December Happenings

JOEY FINISHED HIS MBA!

In mid-December, Joey finished his MBA coursework at SDSU. Wooohooo!!! I am SO proud of him. He has worked so hard the past two years. It hasn't been easy with a baby, but he did it (of course he did it, he's awesome!) Since he finished up in December, there wasn't a graduation ceremony. He can still walk with the other grads in the summer if he wants but we had to do something now to make it feel real. So to make him feel accomplished and special, I planned a little semi-surprise party for him one Saturday afternoon. I say semi-surprise because Joey doesn't like real surprises so I planned it secretly but surprised him by myself before everyone arrived so there was no GOTCHA moment. It worked pretty well. 

I made him wear our old GT graduation hat and pose for pictures. :)

The happy graduate!

I also got him a couple little gifts. I searched for MBA grad gifts but couldn't find anything I liked. So one morning while Jack was playing quietly (thanks Jack!!),  I designed a couple funny things for him on Cafepress and Zazzle. First gift, a mug to show off his accomplishment...

He liked it but said he wouldn't bring it to work. I don't understand why not! People would get that it is a joke! Oh well. 

The second item was a little onesie for Jack to wear during the party. (I crack myself up sometimes...)

That day I invited a few friends over and got a cookie cake and some balloons. Nice and low key, just like Joey's likes it. 

Jordan, Joey, and Jack

Cutting the cookie cake

Some people even brought him very sophisticated gifts appropriate for his accomplishment...like these rocket balloons. Which scared the crap out of Jack!

Big kid fun

Everyone congratulated Joey but Jack stole the show a little bit. That little attention hog.

Everyone loves Jack!

It was a fun little Saturday and it gave Joey a little closure after two years of hard work.

Way to go Joey!

And as a bonus, Jack enjoyed the balloons for days (supervised of course!)

Jack loves balloons as much as his mom!

So what now for Joey, you may ask?? Well he just accepted a small promotion and is moving to another division in his company. He'll now be managing the development of drone aircrafts. (That's my Joey - one controversial job to another! First gambling, then nuclear power plants, now drones. Yay.) In his new job he'll have to wear a tie everyday (bummer) but he'll get every other Friday off (woohoo!)

Trying on his OLD ties. Don't worry, I already bought him all new ones. Yikes!

If you see Joey, be sure to congratulate him on his accomplishment! Joey, you are the best!

SUNNY IN DECEMBER

The weather here in San Diego has been so awesome this month. It has been sunny and warm and perfect (sorry, I don't mean to rub it in...but that's why we live in an expensive closet!) So we generally try to spend as much time outside as possible. One such sunny weekend, we walked over to our neighborhood park so Joey could see Jack swing. Joey hadn't seen him swing yet because he had been so busy with school every weekend. (Have I mentioned how happy we are that that's over???)

Saturday in the park

Decked out in his GT gear

Jack LOVES to swing. He would stay in that thing for an hour or more if you let him!

Lovin' the swing

We also tried to put Jack on some of the other playground equipment. He seems like he is such a big boy to us but really he is still way too small for most of it.

Not too excited by the slide

So we just let Jack walk and crawl all over and gave him his favorite treat - a whole banana!

Little walker

Uh oh daddy. Don't let him choke on that banana!

Beautiful days often turn into beautiful sunsets around here. Sometimes the sky looks crazy colorful and I get a little scared for a second that the world is ending. Here is a picture from one such night.

Uh oh, is the world ending!!??

MORE GRAPHIC DESIGN

In the beginning of the month I wrapped up my contract with Intuit (for now at least) and did a quick project with a local firm testing the usability of a diabetes management software and then I had a little free time. I had started helping my sister-in-law Samantha to rebrand her natural beauty and baby products a couple months ago after helping Beth create Mom Made Naturals, but couldn't keep up since I was also working full time. Sam tried to hire a local designer to take over but that was a bust so I offered to finish things up for her with my spare week. I really love playing around with graphics, but man, is it a lot of work! Here are few of my designs. I like the way things turned out. First, the new name and logo (previously HealthSpec.)

Then a few of more than a dozen labels...

One of the wrap around labels for the beauty line

One of the round labels for the beauty line (with placeholder text)

One of the wrap around labels for the matching baby line (with placeholder text)

You can check out her products on Etsy (https://www.etsy.com/shop/HealthSpec) and Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/Healthspec). She is in the process of updating the labels now so look for the new brand early this year!

Next up - holiday festivities!