Phoneless - Day 1

Last night I used Samsung's Mini Kies software to update my phone to the latest firmware available. It subsequently stopped working entirely. So I packed up my little friend and sent it back to Samsung today to see if they can do anything to help. I'm thinking about keeping a brief record of how my days change because of the loss of my phone. This is day one.

Usually, I get up to my phone's alarm. This morning, I woke up to the boys playing drums in their room. It was about the same time I usually wake up, so no big deal. I'm used to checking my Twitter and Facebook first thing, which had to wait until I booted up my PC. Still not that bad. Danny (my brother-in-law) came by around noon to let me borrow his 10+ year-old Samsung something-something; so I will at least have an alarm. In fact, so far the only thing that I can think of that is going to change is not being able to take video or pictures of the kids when they do random fun things without having to go grab the point-and-shoot. But that hasn't even come up yet, so I'm not hurting terribly yet.

A couple of times today I reached for my pocket to play a game or check to see if I had any new e-mails only to find a hole in my heart. I miss being able to check my calendar to see my agenda or hear that friendly "Tweeter" noise whenever a load of new tweets or Facebook posts has come in. But other than that I had more time to pay attention to what my kids were doing, actually listen to my wife, remember I had a dog, and navigate in my car the old fashioned way: with my eyes.

Tonight I sat down to review my lesson plans for teaching the Deacons tomorrow. This is where I hit my first major roadblock. I'm used to pulling up a few windows on my PC (LDS.org for the Priesthood manual and scriptures, and Google Docs for my lesson plans), typing an outline, and then pulling up the Docs app on my phone for use during class on Sunday. It took me a while to remember I had a physical copy of the Priesthood manual and another few minutes to grab the stack of 3x5 notecards I bought back when I attended Weber state for lesson notes. These archaic tools combined, I was ready to do things "old school." We'll see how things turn out at lesson time tomorrow.

Well, Samsung, the ball is in your court. Please fix my phone so I can go back to Tweeting and capturing HD home movies. I'd rather not have to resort to, oh say, buying a replacement from HTC or LG. Day 2 tomorrow.

"Lots of vids!" Update

So we have a lot of videos we have been meaning to upload and we finally did it!

The oldest video is of our family riding the FrontRunner train to the Gateway mall in SLC. It was fun for the kids to experience and reminded me of my mission.



Then, Atticus, Haven and I went to the Father & Sons camp overnighter at Camp Woodland and played with cousins, launched rockets and told "spooky" stories. The next three videos are in order as described above.





Finally, we visited the Tracy Aviary today and watched a bird show. Erin, the kids and I all LOVED the owls. My favorite was the Great Horned Owl (I think we had a painting of one in our house when I was young), and Erin loved the Barn Owl. We saw all kinds of birds from the Amazon that were kept in a temperature and humidity controlled building. Very colorful and diverse. God has made some amazing creatures!

The video below is of the family looking at ducks and PINK FLAMINGOS! I think it's the first time I've seen real ones in person (maybe not, dunno). Anyway, ENJOY!

Look Who's Dancing Now!

Scarlett had her first dance recital yesterday! She is the cute little one in the middle with dark hair, if you can't tell - she just got a major hair cut; first by herself, then by a professional. Farrah is also in the video, and they love getting to dance together. We have uploaded the first part already and as soon as the second part is uploaded, we'll link that one, too. Enjoy!

UPDATE: Second video is available!

View full screen for best results!

Easter 2011

For FHE we dyed eggs. The kids loved their monster Easter eggs. I think Easter is one of the best holidays!

Dinosaur Park

Just a quick video of us at the Dinosaur Park today. Enjoy!

Scarlett’s 5th Birthday

Well, Stephen was in Virginia for work this week and he had to miss Scarlett’s birthday. But that doesn’t mean that we didn’t have a blast! Before he left we celebrated with our family. On her actual birthday, Tuesday, we invited Farrah over for dinner. We made homemade pizzas and had a fashion show – which we neglected to take pictures of . That night Scarlett and I had a sleepover in my room which she loved. We stayed up painting our nails . All in all she got spoiled this year!

I can’t believe she is 5 already! It feels like just yesterday she was an infant in my arms! She went to the doctor today to get her shots so she could register for kindergarten. She is soooo excited to start school. Me, on the other hand, not so much. I will miss her being a big help – and friend – at home during the day. So here are a few pictures for you guys to enjoy.