Can we talk???

I am currently in a state of overwhelmedness. Why? Well, allow me to share... because I'm certain you're dying to know. Just prepare yourself for a long post.

Thursday night my laptop crashed. Died, really. A painful, crashing death. My IT folks at work have been steadily working to try to un-encrypt and recover my data, but due to bad sectors, I have lost the following:

• 1-1/2 year's worth of pictures of my baby that have never been backed up, printed, or placed in a scrap book of any kind whatsoever. Gone. Memories, milestones, celebrations, vacations, smiles, grins ... gone. In a blink of an eye. I'm most sick over this, as you can very well imagine. It's all gone.
• My book. Four chapters of inspired writing gone. Oh, my burning heart. Months and months of work. Gone.
• My collection of recipes. Recipes I created, recipes I loved, recipes I wanted to publish at one time or another. Gone.
• Numerous other personal files.

Lesson learned? Always, and I do mean ALWAYS back your pictures, your work, your everything up by burning them on a CD, placing them on a thumb/flash drive, whatever... just do it. Per my IT person, they suggest that you have your personal items (such as pictures) that you want to keep long-term on two different kinds of media. Back it up, baby!!!

Friday I was given a new lap top at work. I went home eager to get on line and share my hard lesson learned with you all, only to come to a crashing halt because I couldn't get online. Our computer at home had crashed a while ago, but one of our pastors had given us another CPU, so Dan began to set it up, but we were also having trouble with our wireless router. Our Pastor came over on Monday to do some work on the computer and to check out our wireless router. He got everything in order for us (he's a great guy!), but we still couldn't get my lap top to connect to the router for internet service. Finally, yesterday, my IT people responded to my Help Desk ticket and walked me through turning on my wireless card in my lap top. So now, I can connect at home ... I think. I'll be trying it out this weekend.

Next issue... Saturday morning, my husband woke up with a bump on his foot the size of a 25-cent gumball. He has always had a bump there (we assumed it to be a cyst), but it was about the size of a small marble. Suddenly, he woke up and it was huge. And very painful. By Sunday morning, we were walking into an immediate care center for pain management. By Sunday night, we were in the emergency room for more pain management. They tried to drain the cyst, but nothing would come out -- it was a honking needle, too! By Monday, we were in the office of a specialist. When she did a sonogram, the two nurses and the doctor were surprised at how big it was (2 cm x 1 cm) and were oogiling over it. They scheduled him for surgery to remove it because the doctor said that the fluid in it was probably as thick as peanut butter. His surgery is tomorrow morning. Good times. But, God has been working in his foot, because the size of the cyst has decreased dramatically on the top of his foot. We don't know what's going on inside, but we know that God is hearing our prayers, and is doing his shtick -- the miracle shtick! Praise God!

Finally, a rod in my Expedition broke on Tuesday. We think its the tie (?) rod in the front ... but we're not sure. Fortunately, we have three vehicles, so now I'm zipping around town in my husband's Takoma -- which is stick shift. It's been a really long time since I last drove a stick shift -- possibly 7 years -- so I had to get used to that all over again. My insides felt like a milkshake the first day, but I'm a pro by now. And one of these days, by car will be fixed and good to go, but for now? I cram my 32" inseam legs into his tiny truck and putter along. Fortunately, it did not break while I was driving on the highway at a high speed. Unfortunately, we have some hefty car repair expenditures looming ahead. Again -- good times.

So there you have it. My life this week in a nutshell. And in honor of Peach over at Without Fear, I'm going to fill up my Thursday Thanks Tank:

1. I'm thankful that I have a wonderful person in the IT department that is working hard to recover whatever pictures of Hunter possible, and has told me it looks promising.

2. I am very thankful that my car broke down just minutes away from my home.

3. I'm thankful that his healing hand is over my husband, and that the bump is a cyst that can easily be removed, and he will soon be comfortable once again.

4. I am so thankful that we have been having beautiful, cool weather this week, and this weekend promises to be even cooler -- in the 70's... Fall is right around the corner!

5. I am thankful that my Pastor was our acting Geek on Call and came over to our home to work on our computer. I'm thankful for the computer he gave us. I'm thankful for his talents. I'm thankful that he doesn't really work for Geeks on Call, and we didn't have a $300 bill to pay for him to help us out.

5. I am so thankful for my Salvation, and promise of eternal life in heaven. This week, a saint of the church passed away. She was either close to 90, or in her 90s. Her family is exhausted both emotionally and physically, but while this saint is not longer here on earth with us, and while we here mourn her loss, she is no longer mourning, and no longer in discomfort. No friends, she is rejoicing in heaven with our Lord and Savior, the angels are rejoicing over her entry in heaven, and she is reunited with her love -- her husband -- who passed away several years before her. I am most certain that she is dancing on streets paved with gold to her favorite blue grass music!

6. I am ever-grateful for my family. My husband is such a blessing, so loving, caring, and patient, and our son continues to be a kiss of sunshine in our lives!

7. I am so thankful for my in-laws. My husband's parents have been so helpful with caring for my son ... they came over to our home at 11:30 at night so I could take my husband to the hospital. They spent the night and watched Hunter the following day (Monday) so that I could take my husband to run some errands and to his doctor's appointment. They will be spending the night tonight and watching Hunter tomorrow while I'm at the hospital with my husband. They are a blessing straight from heaven!!!

Any way -- I have about a gazillion emails to tend to, a ton of work to do, a lot of re-creating to do, and a lot of lost blogging posts to re-write. But for now, I really am back.