Vindicaton

Here's an update to the iPhone ordeal that began as soon as I landed in Minnesota in December (ref: "welcome to america and my i phone got jacked").

A Recap:
I landed in Minnesota with Charlie and Liam after 36 hours of travelling on 4 different flights across 3 different countries.   I was so excited to see my baby nephew Judah and couldn't wait to get to the baggage claim.  I lugged Liam in the ergo baby carrier on my back, urine-soaked Charlie in his carseat stroller, and 2 pieces of carry-on luggage down the elevator to meet with Aaron, Maria and baby Judah.  We were a moving ball of chaos as we reunited, hugged, and made our way to the baggage claim.  All in all we had 2 carry-ons, 2 carseats, 1 stroller and 5 pieces of luggage.  Maria took Charlie to the toilet to change him and Aaron grabbed the car so we could start loading babies and our gear.   I had my iPhone at baggage claim.   I didn't have it when we got home.    I've been haunted with the possibilities since that dreadful day.  Did I drop it on the floor when I collapsed the stroller?  Did that group of  rowdy teenagers pluck it from my stroller?  Did I drop it in a deep crevice of our car? 

I started scouring Craigs List ads trying to find my phone. It was somewhat unique in that it was an unlocked iPhone 4 (i.e. 3 times more expensive than through a US phone carrier).   I found a sketchy ad for an iPhone 4 in a red Otter Box case.  I was going to meet the guy and ask for my phone back, but decided that was a little foolish.  I enlisted the support of the airport police in Minneapolis and they met with the guy and it turned out to not be my phone.  I discussed the possibility of analyzing their closed-caption tv (CCTV) near the baggage claim on 1 December, but it just seemed hopeless.   I filed an insurance claim for my phone and bought a new one (it's my camera, e-mail, phone, gps, blog, skype, facetime, etc. etc. - just needed to replace it).

Fast forward to last month when the Minneapolis airport police contacted me and told me they wanted to pursue a warrant from Apple to locate the missing iPhone.  They said they should have an answer in a few weeks.  Well I got the call from my mom this morning.  She said three guesses (ironically - I played the same game with Jason and he and I had the same 3 guesses).

1.) The Minneapolis-St Paul Airport (hidden on the curb somewhere)
2.) In a crevice of the car
3.) In a couch cushion in Circle Pines, MN

Wrong, wrong, and wrong.  Major relief!  The phone was located in Ghana, Africa.   Apparently a worker at the airport found it and sent it to his friend who was working in the Peace Corps in Ghana.  My mom, Jason and I all felt super bad for the Peace Corps worker in Ghana and wanted him to keep the phone, but apparently the police were highly suspicious of the story.  Anyway - I feel like giving money to the Peace Corps mission in Ghana now, but I am also thankful that the mystery was solved.

Lesson learned, don't leave your valuables out and unsecured especially when you are in a state of foggy, sleep-deprived insanity. 

Birthday Princess

Okay - I admit it... I'm certifiably a birthday princess.  Maybe it's because my sister was born on my 2nd birthday and because of that there was a high emphasis on making us feel special on both birthdays and half birthdays.  I don't know... but sometime I feel back for Jason trying to figure out exactly how I want to celebrate. I caught myself telling Jason that I wanted a party with friends for my birthday.  I wanted him to tell everyone that it was my birthday but that I didn't want anyone to know it was my birthday.  That's a little psychotic...

One of the worst incidents was my first birthday with Jason in Turkey.  He was new to the community on base, so I typed up the birthday dinner e-mail invite (before evite.com) and gave him the list of friends to send it to.  He forwarded the e-mail without making any edits and simply wrote his name at the bottom of the e-mail.  Anyway - the e-mail was full of my jargon ("heaps of fun,"   "peeps," etc) and when Jason forwarded the e-mail it changed the color of the font to only his name - clearly exposing that I had wrote the e-mail.  I was humiliated and I think we broke up soon after (and we were married less than a year later - hah!)  

Anyway - this year my birthday was a beautiful day!  Jason and Charlie surprised me with a coffee and muffin in bed, Jason made a yellow cake from scratch. and a friend offered to watch the boys while we went out to dinner and a movie (Mission Impossible - very fun).    I also found a friend in NZ who is ALSO a birthday princess and celebrated half birthdays!  Fun to find a kindred spirit...

Speaking of spirit, Charlie is confused by the Spirit and spears...  He talks about the Holy Spear.  He also thinks Jesus is in my heart, sort of like Baby Liam was in my belly.   Looking for wisdom!

Promise pictures soon - Jason is helping me to clean up my iPhone tonight!

Glitchy

My iPhone is acting up and I'm not able to post any pics for the blog.  I'm hoping to have it solved by tomorrow...  I can't believe my mom is already gone.  So glad she made it back to MN safely.  She was even able to venture into Sydney and check out the opera house during her 7-hr layover.

The Wellington weather turned horrible - with howling winds and driving rain.  You can literally hear the winds screeching and howling -- they sounds strong and angry....  I don't know why- but I'm enjoying the intensity of the weather...  You can really only take so many days of basking in the 75 degree sunshine on warm beaches with the crystal clear water lapping at your toes... you know?

I'm looking forward to the normalcy of the the week...

More pictures very soon!

Welcome to America and my i-phone got jacked...

Apologize for the lapse in writing...  we made it safely to MN on Thur night but my Iphone is missing and I strongly suspect it was stolen.  I'm working with airport security to try to find it... I don't want to share the confidential details of the case, but I think we are hot on someone's tail.

Last night I wrote a long dissertation about how much United Airlines was a horrible excuse for an airline, but didn't post it because I need to unemotionally step away from the situation and reassess what happened. 

I will keep writing over our 3 weeks in the US.   I'll try to take photos with my mom and mother-in-law's iphones.