Not Pictured

My camera has returned to me. Yay! Hooray! Jump up and down with excitement and stuff! Hug a Fed Ex guy! Celebrate!

After a 3 week absence, that was preceded by 2 weeks of it not working correctly before I finally caved, I mailed it to Canon so they could fix it. I knew it would be cutting it close because Alana's birthday was coming up, which was why I waited to mail it in the first place when it was still functioning somewhat, but I was still optimistic that it would get back since they had almost 3 weeks to fix it.

Fast forward one and a half weeks after I mailed my camera, when I knew for a fact that they had received it because it was insured. They had no record of it. Couldn't locate it. Were in fact very snobby every time I inquired about it. I swear I only ever got the same snotty lady named Lakeesha each time I called. Finally, over a week after they received it, I got a vague email saying that they had evaluated it and were going to fix it. Expect it in 7 days. If that had actually happened it would've made it back in time for Alana's birthday. The vague email didn't say what the problem was, whether the battery and charger were working, whether I was just crazy and the camera actually worked.

Last Thursday, the 29th, Canon emailed me again saying the repair was done and the camera had been shipped. Expected arrival date: October 3rd. Two days after Alana's birthday party and one day after her actual birthday. Great timing, but at least it was on its way home to me. I used my sister's camera to take a couple pictures at her party, but it wasn't the same. It was weird to look at a screen again instead of thru a viewfinder. I missed my camera. Curse you Canon!

Finally on Monday morning I got it back. The official diagnosis was that the circuit board had become disconnected, which cut off the power supply. It was covered by the warranty, so they had to fix it, they just didn't have to do it quickly. Then I took like 50 pictures on Monday, since September was essentially a pictureless month. I let Alana redo her candle on her cake, cause it wouldn't light at the park and she needed to make a wish. I hoped she wished to go to Disneyland, although it wouldn't matter cause we're going in December anyway!

I'm really unsatisfied with Canon's customer service, since they had the camera for almost 2 weeks before they even acknowledged it and took forever to fix it and were kinda rude whenever I called them. But they fixed my camera and I have it back so let's just let bygones be bygones. Its old news.

My real issue was all the photo ops I missed. Besides the huge one of Alana's 5th birthday, I missed countless times when my girls were doing something cute, something priceless, or something that will be blackmail worthy in the future. On Sunday Alana wore a pink football jersey, a purple & green plaid skirt, black Halloween tights, and Halloween socks over the tights. It was a super classy outfit, very festive for her birthday. And I didn't get a picture of it. That really irritates me. Now I have to make up for lost time.

She was pretty insistent on a Barbie cake, and she talked her Nana into buying one.

This isn't even all of her presents, just the ones I fit into the frame. She also got a baseball bat that I wrapped all awesome so it was obvious that it was a bat, but she opened it before I got a picture. Just picture a bat, completely encased in polka dot paper, and imagine me trying to convince the kids it was a Doodle Bear.



We have to take a family pic. Its our duty to document our awesomeness. And David has to keep commenting on how good he thinks he looks in this picture. At least he's modest.



Birthday candle do-over. Lots of wishes were made.

My pretty five year old. I think she missed my camera too, cause she kept asking me to take her picture.



My bratty two year old, who is growing out her mullet. Its looking pretty sweet.



***This isn't intended to be a compare & contrast between point & shoot cameras and dSLR cameras, but it definitely makes me glad I got a new camera. Even if I didn't have it at Alana's party!