More words to come...but this is the title of my world.

Letter, Letters Everywhere!

Working on a new project I am pretty excited about. It is called 'Letter Photography'. What you do is find letter in everyday objects and take a picture. Then mat the letters together to create words. It is pretty sweet, and it is causing me to look everything very closely...it just may make my eyes go cross-eyed. I'll work on some good words, but this is all I could create so far. Can you guess the words I created? One of them is a nickname for mark. I'll have updates later when I get more letters. Enjoy!

Photo Booth

Okay, found a program online called 'Picnik' and I LOVE IT! It is sooo much fun and helping me to cope with my laptop being down. I decided to try something cool that I learned from a friends blog called 'Photo Boothing' your pictures. I took the kids out side, used a white sheet and had them sit in front of my camera while they did silly faces. Then I used the picnik program to create photo booth style photos. Such a fun idea...could even work for family photos. Here are some examples of what I did.

The 'I didn't do it' Generation

Working in HR, you get to meet a lot of different types of people. There are those who are completly above what they do, I call them the 'why are you here?' people. Then there are the 'how did you slip throughs' who honestly I don't know how they achieved a high school diploma. The 'I should be enjoying retirement, but I can't' types who are in their 60's, still enduring hard work in order to pay for their medical bills. And then there are the one's who scare me the most...the 'I didn't do it generation'. Yup, that would be my generation. The 19 to 30 year olds who have been raised by the baby boomers of the 60's. The 'I didn't do it generation' was raised upon excuses. Never taking resposibility for their actions, expecting everything to be done for them and feel that the world owes them for being alive. We grew up watching shows like the simpsons. Idealizing charachters like Bart Simpson. Who broke rules, but never took responsibility for his actions. Hence, 'I didn't do it' which was a famous Bart Simpson frase.
My theory is, because our parents the baby boomer generation were raised with a strict upbringing, they decided they would not raise their children in the same manor. Free spirits, raised to question authority, use your creative mind and no one can tell you that you are not the best. Though all of these things can be positive reenforcement to help a child to feel motivated to be the best they can be and to feel accepted, it has caused a negative effect. Parents are constantly being blamed for the way that their children are as adults. The adults who are disobiedient to rules blame their parents for neglecting them as kids and allowing them to do whatever they wanted without being punished. But when does the child begin to be mature enough to be admit when they are wrong. Some people in my generation will continue to live off of their parents merely because 'they are my parents, they owe it to me'. This is not healthy behavior.
In recruiting, I notice that those who are in my age group have gone through at least 5 jobs before the age of 30...where is the commitment? Their excuses for leaving, bad company.
In my position, I need to discuss with applicants who have criminal backgrounds that they are ineligible for a position with our company. When telling an applicant this the other day, he told me 'it is almost impossible for someone my age to not have something on their criminal record'...really?! This was not the first time that I have heard this excuse. So does this mean that we should give you a chance becuase you are subject to your generations social norms? How about taking responsibility and owning up and admitting that you knew the consiquences for your actions. Laws, rules and regulations are not hidden from people, they are made present with the consiquences for violators. Your excuse should not be 'it is impossible for me not to'.
Baby Boomer parents that I spoken to have fear that their children will resent them for inforcing rules, or that if I let my child be an adult, I am afraid that they will crash and burn on their own. There is to much coudling and protectivness with parents. Sometimes you've got to let us walk on our own to understand just how much more we need to grow.
I think that I could go on forever on this topic. Nothing bothers me more then someone not taking responsiblity for their life and addmitting when they are in error. Especially when they are my age.
I fear for my future. My generation will someday be in charge of running our nation...will this work ethic change? Will we continue to make excuses for the way that we are? Will we ever take responsibilty for our actions? By the looks of it, we will be socialists in no time.

So This is 'Lobe'

Valentines day. A day were you can do something special for the one you love...because it is expected of you. I was thinking about Valentines day, and how funny it is. Hallmark has a new campaign, 'Valentines day is not a day to say I love you, but a day to say, I love us. This made me laugh'...nope sorry hallmark, I just love my husband. I spent the majority of my single life, hating this fabricated holiday because I never seemed to have a date! Now that I am married and have a wonderful husband, I find myself dreading Valentines day cause I can never come up with a better gift for him then what he ends up getting for me! So, I decided this year, I would not worry about it, and enjoy the love he gives me and do my best to make him feel special. I decided that I would make a candle light dinner of all of the things he loves to eat, but I never want to buy them because they are not my favorite, selfless, yes? We had stuffed salmon, shushi, shrimp and chocolate covered strawberries. It turned out great, and it was wonderful to have a relaxed evening with eachother. I love my sweet husband more then anything. Everyday the love seems to grow stronger as we come to know eachother better. I feel so blessed to have such a thoughtful, caring and hilarious man in my life. I can endure the fabrication of valentines day, cause I know that when the day is over, he will continue to make me feel special.

Hobby Time

I have been feeling the Itch to take pictures again. My sister and her family were sweet enough to let me practice on them and take their family pictures. I have a lot of editing to do and discoverd that taking family pictures is pretty difficult. There is not one picture where everyone is smiling and looking at the camera! Oh well, looks like I will have to practice more. :)

BRING-IT-ON 2011

I was thinking today...as I sometimes do... how scary it is to start a new year! I am a very paronoid person and am always worried about the "what if". Mark is great for me cause he is such an optimistic person, I really need to get better at that. I was thinking about the upcoming years "what if's" such as:

• What if I get pregnant?
• What if I lose my job?
• What if I get cancer?
• What if Mark dies in an accident?
• What if Mark and I start to annoy eachother?
• What if something happens to my mom?
• What if something happens to Andrew?
• What if I don't get that raise I want?

And the list goes on longer, but you get the Idea. Then I got a little piece of mark in my brain and decided I should be more optimistic about the upcoming year. Make goals for myself to look forward to, so that I won't worry about the 'what if' but working on the 'what IS' going to happen in 2011 if I am in control. So, here is my 2011 new years resolutions:

• I will work on my physical fitness. Work out at least 4 times a week and create a plan to enter into some kind of physical challenge event. (doing a 5k run or a breast cancer walk)
• I will limit my time on facebook, so I can dedicate it to the lost projects I have started and stoped during 2010.
• I will be better at paying my tithing.
• I will read my scriptures everyday with mark, so we can strengthen our testimonies together.
• I will continue to find ways to serve Mark to express my love and appreciation for him.
• I will ask my manager for a raise, expressing my desires to move up within the company so I can better demonstrate my skills. Or I will find another job.
• I will call a family member who is out of state at least once a week, so I can develop a better relationship with my siblings.
• We will go to disneyland.
• I will be a member missionary.

I am sure I will develop a lot more goals throughout 2011, but this is a start. All I can say is, no matter what the new year brings (good or bad) I will always have the support of my loving family, husband and the savior to help me have a positive year. So 2011, BRING-IT-ON!