What's happening?

The last two weeks have been absolutely nuts. Yes, I'm still alive. All the family is well. Here's what's been up since my last post:

- Katie relapsed on the potty stuff. Again. She's finally started to tan a bit from the sun, and has gotten a few adorable little freckles around her nose. Too cute.
- Sadie started crawling, perfected pulling up and cruising, learned to finally say Dada, finished cutting her second tooth, weaned herself from breastfeeding, learned to roll from laying down to sitting up and grew a ton. I think she was getting even with me for going away for a whole week. ("Haha Mama - you'll miss out on all the fun firsts!!")

While in Vancouver:
- As mentioned in the previous post, my laptop was stolen. I'm heartbroken, still. It was a devestating blow - I had to cancel all our bank cards, put holds on my accounts, my clients accounts, etc., spend countless hours changing all my passwords and lost all my contact lists. Lesson learned: ALWAYS back up everything. Get Lojack for your laptop. Create super secret security measures to log onto your laptop. The worst part is that I lost 6 months of the girls photos, that I hadn't printed or saved elsewhere. It sucks.
- Accidentally ended up on Main and Hastings. Read "skid row of Vancouver". They even have a witty saying - "Hasting and Main, Wasting and Pain." People growled as we walked by, my employee saw a guy shoot heroin in front of her, we stumbled into a pawn shop that had piles of stolen goods (nope, didn't see the laptop), and we thought we would die. Only Stephen King could come up with such horror. Good times.
- Went to Victoria on a sea plane, which was fun. Took a horse and carriage ride along the coastline with an incredible view of the Cascade Mountains.
- Visited Whistler for the first time, and found an awesome park along the way, where the mountains, sky and ocean all seemed to meet. It was breathtaking.
-- Went to a fireworks show with an Israeli, Australian and Romanian. The Israeli was totally unimpressed by the fireworks. I didn't find this surprising, since I've been on the phone with him in the past when air raid sirens were screaming in the background.
-- Took lots of pictures of crazy people, which I hope to start a post card company with. I captured big hairy guy with crazy eyes, mohawk/mullet man, insane prophet woman and other classics. Vancouver had no shortfalling of crazies. They seem to breed there. Perhaps all crazies come from Vancouver, and then are dispersed throughout the world. The post card company will be a sure winner. Who doesn't want to buy a postcard with a closeup photo of big-hairy-guy-with-crazy-eyes and "Wish you were in (City of your choice)" printed on the bottom?!
-- To add to the crazies, we had lunch where a certifiably crazy woman at a table across from us first staring at one of my employees, and then mocking every move I made. Was wierd at first, then just plain spooky when she drank a pretend drink and started twirling her pretend sunglasses while not once blinking or taking her eyes off of me. Freak.

Since getting back, I've been basically down for the count. I always get a bit blue when I leave the North West, as it feels like home to me. It didn't help to land in 98º heat with insane humidity at midnight, either. That being said, I'm thrilled to be back with my kids, and have NEVER missed them so much. I think this was the longest I've ever been away from them, and it was too long.

Next up on my roster of adventure - vacationing with the in-laws, possible trip to Romania, Sadie's first bday, finding ponies for Katie's 5th birthday and Scotland fun.

Bad day, eh?

Yes. Terrible. I'm in Canada, 2000 miles from home, surrounded by microwave scientists. I miss my kids. Some a'hole stole my laptop, complete with all the pictures of my kids for the last 6 or so months that I hadn't saved elsewhere. I spent the night calling the Vancouver cops and reviewing survellience vido tapes. I lost my presentation for tomorrow in it all. Katie was bawling on the phone when I talked to her today, saying how much she missed me. I'm scared of losing my identity in all of this. My payroll was backed up on the computer, though encrypted, and I"m scared for my employees, too. I'm tired, I'm pissed and I want to go home. But I've got 5 more days.

For those that don't know this, I have a VERY small business. 3 people to be exact. Last week a desktop died (motherboard fried), and a laptop was dropped. Work was crazy (as it always is before a meeting), but this past week has been especially crazy. I've worked a billion hours for clients who don't care how many hours we put in, and I was ready to throw the towel in before I even got here. Now this. Not only did I lose some work (though most was backed up), but I lost my "memories" through photos of the last six months. It makes me sick to think of it.

I won't be accessing email a few days while I straighten this mess out. Please send positive energy my way to get through the week. It's strange. Of all the things I've been through in recent months, the last few weeks have seemed to catch up with me. Other moms of CHD kids have said this happens... it takes a year to digest it all. For me, the "post traumatic" stuff is hitting, but even more so, the "catching up" stuff is hitting harder. Read "Kim=Basketcase".

If the guy that stole my computer accesses this, I just want to say... we have you on tape (your face, your white shirt, dark t-shirt, pants and shoes... we saw you from every angle and know who you are), and now we have your IP address. You were recognized, and good luck with the whole karma thing. Jerk.