Last year, I was listening to the radio and heard the sweetest father/daughter story of my life. The man who wrote in said that he wanted something to connect him to his daughter as she got older. She was about 9 years old at the time and he decided they would see how many days in a row they could read with each other. The only rules were that it had to be for at least 10 minutes each night and the reading had to occur before midnight. It ended up that they were able to keep this reading streak going until Alice's first day of college. I thought it was so amazing that they were able to do this together and was very excited last week to find out that Alice had written a book about their experience.
I ended up reading it on my way to and from Colorado and was completely fascinated by it. When I first heard their story, one thought that ruined the sweetness of it was that I couldn't believe she hadn't spent any nights away from home. It turns out that she was a very well-adjusted girl, a good student who was also involved in theater. She had solid friendships and even a boyfriend or two. She talked about how they would read earlier in the day if one of them was going to be out late. There was one night when she had a very late play rehearsal and her dad ended up coming to it before midnight in order to read to her in the parking lot.
I loved reading about their father/daughter relationship and it seemed that she gave an honest portrayal of her life with her dad. She talked about how he would edit out certain parts of stories in order to keep her innocent and that his idea of physical affection was scratching his finger on top of her head. She could also tell him anything and respected him so much for the quality time that he invested with her. She ended up going on to Rutgers and getting her degree in English Literature, so it's obvious that all of the time her dad spent reading to her paid off.
Here's a link to their story on CBS News.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qkqItDSfHTM&feature=related
Sunday, July 29, 2012
Monday, March 5, 2012
Happy Birthday, Emmy Fazakerley!
My sister, Emily, turned 29 today (no, really... she's 29 today. And next year she'll be 30.) I wanted to write a top 10 list of the things I love about her, but she hates even numbers. Therefore, she gets a top 11 list.
In no particular order...
1) Creative- The most recent endeavor was when she asked me to paint onesies for the baby shower of one of our friends, so we painted 4 of them. Other activities include robot drawings, making up songs to play on the ukulele, keeping a daily blog with one of her best friends from college (Hi Zoe!), decoupaging, and creating theme parties.
2) Hilarious- One of my personal favorites from childhood was when she wrote a ransom note to the "Tooth Fairy" because her tooth had been under her pillow for a year or something. She said they wouldn't get it back if they didn't pay her within the week. She also used to write me random notes that she'd slide under my bedroom door, usually about boys. I think she wrote one to me entirely in Spanish because of the crush I had on a guy in my Spanish class.
3) Loves Jesus- She listens closely to what the Holy Spirit is telling her and has made a lot of very wise decisions because of her relationship with Jesus.
4) Excellent wife- This is evident by how much she respects Jeff and how he's so very smitten with her. They're both so proud of each other, they work hard to be giving with the other one, and they treat each other exceptionally well.
5) Wonderful mother- You can tell how much she adores Eiley and it's very obvious how much Eiley adores her, too, because she'll take her momma over anyone else in the room. It's been so fun to watch her with Eiley and to hear about what they're doing together (walking at the Botanical Gardens, going on the swings, reading new books, basketball games, etc.). Eiley's a very well-behaved and portable baby because her parents aren't afraid to take her to new places.
6) Champion lefse-maker- Even though I practically shared a birthday with my great-grandma, Mudder, Emmy became the golden child when it came to lefse-making because of her mad rolling pin skillz.
7) Hospitable- She loves having people over to their apartment for dinner and games or bad movies. She also puts on some great theme parties (for example, her birthday party last night was, "Choose Your Own Theme.").
8) Fantastic writer- All you have to do is go to www.longdistancelobsters.com and find that one out (although, I'm pretty sure that everyone who reads this is already reading that one.)
9) Great friend- This is obvious from the long-lasting friendships that she has. When she considers someone to be a close friend, then she will probably keep in touch with them for the rest of her life.
10) Smart cookie- She was reading at the 5th grade level when she entered Kindergarten. She went to Westmont, which is like the Harvard or Yale of Christian colleges. She has also excelled at all of the jobs that she's had.
11) Loves her family- I'm talking about the people she grew up with... Tim, Robyn, and Jenna Boyd. Plus, the Boyd and Bradshaw families. She loves spending time with us and does a great job of making that time count. Whether it's dinner and movie mocking with me; dinner, laundry, and "24" with the Boyd side; or getting a sub for my dad at school in order to go to Disneyland for the day- it's all because she loves us.
In conclusion- you're an awesome sister, Emmy! I'm thankful for you, proud of you, and I love you!
In no particular order...
1) Creative- The most recent endeavor was when she asked me to paint onesies for the baby shower of one of our friends, so we painted 4 of them. Other activities include robot drawings, making up songs to play on the ukulele, keeping a daily blog with one of her best friends from college (Hi Zoe!), decoupaging, and creating theme parties.
2) Hilarious- One of my personal favorites from childhood was when she wrote a ransom note to the "Tooth Fairy" because her tooth had been under her pillow for a year or something. She said they wouldn't get it back if they didn't pay her within the week. She also used to write me random notes that she'd slide under my bedroom door, usually about boys. I think she wrote one to me entirely in Spanish because of the crush I had on a guy in my Spanish class.
3) Loves Jesus- She listens closely to what the Holy Spirit is telling her and has made a lot of very wise decisions because of her relationship with Jesus.
4) Excellent wife- This is evident by how much she respects Jeff and how he's so very smitten with her. They're both so proud of each other, they work hard to be giving with the other one, and they treat each other exceptionally well.
5) Wonderful mother- You can tell how much she adores Eiley and it's very obvious how much Eiley adores her, too, because she'll take her momma over anyone else in the room. It's been so fun to watch her with Eiley and to hear about what they're doing together (walking at the Botanical Gardens, going on the swings, reading new books, basketball games, etc.). Eiley's a very well-behaved and portable baby because her parents aren't afraid to take her to new places.
6) Champion lefse-maker- Even though I practically shared a birthday with my great-grandma, Mudder, Emmy became the golden child when it came to lefse-making because of her mad rolling pin skillz.
7) Hospitable- She loves having people over to their apartment for dinner and games or bad movies. She also puts on some great theme parties (for example, her birthday party last night was, "Choose Your Own Theme.").
8) Fantastic writer- All you have to do is go to www.longdistancelobsters.com and find that one out (although, I'm pretty sure that everyone who reads this is already reading that one.)
9) Great friend- This is obvious from the long-lasting friendships that she has. When she considers someone to be a close friend, then she will probably keep in touch with them for the rest of her life.
10) Smart cookie- She was reading at the 5th grade level when she entered Kindergarten. She went to Westmont, which is like the Harvard or Yale of Christian colleges. She has also excelled at all of the jobs that she's had.
11) Loves her family- I'm talking about the people she grew up with... Tim, Robyn, and Jenna Boyd. Plus, the Boyd and Bradshaw families. She loves spending time with us and does a great job of making that time count. Whether it's dinner and movie mocking with me; dinner, laundry, and "24" with the Boyd side; or getting a sub for my dad at school in order to go to Disneyland for the day- it's all because she loves us.
In conclusion- you're an awesome sister, Emmy! I'm thankful for you, proud of you, and I love you!
Monday, January 2, 2012
2011
Here are some of the things that happened during each month of 2011 since I attempt to do this at the beginning of each year...
January: I got a phone call to come in for a 2nd interview for a teaching position with SECEP. This was really weird because my first interview had been in April 2010 and I had gotten a rejection letter about 4 months after the first one. I ended up getting the job and being in someone else's classroom for the rest of the school year, which was great!
February: Started working for SECEP and got to know the kids and teachers in our classroom. I also got engaged to Andrew Garrett! He did a very romantic proposal that included a puzzle where he wrote the things he loved about me, a scavenger hunt, a spa day, and filet mignon with bacon-wrapped asparagus.
March: I remember getting gussied up for 5 Guys and a movie in honor of Emmy's birthday. Sorry, March- You seem to have been a boring month.
April: Spring Break came around and I didn't do much of anything.
May: I was Andrew's date to Chrysalis (that's basically Christian prom) and it was fun to get dressed up for it. We got passes to Busch Gardens and Water Country, so we started using those.
June: School got out for the summer and I got to spend a lot of time with my fiance.
July: Drove to Alabama for Philip and Cara's wedding. My parents moved into my apartment for the month. My awesome/adorable/advanced niece, Eiley Grace Fazakerley, was born on July 12th. I got married to the love of my life on July 30th and got to spend lots of time with many of the people I love the most in the world.
August: Went on our honeymoon... to Williamsburg, VA. We were supposed to leave for Cancun 2 days after we got married, but we found out that Andrew had lost his passport about 2 hours before we were supposed to leave. Thankfully, he has a wonderful dad who did some quick research when he found out what had happened. He was able to book a lovely condo for us at a resort place in Williamsburg. I'm pretty sure I loved it more than I would have loved Cancun, so it worked out for the best. I spent the last half of August getting prepared for the school year at Little Creek Elementary.
September: Realized that my job was in working with kids who have emotional/behavioral disturbance and not autism. Cried a lot about my job because I was getting beaten up by small children every day.
October: Continued to be miserable in my job because I was getting beaten up every day.
November: Turned 32 and my amazing husband did a great job of spoiling me with breakfast in bed, my first pair of Toms, and 2 beautifully framed pictures from our wedding.
December: Went to CA to visit my wonderful parents and the rest of my family for Christmas. Went to my first Future of Forestry concert. Ate a lot of In-N-Out and a couple of fancy meals. Went to the beach and the mountains (I got to visit Allen and Jess up there!)
January: I got a phone call to come in for a 2nd interview for a teaching position with SECEP. This was really weird because my first interview had been in April 2010 and I had gotten a rejection letter about 4 months after the first one. I ended up getting the job and being in someone else's classroom for the rest of the school year, which was great!
February: Started working for SECEP and got to know the kids and teachers in our classroom. I also got engaged to Andrew Garrett! He did a very romantic proposal that included a puzzle where he wrote the things he loved about me, a scavenger hunt, a spa day, and filet mignon with bacon-wrapped asparagus.
March: I remember getting gussied up for 5 Guys and a movie in honor of Emmy's birthday. Sorry, March- You seem to have been a boring month.
April: Spring Break came around and I didn't do much of anything.
May: I was Andrew's date to Chrysalis (that's basically Christian prom) and it was fun to get dressed up for it. We got passes to Busch Gardens and Water Country, so we started using those.
June: School got out for the summer and I got to spend a lot of time with my fiance.
July: Drove to Alabama for Philip and Cara's wedding. My parents moved into my apartment for the month. My awesome/adorable/advanced niece, Eiley Grace Fazakerley, was born on July 12th. I got married to the love of my life on July 30th and got to spend lots of time with many of the people I love the most in the world.
August: Went on our honeymoon... to Williamsburg, VA. We were supposed to leave for Cancun 2 days after we got married, but we found out that Andrew had lost his passport about 2 hours before we were supposed to leave. Thankfully, he has a wonderful dad who did some quick research when he found out what had happened. He was able to book a lovely condo for us at a resort place in Williamsburg. I'm pretty sure I loved it more than I would have loved Cancun, so it worked out for the best. I spent the last half of August getting prepared for the school year at Little Creek Elementary.
September: Realized that my job was in working with kids who have emotional/behavioral disturbance and not autism. Cried a lot about my job because I was getting beaten up by small children every day.
October: Continued to be miserable in my job because I was getting beaten up every day.
November: Turned 32 and my amazing husband did a great job of spoiling me with breakfast in bed, my first pair of Toms, and 2 beautifully framed pictures from our wedding.
December: Went to CA to visit my wonderful parents and the rest of my family for Christmas. Went to my first Future of Forestry concert. Ate a lot of In-N-Out and a couple of fancy meals. Went to the beach and the mountains (I got to visit Allen and Jess up there!)
Saturday, February 26, 2011
The Proposal!
Once upon a time, I met and fell in love with a wonderful man named Andrew Garrett. He proposed to me today and now I get to marry him on July 30, 2011. Two of the many things that I love about him are that he's romantic and creative. This included how he proposed to me and now I get to write about it.
About 1 month ago, he brought me a jar with hand-written puzzle pieces in it. He said he wasn't proposing in the puzzle, but that it had to do with us getting engaged. He did say that it included the reasons why he loves me and said that I was only allowed to put a few pieces of it together at a time. This was all very cryptic, but I followed his directions.
Cut to yesterday when he handed me a gift and a letter. He told me to open the letter this morning and said that I would need to wait until I saw him today to open any gifts that I had received. The first note included a clue to go to L'Etoile Day Spa. I got to have a manicure, pedicure, and facial while I was there and it was glorious! While I was at the spa, one of the employees handed me another gift and clue. This one told me to call Emmy, which I did, and she told me to come over to their apartment. Once I was there, I received a gift and another clue that told me to go to Andrew's for lunch.
He had cooked bacon-wrapped filet mignon, twice-baked potatoes, and bacon-wrapped asparagus, which were amazingly delicious (I'm also a very lucky girl because he's an excellent cook)! Once we had finished eating lunch, he told me that I could finish the puzzle and open the gifts that I had received today. I put the puzzle together and there were a few pieces missing. We were able to find a couple of them, but there were three missing in the middle. He had me open up the gifts that I had acquired throughout the day and in each box was a missing puzzle piece. I put them all together and it said, "I love you! Will you marry me?" Then he got down on one knee and asked me to marry him, which I said yes to!
I'm so thankful for this amazing man! He loves Jesus, he has strength of character, people respect him, and he treats me like a queen. I'm blessed beyond words and am so excited that I get to spend the rest of my life with him!
About 1 month ago, he brought me a jar with hand-written puzzle pieces in it. He said he wasn't proposing in the puzzle, but that it had to do with us getting engaged. He did say that it included the reasons why he loves me and said that I was only allowed to put a few pieces of it together at a time. This was all very cryptic, but I followed his directions.
Cut to yesterday when he handed me a gift and a letter. He told me to open the letter this morning and said that I would need to wait until I saw him today to open any gifts that I had received. The first note included a clue to go to L'Etoile Day Spa. I got to have a manicure, pedicure, and facial while I was there and it was glorious! While I was at the spa, one of the employees handed me another gift and clue. This one told me to call Emmy, which I did, and she told me to come over to their apartment. Once I was there, I received a gift and another clue that told me to go to Andrew's for lunch.
He had cooked bacon-wrapped filet mignon, twice-baked potatoes, and bacon-wrapped asparagus, which were amazingly delicious (I'm also a very lucky girl because he's an excellent cook)! Once we had finished eating lunch, he told me that I could finish the puzzle and open the gifts that I had received today. I put the puzzle together and there were a few pieces missing. We were able to find a couple of them, but there were three missing in the middle. He had me open up the gifts that I had acquired throughout the day and in each box was a missing puzzle piece. I put them all together and it said, "I love you! Will you marry me?" Then he got down on one knee and asked me to marry him, which I said yes to!
I'm so thankful for this amazing man! He loves Jesus, he has strength of character, people respect him, and he treats me like a queen. I'm blessed beyond words and am so excited that I get to spend the rest of my life with him!
Friday, February 4, 2011
Miniature Rant
I've been going to the Virginia Beach Recreation Center for about 4 months now and it's been a unique gym-going experience. I originally joined because I needed to for Bollywood classes. I was okay with that, though, because I only had to pay $44 for 6 months and they have pretty nice equipment there. The only downfall of the Rec Center is that you have to sign up for the machines you want to use in advance and there's a 30 minute time limit for each one that you use. This caused a bit of embarrassment the first time I went in September because I didn't know about this rule and got on a treadmill that someone else had signed up for... that lady was fine with telling me (in the tone one would use while talking to a 4 year old) about signing up at the front desk.
Cut to this Monday when I signed up to get a treadmill at 2pm. I got into the gym around 1:45pm and decided to use the StairMaster while I waited for the guy on Treadmill #6 to finish his workout. He finished around 2:04pm and I went over as soon as he was off of it. I got on there and was feeling really good after my StairMaster warm-up, so I decided to go at a pace of 8.5 minutes per mile. After I was almost to mile 2, I was feeling REALLY good, so I decided to up my pace and try for 3 miles in 25 minutes. I was very proud of myself when I really did meet my goal!
About 1 minute after I had stopped running, the lady who was signed up for the next time slot came over to ask how much longer I would be. I told her it would probably be another minute. Then the lady on the treadmill next to mine told me to make sure that I get on to the machines when my time slot starts because people get upset when they have to wait.
1) The guy before me was running late, so I started as soon as I could after he was finished.
3) The lady who was going on after me had a book in her hand. I'm assuming she was going to read it on the treadmill because she put it on the little shelf thing when she took her turn. I'm pretty sure she wasn't going to do any heavy exercise and could have just walked around the gym a couple of times while waiting for the person who was actually working out.
4) I'm pretty sure the book she was going to read was the Bible (it was small, thick, and leather-bound). Maybe she could have read about the fruits of the spirit while waiting... I think there's something about patience in there.5) I was wearing my awesome-orange-tie-dyed-Scott-Appalachian-Ministries t-shirt and decided to keep all of these thoughts in my head because I didn't want to be a bad witness for Christ. Instead, I wrote them all on here, which is probably not what Jesus would do.
Monday, November 22, 2010
Guest Blog
My awesome little sister let me write a guest post on her blog, "anything once." I wrote about driving on the boardwalk at the beach for the first time because I've never done that before. Lifeguards are the only people who get to do that in California, so Virginia now has one thing that they do better than California.
Here's the link:
http://fazawesome.blogspot.com/2010/11/guest-post-3-driving-on-boardwalk-at.html
Here's the link:
http://fazawesome.blogspot.com/2010/11/guest-post-3-driving-on-boardwalk-at.html
Saturday, November 6, 2010
2 Slightly Embarrassing Stories
I decided to join eharmony again last month because there hasn't really been a way to meet single guys around here. This means that I've gone on a couple of dates in the past month and here are two stories to make the 4 of you who read this laugh at me. I want to clarify that they're not actually super-embarrassing, but I'm hoping you'll be able to visualize.
Story 1:
I met a guy from eharmony at Panchero's for the first time on Wednesday. I had gone to Kohl's right before to: (a) put on a little bit of makeup because what I had applied that morning had mostly disappeared from my face and (b) go to the bathroom. We went into the restaurant, we're standing in line trying to figure out what to order, he looks down and says, "... you have something on your shoe." Yep, there was a trail of toilet paper on my shoe that I brought over from Kohl's on accident. I said, "Oh... that's awkward and that's never happened to me," then threw it in the trash.
Story 2 (this one made my roommate, Cara, snort):
I hung out with the same guy and two of his friends last night who are boyfriend and girlfriend. I felt like things went pretty well, but there were times when I felt like I was on a job interview. I don't think there's any way to avoid feeling that way when three people already know each other and they want to get to know one new person.
When they were about to leave, they said they were going to get a movie from Redbox and I thought they said they were going to get Starbucks. I said, "There's a Starbucks in the Barnes and Noble down the street, so that one's probably the closest." Then she said, "Oh, I like coffee," or something like that and he said something about liking Starbucks, too. This made me about 99.7% sure that they hadn't said something about going to Starbucks. I may as well have said, "I used to have a Yorkie" or "Transylvania really isn't that scary." I mumbled something like, "Oh... I thought I heard you saying something about Starbucks," but I don't think they heard me.
In conclusion, accidental non-sequiturs are awkward.
Story 1:
I met a guy from eharmony at Panchero's for the first time on Wednesday. I had gone to Kohl's right before to: (a) put on a little bit of makeup because what I had applied that morning had mostly disappeared from my face and (b) go to the bathroom. We went into the restaurant, we're standing in line trying to figure out what to order, he looks down and says, "... you have something on your shoe." Yep, there was a trail of toilet paper on my shoe that I brought over from Kohl's on accident. I said, "Oh... that's awkward and that's never happened to me," then threw it in the trash.
Story 2 (this one made my roommate, Cara, snort):
I hung out with the same guy and two of his friends last night who are boyfriend and girlfriend. I felt like things went pretty well, but there were times when I felt like I was on a job interview. I don't think there's any way to avoid feeling that way when three people already know each other and they want to get to know one new person.
When they were about to leave, they said they were going to get a movie from Redbox and I thought they said they were going to get Starbucks. I said, "There's a Starbucks in the Barnes and Noble down the street, so that one's probably the closest." Then she said, "Oh, I like coffee," or something like that and he said something about liking Starbucks, too. This made me about 99.7% sure that they hadn't said something about going to Starbucks. I may as well have said, "I used to have a Yorkie" or "Transylvania really isn't that scary." I mumbled something like, "Oh... I thought I heard you saying something about Starbucks," but I don't think they heard me.
In conclusion, accidental non-sequiturs are awkward.
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