What a week it's been!
What? It's only Tuesday???
When is Friday going to be here???
Last Saturday evening, I had an amazing learning experience as I was the "second shooter" at a wedding here in town. As a second shooter, I was able to not just photograph all the formal shots (more like, be the backup for the formal shots) but I had the freedom to roam around and take pictures of all the little details -- for example, the wedding bands, bride's shoes, small details to the wedding cake, how the bridesmaids were holding their bouquets during the ceremony, mom's reaction to her daughter being given away, etc. I love capturing all those small details. We had a tough challenge with lighting at the venue where the ceremony and reception took place (basically, there was no light to use) so the photographer and I had to be pretty creative.
Like I said, it was a fabulous learning experience. I ended up with several great shots, and I was so excited to start editing what I had and then get together with the other photographer to see what we could come up with. Then Monday happened.
Ryan and I have started something called
the Grocery Game recently, in an effort to more effectively use our finances. It's quite a challenge, but I'm enjoying it so far. It's fun to see that you've saved 63% off of your total grocery bill! The only downside is the time involved in preparing your grocery list, but I think as we get used to doing this we'll become more streamlined in our process. Anyhow, this Grocery Game partly involves me shopping at a few different grocery stores in order to maximize sales and coupons, so yesterday the boys and I headed out to Kroger. (Today was HEB.)
Normally, the boys are awesome when we're at the grocery store. As long as there's something they can hold and 'be in charge of,' they're great. So, I don't know whose kiddos I had with me yesterday in Kroger! I just hope that several years from now, when my boys are all grown and out of the house, I don't glare at the young mom in the grocery store trying to fill her cart while wrangling toddlers. Sorry, ladies -- I'm 300 months pregnant, carrying a hollering 21 month old, holding a whiny 3 1/2 year old's hand, pushing my cart, trying to go through my list, and desperately clinging to whatever sanity I have left ... please don't glare at me, and shake your head as you walk away. I can see you, too.
OK, so stress levels at that point were high enough. At least I saved 47% on my grocery bill there. We got back home, and I fed the boys some lunch and attempted to put them down for naps (no luck). After changing a dirty one on Logan and putting him back down, I finally "struck a deal" with Caleb that he had to stay in his room for rest time, but he could leave his door open (I know, minor detail, but I needed some "me time"). I headed into our study to start pulling the wedding pictures off of my camera. I carefully created and sorted the photos in files on our external hard drive, which was connected to our PC. Shortly after doing all of this, I went to view the photos to weed out the 'bad' ones -- and I couldn't pull up the files. Somehow, the PC could no longer read the files on the external hard drive. (By the way, I'm typing this post on my mac. I'm loving my mac more and more all the time.)
Long story short -- after collapsing in tears on the floor, with several repetitive "Why??s" coming out of my mouth, praying desperately, it was discovered that our external hard drive had crashed. Bye-bye all digital pictures of the boys when they were born. Bye-bye pics of trips to CA, KS and OK, Chicago and New York City, honeymoon in the Caribbean ... pretty much all pictures taken prior to 2008. Oh, and the wedding from this weekend. (side note -- we realized last night that I do have several pics from that time frame on shutterfly, Praise God! So, all is not totally lost.)
Ryan tried all he could do here at the house to restore it, but then took it to Best Buy (they said it would be at least $800 to fix, with no guarantee -- and a 6 week turnaround) and eventually to our friend, Ryne. Ryne is an IT guru, and last night before we collapsed in bed he sent a text saying that he was "cautiously optimistic" about saving the files. I'll take whatever he can rescue at this point!!
Today, I'm in a better emotional state about the hard drive. I'm still heartsick over it all, but I'm hopeful that at least some of it can be salvaged. Computers and technology can fail us -- and quite often they will when you least expect it, as I discovered yesterday!! -- but even in all of that, I was reminded of what Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians. He was telling the church about the "thorn in his flesh" that he had begged God to remove, yet God's response was "My grace is sufficient for you, and My power is made perfect in your weakness." That verse came up twice in church on Sunday -- once in the main service, and once in the high school service. Yes, God, Your timing is perfect. I did repeat that verse out loud several times yesterday, as I desperately needed to know He was there and would help me through the craziness.
So, while nothing has been completely resolved, and the boys still acted up at HEB this morning (although not nearly as bad as yesterday, whew!) -- I feel a peace today that I did not have yesterday.
Maybe that's why I'm able to type this out instead of cry when I went to turn on our TV a little while ago, and it is no longer working. No picture, only sound.
I can't wait to see what the rest of the week will bring . . . ha!
Many, many heartfelt birthday wishes go out to Granny, on this the eve of her 98th birthday!
