Upgraded | Transition

I will try to stifle my squeals from this post, but you guys! I'm so excited. My blog has been upgraded by the wonderfully talented and super patient Stephanie G. Designs. I mean, REALLY upgraded---not just my usual switching up a homemade header every 6 months. Big time upgrade. I have a favicon, a rotating photo banner, a tag line, and a ton of other new and fun features. I'd love for you to come out from Google Reader or your phone and check out the new life Stephanie breathed into my old blog. Another transition, if you will.

I found Stephanie through Laura, and when I saw how gorge Laura's redesign was I knew I should finally take the plunge and do one myself. In case you haven't noticed, I kind of wavered for a few months about whether or not to continue blogging. It was just feeling like one more thing on my plate and I wasn't motivated to spill my guts to the internet anymore. But then I started blogging more just to test the waters, and whaddya know? I still really thoroughly enjoy my little space on the interwebs. The bottom line for me has always been that I want to document this time in my life for future reference. Lord knows I would forget all of the details of raising small kids without permanently capturing them on this blog. And what better way to connect to other women, a lot of whom are going through many of the same challenges and triumphs as me? Blogging gives me a strong sense of camaraderie in this sometimes scary, lonely, and frustrating gig of motherhood. If nothing else but to hear, 'I've been through *that* before and I survived, as did my child'---even just that sense of support is priceless to me. Not to mention that this blog has earned me nearly every one of my real-life friends in Milwaukee and many others that I feel I 'know' and cherish although we've never met. This may make me a creepy internet girl but I'm okay with that, and Nate's becoming used to it, too.

The effort that it takes to pound out a blog post is definitely worth every minute I spend at the computer. And so, I'm back and feel like making my blog pretty and modern and moving it past the same old template I've had for five years is a fun way to say, 'I still like you, blog.' I hope it appreciates the effort.

So Stephanie was awesome. She listened to all of my very specific requests and ramblings and came up with a fresh design that I adore. You can see we sort of have an arrow theme going on, which makes my inner nerd happy to see it as a symbol as moving forward, or transitioning. I chose my tag line of 'even if I stumble, I'm still moving forward' because I simply googled 'quotes about change' and found that one. Love it. Nate helped me decide on it;) Because I certainly can't claim to be perfect and I have my fair share of stumbles on this path of motherhood, but life must go on. Might as well blog about it in the process.

I had to narrow down my original THIRTY pictures I wanted to include in my rotating banner to just 19 and I'm glad I did---pretty sure you wouldn't want to sit through a 30 minute slideshow at the top of my blog. The four sets of photos we have up there an awesome slice of our life and some of my faves, of course (about 80% taken by the fab Andrea, of course!)

Then you will see a brand new navigation bar with a few new tabs, including a 'bloggy friends' page with links to blogs I like to read. I went back and forth over this one because I don't want to make this blog feel like high school, like 'these are my friends and if you aren't on the list, I don't think you are cool.' Totally not like that. I just listed the blogs listed in my Google Reader that I try to give comment love. Every time I get comments on this blog from readers I make a mental note that I need to check out those commenters blogs and add them to GR to return the love. I'll admit that I don't always follow through with that thought. But I'm getting there!

You'll see my brand new profile, where I picked an image of me from my wedding day. Because, duh--it's the prettiest I've ever looked and I'm completely obsessed with my makeup that day. Bloggers can be kind of vain, right? ;) I could have chosen a 6 am iPhone self-portrait complete with bags under my red-rimmed eyes and a screaming child at my breast, but I went with the wedding shot instead. Can you blame me? I have a 'grab my button' tab now and then a whole bunch of cute buttons that link to some of my favorite topics within this blog. So yeah, come and take a peek if you will.

Because I'm feeling all happy and mushy and high on the internet today, I wanted to do something fun for my readers. I have my loyal commenters, the brave commenters who 'de-lurk' once when the topic suits them, and then a crazy amount of silent readers who don't comment but apparently read my ramblings, following along with my transitions. I seriously appreciate all of you and like I said before, hearing from you is what keeps me writing. I much prefer this blog to be a two sided street, with give and take. I think I'd get pretty bored with myself without the feedback I get in comments.

So I'd like to give a $15 Starbucks gift card to one of my readers. And I totally stole this idea from Laura, too, and already told her upfront that I'm copying everything she does. She has a restraining order on me, NBD. But I love me some Starbucks and figure most people are with me on that, especially this time of year with their deliciously comforting red cups. All you have to do is comment on this post and let me know a little about you and how long you've been reading this blog. If you are really struggling to write about yourself you could even tell me what you get at Starbucks because I think that in itself says a lot about a person. For instance, I usually get a grande half-caff Americano or sometimes just a black coffee. No cream. No sugar. Hard core. Lately I find myself reading the menu of the 'foofy' drinks and wanting to try some of them, but alas--nothing compares to the bite of a smooth Americano, my friends. Much love to a Salted Carmel Mocha when I'm feeling really wild and really rich;)

So leave me a comment by Thanksgiving Day, and I will use one of those random number generator thingies to pick a commenter, revealing the winner sometime on Black Friday. Ah, Thanksgiving week. Why are you so awesome?

Thanks again, awesome readers of mine. And happy face lift, dear blog.

{ETA: Is it a total pain to comment on my blog? Does it tell you that the comments aren't going through? I end up getting a lot of duplicate comments to moderate lately and wonder if it's messing up on my end. I removed the 'captcha' but you will still not see your comment immediately, it makes me approve it first before it's published. Let me know if things are wonky in comment land! Still just figuring the mysterious internet out after five years, I guess

Also--I'd love to respond to each and every one of these comments but if I don't pack for this trip to MO I will be kicking myself later when I forget everything that I wanted to bring. I'm just making mental responses in my head, hope you can read my mind. Love hearing from you guys!}