Blog Make-Over

April 28, 2012 By 2 Comments

New WordPress Blog Design for Click the Good News

A few people have noticed the change in the last week, but I have a new blog design!  If you read my blog through a reader or mobile device, you can see the new design above.  I’ve been in love with purple and gray/green recently, so I’m thrilled with how it turned out.  I’d had my latest design for about a year & a half, but when I’d switched over to WordPress.  My big issue was that social media and blogs in general have changed so much over the past few years.  My big need was to get the the facebook, twitter, pinterest, RSS feed and email icons easily accessible to everybody on the right sidebar.  I’d love to connect with you all over there too!

One of my things I like to do is take a stroll down memory lane and see how far this little blog has evolved over the last (nearly) 5 years I’ve been blogging.  This was my first layout on WordPress back in 2007- small little photos, no fancy header, and nothing fun going on.

After almost 2 years of blogging in February of 2009 I added a background and a slightly fancy header.  I started adding buttons to the sidebar for all my static pages where I was collecting thing- my first two were the Houston Wine Bars list (which I still love adding to these day) and my Blogging Vizslas list (which I’m still happily adding new friends too).  I was getting too many sidebar buttons, so I grouped them all onto a FUN STUFF page and TRAVEL page that are accessible by buttons on the sidebar now.

In August of 2010, I made the move from Blogger to WordPress and my first design was straight out of the box with no customizations. I was happy I could do a few things & add great plugins and buttons myself, while exploring all the added functionality that WordPress gave me.

I was really happy with my most recent design, but I wanted something a little more modern & fresh.  Since launching Grow Soul Beautiful, I’ll be presenting myself & my current blog to tons of new people, especially until I can get GSB fully launched in September. I wanted to make a good impression, have a new brand, and probably get some business cards made.  My biggest need was to get connected on social media and have a way for people to follow the blog through RSS feeds.  So, as usual, it took waaaay longer than expected, and I”m just happy to have it finished up at this point & my Facebook/twitter pages matching.

All these buttons are gone off the sidebar now & replaced with two simple ones that go to a fun stuff or a travel tab, where all these buttons and links to my blog passions have moved.  I’ve got a few things to clean up and some coding issues behind the scenes, but I’m thankful to have a new look- hope you like it!

GOOD NEWS OF THE DAY: Headed to Galveston for a shrimp boil with friends!

Filed Under: blogging, flashback

Our Vows

February 11, 2012 By 8 Comments

Above should be an embedded video, but I’m not sure I embeded it correctly.  If not, you can watch it in Youtube here http://youtu.be/JXi5ZeEapE4

Five years ago this evening, I married my husband on a cliff overlooking the ocean, surrounded by friends and family in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico on February 11, 2007

More details about our wedding & photos I’ve shared before: pre-wedding fun, rehearsal, ceremony, reception, details/crafts.

I’ve posted a few of our engagement photos before on our 2nd anniversary and did a proper round-up post on our 4th anniversary last year.  We have now known each other for 8 years and it has been the most amazing thing in my life.  It hasn’t always been easy, fun or exciting to be married.  But it is the difficult times and challenges have forced us to search deep inside ourselves to grow together and commit again that we love each other more than anything else.  This last year or two we have both realized how much work a good marriage takes.  It’s easy the first few years to do and say all the right things, but going forward together & growing together, moving through careers & traveling the world brings new dynamics and needs to the marriage.

We have good days and bad days, but we are learning how to make sure we both move together through them with love and support.  We are at the point in our marriage where we spend lots of time talking about the future- what to do about kids, where we’d love our careers to go, what dreams we hold for the future.  Answers to these questions aren’t easy to decide upon, but we are both excited to see where life will take us the next 5 years.

Looking back at all the things we’ve accomplished and all the places we have traveled in the last 5 years has been incredible.  Never in my wildest dreams could I have imagined that I would be so blessed with a husband as extraordinary as the one I have or that we would have so many incredible opportunities.   I know that God has some big plans for both of us and for our marriage, and I am so thankful every single day that He has given me a wonderful husband to be my support and my joy.

GOOD NEWS OF THE DAY: Through blood, sweat, & tears I love my husband even more today than when we said our vows 5 years ago.

Filed Under: flashback, Married Life, movie

2011 By the Numbers

February 9, 2012 By 5 Comments

The end of the year is a good time to evaluate and analyze the year to see how it compared to other years.  My only real goal with blogging last year was to publish a post per day and not get too far behind.

I was generally successful with that until October when I had to deal with a very difficult situation.  Otherwise, I never check numbers or stats or visitors- I really have no idea what it means nor do I really care how many people follow along.  The one thing I am satisfied with is the number of new blog friends I”ve met over the last year & all the sweet comments I get.

All of my “keeper” photos make it on to Flickr since that is where I host all the photos on the blog.  I’ve uploaded over 19K photos and several thousand of those are associated directly with this website.

I joined Pinterst (follow me) and Twitter (follow me) late in the year, so these numbers aren’t too impressive, but I’ll be interested to see how it compares year over year, since I am in love with Twitter and quickly becoming among the ranks of the addicted on Pinterest.

It was a busy travel year- with our Puerto Rico trip up through the last day of January.  Continental/United is getting much stingier with their elite points and miles, but I made platinum again for next  year and just barely made Diamond again for Hilton.  This year is off to a very slow start, so hopefully I won’t lost my elite status after 2012.  I’ve got 400K Hilton Honors points to burn, so I am looking to do some fun trips this year!

Remarkably, I came in at FEWER photos last year than in previous years.  I think the major factor was that we didn’t take a big 2-week trip like previous years & my camera was DIA on our Costa Rica trip.  Zoe and Mia were the most photographed thing according to my Lightroom keywords and over 12K of my pictures were taken with my Nikon D7000.  I have a feeling this year my iPhone will play a much larger role with instagram and the #febphotoaday challenges I am using it for.  

My Google reader is out of control.  I subscribe to waaaay too many blogs, but I can’t stop following any!  Even since January 1st, I’ve probably added 30+ more since I am seeking new ideas for my project.  The most active and busies are my politics/new feeds and I am usually really good about keeping up.  Day 4 of our vacation and I have 400+ unread right now, all in the politics folder & I’m about to skip them all.

Now to the fun stuff- running!  Here are my Garmin totals for the year.  Yes August is wonky- I left my Garmin on and running for a few hours which threw off all my totals for that month.   Combining this with my treadmill miles, I hit my goal of 1000 miles last year by attempting to log 20 miles per week.  A 

The engineer inside needs to compare year to year, so I dropped all my numbers in t he spreadsheets to see trends.  I’m still not super sure on the blogging visitor numbers since there are several different analytics tools that have widely varying numbers for visitors and pageviews.

I’m not running all the crazy marathons last year, so I aim to do 20 miles per week & still hit 1000 miles this year, but I’m not going to kill myself to do it.

The absolute most important thing on this chart is the slow march toward a million frequent flyer miles with Continental/United.  It looks like it will take me a few more years at about 80K miles per year, but I’d be thrilled to have lifetime elite status for flying.

GOOD NEWS OF THE DAY: After months of horrible ash from a nearby volcano, we are incredibly lucky to have 2 amazing weather days in Bariloche so far.

Filed Under: blogging, flashback, review

2011 Review

January 9, 2012 By 5 Comments
It’s only when looking back through all the photos that I really can wrap my  mind around what an epic year 2011 was for me and my family.   I like creating a recap post so I can go back and easily find things for myself on the blog when I’m looking for them.  It feels like the things that happened last spring & summer were eons ago not just a few short months ago.  I did promise hubby that we’d be intentional about slowing down this year, spending more time relaxing instead of out on adventures and generally do less in 2012.  This isn’t a link to all my posts & I still need to blog our final trip of the year, but I will come back to update this post with those links to Puerto Rico posts.
January

Before dad’s big 60th birthday bash, we went out to a family birthday dinner & found lots of old photos of him.
The girls enjoyed some king size sleeping arrangements on my bed and I played dress-up to take some head shots.
Our aerial flight over Houston (Flying High, My Zip Code, The Real Houston, Busy Corners, 610 West Loop, Bayou City, Flying by Downtown, Bayou City, Misc Houston) & a tour of a Houston establishment- Arne’s Warehouse.  On a Friday when it was 70 degrees, I took the dueling dogs to the park.
Finished out the month by running the 2011 Houston Marathon while hubby was entertaining clients in Hawaii at the Pro-Bowl.
Flying to Vegas & home from California- I had some great shots (So High in the Sky , Stunning Southwest, Grand Canyon at 35,000 feet)
I met up with some Flickr friends to document the crumbling & decaying Forbidden Gardens before they shuttered their doors for good. (Emperor Qin’s Soldiers, Black Warriors, Calming of the Heart, and Kingdom of Harmony)
February

The month started with a ice storm that would ravage our yard and hung out with friends on Superbowl Sunday.
On a beautiful sunny weekend, we checked out 2 new wineries just outside of Houston- Bernhardt Winery & Retreat Hill Cellars.
We celebrated our 4th wedding anniversary with a trip to Belize (To Ambergris Caye, Xanadu Resort, Around Ambergris Caye [Ricos + Wine de Vine], I’m Not a SCUBA diver, Sunset Bar & Grill, Catamaran Cruising, Snorkeling at Shark Ray Alley, Caye Caulker, Snorkeling at Hol Chan, Downtown Ambergris )
It started feeling like Spring as I enjoyed sipping wine in the backyard & watching the dogs play (Mia Rolling, & Mia and the Squirrels).
March

Marched started out with Rodeo as we went to the BBQ Cook-off, and then the Keith Urban concert, then bowling at Lucky Strike for a friend’s birthday &  a visit to see an awesome Impressionist Exhibit at the MFAH.
We did our usual family dinner for Hunter’s 17th birthday, but I missed his big party.  I discovered & quickly became addicted to Yoga and we checked out another Houston wine bar- The Tasting Room.
We spent a Saturday evening listening to live music with friends & then went camping with friends at Buescher State Park the following weekend before I went to Baltimore (Camden Yards, Downtown, Inner Harbor, Baltimore Sunrise)  for a week for a week of training classes.

Mia longed to be in the great outdoors so she could chase the squirrels in the yard and Zoe had a very bad day when she was attacked at the park and we suffered through Mia’s Terrible Two’s.  Hunter had a rockin’ Spring Break that continued for weeks and Haley was loving life as a freshman.

April
Spring arrived in all its glory as we soaked it up at the Woodlands Waterway Art Festival & the puppies enjoyed some park time.
For my 31st birthday and hubby’s 34th birthday, we kicked off the birthday weekend with a lobster dinner at home on Friday & a Caribbean celebration with friends on Saturday night.
For Easter weekend, we went fishing on Good Friday & Saturday.
We wrapped up April with a long weekend in Nashville to run the Country Music Marathon & do some sightseeing (Ryman Auditorium, Broadway, Capitol grounds, Parthenon, Misc Nashville)

May
May began my blog-slacking (break) while I did more of life, swimming with the puppies & hanging out with friends.
My sister officially started off her high school drill team career as a brigade baby
The heat wave arrived & I hit the pool with the pups.
Two fun work trips in May- West Virginia (pictures to be blogged eventually) & Las Vegas (The Palazzo, Running the Strip & Leaving)
For Memorial Day weekend, we went back down to Bay Flats Lodge on Saturday to do some fishing on Sunday, before having a big pool party with our friends on Monday.
June

We headed out to San Diego for a uber quick weekend trip (arriving, downtown, USS Midway, Coronado Island, Old Town, Coastal Drive, Petco Park, departing) & for the San Diego Rock ‘n’ Roll Marathon (preparations, Recap Part 1, Recap Part 2) .
Mia & Zoe played in the yard & in the pool, while I got crafty with a calendar journal, reminisced over some letters from the past and we played Pictionary with friends.
July

For our long 4th weekend, Hubby went up to Denver with his friend to drink microbrews to see another baseball stadium while I hung out with my family, and then we went on a Motown Cruise with our friends on Clear Lake.

We took of on one of our mini-vacations this year to Costa Rica (San Jose, Downtown, Parks, Grano de Oro, Springs Resort, Adventures at the Springs, Rappelling in Arenal,  Hanging Bridges, Flying to Tamarindo,  Los Altos de Eros Spa & Resort, Surfing, Zip Lining, the town of Tamarindo) while my brother & sister when to CR on a mission trip.

I had to buy a new P&S camera for all my adventures & the girls headed to Dallas for a wine weekend.

August

Trying to stay cool, we took 7 kids ice skating & Hubby got the itch for a new car & bought our home’s second Jeep Grand Cherokee.

The end of August started hubby’s busy season at work, but we still did a clubhouse tour of Minute Maid Park & I bought a sweet lens to add to  my lens collection.
Met some fellow Houston bloggers at my first Htown Blogger meetup.

September

September marked a transition in my life, with doors opening, Zoe taking cover, reflections through my Pathfinder course, exercising my right brain, completing 30 days of list (Part 1 & Part 2),  traveling around the country and around the world (in my mind).
I joined Twitter (@ClicktheGoodnew), participated in a link-up as a photoblogger, visited Cha wine bar, took new (dog) family pictures.
Hubby attended his first Uof H football game as an alumni season ticket holder & Haley celebrated her 16th birthday
Flew to Philly to visit my best friend Stephanie and run the Philadelphia Rock n Roll Half-Marathon, hang out with her boyfriend Ken, walked Ginger, did some minimal sightseeing, including the  Betsy Ross house.

October
October was jam packed like the rest of the months  Lots of family stuff, including a trip to Denver with my beautiful family to run the Denver Rock n Roll Marathon (preparations, recap part 1, recap part 2), where we checked out Downtown Denver, had a family reunion and generally caught up with family
Meet up withs some awesome blogging friends to paint, did a Grand Wine Tasting with Savanha, Sipped & Strolled at Bayou Bend, rocked out at the Colbie Caillat concert with friends & hang out at Cedar Creek.
Spent lots of time with the family with Brenda’s new office opening, plus learning to cook shrimp victoria and took some pictures with me and the girls.
Finally, the month ended with my beloved Grandma passing away, and we start
November

Started off by running the 2011 San Antonio Rock n Roll Marathon (preparations, recap part 1, recap part 2) in San Antonio where we also visited the Riverwalk & the Tower of the Americas.
Exploring Houston, I toured the Art Crawl and did a Segway tour of Houston with hubby.
Finally got a real macro lens & took Vizsla macro pictures.
Gram showed me how to make her family recipe pound cake for our Thanksgiving meal, and the puppies played in their favorite field.
Read some great books & also the Proverbs in 31 days during November.

December
I debuted my Life Menu of Awesome, even started working on it with my makeup splurge & making crockpot turkey chili.
Spend the first weekend in Las Vegas seeing the sights: Hoover Dam, National Finals Rodeo, Helicopter Ride, Grand Canyon from Above, Snowy Desert, Garth Brooks concert,
A little work trip took me to Philadelphia where I did some running & baking with my best friend.  Tourist things included Reading Terminal Market & Christmas photos with Santa at Macy’s before taking a tour of Philly City Hall (outside, inside, up top)
Sunday Scribblings
This is my first full year of writing for Sunday Scribblings as an attempt to capture some of my thoughts & emotions outside of my daily life & things that I can photography for the blog. I didn’t get to write every Sunday but I am still proud of how may SS’s I was able to participate in this past year.  It was good to do a little creative writing and I credit SS with my growing desire to journal & scrapbook throughout the year.
1/30 Safe
2/6 Story
2/20 Food
2/27 Fire
3/6 Raw
3/13 Big
3/20 Free
4/17 Design
5/1 Cake
5/8 May
9/18 Easy
10/23 Backyard
12/11 Fairytale
12/18 Health
Books
January- In Defense of Food (review)
February- Who Killed Healthcare (review) & The Lost Girls (review)
March- The Limits of Power (review),  Hope in Hell (review) &  Zeitoun (review)
April- Same Kind of Different as Me (review)
May- Myth of a Christian Nation (review)
June- Midwives (review) & Unchristian (review)
July- Play (review) & Help (review)
August- Clean (review) &  (review)
September- Game Change (review)
October- Devotion: A Memoir (review)
November- TBD
December- *private*
GOOD NEWS THE DAY: Anniversary trip is just about finalized & now it’s onto planning the excursions. 
Filed Under: blogging, flashback, history, Married Life, review

Christmas Past

December 26, 2011 By 1 Comment

The older I get the more sentimental I get about the past.  With my horrible memory, I really really cherish these old photos I ran across recently from Christmas 1982.  I was about 2.5 years old & Christmas Eve was spent at my grandma’s house for the first 25 years of my life.  It’s so many of the details of my childhood that bring back fond memories- from the couchs to the drapes to the coffee table to the toys and stockings on the mantle.

At  my grandparent’s house there, was this fabulous bar- it’s where I usually sat to eat, where all the appetizers and desserts were served from, where I created dozens of childhood forts over the years, and where many memories were made.

I found another set of photos & I think these are from around 1988, so I this would be the first year I was rocking my glasses!  I am thankful that we have so many hundreds of pictures capturing our every holiday now, but I really do prize the few old ones that I can find from Christmas’ past.  All those yearly traditions of Christmas Eve at Grandma’s house, surrounded by family, stuffed with an amazing dinner, opening up presents with my cousins, attending a candlelit church service will always be what Christmas Eve means to me.

GOOD NEWS OF THE DAY:  Blue skies, sandy beaches, warm sun & an island to explore today!

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Filed Under: family, flashback, history
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