Monday, November 24, 2008

My Pictures

So several months ago, our hard drive crashed. The 'click' of death as I was told....and death to all my photos. A few months earlier we signed up for an online backup service to back up our computer and hard drive. Little did I know I only had seven days to restore the files - after that, the company deleted my files (something they don't tell you so I wouldn't recommend backupright.com). Therefore, you can completely ignore my post from earlier this year. After a valiant effort by John, the files couldn't be saved.

We do have random photo CD's from my parents (thankfully, they always insisted we send them hundreds of photos of Morgan), but we did lose thousands of photos - memories I won't even know I lost. So, why am I bringing this up again?? When Yahoo photos went bust, they transferred my photos to Snapfish. I received an email from them this week that stated unless I order from them, my storage of my photos will be deleted. As this is the most complete set of photos I have since Morgan was born, I didn't ignore the email. I did notice that you can download photos from their site - YES! However, they CHARGE, $0.25 for each photo I download (Huh???). I can also purchase a photo CD - so, after $69.08, I purchased two photo CDs with MY photos. Do I hate that I had to pay to download photos that I put up there in the first place - YES (if you ask me, I should be able to download them for free). However, I was able to reclaim some lost memories which is well worth it. And thanks to retailmenot.com, I scored 20% off.

Lessons learned -
1. Back up your photos in multiple places
2. Don't waste your money on online back up services - stick with CD/DVDs. Now that we have a DVD burner, this task is much easier
3. Don't rely on electronic copies - periodically print your favorite pictures
4. Use google/picasa. Google is going to take over the world anyway, so they'll be around when you need your photos.

Saturday, November 15, 2008

Fall Update

We spent last weekend in Auburn - pictures from the park and our golf lessons are below (thanks Kim for the tour of the AU Golf Facility!).

We also took the kids (Jackson, Morgan, William, Maggie, and Matthew) to get Christmas pictures this weekend. They are included in the slide show below (the quality isn't great as they are photos of photos and I don't have electronic copies). We are pretty proud of how they turned out - all five kids cooperated and it was actually a pleasant experience. Thank you to Aunt Fran and Nene for the great outfits!

$24.99+tax...

...that is how much a visit to Santa costs these days.

Ok, we were NOT intending to visit Santa (considering it is ONLY November 15), but we stumbled upon him in the mall, there wasn't a line, and Morgan was very excited! This was the first year that she knew who he was and willingly wanted to sit on his lap. After I put Matthew on Santa's lap, Morgan ran toward Santa as fast as her little legs could carry her, wrapped her arms around him, and jumped on his lap. I figured I couldn't let the Kodak moment slip by and purchased a photo package. So, $24.99 (+tax) later, we walked away with one sheet of Santa pics. The cheapest package was $22.99 - at this point, what is $2.00 more? Oh, we did get free candy that was probably left over from Halloween, but I made sure we took our fare share. However, there wasn't a candy cane in sight - I guess it is still too early for them!

The quality of this picture isn't great, but since we don't have a scanner, I had to take a picture of the picture.


Merry Christmas - VERY VERY EARLY! I did learn that one of my best friends started decorating her house for Christmas this week, so at least we are not the only ones getting into the spirit!

Thanks Mimi!


In case you haven't actually read my blog on my actual blog in a while (AKA RSS readers), check out the new artwork -- lemmingsfamily.blogspot.com. My sister jazzed it up a bit as a birthday gift - thanks Mimi!

A message from Auntie Mimi...

Saturday, November 8, 2008

Happy Halloween (BELATED!)




We had a fun filled Halloween last weekend. Matthew dressed up as the "Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown" by day and a purple dinosaur by night. Morgan was Arial (she loves being a Disney Princess).

We went trick or treating with Jackson, William, and Maggie (although the little kids didn't quite make it to trick or treat time as they were ready for bed right after dinner).

More pictures of Halloween and the evening we spent painting and decorating pumpkins can be found below: