Hello? Hello???????? HELLO?????!!!!!!!!!!!!!

If you tried to reach me on my cell phone tonight, you would have found yourself using the title of this post. I became quite unreachable this evening. My friend Stephanie once told me that sometimes you need to be unreachable, but that isn't why I was so. Here, let me tell you the story of the dorky thing Lori did today (actually yesterday since it is after midnight).

Sunday was Father's Day, but we celebrated day early. This afternoon Phil & his friend Chris, who is visiting his parents in San Antonio, went motorcycle riding. Ideally we will not have 2 motorcycles for much longer, but while we do, it was the perfect time for them to ride together. That has to be a guy thing: Spending time together by way of doing something that doesn't involve speaking, and gets you hot & sweaty at the same time.

Meanwhile, the girls & I were planning a trip to Fiesta Texas (6 flags). We had a little glitch in our plan when we could NOT find our Season Passes, the brand new ones we got 2 weeks ago. We looked high & low. We looked in the van about 3 times. That's the vehicle we took last time. On a whim, I decided to peak into the Buick, though I was sure they wouldn't be there. Yep, you guessed it, they were. Thank you Jesus!

We drove over to the park & got a fairly good parking space. Oodles of people were leaving as we got there. However, once we got to the gate, it appeared that another oodle of people was waiting to get in! We made it to the waterpark, kicked off our shoes, took off our cover-ups, and headed into the Texas shaped wave pool. How cool is it to step into your state from South of the Border???!!!! We were happily bobbing around in the water, along with about 5,000 other visitors (okay, I didn't count, it just seemed like that many). Personal space is null & void in this setting. Suddenly, I reached down & realized I was still wearing my lap bag (fanny pack). Now, that wouldn't have been such a big deal, except for the contents. In said bag were my cell phone and the keys to the van. The kind with the electronic lock. We departed the pool as quickly as possible, but, unfortunately, the phone had departed from it's usefulness as well. To make this worse, these items were in a ziplock bag, so they should have been somewhat protected. That is, they WOULD have been, except the ziplock was unzipped. This phone is 2 weeks old. JUST 2 WEEKS! In the entire time I've had my other cell phone (at least 3 years now), I NEVER did anything to it. Now, Phil goes & buys me a fancy schmancy phone and I TAKE IT FOR A SWIM!!! Oh, yes, I am a dork. I'm hoping that I can exchange it since it's been less than 30 days. If not, I'm toast. I'll have to purchase the cheapest phone available. This really is a sad moment.

While the phone issue made me sad, something happened next that made me realize that losing a phone was nothing. We'd gone back into the pool (sans telephone) and were again bobbing along, now in the waves. A woman suddenly started yelling out a name. It was obvious she was distressed and frantic, and missing a child. Someone finally got her to tell them what happened. We figured it out pretty quickly, and those of us around where she was walking & yelling stopped still. Some of the taller men waved to the lifeguards. It was so noisy and the guards sit up in a tall chair, which is on an incline, so they were quite a way above us. I think every person in that pool was looking for a boy in a white t-shirt. They turned off the waves, and told us to empty the pool. A complete search was made in the pool, and praise the Lord, there was not a child under water there. We left the pool area, and on the way out saw 2 little boys crying. A woman stopped to ask if they were lost. One was wearing a white shirt. I am hoping there was a happy reunion after that. Natalie saw another lost child a bit later. Then after we exited, we saw a woman with another lost boy. I saw that reunion, which made me happy.

I was very impressed with the team work at Fiesta Texas. Once the lifeguards knew what was going on, they were all in the pool looking, a person from First Aid was there almost immediately, and security was on the spot, too. I pray that we will never need those services. I held the girls hands a little tighter after that incident.

We'll take a trip to Wally World in the morning to see if we can replace the phone. Until then, I still have e-mail and a home phone. And I am happy to be reached at either!