New Phone ...and it's PINK!

I got a new phone! It is replacing the expensive phone my dad got for me a while back that supposedly broke. I went to two different Sprint Stores and had two different guys look at it and they both told me that my phone was a lost cause. I finally was able to head up to my parents' house (after I bought a new phone in desperation) and my dad was able to fix it...

Anyways, looking at the situation positively... I got a new/USED phone and I will be able to transfer everything off of my phone onto this one easily. It's a Palm Centro and it's PINK! I'm not completely in love with the color pink, but for some reason I like having a pink phone. The price was right and it was only a tiny bit scratched up from the previous owner. I now have a back up as well if this situation ever occurs again. I love eBay!

My Phone!

Activity Days

My calling in church right now is in the Primary with the Activity Days girls. I work with the 8-11 year old girls on the first and third Tuesday each month. On Tuesday this week, we had a "T-Party" because we've been focusing on testimonies, talents, and temples as of lately. The girls' moms were invited and we had played a little mother/daughter newlywed-ish game. I unexpectedly needed to run the activity because the other leader's 3 little ones all got sick the day before. It worked out okay, even though it kind of stressed me out taking over such a big activity on short notice (the day before)... but I understand that kids get sick and it's never convenient.

Anyways, the reason I'm blogging about this is because I actually did something somewhat crafty for like the FIRST time in my life and I wanted to show it off a little. We had each one of the girls write a compliment about the other girls in Activity days. I combined all of the individual compliments onto a little bookmark for each one of the girls. Most of them probably will be crumpled up into a corner of their room shortly, but hopefully it will ne meaningful to just one of them.

Here are some pictures of them:

Teacher Appreciation Week!

I came in Monday morning to this on my door. (I edited out my last name!) I love teacher appreciation week. Each student wrote a nice little compliment about me as a teacher. I feel like everyone needs to be told every once in a while that they do a good job... positive reinforcement! It really did make my day!

My door!



Maybe this is a compliment?

Odontophobia

Now I understand why people are afraid to go to the dentist!

Today, I finally went to the dentist for the first time in like 4 years. I know, that's TERRIBLE! I've actually had great dental insurance for just about 2 years, so I really have no excuse for not going except that I was just busy and didn't really want to or know how to do all of the research involved in choosing a dentist.

I hurried out of school today to make my appointment at the dentist. I got lost and ended up being pretty late. Once I got there, I needed to fill in all of this new patient paperwork where they had me fill in the same information in about 4 different places on the same form.

Sitting there in the dentist chair, I realized how uncomfortable a feeling it is to have someone look in and put their fingers into your mouth. It sounds sick, just typing it. This appointment was just the one where they just examine your teeth. He started by poking around and speaking to his assistant in a language that I could not understand. They ended up taking like 18 X-Rays of my mouth! After that he poked at my gums to test something, but I'm sure he was just trying to torture me. It felt like he was continually poking my gum with needles.

In the end, he told me that I'm going to need two crowns because some cavities I got filled as a kid are deteriorating and some preventative stuff for two teeth that are getting close to cavities. They gave me a "Treatment Plan Estimate." The total price tag could be anywhere from $1,000 t0 $3,000 according to this little paper, but I'll get a better estimate by tomorrow from the dental insurance company.

So how am I cursed with these terrible teeth? Neither of my parents have ever needed caps or really any serious work done on their teeth... Well, when I was an infant, I was given tetracycline that basically messed up the enamel on my teeth. Now, I'm paying the big bucks for it 25 years later.

*On a more positive note, my dad somehow got my phone to work, so I am able to communicate with the outside world once again! I already bought a new phone for cheap online, so hopefully that one will be more reliable.

Don't Count Your Blessings Before They Hatch?

I just came back from the Sprint Store tonight without a way to call anyone. My phone is too old to get back onto the Sprint Network.

If you have no clue what I'm talking about, you might want to try to read or briefly scan the super long post after this.

I guess I'll figure something out.

DAY 2: No Cell... I'm going through some serious withdrawal.

Count Your Blessings

Tuesday night my cell phone decided to die on me. This was an extra stress to me because (1) Doug is gone and I'm stuck at home alone and (2) we do not have a land line, so I really had NO way to contact the outside world. Not even to dial 911 if I needed to. It was freaking me out.

Yesterday after school, I drove over to the Sprint Store in Dulles Town Center to see if they could fix my phone. The guy really tried, but couldn't fix it. I started looking at the phones in the store and the absolute cheapest phone in the store without rebate was like $200. I wasn't going to spend that much on a phone that I didn't actually like.

I was losing it emotionally at this point, so I went outside the store to calm myself down. I sat at a table next to wall and tried desperately to get my phone to work. The phone finally got a signal and I IMMEDIATELY called Doug to update him on my situation. The phone lost the signal about 30 seconds into the conversation. I started balling. I am really not a cryer unless I'm watching Extreme Makeover: Home Edition on TV. I can't remember the last time that I actually cried.

I sat there trying to look as invisible as possible so no one would notice me and pull it back together long enough to make it out to my car. The second I stepped into the parking lot, I lost it again, but luckily I got a close spot and was in the car in no time. I cried the whole 45 minutes trip home, not really because my phone was broken, but that it would be atleast ANOTHER day and night before I would get to talk to Doug. When I got home, I got online and was fortunately able to IM Doug through Gmail.

He gave me tons of solutions (like most guys do) and listened (if you can listen on messenger) to my complaining. I really just wanted to complain... not hear solutions! :P Anyways, he mentioned that I try to find an old phone I had sitting around the house until I could buy a cheaper one off Ebay. The only problem was that I did know where the phone was.

The Next Day:

This morning before leaving for work I figured that I would go look for the phone and if I found it quickly, I would activate it on my way home from work. I checked in the basement and quickly found the cell phone box. I opened it up real quick before I was heading out the door, just to check, and there was NO PHONE and NO POWERCORD in it...

I just about broke down at this point. I had been praying through this whole ordeal... "Please let my phone be fixable." and then it changed to "Please let me find an inexpensive phone.", then to "Please let me just find my old phone!"

As I stood there wanting to give up, a picture appeared in my mind where the phone was. (in quite a random location actually) I immediately checked and the phone was right where I had pictured it. There was no powercord with it, so I tried random cords in the house to see if one would fit and work (probably not the smartest idea).

We happened to have lots of random cords in the house because my husband collects junk with cords. See past posting Divert Your Eyes! Check out the picture on that posting. He has ALOT of techno junk.

This is where my SECOND miracle comes in. I picked one big box that looked like it had lots of cords and reached down inside to grab one. The FIRST cord that I pulled out happened to be the charger cord for my phone! NO WAY! There were like 20 cords in just that box and probably 5 more boxes in the house just like it.

Sorry to bore you with this long post. I decided I needed to write this one down because we are quick to remember our problems and not so quick to remember our blessings. Well, me atleast.

Nothing New

... except a lawnmower! I know, not too exciting.

Don't really have anything new going on. Doug and I are currently trying to keep what little lawn we have from dying. I seem to remember that grass grew TOO much when I was growing up and we didn't even have sprinklers. Now we have to worry about watering our lawn, fertilizing it, and all that stuff. I don't live in Utah. I live in beautiful, green Virginia. The grass should grow on its own, but it doesn't.

We went to Home Depot on Saturday to get a lawnmower. Our $50 craigslist purchase works, but unfortunately I can't start it and Doug is not home to be able to mow the lawn like he always has. While we were at the store, we were having quite the time even taking the thing off the shelf and loading it into our cart. Some friendly shoppers offered to help, but we basically had it by then.

We didn't even think until we were bringing it out to the car that it might not fit... While we were trying to pick it up to put it in the trunk, another friendly fellow shopper offered to help us out. My comment, "Wow, there are a lot of nice people at Home Depot today!" Doug's comment, "I need to work out more. People must think I'm too scrawny!"

Luckily, it fit! With a few Ninja kicks to the box to get in it the rest of the way, we were on our way.

Sound Sleepers

At Doug's previous job, they had a day where they bought out Six Flags America for employees and their families. It was pretty nice because we could ride everything free with NO lines. This was our second time going and we brought Chris, Shelly, and Johnny. We all had a good time even though it was rainy day for most of the day.

I shot this movie back in September, but I thought I'd share it anyways. This was in the car on the way home from the day at Six Flags. Let's just say that in my family we have some sound sleepers.

Side Story: I remember when I was about 8 years old, they added an addition onto the chapel we attended and I fell asleep during the super long dedicatory prayer. I woke to up to find that the boys in the pew behind my family had torn up a program and placed the small pieces in my mouth as I slept. I woke up spitting out paper.