Because I Said I Would.

For a few years now Matt (my husband) has gotten the pleasure of hearing Alex Sheen the Founder of Because I Said I Would. speak at Farmers Events. He always came home excited to share his story with me, so when I saw that Alex was starting a Denver Chapter.... it was a no-brainer for Matt and I. What I love is that most non-profit service groups are just for women but this is for anyone. Matt and I get to serve our community together while better ourselves and our relationship. Here is more..........

Because I said I would is an international social movement and nonprofit dedicated to the betterment of humanity through promises made and kept. Our Denver chapter seeks to end suffering establish peace and build happiness through local volunteer projects. As we help build a stronger community, our members also look to improve as individuals through our personal promises and thought-provoking learning opportunities.

Because I said I would Denver is a force for good in our community. Our members hold a meeting each month to plan unified charitable promises, act as an accountability support group for individual promises and to learn new and interesting ways to get better with commitment. After planning our unified charitable promises, we execute these projects in a separate gathering every month or every two months.

WHAT DO OUR CHAPTERS DO?

Accountability Support for Members

1. Work together as a support group to help members meet their commitments and keep their individual promises.

Unified Charitable Promises in Denver

2. Make and keep unified promises as a team to help people and causes in their local communities.

Thought-Provoking Content and Learning Topics

3. Improve and refine the practice of keeping promises by learning about how promises and humanity are affected by history, psychology, philosophy and culture. We will also learn practical methods that make us better at keeping promises.

This week Matt and I volunteered with Because I Said I Would and packaged Welcome Boxes for Refugee families new to the US and Denver! Best of all, later this week Matt and I will get the pleasure of delivering 2 boxes to 2 families right before Christmas!

Last month I volunteered by cooking and serving a meal to this wonderful Denver organization that helps children thru the grieving process. 

If you are in Denver and you are looking for ways to give back in the New Year, please join! You can click HERE to learn more about joining! Here is the group at the November meeting with the founder Alex.....

Alex does Ted Talks, does motivational speaking world wide and has a wonderful heart. I also love seeing other people's promises and they can be as small as wanting to work out more to a huge gut wrenching story like this one.....



If you have questions or want to come with me shoot me an email nsavage@live.com our December meeting is tonight!!

Matt's 36!!!

You guys as I was loading pictures to this post for Matt's Birthday weekend I sat back and realized... MAN, he had a GREAT weekend! lol! I mean that was my goal and all but wow! hehe!

My parents flew in last Thursday evening for the weekend.... they came for the Broncos game, we try to go to one a year with them and Matt's Birthday weekend wound up being the best fit AND that way the tickets for all of us to go to the game was his present from my parents and my grandma!

Friday night we kicked off the weekend with dinner out at our favorite special occasion place! Guard and Grace downtown and while we were eating the ENTIRE Portland Trailblazers NBA team came in to eat! Kinda cool!

 Mom and Dad LOVED dinner too..... since they got the Broncos tickets Matt and I actually treated them to the steakhouse dinner! And for those of you who asked about my top on Facebook it is Free People and I got it recently, my "pleather" leggings are from Nordstroms!

Saturday Mom and I set out to go shopping before our tailgate prep started and Dad and Matt got a BIG surprise! My Dad is a private pilot and his plane is in Oklahoma but I found a great plane rental company here in Denver and set it all up for Dad and Matt to fly around Denver for the afternoon! They were super excited!

 Here is just 1 of Matt's pictures from the plane, and they even did a low fly over of our house! Mom and I were outside on the deck waving... it was super cool! They flew over the foothills, Red Rocks, Denver and had a wonderful afternoon in the sky!

Sunday for the game I organized a tailgate of Matt's friends and we had a good turn out, around 15-18 people stopped by and thank you to those of you who did! We had games, music and a TON of food that Mom and I made... plus Matt manned the grill!

 This game was on Matt's actual Birthday which was so neat..... plus a Broncos WIN! Go Broncos!

These are two other Farmers District Managers who stopped by to wish Matt a Happy Birthday! I love their fro's!

 Guess What??? We had 3rd ROW TICKETS! It was awesome being so close to the action and we were right by the Cheerleaders which I LOVED!

 OMG They gave out Vampire Miller masks and we loved them..... Matt and Mom demonstrate here!

 This is how close we were... NO ZOOM!

 Matt had a wonderful weekend which made me happy but come yesterday we were all super tired! Mom and Dad are back in Oklahoma and it's back to the real world I guess! BOO hiss!

Go Broncos!!!!!!! Happy 36th Matty!

Alcatraz

Well I saved the BEST vacation post for LAST.... drum roll...... Alcatraz! You see as someone who is very "into" the Paranormal and the history of locations that make them that way Alcatraz has always been a Top 5 on my Bucket List! And in fact, Alcatraz was the sole reason we picked San Fran or let me rephrase that.... Alcatraz was the reason Matt let me pick San Fran as our spot!

I booked our tickets 6 weeks in advance because I was NOT going to miss this, although we did miss out on a night tour.... they book out 6 months in advance.

So the ferry ride to the island is only 20 minutes but JUST long enough for me to get sea sick.... literally, I am so pathetic! But in-between waves of motion sickness I really tried to place myself back in the days when inmates would arrive here and see the island ahead. It really is something to see.

I read a few books to "prep" myself like any nerd would on the Island before we came out so I knew about the Indian Occupation. After Alcatraz the Penitentiary closed Native Americans basically held an almost 2 year "sit in" claiming this island was theirs. Long before the US seized the island from the Spanish, made it a Civil War Military base Native Americans had already laid claim.

Besides the history, the paranormal and the fact that this Island overlooks the San Fran Bay.... it is beautiful.... the dilapidated buildings speak to me. HA!

This TINY little building was the morgue, inside were rows where I assume the bodies where held and a table in the middle for the newest body.... but it was really small. BUT with that being said there are only 8 recorded deaths on Alcatraz.

Check out this old Guard post from the Penitentiary...

Sprinkled around the main prison were the work locations that inmates helped run.

The showers, I can only imagine how this room probably saw a lot of violence. How could it not?

This is the work yard where inmates who earned privileges could come out and see the sun and play a game or two of baseball.

Everyone has been asking me if I "felt" anything, had a paranormal experience and sadly this picture below shows you exactly why that isn't possible....... because you are on the tour with literally like 1,000 other people. You have to fight to get pictures and you are never alone.

The place I was most excited to go to was D Block or Solitary and this is the block where 99% of all paranormal activity is reported! Here is a brief clip from when Ghost Adventures investigated the island in D Block...

And here are cells 13 & 14 from the video above............

Here I am in Cell 14..... I so badly wanted something to happen but with a line of people waiting for their chance to step inside that was a no-go! BOO! But none the less, I was inside the cell. Very very cool......

Look at the old Wardens house, I mean look what time has done to it...... it was incredible.

Another place that saw a lot of violence was the cafeteria, and I get it... all the men eating at once getting to interact with one another.

The California Parks and rec runs the island and is actually a State Park so the grounds are kept up beautifully.

And when you are leaving on your ferry this is the last thing you see............

And with views of the Golden Gate Bridge from the Island it really is an incredible place to visit.

How did my visit live up to expectations? It did.... but the amount of people on the island at one time really ... sucks! haha! It was incredible and I can say I was THERE but I would kill (no pun intended) to go back at night with less than 20 people.

Half Moon Bay

The Sunday of our San Fran trip might actually be my favorite day now looking back, our day trip to Half Moon Bay. We got up early and on our 45 minute drive on the Pacific Coast HWY we got to watch the sun rise over the ocean and see all the pumpkin fields on our way to the Ritz. It was breathtaking.

 San Fran is SO busy, dirty and filled with smoke that being here was literally a breathe of fresh air and we were so peaceful.

 Matt got to play a the famous Half Moon Bay Ocean Course where all the major tournaments have been in the past and I was his photographer on the first 1/2 of the course!

 I got some really great shots of Matt and the scenery didn't hurt either! How do I like riding along with Matt while he plays? WELL... I don't! He is really good, and he takes it really serious so when he is in the zone he wouldn't even talk to me. SO... needless to say I was glad I peaced-out on the back 9 to head to the Spa at the Ritz.

 That is the Ritz Carlton Half Moon Bay where the course is attached to....

 Half Moon Bay is the Pumpkin Capital of California, who knew? SO the resort had many pumpkin themed items, food, drink, spa and the city is full of fields of pumpkins... If we weren't in a Uber I would have wanted to stop for more pictures!

 The homes that lined the course were unreal...... You know I LOVE the sound of the waves and the ocean, I really could be happy there I told Matt! hahaha!

 The morning was cool, bright, peaceful and Matt played his best as usual.

 I had a Pumpkin Facial at the Spa at the Ritz and it was Amazing! Afterwards on the deck of the resort they have these anorak chairs lined up over looking the course and the ocean and I was happily content for quite a while!

 Cheese..........

 We ran out of time and had to get back to San Fran but I regret not walking down to that beach!

The day was perfect except for ONE thing...... I have a funny story for you.... SO I got us reservations at Navio the Ritz's "famous" Sunday brunch like 6 weeks out and I was SOO excited! The buffet was unreal anything your heart could want they had it. And I thought that the price was $59 per person, so we were already trying to eat our money worth.... but oh no.... I was WRONG!!! It was $109 per PERSON! hahaha! So we literally both went back to try and shove more food down our mouths and try everything because we literally spent with tip $250 at BREAKFAST!!!!!!!! Matt and I do not mind spending money on food but BRUNCH? Luckily Matt was a good sport and we had a nice laugh and a FULL tummy!