Good morning, friends. You may have noticed that we’ve redecorated a bit. It’s progress, people. Albeit, one that will be taking some more work, but things are definitely moving. Finally.
Have you ever heard the age-old adage, “The cobbler’s children have no shoes?” I can certainly relate with this bit of wisdom. I have been waiting for a more personal website on which to publish my blogs for many months now, following a very exuberant promise by my web developer-by trade husband that one would be delivered promptly.
When I first toyed with the idea of blogging Jer had all kinds of grandiose ideas. He said, “Oh, I could do this…”, “Hey, maybe we could add something like this…”, “I’ve always wanted to try something like…” and it went on and on. By the end of our conversation I was under the impression that every dream I ever had would be met.
Fast forward nine months.
We are finally getting some shoes around here. Or websites. Sorry, I got a little caught up in my metaphor. Jeremy has decided to focus on me and my tech needs a little bit (after months and months of subtle hints…okay, some not so subtle) and I couldn’t be happier.
Like any kind of change there will undoubtedly be some hiccups along the way. One of the problems with having a technologically savvy husband is that we tend to speak different languages. I speak English and he, well, Geek Speak. This presents some difficulty when attempting to “work together.”
He says, “Blah blah blah megabytes blah blah blah Internet router.”
I respond, “Huh?”
He says, “I said, ‘blah blah blah URL blah blah blah bandwidth?”
I respond, “Um, yes. Definitely, yes.”
And it continues in this ugly pattern until one of us gives up, utterly frustrated with the other. So, yes. There will be some hiccups. I daresay I do have enough faith that our marriage will withstand this web-centric metamorphosis. Hopefully.
We are certainly open to constructive criticism, as long as it tends towards the “you are absolutely wonderful at what you do and I see no need for anything to change,” type. Yep, we’re super evolved around here.
In all seriousness, if you have anything to add which might further along this blog makeover, don’t be afraid to share. I promise it’ll be fine. It’s possible I could get a little snarky and a tad bit offended but it’ll all be worth it in the end. For all of us. Especially me. 
On a sidenote ~ our roadtrip to meet Pioneer Woman was fantastic and that woman is even cooler in person than I thought possible! I will be blogging about that experience very soon!
Keepin’ it real,
Mindy
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Mindy
It looks cool! I will definately be perusing the site.
Your new blog layout looks very clean and fresh and bright! What a good hubby to get around to your wishes (in his own time of course). LOL.
♥Spot
Quite cool! I actually noticed it last night, as your blog pops up on my Safari “Top Sites” page, and it actually caught my eye that the little tan icon seemed much more sparkly.
Quite lovely! If I bake Jer some cookies and send them away, will he do mine?
Oh! And had meant to say, was going to add you on Twitter, so when you see “marthapoints” that would be moi.
Can’t wait to hear about the road trip!
That favorite icon was from the original theme I modified, so close and re-open your Web browser to see the new one I created today (it’s a white fence, like you see at the top of the page).
Tinker – thank you! I’m excited…but kind of impatient so it’s gonna take some willpower on my end to wait out all the kinks!
Spot – thanks a bunch! I’ll tell him you approve. It’s still a work in progress but he’s a pretty thorough web designer so I imagine he’ll be going over it with a fine toothed comb. Given how long it took to go live I’m thinking it’ll be the finished product by about 2013.
Mindy
You are singing my song. My tecchie husband is also all talk, slow delivery on these things. It looks great though!
Ok, so I totally felt bad about neglecting the site for months, and Mindy definitely deserved to have something unique. There’s still some work left to do, but hopefully these initial changes will be better on everyone’s eyes and make the site easier to read and navigate. I’ll also be updating the recipe section, adding a gallery to showcase some of the beautiful scenery here in Oregon (oh, and I’ll include ’some’ pictures with people in them, per Mindy’s request), and making a few other changes here and there.
Oh, and I’m open to criticism, so don’t hold back!
Your page looks awesome! I have been debating with myself over changing mine.
Jer you did a great job and btw Thanks for the great advice on my computer issues.
Well it does take nine months to get a new baby! LOL!
Great job, Jer!
Hey Mindy,
Looks like we were on the same page this week. Like your new look!
The new site design looks great! Love the color, design and navigation. Very cool. My hubby is my website developer too so I know how you feel. Actually, I’m sure Jer probably knows how my husband feels. Great job, Jer!
Your page looks great! I’m impressed (and a little jealous). I saw it before I saw the post about the changes, and it freaked me out at first … thought I was in the wrong place! I grew a bit attached the pic of your kids at the top, I guess (just so darn cute!).
I speak Geek, myself, so I totally understand what goes into designing this. I’ve been thinking about re-doing mine, but since it’s been so long since I’ve posted anything, I don’t want my 2 readers to have a heart attack. I think I’ll get back to blogging more regularly before changing anything. And I’ll probably give a warning first.
The design is really great, too *pats Jer on the back*. I love the picket fence. The “tabs” with the latest posts, comments and tag cloud is a cool idea. I do miss the “next post” and “previous post” links at the bottom, though. My only other suggestion is about your email address: to protect yourself from crawlers, I would separate it out with spaces before and after the @ … otherwise, you might get a ton of unintended spam.
Ok, I’ll shut up now. Great job!