30 Week Picture Challenge - Week 25

A picture of your favorite day

As corny as it sounds, my favorite day is December 1st because that is when I can officially begin the Christmas season!

If you know me, you know that I am like an elf on crack at Christmas.  I always put my giant inflatable penguin in the front yard the first week of December and I load all of my Christmas song playlists to take with me wherever I go.  I find the cutest Christmas/Holiday cards to send (if we don't send a photo card).  When I was in school I wore bells on my shoes so I could jingle everywhere I went.

I try to start my Christmas shopping early, but the weekend after Thanksgiving is when the stores put out their Christmas displays, so I love to go in my spare time and see what kind of cute gifts or special deals I can find.  This is also the time my husband becomes real sneaky and tries to find ways to buy and hide my Christmas presents or wrap them while I'm in another room.  Any time a package arrives the other one is not allowed to touch it, just in case we might guess what it is by the box! 

Maybe one of my favorite things about getting to celebrate Christmas is the Angel Tree and the Azleway Children's Home Tree.  Every year at the first of December the Salvation Army Angel Tree has it's senior citizens and needy children "angels" that need help with Christmas donations.  My husband and I always choose a couple of senior citizens (as many as we can on our budget) and go shopping for them.  Of course it feels so rewarding because you know the gifts will be appreciated and they'll make someone smile.  We also donate to the Azleway Children's Home every year.  Sometimes we pick a child and buy their presents, but sometimes we just send a box of random presents and let the leaders at the center distribute them out as needed.  Needless to say, my husband and I start feeling pretty awesome by the time Christmas day comes around.  Is it selfish to do things for others just to know how great it feels?

I'm already getting excited about Christmas this year.  I've already started my shopping and I'm making more Christmas tree ornaments.  It's a 103 degrees outside right now, but it's already starting to feel like December to me!

30 Week Picture Challenge - Week 24

A picture of something you wish you could change 

More than anything I wish I could change the way people hate each other.  No I'm not some hippie activist or some Miss America entrant who wishes for world peace.  But, damn it, I don't really see what the point of it all is.

I've posted before that prejudice = ignorance.  I feel the same way about hate.  I can't even comprehend why people would teach their children that it's ok to hate against others, for whatever reason.  You can't justify it to me and you will never convince me that it's harmless or "just how they were brought up".

What right do we have to pass judgement onto others?  If you stood next to this person in an empty room with no one else around, what part of you says you are the better person and deserve to hate against this person?  Even if you'd never met them before?  Probably based on something you heard from where ever?

Your thoughts and opinions are no the only ones on Earth.  There are billions of people on this planet, so why does that make you better than me, or anyone else?

Get over yourself and learn to at least get along.  Hate only breeds more hate, and hate leads to something even worse.

30 Week Picture Challenge - Week 23

A picture of your favorite book

It's pretty sad that this one took me forever to decide on this one.  I haven't read much since high school...kind of pathetic.  I have a ton of books on my shelves and some audiobooks loaded on my iPod, but I'm too lazy to go through them.

One of my most memorable books is Summer of My German Soldier that I read in high school.  Even though Casi decided to tell me the ending half way through, I still found it very good.  The story takes place in Arkansas during WWII.  Apparently there's a POW camp nearby and one of the german soliders escapes.  The lead girl is a sheltered teenager with an abusive father and finds the escaped soldier on the lamb.  She ends up hiding him in the garage apartment in her family's house.  They don't really fall in love, but there is a spark of something there.  As the book unravels, the soldier ends up running again and the girl never sees him again.  He gave her a gold ring before he left, and when her father sees it, him and the local sheriff freak out.  During her struggle to keep it all a secret, the shereiff reveals that he knew all about it, but told her the soldier was shot dead in another state.  The book ends with her going into depression and contemplating visiting the soldier's mother that lives in France, the only family he said he had left.  There is a sequel called Morning is a Long Time Coming where she does go to France and fall in love with a French guy there, and then it doesn't work out.  Go figure.  The book bombed.

I don't know why I liked this book so much, or why I even remembered to through all this time.  I read this book in high school, so I think the idea of hopeless love made me swoon.  I was also obsessed with any books about WWII and read a lot of them.  My older self really admired the idea of these two coming together, despite the fact of a war going on and that they are from two different countries.  It kind of gives you a twisted look at the panic-stricken people here in America and how they can go nuts during war propoganda.

It's a good read, but may seem kind of elementary at this age.

30 Week Picture Challenge - Week 22

A picture of something you wish you were better at

I got this from http://www.rachelwilkerson.com/, which has some really great articles on life and such.  Definitely check it out.

Honestly, I wish I was better at accepting compliments from others and accepting the good in myself.

I have a horrbile habit of brushing off anyone's compliments that come my way.  Don't get me wrong; I absolutley love hearing them, but then the little voice in me says something like "Pfft No big deal" or "They're just saying that because they have to."  I can never accept that their nice words are genuine or even sincere.  It always feels like a mean joke or a gag or something.

Growing up I received compliments from my family, mostly about my school work and artsy stuff.  While I was glad to get the attention and liked hearing their nice words, it always felt fake or somewhat forced.  Like the feeling of "well they're family, of COURSE they're going to say how great you are."  I never could separate the two or just to go with it.

In school I had teachers that complimented my grades or would show off my papers to the class or get invitations to receive some award or what not. While it felt good to bask in my own glory about it, this kind of attention often got me the stink eye from other classmates.  They would stare me down and look at me like I'd done something wrong.  Later they would make fun of me or treat me like I was now supposed to know everything now.  I then began to see that these kind of compliments and special attention was only making me feel worse than better.  I still did my best in my work, but instead of taking in my teachers' preaises, I would just try to hide in the background or hope that I could be included in a group rather than singled out.

Even now at work I've learned to ignore any praise given to me.  I used to feel proud about myself when I would do something good, but since I have friends in management people just say I'm being treated special and only got to where I am because of who I know.  Now, the praise seems forced.  I'll always believe there is some ulterior motive to things or that they are just saying nice things because they're my friends.  Ugh.

My poor husband has received the worst of this problem.  Everyday he tells me I'm beautiful or mentions how great I look.  I've recently started dieting and of course he says the time old phrase "You don't need to diet.  I love you the way you are."  I've learned to ignore these compliments so much through life that his words just roll off me.  It annoys the crap out of him, but I can't find ways to explain it. 

It's like the Wal-Mart greeters...they say hello and tell you to have a nice day, but they don't mean it!  They could care less if you have a great day but they'll damn sure say it because it's their job!

Luckily he bears with me and just keeps right on saying these things.  Everyone else will just have to deal because I don't know what I can do to better myself at this.  How do you change years worth of molding?

I can only leave you with a famous line from Pretty Woman...

Vivian: People put you down enough, you start to believe it.
Edward Lewis: I think you are a very bright, very special woman.
Vivian: The bad stuff is easier to believe. You ever notice that?