My hero

There is a reason you haven’t seen pictures or posts in a long time. Technology, while a wonderful thing, has been my thorn this past month. It started when our internet connection became intermittent. Very intermittent. And of course the times we did have a strong connection were always the most inconvenient times…just before crawling into bed, just before heading out the door to work. So, I finally surrendered and called Geekabytes. And wouldn’t you know that the day Daniel Geekabyte was planning to come to my rescue, a neighbor’s house was struck by lightning and caught fire. A total loss. And the second house fire in our neighborhood this year. So, Daniel’s visit was delayed. Fire trucks prevented anyone from getting to our house. Even us. But when the smoke and fire trucks cleared, Geekabytes came. And for 24 hours we had internet again. Then our modem, which was apparently one of the “premier” versions (i.e. it was from the Stone Age) went haywire. A week later, Daniel Geekabyte returned. He explained that in addition to an ancient modem, we may also have a faulty splitter…whatever that is. We opted to replace the modem and cross our fingers. And for 24 hours we had internet again. Now it’s again intermittent and we’re back to square one. Suppose third time will be our charm.

But that’s not all. Oh yes, there’s more. So, during the last 24 hours of internet connection I decided to take the opportunity to download all of my pictures from my camera. And possibly update our blog. I connected my camera to the computer using the same USB cable, same method, same everything. And nada. Nothing happened. I repeated. And repeated. And repeated. And STILL nothing. Next I decide to purchase a USB/memory card during my Saturday morning trip to Wal-Mart. This should (fingers crossed) enable me to download pictures directly from my memory card to the computer. No USB cable required. Unfortunately for me, it didn’t work. You can imagine my frustration at this point. I was ready to take a sledge hammer to the family laptop. Finally, in desperation I begged Wade to make a stop at Best Buy during our date night. And praise Jesus for the Geeksquad. Not only did I discover my computer already had a memory card reader…and to think all of this time I could have just stuck the stupid card directly into my computer…but the Geeksquad got me up and running again. For FREE. I will forever be a loyal Best Buy customer after today. Thank you, Geeksquad. I am eternally grateful.

 
So what else have we been up to besides cursing laptops and the internet? Well, I’ll tell you…
 

·         POTTY TRAINING. After months of being perched on our mantle, Buzz Lightyear finally got to come down and be united with our big boy, Henry. Although not accident free, and still struggling with pooping in the potty, Henry has definitely made significant strides. Hallelujah.

·         I made homemade sweet pickles for the first time EVER. It was a two week ordeal and the entire house reeked of apple cider vinegar, but I did it. And they actually taste like my grandmother’s. Yum, yum. Every step was an adventure…especially because I didn’t have a pan quite large enough to contain all of the boiling syrup/vinegar…multiple pots, all boiling, some overflowing, and little room to do anything but pickles in our kitchen. But it was worth it…and we’ll be enjoying pickles for the next 12 months.

·         We’ve been cleaning and moving things to storage. Let the staging begin. We’re hopeful our house will be listed in the coming months and we can begin our search for the Shaw family’s new home.

·         We’re preparing for a garage sale. Enough said.