Merry Christmas

With everything going on in our lives, we were slightly behind the Christmas 8-ball.  Shopping was completed on the 23rd, and involved a few too many after work trips to malls (don't get me started on those excursions).  All wrapping was started and finished on Christmas Eve, and may not have gotten finished in time for the Big Man to drop off gifts if not for my mom.

We did have good intentions about sending a Christmas card.  We took the picture on Thanksgiving Day.  But, I decided the added stress of editing, ordering, receiving, signing, addressing, and mailing forty cards just wasn't in the cards (pardon the pun).  So, we are going "green" (although, if you look at our trash and recycling bins this morning, you may think otherwise) and sending the electronic Christmas card.  And, by "sending" I mean "posting on this blog and Facebook", since I am not sure we have the correct email address for all of our family and friends.

Merry Christmas (or other Holiday celebration)!

Love, the Trahans

What We've Been Doing for the Last Two Months

I like to think I am good at keeping the blog up to date.  I did actually write that last post in September, immediately after going to the Bronx, knowing that we had a lot of activities planned for late September/early October that I would need/want to blog about.

So, I HAD good intentions, which I feel I should earn credit for.

Life has thrown us into a bit of a tailspin since then.  It started when I (really Mike and I) decided that I needed to quit my job.  It is a very long story as to what led to this epiphany, which I won't bore you with.  But, as you could probably tell from my blog posts (or, more accurately, LACK of blog posts), work was having a significant impact on my personal life.

Since that decision was made, I think Mike and I can agree that life has felt a bit like a runaway train that we are just trying to steer in the right direction.  I applied for, and was offered, a job with Living proof. They were in the news recently for signing Jennifer Aniston as an investor and spokesperson for the brand.

Upside to Living proof:  they are an amazing group to work with.  Most of the employees are younger.  Everyone is very collaborative and focused on making the brand a success.  They put a lot of emphasis on product performance, so research and development is very important to them.  They keep a kitchen stocked with fruit and miscellaneous junk food to keep us happy (someone must have researched what makes scientists and engineers happy).  And, I get paid to do what I love:  create new products.  I no longer have to manage people (which wasn't terrible), redo my budget five times or come up with a strategic plan that is needed 24 hours later but which no one listens to (which was agonizing).

Downside to Living proof:  the commute.  The distance is only 38 miles, so 10 miles further than commuting to Crabtree.  But, I am now commuting with traffic towards Boston, instead of going the opposite direction.  So, instead of a 28 mile commute that took 45 minutes, I know have a commute that takes 1 hour and 45 minutes most mornings.  Yuck.

Fortunately, we are now working close to each other.  Not so close that we can commute together, but close enough that we could find a new house more centrally located.

Which brings us to the chaos we are currently entrenched in:  sell this house and buy a new one.  The list of sub tasks associated with this is never ending.  We have a million little things that we needed to fix on this house.  Things that broke while we have been living here or we discovered were wrong since we moved in.  For example:  Mike is replacing one of the french doors to our office because a pane of glass fell out of the original.  In the process of swapping out door A for door B, Mike discovered the contractor didn't hang the door level or plumb.  Which, in hindsight, probably explains why the previous door never latched closed.  So, instead of just hanging a new door, Mike has taken down all of the trim and door jambs (which involved a saws-all at one point because he couldn't just use the crowbar to pry the stupid things out) and re-shimming everything in place correctly.

Then there is the master bathroom shower door.  There is a piece that goes on the bottom of the door to keep it flush with the track and prevents water from getting into the track.  Unfortunately, that piece fell off more than a year ago.  And, the holes for the screws were stripped, so we couldn't just reattach it.  Our solution was just enter and exit through the other door.  But, now we need to fix it.  So, Mike took off the existing shower door two weekends ago, only to find out that the stock shower doors were too tall.  Our size shower stall required a CUSTOM ORDER shower door (of course) which would take two weeks to get in.  So, we've been showering in the kids bathroom every morning, which frequently wakes Hannah, aka The World's Lightest Sleeper.

Add in the purging, packing, and cleaning (see pictures of my immaculate bathroom and pantry below) associated with moving plus decorating and shopping in preparation for Christmas, and it's a little insane here.  Okay, it's a lot insane.  But, we are trying to focus on the positive:  we are both gainfully employed.  We both work for companies that seem appreciative of our efforts.  And, once we get through the selling/buying/moving process, we will improve our quality of life for us and the kids dramatically.

But, the upside for all our family and friends who still read this blog:  I will probably blog a lot more when I am procrastinating to avoid all the home improvement projects.

:-)

Love, The Trahans

A Day in the Bronx

Like every kid, my kids constantly ask when we are going to see "Grandma Pookie and Grand Da" (what they call my parents.  Actually, they also constantly ask about going to visit "Grandma Kerrie and Grumpy (aka Norm)" and "Patrick" (sorry to the twins, but Hannah is smitten with your brother), and a number of other people.  But, we can easily accomodate trips to visit most of Mike's family.  Because my family lives further away, visits require vacation days, long trips in the car (which equals tons of money in gas).  All of which (unfortunately) adds up to less frequent visits.  Definitely the down side of living in Massachusetts. 

So, I was pretty pleased with the solution I came up with last month.  Why not meet in New York for a day trip?  My dad always said I should take the kids to the Bronx Zoo.  It would take us 3 hours to get there; 2 hours for my parents (if they hadn't missed their exit).  Add in the fact that the Zoo had a Lego exhibit, and it seemed like God himself was telling us "Go to the Bronx Zoo". 

As you can see from our slideshow, we all had a great time. I ordered the tickets through AAA, so we got a discount on the full experience, which included admission to the zoo plus unlimited rides and Dora 4D experience. We all enjoyed the Dora experience, Hannah especially, because it felt like it was raining on you (key when it is hot and humid outside).

The only complaint I have was the cost and quality of food. The increased cost you pay when going to a museum + the increased cost you pay when in NYC = EXORBITANTLY overpriced fast food. I paid just under $100 for lunch, much of which was thrown away because the kids wouldn't finish it. Plus the stops at the ice cream vendor, slushy vendor, soft pretzel vendor... Amazingly, the least amount of money we spent was in the gift shop, where Mikie got a stuffed Gorilla to use for his summer book report for $10. Plus Hannah's mugs, we left the gift shop having spent less than $15. That NEVER happens.

Love, The Trahans

Blogging. . . Documenting my Flaws for Posterity

They say you should never post anything on the Internet that you don't want people to find years from now.  Because once it's in cyberspace, who knows what happens to it. 

Thanks to my blog, I realized that I have not documented the birth of my first born child in the last three years.  I will blame this in part on Hannah (because, looking back, she has monopolized blog coverage like everything else in this house) and in part on my job.  And, thanks to the Internet, all of my future grandchildren will know this as well. 

Regardless, I am writing this post with 20 minutes to go before September 6th, 2012.  Eight years ago, I was trying to sleep after eating Tex Mex Spring Rolls from Damons, followed by a Strawberry Fields Salad and Oreo Madness at TGI Fridays (hey, I was pregnant).  But, I was having muscle spasms in my abdomen that kept making me get up and empty my bladder.  Eventually, it dawned on me that these abdominal muscle contractions might mean I was in labor (again, pregnant = loss of brain function).  By 11am, Mike told me we should drive to the hospital, even though I was convinced I was just really constipated.  I didn't let him bring in the hospital bags, I was so convinced I would be discharged.  I mean, what were the odds I would go into labor on Labor Day?

Evidently, pretty good.  Ten hours later and you were born. 

Celebrating your first birthday in Maryland:

Your first BMW, just like Daddy's:

Celebrating your eighth birthday with a sombrero after the Woodstock Fair.  When the owner said you couldn't keep the hat, you asked him to buy you one.  When we told you he got it in Mexico, you said, "Well, can you at least give me the plane tickets?"  Because, clearly, that's the cheaper way out. . .

You may not think we're perfect, in fact, lately, you have a knack for pointing out all of my flaws, in a nonchalant, just-trying-to-help kind of way that isn't supposed to offend me. But, when I see how far you've come, when you amaze me with your reasoning skills, or your compassion for others, I know that, at a minimum, we did one thing perfectly right. We had you. And, I look forward to all the other birthdays we get to share together. Even if I don't blog about them ;-)


Happy Birthday, Trouble!

Love, The Trahans 

Happy Birthday

It is August again.  The end of summer.  The last few days of relative relaxation before my metamorphosis from "Working Mother of Two" to "Mother With Guilt Issues Which Drive Her to Overcompensate for Working" is complete.

With less than four weeks to go until Mikie turns 8, we have started planning the birthday theme.  Theme, you ask?  Isn't the theme, "birthday party"?  No, to the "Working Mother of Two", "birthday party" would be an acceptable theme.  To the guilty-mom, "birthday party" doesn't say "even though I am exhausted and grouchy, I still think about you enough each day to imagine, create, and host an elaborate birthday party."  And, not one.  Because, with the exception of his first birthday, we typically host two birthday parties.  Sometimes more...

But, I digress.  I know everyone is hanging on the edge of their seats to find out what this year's theme is. . .

DC Superheroes

Yes, thanks to Lego, Mikie is obsessed with the DC Superheroes since June.  June 16th to be precise.  The day that Lego Batman II:  DC SuperHeroes came out in stores.  Around the same time, we discovered old Adam West episodes of Batman on MeTV.  We all get a kick out of watching them every Saturday night.  Hannah even runs around saying "Da-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-BATMAN!!".  She wants to be Robin for Halloween to Mikie's Dark Night, in spite of the fact that the men in the family tried to convince her she needed to be "Batgirl" or "Catwoman" because she is a girl. 

Mikie and I have started brainstorming games and activities.  I love brainstorming.  Executing these ideas, not so much.  I think he is expecting my "Guilt-Issues" alter-ego to sew costumes for all of his friends. 

During our brainstorming session, I thought it would be cool to create a comic strip for an invitation.  I was envisioning hours of sketching and drawing (or Photoshop) to get it to look authentic.  Low and behold, Lego has a "Comic Builder" on their website that lets you create your own story boards:

This took me about 15 minutes to put together, excluding five minutes to Photoshop a background color to the second cell (Robin was previously on a white background).  Of course, Mikie's reaction was, "Let's make a WHOLE COMIC BOOK."  To which I responded, "Sure, I'll just quit my job a write and edit stories all day."  If only that paid the bills. . .

That said, I do want to call attention to another special birthday.  Lego is turning 80.  I know our families think we are harboring an unhealthy obsession with Legos in our house.  Mikie's room is just short of a shrine to the small plastic bricks.  But, as a household with two engineers (possibly three), I can't help but appreciate this company.  First, you should see their factory.  I have not been in person, but StumbledUpon (literally) a tour of the LEGO factory on Gizmodo.  It is a manufacturing dream. 

Second, their quality is impeccable.  I live in New England, home of Hasbro, who gives a lot back to the community.  So, I hate to knock MegaBlocks.  But, if you buy a set of MegaBlocks versus a set of Legos, you can see first hand the difference in standards.  A Lego is rigid.  It is indestructible.  Heck, Google "Lego building repair" or click here, and you can find actual buildings where people have filled in missing brick work (the red masonry kind) with Lego bricks.  

A MegaBlock is more "plastic".  Yeah, I know, they are both MADE of plastic.  But, a MegaBlock is malleable.  We have had issues where the pieces won't lock together because the holes are ever so slightly smaller than the "bumps" on top of the bricks. 

Third is customer service.  Since purchasing the Death Star, we now have a few Darth Vaders.  But, prior to that, we had one.  One Vader, with one light saber, and one helmet.  Do you know how quickly Mikie lost that helmet and light saber?  And, you can't put another light saber with Darth Vader.  It must be red, because he is a bad Jedi (duh, Mom).  I went to the Lego store, fully expecting that I would have to buy another set with another Darth Vader to get a new helmet and light saber.  But, the sales girl told me, "just call customer service with the model number of the set you bought, and they will send you a replacement free."  Seriously.  I mean, do you know what mini-figs sell for on eBay?  That girl just saved me at least $20. 

Lastly, the part of my brain that must have been a Brand Manager in a former life thinks their marketing group is amazing.  Case in point:  the Lego MBA program.  It is a subscription program (just like a magazine) where you get a new Lego kit sent to your house every other month.  Each kit comes with some new Lego bricks, a book that shows you how to make three different designs from those bricks, along with giving you hints and building techniques from their "Master Builders" (engineer with the cool job of playing with Legos all day long).  At the end of each book is special Lego graph paper to help you use what you learned to create your own designs.  And, they have a special website where kids can upload and share their designs. 

In honor of their birthday, Lego published an animated short documenting the history of the brand.  It was featured in a trend site I subscribe to at work, and greeted me in my inbox at work this morning.  I found it fascinating.  Did you know that Lego originally made wooden toys?  Or how they got their name?  I'm sharing it, because, like everything else they seem to do, I think it has a great message.  Of entrepreneurship, innovation, quality, ethics.  Values I try to bring to my own work, appreciate in others, and hope to instill in my children. 

So, tonight, this mom says "Happy Birthday, Lego."

Tomorrow, my guilt-ridden alter-ego will continue to fret over Mikie's birthday. 

Love, The Trahans (who, sadly, do not monetarily profit from the sale of Legos)

Public Indecency

WARNING:  This post is not for the faint of heart.  Or incontinent, as it will probably make you pee when you laugh at my humiliation. . .

I should start this post on a positive note.  Hannah is potty trained.  Or, as potty trained as one can expect from a three year old.  We have done away with Pull-ups, except for at night.  We also wear regular underpants (complete with Dora and/or Disney Princesses).  Of course, her ability to hold her bladder and successfully pee in the toilet came immediately following my pricey purchase of SuperUndies.  So, if anyone is struggling with potty training their toddler, I would be happy to sell mine at a discounted price.  I think she used one pair before deciding that she didn't not like wearing them.  At the end of the day, I guess they did their job.

In spite of the fact that she is potty trained, my potty related incidents have not waned.

STORY #1:  The Vagina Dialogue

Currently, Hannah and I commute 1 hour to and from daycare each day.  Naturally, I don't trust her to hold her bladder, so I strongly encourage her to use the potty before we leave the house and daycare.  Of course, anyone who knows Hannah knows that trying to strongly encourage her to do anything is like repeatedly banging your head against a brick wall in hopes that it will crumble.  99% of the time, you will be unsuccessful.  Obviously, if she doesn't go before we leave, she usually ends up yelling at me along the way that she has to pee.

With Mikie, we could easily pull over onto the shoulder or side street and "water the plants".  With Hannah, this isn't an option (although, admittedly I did try once, but she ended up standing on the side of the road, butt naked, watching her brother pee for encouragement, to no avail).  So, on days when she has to pee, we ended up stopping at McDonald's.

Now, with Mikie, I was a stickler for using anatomically correct terms for his body parts.  So, naturally, we followed the same philosophy with Hannah.  Unfortunately, Hannah is much more vocal about her body than Mikie was.  If you happen to be outside of Hannah's stall, you will often hear her announce, "Mom, you and me are girls.  We have vaginas."  Occasionally, I hear stifled giggles from outside the stall as I tell Hannah, "Yes, but it isn't polite to talk about our vaginas."

Then comes the McDonald's experience.  We stopped on our way home to pee.  I took Hannah into the bathroom.  We took the one, unoccupied stall.  Hannah sits down to do her business, and asks me for help wiping.  I grab some of the single ply toilet paper and help pat her dry.  At this point, she starts screaming at me, "STOP, MOM, YOU HURT MY VAGINA!"

Needless to say, this time, no one was giggling.  I panicked, thinking surely, someone was calling 911 to report that I was abusing my daughter in the McDonald's restroom.  I started to defend myself to the faceless occupant of the other stall, by announcing, "No, I'm not hurting you, I'm just trying to help you" and, "I'm sorry that McDonald's doesn't buy Charmin Extra Soft."

We quickly left, called my sister, to make sure her husband, the attorney, was on notice should I need legal council, and vowed to never return to that McDonald's.

STORY #2:  Lady Godiva

Last week, the kids and I came home early to meet with an HVAC specialist to service our central air conditioning unit.  Hannah, insistent on having her "privacy" left to use the bathroom while the technician, Steve, went over some paperwork with me.  I wasn't paying much attention when she came out, making a mental note to clean out her potty when Steve left.  Out of the corner of my eye, I can see Hannah, standing on the other side of Steve, attempting to take her shirt off.  As I round the table, trying to stop her, I realize that she is naked from the waist down.  Horror stricken, I tell her to go back into the bathroom and put on her underpants and shorts.  Steve chuckled and, taking pity on me, recanted some story about a mother of five who had a little boy running around naked when he came.

As mentioned above, Hannah doesn't take well to being told what to do.  So, she marched back to the bathroom, only to return, seconds later, completely naked, laughing at me as she streaked by yelling, "I NAKED!"

At this point, I hurriedly signed all papers in an effort to get Steve to leave so that I could beat. . . I mean DRESS my child without witnesses.

STORY #3:  Lady Godiva's Revenge

A few days following our HVAC experience, the kids and I returned home from work/camp/daycare.  Mikie, exhausted from a day full of soccer and swimming, had passed out in the car.  I intentionally left the door into the garage ajar, in case he woke up while Hannah and I unpacked the car.  While I made multiple trips in and out, Hannah followed me, yelling about wanting to take a bath.  Suddenly, I realized that it was quiet.  I turned around and realized that there was no sign of Hannah.  Assuming (what I thought was the worst) that she had run outside into the street, I quickly ran back into the garage.  Again, no sign of Hannah. Stepping out onto the driveway, there is my daughter, naked as the day she was born, calling to the people in the cul de sac.

Why must there always be people around to witness these embarrassing moments?

Hopefully, my stories of public indecency and humiliation will brighten someone's day.

Love, The Trahans

Procrastination

If I still have any readers out there, you (like my father) have probably been complaining about my lapse in posts.  Unlike my father, you probably haven't taken the time to call me and complain.  For that I thank you. 

So, what worthy cause eats up my time to the point of not posting to my blog?  I would love to say that I have been traveling the world to exotic locations and any time I am at home is spent relaxing with my loving and devoted children.  Alas, that is only true in my wildest dreams.  Which, are few and far between.  My days continue to be filled with a mad dash out of the house, 1 hour drive to work, 8 hours of actual work, typically consumed by meetings that prevent me from, well, working, a 1 hour commute to pick both kids up from daycares in two different states by the magic hour of 6pm (at which point they might turn into pumpkins), fending for dinner, supervising homework, putting the kids to bed, followed by more endless hours of work.  Mike's schedule is similar, but with a longer commute and less exposure to kids.  At some point in our endless hours of work, one or both of us realizes it is close to midnight, turns off their laptop, forces the other to do the same, and we both fall into bed to catch several hours of sleep before waking up and repeating.  My sleep is dreamless; I suspect Mike dreams about work because he occasionally has conversations with himself that involve the words "AutoCad", "Matlab", or some acronym that is meaningless to me. 

Needless to say we both look forward to the weekend.  Unfortunately, those two days are the only days our kids wake up of their own accord.  Figures.  And, our "free time" is consumed by our children's social calendars, yard work, house work, or any other tasks that we should have completed during the week if we did anything other than work. A sorry existence to be sure.

Since my last two weeks have been consumed with travel (to such exotic locales as Edison, NJ) and production issues, leaving me with little time in the office, it seemed like as good a time as any to procrastinate.  So, if you are still awake, I present the Updates on Trouble & Super Nibbles:

TROUBLE:

Mikie continues to enjoy most of school.  By most, I mean math.  And, one could argue he loves that because his mind seems to compute the answers with little effort.  He is that kid you have to remind to "show your work".  Try explaining "partial credit" to a 7 year old.  Not easy.  Spelling on the other hand is the bane of both of our existences.  Not mine so much, because I rocked spelling as a kid (if they didn't allow bonsai in the spelling bee, I know I would have won).  But, since we have to help him study, I hate it as much as he does.  In a moment of desperation, I made a deal with him a few months ago that if he got a 95 or above on his spelling test that week, I would buy him a new Lego set.  Miraculously, he managed to study and ace his spelling test.  Lego is going to need to start coming out with more sets and we may start building an edition to the house out of Lego bricks to house all of the Legos we own, but it seems to motivate Mikie to study.  Additionally, I will have to clone myself to take on a second job at the Lego store so that I can use my employee discount and supplemental paycheck to finance his addiction. 

Also, being 7, Mikie has become quite the smart ass.  For example, if I tell him to put his shoes on in the morning, he will refuse to do so because I "didn't say 'please'."  Between him and Hannah, I find myself frequently saying, "I am your Mother.  I don't need a reason why.  When I tell you to do something, you just do it!"  I stop just short of saying, "I brought you into this world, and I can take you out of it."  Mike frequently accuses me of overreacting.  I accuse him of spending too little time with our "cherubs". 

Other than Math and Legos, Mikie is equally interested in Science.  He has NO trouble remembering the most minute facts about whatever they are studying:  penguins, the earth, the planets.  You bring up a topic, Mikie will have a random fact to regale you with.  Sometimes I feel like his is Rainman.  If only his sense of recall would apply to spelling, my life would be so much easier. 

He also enjoys research.  Being in second grade, he has had to do a number of projects throughout the year.  He read a biography on Thomas Jefferson and had to make a timeline of seven major events in his life, complete with illustrations.  For the kid whose daily drawings are typically monochromatic, faceless stick figures, I was shocked to see how much detail he put into this project.  Evidently, my logic driven child only likes to draw if he feels there is a point to doing so.  The facts and images make me laugh, so I am putting up a slideshow of them here. 

If all else fails, we are considering a modeling career for Mikie.  My cousin's girlfriend, Emily, is finishing her senior year at Parson's School of Design.  For her senior thesis, she designed a line of children's clothing and asked Mikie to model it for her portfolio.  As you will see, the clothes were way more fashion forward then anything Mikie typically wears (Mikie wardrobe consisting solely of "fuzzy" sweatpants and amusing t-shirts, as evidenced by his spring school picture).  However, he had a good time, and Emily managed to get a lot of great pictures that captured his personality.  At least, Mike and I love them.  Hopefully Emily and whatever faculty/prospective employers who see her portfolio like them as well. 

SUPER NIBBLES:

Hannah has not changed at all.  Okay, she has changed a bit:  she has become more vocal and less "bashful" at least when it comes to verbally abusing me.  She typically refrained from doing so in front of witnesses.  Now, if she's mad, she is happy to share it with the world.  This earns me combined looks of sympathy, pity, annoyance, from others depending on where we are.  Most people find her "cute" and her meltdowns "amusing".  But, that is because they don't live with her.  Mikie can often be seen covering his ears in a futile effort to block out her yelling.  He has also started looking for opportunities to leave her places.  The last time we were at the chiropractors, she was playing in the playroom and he whispered to me, "If we leave now, she might not notice."  The only one she treats with a modicum of respect is Mike.  And, again, I'm convinced that's because he's not around as much Monday through Friday.  On the weekends, even "Daddy" has thrown her in time-out. 

In spite of her bossy attitude, she seems to get along well with others.  She walks into daycare every morning with a smirk on her face like she runs the place.  And, some days, I half wonder if she does.  She moved up to the three-year old room at the end of January.  But, she didn't seem to like the transition, or the teacher.  After a couple weeks straight of hysterics requiring teachers to surgically remove her from my leg (yes, she IS a drama queen), we realized that she liked Mr. Jay, the teacher in the preschool.  So, in an effort to save my sanity, as well as Ms. Danielle, the three-year old teacher, the owner moved her up to the preschool.  She has been much happier, seems to get along well with the kids.  I don't know if the influence of older kids has been positive or not.  She is equally demanding.  And, she now wants to do everything Mikie does because she says, "I a BIG kid."  With a nod of her head for special emphasis.  Back-up care caved just as quickly when I went out of town earlier this month.  No sooner had Mike dropped her off than she insisted she needed to be in a "different room".  So, they moved her.  God help us when she gets into the real world and realizes that she can't always get what she wants. 

Mike tries to remind me that she isn't all terror.  She is exceedingly cute, which is her saving grace.  She is using the potty consistently now, wearing Pull-ups at bedtime only.  She has even managed to survive the 1 hour commutes every morning and evening without flooding her carseat (I say as I knock on wood).  She likes to sing and dance.  And, she is extremely patriotic.  She recites the Pledge of Allegiance multiple times a day.  Her inflection coupled with her wicked Massachusetts accent make it the cutest thing you will ever hear.

Unlike her big brother, who would probably spend all day in front of a TV/computer/video game if left to his own devices, Hannah would prefer to spend all day outside.  Our lawn maintenance (or lack there of) often impedes her doing so.  But, she loves to ride her bike or scooter around the cul-de-sac with other kids in the neighborhood.

That gives a good overview of the Trahans over the last five months.  I will try and fill in with more detailed annecdotes.  Hopefully, in less than five months time ;-)

Love, The Trahans

New Year, New Logo

2012. . . I don't delude myself into thinking that I will keep any New Year's resolutions, so, for the last few years, I haven't even bothered making any.  Sure, I try to be a better person.  But, I try that on a daily basis.  And, typically, I fail.  So, I don't need the added pressure of a New Year's resolution hanging over my head.  Lord knows I have enough stress in my life. 

But, it IS a new year.  And, change is nice.  I have been thinking about updating the layout of the blog for a while now.  I experimented with Blogger's dynamic views (which is very cool).  But, I vetoed the dynamic views because it required updating to a newer version of Internet Explorer or using Google Chrome.  And, unlike Google and Bill Gates, I don't feel the need to impose software upgrades on my readers.  I looked at different templates and backgrounds, but really didn't like any of them.  So, I decided to start designing my own. 

First on the blog redesign:  an official logo.  I needed something that said "superhero", but also represented the personalities of my children.  And, I didn't want to use their pictures. . . I wanted it to be cartoon-like. 

One whiny superheroine

So, Mike and I created South Park characters of our children on SP-Studio.  I am 99% positive that we are the only parents who have turned their children into South Park characters.  But, there was something cathartic to pick out the scrunched up eyes and wailing face for Hannah (my chronic whiner).  I highly recommend checking out this site.  I may go back and create South Park characters of other people who drive me crazy. 

Unfortunately, there were limits to the customization of your character.  Enter Photoshop.  I created "badges" for both our superheroes, scaled down Super Nibbles relative to Trouble, added the star, color matched the background to the blog, and added the text.  And, voila, our new super banner!

Knowing that my vacation ends at 5:45am, I probably shouldn't have spent 3 hours creating a new banner for the blog.  But, I LOVE it, and hope it will make everyone else laugh too.  If I ever get around to converting my blog into a book (my consolation prize to my kids, since I have neglected their scrapbooks), it will make an AWESOME cover. 

Happy New Year.

Love, The Trahans