Our phones weren't the newest/best phones on the market when we bought them - but they were both touch screen with data, so definitely nice (and an upgrade from what we were using before). However, over the past three years they've definitely started feeling a little... old. It hasn't bothered us, in fact, it's kind of a pride thing that we have these old phones instead of iPhones or something similar. (Like, it's a mark of our frugalness or sensiblesness or something.) I mentioned that the phones had data, but that's stretching it a little bit. We lovingly referred to them as "semi-intelligent" phones instead of "smart" phones. The phones had access to data, but only had enough storage space for approximately 1.5 apps (David had Twitter and I had LDS Tools), and were only fast enough to access our email and an occasional website. No web surfing for us, but an occasional consult with PricematchwithRachel.com while at the grocery store was possible. When we hit our two year mark we started a little competition to see whose phone would last the longest. We both thought that if we could get to the six month mark, we'd be pretty happy.
After we reached that goal we had lofty goals of hitting the three year mark. Our phone charger cords started not working as well, taking a fairly vigorous effort each night to twist the cord and set the phone at just. the. right. angle. to ensure that the phone would actually charge through the night. We'd tease each other every time one of us accidentally dropped our phone, or was having an especially difficult time getting the charger to connect. I don't have the best track record with phones, and David's record is like... spotless - so I was determined to win even though the odds were not in my favor.
Can you see where this is going? This is the story of how my phone had a sleepover at the bottom of a damp pool bag and never turned on again - and how we both ended up with super awesome new phones.
I have to justify myself a little bit... because those who have known me in the past are sure to shake their heads and say "That Shantel, she's always been so careless with her phones. Losing them. Breaking them. Of course it would be her to lose the bet." But in all honesty, I've taken very good care of this phone, and most of the time when I "lose" my phone it's because I set it down and would rather just hang out with David than keep my phone by me. I've taken great pride in this phone and making sure that it was taken care of. However, last Saturday was an incredibly busy day - jam packed from start to finish. My mom had come down to go to the Parade of Homes, so we had done that in the morning/afternoon, then I met up with some high school friends, Tausha and Bekah, and we went to the Farm, then as soon as we got home we headed to the pool with my mom, again. I had my phone in my pool bag, and when we loaded up to come home (rushing a little bit because David was supposed to be home around that same time) I shook off a couple of our pool toys and tossed them into the bag. We said goodbye to my mom and I started getting dinner ready, with the intent to clean off the kitchen counter (including the pool bag). Then we had an unexpected (but welcome) surprise and Wendy and Sam showed up to see if they could store their leftover food from their date night in our fridge while they went up to RC Willey (the opposite direction from their house). We sat down and chatted with them for a while and as they were getting ready to leave Cal and Sue stopped by, so we sat down to chat with them. It was getting close to Lydia's bedtime so I made her a quick dinner and got her ready for bed. After we got Lydia down and said goodnight to Cal and Sue, I headed back into the kitchen to make our dinner (Sanpete Chicken and Piccadillies). I was fairly focused on making our yummy food that all thoughts of cleaning off the counter (pool bag included) were pushed out of my mind. Right as our dinner was finishing, Wendy and Sam showed back up with cookie dough and ice cream to play games (we had invited them over when they were here earlier). We set out some plates for our dinner, popped the cookies into the oven, and played our new favorite game "Golf". We had a really nice time hanging out with them - but after they left I was pretty ready for bed! (Remember, I am six months pregnant and I'd had a long day.) As I headed up to bed I wondered, for the first time that evening, where my phone had gotten to - but I just decided to find it in the morning.
Fast forward to the next morning when I came down and finally started cleaning off my counter. I dumped out the pool bag and was surprised to see my phone at the bottom. Nothing was really wet in the bag (more just moist...), but my surprise turned to dismay when I realized my phone wasn't turning on. I hoped that maybe the battery was just dead - but after a couple of days in a tupperware of rice I conceded my loss to David and we headed to Best Buy to get new phones for us.
*Note: we are leaving on our family vacation to Indiana on Friday - so we wanted to get our phones and make sure that they were working before we leave. Nothing like a little time crunch, right?*
We knew that we wanted to stay with Virgin Mobile, and we knew what kind of phone we thought we wanted after doing some research online. We just wanted to hold it and make sure that it was exactly what we wanted. It was kind of an adventure, because the AF store didn't have it in stock so we had to make the trek up to Sandy. But when we got there we realized that they only carried the phone we wanted in white. That was fine with me, because I was already planning to get white - but one of the reasons we liked the phone is because we thought that it would be so fun to have me have a white phone and David have a blue phone of the same phone (we've loved having the same phone for so many reasons, but thought it would be fun to have different colors). We figured that we'd just order David's online and hope it got here before we left for Indiana. So we got my phone and headed home to place an order for Davids. Unfortunately we realized that the reason Best Buy only carried these phones in white is because Virgin Mobile only carries them in white! David wasn't sure he wanted a white phone, so he decided to think about it and maybe just use his phone for a while longer. However, after a couple of days of seeing my pretty new phone, he was sold on the idea of getting a new phone. (It's a pretty loser reward for the winner of the bet to get stuck with the old phone, while the loser of the bet gets a brand new phone!) We checked in with all the Best Buy's locally and found that the closest store that had them in stock was Park City or Riverdale. (Apparently, it's a very popular phone.) Poor David decided that he'd just order one in to the AF Best Buy and pick it up after we got home from our vacation.
I told David that I would take care of ordering it on the next morning. However, I knew that it would be so much more fun if he had his new phone to play with over our trip. So, I secretly planned to drive wherever I had to in order to buy one for him. Thursday morning was my glucose test (gag), so Lydia and I got up bright and early and headed to "mommy's doctor office". While I was waiting the hour between drinking my sugar syrup, I called Best Buy and determined that the closest store that had the phone in stock was Riverdale. I called up the store and was told that I couldn't actually buy it over the phone, I had to come in to purchase it. I explained my sob story, and that I would be driving from American Fork just to buy that phone and could they at least put my phone number on the box so if someone else bought it before I could get there that they could call and tell me to turn around????? After a brief pause and a couple of buttons being pushed in the background they asked me for my credit card number and information. Whoo hoo! Phone purchased, now all that was left was heading to pick it up. Riverdale is about an hour away from Lehi, but only about 25 minutes away from my parents house - so I called up my mom and asked her if she wanted to meet us for lunch. After my blood work was done, Lydia and I hopped in the car and headed out on our adventure. It was actually fairly painless. Lydia was content to be in the car, we made good time, and we were in and out of the best buy in 15 minutes (five of those minutes were me just following Lydia around the store in order to let her stretch her legs while I smiled my biggest smile at having David's phone in my hands). We met up with my mom for lunch, then headed back home to finish packing!
I'm a terrible secret keeper. I took a couple of pictures of Lydia with the phone, and her with my mom, and contemplated sending them to David while he was at work - to surprise him so he could be excited to come home. I thought that it would be fun to just send him one with Lydia and my mom and say "Had a great lunch date with my mom in Riverdale!" and let him make the connection that I had gone there to pick up his phone. But, I thought that it would be even more fun if he got home and the new phone was just sitting on the counter. I was so proud of myself, because on our way home he called me and I played it totally cool, saying that I had ordered the phone to the AF store and that we would just have to pick it up after we got home from Indiana. However, later in the day - he messaged again and said that he had looked again and that maybe there was a phone in the West Valley store and maybe we could cancel the AF order and go pick it up there so we'd have it. I broke and told him the good news (it's totally his fault - he spoiled his own surprise!). He was surprised and so excited and after he got home, we spent the evening playing with our new phones.
The moral of the story is that we both have awesome new phones to take on our trip, and already they are amazing. We are so excited, and it sort of makes up for the lameness of me losing the phone bet. We both ended up with the white LG Volt, and so far we love them!
(Yes, we have the same background picture, because we love it.
**Update: We are home from our vacation now and can honestly say that we love, love, love these phones! They are so nice and exactly what we wanted. We knew that we didn't need anything incredibly fancy (like the Samsung Galaxy S3) - but we wanted something that would be really nice and functional. These phones have such a large screen, they are super fast, and we've been able to download some really neat Apps. David is pretty much in love with the "Google Keep" app that he has that is basically a note pad/to do list/organization app. I love how nice the camera is, and pretty much everything else about the phone. We feel pretty happy and are already hoping to go another 2-3 years on these phones!
