I’ve switched hosts, installed virus protection, brought everything up-to-date, installed a new template, restored my site several times AND even employed a HIRED GUN to clean and re-restore my site. The hired gun is a much respected internet security company, btw. So my blog is officially SAFE. If your virus protection is giving you any trouble now, it is simply because you haven’t cleaned your cache. To clean the cache (it’s like a short-term memory system) just go to tools>internet options> general> browsing history> delete temporary files. Voila!

If you are having trouble seeing my blog, simply clear your computer’s cache (so it will look at the site with fresh eyes…) To clear your cache, please follow the steps for your browser: https://my.bluehost.com/cgi/help/000431

Thanks to my Chrome and Firefox-using visitors who informed me that my blog had been h#cked. Why anyone would want to h#ck a family adoption blog is beyond me… but whatever. Anyway, I spent the whole morning cleaning and repairing my blog, and doing preventative maintence on Vulnerable Children’s site as well as the four others I run.

But like a pheonix from the askes - I’ve relaunched rowanfamilytree.com with a nifty new theme – whatda think???

My website has been h#cked. Sheesh. So if your computer is showing that my site has a virus – it actually doesn’t. But somebody with a dumb sense of humour has basically installed a tripwire on my site.

I’m fixing it! But my apologies in the meanwhile…

Ok, so this is what the specialist meant when he said it gets worse before it gets better. My nost hurts, my teeth hurt… this sucks. My cheeks are raw and bleeding from the tape holding gause up under my nose. I think sinus infections weren’t so bad after all….

Well, yesterday I was really out of it because of the drugs, but today I’m doing ok. Totally low energy – I can’t lean over (bleed) walk around (bleed) etc… but the girls are being very helpful and fetching things left right and centre for me. I was mostly worried about the IV, and sure enough, the anesthesiologist took three tries to put it in (which I responded to be crying until they put me under) but the surgery seems to have gone well. I have no idea if they fixed it or not, but I haven’t experienced the searing pain that can happen when they mess with your nose nerves. I’m off the T3 and just on regular pain meds already. Now, I look like I’ve been hit by a Mac truck. And gone are the plans to help my parents unpack this weekend (bleed!) but I’ll supervise everybody else, lol. All things considered, I should be on the mend in a week-ish. I think got off pretty easy, actually. Must be good karma from something! Thanks for the well wishes, peeps.

Yup, today I’m off to have a nose job. Or actually, to have my sinuses drilled out, but a nose job sounds so much more glam.

When Laughlin was a puppy, I was playing with him on my lap when he threw his head back and bopped me on the nose. It hurt like heck and I thought maybe I had broken it (Jrock assured me I hadn’t and I was just being a whimp.) Well, I actually REALLY had broken it. He was wrong-o. After suffering from sinus infection after sinus infection, I wet to a specialist and he told me they had to get in there and straighten out my sinus passages.

So today I’m having my nose drilled. I’m not sure what I’m more nervous about (this is probably why I writing about it on the blog, as I don’t usually tend to share these things!): the pain for several days/weeks after, or the iv going into my veins, as I have a severe needle phobia. This morning I will be in happy land, since they have to dope me up just just to get the iv for the anesthesia in. The bummer is that my best friend is in town for two days, and I will be groggy and unfriendly for one of them.

In the meanwhile, I’m TRYING to focus on the positive… no more sinus infections and bitter-tasting antibiotics every six weeks.

The concentrating isn’t going so well.

Maybe I’ll organize my Harambe photos and post them next!  Wish me luck today…

Tonight I sat down and filled out our census report. Most of it was pretty straight-forward, except one question.

34; 34; 4; 4.

White; white; black; black.

Cultural ancenstry: German, Scottish; Italian, Polish, Ukrainian, British (I needed more room); Ethiopian; Ethiopian.

But then it asked:

If you are wondering why I didn’t post the rest of the pictures from Jrock and I’s trip – the answer is because I’m yucky grossy sick.

I had a cold more than a week before we left for Vegas, but five days of little sleep tanked me. So now I’ve been home from work for two days… the flu and the cold. And now Spice seems to be getting it. Thank goodness she and her sister have imune systems of steel, so I’m sure she’ll just be under the weather and whiney for a few days.

Sugar might be getting it too, though. Today she was super whiney and got upset at the drop of the hat. Tears tears tears. If fact, today was a first “I don’t love you! You are not my family! I am going back to Ethiopia. With. Out. You.!!!”

To which I replied “I love you lots and I will always love you. And you are forever part of this family, wherever you live.” So there.

But I do think she’s getting sick… yeah. The only worse thing than sick kids is being sick yourself. Oh, no wait – the worst is having a sick husband. (So far so good, thank goodness… and you think I’m a whimp~~~~!)

Yesterday I called my website hosting company because I wanted to upgrade the wordpress version behind this blog. I have been posting for four years (4 years!!!) and haven’t done a wordpress upgrade since then. So I’d like to use the bells and whistles, like uploading more than one photo at a time. But I was so scared to lose my content (4 years!!! of posts) that I wanted some help.

Well, between this blog and another website I am working on, I was on with the helpdesk for 1 1/2 hours.

The fellow who was helping me made a copy of my entire site, for safety’s sake. He then installed the newest version of wordpress. Then he went to migrate my content back to the blog… I hit “refresh” and.. nothing. No blog.” He tried again. Refresh Nothing.

“Um, mam…. I’m having a few problems. I think I need some help form my manager. Can you just hold for a few minutes?”

Well, I stayed glued to the phone for 7 minutes. I kept imagining losing all the pictures and contect and everything from this blog… FINALLY he got back on the phone. “We’ve figured it out. You can refresh again.” And… ta da! there everything was.

It was a miracle.

Thanks my very patient tech support guy! You did it! and I’ll tell you – all my dreams of buying and external hardrive are coming true in the next week, because I never want to almost lose you again, my dear record of my life and my children’s existence. Little did I know how much this silly blog meant to me until I almost lost it!

On a side note – It’s 4 years of Rowan Family Tree next month. Salute! Prost! Cheers! Thanks for all your visits and comments. You make this (slightly obsessive) hobby worthwhile!

Being sick sucks.

ANOTHER sinus infection (at least I have antibiotics on demand now and don’t have to see a doctor each time,) the nasty flu, AND a chest cold.  I am so completely bagged.

I have no idea how I managed to function like this for a few months last fall. It’s all a blurr now – no wonder. I was half-dead sick from the time I got off the plane from Ethiopia until Christmas. Only four sinus infections since then – yeah.

Stewing in self-pity… (and fuzzy-brain meds. No driving allowed for me.)

A bit of sunshine for you, sent from a friend:

   “Today is the day when bold kites fly,
   When cumulus clouds roar across the sky.
   When robins return, when children cheer,
   When light rain beckons spring to appear.

   Today is the day when daffodils bloom,
   Which children pick to fill the room,
   Today is the day when grasses green,
   When leaves burst forth for spring to be seen.”
          – Robert McCracken, Spring

Welcome to the new website!

I’m still messing with it and updating information – our youtube vids are temporarily out of service – and the list of “Canadians Adopting from Africa” needs to be manually imported…. but most of the content has made it to the new site.

You may ask, why did we move? 

Two basic reasons…

1. It’s easier to write rowanfamilytree.com on the Christmas cards
2. This site allows me to do a lot of new things, such as the book banner to your right, and the ever-changing photo on top (click refresh and you’ll see what I mean!)

So, do you like it?

Cheers
Nicky

Earlier this week at out Rotary meeting we had a UBC professor visit who studies happiness.  He told us that there were many things we could do to increase how happy we are – excercise, have a hobby we enjoy, nurture relationsionships, pay attention to our spirituality, volunteer and act kind to others, and count our blessings. Today is Thanksgiving, and I think it’s entirely appropriate to post about all the things I’m grateful for – or at least a beginner list. And even as a generally happy person, it’s a great way to start me off to a happy day!

I am grateful…

• for a wonderfully kind husband who is my true partner in life, and who has given me this wonderful gift of children;
• to my parents for having the foresight to send me overseas again and again when I was a teen, and for nurturing such an open home with always enough spaghetti for anyone who is visiting;
• for my cats, who give me a laugh every breakfast as they tear about the room wrestling, and my dogs, who give me unconditional love and cuddles whenever I need it;
• that I’ve never lacked for a roof over my head and food to eat (even that brief period during university when I subsisted on Mr. Noodles;)
• for all the birds cackling and singing away outside our new house;
• that I got divorced from husband #1 – life would not be this good… it was one of the best things that ever happened to me;
• for my dear family – my sister who is one of my closest friends, my brother-in-law who I respect; my brother who is such a delight, my newest sister(in-law), my mom who is so excited with me about her grandkids, and my dad who I turn to for advice and friendship all the time;
• for my best friend who I can share anything with and understands me better than anyone else;
• to be born and living in peaceful Canada;
• for the gifts I have and the career opportunities life has put in my path;
• that I’ve had the gift of getting to know my grandparents as an adult, and the loving influence and proper British manners of my other Gramma as I was growing up;
• that I got through my Master’s degree and redirected my life because of it;
• for my amazing network of friends that mean so much to me, in Calgary, Edmonton, Gifhorn, Berlin… and for Jrock’s best buds, who are the nicest guys;
• that I’ve got to travel as much as I have and for all the influences that brings to my home.

That felt good! Even this short list – What a blessed life I have.

Tonight, to celebrate Thanksgiving, consider counting your blessings instead of sheep, as the Irving Berlin song goes… you’ll enjoy it, I guarentee it. 

Count Your Blessings (Instead of Sheep)

Irving Berlin

When I’m worried and I can’t sleep
I count my blessings instead of sheep
And I fall asleep counting my blessings

When my bankroll is getting small
I think of when I had none at all
And I fall asleep counting my blessings

I think about a nursery and I picture curly heads
And one by one I count them as they slumber in their beds

If you’re worried and you can’t sleep
Just count your blessings instead of sheep
And you’ll fall asleep counting your blessings

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