What have you got to lose?

*Disclaimer: This post is sort of a virtual journal...I wanted to get some of my thoughts down and have found that my blog serves as a great reference for me when I want to look back at things we have done or gone through throughout the years. I can't believe that I've been blogging for nearly two and a half years! Don't feel like you have to read the whole thing if you don't want to.

It's been a great weekend so far. We took the whole family to Boulder Friday evening to pick up my computer and enjoy a wonderful dinner with my sister Carrie and her boyfriend Greg. Mom came along too and it was a really nice evening. Today we took a drive into the mountains and picnicked at the trail head for Longs Peak before driving down the Peak to Peak highway. We found a picnic table right by a grove of aspen and a little creek and Karamea played with the dirt and pine needles to her heart's content. Another perk for the day is that Karamea made it the whole trip wearing underwear and had no accidents! She was very brave using the pit toilet at the trail head (much braver than an older woman we saw wandering around, unsure if she would be able to manage...)

Our picnic site

Flash back to last Friday: Mark and I were watching TV on my computer and it froze up--no big deal until it wouldn't restart. After a call to customer service confirmed my fears that the new hard drive had crashed, I made plans to bring it in for repairs. At first, I thought it was no big deal, thinking that I had lost a few weeks of pictures of the girls. I mentally patted myself on the back for staying as calm as I did at the thought of losing some of those pictures and was comforted knowing that I had put some of the pictures on the blog and sent a photo CD with many of the good ones to Mark's parents.

Then it hit me.

I hadn't backed up the computer since loading some of the pictures and video clips from the last week of Pop's life. Suddenly my optimistic, laid-back attitude toward the whole computer fiasco evaporated and I lost it...When I got the e-mail on Monday from the computer repair shop that confirmed my fears that nothing could be salvaged from the crashed hard drive, I hit rock bottom with my grief, feeling like I lost Pop all over again. Even though I knew the pictures and videos weren't him, I felt like they were a very special tie to him and to them priceless memories of that last few weeks together. I was kicking myself so much for not having backed up my hard drive. It occurred to me that evening that I might be able to get the pictures back, even though I had formatted the camera and a quick google search helped me find numerous programs to help retrieve the pictures off of the SD card. I cried tears of joy as the program displayed the images I thought were gone forever. I'm fairly good with technology, but I'm definitely no guru, so I was thrilled that things worked out as well as they did. I still haven't been able to get the video files to work, but I'm not giving up hope yet.

I don't know how you are about backing up your computer, and really it's a personal issue, but I would highly recommend considering what you would lose if something were to happen...The hard drive that crashed in my computer was only 3 weeks old (I had recently upgraded it because my original one was full.)

Amidst the computer drama last weekend, I got together with a very good friend from high school who happened to be in town and Mark and I went to couples' bible study for the first time in several years. After Monday, I felt like I was in a fog for the rest of the week, and it turned out to be quite the busy week at school including writing sub plans and attending a training on Thursday afternoon. Phew!

It was a doozy of a week and I was in desperate need of a laid-back weekend like this and am feeling so blessed as I enjoy the moment. Right now both girls are sleeping and it is so peaceful and quiet.

Ahh, bliss!