I had been thinking for a long time about switching from blogger to WordPress but the unknown was what got in the way. Tuesday, Ryan emailed me around lunchtime. “Hey, what’s wrong with your blog? I wanted to catch up during lunch. All the pictures are missing.” HMMM? I quickly typed in the web address and sure enough, they were gone. Long gone. Gone with the wind. Goodbye. Adios. I’ll stop there, you get the point. For a few months, I’d been getting warnings every time I logged into Gmail that I was out of storage space and needed to free up space or purchase more. Here’s the thing. Google+. I don’t remember if I signed up for that or not – or do you just automatically have it when you have other google accounts? It doesn’t matter – my point is that I HAVE NEVER USED Google+ for anything. I have always uploaded photos to my blog either from my memory card or my computer’s desktop. I don’t really know anything about it. All I know is that Google+ was automatically backing up 343 versions of every photo that I had ever loaded onto my computer, taken with my Android phones, and put on my blog in the last 4 years. Which added up to about 25,000 photos. So Monday I took some time to delete a few THOUSAND pictures from Google+. It warned me that they would be deleted permanently. From Google+. Not from my google-driven blog. So yep, when I started scrolling through my blog, the pictures were…just…gone. Devastating. All that time. All that effort. Hours upon hours. Luckily, I still have the photos. And now I have my wordpress blog. I just need my time back. Time to slowly and carefully re-add the photos to this new space and restore what was once something I was proud of and happy with. So I apologize if you are scrolling through posts here and click on links that go nowhere or find posts with missing photos. I imported all of the content from my old blog and will work on it as I have the time to get all the photos back where they belong. I’m finding that it’s a time-consuming and tedious process. So I’m new at wordpress. I don’t really know what I’m doing. I hope it gets easier. I don’t like change. I don’t really like computers, either. Or having to learn things on them or about them. Not much of a blogger, am I? ~Candice~
Uncategorized
we’re baaack!
We returned home from Lake Buena Vista, Florida on Saturday afternoon and have been basking in the laid back feeling of being home from vacation.
Disney with 2 and 3 year olds is not easy breezy, folks, but it was indeed magical and we had a wonderful time. I went through my 1700+ photos Saturday night and got them down to 1100 or so. Clearly, I’ve got some more work to do before posting recaps or starting work on a photo book.
It was back to work for Ryan and I and back to the sitter for the boys today. I was dreading logging in and checking my emails but after sifting through redundant messages and moving items to folders that had already been addressed, it really wasn’t too bad.
I spent all day today hustlin’ and bustlin’ to get everything back up to date and now I’m ready to go forward with this week’s workload. Thankful for a good job, great co-workers, happy kids, a warm house, and pumpkin bread in the oven.
Gotta go play legos — vacation updates to come very soon. So much to share regarding doing 4 parks with a toddler and a pre-schooler, flying with little kids, Disney’s new MagicBands, and more (read: millions of pictures).
~C~
42 things that change when you have a baby
I’m sharing this from a babycenter article. The ones that hit home for me are in bold. There’s just no way to explain how true these notions are until you have been there and done it yourself. Becoming a parent is like no other experience I’ve had.
*****
Forty-two things that change when you have a baby.
1. You finally stop to smell the roses, because your baby is in your arms.
2. Where you once believed you were fearless, you now find yourself afraid. [See a reader’s perspective in #22, below.]
3. The sacrifices you thought you made to have a child no longer seem like sacrifices.
4. You respect your body … finally.
5. You respect your parents and love them in a new way.
6. You find that your baby’s pain feels much worse than your own.
7. You believe once again in the things you believed in as a child.
8. You lose touch with the people in your life whom you should have banished years ago.
9. Your heart breaks much more easily.
10. You think of someone else 234,836,178,976 times a day.
11. Every day is a surprise.
12. Bodily functions are no longer repulsive. In fact, they please you. (Hooray for poop!)
13. You look at your baby in the mirror instead of yourself.
14. You become a morning person.
15. Your love becomes limitless, a superhuman power.
AND FROM OUR READERS:
1. “You discover how much there is to say about one tooth.” — Ashley’s mom
2. “You finally realize that true joy doesn’t come from material wealth.” — Anonymous
3. “You now know where the sun comes from.” — Charlotte
4. “You’d rather buy a plastic tricycle than those shoes that you’ve been dying to have.” — Sophie’s mom
5. “You realize that although sticky, lollipops have magical powers.” — Roxanne
6. “You don’t mind going to bed at 9 p.m. on Friday night.” — Kellye
7. “Silence? What’s that?” — Anonymous
8. “You realize that the 15 pounds you can’t seem to get rid of are totally worth having.” — Brenda
9. “You discover an inner strength you never thought you had.” — Ronin and Brookie’s mom
10. “You no longer rely on a clock — your baby now sets your schedule.” — Thomas’ mom
11. “You give parents with a screaming child an ‘I-know-the-feeling’ look instead of a ‘Can’t-they-shut-him-up?’ one.” — Jaidyn’s mom
12. “Your dog — who used to be your ‘baby’ — becomes just a dog.” — Kara
[Many readers begged to differ, saying things like, ” I disagree with number 12. My dogs are my additional children,” “Nothing about previous babies, whether two- or four-legged, changes when a new miracle comes along,” “My dog will never be ‘just a dog,” and “This is sad to me. My dog is still my baby too.”]
13. “You take the time for one more hug and kiss even if it means you’ll be late.” — Tracey
14. “You learn that taking a shower is a luxury.” — Jayden’s mom
15. “You realize that you can love a complete stranger.” — Dezarae’s mom
16. You find yourself wanting to make this world a better place. — Arizona
17. If you didn’t believe in love at first sight before, now you do! — Ciara
18. You start to appreciate Sesame Street for its intellectual contribution. — Anon.
19. You have to quit watching the news because you see every story from a mother’s perspective and it breaks your heart. — Brooke&Boys
20. You just plain love life more – everything comes together and becomes better because of one tiny person and your love for them. — Anon.
21. You finally find out the real reason you have those breasts. — Anon.
22. In response to #2 [above], I’d say that where you were once afraid, you’re now fearless. I was always very timid and shy and let myself get walked all over … but now where my kid’s concerned, I’ll speak my mind and really connect with my inner “b”! — gummismom
23. The support you get from other people surprises you, because the people giving it are not always the ones you’d expect. — japanese_macaque
24. Nothing is just yours any longer. You share EVERYTHING! — DylanLsMom
25. No matter what you’ve accomplished in life, you look at your child and think, “I’ve done a GREAT job!” — Anon.
26. You want to take better care of yourself for your child. — Treasor
27. You can have the most wonderful conversation using only vowel sounds like “ahhh” and “oooo.” — littlehulk2008
*****
These are all pretty sunshiney. I would add one that is not so positive.
28. The relationship with your spouse/baby daddy/baby mama, etc becomes a lot more work because you forget, amidst the chaos, that it IS a basic need. For you, for the other person in the relationship, and especially for the child(ren). You must somehow figure out a way to keep the relationship a priority.
What unexpected changes did you discover when you became a parent?
Or which of these struck you as particularly relevant?
~C~