29 Weeks done!!!

Our friends, Brandon and Jess, got us the BEST gift ever this year...a POPCORN MAKER! It's one of those things that I didn't know that I needed until I needed it. My brother introduced me to stove top popped popcorn last October when he was up visiting. I thought I had the best set-up possible being able to pop it on the stove - especially when microwave popcorn has loosely been linked to infertility (and at that point in my journey I was grasping at any flavor of the week reason for our struggle). I rarely have microwave popcorn now that I'm pregnant. I only have it when I have a hankering for Kettle Corn which at some point I will learn how to make myself. 

Anywho - to get back on track... When over at Brandon and Jess's we would often have popcorn at my request made with their popcorn maker. It's so easy and little to no cleanup! Whereas using the pot on the stove ruined the bottom of my large pot with the oil burns. I was thrilled and touched when I unwrapped this gift because it really came from the heart. They remembered something that they knew we loved and that we didn't have and picked it up. We purchased for them a gift card to their very favorite restaurant that we then found out they would be going to for New Year's Eve (and it's a restaurant Jesse has boycotted because we have yet to find a menu item that wets our whistles). 

In other news...I LOVE APPLE! I have been an apple customer since my Gateway stopped working DURING MY THESIS in February of 2007 - that date will stick in my head for forever. Then, Jesse and I got iPhones in November of 2008 which we updated in November of 2010 and then I got a new laptop for my birthday/Christmas/every-holiday-until-Jesse-deems-it-paid-off this past August. A few years ago Jesse's iPod that I had purchased him for Christmas (oh, did I mention we've each had 2 iPods over the years?) started acting funny at about the same time as Jake ate through a USB cord and I wanted to make sure that he didn't damage port or the motherboard. So, we brought the laptop in to the Genius bar to get it looked at and brought his iPod along in the event that could get looked at too. The laptop was fine, and Jesse's iPod got replaced for free even though it was out of the warranty. 

Fast forward to the last few months. Well, let's go back farther to winter 2010. I was out in Boston after recently getting the iPhone 4 for a night out to celebrate a birthday. I went to the bathroom not remembering that my phone was in my back pocket and it went flying into the toilet - pre-pee so it was a "fresh" bowl (as fresh of a bowl as you can get in Boston at a bar). Before I could think I reached it and pulled it out and watched it shut itself down. I was devastated! However, 45 minutes later I attempted to turn it on because I was obsessing over it and it turned on and worked fine! When I got home I put it in rice for about 24 hours just to get the rest of the moisture out. Now fast forward to this summer. The home button (the circle at the bottom) stopped working for a few days here, a few days there. The home button is needed to switch from, say, email to making a phone call. I had to turn my phone off to do something different. But, only for a few days/hours at a time. I put off dealing with it until this week when I realized there was a correlation between dropping it and the home button not working. 

So Jesse and I went to the apple store. I explained the problem. Of course, my phone was 36 days out of service. The man explained I would need to pay for a repair/replacement to the tune of $149. You know that anxiety that creeps up when you get told you have to pay something you weren't planning on? Well, that's how I felt. I got hot, sweaty, probably red in the face, and started rubbing my forehead. However, Jesse and I agreed that it had to be paid for. The man went in to the back to get my replacement phone and when he came out he simply stated "You've bought many apple products in the past. Please enter your information for your replacement phone." to which I obliged. Then when I was done, he handed me the slip to sign and said "We are going to take care of the cost for you today in the hopes you will continue to be a loyal Apple customer." and I started crying because I was so happy! I will, of course, continue to pay slightly more for a better quality product that the company will not only back-up but have shown up more than once will replace without cost regardless if it's within the 1-year warranty or not.