Today’s comic is a slice-of-life on 2 levels. First of all, it’s a small dedication to our dog, Angel. If you read the news, a week ago she was clipped by a car (thankfully not hit dead-on, but sideswiped). She ended up with a few broken bones in her pelvis, but nothing serious. Painful, but nothing that will affect her lifelong. The worst the vet said would happen is that she may walk with a limp, but she has a good chance of a full recovery. She is such a trooper and it already trying to run around. We’re making sure she is not over-doing it, but it is so encouraging to see this little dog’s spirit and spunk! A thanks for the well-wishes from several of our fans.

Our dog is such a bright spot in our family, and there are times when the people just cannot console a child, but one of our animals can. We have cats too, but there is nothing quite like a dog to warm the heart of a child. Our kids call Angel their “little sister,” so that tells you how they feel about her. This past week was particularly hard in our house as the kids grappled with the thought of losing their dog. Even though she was not critically injured, it was a scary time, and our kids needed a bit more TLC to deal with it. Having the kids want the dog next to them to go to sleep is a regular occurrence in our house, and we wanted to showcase that in the strip.

Mike is pretty cranky in this issue, and his behavior is very much like our youngest, Violet. Our 2 year old has a fierce temper, and when she is tired, watch out! Nothing will console her, yet she just feels like she needs something. It can be frustrating as she screams “no” and slaps away all of our offerings of comfort. The dog will work to calm her on occasion, but honestly there are often moments nothing works. Usually she will simply find a place to lay down and go to sleep on her own–she is one of those children who really needs to be left alone in order to relax enough to take a nap.

On a side note, I have to admit that our 2 most explosive personalities kids-wise are Monty and Violet. I have to wonder if there is something to the fact that they both were born on the 4th of July (yes, both kids were born on 7/4, 4 years apart).

I do want to note, just in case anyone gets upset, I am not an advocate of “cry it out.” That is the method of putting a kid in their bed to go to sleep and leaving them alone in their room until they do. I know people who use it and swear by it, and I respect that. We are more inclined to have baby in our room with us, or sit with our kids until they go to sleep. Despite common fears that such method will not teach your kids to go to sleep on their own, I can safely reassure that our older ones have no issues with falling to sleep by themselves. We tried CIO years ago with our first and didn’t have the heart to do it. Anyhow, I do believe there is a time, though, that kids are just so overtired, they need a few minutes alone to relax. With Violet, typically she is in the same room as us and we simply ignore her. She usually comes around and calms down on her own, or she falls asleep. I don’t have any problems leaving a kid for 5-10 minutes to get a break. However, any longer and I usually have to go in and try something else. Okay, end of explanation.

Remember I mentioned trying to fit in some reference to Jim cleaning out that house? Well, today’s comic Issue 173 was it. Well, to a degree. This comic is one of those true-slice-of-our-lives strips. When Jim was cleaning out that house, the woman’s pantry was filled with daddy long legs. In his own words: “I didn’t know they could get so big!” Most of our kids hate bugs and totally freak at the sight. That is, except Paige. She’s Paige the fearless, and will stomp bugs, go into a dark room alone to turn on the light, and a myriad of other “brave” things. It’s a bit comical to see our 12 year old run into room to grab Paige so she can squish a bug somewhere else in the house. I have to admit, even though I have to roll my eyes at my older ones being such “babies”, it’s quite hysterical to see this little 4-year old go to town on a bug. Paige (effectionatly called Ram-Paige at times because of her ability to trash a clean room in 10 second)–the courageous vanquisher of spiders and all things ick!

We actually had a different strip planned for Tuesday, but as fate would have it, Jim needed to put in a water filter on our kitchen sink. He had done this project done before a few years back, with the same filter model in fact, so he expected it to go quickly. His plan was to get it up, and then finish off our scheduled comic. We expected it (the strip) to be a few hours late, but considering we are slowly on the mend from all being sick and playing catch-up in the various areas of our life, we hoped our readers would understand. Of course, as Murphy’s Law dictates, the project which was to take a few hours ended up taking a LOT longer. I can actually report that Jim gave up on it last night, and is in the midst of completing the project as this update is going up. As the project stretched from “I’ll be done in another hour” to “I have no idea when the heck I’m gonna finish this,” I couldn’t let the irony of the situation slip by, so I decided to forego our planned strip and draw one about the situation. Living in an old house, we are used to this type of thing. Though, from what I have heard from others, this is a common occurrence. Even though we come to expect this, every time we hit a big unexpected delay, it’s still upsetting.

On Thursday, we will be starting the storyline featuring our 100th strip contest winner, Evil Couch. Unfortunately, it took us this long to get to it because we didn’t want to simply do a cameo, but wanted to incorporate him into the strip. A real-life incident actually gave us some good material for the arc we’re planning. Be sure to check back.

This issue and the storyline to come are actually inspired by real events. Recently, a couple of our kids have been bitten by the “love bug.” Of course, in grammar school, there’s no real love, just little crushes. Still, it’s incredibly cute. Our son received a gift of little trinkets from a girl for his birthday. One of our daughters recently got a letter from a secret admirer. I still remember my first “kindergarten crush” and I hope that this little arc will bring back fond memories for our readers. Who was your first crush?

The Pixel kids do come off as a little dense at times. I never view them that way, though. They are just kids. They are caught up in their own worlds and don’t know everything–even if they think they do. The Pixel kids are quirky, though. It makes for good comedy, but our own kids tend to be that way too, so we personally find it endearing. Speaking of today’s strip (Issue 115), I think we can all relate to talking at cross-purposes.

The bonus of this new storyline, is that it is going to allow us to work in a few things that we have wanted to for a while. We also wanted to mention, we got a lot of positive feedback from the strips with the robbery and Blip. Don’t worry, there will be more to that arc coming soon. If you’re a regular reader, you know we take pride in pacing things out. All in good time. As promised, there will be some exciting things coming at our year anniversary mark in March!

As much as I like to think I’m a “hip” mom (and the fact that I use the word hip probably proves I’m not), there are sometimes the generation gap hits me. Usually any time I see some piece of pop culture which seems absolutely idiotic to me, but keeps my kids enthralled for hours. Of course, the kids–my kids and the generation of 20-somethings–are the ones that are target audiences nowadays. They have the disposable income, and the naivity to truly believe they need everything that advertisers tell them. While not quite as exaggerated as in Issue 114, there is a trend where news is focusing more and more on entertainment and fluff as a way of keeping viewers. One of our major newspapers has a spin-off paper that is actually performing better than the main paper. It is “tidbit” news, where you get just a paragraph or two synopsis of the story. The rest of the pages are filled with news of the moment. What happened during Britney’s breakdown. Is Angelina Jolie pregnant? That’s what people want to know. In the last major election, there were polls that showed that most people cared more about the outcome of American Idol than the presidential election. It’s sad, but certainly a true statement of the world we live in.

As for Harry running around after all the kids, all I can say is that is Jim’s life–almost verbatim. 90% of the time our kids want daddy. Be it getting a bottle, changing a stinky, or kissing a boo-boo, they want their daddy. Of course, I win in the food category, but only because Jim can’t cook! Oh well, having grown up in a single-mom home, I don’t complain. I’m really happy and lucky I have a great husband who’s such a good dad. Though, I’m sure–particularly at key moments–Jim wishes that for a little while those kids would want their mom instead!

One more note, we are totally proud of our very techno, pop-culture sounding celebrity names! Can’t you totally see a rock star with the name of Xeon Neon?