My Day ... Taken by STORM!

I never imagined when I woke up this morning where my day would take me. I went out for a run, came home to find the girls bathed and ready to have their hair done. I got showered and ready to head to the mall. I had a few things I needed to exchange, a pair of jeans that needed hemming, a watch battery that needed to be replaced, and Pam wanted to look for a few things. Poor Ed was just along for the ride :( We had lunch in the food court and then took care of most of our "mall business" very efficiently.There was a 30 minute wait to replace the watch battery so I decided to save it for another day since the kiddos were ready to head out. Brinley made a last minute decision that she wanted to go to Claire's to look at earrings so we headed back down to the bottom floor of the mall. I took us in the wrong direction by mistake and as we were backtracking we walked past a cell phone kiosk that sold for Verizon Wireless - my provider. I asked ... in passing (literally) ... "Do you happen to have any BlackBerry Storms in stock?" The salesman said "Yeah - I've got one. How many do you need?" It stopped me in my tracks. I had been considering this purchase since I was eligible for a phone upgrade in October and the news was out about the release of the Storm. It wasn't really that I "needed" a new phone. My Palm Treo has been serving me faithfully for over 2 years now. It was an absolute WANT ... new, techy, gadgety, cool. I'd looked a few places before Christmas checking them out and finding NO availability. I even called my local Verizon store this week to find them out of stock. And now Ryan had one in his little mall kiosk. Could it be true?! Was this wrong turn to Claire's the sign that I should have this phone? I had to stop and look ... and touch ... and drool. I had just enough money from my birthday to pay for it. Pam told me I deserved it - how do you say no when your mother-in-law says you deserve it?!?! As if that weren't enough of a sign there was a play area just across from the kiosk that Pam was able to take the kiddos to so they would be entertained while waiting. They were all so patient they deserve medals!!! It took MUCH longer than I expected but almost an hour later I was the proud owner of the last Storm in the mall :) Isn't it pretty?I still have to get my contacts and calendar transferred over and figure out how to use the darn thing but I am super excited about it!!! Nothing quite like playing with and learning how to use a new toy ;) Happy Birthday to me!!! To reward everyone's patience through the entire ordeal I made sure to stop at Chick-fil-A on the way home for Peppermint Chocolate Chip Milkshakes. Yes, I rewarded myself with one, too! After it was all over I realized I should have left my watch to get the battery replaced!! At least I have to go back in a week to pick up my jeans that are being hemmed.

We came home and sat down to watch movies - Wall-E in one room and Kit Kittredge in another. Steve came home and the puzzle was finally finished! I went to finish up the barbeque pork for dinner to find that I had run out of BBQ sauce!!! You must understand ... I still import my sauce from Memphis. Once you have partaken of Corky's there is no going back to "grocery store" sauce (even if you can buy it at the grocery stores in Memphis). I used to buy it in gallon jugs at Sam's Club when we lived there. My friend Mary has offered to send it to me when I need my fix. I usually buy 6-8 bottles at a time and keep close tabs on when I am running low so have no idea how I got to empty without noticing! This discovery shifted dinner plans to an In-n-Out and Taco Bell run with BBQ pork sandwiches on the menu for lunch tomorrow ;)

Once the kiddos were in bed it was time to break out the cards for a game of Hand and Foot. No visit from Pam and Ed would be complete without it!! Pam and I were slaughtering the guys after the first 3 hands so we (read the guys) decided we should start over. They destroyed us the first hand of the new game but then we came back to wipe them out the next hand. It was pretty well decided at this point that the game was worthless and we should head to bed. Bummer for me because we were playing SUPER well and I NEVER play well!!! I actually got out the tripod and used my timer to get a picture of all of us playing. How's THAT for wanting to capture the moments this month?!