Every once in awhile I’ll read something in the blogosphere that hits me right between the eyes.

And that’s exactly what happened when I first read “On Dying” by sweet Amanda at Baby Bangs. It’s one of the most touching posts I’ve come across lately.

I hope you’ll read it, too. Click here to check it out.

(Hyperlinks are a little hard to see right now because of the font color, but click on “here” in the previous sentence and it’ll take you there. Promise.)

So you should be seeing a whole new blog design, thanks to my friends Heather and Laura at Swank Web Style.

And if you’ve ever wondered what it’s like to go through the design process with me (and I’m sure you’ve devoted many, many hours to thinking of nothing else), just imagine someone sending you fifty emails in one day with compelling input like “let’s make it funky!” and “maybe a little funkier!” and “you know, an abstract-y, flower-y, FUNKY look!” and “CAN I PLEASE HAVE MORE FLOWERS?”

Heather, as always, gave me exactly the look I wanted, and even though at one point I think I said, “Do you think we could get a little PURPLE in there?” she managed to gently steer me away from going completely cuckoo with my over-the-top tendencies.

Also, it just occurred to me that there are two words you will never hear used to describe my blog: quiet elegance.

Or: tasteful understatement.

Or: gentle dignity.

Anyway, you may still see a few little changes throughout the day. I originally requested a smaller font for my posts, but judging from my inbox this morning, that was a very, very bad idea indeed, so we’re going to bump it up a bit so that it’s a little closer in size to what it was on the old design.

And if things look strange on your end, you may want to empty the cache on your computer and then refresh the page. I’ve tested it out on Firefox, Explorer and Safari, and it’s working fine on all of those. But if you’re having problems, just drop me an email and let me know. I probably won’t be able to, you know, help you, but I will forward any techy issues to Heather so that she can check them out on her end.

Which will only serve to make her love me more.

So THANK YOU, Heather and Laura, for such a fun spring bloggy outfit. It makes me smile. As does working with the two of you.

Happy Spring, everyone!

Jewlsntexas is having a contest that might interest y’all. The deadline is tonight at midnight, and the winner will get a faaaaan-cy new template design.

*****

Thanks for this, Linds and (edited to add) GiBee! I really do appreciate it.

*****

Janice and Susan at 5 Minutes for Mom are giving away a FREE DYSON VACUUM. Click on over to their place, read the instructions, and sign the Mr. Linky to enter. You must have a US shipping address to win.

Would you sweet people who link to me in your sidebar please double-check and make sure that you’re linking to this blog and not my old Blogger one? And if your link is going to the old blog, would you please change it if you’re not too terribly angry about the fact that HERE I GO AGAIN, ASKING FOR SOMETHING?

I’m trying to make sure I have a fairly accurate count of links because I have to put together some information for some people (really, Mrs. McVaguerson?), so I really do appreciate your help with this a whole bunch.

If your only link to me is via the CWO or Family Friendly blogrolls, you can completely ignore this request.

Thanks, y’all.

Links Ahoy!

1. Trista is hosting Tasty Thursday today – head over to her place and check it out.

2. To answer your funny comments and emails: my hair and I are fine, thank you. I should have a happenin’ new ‘do in a couple of weeks. And my friends assured me this past weekend that my current hairdo isn’t as severe a train wreck as I envision. However, the mirrors in Lifeway would disagree.

3. Two Oprah-related tidbits: first of all, the ABC special about her Leadership Academy in South Africa was unbelievably moving. I watched it late Monday night, then again last night with D. If you haven’t seen it, you can catch it this Saturday night, March 3rd, at 8 o’clock central time. You can absolutely watch with your kids.

And I don’t know if y’all saw Fantasia sing on Oprah yesterday, but I cried when I watched it the first time, and I cried again when I watched it this morning. She sang the same song that she performed on AI last week, but I didn’t see it, or I would’ve cried then, too. You can watch the clip here if you missed it.

(record usage of the word “watch” here in point #3, by the way)

4. I loved this post over at Shalee‘s today.

5. Don’t forget that The Ultimate Blog Party starts tomorrow – lots of fun and great prizes over at Janice and Susan’s place. Plus, it’s a great chance to increase your blog traffic and meet some new bloggy friends.

6. After tagging along while Melissa and Liz shopped this past weekend, I would like to make an announcement: Anthropologie has the cutest clothes known to man. It’s a shame that I can’t wear any of them because they’re so stinkin’ expensive and, you know, made for skinny people, but if I could shake some money off of a tree in our backyard, I would absolutely go buy one of these skirts.

Except it would have to be on big-time sale because I could never spend that much money on a cotton skirt. If I did, every single one of my daddy’s deceased relatives would not just roll over – they would twirl in their graves.

But their clothes are just so cute and girly and fun and don’t even get me started about their housewares or we’ll be here all day. And yes, it’s $18 for a dishtowel, and that’s totally ridiculous, and I would never spend $18 on a dishtowel, but do y’all see the chickens? They’re the cutest (embroidered) chickens I’ve ever seen.

And a word to the wise: if you’re looking through Anthropologie’s t-shirts, wondering where in the world all the extra larges are? You can stop looking. Because they don’t make extra larges. Which means that if I do ever own one of their adorable skirts, I will be shopping elsewhere (read: Target, Walmarts or Steinmarts) for a top.

Or, you know, walking around in one of their cute skirts and a br@.

Which I hear is a really hot look for spring.

Thank y’all so much for loving on me better than any blogging girl deserves.

And to top it off? We’ve had just about the best Valentine’s ever at our house tonight. 

My two fellas cooked me a supper fit for a queen (well, D. did the cooking; Alex did lots! of jumping! and clapping! and train racing!). We had a wonderful meal, complete with red velvet cake (“Mama! WE USED THE MIXER!”), and then D. gave me what I do believe is the absolute cutest gadget I have ever seen in my life:

 

Y’all.

It’s an iPod Shuffle – about the size of two postage stamps – and do you want to know the best part?

IT’S ORANGE!

Because I’m a girl! And I love color!

Actually, that’s not the best part at all. The best part is what D. had engraved on the back (did you know you could get iPods engraved? I had no idea. But now that I’ve seen it with my own eyes, I’m pretty sure that it’s, you know, the gratist. idea. evir.):

“We Love You – Daddy & Boo”

(I call D. “Daddy” most of the time, for those of you who are terribly confused re: the inscription.)

An engraved iPod. Oh, be still, my technology-lovin’ heart.

It’s been a great day. Made even better by the fact that Alex wanted to hug every single time we opened a card, opened a gift, looked at a card, talked about a gift, etc. In fact, as he was leaving the den on his way to bed tonight, he looked back at D. and said, “Whew, Daddy! It’s been a BIG Valentine’s Day! And it was fun! It sure was!”

I couldn’t agree with him more.