For Those Concerned If I'm Still Alive....

(Shame on you if you are a faithful reader of my blog and you're NOT concerned if I'm alive, because if you didn't know any better, and from the looks of my blog, it appears I've fallen off of the face of the blogging planet). But for those of you who are in my closer circle, you know I braved my almost-worst fear (because snakes will always scare me more than anything) and took a major road trip from home to Albuquerque, New Mexico. Let's digest this for a moment, shall we? That's 1,000 miles. Each way. In a Honda CR-V (not that there's anything wrong with my darling Honda, it just would have been more "manageable" in a family swagger wagon). With two young children. In summer. Meaning, in triple digit degree weather. (Note to self: in the future, must write an entire blog post about my opposition for all things hot and desert-like). But I'm alive, and here to (eventually) tell the stories. (What's the deal with my over-usage of parenthesis, anyway?)

All I can say is: WHO is this mother who takes her children camping for the first time ever, and then a few weeks later takes them on a major road trip? When did I become the bravest gal around, seeking out adventure clearly outside of my comfort zone? My new favorite epiphany is this: once you've faced your fears head on (excluding, of course, the snake thing) it really does feel empowering and encouraging, because right about now I feel fairly confident that I can do just about anything!


In other news, if you've been waiting for an explanation as to why I promised a detailed account of the aforementioned camping trip, and then never delivered on that promise, please let me explain. I actually DID write one hell of a camping trip post, complete with very witty stories, tons of pictures complete with captivating captions (even beautiful food photos- yes, beautiful food is possible even while CAMPING). I was about 99% done with the post, putting on the final touches when suddenly I realized.........somehow along the way, my big fat elbow must have highlighted about 97% of the entire post and pressed the dreaded "delete" button. And thanks to Blogger's auto-save function, I lost everything, without even knowing it.

Let's just say, I burst into tears. And Dan held me. It was awful.

Guys, we're talking hours & hours & hours worth of work; brain cell power, time devoted to uploading the pictures, witty explanations vanished, probably never to return again (because you can't create that sort of magic twice, it's just not how it works).

And to be very honest, I've been so sick about it that I haven't had the courage to sit down and write it all over again. It makes me sick. But as I'm re-reading this over right now, I realize that I seem to have forgotten that just a few paragraphs ago that I claimed to have the confidence that "I can do anything".

Shoot.

Insert foot in mouth.

Okay, fine. I'm on it. Attempt #2 at camping trip recap shall commence very soon. Let me just finish my vacation first because I'm sort of too busy nursing a Haagen Dazs bar right now to be anything that resembles being productive.