Whew. Back to reality this week. Last week was our Spring Break, and we made the most of every day. What did you do?

Here’s the rundown—now, this reads more like a post from my family blog, but there’s a point at the end.

Our week: One room re-do for my big girl, two birthday parties, one slightly hectic Ikea trip (two kids on a Saturday at 3pm is the best time to go to Ikea, right?), and one new big bed for my big boy after I finally finished his first room re-do a couple of weeks ago. Oh, well.What can I say? I love redecorating. This bed took us four hours to assemble, and I consider us seasoned Ikea putter-togetherers. It was 37 steps! I don’t think we’ve ever bought something from Ikea with 37 steps. And that’s about all of the house stuff I could manage; so yes, the rest of the house was pretty much trashed.

Next we headed off for a New Braunfels trip with friends and a photo shoot. We waded in the very chilly Guadalupe and saw fields and fields of bluebonnets and Indian paintbrushes, and everyone in my travel wagon was too worried about bugs and snakes (this is the reason you’re seeing a people-less flower pic). C’mon people! What are a few critter bites when you could have these in your picture?

We did stay in this super cool River Road treehouse, and it had a cool little creek underneath that we explored a lot.

Here’s just one picture from my river photo shoot. Dang, I wish I could recreate this spot in my backyard. Oh, this two-ish age is so much my favorite. I love how they are on the move non-stop. This gorgeous lady was go-go-go in the river and rocks and water. I waited for just the right moment and then called her name so she would look up. I am going to quote her when I tell you what I feel when I see this: “Oh, goodness!!”

We came back home and had one sleepless night from a kiddo up all night sick (at least it was on break and not during school again), and then we were on to the next trip and photo shoot. We went to Shreveport during the annual two-week azalea show (there’s no real photography allowed at the Norton Art Gallery, so this is all I could get).

So, my point for all you lovely people is that in the middle of all that craziness and gobs and gobs of personal and professional pictures, I had one hard drive die on me and then my giant laptop decided I had abused it for long enough and gave one final sigh and went to electronics heaven, which was followed by the Stage 3 Panic Attack that follows every electronic failure.

NOT FUN.

I spend lots and lots of hours and money backing everything up, so it wasn’t a terrible loss, but it makes me worried about the average civilian out there not backing her stuff up. So, here are my points for you:

1. Back up and then back up again.
2. Don’t trust hard drives, PC storage, CDs, or thumbdrives. They will all fail eventually. Use an online source for storage.
3. I’m changing my policy for hanging on to clients’ digital images. After your gallery view and order, I’m no longer saving them unless you opt to pay a storage fee.

Next, on to calibrate my new monitor on my new unplanned laptop purchase and start some data recovery. Yes, vacation is really over.

Do you have a vacation planned and wish you had someone to follow your family and take memorable pictures? I might be your gal.

Love, Andrea       508.768.5808 or andrea.bacle@gmail.com