Lost

No, not the TV show, I never watched more than one episode, and I'm not waxing philosophical. About a month ago our main computer's motherboard got fried. When my hubby and his friend put in the new motherboard, Monday night, they had to wipe the memory of the computer.

Tuesday, my usb memory stick which held pictures from the last two years died. I had backed up pictures on cd through March 2009, but my dear hubby said that was such a waste because I had them on the usb and on the computer. I had planned in the back of my mind to back them up on cd anyway, but I never did it.

I cried, and I stopped, and I cried some more. I called Thomas at work. I called the place we got the memory stick, researched online, watched youtube videos, and tested things. The light wouldn't come on the memory on any of our computers. I finally researched businesses in the area that recover lost data on computer memory things; I e-mailed one of them.

I'm not really a person with a good memory. I need to write things down. I need my memory jogged. I really need pictures.

The kids and I started a new tradition of making a Kodak picture book each year. I let them go through pictures of the past year and pick out whichever memories were their favorites and the those pictures go in the book. We should have been doing that this week.

I'm so thankful that some of the missing pictures are on this blog, and some of those memories have pictures taken by our family or friends. Some of them may be lost forever. No one else has the sweet picture of Ellie with the upside down number 6 candle on her 9th birthday, with that special smile. She was truly happy and okay with being goofy with the number 6 candle, because Mom couldn't find enough regular candles and we don't have a number 9 candle. No one else has the pictures of Ellie and her friend, Sam, doing Karaoke on her birthday. No one else has the random pictures of Wyatt when he just wanted me to take a picture...his funny hairdos, his Lego block towers that nearly reached the ceiling fan, him with his Cabbage Patch Kids and mine on his bed.

I still have a chance with the computer memory recovery people, but I am afraid that is slim. From now on, I will back up my pictures with a disk, and on a site like Wal-mart Photos, Snapfish, CVS Photo, or Kodak. And I need to blog more. Although I read about how you need to backup your blog, or you could lose those memories, too. There's another project for me.

I'm trying to thank God for what I have and remember that I can't take pictures to heaven with me. I don't need them...I want them. I was thinking how a hundred years ago, taking pictures would have been more like a once a year sort of thing...something very special and not an everyday thing like now. Even before the digital camera, I wouldn't have so readily taken pictures...not nearly as many.

The kids finished the Summer Reading Program. They've used most of their free coupons. While we've been running around, my house has been lost in the mountain of mess that happens when we are home just enough to mess things up and not clean anything up. Does anyone else understand that one? I've been cleaning like a woman nesting today...even behind the refrigerator! Not nesting though, promise, now I know part of why I cried so much on Tuesday. To top everything off, it's that time of the month.

Yesterday, when the kids and I were at my folks, my friend, Colleen, called and said she found a turtle in her back yard for Ellie. Ellie has wanted a turtle for a long time, so we headed over to pick up the turtle. Colleen and her family were going somewhere for dinner, so she didn't have time to research the turtle before she called us. When we got the turtle home, Ellie got her turtle book and we researched Jamie the turtle. She was an Ornate Box Turtle...very delicate, easily stressed, and difficult to keep alive, even for experience turtle caretakers. So, poor Ellie had a pet turtle for about an hour or two yesterday, before we took Jamie home to where she came from and set her free. My poor baby girl, she was so sad... pet turtle, found and lost.

I feel like I've lost time lately, too. Already, a new school year is upon us. My basement painting project keeps getting stalled. I haven't blogged lately, or had a chance to read any blogs that don't come into my inbox. I have a pile of books, including an e-book that a good cyber-friend of mine has written, that I'm dying to read!

Where does the time go? And here I am wanted to play the "why game". Ugh! Reminds me of a poem I wrote in High School. I think I'll look it up and post it.