Project 365...days 36-42

I am so incredibly behind right now...even more so, due to the fact that, apparently, after I hit "publish" on my last Project 365 post and shut down my computer, it decided to go on strike again. It's lucky it hasn't been on the receiving end of a strike...with a sledge hammer. I tried not to panic, but it was about this time last year that it crashed. And, of course, since my external hard drive is now installed in the old desk top, I've been lazy about copying files. And THE ONLY COPIES of Christmas and Caroline's birthday...not to mention at least two months of work...were on my laptop. Cue the freak out. Jon tried to run the recovery disks, but my files just disappeared. Queries to the IT staff at Jon's office resulted in "yeah, you probably lost everything" comments. Cue the physical restraints.

Then, in a moment of sheer desperation, I grabbed the Yellow Pages and called the Geek Squadron. They offered a flicker of hope, mostly because my program icons were still on my desktop. Then they called back and dashed my hopes after consulting another tech. Then they called again and said they'd come out anyway. I threw myself on my knees and begged God to resurrect my files. And I KNOW there are worse things in life. I know true suffering exists. I KNOW. But I also know that God is bigger than any hard drive, and if it was at all possible He could give me back my pictures, I was asking!

Long story short, the recovery disk hadn't recovered my profile. In other words, my files were still hidden behind some "partition". In other words, the geek found them in about five minutes flat, and I had to resist the urge to grab him and hug him. I saved that for the guy who paid my bill. And let me say that it was $118 well spent. And I will NEVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER download photos to one location EVER again. The end.

That's part one of why I'm so behind. My computer is on borrowed time, and efforts to reinstall all my software are being met with annoying levels of computerish resistance. But wait! There's more. Part two comes in next week's installment. Now, on with the show.

February 5...Gotcha Day...three years ago, I was handed this darling fiesty charming smart little girl. I'll save the sappy stuff for the Gotcha Day post, but I will say that I am grateful every day for the privilege of being her mother. And she is incredibly grateful for sugar. In any form. We baked cupcakes to celebrate the day, and I let her have both beaters. I snapped off a dozen photos of her in sheer heaven, and then as I turned to grab the baking tins, I caught her starting to dip those beaters back in the batter for more! This was my favorite shot because it captured her mischievious little giggle when I busted her.

February 6...oh, yeah...it snowed yesterday...I think that one was six inches or so. It was a wet snow, and it canceled Friday night guard practice and Saturday's competition. We were pretty happy to have a day off. It looks like a stinking blizzard in this photo, but it's really just Mickey throwing himself in the path of the snow blower chute. I don't think I'll ever understand the Y chromosome.

February 7...Super Bowl Sunday...I don't really want to talk about the game. Yeah, yeah...happy for the Saints. NOT so happy that we waited another three years to actually be able to watch the Colts in the Super Bowl, only to watch them lose. If you'll remember, we were flying from Beijing to Guangzhou to get Caroline the last time they played. Anyway, it started out as a nice day. We went to church and then to Panda Express for our official Gotcha Day celebration. Jon ended up with a migraine and slept it off a bit before joining us on a family sledding expedition. Abby, our 14-year-old, is in a teenaged funk lately. She's decided she doesn't like snow anymore. I made her go sledding with us, and, in rebellion, she grabbed a sand chair and plopped herself in it on the sledding hill. Don't worry, she eventually broke down and tried the snowboard, the laundry basket and the sled. And she got in another snowball fight with Mindy. And lost. Again.

February 8...I'm cheating on today's photo...I actually forgot to take one today, but this is one of the first ones I took with the D700. It's of my pantry. With no flash. Yes, it was love at first sight. With the camera. That pantry is another story. My house may usually be in disarray, but I like neat drawers and cabinets. And my kids apparently do not. This is just one corner of the pantry, but it pretty much all looks the same. So I picked this photo for the day because I spent it at the grocery store, stocking up in preparation for yet another snow storm.

February 9...hey, guess what? It snowed. School was cancelled. And I forgot to mail a package yesterday! It just had to get in the mail! Caleb, getting your Pringles to you before your big trip was way more important than a silly little snowstorm! Off we trekked to the post office. The roads weren't actually too bad between here and there at that point, and we accomplished our mission. Whew!

February 10...classic mom moment today. Got Caroline all dressed in her cute Valentine's Day outfit for the party at school. Brought her little cards to school, which she incidentally did pretty much all by herself. And discovered that the calendar was wrong. The party was actually scheduled for Friday, the 12th, instead of the 11th. A day they don't even have school. But somehow my brain translated the mistake into the party being on Wednesday. Duh. Oh, and note that she insisted on wearing one silver shoe and one hot pink shoe. Don't you just love that hat?? It came with a sweet little tutu. I'll have pictures of that later.

February 11...because of all the bad weather lately, I had to reschedule everyone's haircuts. Caroline, Mickey and I got ours cut yesterday. It would have been a great thing to document in honor of Chinese New Year...you know, one of the traditions to prepare for CNY is to cut your hair. If I would have remembered the camera. Duh. Again. But I brought it today when Mindy and Abby got theirs done. And they both yelled at me for taking their pictures.

Here's hoping the computer doesn't have another little fit when I shut down tonight. I've got a lot of posting to do, among other things!