This explains SO much?

Why We Should Be Grateful for Gen Y
by Penelope Trunk

What's the point of baby boomers complaining about Generation Y at work? First of all, it's a cliché, because people over 40 have been complaining about "young people" since forever.
Even worse, it's a losing battle. Generation Y is huge. It's one thing for boomers to verbally squash Generation X -- that was no problem. Gen X is tiny and the baby boom was huge.
But in Generation Y, baby boomers have met their match. And in the demographic catfight of the century, Gen X aligns itself with Gen Y over baby boomers, which means that the workplace gripes boomers have about young people are going to be moot in a matter of years.
Generation Which?
So maybe the over-40 crowd should spend less time talking about trying to "bridge the generation gap" -- which is really a euphemism for "get Gen Y to be more like us" -- and more time celebrating the great things that Generation Y brings to the workplace. Gen Y isn't going anywhere, and it's not like they're about to conform to baby boomer demands.
But before you continue reading, understand that the world doesn't actually adhere to demographer datelines: The generation you fit into is more a function of the choices you make than the year you were born. So if you want to know where you truly fit along generational lines, take this test.
And if you want to know why baby boomers should ease up on Generation Y, consider the ways that these youngest workers are making life better for everyone:

1. They won't do work that's meaningless.
These kids grew up with parents scheduling every minute of their day. They were told TV is bad and reading is good, and are more educated than any generation in history. They just spent 18 years learning to be productive with their time, so they're not going to settle for any photocopying/coffee stirring job.
But that's good, because we all want meaning in our jobs, and we all want to understand how we're contributing to the world at large. Why should anyone have to wait until retirement age to start demanding that?
These days, the workplace can be restructured so that we all do a little coffee stirring in exchange for each of us getting to do some meaningful work. And if work can be in some way meaningful for all of us, then the workplace in general will be a better place to spend our time.

2. They won't play the face-time game.
We've known forever that it isn't necessary to be in the office from 9 to 5 every day to get work done. But many of us have missed family events only to sit at a desk all day getting pretty much nothing done because of the stress of missing a family event. And there didn't used to be any option -- if you wanted a successful career, you made sure co-workers saw that you were putting in the hours.
Generation Y wants to be judged by the work they do, not the hours they put in. And what could be more fair than this? In fact, a good portion of the workforce has been requesting flextime for decades, but the requests have gone unheeded.
We have Gen Y to thank for forcing the switch, because if Gen Yers can't leave the building whenever they want, they'll walk out the door and never come back. Face the truth: Boomers weren't willing to go that far, but they sure are benefiting from it. Now they have more opportunities for flextime, too.

3. They're great team players.
If you've climbed a corporate ladder your whole career, then it's probably inconceivable to you that Gen Y doesn't care about your title. But it's true -- they don't do rank. Chances are they saw their parents get laid off in the '80s, so they know how ephemeral that special rung you stand on is and they don't want to waste time trying to get there.
Generation Y played on soccer teams where everyone participated and everyone was a winner, and they conducted playground politics like diplomats because their parents taught them that there's no hierarchy and bullies are to be taken down by everyone. And Gen Yers take these values to work -- they expect to be a part of a team. Gen Y believes that no matter how much experience an individual has, everyone plays and everyone wins.
Maybe it's annoying to you that you don't get to be team captain, or worse, the bully on the playground. But you've read the Harvard Business Review's decades of research on how essential workplace teams are and how older people have little idea how to be good team players, so relax: Gen Y is doing the teamwork for you. In fact, there's no way to work with Gen Yers except on a team. They go to the prom as a team, so they're certainly going to go to product reviews as a team.
That makes us all lucky. We don't need any McKinsey person coming to our company for $10 million a minute telling us how to promote teamwork. We can just follow Generation Y.

4. They have no patience for jerks.
Generation Y changes jobs every two years, typically because the work isn't a good fit, or the learning curve isn't steep enough, or they don't like their co-workers. And Gen Yers will disengage from a jerk before trying to get along with him or her, according to a report by Stan Smith, national director of Next Generation Initiatives at consulting firm Deloitte. They have no desire to bother with somebody they don't like.
This is really how we all should function. After all, according to research by Stanford professor Bob Sutton, the cost of putting up with a jerk in a company is about $160,000. Moreover, Harvard researcher Tiziana Casciaro found that people hate working with high-performing jerks so much that they would rather work with someone incompetent who's nice.
Nobody likes having to deal with jerks, but we've always believed it was asking too much to have a workplace full of decent people. Generation Y sets a new standard for this, and companies are having to dump jerks quickly or risk losing their ability to recruit and retain Gen Yers.
Don't Fight the Future
So let's get off our high horses and stop evaluating whether or not we like working with Generation Y. Its members have incredible leverage in the workplace right now, and they're not going anywhere.
It's time to admit that the workplace is changing and that we're lucky to have a group as optimistic and self-confident as Generation Y leading the way.

A girl can dream can't she. . .

Snuggled in between Nice and Monaco is a little village named Enze, and it's without a doubt my happy place. Recently, my husband mentioned that he would love to go back to France, since both of us were there when we were kids. It was one of the most wonderful things I've heard him say! Enter-Nate & S.K.'s dream getaway! At the moment it's still a dream and so I have no limits! It's been great to research a little bit of our past and maybe some of our future. Although, it does make it a little harder to come back to Iowa. Oh well, everything has a price!

top ten ideas for the do it yourself realtor

10.) Hit the laundromat circuit with flyer's



9.) Place homes for sale on the windshields of all cars at every divorce lawyer in town.



8.) Hire the local cheerleading squad to host a car wash in your driveway during your open house. Make sure at least six of them are on each corner holding your sign.



7.) Put your home-ad on coasters and leave them liberally at your favorite eatery.



6.) Place home-ad surreptitiously in every Get Rich with Real Estate book at your local book store.


5.) Put all the extra junk you have in your garage, out in the drive way like a yard sale in hopes of attracting people to your open house. When they ask how much an item is tell them $138,500 even if they don't buy the house you've at least paid back your mortgage.

4.) Call every friend you know who doesn't own a home and "spontaneously" invite them over for dinner.

3.) Hire the local marching band to march around your town home 7 times--if it doesn't get the house sold it may at least get it to come crashing to the ground. Either way we're good.

2.) Buy a St. Joseph statue and bury it upside down in your yard. I have no idea why this is supposed to work--but our neighbors swear by it. We're wondering if it would work if we just have Nate's brother Joseph come over during our open house?

1.) The best way to sell your house--when hiring out of town employee's Nate will write the purchase of our home into their contract!!!

Got any ideas--let me know the crazier the better!

This time last year. . .

Some things change--like Sophia has long outgrown her adorable car seat. (The expensive one that has a matching stroller!)
Time after time, women would go out of their way to inform me that sleeping baby in car-seat was the essence of having it easy! Never stopping to help me carry babyseat, produce, diaper bag etc. . and haul them into my two-door sexy car. I'm sure they just laughted knowingly as they rolled six kids into the mini-van with a simple sweep of the arm. It hasn't been so long ago that I forget how hard it was to get showered and out of the house between nursing, naps, and diaper changes.
Personally, I love that Sophia can be my sidekick, chattering at me in the cart and flirting with strangers. As long as I have Oragel, Pacifier, or some type of snack in my purse we're footloose and fancy free!

Fourth of July 2006-Can you guess what Nate's favorite color is? Oh and would someone explain to me the whole guys wearing rubber bands thing? But I love this picture b/c we look like such a sweet family. Baby and husband all cute and coordinating and mom hiding her-post baby weight frame behind a camera. (It is hard to see how far you've come when you only had pictures of your head for the last year!)

Miss Susan's tribute to summer and all things wholesome. I'm so thankful for traditions. Many of us thought that we'd had our last Wilke 4th of July party b/c of her failing health. I'm thrilled to say we're looking forward to a record crowd this afternoon, God be praised! And many more 4th of July's to come! Outside my mother, she is one of the most incredible and influential women in my life. Words cannot express how much I'm looking forward to this afternoon!

Can you believe this was my baby one year ago??? This was also the limit to her athletic ability! What a difference a year makes!
Some things will never change, however, Nate can still be found fast asleep on the floor while Sophia buzzes happily around him. It's a huge gift to me, since once I'm up--I'm awake for the day. Not Nate, his parental supervision is in spirit and body (only for a couple hours early in the morning.) Rule of thumb: if it's a loud enough noise to wake him up, then she's in some sort of trouble. It's worked thus far and we're all very appreciative of the arrangement. (Except maybe my Tupperware drawer)

LOTZ MORE PICS OF THE HOUSE!

Special thanks to all the people who helped us get our place looking realtor snazzy! You know you've got great friends when they will clean your bathrooms and cupboards for you! We couldn't have done it without you all! And to everyone who's having us over now so that it can stay looking this good. I'm a refugee from my own home!

Check us out:

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It's official-I'm a groupie!

When an upandcoming Xian band wins a Dove award then they should definately be on my radar screen. But when the same band happens to have a Cedar Rapids boy--and a very close friend of the family as their bass player! Well that should be enough right! Expect that they're also REALLY good!
Got to see them in concert last night and was blown-away!
(Sidenote: Iowa audiences can suck the energy out of any great preformance--ask Chris Rice and Thor Ramsey who opened for Stellar Kart--we're a tough crowd!) Not these guys! Wow everyone that wasn't leaving b/c it was a "little too rocky" (a great compliment in my book!) Was bouncing for Jesus and ready to stage dive! Ask my mom--she got her bra signed! Well not quite but she got very swept up in the night!

StellarKart