Charged with Wild Abandonment

On Sunday, Robb and I took all the kids out to lunch after church.  WOOHOO HUHOT!  Leon wouldn't eat anything...  Jen finally convinced him to eat JUST some meat that she had cooked up for him with ranch dressing.  *genius*

This is the boy, after 46 failed attempts to make a fort, finally relented and let me help him put one together.  It was a LOT bigger and more sturdy.  And only fell down when he climbed onto the roof.

Then Maddy, Meri and I headed out to switch Maddy to a new phone.  Her phone holds a charge for about 10 minutes and has a broken screen.  Apparently after the wedding, she'll be on a different plan depending on where they live and if my plan is yucky there.  

My phone plan does have some trouble spots... Like on her campus..,  So when and if she switches plans, I'll get this phone.  So we both had to agree on the make and model.  

My stringent criteria. 1) will it make phone calls?

I'm not a difficult person...

They're determined to get me onto a smart phone and get away from my flip phone.  Hey - if my flip phone is good enough for the military, it's good enough for me.  The waterproof up to 3 feet isn't good anymore since the little rubber flap broke off last week, but it still holds a charge really well!

Oh well, they'll drag me kicking and screaming into whatever century we're in.  22nd?  I don't know.  I can't keep up with time.

We had to wait to talk to someone for 1.5 hours.  yep.  Meri gave up after 20 minutes of chitchat and went to nap in her car.  Due to the late late movie, Saturday night, that she went to with a friend, she'd been accidentally locked out of the house and finally woke me up to let her in at 2am. because MY phone hadn't died.  All her siblings can't keep their phones charged long enough to be a hero.  And she didn't want to wake up Dad, so after 30 minutes of trying her siblings, she broke down and woke me up.  So she was wiped.  Late late movies are not ok anymore...

So outside the phone store, she slept in her car for over an hour with the car on.  I think just the  accessory on switch.  So when I finally got to talk to a salesman, Maddy went out to go with Meri and get a little shopping done.  The car was dead.  No one came back in to tell me, but they called Dad instead.  He and Leon came down to rescue them.  But by the time they arrived, Meri tried the car again and it started!  oops.  So he left us his car and went home with Meri.

After at least 45 minutes getting the phone situation worked out, Maddy and I did a little more shopping and then JoAnns where we purchased the fabric for the flower girl dress and more fabric for her dress.  

I spent an hour last night on Maddy's dress and hope to get a big chunk on it done this weekend.  

She's tried it on and loves it so far!  Yay!  

Unless she's a good liar... ?

So full steam ahead on those projects.

On Sunday night, Robb made smoked pork and we made most of the sides that we'll be making for the wedding reception.  Even though we just threw it all together for a quick supper, Maddy liked it all.  Yay!

Unless she's a good liar...  ?

Oh well.

Full steam ahead!!

Well, That's Just Peachy.

I wish I could say that I went for a nice stroll by the snowy creek.  Or took a walk pulling Leon on his sled while the snow gently fell around us...  Or that I relaxed with a good book in front of the fireplace...

But that's not my life.  Maybe someday, but I'll probably have had two broken hips and can't enjoy the walk much then anyway...  And if we turn on the fireplace, the thermostat will think that we don't need heat in the other rooms of the house and will shut off.  It'll be a cold night elsewhere in the house...

The most I get outside is to dash to the car holding a child snuggled to my chest with his face in my neck, then back in to get the next kid ready for school.  To get Leon to snuggle with me in the cold is easy.  You just have to say, "Put your hands on your tummy and make a wish!"  

That sounds cute, but we're really quoting from a Mystery Science Theater 3000 movie.  When the robots dubbed over a dumb B movie scene with, "Put your foot on my butt and make a wish!"  

We quote it often.  We're silly.

Speaking of silly...  Guess who let a friend drop her phone into a cup of peach tea?   Our college girl!!!  I think it was an accident, but that phone is toast.  I guess toast goes with peaches...  

yumm.. Who's hungry now?

Speaking of being peachy...  In high school, I was being snarky to a cousin during PE and had to sit out.  The teacher was an uncle of mine.and.his.dad...  I said, "Well, that's just peachy!"  He didn't know what that meant and made me go inside the school to sit out the rest of the class period.  It COULD be gang slang!!!  Lutherans have gangs!

I spent a couple very long conversations & hold times on the phone yesterday with the cell phone dudes, getting Mabs a new phone, but since her college town isn't in their area, they can't ship it to her.  Something about not being in their footprint...  Whatever that means!  So I guess I'll overnight it to her when it arrives here.  

She's going through withdrawal and Skype, Facebook and her roommates phone aren't enough.  

She thought she could survive until Leon's birthday party, but decided yesterday that she really can't.  At least she's honest with herself!  It's on it's way Maddy!!!  So is your new health insurance card AND your new debit card when it finally gets here!!!  Oh yeah, she can't access her money either.  Bummer to be her!

Well, I've got a load of stuff to get done this morning for worky work, so I bid you adieu.   Have a great Tuesday and don't let the camel surprise you tomorrow! 

Because that would be just PEACHY.

When Texting Is Bad

Last night, Meri, Grandma and I went to the high school basketball game. Maddy and a group of girls were singing the national anthem before the game and this was the last time this year that they'd be doing this. Co-incidentally the first time that I'd see them sing it.

We got there and the parking lot was jam packed. People were parking several blocks away and walking. I dropped off Grandma and Meri at the door and went in search of a place. Found that some friends of ours from church who lived across the alley from the high school were gone...

So I parked in their driveway. They wouldn't recognize the car, but I was sure they'd understand.

The girls sang beautifully in parts. I recorded it but don't know where the camera is right now. The game itself was very intense, we trailed by 3 points throughout the first half of the game. At half time, Meri saw friends that she wanted to sit with so I let her. Grandma got tired of the bleachers and found a bench out in the hallway to read, so I was alone.

I happened to check my phone. It was pretty loud in there and I may have missed a call.

I sure did. It was from Ryan at 7:17pm. It was now 7:45. Because we'd never be able to hear each other I texted him.

me: "At a basketball game. whats up"

him: "Was in a crash. arm broke. at hospital." But less punctuation because he doesn't know where those keys are... Not even in a pencil.

That was when I collected Meri, got keys from Maddy so I could go straight to the hospital with her car and send Grandma and Meri home in the other one. Gave Grandma heart palpitations and then I walked very quickly across the street to get our car. I texted Ryan right away before getting ready to call Robb to come back from Bagpipe band class, an hour away.

me: "On my way."

I suddenly get a phone call from Ryan. "Mom, did you get my second text? I was just kidding! I got back to the house early! I'm ok, nothing is wrong."

I'm ever so glad he got in touch with me BEFORE I called and interrupted Robb... Because then he'd NEVER be able to borrow the car again.

I've been told that if I say I'm going to wring his neck, that could somehow be considered premeditated...

Is that true?

Holy Fringe Batman!

Whoa...

I was up early this morning and watched the rest of last night's episode of Fringe.

Whoa....

Just when you thought they'd jumped the shark...

Whoa...

I do like Olivia's new hair style.... and the last minute plot twist...

Whoa...

I guess I'll tune back in next season! Great season finale!

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P.S. My cell phone was sitting on a pew at church just waiting for me! I've got my baby back!

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8 week days until school is out.

Whoa....

I'm feeling Nay Nay...

Uh oh! So and so's nay nay!

That's our phrase in our house that someone is nekked... (naked). Typically a young kid and right after a bath! Another word for a behind is PoPo. Another word for pretzels is Crunchels... That's just how we roll. You basically need a translator or an English/Val's house dictionary to survive in our house.

But getting back to the title... As I was getting to bed last night, I grabbed at my hip where my cell phone ALWAYS is in order to plug it in as I ALWAYS do at night. It was gone!
As you may recall... I LOVE this phone! I've even blogged about it, HERE and HERE. It's ancient but I know it like I know how to do laundry. My husband is thinking maybe this is a sign that I need a new phone with blue tooth capability... but that's just crazy talk! and I won't hear of it! This is the only phone that will clip to my hip and I don't have to take the clip off of it in order to talk on it. Priceless!

I retraced my steps after first trying to call it. Then remembered it's on silence mode and only about 1/2 power on the battery. We went to bible study which is the reason it's on silence mode. Then stopped at Sam's Club on the way home for a few things. So it's either sitting on a pew at church or in the parking lot getting run over at Sam's...

I'm on call with my job 24/7. I don't ALWAYS get calls after hours, but sometimes when I least expect it, like during church or when I'm 3 hours from home, I'll get paged. So I felt pretty nervous that I didn't have my hipster with me because I live by Murphy's Law. (Hipster is cell phone in Val-speak) Crossed my fingers that no emergency calls would come in and decided, "Well, what can I do??" Nothing.

It's a good thing that Meri has a cell phone because I grabbed hers this morning and now all my work calls will come thru her phone today. We'll be near church tonight so I'll run over and check. If it's not there or at Sam's, I guess I'll panic! Flip out! Go Funny Farm! and say things I will regret... and can't possibly spell.

This is my funny farm photo... Well - not mine - but you get the idea. I'm either crazy or have mad cow disease...

I'm feeling Nay Nay without it!

Rice-er-oni!

For those of you wondering if resting a dripping cellphone in a bag full of rice works....

It only does if the phone hasn't sat in a washer full of wet clothes..all..night.

So by the time I had discovered it clunking around in the dryer on Wednesday morning, corrosion had already set in. No going back from that I guess... shoot.

If I had caught it right away, I believe the rice would have worked. BTW: You need to pull the battery out and let both phone and battery sit in the rice.

So I took the phone into US Cellular last night to see if they could save it. NOPE... The tech there pulled it apart and I could see green stuff already forming on all the copper wiring.

Luckily with 4 phones on my plan and me never upgrading to a new style phone, I was eligible for a cheap phone for a penny, so I went for it! We do have insurance on our phones, but it would cost $50 to get into that and I didn't want to spend the money. Call me cheap, thrifty, whatever... Meri is 10! She really only needs it to text her parents if she thinks they've forgotten her or call from a friends house to pick her up.

I hadn't told her about her phone until after I came out of the US Cellular store. I just handed her the new one and grinned at her look of surprise. She wasn't happy at first after I explained what happened, because she had lost all her old contacts and texts that meant something to her. Plus her old phone was pink.

But when she found that this one had a camera in it, she got pretty pumped...

There's a silver lining in everything, right?

Ode to the best phone in the world

If only it still worked...

My wonderful LG that I have had for the past 7 or so years, has, I think, finally bit the dust. Last night just before 5pm, I was able to call someone but they couldn't hear me and I couldn't hear them. They couldn't call me. sigh...

The banner on it says, "Can but won't!". In case you didn't recognize it, that's a quote from Monty Python.

Whenever I'm eligible for a new phone on my plan, the people at the cell phone place try to talk me into a new phone. I've succumbed a couple times, but usually within a week or two, I insist they switch me back to this phone. Do you see the clippy thing on the back? I've had this phone hooked to my hip for the past 7 years. No other phone, that's allowed on my plan, allows the clippy thing to stay on the back of the phone when you answer it. You always have to pull it out of the holster to answer it... So the holster gets lost or looks stupid empty on your hip.
Also - it has my own personalized cell phone ring of Lucky Lucky Lucky by Kylie Minogue on it... sigh... I'm going to miss that.

Well, thanks to my 15 yo who bought a fancy schmancy phone over the weekend, we had a spare. One that I had rejected a few years ago that she used for a backup when her last one died... I think by being eaten by a dog. I called my cell phone buddies and they switched me over to that one.

Guess what? Maddy had a cell phone tone on it that she left for me. It's a "teen ring"! Anybody ever hear of it?

Apparently, it's similar to a dog whistle. The frequency is so high that only kids can hear it! Cool huh? I definitely cannot hear it, either because I have a hearing problem or because of my "advanced" age.

I thought the kids were joking about this cell tone, but not anymore. Last night, I randomly played it and got a HEY! KNOCK THAT OFF! from my son upstairs in his bedroom, and from my daughter clenching her ears in pain.

hmmm.. I could get to like this phone...

OH!!! Almost forgot!!! I'm announcing my contest tomorrow! And no... it's not my old cell phone.