to be partners for the competition in March, which is awesome because you really have to fight for a partner as a girl. Then, I had to leave before class was done because my teacher always goes over and I have a class that takes more than ten minutes to walk to. So I was trying to slip out quietly and just happened to pass by this boy, who gently took my hand and squeezed it when I walked by, in an utterly non-creepy way, and gave me the most sincere smile I've ever seen on his face. Seriously, this kid doesn't smile very often, and never shows his teeth. But today he did and I noticed for the first time that he has dimples.

After classes were done, I needed to go to the store to pick up some food with my room mate Natalie. On the way there, a group of four boys who were taking up the entire sidewalk were coming towards us, so we moved off to one side to make room, but kept talking. One of them went to the left side of the sidewalk, my side, while the rest of the boys went right, like you're supposed to. Then to our surprise, the two boys closest to us, held out little kiddie valentines and said, "happy Valentine's day!" and walked off. We looked at the cards, and the boys had left their names and phone numbers, and written cute things in the "to:" line, such as "to: the apple of my eye," and "to: a beautiful soul."

That is about the extent of my experiences today, which were far more than I have ever experienced on valentines day. ever. So, I believe the rumors are true. BYU is a magical place :)

Happy Valentine's Day!

Valentines Day aka Singles Awareness Day

Being at BYU, which I'm pretty sure has a much higher population of people in steady relationships and astronomically higher population of married couples than most colleges, Valentines day is a pretty big deal. There is a countdown in the window of the bookstore reminding everyone the days, hours, minutes and seconds until the big day. For those like myself who have never had a particularly special valentines day, it's almost like rubbing salt in the wound. But not really because I don't care that much, my self confidence is pretty high right now so I'm not feeling the need for a man to complete my life :)

So, despite my best attempts to pretend like valentines day is just like any other crappy monday, love is in the air.

A week or so ago, under circumstances currently classified as Top Secret by the Maeser Mafia, I was quite unexpectedly kissed on the cheek by a person (we will call him Bob) whom I did not think likely to commit such an atrocity. I made him a pie, at his request; and upon his discovery of its surrender, he climbed over several people to deliver a relatively long kiss to my left cheek, while ensuring that my escape was impossible by holding my face stationary in his hands. My brain, completely overcome by the unusual stimuli it was receiving, melted out my ears and onto the floor, rendering me incapable to deal with the situation at hand. I was at a complete loss for words, I didn't glare, I didn't blush, I didn't even look at him. Not that I got much of a chance—Bob was in quite a hurry and left the room in less time than the previously mentioned kiss took.

At first, I was angry. What right did Bob have to put his hands on my face, let alone his lips? Then I was amazed at my mother's apparent psychic abilities, as she had told me when I explained his demand for a pie that Bob obviously liked me. Then I was worried. Didn’t he have a girl friend? What if she found out and broke up with him? Then I was giddy, "heheeeee, I got kissed! I'm a girlygirl and get excited about stuff!" Then I realized I was being an idiot because Bob probably meant as nothing more by it than "thanks for the pie."

I maturely decided to let it go. There was no point in dwelling on it, so I'd just move on and address it if it ever happened again. It didn't mean anything to me, if only because I couldn't make heads or tails of it, and I doubted it meant anything to Bob. Then, one day later, Bob came over to borrow some cooking ingredients, and although I was the one who answered the door, got him the toppings, and walked him to the door, he didn't make eye contact with me the entire time. He also left much more quickly than is usual for him, as he often stays to chat when business brings him to my apartment. The only thing he really said was "That [pie] was nom. Thanks."

Since then, I was trying to pretend that nothing had happened, but he Bob was still acting kind of awkwardly. He wouldn't quite make eye contact with me and his banter was slightly more abrasive than usual. One night he seemed to be a bit grumpy so I tried to give him a hug to make him feel better. He pretended (I hope) to be very upset with me and reported to our FHE mom that I had tried to hug him and she'd better get a handle on her daughter(me)! She looked at him like he was crazy and said, rather loudly, "You kissed her! If anyone has the right to complain its Dana." It turned a few heads but he just looked really embarrassed and walked off. So, although not much has been resolved, I have come to one conclusion: The way to a man's heart, for however short a time, is through his stomach.