Blogiversary

We both greatly appreciate the support of all our readers and most especially each and every one of the 718 comments we’ve received over the last twelve months. Today, on the official Blogiversary of Mertinso.com, we would like to take some time and honor those of you who commented the MOST over the past 12 months.

Honorable mention:

• Rebecca (13 posts)
• Flavio (14 posts)
• Lindsay (15 posts)
• Sherry (16 posts)
• Paola (17 posts)

(Tied for) #10 Kiera (18 posts)

Natalia: Kiera and I went to high school together in Idaho. Although we went through years of not seeing each other, we share a common bond in our love of blog-stalking and it has helped our friendship to re-blossom. She recently came to visit, and I felt like we just picked up right where we left off 9 years ago.

(Tied for) #10 Heather (18 posts)

Luis: I actually don’t know Heather personally. But, her awesome parents were kind enough to open their home to Natalia her first several weeks in Las Vegas as we were looking for our new place. For that, Natalia and I will always be appreciative. Thanks for always lending your voice to our conversations, Heather.

(Tied for) #8 Katina (22 posts)

Natalia: Katina and I went to BYU-Hawaii together. She is an awesome opinionated mom who isn’t afraid to speak her mind on her blog. I felt a kinship to Katina when she blogged about being away from her husband (although she had it much, much harder than I ever did… her husband was hundreds of miles away in training for the Air Force).

(Tied for) #8 Katey (22 posts)

Luis: Katey and her husband Daniel are not only some of our dearest friends, but some of the kindest, most decent people we know (and proud parents of one of the cutest little darlings we’ve ever seen). We all met while living in Branbury in the same singles ward back in 2005, and have all been good friends ever since. Thanks for commenting Katey!

#7 Cristina (24 posts)

Natalia: It made me so happy to see that my younger sister made our list. It means she cares enough about me to want to know what is going on in my life. Although she is only 15 (almost 16), she has her own little private blog (she just needs to post more often).

#6 Sara (27 posts)

Luis: Sara and I worked together at Backstage Library Works for just under 5 years, so during that time, we saw each other on a pretty regular basis (that is, when I wasn’t suffering from TST hangovers). Not only was she a great co-worker, but our interests (and that of the Scan Team of which we were part of) in TV, movies, music, and books hovered around the same place, always making work a blast. Thanks Sara!

#5 Brent (31 posts)

Luis: Brent has been my wardmate, roommate, housemate, classmate, and most important of all: schoolmate. I’ll never forget the cold and wet November afternoon in 2005, when I received a phone call from one of my wardmates who had run out of gas not too far from where I was. I went to rescue him, and had the first of possibly well over a hundred eating-outings. Thanks, SM, for your constant support and almost-always-hungry stomach.

#4 Chelsea (35 posts)

Natalia: Chelsea also went to BYU-Hawaii with me. Not only was she the star cross-country athlete who won nationals, she was also an honors student (which is where most of our interaction took place). Chelsea continues to amaze me with her running despite having just given birth to twins not too long ago.

#3 Mae (Natalia’s mom) (36 posts)

Luis: I think #2 on our list (Niki) put it best when she said “I have the BEST mother-in-law in the world.” It’s so true! I often tell people this exact thing when they ask about my in-laws. When mae is here in our home, she’s always asking how I’m doing or if I need anything– always trying to take care of me. Thank you, Mae, for all of your love and support!!

#2 Niki (38 posts)

Natalia: I’ve known Niki since our BYU-Hawaii days. Although we used to all be good friends, when she started dating my brother, I had to quickly put an end to our friendship. After all, I couldn’t have her go breakin’ my heart when my brother broke hers (believe me, it happened before and I was over it). Fortunately for me, she didn’t hold that against me when she and my brother got married, and now we’re back to being good friends.

#1 Carolina (119 posts)

Natalia: The 3rd member of the 3 Musketeers. Carolina was there through our whole first year of marriage. She was there to cook Thanksgiving dinner with me. She was there with us through our first Christmas. She was there to throw me a party when I graduated from law school. Although she decided to move to Texas instead of Las Vegas like I encouraged, she is still ever-willing to be there for us over the internets.

Luis: What more can be said about this amazingly awesome sister of mine? Carolina we love you. I consider us to be the twins that just happened to be born 5 years apart. Thanks for all your love and support!

Thanks everyone for your continued support! HAPPY BLOGIVERSARY!!

Luis: As Blogiversary Week continues, I thought it would be kind of fun to show you a behind-the-scenes look at the creation of the new Mr. and Mrs. Mertinso faces, as well as the history behind the original Louie2k2 cartoon.

Luis: This is the face that started it all. I remember, it was during the April General Conference in 2004 that I was “watching” over at the Rogers. I was fooling around in Illustrator when I thought it would be funny to come up with a cartoon version of myself. The shape of my head is a perfect circle (and has been in subsequent revisions.)

Luis: You’ll see that over the years, It’s hardly changed. The biggest update was in 2009 right before the Mertinso launch, when I changed the shape of my glasses.

Natalia: I should emphasize that I asked Luis to make me a cartoon face for some time, but he kept putting it off and putting it off. It wasn’t until we finally settled on a joint blog that he finally made me one… and even then, he just copied my Mii.

Luis: When I tried coming up with an overhaul to the image, I wasn’t sure how much of the original cartoony feel I should retain, so I played around with a few different options. I ended up choosing to build upon the one in the top right. I the shape of Natalia’s head to make it look more like herself, as seen below:

Natalia: I was really skeptical when Luis told me he wanted to update the faces. He sent me copies of each face in progress and I hated them all. I looked like a weird shapeless blob in one, and nothing like myself in the next. But when he morphed the old face with an updated look, I finally started seeing the light.

Luis: You never told me you HATED them? :(

Luis: Here, I was unsure whether to go with the new brown eyes, or stick to the original black ovals that have been staples since the original Louie2k2 drawing. Ultimately, I decided to keep the old eyes….And what does Spencer think of the new faces?

Natalia: Old Mexican woman??? I’m offended!!

Luis: Spencer!??! Offending someone!?!? NEVER!!