Goals- 2023 Edition

 

My pastor posted something on Facebook today about a notebook he found with his goals from 2017-2020 written down in it. Another friend also posted something last week about about how she had originally wanted to be a vet, but she felt God leading her away from that profession. Now she's a mom to 3 adorable kids and she posted the "surgery" that she did on one of their stuffed animals last week, making her see how God's plans were better than her plans. Both of those postings made me think about the goals that I have had and how God's plans were different in some ways and similar in others. I knew I had blogged about them somewhere on here, so I found that particular post. I wanted to make a few updates because things have changed again in the past 13 years since I wrote the updated one. At the rate I'm going, the next update about my goals will be in 2040. :)

From 2010- I found an old journal entry from 10/31/2001 entitled, "Things I Want To Do In My Life." I wrote down the goals that I had for my life and kind of forgot about it after that... on another note, I think it also shows my love of Halloween since I spent that evening writing in my journal, instead of trick-or-treating or hanging out with friends. Here's what I wrote and here's what has actually happened in the past 9 years:


Goal: Take a road trip by myself.
Reality: 2010- I've taken quite a few road trips by myself now. The longest one being from California to Kentucky with stops in Tuscon, AZ; Midland, TX; Dallas, TX; and middle of nowhere, AR. Unfortunately, I didn't take the time to stop at places like Graceland and the world's biggest ball of twine.

2023- I've taken more road trips. Some with Andrew, some with Elisha, some with both of my guys, and some with myself. It turns out that road trips are much easier in the South because there are a lot more places that you can drive to without much traffic. I've been back and forth to Kentucky a few times, to upstate New York, and to Alabama. Plus, lots of little road trips to the far reaches of Virginia and to Washington DC. We've also had quite a few 4-5 hour road trips from Portland to Bandon, OR, thanks to my dad's side of the family moving there.

Goal: Write a book about the people that I talked to on my road trip.
Reality: 2010- I didn't do it and I should have when I had the opportunity.

2023- I still haven't done this.

Goal: Take lessons of some kind (I'm thinking piano, hip hop, karate, or ballet).
Reality: 2010- I took a hip hop class and plan to again. I got a piano for my 25th birthday and played it almost every day for 3 years until moving to Kentucky.

2023- I took a Bollywood dance class in 2010 and wasn't very good at it.

Goal: Take a cruise to a tropical island.
Reality: 2010- I took a cruise to Cabo San Lucas and Ensenada with Andrea.

2023- Andrew and I took a cruise to Cozumel and (I think) Costa Maya during the week of Thanksgiving in 2018.

Goal: Be a camp counselor at Hume Lake for an entire summer.
Reality: 2010- I was a camp counselor for 1 week per summer at Royal Family Kids' Camp for 4 years and 1 week at Camp Shawnee last year.

2023- I haven't been a camp counselor since 2009 and I miss it because I LOVE camp.

Goal: Become a guidance counselor for my career.
Reality: 2010- Became a special ed. teacher for my career and may go back to it eventually.

2023- Became a BCBA in 2014... this change is my favorite because there were 2 things that I truly loved as a kid. 1) I loved working with the 3-4 years olds at the church that I grew up in and thought it was so fun to interact with them. 2) When I was in the 6th grade, I was in a 5th grade/6th grade combination class and there were only about 10 of us 6th graders in there. I think I was a pretty independent worker, so I would finish my assignments earlyish. I remember that they would send me to work with a 3rd grader to help him with his reading and I loved it! I remember thinking that I would love to eventually be able to teach kids on an individual basis while having fun, but I didn't think there was any job out there like that. As a BCBA, I get to teach kids how to talk while also having fun with them and finding what motivates them. I love that God put those desires in my heart as a kid and that they came to fruition eventually in an unexpected way.

Goal: Become a missionary in a foreign country for 1 summer (Or maybe longer).
Reality: 2010- Went to Haiti for 3 weeks and held babies. Volunteered in Kentucky for one amazingly magical year.

2023- Now I think any place can be a missions field and it's important to be a light for Jesus wherever you may be at that time. 

Goal: Have a really cute dog.
Reality: 2010- I have to settle for a cute nephew-puppy until I have the space for my own dog.

2023- We got our Golden Girl, Betty White, in 2021. She's the cutest, prettiest, sweetest girl in the whole wide world and I love her so much! 

Goal: Have season tickets for the Lakers.
Reality: 2010- I apparently thought I was going to be independently wealthy when I was 21... I'm okay with watching them win the Finals on TV every year, though.

2023- This is another one where God honored that dream in a unique way. Andrew's family has had season tickets to ODU basketball since he was 2 years old. We've continued getting season tickets every year since we got married, with the exception of 2021 because they were REALLY expensive. We have a tradition where we usually go to eat at Perfectly Frank's before the games, then we go to watch them. Elisha has gone since he was 7 months old and has gotten to have tons of fun experiences like being on the Dance cam, going with the cheerleaders when it's time to dance to "Ice Cream and Cake," and being the ODU Ball Kid.

Goal: Find the man of my dreams and marry him.
Reality: 2010- I know that will happen.

2023- That happened about 5 months after I wrote that blog in 2010. :) I've been married to Andrew for 12 years and I love him so much! We still have fun together and our personalities balance each other out. He's also the only person that I feel comfortable yelling at, which is important for someone as non-confrontational as me. :) No matter what our circumstances are, there's still no one else I'd rather go through this life with than him, except for when he farts too much.

Goal: Possibly being a foster mother.
Reality: 2010- I came very close, but chickened out when I thought about how much responsibility it was. It was also at the time when I realized that I needed to take time to grieve leaving Kentucky and volunteering.

2023- I became a biological mom to Elisha on April 26, 2013. It's a privilege to be the mom to that little boy! He's funny, kind, scatter-brained, creative, friendly, and very extroverted. I didn't know it was possible for a child to come out of me who loves being around people and being the center of attention so much. I love the way God made him! I would still love to be a foster mother, but it would take a lot of convincing for Andrew to agree to it and it wouldn't happen until Elisha had moved out of the house.

Goal: Volunteer at a hospital and play games with the kids who are sick.
Reality: 2010- This didn't happen, but I was Cameron's CASA for 4 years and I wouldn't change that for anything.

2023- This still hasn't happened, but I get to play a lot of games with the kids that I work with.

Goal: Be a sponsor in a youth group and be able to join them for any of their activities.
Reality: 2010- I've helped out with youth group activities at Essential, but not to the extent that I could.

2023- Since Andrew teaches high school, I join him to chaperone some of the school events. My ministry now is working with the babies in the Restore Church nursery and I think those little ones are tops.

Goal: Live in a nice place with a swimming pool.
Reality: 2010- I've lived in 4 places with them.

2023- I lived in one more in 2010-2011, but that's been it since then. We go to Water Country and the beach a lot during the summer, though.

I think everyone should make a list of their goals occasionally because it's really fun to look back and see what's actually happened.

2016- A Year in (Book) Review

Throughout the past few years, I've liked to attempt to recap the highs and lows of each month in the previous year. Since most of 2016 was a blur, I decided that I would look at my https://www.goodreads.com/review/list/11081438?shelf=read list and review some of the books that I read each month instead. I was pretty proud of myself because I read 34 books this year, which were mostly a variety of memoirs, mysteries, and mindless novels that were meant to be turned into Hallmark movies. To the list!

January:

The Life We Bury, by Allen Eskens: This one was about a college student who has to interview a person and write a paper about them. He ends up going to a retirement home and interviewing Carl, a man who was let out of prison after 30 years for murdering someone. As he gets to know Carl and hears about his entire life, he starts to realize that he was probably wrongfully convicted. Joe and his neighbor, Lila, start to investigate the story further and are able to find out what really happened. I could not put this one down!

For the Love, by Jen Hatmaker:  Jenny sent this one to me for Christmas last year and I ate it up! Jen Hatmaker is hilarious and I'm assuming that she writes the way that she talks. Some highlights from the book were her thoughts on current fashions, how she keeps her marriage thriving, and anecdotes from her early years as a mom. Since I follow her on facebook, I'm having difficulty remembering everything she wrote about, but I'll tell you that her thoughts on This is Us, Gilmore Girls, and parenting are the things that she's had me laughing about recently.

Hush Little Baby, by Suzanne Redfearn:  This one was suspenseful from beginning to end.  The main character, Jillian, runs away with her two kids from her abusive, police officer husband.  He's a prominent and powerful figure in their community, so no one really believes that he's abusing her.  He has a lot of connections who are able to track her down when she runs away from him and there was always a feeling that he was going to find her, even when he wasn't near her.  

February:

Bossypants, by Tina Fey:  Tina Fey is so funny and she also writes the way that she talks.  I was thoroughly entertained throughout the whole book.  Here's one of my favorite Tina Fey clips:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iVh7KJW0cFU

Why My Wife Thinks I'm an Idiot: The Life and Times of a Sportscaster Dad, by Mike Greenberg: Andrew has watched Mike & Mike on ESPN pretty much every morning since we've gotten married, so I've also learned to love those two.  Side note: from the time Elisha was about 1.5 years old, he has said, "Mike and Mike!" whenever he has seen the ESPN logo.  Anyway, Greeny always makes me laugh with his self-deprecating humor, so I was happy to find out that our library carried this book.  I loved his anecdotes about his family and sportscasting, but there were also times when I got irritated because he has lived a privileged life and has seemed unaware of it.  The example that stuck out the most was when he talked about one of his kids being sick and throwing up all day, then going out to dinner with his wife and their friends later that night while the nanny took care of the baby.  

March:

I started Me and Emma, but it was only meh.

April:

The Rosie Project, by Graeme Simsion:  This one was recommended to me by Jess and since she was reading it soon after giving birth to Emmie, I knew that it had to be a good one... I say this because I only played Candy Crush in the months after having Elisha and had no desire to pick up a book.  I LOVED this one so much and it's probably my #1 recommendation for the year.  Don is an attractive and socially awkward genetics professor who decides to put together "The Wife Project" in order to find a wife who is the perfect match for him.  His questionnaire is very specific and shallow, which results in most women being offended by him and uninterested in him.  He ends up spending time with Rosie, who is the complete opposite of everything he's looking for, and there are all sorts of miscommunications between the two of them that result in laugh out loud moments.

May:

Bare Bones: I'm Not Lonely If You're Reading This Book, by Bobby Bones:  I've been listening to the Bobby Bones Show on the radio almost every morning for the past 2 years and I love the chemistry that they all have on the show.  This one is a memoir of Bobby Bones' life- from his childhood in a trailer park in Arkansas to college to the present day.  It's basically a rags-to-riches story, which is always fascinating to me, and he talks about all of the hard work that he did in order to become the country's #1 country radio host.  He tells a ton of funny stories throughout this book and I could hear his voice as I was reading all of them.

A Mother's Reckoning: Living in the Aftermath of Tragedy, by Sue Klebold: This one scared the &8!$ out of me.  Sue Klebold was the mother of Dylan, one of the killers in the Columbine massacre.  From the way she described everything, it sounded like there was no way for her to know that her son was capable of murdering so many students at his school.  He sounded like a regular kid who hung out with his friends after school and on weekends, he went to prom with one of his female friends the weekend before the shooting, and he had a good relationship with his parents.  Since Columbine was the first school shooting to make national headlines, there was also no way that his parents could have known to look for signs that he was capable of doing something so horrendous.  It was heartbreaking to read about everything that their family went through in the aftermath of Columbine, but I think it will be a very helpful resource for school counselors and parents of teenagers.  I also appreciated the fact that all of the proceeds from her book are going to mental health agencies.

June and July:

The Walk Series- books 1-5, by Richard Paul Evans:  These books were about Alan, a successful advertising executive whose wife passes away after she is in a horseback riding accident.  She was his childhood sweetheart and the love of his life, so he's absolutely devastated when he loses her.  He decides to walk from his home in Washington to the Florida Keys and each book talks about the people and places he encounters along the way.  I loved these books because they were sweet and easy to read, but also because I've had a lifelong dream of taking a road trip and interviewing random strangers along the way to find out about their lives.  Even though this was fiction, it gave me a sense of what could happen if I were to ever take that road trip.

August:

Present Over Perfect: Leaving Behind Frantic for a Simpler, More Soulful Way of Living, by Shauna Niequist:  This one was the biggest disappointment for me this year.  I love love love the way that Shauna Niequist writes, but I was pretty bored during this one.  Most of the book was about what she did to slow down her very busy life and about how she had become so anxious because of doing too much.  I felt like I was reading her journal at certain points, which did not make for interesting reading.

September:

The Sunflower, by Richard Paul Evans:  Everything from this book is what I hoped would happen to me on missions trips as a single girl. :)  Christine gets dumped by her fiance and goes with a volunteer group to Peru.  While she's there, she meets Paul, a doctor with a heart of gold who has dedicated his life to helping others in Peru.  Basically, they fall in love and care for some orphans together and live happily ever after.

October:

The Mistletoe Promise, by Richard Paul Evans:  I checked this one out of the library specifically because it was going to be a Hallmark movie (reason #152 that I'm an old woman).  Elise was a lonely woman who had been dumped by her husband for another woman.  Nick works as a lawyer in the same building as Elise and comes up to her in the food court one day to ask her to act as his girlfriend during the holidays.  She agrees to this and as they get to know each other while pretending to be boyfriend and girlfriend, they fall in love (duh).

November:

Let me just take a moment to talk about this http://jennamissboyd.blogspot.com/search?q=donald+trunk and mention the fact that Elisha correctly predicted who the next president would be when there were approximately 10 people in the running. I'll tell him to predict someone better during the next election.

Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption, by Bryan Stevenson: Bryan Stevenson is a lawyer who has helped overturn the wrongful convictions of many people on death row throughout the past 30 or so years. I wasn't a huge fan of the format of this book because every other chapter was about Walter McMillian, who was on death row for a murder that he didn't commit and every other chapter was about the various reasons for people being in prison. Toward the end of the book, I ended up skipping the chapters that weren't about Walter because I was completely invested in his story and wanted to find out what happened to him. It was a VERY eye-opening book because it helped me understand the amount of power that there is in the criminal justice system and how hard it is to get justice if the people in power are unwilling to listen or are (even more scary) covering things up.

Miracle at the Higher Grounds Cafe, by Max Lucado: Emmy sent this one to me for my birthday and it was the perfect amount of mindless for me! It was another Hallmark movie on paper with Chelsea, a mom who was separated from her NFL football playing husband, and her two kids running a coffee shop. It turns out that the wi-fi at the coffee shop allows people to ask God one question, so people start coming in droves in order to do so. This opens their family up to encounters with all sorts of people and it was fun to see how everything tied together. There's also a clumsy cashier named Manny, who adds a little bit of comedy to this sweetly cheesy book.

December:

Love Warrior, by Glennon Doyle Melton: This was a memoir about Glennon's past and about what she did to save her marriage. I got super-judgy throughout it because it seemed like a lot of the difficulties that she had in her marriage were due to some poor decisions she made during her high school and college years. She slept with her high school boyfriend before she was ready and it sounds like she's spent the rest of her life being detached when it comes to sex. She talks about sleeping with Craig, her future husband and father of her children, on the first date. She says that the two of them have difficulty connecting because he only seems to care about sex and she wants to have intimate conversations. They go to counseling and figure out the other one's wants and needs and they renew their vows. After the book was released, they announced they were separating and a couple of months after that, she announced that she was in a relationship with Abby Wombach. This book made me want to find every rebellious teenage girl and make them read it, then explain how actions can have consequences throughout the rest of someone's life. I would also tell them about God's grace and how you can be forgiven for those actions, but there needs to be some acknowledgement of how you got there and what you're going to do to improve things.

Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis, by J.D. Vance: J.D. Vance grew up in Middletown, OH and his ancestors grew up in Jackson, KY. Since I lived in Kentucky for a year, I was dying to read this one and get some insight into the culture and traditions of the people who lived there. He was loved and cared for by his grandparents, even though he spent the majority of his life living with his mom and older sister. His mom had multiple husbands and live-in boyfriends throughout his childhood and abused prescription drugs during that time. His grandfather was an alcoholic while his mom was growing up, which may have added to the choices that she made in her life. J.D. spends a lot of this book talking about the working class in Appalachia and witnessing the cycle of poverty firsthand. He joins the military after graduating from high school, attends Ohio State University after he has served in the military, and then goes to Yale Law School. He meets his wife in law school and discusses what he did in order to develop a healthy relationship with her since he didn't have a good model of one during his childhood. This one was very inspiring and another eye-opening one.

Bridge to Haven, by Francine Rivers: Emmy gave me this one for Christmas and I couldn't put it down after about 100 pages (it was about 450 pages long, so it seemed like a daunting task at first). Abra was abandoned by her mother under a bridge in Haven when she was first born and Pastor Zeke found her. She's adopted by Pastor Zeke and Marianne, but Marianne passes away when Abra is 5 years old and Pastor Zeke decides that she would be better off being adopted by the Matthews family. Once he gives her to them, she feels that she's worthless to everyone and runs off with a boy when she's 15 years old. The boy is a terrible excuse for a human being who has connections in Hollywood, so he connects her to Frederick who turns her into a movie star. She makes every bad decision possible while she's in Hollywood and thinks that she can't return home to Haven. It gets super-depressing for awhile there and then it finally becomes a story of redemption.


In conclusion, those were the books that I enjoyed or had opinions on this year!

Donald Trunk

A couple of weeks ago, we had the morning news on and they showed a picture of Donald Trump. Elisha looked at the screen and said, "Donald Trunk!... He's my favorite." I think it's a sad commentary about how much media coverage there has been of Donald Trump since my almost 3 year old knows who he is. I'd also like to say that Elisha's political views do not reflect those of either of his parents. Anyway, since Andrew and I were so shocked to find out that he knows who Trump is, I think Elisha's been talking about him just to get a reaction out of us.

Some examples:
1) We were in the checkout line at Walmart today and there was a picture of Trump on a magazine. Elisha began stating excitedly, "Donald Trunk! Look! It's Donald Trunk!" (I think that may have been just as embarrassing as a temper tantrum).
2) This evening, I let him use my phone to watch a Mickey video on youtube and he ended up seeing the Fox News logo in the recently visited section of Safari. As he's clicking on the logo, he tells me, "I want to see Donald Trunk."
3) He was in a bad mood when he woke up one morning, then perked up as soon as he saw Trump on the screen.

In conclusion, I don't know where we went wrong in raising this child. Also, I hope he doesn't have some sort of sixth sense about who our next president will be.

Summertime Happiness

I was thinking this morning about the fact that I've had a great summer, which made me want to list all of the reasons that it's been so fun. Plus, Elisha's been saying and doing a lot of cute things, so I wanted to write about those, too. Here we go!

1) Spending time with my side of the family in California. We went to Disneyland to celebrate Grandma's 80th birthday with all of my dad's side of the family and had so much fun together! I also realized that it was the first time in my life that I had a date at Disneyland. And not even just one date. I had two of them! I loved being able to introduce Andrew and Elisha to everything in the park. We were able to see Mickey right away when we got into California Adventure and Elisha spent the majority of the photo opportunity pounding Mickey's fist and blowing it up. The best part was that Mickey didn't even seem to be aware that was happening. He just put his arms around Eiley and Elisha while looking at the camera.

2) Going to Atlanta to spend time with the Fortune family. We had Supper Club approximately once per month when they lived in Virginia, so we continued that tradition while we were visiting. We also discovered that their 3 year old daughter, Mary Carol, has quite the crush on... Andrew? Mary Carol and Elisha have been betrothed since we found out we were having a boy, but it was, "Andrew, will you read to me? Andrew, will you play tea party with me? Andrew, will you sit next to me?" I thought it was hilarious and Andrew, of course, wasn't going to say no to any of her requests, but he was still a little awkward about it.

3) Andrew said that they were watching TV one day and Elisha told him, "I'm pooping!... It hurts!... Kiss it." Elisha's become a big fan of having his injuries kissed and made all better, but he was on his own for that one. I've also gotten quite a few mosquito bites this summer and he'll randomly go to kiss my leg, then tell me, "All better." It's so sweet, yet kind of gross.
4) Speaking of kissing, Elisha has also started standing behind Andrew and me with one arm around each of our shoulders, then he'll push our faces together to make us kiss. It's very adorable and I'll remind him of that when he's grossed out by us expressing any type of affection toward each other when he's older.
5) Elisha and I got to visit Miss Kim in Washington D.C. because she was there for a work trip. We got to catch up on life and stop by the White House to look at the outside of it. Elisha ended up falling asleep in his stroller while we were in front of the White House, so I guess he wasn't that impressed.
6) Andrew and I celebrated our 4 year anniversary while we were in California by going to the food trucks. Nothing says romance like eating dinner in a parking lot. But seriously, it was delicious and I think it will end up being one of our more memorable dates because it was kind of random. We also celebrated our anniversary in Virginia 3 weeks later by going to dinner at Dudley's (where we ate on our accidental honeymoon in Williamsburg) and going to Busch Gardens, which was the least crowded I had seen it in years.
7) We also got to see a taping of "The Soup" while we were in California. I've watched it almost every week since it started in 2004 and it was so cool to be in the audience. Everyone in the audience also got to take pictures with Joel McHale after the taping, which was incredibly kind of him, because he said that he was going to be leaving on a plane for Seattle about 90 minutes after the show ended that night.
8) Hanging out with Emmy, Grandma, Eiley, Margot, and Elisha one Saturday night while we were out there. Grandma ordered takeout for all of us from Stonefire Grill (Tri-tip! Caesar Salad!Breadsticks!) and then we mocked "Christian Mingle" after putting the kids to bed. Actually, Emmy and I mocked "Christian Mingle" and Grandma fell asleep after about 20 minutes. :)
9) We got involved with a Connect Group at our church this summer and I'm really enjoying the people in our group. We haven't been able to do a ton with them because we were out of town so much, but I'm excited to get to know everyone better.
10) I got a text from Andrew when I was at work soon after our trip. He said that Elisha had been pushing a suitcase around the house while singing the ABC's and wearing his hat and shoes. That pretty much sums up life with a 2 year old.

11) EILEY LET ME DO HER HAIR!

The Garbage Truck- Part 2

A few years back, when I was living in Kentucky and working at the preschool, I wrote a blog post about how much those preschoolers loved to see the garbage man. http://jennamissboyd.blogspot.com/2009_04_01_archive.html

Then, this sweet video showed up in my Facebook news feed a few times last week.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZZcyXkp9Qsw

After working at the preschool, there was a part of me that hoped that my future child would get excited about seeing the garbage man. So, a few weeks ago, Elisha and I were in the backyard on a Tuesday afternoon and I heard the garbage truck in our neighborhood. I took him to sit on the front porch steps and we waited to see the truck. Once he was to our trash can, he used the arm to lift it into the truck and a light bulb came out, shattering on the street in front of our driveway. He felt the need to explain that this happens sometimes and told me someone from the city would come to clean it up. Then, he lifted the trash can again and one of the wheels fell off the side of it. He gave me a number that I could call for someone to fix that, too. In conclusion, it ended up being a slightly awkward encounter with the garbage man and Elisha seemed pretty indifferent about seeing the truck anyway. There goes my dream of Elisha becoming BFFs with the garbage man.

Bernice (and one of many reasons that Andrew Garrett is the greatest).

My computer battery died a few weeks ago, so we bought another battery off of Amazon and the computer continued to work for about 5 minutes at a time. When that happened, I realized it had to do with the computer itself and we were going to have to break down and buy a new one. Since I had a boatload of paperwork to do and zero working computers, Andrew researched some on Amazon and found one that could be shipped to us the next day. He decided that the smart thing would be having it shipped to his school. We wouldn't be getting home until around 9pm the next night (Wednesday) and it would have been terrible if someone had stolen that particular box off of our porch (for the record, no one has ever stolen anything off of our front porch, but we weren't going to risk it with a $300 laptop). Well, as we discussed this, it started snowing a little outside. Neither of us thought anything of the snow and I went on my way to work feeling relieved that I would have a computer the next day. I got to my first kid's house and it continued to snow and snow. I ended up going home at 4pm, instead of at 5:30pm because my second session was canceled due to the snow. I thought, "This is great! I'll be home at 4:30 and have the house to myself for a couple of hours while Andrew and Elisha are at the gym." Wrong! It took me 1 hour and 45 minutes to drive home because the traffic was so bad.

Well, you can probably figure out where this is going... school ended up getting canceled the next day because the snow was way worse than anyone had anticipated. Andrew called Amazon to see if they could have the laptop delivered to our house, but it was too late. They said that we could call once we received the delivery confirmation, but there wasn't anything they could do in the meantime. Andrew saw the delivery confirmation at 7am the next morning and called immediately to see if they could deliver it to a UPS store. He also called one of his friends who works for UPS to see if he had any suggestions on how to track it down. He was finally able to get in touch with someone and they said that he could pick it up from the warehouse in Virginia Beach. He went to the warehouse and they told him that they didn't know where it was, so he would have to wait until they delivered it to the school.

We had another big snowstorm that was coming in that night, which meant that it probably wouldn't be delivered until Monday (5 days later). I had a lot of things that were due the next week, so I tried not to have a nervous breakdown about having to do a ton of paperwork in the span of 2 days. A few hours later, Andrew's friend from UPS called and said that he had been able to track down the computer! They met up and Andrew was able to bring her home to me that night.

I named her Bernice because every great laptop needs an old lady name. I also just looked up the meaning of Bernice and it's, "she who brings victory." I feel like that's appropriate after everything we had to do to get her home.

Cute Elisha Story

Since Elisha is talking more now, he's also surprising us with some of the things that he knows. When I put him to sleep at night, I pray for him first. Then I say, "I love you," and give him a hug and a kiss. This was our conversation after I put him in his crib last week:

Elisha: I keeess you.
Me: You want to kiss me?
Elisha: Yea.

Then he walked over to where I was standing next to his crib and planted an open-mouthed kiss on my cheek.

I think I'll keep him. :)

2014

It's time for another reflection on the previous year. I'm kind of proud of myself because I just looked at the years that I've written these for and I've only missed 2012 since 2008. There are probably ones from earlier years on myspace, too, but I haven't looked there in forever. Onward to the list!

January: We went out to dinner with friends on New Year's Eve, then came home to watch a HIMYM marathon before midnight. When we got home, I couldn't find my purse in Andrew's car. I had left it under a coat in his car while we were out because he had everything that we needed. We soon realized that it was nowhere to be found and that someone had stolen it, which meant canceling checks and credit cards. Plus, we were completely paranoid that night because someone had the keys to our house and my car. We were able to replace most of the stuff in it, but it was a huge hassle. Elisha took his first steps on his 9 monthiversary on January 26th. I continued going to physical therapy because my back wasn't completely better after having herniated discs that were pinching the nerve. We also had a lot of snow and ice!

February: We continued with the snow and ice. Andrew, Elisha, and I got sick with the stomach flu during the same week, so that was gross. Tom, Andrew's dad, had a stroke at the beginning of the month and ended up in the hospital. We were able to say goodbye to him on February 17th and tell him that we loved him. It was incredibly difficult to get out the words, knowing that this was going to be the last time I saw him on this earth. He passed away on Tuesday, February 18th, and a Celebration Service was held that Saturday. It truly was a celebration of his life with people telling stories about the funny things that he did and family members (Andrew included) singing songs that he had requested for the service.

March: I was discharged from physical therapy because my back was finally all better. I also went back to the gym and started some interval workouts on the treadmill. We finally had some sunshine again, so Elisha and I spent some time outside and I enjoyed the fact that I wasn't in pain anymore.

April: I don't really know what happened in April, so I'm guessing that it was more working and spending time outside.

May: I studied not hard enough and took the BCaBA at the end of the month.

June: Andrew went to John Brown University in Arkansas for a training for his school. He's technically a college professor now because some of his students are taking history for college credit through that school. Elisha and I met him in California because we were going to visit my family and meet Margot. My main goal for that trip was to snuggle a ton with Margot, so I think that goal was accomplished.

July: We went to visit our friends Bess, Russell, and their daughter/our future daughter-in-law, Mary Carol, in Atlanta. We were having "Supper Club" with them when they lived in Virginia and we would basically do a potluck at their house once per month. We ate, played games, and ate some more while we were visiting them.

August: I spent a lot of time studying for the BCBA exam and I worked. That was pretty much the gist of August.

September: Elisha and I took a road trip to Bemus Point, NY, for Paul and Jordan's wedding. We shared a hotel room with Kim and Jenny, so it was fun to have a slumber party with that crew and catch up on life. Elisha contributed the words, "Oh, I seeee," "key," and "hi" to our conversations many, many, many times. It was also FREAKIN' COLD in upstate New York, which weather.com had lied about, so I bought a sweater dress and leggings from the local consignment shop. I found out at the end of the month that I had failed the BCBA exam. :(

October: We went to Jessie Overton's wedding and Andrew sang for it. I made a Halloween costume for Elisha (this was the first and probably only time that will happen). I dressed our E.G.G. up as an egg for "Trunk or Treat" at my mother-in-law's church, then we went to dinner at the Broken Egg. He crashed on the way home from dinner, so I took advantage of the opportunity to snuggle with him when we got home. I also ate most of his Halloween candy while he was asleep on me.

November: I turned *gasp* 35. I studied (A LOT) for the BCBA exam and took it on 11/25. We were going to stay home on Thanksgiving because I was recovering from all of that studying, but ended up going to the Overton's house (a family from Andrew's school) for dinner and the Wall's house (Andrew's best friend's) for pie.

December: We all got sick at various times during the beginning of the month. On one of those days, I ended up with the stomach flu and puked 9 times in 8 hours. I don't think I've ever been that sick in my life. The day after that, when I was able to move around a tiny bit more, we went to a little Winter Wonderland in Downtown Portsmouth called Coleman's Nursery. Elisha was fine with sitting on Santa's lap and basically just wanted to pull on his beard. He also liked watching the trains and the toys in the Christmas exhibits. While we were there, they told us that there was chocolate dipping in the gift shop, so we went downstairs and got to make chocolate things for free! THEN, they told us that there was a place with pretend snow at the end of the street and that it was going to be starting in a few minutes. We went down there and Elisha did some dancing as the fake snow came down. My point is- we ended up having this magical winter night on accident.

We also went to California for Christmas and had a blast hanging out with my family. And the best Christmas present of all was finding out on Christmas night that I PASSED THE BCBA EXAM!!! I don't think I've ever been more relieved about something in my life. About 15 minutes after finding out I passed, there were Christmas carolers at my parents' door. I don't know why they were there at 9:30pm, but they added to the magic of finally being done with that test for good.

That's all for 2014. It started out pretty bad and ended up fantastic. I'm looking forward to what the New Year will bring!

My Most Embarrassing Moment(s)

I was thinking about my most embarrassing moments the other day and decided to blog about them. There were 4 that I could think of off the top of my head. Two of them were truly mortifying and the other two just made for good stories.


We'll start with the mortifying:
1) I borrowed a friend's car to take Jeff, Emily, and Eiley to the airport when they were moving back to CA. On my way back from the airport, one of the tires blew out and I TOTALED HER CAR. I just kept shouting, "NONONONONONONONO!" as it was happening and continued to shout it once I was stopped on the other side of the freeway and facing oncoming traffic. There were some wonderful people who saw what had happened and came over to check on me... all I could say was, "It's not my car!!!" It all ended up working out because she got the same amount of money back that she had paid for the car, but still... no one wants to total someone else's car.


2) While volunteering in Kentucky, we had many volunteers who came to live in our house. The majority of them were nice, or at least tolerable. There was one, though, who also volunteered at the preschool with Miss Kim and me. I had zero patience for her. One day, we all went to get into the van after a long day of working with preschoolers. I got into the driver's seat and closed my door. I heard a howl from the back where this other volunteer was climbing in and immediately opened my door. It turns out that she had grabbed onto the driver's side when she was getting into the van, instead of the part in the back of the van where the door slides. I had slammed the door on her hand! It ended up that there was a big cut in the middle of it and she spent the rest of her time complaining about how she couldn't do anything because it hurt so badly.


The funny ones:
3) When I was going into the 7th grade, we had a new potential youth pastor at our church. Most of my immediate and extended family went to the same church, so my Grandma invited the prospective youth pastor over for my dad's birthday lunch. I was enjoying the wonderful roast lunch that she had prepared until a piece of it got stuck in my throat. I had some trouble swallowing it and ended up puking all over my plate. My poor dad- he's okay with most things except loose teeth and vomit. What a way to make a first impression on the youth pastor!


4) While working at Blockbuster Video back in the day, I was recovering from a cold of some sort. I had that lingering cough that is sometimes impossible to stop without water. As I was helping a customer at checkout, I started coughing as I told him when the movie was due. It wouldn't stop and I started to reach for my water. Then it stopped as soon as I went for the water and I thought I could just wait until I finished with the checkout. I started to cough again and the guy said, "It's okay. Just drink the water." I started to drink it, but I ended up coughing again and spraying water all over the guy, just as if he were seeing Shamu at Sea World. He was a great sport and told me, "That's the funniest thing that's happened to me all day!"

Happy 9 Monthiversary, Elisha

Dear Elisha,
   You are 9 months old today, which means that you have been out in the world for the same amount of time that you were in my belly. How crazy to think that the time I spent waiting for you is now the same as the time that I've actually known you! I must say that the time spent with you has gone by WAY faster than the waiting for you did. People say that babies grow up so fast and it really is true. Here are some of the things that I love about YOU:

- You're such a happy little guy. You pretty much only cry anymore when you're tired or hungry. Or when you fall down and hit your head.
- You love to sleep. Thank goodness, because I'm a big fan of it myself. I greatly appreciate that your wake-up time is around 7am.
- You know how to entertain yourself. There are times when we will put you in your crib with your toys because we need to get things done around the house. We'll hear you babbling away in there and know that you're perfectly content.
- I'm pretty sure that you're going to be an extravert. I don't think that you'll be one in the loud-mouthed, life of the party type of way, but I think that you get your energy from other people. I've seen you light up when you get to see your little friends at the babysitter's and get all excited when we're at a basketball game. I've also seen you being quiet when we're out in public, but then we get you home and you babble twice as much as usual.
- I love giving you new foods to eat. You always look disgusted when you take the first bite, but then you end up eating the rest of what I give to you. Except green beans with rice. You hated that stuff and I gave up halfway through since you haven't been picky about anything else.
- I love the way that you look at your daddy and me. There are times that you'll just be staring at one of us and grinning. I know this is what babies do, but it's really special since you're our baby.
- Speaking of your daddy, I love watching him with you. He's SO proud of you and it makes my heart swell when I see the two of you playing on the floor or just hanging out on the bed.
- One thing that I could do without: your hatred of snuggling. I've gotten to snuggle with you 5 times in the past month. Four of those times were on the same day because you were very sick and only wanted to be held. One of my main reasons for having a baby was the unlimited amount of snuggling available. You went ahead and ruined that plan for me.
- I do appreciate your squirminess, though. You weren't a very active fetus, so I thought that meant you'd be pretty mellow outside of the womb. Your personality is pretty laidback, but you sure did trick me with the amount that you like to move around. You were getting out of your little swaddling bag at 2 weeks old, rolling onto your stomach at 3 months... now you're cruising and taking 1 step at a time before falling down. You're always on the go and this has been very surprising to me.

In conclusion, I have loved getting to know you during the past 9 months and I can't wait to learn more about you as you grow up!

2013

It's the end of the year and time for me to attempt to remember the things that happened to me throughout 2013. It was a big year, but also quite a blur!

January: Got into a car accident while driving the Honda Civic Hybrid that we had bought 5 months earlier. The man who ran into me was driving a Chevy Silverado and turned left into my car as I was going through a green light. It worked out in my favor, though, because the Civic was totaled and worth $3000 more than what we had paid for it. Since we had only made 5 payments on it, we basically just kept the same loan and used the extra money as a down payment for a Prius (my dream car!) At 6 months pregnant, I somehow escaped that crash with just a teeny-tiny bruise on my elbow and no pain the next day. They ran tests on me at the hospital and Elisha was also perfectly fine. Andrew and I also went to a lovely Bed & Breakfast in Staunton, VA, as a babymoon. It was beautiful up there and a fun memory to make before the baby was born.

February: I think we went to some ODU games and I worked a lot. We went to the Broken Egg (our favorite restaurant) for a really nice dinner on Valentine's Day.

March: Spring began and the weather became ultra-beautiful. Andrew and I got to take some lovely hikes during my 8th month of pregnancy because of that gorgeous weather. I was a single woman for 2 weeks because Andrew was a chaperone for the senior trip to Europe. It was nice to have the house to myself for about 2 days, but then I missed him and time seemed to stand still for the next 12 days.

April: I gave birth to Elisha Gideon Garrett on April 26th. He had to go to the NICU the next day because they were afraid that there was something wrong with his small intestine. He ended up being healthy, but he had to stay in the NICU for 5 days because they put him on antibiotics for a possible infection.

May: Mama, Emmy, and Eiley came to live with us and help out with Elisha when he was first born. It was so nice to have them in town and get to see them loving spending time with my little boy.

June: I got to spend most of this month with Elisha and established somewhat of a routine with him. I went back to work at the end of the month.

July: Went on my first road trip with Elisha and discovered that he's quite a good traveler. We reunited with my friends in Kentucky and it was so great to be able to introduce him to all of his surrogate aunts and uncles at once.

August: My dad came to visit because he couldn't handle the fact that he would have to wait another 3 months to meet Elisha. I loved that he took the time to visit and that he got quality time with his only grandson.

September: Andrew went on a 3 day retreat with everyone at Stonebridge, so I experienced being a single mom for the first time. Mad props to the single moms out there because it's hard to do the parenting thing without extra help.

October: I was in a ton of pain because of a bulging disc in my back that was pinching a nerve in my right leg. It was absolutely miserable and I spent most of the month in bed and/or crying. Thankfully, Andrew has a wonderful parent at his school who has a chain of physical therapy facilities here and he was able to take care of me. Physical therapy helped me a ton in getting to be able to walk, sit, and stand again without being in misery.

November: Spent my birthday evening watching the Stonebridge Girls' Volleyball team win their quarterfinal match and then everyone went out for Mexican food after it was over. We went to California for Thanksmas and, of course, had a blast with family. It was so fun to introduce Elisha to everyone and to see how excited they all were to meet him. I was also very proud of him on all of our flights. He didn't sleep much, but he was a happy camper!

December: Went to Christmas Town at Busch Gardens and saw lots of pretty lights. Spent time with Andrew's side of the family as they came into town. Had Elisha dedicated at Andrew's old church.

The Birth Story

Dear Elisha,
    I wanted to tell you your birth story because my mom likes to tell me mine every year on my birthday. I plan to carry on the same tradition and am starting on it early. So here's a little story about the day (and night before) you were born.
   On April 25, 2013, your daddy and I got home from a Stonebridge event around 7 or 8pm. He was still hungry and was craving Sonic ice cream (for reals... I was pregnant, but he was the one with the craving). We went out around 10pm and my stomach was kind of hurting, but I still ordered some ice cream for myself because I firmly believe in saying yes to ice cream whenever it's offered. When we went outside, I noticed that it appeared to be a full moon. Your Great Grandma Bradshaw, who has been a nurse for 60+ years, has said that more babies are born during the full moon than at any other point during the month. Well, this made me think that maybe it was more than a stomachache, but it couldn't be because you weren't due for another 3 days. We got our ice cream, took it home, and I ate about 1/3 of it. We spent the next hour or so timing whether there was a pattern to these stomachaches and sure enough, it was happening every 7 minutes or so. I was in labor and would soon be getting to meet you!  
   We waited until the contractions were about 3 minutes apart because we didn't want to go to the hospital and have them turn us away. Therefore, we got to the hospital around 3am. I was in a lot of pain at that point and asked to get the epidural as soon as possible. They said they had to get some fluids into me and then they would be able to give me the epidural. I thought, "No big deal. I'll be getting some pain relief in no time at all."... Around 5:30am, I had the fluids in me and the anesthesiologist was giving me an epidural. 2 1/2 hours after getting to the hospital! My point is that I was in a lot of pain for WAY longer than I expected. Then he gave me that injection and it was all sunshine and rainbows and unicorns.
   The doctor came in to check me and said that he thought you would be born around 9am... you were born at 4:21pm. Needless to say, I had a lot of getting my hopes up and being disappointed for about 7 hours there. They would say I was ready to push, then I would push and they would say it wasn't time yet and we needed to wait a bit. There was also a point when they had to put me on my side in order for you to move and be in the right position to come out. That point coincided with the epidural wearing off. Something your daddy was nice enough to figure out about an hour after it happened. Luckily, your daddy is a great advocate and he got them to fix that epidural quickly.
   Finally, around 3:30pm, it really was time to push. The doctor from the morning had left and Dr. Colwill was the one who delivered you. She was so incredibly nice- talking me through it and asking us questions about our lives. Your daddy kept making jokes, telling me he loved me, and telling me I was beautiful. He was an excellent teammate during the whole process (minus texting everyone with updates about what was happening... I did not want to hear that text message beep anymore.) They kept saying that they saw your head, which made me think you were almost out... it was another 45 minutes or so before you were actually in my arms. I pushed when they told me to and when I could tell that you really were almost here, I wasn't sure if I was going to be able to push anymore. It was about 3 more times and then you were really, truly, FINALLY out!
   Now, I have watched a lot of "A Baby Story" in my life, and I usually get a little teary-eyed when I see the mother holding her baby for the first time. They're usually pretty emotional about it, too. When you came out, though, I was just so absolutely relieved that you were here and in my arms. All of that pushing is really tiring and I was just so happy that it was over, so I didn't cry. Sorry about that. I was also excited about meeting you in person and being able to hold you. My point is that there wasn't time for weepy emotions and I just wanted to hang out with you... I also wanted to eat Chicken McNuggets and drink a Diet Coke because I hadn't eaten in about 18 hours. Your grandparents were nice enough to get those and have them ready for me soon after you were born.
   About 2 hours after you were born, the pediatrician came in and said that you were born with a temperature of 103 degrees. They had to put you on some antibiotics through an IV and it meant that you would have to stay in the hospital nursery for 2 days. This scared me a little, but I knew that you would be okay.
   We hung out in the delivery room for a few more hours because I couldn't walk, then we went to spend the night in a recovery room. I got up to go to the bathroom around 4am and your daddy heard me, so he said, "Do you want to go and visit the baby in the nursery?' I said yes and thought it was adorable because he had never cared much about babies until he met you. When he met you, he was over-the-moon in love.
  We heard a loud scream as we were walking down there and found out it was you. It turns out that you had just thrown up some bright green bile and they were afraid that there was something wrong with your small intestine. They were going to have to transfer you to the NICU at CHKD. This was more scary than the news from the night before and it was heartbreaking to see you in the little mobile crib that they use to transport babies between hospitals. I've never been in an ambulance and you went in one during the first 24 hours of your life. After you were taken there, they ran some tests and found out that you were going to be okay. They just had to keep you on the antibiotics for a few more days, which ended up being 5 days and we were finally able to bring you home 6 days after you were born.
   So there's your birth story- it's kind of a long one and more dramatic than I expected it to be. Hopefully the drama thing isn't something that continues throughout your life. Unless it leads you to becoming a famous actor and supporting your father and me in the manner in which we'd like to become accustomed.

Show Us Your Life- Jenny Edition

I love matchmaking, so I was very happy when Jenny told me about "Show Us Your Life". It meant that I could possibly play a role in helping her find the love of her life and since she absolutely deserves that, it was an honor to be asked to write about her. Here are the things that I love about Jenny and you'll probably love, too, if you're lucky enough to get to meet her:

- She loves Jesus more than anything and she always does a great job of trying to make sure that her decisions are God's will and not her own. She's done this through prayer, Bible study, and patiently waiting when she's unsure of a clear answer on what to do in her life.

- She's a wonderful friend and does an excellent job of maintaining friendships, even though many of them are long distance now. She's been in 5 weddings that I can think of off the top of my head, including my own, and a few of those have been people that she's known since childhood. She's very good about writing letters, making phone calls, and e-mailing to make sure that she knows what's going on in the life of her friends. The four of us in this picture volunteered together during 2008-2009 in Kentucky and we still keep in touch through a notebook that we send to each other with updates on our lives.

                                                     From left: Kim, Jenna, Jenny, Jess

- She's adventurous and does things like finding new places to hike, traveling to far-off places, rock climbing, and SKYDIVING.

 

Off-roading... we weren't really, but it was a cute picture with Jenny in the middle.

                           
- She loves to watch football... isn't this every guy's idea of the perfect woman?

- She likes to be active and does a great job of staying in shape. This is especially difficult to do in Berea, KY because there aren't a ton of places to exercise there, but she still manages to find spinning classes and go running.

                             Jenny's on the right. This is from a team marathon in Louisville 2009.
                                                  
- She's a good cook, which I know because I was her housemate for 1 year. She also came up with fun food themes, such as Derby Pie and Hot Browns in honor of the Kentucky Derby.

                                              At the Kentucky Derby. Jenny's on the left.

- She's ultra-smart. She was her high school valedictorian and she went to Vanderbilt University for her Master's degree in School Counseling.

- She's great at helping people. Some of the big responsibilities of her job are organizing Christmas basket distributions for families in Kentucky who don't have much money and may not be able to afford much for their families at Christmastime. She also organizes School Readiness to make sure that kids have all of the school supplies that they need when they return to school in the fall. Those are just two of the big things that she does, plus she advocates for the various needs of people on a daily basis.

In conclusion, Jenny's a total catch and you (or the loved one that you think she'd be right for) should get to know her!

http://www.kellyskornerblog.com/2012/02/show-us-your-life-show-us-your-singles.html

Best Concert Ever!

We went to see The Fray and Kelly Clarkson in concert last night and it was such a blast! My dream concerts are/have been U2, The Fray, and Taylor Swift. We were able to see U2 last June, so I was excited to check another band off the list when I heard that The Fray were coming to Virginia Beach. I also held off on getting tickets because it was at the Virginia Beach Amphitheater and I figured the lawn seats weren't going to sell out. My waiting paid off and I was able to buy 2 tickets for the concert on Groupon for $15 last month.

Some of the highlights from the concert last night were:
1) It finally being cool enough to wear a sweatshirt and jeans.
2) Walking to the lawn and being asked if we wanted a free upgrade to seats in the Amphitheater (we took them, duh.)
3) People-watching, especially because there's a very diverse following of people who listen to Kelly Clarkson and The Fray. Some of my favorites were:
    a) Seeing a dad with his teenage daughter who was in a wheelchair as they talked and joked around.
    b) The group of 5 junior high girls who were dancing and singing along with the music.
    c) The 2 men who appeared to be a couple and knew every word to every Kelly Clarkson song.
    d) The 2 women in their 40's who ran into the bathroom and screamed with excitement because all of the stalls were unoccupied before the concert began.
    e) The junior high girl who was there with her family and appeared to be doing the Monster Mash to Kelly Clarkson's music.
4) Singing as loudly as I could to "Because of You," "Stronger," and "Since U Been Gone" during the Kelly Clarkson portion.
5) Kelly Clarkson covering "Already Gone" by Leona Lewis and saying that she had forgotten the words in the middle of it. Luckily, she was in the audience at that point, so people were able to help her out.
6) This one's my favorite: A woman recognized us from Essential Church during the break between Kelly Clarkson and The Fray. She said that she was going to be leaving early with her daughter and asked if we wanted to take their seats that were even closer to the front. We were probably about 100 feet from the stage and didn't even need to look at the screens to see them. So cool and it was very kind of her!
7) Giving Miss Kim's phone number to Joe... (this one's a lie, but I would have loved for it to happen.)
8) Singing along with Andrew to every song by The Fray.
9) Getting to experience all of this with Andrew because I have so much fun with him and because The Fray is the one band that both of us love listening to.
10) No traffic getting out of the parking lot. We figured out that a lot of the kids were there to see Kelly Clarkson and if they stayed until the end of The Fray, it would be way past their bedtimes.

This night was something I had looked forward to for a long time and it absolutely exceeded my expectations!

If My Life Flashed Before My Eyes...

The other day, my sister blogged about what she hoped/thought she would see if her life flashed before her eyes, then instructed me to do the same after I commented on it. I'm going to try to do the same now. And, to read her awesome blog post, go to www.longdistancelobsters.com.

- Waiting all day at the hospital for Eiley to be born and then finally getting to hold her.

- My wedding day. I just started to list way too many things from it, so I think I'll put those in another blog.
- That perfect summer day when we went to the beach, rode bikes, got frozen yogurt, and barbecued.
- That random summer night when we tried to pass out sandwiches to homeless people in the Back Bay and got pulled over briefly by a cop because he thought the sandwiches were drug paraphernalia.
- That perfect winter day in Kentucky where we had a snowball fight, drank hot chocolate, watched Faerie Tale theater, and played Scrabble.
- That perfect winter day in Virginia when school was canceled, so Andrew came over for watching HIMYM, kissing, going to the mall, and dinner at the Virginia Beach Oceanfront.
- Andrew and I sitting on the couch at my old apartment and him telling me that he'd had dreams where we were getting married and I was holding our daughter.
- Late night talks with Robyn Boyd (not any specific ones, but there have been so many that I'm sure I'd have a picture of it in my mind).
- Emmy punching me in the stomach when she was 5 and I was 8 because she was mad at Tiffany (this isn't a happy memory, but it's always been so vivid that I'm sure it would come up at the end of my life).
- Experiencing a huge summer storm while camping in Lake Havasu and watching people try to take pictures of the lightning... then watching them realize how it's next to impossible to take pictures of lightning (this was before digital cameras existed).
- Watching one of the counselors and 2 of the little girl campers at Royal Family Kids' Camp dance to "In Your Presence" by Charity Von.
- I'm sure that I would picture at least one of my fancy birthday dinners with my dad. I think this year will be our 21st year of doing that, so there would be tons of memories to choose from.
- Watching the sunset in Mexico while doing devotions with Andrew.
- Going with Eiley and Emmy to take pictures during Eiley's mini-monthly photo shoots.
- One of those days when Andrew and I go to Busch Gardens and Zaxby's. Those are always wonderful!
- Seeing my dad walk my sister up the aisle and watching Jeff openly weep upon her entrance.
- Vahdan giving me a toast and singing to me on my 28th birthday.
- Going to Haiti with my mom and getting to hold babies at an orphanage there.
- Watching Disneyland fireworks.
- Taking long walks in Newport Beach with various friends.
- Having a HIMYM party on Monday nights at the Canal House and crowding my green couch with a bunch of my favorite people.
- Having a Bachelor/Bachelorette/Bachelor Pad party every Monday with Andrew.
- I'm certain that I would see something random that Emmy had instigated (Scrabble at Downtown Disney, Tabitha's birthday scavenger hunt, various theme parties, etc.).
- The April Fool's Day when my mom almost convinced me that there was an ejector seat in the car or the one where our parents surprised us with a night at the Disneyland Hotel.

That seems to be a lot and I'm sure I wouldn't see all of those things, but it would be great if I did.

Happy 1st Anniversary, Andrew Garrett!

It's our 1st anniversary today and I can't believe how quickly it's all gone by so far! I'm happy to be your wife and am so thankful that I ended up with you as a husband. You were totally worth the wait! As you know, I've made a few top 10 lists about my loved ones, so consider yourself fortunate to get one today. In no particular order, here are the things that I love about you:

1) You love Jesus more than anything.
2) You love me at a close second and have done an excellent job of loving me in the same way that Christ loved the church.
3) You are an amazing cook! Jess told me when I saw her this past week that she would know we had a good marriage if I was eating vegetables now. She was right and you doctor them up better than anyone I know, which makes me love eating them.
4) You are great at pulling information out of me, even though I bottle it up too much. I love that you're patient and willing to get to the bottom of things when we're having a conflict.
5) You're fun to hang out with. Whether it's going to Busch Gardens and Zaxby's, going out for a nice dinner, or spending time at home, I just love spending time with you.
6) Sometimes, when we get to the end of the week and relax, I think that it's like we're having a slumber party. Then I realize that it's kind of like I'll be having one for the rest of my life with my best friend. It's the best feeling.
7) You've been working hard at staying in shape and have been consistent with going to the gym. I appreciate that a lot of it is because you want to be healthy for me.
8) You're a wonderful teacher and have taught many of your students to love history. Plus, 10 out of 16 with a 3, 4, or 5 in AP is a huge deal! I know those kids look up to you and that you're a great role model for them.
9) You love your family and mine. This was always something that was important to me when I was looking for a husband and you exceeded my expectations. I also know that when the time comes, you'll be an amazing dad.
10) You're gifted musically. You sing, play the guitar, and write songs so well! I'm still hoping you or someone else will record "Thanks for the Memories" in order to make us a ton of extra money at graduation time each year.

I love you so much and love being married to you!

Book Recommendation- "The Reading Promise," by Alice Ozma

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

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!

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!)

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!