Brief Scare

Oh how happy I am to see you all reading my blog - no really- so very happy.  I want to shout it from the rooftops:

My Blog is back! My Blog is back!!

Let me tell you the sob story....

On the loooonnnnnnggggg drive home from Oklahoma on Saturday, I was reading all my favorite blogs on my nifty iPhone when I noticed I was signed in as "rebecca" on my business account.  So I log out and try to log back in as "Becca" when I get notification from Google that "unusual activity has been detected on your account".  I was asked to provide my mobile number to get a password verification texted to me - hmmmmmmmm - I hemmed and hawed over it, but it was from Google and looked legit, so I did it.

It worked and I was logged in as me and happily reading more blogs as we traveled south.

Until I went back to my blog and it was G-O-N-E.

"This blog can not be found and the address is not available.  It is possible it has been deleted.  If this is your blog and you did not delete it, please click here."

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

So I clicked there - "Please read our terms of service to see if you have violated anything to deem it necessary to delete your blog.  If not, please report it to us by clicking here."

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

So I clicked there and it brings me to a help forum.  Basically, there is no number to call and you have to dig through tons of forums to find any kind of help - there is a process to report your blog as not being "spam" and Blogger will review it to see if it will "give"it back to you.  But there is NO ONE to talk to!!

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

In the meantime, I walked around with a knot in my stomach.  I was so worried that 2 years of personal stories had been wiped away in one sweep.

and before you ask, no, I had not ever backed it up.  shame on me.

So, with a lot of praying and a great friend of a friend who works at Blogger- my beloved blog is back.

First thing I did?  Backed it up.  

And I advise you to do it RIGHT NOW.  Here are the directions, courtesy of Miss MiMi:

Okay, so go to your Dashoboard and then click on the Settings tab.
The very top has three links; Import Blog, Export Blog, and Delete Blog.
Click Export Blog and it will ask you if you want to download and save. Say yes.
Then it is saved as a hard copy to your hard drive. If you want to back it up onto a SEPARATE blog, then you just click Export Blog and save.
Start a NEW blog and go to Settings tab and click Import Blog. It will ask you which one and you'll select the same one you just Exported.
Now, be CAREFUL because Export Blog is RIGHT NEXT to DELETE blog. DON'T HIT DELETE! lol

THANKS MIMI!!!

So I never did find out why it was removed - if the text message thing was legit or not - all I can say is that the same thing happened to LOTS of others this weekend (as seen in the Blogger Help Forum).  

I will be certain to be backing it up on a regular basis - I never want to feel that helpless again.  

And I am definitely looking into one of the "blog book" programs - have any of you tried it?  What do you recommend?

So glad to be back.........