Aaron writes a Friday flashback (part 2)

We were in the middle of Aaron's phone tragedy, flashing back to...

Two Saturdays ago...

As I was saying on my last post...

My phone had been missing for two hours.

Once I realized that the finder was not working, I deduced that either the battery was dead or, more likely, someone had found it, turned it off, and it was now stolen.

"Where did you last have it?" asked Whitney.

"If I knew, it wouldn't be lost."  That was a smart response on my part.  Meh.

I thought.  I knew I had it at the grocery store because I had called Whitney when I lost her and left her a message about how she was lost at the grocery store.  And then I remembered...

"Oh no."

"What?"

"Well, " I said, "I had it at the check-out.  I took it out of my pocket and set it at the register before I went back for Christmas cookies!"  I remembered distinctly because I had set it there in a dramatic flourish type gesture.

So, I called the grocery store from Whitney's phone.

"Hi, I was there earlier this evening.  I may have left my phone there."

"We haven't found any phones."

"Okay...well, it's an iphone and its in a Batman case."

"No one has turned in any in."

"Okay."

"So...you can call back some other time.  Maybe someone will turn it in."

That was the least helpful response ever.  When I worked retail, I would always be polite, take a name, a phone number, a description of the lost item and ensure the customer that should any employee come across that item, we would notify them at once.  This particular gentleman had apparently missed that training.

Whitney noted my frustration.  "Let's go!" she said.

With some hesitation from me, we hopped in the car, in our comfy pajama clothes, and headed back to the grocery store.  Whitney went in the store while I searched the parking lot and cart outside.  By the time I got inside she had already spoken with the very helpful  employee that I had spoken with.  Nothing new.  No more courtesy.  We glanced in the store for a minute and decided it was gone.

I lose things a lot.  But they have always turned up eventually.  In high school, I lost my class ring multiple times. I always found it.  In college, I had a ring that I wore every day.  I lost it hundreds of times and it somehow managed to find its way back to me every time.  I've lost my keys.  I've lost books.  I even lost my car in a parking lot once.  It took me thirty minutes, but I eventually found it.

But I had lost my phone.  And even though I felt like it would just turn it up under a cushion or in a pocket, I had to call it in.

So, now it's out there somewhere.  If it's ever turned on, it will be wiped clean.  Or, if not, it's been added to the block list and it will turn up as stolen if someone tries to activate it.

I'm sure somewhere I've learned a lesson in all this.  I just don't remember what it is.

Yes, Aaron's phone is gone. He has since activated his old iPhone 4, but it kept dropping calls. So he got his mom's old iPhone 4 and all is well again. 

If only we had just stuck around at Olive Garden...

a Penny post (update)

The saga continued...

Sunday, after Penny had a sleepy day with me, I went to the Journey Volunteer Christmas Party. A few hours later when I returned, I came home to giant throw up mess in Penny's crate.

Lovely.

So began our night.

Penny threw up from 11:30pm-8:30am every 30 minutes or so.

Another sleepless night for all of us.

Side effects from her allergy medicine were vomiting and diarrhea, so I wouldn't have been so concerned, but there was blood in her vomit. So that was scary.

I asked to come in a little late to work on Monday and we took Penny to the vet yet again.

Our friend Shannon, who is a doctor there, was working on Monday. She said we should definitely not give her the allergy medicine anymore, because that did seem to be the cause for her sickness. 

We decided to leave Penny there for a few hours so they could watch her.

Monday afternoon, Aaron got the call that he could come back and get her. She hadn't thrown up anymore, and they had given her fluids and medicine.

She was a pitiful mess Monday night.

We had to get her children's Benadryl because she was still so red and splotchy from her first incident. Plus she had two other prescriptions to take for her stomach and esophagus.

Good grief.

We finally had a good night of sleep Monday night. Penny didn't, but she didn't stop us.

Tuesday, she was finally starting to act more like her normal self.

And today she goes back to the vet today to get a final checkup.

Let's hope so, at least...

an opinion on Christmas shopping

I have a love/hate relationship with Christmas shopping.

I love the actual shopping part and crossing things off the list and buying things for the people I love.

I hate the planning and thinking and crowded part of Christmas shopping.

This year, we were trying to find a day that we could even go out shopping. Aaron suggested doing our shopping online.

I debated this because I've never done Christmas shopping online, and change is always a big deal for me.

I decided to give it a try, and get most of the shopping done over the world wide web. At least as much as I could.

Last week, I sat down with the computer and a list of names and set to work.

Oh. Goodness.

I'm not saying I hated it. I definitely didn't love it.

But, I do know this:  it sure isn't any less time-consuming!

I spent three hours. Three hours. shopping online. And we only buy for immediate family (plus Bensen and Keyen). So we're only talking like 12 people total. 

I still had to brainstorm gifts. And then when I would pick them I would have to compare prices. And then I tried to find as many online coupons as I could for free shipping or what not.

And I'm still not even finished!

It took forever and it hurt my brain. And I don't have the immediate satisfaction of walking out with my gifts.

That's all I really have to say about it.

I might go with good old-fashioned stores for the rest of my shopping this year...

about Disney on Ice

When Aaron and I were engaged, he surprised me with tickets to see Disney on Ice. It was my second time going at that point and his first.

We went, and we both loved it. If you know us at all, the fact that we love anything and everything Disney is a no-brainer.

We haven't had the time and/or money to go back since then, but this year, my dad piped in that he could help us get discount tickets through IBM.

We jumped on that, and Saturday night, I donned my Minnie ears, and off we went.

We had great seats at a ridiculous price.

Our view

Mickey and Minnie to start the show

The Little Mermaid

Brave

Tangled 

The floating lanterns and my favorite song

Beauty and the Beast

Grand Finale

So much fun!

We had such a great time! I love my Disney, and I love that my husband loves Disney!

a Penny post

I think we could start a book about our many adventures with Penny.

Penny, the Havanese Puppy:  It's Always Something

I'll work on that title.

Saturday, we had a long day of being gone from home so our good friend, Robyn, and her family took Penny to their house for the day.

When we got home around 9:30pm, they had delivered Penny safely back to her crate and she was happy to see us.

We took her out and headed up to bed.

We had been awake since 5:45am, and we were ready to crash.

Of course, Penny had different plans.

We were finally tucked into bed and ready to go to sleep, but Penny was itching. And scratching. And shaking. And huffing. And puffing. And biting at herself.

She would calm down briefly, but start right up again in the next few minutes.

After about an hour of this, Aaron had enough. (I had been drifting in and out of sleep, although I was definitely aware of the commotion).

"What is wrong with her?!" He turned the light on.

I continued to try to ignore it. "I don't know," I said as I rolled over.

He pulled Penny up next to him. "She's all splotchy!"

I resigned myself that I was now going to have to wake up.

"What? Where?"

"She's got red spots all over her stomach!"

Indeed, she did.

We decided to get up and give her a bath. It was now after 11:30.

Penny hates baths, but we doused her good and made sure to scrub her skin and check her for fleas.

She seemed to look fine, other than her skin being abnormally red.

We dried her off and decided I would get up and take her to the vet in the morning if it didn't get any better.

At 12:11, we crawled back into bed with our now wet dog.

She was apparently too cold to scratch for the time being. But it didn't take long until she was dry and it started all over again.

She was on and off the bed, running around. She couldn't get comfortable, poor thing.

I was in and out of sleep, and I knew Aaron was too.

At 3:30, he finally spoke up. "I. Have. Only. Slept. One. Hour. This. Whole. Night."

"I know. We are going to have to put her down in her crate if we are going to get any sleep."

Aaron took her downstairs.

Sleep came for a little while, until her crying was so loud that it woke us back up.

It was another rough couple hours of her crying on and off.

Finally, around 6:30, I went and got her out of her crate and brought her back upstairs.

Nothing had changed.

We were awake for good at this point.

We decided that Aaron would go to Journey, and I would take Penny to the vet as soon as they opened at 9:00am.

She and I went, much to her dismay.

The vet said she definitely had an allergic reaction to something, but we have no idea what it could be.

After she took her allergy medicine, she crashed on the couch for the day.

Poor Penny.

Aaron writes a Friday flashback (part 1)

Hi guys. Gather 'round. 

Aaron is going to regale us with the Friday flashback today.

Let's flashback to...

 Last Saturday, December 1...  

We had come home from proctoring the SAT and crashed for a few hours.  Around 5:30pm, the great debate started.

"What should we do for dinner?"

Neither Whitney nor myself had a good answer to that question.  So, we did what most people do when the question comes. We opened the pantry and took inventory.

"Let's see.  There's cereal," I said.   "And some ginger spice.  And we have a can of corn.  We can do something with that, right?"

"No."

"There's some soup."

"I don't want soup.  That's your soup anyway," Whitney reminded me.

On our previous grocery visit, I decided I wanted some soup.  A different kind of chicken noodle soup had caught my eye and Whitney had told me then that she would not partake of it.  There a few areas where Whitney and I differ: toothpaste, soup, and whether or not the toilet paper should hang in front or behind while on the holder.  But, back to the problem at hand.  

The pantry was empty.  The refrigerator would surely have something.

"There's some cheese.  And an egg.  And mustard."

Whitney shrugged as she opened the freezer.  Some ice cream, and frozen pot-stickers shivered inside.

I know at this point, you may think we are poor.  Or that maybe instead of buying Vinylmations and comic books, I should actually put food in my house.  But the truth is, we don't stockpile a lot of food.  It's just the two of us.  So we buy food for the week as we need it.  

"Or we could go to the Olive Garden!" Whitney said.  That was the best idea yet.

Whitney had received a gift card for her birthday and we had yet to use it.  Problem solved.  Except it was Saturday.  And close to 6pm.  The wait was sure to be awful.  So, Whitney called to see if we could do call-ahead seating.  Unfortunately, Olive Garden doesn't do that because they still operate as if it's 1988.  But, no worries.  The hostess told us that the crowd was small.

We hurriedly dressed and drove there.  We found a great parking spot at the corner of the back of the building.  As we rounded the corner to the front of the building, we saw the crowd.  The crowd was on the benches.  The crowd was talking on the curb.  The crowd was inside the doorway.  It continued into the indoor waiting area.  We pushed through the crowd that just 14 minutes prior did not exist.  

"What's the wait for two?"  

45 minutes.  45 minutes of agony.  45 minutes of curbside talking.  Meh.  Another time then.  After a quick discussion, it was decided we should go the grocery store.  We would just grab something easy to make and go home.  So, we went to the Lowe's grocery store.  (Whitney is a Harris Teeter fan all the way, but brave enough for Wal-mart to save some cash.  Lowe's...she loathes.)

"So what will we get for dinner?" I'd like to say that question was an easy one.  I'd like to say that we were able to go in, spend five minutes, and leave.  I'd like to say that.  But I can't.  I can only say that we got a cart.  We would do our weekly grocery shopping now.  

We circled the store about 5 times.  And still had come up with nothing for dinner.  An entire week's worth of dinner was in our cart.  But there was nothing, not one thing, for us to eat that night. We picked up several things.  We tossed around ideas.  Some ended up in the cart.  They all ended back on the shelves.  We couldn't agree.  It was one of those nights.

"Why don't you get stuff, and I will get stuff.  And we will each have what we want.  Deal?"

It was settled.  I was going to have soup and grilled cheese.  (Soup.  What I had originally said to begin with.)  Whitney opted for rice and mushrooms to go with the pot-stickers that were in the freezer at home.  So, after 90 minutes, we ended up eating what we already had at home.  Did you catch that?

As we were checking out, I went to the back of the store to get some cookies.  I really wanted some. We were going to treat ourselves.  We deserved it.  

We loaded the car and went home.  We ate our dinners.  We cleaned up.  We sat down on the couch.  I was going to look up something.  

"Where's my phone?"  I asked.  Whitney always knows.

"I don't know." What?

"Call it," I say.

"It went straight to your voicemail."  Strange.

"I'll use the Find My iPhone app."  Best.  Thing.  Ever.  

I logged in.  It was pinpointing the location of my phone.  It was searching.  Searching. 

OFFLINE.

My phone was gone and had been for two hours...

Stay tuned for part 2 next Friday, folks! Happy weekend!