Ha, that is a good measure of success for any family gathering 🙂

It was so painful, especially as they’d been sitting safely on my memory card for months and I care-freely deleted them just days before realizing they weren’t on my computer. Ouch!

Thank you so much Sara, this comment means a lot to me! You are too kind. I agree that authenticity isn’t about being gloomy and doomy all the time. Sometimes we are riding a natural high for a day, a week, or a month, and being true to that means rainbows and sunshine and big loopy hearts drawn over everything. Sometimes shit gets real and suddenly, whoa, being true to that means bringing up some slightly less-pleasant-to-write-about topics. I just go where the story takes me!

It’s amazing how reassuring it can be to hear I’m not the only one! I always want the holidays to be “just so” and I can definitely revert back to some toddler foot stomping when things don’t go my way. Like you said, not proud of it, but can’t seem to stop it!

I did indeed, Izy! Thank you!

Meh, I never really follow the blogging rules. It’s worked out pretty well for me 🙂

Ha, I think I see a vlog series in my future with that title….

And OMG that story pains me to read. I’ve heard a million as well, though that one might take the cake. My mom has a tragic one too when it comes to travel — returning home from a multi-week trip to Europe to find she’s used pre-exposed rolls of film the entire way. Not a single photo from the entire trip! It makes my heart hurt just to think about it. And actually, come to think of it, I have a memory of a young pastor at my church having a similar story to the one you told — his car was stolen with his laptop inside, which had all copies and backups of his doctoral thesis on it. WHY WHY WHY. I remember him plastering the neighborhood with posters just asking for the files, keep the laptop and car.

Pity about your photos, I’ve made a similar mistake before and it sucked.

July 4 looks like a fun holiday. A bit like Australia Day for us!