Is It TOO Early?

I just made my first Christmas card of the season. Do you think it is TOO early?

I DON'T! These Christmas cards take FOREVER! My brain can only come up with so many cute ideas in one sitting...and I have ADD so all the cards have to be different. I will be lucky if I get 20 - 25 made before Christmas.

Anyone want to get together to make Christmas Cards?

Follow UP

Book Review

Looking for a good book to read? Let me recommend "Ellen Foster" by Kaye Gibbons. It is a short quick book that will tug at your emotions. There were tears in my eyes, and if you know me, this is rare occurrence with any media.

If you read it let me know, I would love to discuss it with you!

Kaleiescopes Are Cool or Creepy Co-workers

I was at a Benefit Fair in Heber for work on Monday. My table was right next to the "feel good" employee assistance table. They were giving away stress reliever toys, one of which was a KALEIDeSCOPE! Imagine my delight! I am now the proud owner of a toy kaleidescope.

Tuesday, back at the office, I was looking through my KALEIDeSCOPE enjoying a little break, when ALL OF A SUDDEN I hear giggling in the next cubicle over. CHAY has a smirk on his face. If you know CHAY, this means TROUBLE. So after running through all the questions with him to try and determine why he is smirking...(What do I have a big black ring around my eye now?) he finally admits what he did. He took pictures of me with his phone while I wasn't paying attention because of the aforementioned "Stress Reliever KALEIDeSCOPE" break. AND he is holding the pictures hostage.

Now you tell me are KALEIDeSCOPES secret tools of CREEPY EVIL people?

Crafty Crafterson

I spent most of the day yesterday doing crafty things and I loved it!

I also, for the first time ever, made some fun Halloween cards...this one is my favorite. I LOVE SPARKLES! I purchased this sparkle paper in Arizona while shopping with my super cool friend JILL.

SPARKLES Rule...and so do women working towards becoming Domestic Goddesses...and I my book that means being a card maker.

(p.s. no worries if you are not a card maker...just use a different book on what qualifies you as a Domestic Goddess!)

Downtown...

I love working downtown.

Only Downtown would I be able to walk to work through a construction zone.
Only Downtown would I be able to work in a building with 27 floors.
Only Downtown would I get distracted walking into and out of the building by construction crews demo-ing the building. So fascinating.
Only Downtown would I be able to listen to concerts in the park on my lunch hour.
Only Downtown would I work in a building where they are tearing out floors 1-7...so you will be able to see right through them.
Only Downtown would I work in a building whose main sewer line gets cut and we aren't able to use the restrooms in the building for 4 hours.
Only Downtown would I get to go to the food court in the mall attached to my building to use the restroom while the restrooms in my building are off limits.
But the best part of working Downtown is the Sushi Bar across the street where I get to go for lunches (1/2 price sushi rolls during lunch) and get to meet friends there after work (Wednesdays is 1/2 price sushi).

I love working downtown...

Below are pictures of the friends I had sushi with tonight...


This is Tanner and I. Love him!


Tanner and Tiffanie. Seriously, some funny people...they're great!


Angie and Tiffanie, definitely a fun time. Angie tried sushi and nagri. She gave sushi a thumbs up and almost threw up the nagri.

Thanks for the fun times today!

p.s....I LOVE SUSHI & Nagri!

How Much Do We Pay You??!??!

My Friend Carrie (aka salami face) writes about things her 1st graders say...and it got me thinking about the things I hear at work. So with out further ado I am stealing her idea...

Sometimes I get employees who call and say some pretty crazy things...being in Human Resources, you tend to learn more about employees than you really want too! For instance, I don't need to know if an employee has "Irritable Bowel Syndrome" especially if they are in my singles ward. All of the below situations are actual instances and comments made by employees:

Situation #1: We had an employee call in about how much money she elected to put into her FSA (it is not necessary to know what this term means). On the form she faxed us, she wrote $2000. Well, after a paycheck or two she called in because this amount seemed unusually low to her. We looked at her form and explained the situation. Then she said this: "The form I faxed you only says $3,500, do you think the numbers changed when it went through the fax?" Luckily, I wasn't the person talking to her...or my response would have been "Oh! Dang it! That happens when we forget to feed the Fax Machine People. I am really sorry, I will get the corrected for you right away!" Wow...seriously. What makes it worse is we looked at what she does for us...and let's just say...I don't know that I would want to be a patient in her care. The other sad thing...she makes more than me...so sad!

Situation #2: We have an employee that we will never forget, let's call her Sally. Sally sent us a fax it was too someone named "Bob" at a different company, but with our fax number. We called her to let her know that she sent the fax to the wrong place that she had the wrong fax number. This was her response "Can't you just forward it on to BOB?" I think the appropriate response would have been "Since the fax number on the sheet is ours and Bob doesn't work here, if we try to fax it to him again...we will be faxing it to us, and then we will get the fax again, and try to fax it to him again, and around and around we will go...eventually someone in our department is going to get awfully dizzy!" Wow, again...wow.

I didn't know that fax machines were so hard to use...and that is only the beginning.

One of my favorite shows is "The Office"...ask any HR professional, and they have had circumstances that come pretty close to the scenarios from the show...it is scary. At each place I have worked, I could name a department that would fit right in to the TV show...pretty crazy!

Some days, I wonder if I picked the right career path. I definitely did not pick one that pays the most money...but I did pick one that makes me laugh, and isn't that what life is all about?

Sneaky, Sneaky, Sly

A not-very-interesting thing happened to me last week...and it felt like a punch in the face.

It all started a month or so ago. Every morning I get up, take a shower, get dressed, and then blow dry and straighten my hair. I started noticing that it was taking me a long time to style my hair...and I haven't really changed my routine...if anything I have tried to shorten the time it takes to do my hair (if you question this...just look at my hair lately).

Well, last week I slept over at my parents house and instead of plugging my blow dryer in, I used my sisters. WOW, I was blown away, and mean literally BLOWN AWAY! Her blow dryer was powerful...what a blow dryer should be. The time to blow dry my hair was cut by more than half. I loved it...it even made me smile!

So, by now you are asking yourself, why is she writing about this? So her blow dryer stopped working...BIG DEAL!?! Well, as I was using my sister's blow dryer, I realized that my blow dryer just didn't STOP working...it gradually got less and less powerful. It did this so slowly that I didn't notice...maybe it took me 30 seconds to a minute longer each week to blow dry my hair, until it was taking 20 minutes a day (seriously I have like 5 strands of hair it should only take 5 minutes for a quick blow dry). As, I was thinking about how this broken blow dryer snuck up on me...I started thinking about how this is a REAL LIFE PARABLE.

How often does this happen in my life or in the world? For example: I make a goal to read my scriptures everyday and I do really good for a really long time. Then I go on a trip and forget to pull them out one night. No big deal, I start again the next. But maybe instead of reading 30 minutes, I start justifying only reading 20 minutes because I am tired...and then 10 minutes, and then one day I realize I haven't read my scriptures in months. (This is just an example and not confession). Or, my goal to eat 5 fruits and vegetables each day, only to find myself justifying months later that green jell-o counts as a vegetable because it is green. How often does this happen to you? This happens to me with the words I say quite often.

This kind of sneaky subtle change isn't always bad. Example: I didn't always pray every night. I made a goal in my early 20's to start praying each evening. Sometimes I would forget but most nights I would say my evening prayers. One night as I was laying in bed tossing and turning, wondering why I couldn't fall asleep, it came to me...I hadn't said my prayers. I immediately said them and fell right asleep. The prayers snuck up on me and became an important part of my life without me even realizing it.

So, there you have it. My REAL LIFE PARABLE. Something so insignificant yet it felt like a punch in the face and made me examine my life. I have thought about the blow dryer everyday...sometime multiple times a day. Each time, a new thing comes to my mind, things I need to change, and things that I have changed for the good...without even realizing it.

Thanks Mr. Blow Dryer!

This Makes Life Better...

COMMUNICATION!

Seriously people. Communication is wonderful. Communication is great. Unfortunately, communication is hard. I truly believe that everyone communicates differently and it is WORK to understand other people. I am not talking about "pass the salt" type of communication, but the bigger stuff, the "I need help" or "We need to work something out" type.

I found two quotes I really like:

"The most important thing in communication is to hear what isn't being said." (Peter Drucker 1909-2005). I believe this is true. I have a hard time saying the really important stuff. I skirt around the issue, whether good or bad. If I am nervous about how the other person will take it or if I have a lot invested in a relationship (friendship, family, romantic, work, etc) it is hard to just come out and say what I feel or am thinking. I am sure I am not the only one. I try really hard to get over this, but with every new person and situation, I seem to find myself back at square one. Those who communicate with me, sometimes/maybe most of the time, have to listen to what I don't say. Which seems lame...which is why I am working on being better.

"Good communication is as stimulating as black coffee and just as hard to sleep after. "

Anne Morrow Lindbergh, 'Gift From the Sea'. I LOVE THIS! Some of my best and most cherished memories are conversations I had with people. Conversations that went beyond the surface and gave me a glimpse into another persons reality and gave them a glimpse into mine (which I am sure was quite scary for the other person). I don't know about you, but I sometimes CRAVE a good talk. It isn't just good conversations...but REAL communication. Knowing that when you are talking with someone, whether it is making a decision, chatting about something that happened, politics, whatever, but that you understand them and they understand you...just makes me want to jump for joy and I feel so good...and free. I have several people in my life that I communicate with really well most of the time. The communication is one of the biggest reasons I keep them in my life and trust them. Lack of good communication...well...I don't really want to keep those people close...

Here is my take away...I need to constantly work at communicating effectively, especially when the issue is important...because I do care. On the flip side, I need to seek to understand those who are communicating with me.

Whoa! Someone Needs a Nap!

That someone is ME! I have been really cranky lately...so this is my one and only apology to everyone. I think I need to be sent to my room for time out...and to think about my actions! Seriously.

Let me ask a general question...Does bad luck really come in 3's? Who started this theory? That is what I would like answered...and now.

In case you were wondering how the food storage is going...I now have 2 1/2 shelves! I have been shopping the ads and getting some great deals! Yay me! Wahoo!