Sooooo… As some of you know.. I had the fabulous opportunity to go to Great Wolf Lodge over this past weekend.  While there will be more of that grand adventure in very near future posts, this one is a post more on the unfortunate side.

For those of you that were there, you know my phone went swimming… Fantastic, huh?

There really its an epic story behind it all, and since I have time, I might as well tell you, right? Also, I have the resources and time to have said story time.

So, upon arriving at Great Wolf Lodge, Konnor immediately spotted the water park, and informed me we had to go, right then.  Lovely…. Considering it was like, oh, 8 o’clock when we got there and the water park closed at 9, it was hard to convince him we had to wait for the next day.

We, did, eventually, get him to realize that we could go first thing in the morning.

What a mistake those words were.  That kid was up at 7am asking to go to the water park!!! For real dude??  Don’t get me wrong, never did I imagine that my kids would do something as silly as sleep in for once, but darn it!

Getting back on track, we were at the water park at 9am when it opened.  Konnor went and did his thing and Ariana and I stayed at the little toddler pool so she could splash and giggle and have a grand time.  (As a side note: yes, I let Konnor roam because I knew where he was, he doesn’t like deep water, and there are about 50,000 lifeguards watching every nook and cranny of that place)

Ariana didn’t really care much for the water, as I suspected she wouldn’t.  She is much like her brother in the sense that she would rather just watch kids swim and splash while sitting on the sidelines, in about 3 inches of water.  That is what she did.

Until the bright idea to take her down the toddler slide came up.

In my defense, it was a little slide, really.  Tiny.  Maybe 3 feet in length down to what I would consider a shallow pool at the end.

Shallow? Ha!  Looks can be deceiving, my friends.

My phone, which had been with me all morning and which doesn’t leave my side because of my addiction to pictures and twitter alike, was securely placed inside of my bathing suit top (yes, in my boobies!), which is where it would have been safest.

Ariana sat in my lap and I sat on the slide, full intention of just going.  However, when I looked, my confidence of my phone’s safety was hindered and I took it out of my top to hold it above my head.

WHYYYYY?!?!?!?!  Seriously, big idiot move.

Here comes the blur of events:  We slide down.  Ariana goes under.  She is too heavy to pick up with one arm.  Instinctively, my other arm (Blackberry in hand) goes underwater to grab her and pick her up.  I realize phone is in pocket. Fuck. Fuck. FUCK!!!!

Too late.  Damage done.  I pop the back off, pull the battery out, and curse myself.  Kristin and Lindsay are looking at me, wondering if what they saw really just happened.  Ariana is pissed off at me.  I’m dumbfounded, not quite sure how the bottom of the slide really had water that deep.

The phone sat out, completely taken apart, for the rest of the trip.  When we got home, it moved to a bowl full of rice, still completely dis-assembled.  Monday night I turned the phone on, which, suprisingly, it was (almost) fully functional! SCORE!!!  However, when I went to send a text message, it sat there, waiting to send.  Great….. I made a phone call – the quality of said call sucked.  Then I even went as far as to Tweet and Facebook, which worked fine.  Well, at least I had that.

Ultimately, I decided that I could notlive without my text messaging, and somehow managed to talk my mom into buying me a new phone for Christmas.  She is so awesome!  She bought me a MyTouch 4G from T-mobile.  Now, it has only been two days, but I am totally and absolutely in LOVE with this phone. 

Officially, I am in the world of Android.  Coming from a Blackberry, this is night and day!  They truly do have an app for everything!  I’m not totally sure how I managed to live without this thing before. 

People, I have an app to manage and post to my blog from my phone!!  Sorry if this is not a new feature, nor a new app, but the WordPress App is pretty fantastical!

Anyways, that’s all. =)

I will have more to say about Great Wolf Lodge and the Eco Moms Conference really soon.  I promise!

Ps, the pictures? friggin AMAZING!!!

Christmas of 2009 was pretty much awesome. My mom bought me an iPod Nano which I totally wanted, but didn’t expect to get. Come on, I’m 22 years old (or was at that time), and have three younger siblings who still live at home.

Was. Not. Expecting. It.

My iPod almost instantly became like another child to me. I was able to fill almost all 8GB worth of storage in just two days. What? I love my music!

You can imagine the heartbreak I felt when I pulled my sweet baby out of the bottom of the washing machine one cold day in February. Devastation. Instant tears. Cursing. I pressed all of the buttons, fully expecting it to do nothing but secretly hoping it loved me almost as much as I loved it.

Nothing.

Please Note: You should completely submerge device in rice.

More tears followed.

Depressed, I told co-workers the next day of my tragic loss.  Someone mentioned putting it in a bowl of uncooked white rice to absorb the moisture.

Preposterous!  Could it really be that easy?

Pffft, nope.  I waited a week. Two weeks.  Four weeks.  Eight weeks.  Periodically, I would push the “on” button, hoping my poor iPod would spring to life.  Every single time, my heart would break again.

Finally, I just left it in the bowl of rice and forgot about it.

Until I was cleaning my desk at work out yesterday, and found my computer cable at the bottom.  (I used to charge my iPod while at work so I could cling to some sanity while doing my job).  Another crack in my already fragile heart, I put the cable in my purse, fully intending to take it to my mom’s house so that they would have an extra (since my three younger siblings all have iPods).

It wasn’t until Ariana decided to take the cable out of my purse that I remembered it was there.  Eh, what’s the harm, I thought to myself as I plugged it into my computer and headed for the kitchen.  Letting out a deep sigh, I picked my iPod out of the bowl of rice, and went back to my laptop.  There was no way this was going to work, and really, I knew that I was setting myself up for the final heartbreak in this sad sad story.

If I were to tell you that I didn’t hold my breath while I plugged the cord into the device, I would be lying.  An eternity seemed to pass after it was connected.  Then………

THERE WAS LIGHT!!!!!!!!!!!!

Yes, my iPod lives!!!!!  I jumped up and down in excitement holding the little device to my chest, squealing with excitement like a little school girl.  On the verge of happy tears but still a little apprehensive as to whether it would actually work, I wasted no time downloading the newest version of iTunes to see if all my music was there and if my iPod would play.

I am happy to report, my friends, that it does!!!  After sitting in rice for approximately seven months, my iPod is fully functional!  There are a couple scratches on the inside of the screen, no doubt water damage, but it doesn’t seem to (at this time) cause any issues.  For now, it is just cosmetic damage.  Other than that?  It is the same, sweet iPod that my mom bought me for Christmas!

Moral of the story?  Don’t put your iPod in the washing machine.

Secondary moral of the story?  If you screw up and get your iPod wet, PUT IT IN RICE!!! IT REALLY WORKS!! (and really, this should work with any electronic device)

Ever since I had Konnor, I have never been at the top of the priority list.  Purposely putting myself after others, I don’t often have the newest clothes, the coolest phone, or other spiffy things.

Yesterday, I bought a laptop.  Four hundred dollars of something just for me!  After purchasing my new Toshiba, I am feeling the normal guilt that I feel after buying something for myself.

After battling with myself, “oh that $400 could have gone here or we could have done this,” I took a step back.  No, really, this was a good investment.  With Justin on the computer as much as he is, I need this. 

What do I need a laptop for?

Well I really need it to keep up on JAKA365, which is my photo blog.  If you haven’t seen it, check it out!

But I also need it to keep up with this blog.  If I have the desire to start reviews, the need for my own computer is pretty obvious.

More than anything, though, I wanted my own computer so that I could access the internet when I wanted to.  My phone’s internet isn’t fast nor reliable, and to be honest, typing with a Blackberry isn’t fun.  Haha.

So here she is.  My new computer.  Nothing grand.  Nothing fancy.  Nothing to drop your jaw over.  Honestly, though, I don’t need any of that.  Just something simple to blog and edit photos with. :)

Breakfast is the most important meal of the day.

In December it was announced that General Mills would be reducing sugar in their cereals ever more than they already had been.  They committed to reducing the sugar in their cereals to less than 10g per serving!  *goes to look in pantry*  Now, I can tell you that we have other brands of cereal (that are not General Mills) and not one of those cereals have less than 10g of sugar per serving.