Unpopular Opinion: Smart Phones

I hate cell phone companies.

I've been with Verizon for 6.5 years, and I'm ready to be done. "They're so expensive!" I thought. And then I looked at all the other phone companies' prices, and they're all expensive!

That's not what's really bothering me, though.

What's really bothering me is smart phones. They're taking over. Call me crazy, but I don't want to pay an extra $30 to $80 a month for a data plan. Why not just use that $30 to get WiFi at home and just rough it when you don't have the internet?

Say you and your spouse both have a data plan. That's an extra $60 a month, minimum (unless you go with T-Mobile, but work with me here). That's $720 a year. Not much, right? But if you saved that $720, you could go on a cruise. Or go to Disneyland. Or buy a new living room set. You could buy a nice TV, or a Wii with a bunch of games. Or you could invest the money and make more money! (clearly I've been listening to Dave Ramsey too much.)

Anyway, the money isn't even what's bothering me. What's bothering me is now that everyone and their Aunt Lillian has a smart phone, no one makes good dumb phones anymore. So now when I look at new phones to get, I don't have a very wide selection, and that bothers me.

I wish I could have an iPhone without a data plan. Use it like an iPod touch when I'm out and about, connect to the internet on it at home.

What I Learned This Weekend

Peel bananas BEFORE you freeze them, or you'll have to saw the peel off with a knife.

cell phone picture... forgive me.

Pouring boiling water down your drain may unclog it, but may also melt any gaskets holding the pipes together and thus get water all over your bathroom.

Rowan Atkinson (Mr. Bean) does the voice of Zazu (the bird) on Lion King! Ever since I found this out, his voice has been stuck in my head.

they even look alike!

Roulette sucks. If you're at a casino, skip it and go play Blackjack or something.

Rowan does not know how to share with other babies.

Big Baby

This is my great-grandpa, who was born a century before me. This picture was taken when he was 6 months old--Rowan's age. He was 36 pounds and could not sit up on his own because of his fat rolls.

36 pounds! Rowan's not even 20 pounds.

This is the same great-grandpa who was 13 pounds when he was born. So when I said big babies run in my family, now you know I was serious.

(by the way, he wasn't this rotund his whole life. I have another picture of him when he was an old man, and he was a rather skinny fellow.)

Six Months

Remember how in the post Five Months I said it seems like Rowan hasn't changed much?

Well that is certainly not the case this time. He has changed so much, it's almost like he's a different baby.

I mentioned he doesn't like rolling. Well just days after writing that he started rolling from his back to his tummy, and now he is all over the place! He can move across the room pretty quick, and pivot on his tummy. He can move backwards and side to side. Not crawling yet, but I'm totally okay with that.

He sits up, too! That was one milestone I was most excited about.

He got two teeth within a week or two of each other. He's much less fussy now, and I think his teeth are adorable.

Still won't eat solids. Or take a bottle. But that's okay.

HE SLEEPS! It's amazing. We put him to bed around 6 or 7 and he's out for 12 hours straight. The key? Taking his binky away. Who'da thought?

 playing a wise man on Christmas.

 

one of the few Christmas pictures I got.

His personality is coming out a little. Just in the last few days I've had several people comment on how mellow he is. That's true for most situations, but he gets pretty riled up at home. Yesterday he got so excited he puked.


other stuff about Rowan:
he weighs 19 lbs 2 oz (75th percentile)
he is 28.5 inches long (90th percentile)
he loves blowing raspberries and sucking on his tongue
he laughs really hard at pretty much anything Ryan does
his favorite toy is a wooden spoon. he also likes sucking on hair elastics (????)
he's a total flirt.
we think he talks in his sleep. that, or he wakes up in the middle of the night, jabbers for a few minutes, and goes back to sleep.



(note: sorry I don't have more pictures.... our 'puter broke so I'm using a ghetto laptop that doesn't stay on for long, so I don't have enough time to go through all the pictures.)

2012

This year I am going to

get healthy

get organized

and

get financially stable.

to do this I am going to:

lose 15 lbs

de-clutter my house
get a 6-month emergency savings fund
eat more veggies

sell my car (anyone want a Prius?)
run 3x a week
a place for everything

and everything in its place

learn how to do pushups

stick to a budget

These may be typical goals, but I feel like they are do-able for me.
(and if you want to read the blog that Ryan and I started for healthy motivation, go here.)


fun things I am going to do this year:

be in a play
get SCUBA certified
go on a road trip
take figure skating, piano, voice, or accordion lessons
enter a contest
join a bookclub
go snowboarding
run in a race






LET'S DO THIS.