Oops, I Did It Again

I wrote this post just over two years ago. And, apparently I am horrible at following my own advice.
Today, I hopped off to pick up Madipants at noon hour, so excited to be picking her up early so that we could spend the afternoon together. I came back and smoothly (for me) got babies, diapers bags and purse in the house in minimal trips. I was impressed with myself.
Then I happened to glance at the little table I keep my laptop on.
No laptop.
I look down at the floor, and there it is, laying all askew. Immediately, without even checking, I knew that it was busted. I turned it on and saw that awful black screen saying there was something wrong with the hard disk. I pressed a few buttons and heard horrible beeping noises. Angry beeping noises.
I restarted it, because that always works. There was some kind of clicking sound that I knew couldn't be good news. Nada.
I started racking my brain thinking about the important things that were on there, while alternately sending hysterical texts to Drew.
My Revenge episodes that I have been obsessively watching while feeding Mya.
Angry text. Tripping over dogs.
The pictures from the OR when Mya was delivered, taken on our digital camera, whose SD card had been erased.
Another angry text. Screaming baby.
The photos and files for this blog.
Angry text. Angry reply. Trying to get a toddler to eat lunch before her nap.
Then Madi went and pooped on the potty and asked if that made me feel better.
It did.
It was a stressful few minutes.
The kicker in all of this is that I had Drew bring home his external hard drive last week because I had a feeling my computer was going to blow up on me any day. I just hadn't backed it up yet. I have no excuse for not doing that. It's not like I am working all day. I don't even have Madi all day! Despite the fact that it was one of the dogs that knocked the laptop off, it's purely my fault that I lost what was on it.
Once I calmed down a bit, (I tend to overreact just a tad) I started thinking things through, and realized not all was lost. Here are my silver linings:

1. I had backed up my computer as recently as last summer so I have most of the pictures that were on my laptop.
2. Since last summer, the majority of my pictures have been taken on my iPhone, all still intact.
3. After some research, I discovered a website/program called www.pandorarecovery.com which specializes in retrieving deleted files off of SD cards. Voila! All of the OR photos of Mya's birth returned. (Save this website, you might need it someday!!)
4. I needed a new laptop anyway. A new Dell should be heading my way Monday :)

I know. Total first world problem.