My address book has suddenly changed! My "Groups" are gone!

I just tried to send an email to my "Group". It was kicked back with message that address "Conservative Group" was not a correct address. (no @ part). I then went to my address book and found my group was not there! Nor were any of my other groups (Flight Time Members, Conservative Group - Local, etc.) The only listing was "All Address Books", with a down arrow to "Collected Addresses". An that's all. Now in the Collected Addresses, all are there - from A to Z. But to reconstruct my Groups will take some time. Have they disappeared into the ether somewhere? Can they be retrieved? Also, when I write an email, every word is treated as misspelled! It is like the spell check has gone into overdrive on steroids!! I hope you can help me. I have no idea why this has suddenly happened. I haven't done anything different than I always have. Thank you! David Widmer, dnwidmer@gmail.com