March 30, 2011

My Daughter's Baptism Photos

So bummed right now.

My camera broke last month, but I haven't worried too much about it because I have my phone.

In our church, children are baptized when they turn eight. Camber's special day was Sunday.

Before and after the event, I took tons of pictures. Just a few minutes ago, I sat down to go through them. To my total horror, every picture from the baptism was gone.

Needless to say, there was much wailing and gnashing of teeth. All my husband could do in moment of despair was pat me on the shoulder and confirm that the visual record of our daughter's baptism had indeed been deleted from my phone.

Two minutes later, Camber was startled out of her slumber by an ominous presence standing over her.

"Did you erase the baptism pictures from my phone?" I asked.

"My hair looked gross in them," she replied.

I bit my lip so hard that I drew blood.

In unrelated news, this is what 25 yards of dental floss looks like:


If you want more pictures, I've got 37 more on my phone just like it.

57 comments

Unknown said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Unknown said...

Sorry, try this again...

Do you have a memory card in your phone or are they just stored on the phone itself? If it has a card you may be able to get them back. My three year old erased all of our new baby at the hospital pictures when my fourth was born. I could have killed him. We used a program called Recuva (just download it) and it got almost all of them back. I've used it a couple times since then too. Sorry... kids are so cool.

Sarah said...

Oh. My. Gosh.

mama loquita said...

Jana, I don't believe your kids! I have to say they are bold and determined. Hopefully, God will guide them to channeling this energy to get to great things in and out of life.
Hmmmm...., what to do with 25 yards of dental floss?I would sit the perpetrator to think about how it could be used so as not to be wasted...I am sure they can come up with something practical and creative!

CSIowa said...

My daughter deleted her last violin recital ever from the video camera on the way home from the recital. She was 15. Oldest daughters can be turkeys.

Natalia said...

Wow, who knew 8 year olds were so conscious of fashion?

Anonymous said...

All of the photos of my daughters first day of school mysteriously disappeared from my camera, we never worked out what happened.

Jen A in Ypsi said...

you could just cut up the dental floss into usable sized pieces and put them in a ziploc to be used one at a time. :) Sorry about the pics. We went on a trip to VA Beach to visit relatives. I was such a planner, but I forgot the camera battery charger and extra battery. We got only 3 or so pics and none for the rest of the trip. Bummer. I hope you can revive them.

Mal said...

Oh my gosh. This kind of thing drives me absolutely insane. My older sister has done this sort of thing to me. We have lived very, very far apart for many years so we've only been able to see each other maybe three times in the last four years or so. I of course take pictures of my sister and promise not to post them on any social networks--not even on my blog (which I don't think I should have to promise but that's how much I love her)--and she deletes any she gets her hands on. Oh, I hate it. HATE IT! I can't even tell you how much I hate it. Hate isn't a strong enough word.

Sorry for the venting. This just vexes me to a degree indescribable.

Catherine Dabels said...

That is terrible news. Kids are so infuriating. I guess when she is at her child's baptism you can quietly comment about how you would have loved to have pictures to remember hers by.

purejoy said...

oh. that is tragic. seriously. kids can be so funny.

and so can husbands.

my friend's husband taped over their second child's birth video with… get this… a johnny quest marathon.

believe it or not… they're still married.

Emily said...

I second aubrey. Do not take another photo with that card because it will write over the data. The data is still on the card, just not recognized as photos any more. Recuva will re-associate the data as photos.

Jenner said...

Oh noooooooooooooo! I would be devestated. I thought my external harddrive had corrupted back in December and I was beside myself. That is the only place where every photo of my daughter since birth is stored!! Thankfully, it's okay.

And I'd ask if you wanted to see what toilet paper or paper towels look like unravelled, but I'm sure you've seen that already. ;) How about how much food is in a fish food container?

Running Brent said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Charlene said...

Darn it - hate it when hubby is signed in on Google and I post on someone's blog!

I say recreate the whole thing...except for the dunking part. Then scrapbook about it, and use guilt-inducing words in your journaling.

Her future kids will love it!

Jillian said...

I totally feel for you, I lost all but two photos from my son's birth and trip home. :( The two that I have are currently trapped on my phone, which I'm not technological enough to figure out how to make them into real copies. But I'm sorry you lost those photos, maybe someone else took a few? Were there other children being baptized around the same time she was? Sorry I don't know a lot about baptizing, I'm Buddhist lol. :) But maybe if there were other children, possibly one of the parent's also got shots of your daughter? Just a thought. If not, at least you have the fond memories. :)

beth said...

Oh, I do hope you're able to retrieve the photos off of the memory card...

The thing of it is, though, whether you have photos of the event and day, or not, your DD was Baptized; that is what counts.

...and amazingly enough, the sun will still rise each day and will still set each day -- in the grand scheme of things, what are a few pictures?

As frustratingly infuriating as 'losing' the photos might be, of such things are family legend and lore born...and are families bonded and strengthened. Trust me: Been there; done that.

Brittany Alyse said...

I Feel Your Pain.

Cathryn said...

I love your "mom ESP". How you just KNEW it was her when you saw the pics of the floss.

Emily Heizer Photography said...

Try recovery software on the card! The ones that were recorded over by the dental floss probably aren't recoverable but if there is any memory space left on the phone the images are probably recoverable.

I vote you take the dental floss and tie the perpetrator to a tree in the front yard.

Price Fam said...

I was showing my boss pics of our first family vacation to disneyworld and she accidentally erased all of our pics, then instantly took two pics. There was no recovering pics! I cried for a week!!

Our Life in the Deep End said...

I love your blog but the more read the more nervous I get for my son to grow up or to have another :) But really your kids are great. And although I wish at 8 she didn't know about bad hair days I am impressed that she knew how to do something about it and no she did not leave you with no photos at all she was polite enough to replace them!

George said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Heather said...

My sister and mother went on a trip to Italy and took over 4000 photos of the week-long adventure. The day they came home, my then 4-year-old son got hold of the camera and somehow managed to delete them all!

Needless to say, it took me a week and lots of money and tears to recover as many as I could. I used a program called cardrecovery and it worked fairly well.

Sorry about the photos! (BTW, I love your blog!)

Carrie said...

We have on video my daughter being baptized Lydia Grace, that would be great if her name was not Cecelia! My husband his at the pastor many times, Cecelia, Cecelia....nope. So we are not sure if it really counts!

ker said...

At my oldest child's baptism, my camera just didn't work. It was working before I left?! But I was fortunate enough that someone else was taking photos and I ended up with some pictures of her special day. You could ask around to see if anyone else might have some? You could also have some beautiful photos taken of her in her white dress... that's how I "fixed" my devastation before I was given the pics from another lady.

Unknown said...

I feel your pain, I realized when our daughters baptism this past dec. was over that the million or so pictures I took were with out the memory card in my new camera that aparentelly doesn't WARN YOU.. and lets you click away... so yea I did get a few from some family members but they all SUCK... so i'm sorry this isn't more uplifting but yea it sucks!!!

Christi said...

Back in the days of film, I lost the 9 rolls of film I had taken of my study abroad semester in Europe. Doggonnit.

Donna said...

I LOVE your kids! They make me feel like mine are normal, just like yours. And your best vengeance? Grandkids!

tulipdjc said...

Bah!!! I am so sorry!! Did the grandparents get any? And the worst part? In a few years when her YW leaders want to do an activity where they scrapbook their baptism pictures she'll be mad at YOU for not having any!!! Dress her in white and restage the whole thing this Saturday!

A mother heart said...

What a stinker! I think I would make her get all dressed up again and take more pictures. Mostly to get the pictures, but also to teach her a lesson hehe!
I hope you can recover them somehow!

Diana of Windmasters Hill said...

I remember doing the same sort of stuff when I was young. We didn't have digital cameras back then, so I would tear up the photographs. Those weren't lost though. Mom had the negatives. There are lots of goofy looking pictures of me. And now I love every one of them.

Anonymous said...

You're probably not going to want to hear this...but it's all going to be okay! I'm thinking of the saying "If a tree falls and no one is there to hear it, did it make a sound?" Likewise, "If your daughter is baptized and there are no photos, did it still happen?" The answer is yes, of course. Plus,it makes a great story (recorded for all time on your blog), and now you are absolved of the responsibility/guilt of scrapbooking.

Unknown said...

I'm just so impressed that you could write about this with some humor. I think I'm supposed to get this lesson because I actually just wrote a post about trying to find the humor in these *dreadful* experiences (in my case it was a 1/2 gallon of syrup in a Dodge Grand Caravan).

Ersula said...

ARG! I would be a mess.

Twin Mama said...

Oh no! I have an eight year old that would do the same thing!

The Millward Family said...

I used to be in the Stake Primary presidency and I helped a couple people recreate pictures when something happened to theirs. We got the Dad back in the white jumpsuit, and the child and took pictures, then had them change into his suit and her white dress and took some more. Not quite the same, but something, right?

Jackie said...

I lost all the pictures from my daughter's first few weeks. Her birth, time spent in the hospital, and those first moments with Dad & Mom & older brother. I accidently downloaded them wrong somehow from the camera to the computer and then cleared the memory card. Needless to say I cried for a long, long time about it.

Jen said...

wow. I'm really sorry. I hope some of the recovery suggestions will help.

Anonymous said...

yes a really good camera store may be able to retrieve them....or were there any other kids baptized that day? maybe someone else has a picture of her even if by accident?

Laurie said...

I think I'd have to go for a re-do. You know, dress her up, bring her back up to church (with awesome looking hair) and dunk her again!!! :)

juneyk said...

Maybe you should make her a wig out of dental floss ...

:)

SKL said...

There are no photos of my second birthday. Apparently I unraveled the entire roll of film and ruined it ;)

Lisa said...

NO way! OMG... cannot believe she did that! As others have suggested, there may still be ways to retrieve the photos. Look into it!

Dana Buchli said...

hilarious story! especially the "unrelated news". very cute.

dana
http://theabundantlifeblog.com

Breezi@ Not Your Average Fairytale said...

My oldest just got baptized in December. All of our family came in from around the country for the event. Guess what we forgot to do? Yeah.... take pictures.
It was the first time we were all together in like 3 years... but whatev- right?

Ugg.... Don't you hate that when it happens?

Jen said...

OMG too funny...not the part about you losing the photos of this huge occasion...but the part about an 8 y/o deleting because of her hair :)

So cute!!

Jen
www.monogrammedeverything.com

Our Family said...

I was once Oliver in a school musical. Complete with my 10 year old voice singing 3 solos, never again did I do anything of the sort. On that same tape were all of my birthday celebrations, my baptism and all of the other special memories I had growing up that were just related to me. Well on one of our trips home I wanted to watch it with my husband. Imagine our surprise when we turned it on and were treated to a duck tales marathon. Yup.

Dad_Ahroon said...

We had a teenaged daughter who used to run into the house ahead of us and check the messages on the answering machine. If a message wasn't for her, she'd erase it. Teenagers!!!

Anonymous said...

I'm Catholic and we're not allowed to take photos during things like 1st Communion. Many still cheat and do. After, they pose with the Father for photo op's. Time to torture your angel if your Pastor/Reverand/insert title here and make her pose for photos! That's heartbreaking she deleted them. Call your phone server and see if it's backed up?

Ruth said...

You might consider having her write, date and sign a confession about deleting photos of her baptism. Then when she comes looking for them in a few years, you'll just pull out the scanned/photocopied/documented confession paper for her to read so she will remember what happened to her baptism photos and she will not claim that you did it.

Colette said...

I'm so sorry! someday she'll understand what she did

Anonymous said...

This is not a joke! Carry on reading! Or you will die, even if you only looked at the word warning!

Once there was a little girl called Clarissa, she was ten-years-old and she lived in a mental hospital, because she kil...led her mom... a...........................................................................n......d her dad. She got so bad she went to kill all the staff in the hospital so the government decided that the best idea was to get rid of her so they set up a special room to kill her, as humane as possible but it went wrong the machine they were using went wrong. And she sat there in agony for hours until she finally died. Now every week on the day of her death she returns to the person that reads this letter, on a monday night at 12:00a.m. She creeps into your room and kills you slowly, by cutting you and watching you bleed to death.

Now send this to ten other pics on this one site, and she will haunt someone else who doesn't pass this on like you did. And forget about you.

Example 1:

Jenny didn't believe this and deleted it without even reading the whole thing! A few days later on the monday night, she was woken up by loud footsteps and heavy breathing, there was Clariss

MamaB said...

LOL! 1. We went to Chicago for Christmas a few years back and did all the big sights - Marshall Fields before it was sold, the Christkindlmarket festival downtown, loads of city shots and holiday family pics. All gone when I pressed the wrong button on my camera! That was a drama filled Christmas. 2. My 5 yr old REGULARLY swipes my camera to take random shots of her Barbie, the cartoon on the tv, her teeth, etc. I can sooo relate!

Audrey Hammer said...

Before I had a digital camera, I went to a wedding (I made the cake for my friends) and had to switch rolls. The full roll disappeared. I luckily got ONE picture of the wedding cake I'd made on the new roll, but I lost all of my baby's first birthday pictures. At least that event was also on video.

Anonymous said...

my daughter is 14 and was born a premmie and in and out of the hospital for the first year,and then we moved twice and one thing led to another and we never had her baptized.we finially had her baptized this past august[we are roman catholic].we registered her as an infant to be baptized thru the infant baptism program at our parish.we dressed her as an infant in a cute,poofy white,mid thigh lenth baptism dress,with a bonnet,lace anklets and satin booties.since she was an infant for the day,we did a cloth diaper,rubber pants and under shirt under her dress.some of the photos we took of her as an infant didnt turn out so we had to get photos from friends and relatives.i was fotunate to get one of her standing at the font before she received the water on her head that is really special.

Anonymous said...

we had our 15 year old daughter baptized at easter vigil last easter and dressed her in the traditional,white,poofy,mid thigh length baptism dress with a matching bonnet,lace anklets and white mary jane shoes.she wore the standard cloth diaper,rubber pants and under shirt under her dress.we dressed her in the nursery and took a few photos of her in the diaper,rubber pants and under shirt while she laid in a baby crib in the nursery.we then put her dress and bonnet on her and took more pictures.we have an 8 by 10 of her in the crib,next to her in the out fit.it is so cute!