Okay, it's not over until the Fat Lady Sings!

And, sorry if this offends fat lady's but, I think my "people" understand exactly what I'm really talking about. I will choose to blame the Long Cold and Snow filled winter for my Last posting of despair. It's very clear and has been since I left the Golden State that gray is Not my color and I have known for years I suffer from Seasonal Affective Disorder -- or whatever it is they like to call SAD in my part of the woods.

As is usually the case for my life living under these blooming clouds--I typically have at least one major melt-down before the daffodils pop up and say Yellow in the spring. Given, the circumstances I am planning to allow for the additional possibility that I will actually have two or more this time around!

One Down!

And, I am back up for another round of trudging through the long dark days of Not Living in the Drought affected area of where I live...even, though I long for the lazy life of San Diego more then anything right now! Please let me out of this Twilight Zone!

I digress... Just know that it's nothing but the lack of sunshine that takes away my lack of motivation, hope, and creativity! It's hear like the daffodil bulbs--waiting for the warm glow of the spring, Sun Breaks to be just enough to make me bloom one more time...

Until then, I hope the sun is warm for you now, leave me to mope and feel sorry about the Real things I am sorry about so I can take another swing at what everyone knows is my passion that will bloom again soon!

See ya, and please remember I do so love lemon in my ice tea!

So Blond!

What a Week! And, yes I am blond. Thanks to my Geek-Hero Patrick, for saving the Day! Whew!

I have a way of Checking little boxes and not always knowing what checking a box might do! It's an even bigger problem when I check the box, not knowing what it will do, and then Forget I even checked the box in the first place!

For those kinds of problems it's good to know I can find an Expert to bail me out. I have learned that using Joomla! means all the little boxes mean and do more then I might ever expect. Thankfully, this time it only required unchecking the box I had checked and forgot I had checked!

It seems that sometimes I take 5-steps forward and 3-steps back. The good thing is with the New Website and Redesign on Adoptive Parents Network we are working out all the bugs and blips as they happen! Rather then our last go around where we just kept moving forward leaving the blips to build on each other.

It should start to show pretty soon that We have learned a lot during the past 4-years of website building! The new site is being developed slower then we had hoped, but this time it will function the way our visitors and members learned to expect from Me and the projects I am part of!

Things appear to be ready to start really building the content and connecting everything together. I haven't looked at the SEO issues all of this may have caused--It seemed a little pointless with the complete re-do!

Anyway, I am still so excited about the next few weeks and the Ideas we are getting for our members! It seems we can see the light at the end of the tunnel on the Programming and development side of YOUR computer screens! All we need to do now is put everything BACK where it belonged!

I am learning to use Joomla!

It's a well known fact that the website for the Adoptive Parents Network has had a few blips during 2008 but, I am happy and a bit distracted working on it! We contracted a professional to Set everything up and now it's just a matter of me learning how to use Joomla!

So far, I am excited about the progress the new remodeled Adoptive Parents Network website has made during the past several months. The experience I have gained in both putting together websites and blogs since 2005 and my experience parenting special kids has made me very confident with the Nature of the Network we plan to create.

This project has some exciting plans and will be unfolding one little thing at a time. Our new community forums using PhpBB3 are ready and the information and resource sections have been started. Joomla! is amazing but, requires a great deal of putting together. Our template seems to be working very well. Right now there is a huge amount of content to put on the site as well as a large number of things to set up!

The exciting part is that with the development of this site we feel confident that our members will enjoy the changes and redesigned website!

...When Major Catastrophe Occurs

I have decided it doesn't only apply to those issue in life--but, those in virtual reality as well! When there is a major catastrophe the only thing that matters in the end--is: "Attitude".

November 2008 will go down in my Personal and Professional memory as one of those Months I would rather not remember! Except for the fact that I have little choice. Thank goodness this blog isn't about the Personal stuff as I am not ready to write all of that.

Of course, I am not anymore inspired to write about the Professional events that have made November 2008 a month I will never forget! I should actually be thrilled that in all of the time since I started my website and blog career I have NEVER suffered this lesson before. There is however no excuse for ignorance and sadly as well as I knew all of the rules--no prior losses gave me a false sense of security.

Bottom-line is backing things up really does matter. Ask me, I know very well at this moment. But--even more important backing up often and knowing how to Re-Install the back up is really the most important factor!

Silver lining I guess can be found--sometimes not everything is gone... and sometimes a full new start is a blessing in the end....

If anyone has missed me it's been a few weeks since my main website suffered a disaster and since November 7, 2008 I have been doing my best to recover.

Rule One--when you pay for some major changes to your website be sure to make a full and complete back up.

Rule Two--when a huge mistakes happens grieve and move on...

Hopefully, by the start of 2009 I will be right back into the roll of things. Back up and feeling better. Recovered and perhaps even better!

Blogs are like Housework!

I have decided that creating a website and writing Blogs is a lot like housework! There is always more that can be done, and other things that require regular upkeep.

---

Actually, just like housework building a website and writing blogs is all about what I decide I want to put into it. Just as I know it's always better to wash the dinner dishes before bed--because the work will be harder if I leave it until the morning... I also know there are some things best done when putting together a nice site.

Of course, I have never had much difficulty in paying someone else to clean the bathrooms and floors in my home--and there are some things I am happy to pay to have taken care of when building a social network! Database junk and some of the host level programming for my big website is one thing I would rather pay to have done correctly.

I write on several blogs and just like a good mother my Blogs are a real reflection of my efforts. But, just like laundry it seems just when I feel all caught up I turn around and find a pile of new things to wash, dry, fold and put away.

I have been doing housework and laundry for almost 30 years now--and working on websites since 2005 and it is my firm conclusion these types of personal obligations bring on the same kind of "Never Finished" stress...

Some of us just feed on the never ending projects and the one great thing is that the Internet has made it possible for those of us who do enjoy the torture of a never finished project to share our joy and sorrows with each other!

I write a "to-do" list for housework... and for website work how about You?

The Life of a Website Developer

If you are not a member of my website AdoptiveParentsNetwork.com than you may be wondering where I have been for the last several days?

As many successful business often do there has been a change with the ownership of the Adoptive Parents Network LLC. After a year of the Adoptive Parents Network being a joint effort between myself and Melissa (as well as her husband) they have decided to leave the business and focus on an added baby to their family.

With this change is has been a great time for me to go through my Internet sites and blogs to clean everything up and make things work from the bottom-up so to speak. There is nothing more irritating for me then to find websites that are out dated, obsolete or otherwise not worth the band-width so I am in the process of cleaning up all of my garbage that may be littering the Internet.

Today, I have been working on the Original website I started in March 2005... HappyMomAnna.com Since I have had this URL and website for so long I have decided to make it my official Profile, information, and resume site. I have been working on cleaning it up and plan to also use this as a place to keep the common pictures I use on my blogs and websites. At the moment I suspect there may be several different places I have been using for my hosted pictures... So I plan to start making my life easy by organizing and moving my hosted photos to one place!

It's always best to start at the foundations and transition times are a great time to go back and make sure old things work well and reflect pride.

As well as cleaning up some of the past things that pointed to my direction I am also spending some time making sure things are linked well--and that links are working. Now that can be a huge project and it only happens one link at a time...

I am looking forward to getting finished with my trash picking up and moving on to the fun things about building a website and writing blogs.