Medicine

I never thought that a person could make you feel so good inside that they actually heal you. Well I was wrong. Mark is my medicine and it is the most amazing thing!
Yesterday Mark participated in the Pima County Am. and I walked the course with him while he played. It was about 4 miles all together and it was a two day event, so about 8 miles in the sun all together. Which isn't such a long walk, but when you add it to 99 degree weather and having to wait for each person to play, it comes out to about 5 hours each day in the sun. It was fun, but my body was starting to hate all the exposure to the sun that it is not used to. I got a very painful migraine and felt like I might vomit. I couldn't sleep, couldn't eat and just felt like crawling into a hole and ending my life. I've had these headaches many times before, but this was probably the worst I've had since I was a teenager. So we came home, I took some medicine, but the pain did not go away. I prayed for my headache to cease, and I felt that I needed to go to mark for help. I asked him to lay down with me and to just hold me while I tried to fall asleep. He kissed my head stroked my head and said a few things to make me laugh, and within minutes the pain in my head was gone. I felt great, as if I never had a headache! He is truly my medicine! I was amazed that my headache went away so quickly. Mark has such an amazing way of making people feel calm, safe and happy, it is truly his talent and his gift to our family. I am so grateful to have such a loving and caring husband that I can go to when I am feeling scared, stressed or in pain. I know he will heal me with his love and tenderness. I love him with all my soul.

Chef boyar-Mark!

Tonight Mark made dinner for the first time in our almost two year marriage, so naturally I have to blog about it. So delicious! I came home from work and saw him at the stove making chilli, it was one of the most attractive things he has ever done! Now I understand why he is more huggy and kissy while I am making dinner...it is just so sexy to see your spouse slaving over a hot stove. He even cleaned the apartment! Man, what a hottie! I love domestic surprises!!!

Bright Future

In the Saturday afternoon session of General Conference, Elder Nelson gave a talk about faith. He said something that really hit me, "your future is only as bright as your faith". For those of you who know me, I am always fearing the unknown...such as the future. Especially the last couple days I had suspected that I may be pregnant. I began to fear a lot for whether or not the time was right or if mark and I were ready to bring a little person into this world. As I listend to elder nelson's talk, it helped me to realize that heavenly father knows what is best for us. If something happens that we are not expecting, or we feel that we may not be prepared for, if we have faith that heavenly father knows what he is doing and that he will be there to help us. Then we have no need to fear. When we fear, it is because we are losing faith. And if we are losing faith, then it is because we are not being obedient to the lords commandments to the full extent. I have been examining my life and have realized that I have been picking and choosing the commandments that I will be obedient to and omitting the ones that seem to difficult to keep. No wonder I have so much fear! This is a great opportunity for me to re-gain that relationship and that faith with my father in heaven. I said a prayer last night telling my father in heaven my goals of repentance and letting him know that if it was the right time for mark and I to have a baby, we would accept it and be happy. But if it was not, then to help us to prepare to bring a little one into our lives and build a home of faith. Needless to say, I am not pregnant. I was very sad, and a little releaved at the same time for the oppurtunity to prepare. I am very grateful for the prophets who are always there to speak for the lord and remind us of the things we need to do to keep our relationship with our father. I am grateful for a husband who no matter how much I freak out about the future or assume that trying times are coming, he always stays grounded and makes living the gospel seem as easy as breathing. He is going to be an amazing father, because he is an amazing husband. My future is only as bright as my faith...and I plan on making that faith as bright as the sun.

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.