A pinch of this and a dash of that.....

Today was the day I thought I was going to dread.  My daughter decided to go to the mall.  I personally hate shopping and I was not really in the mood for crowds.

This is the week after Christmas.  If you thought that Christmas shopping at the mall is a complete nightmare, then you have not experienced the week after.  People everywhere!!  Some returning or exchanging gifts they did not like, others taking advantage of the major sales at the stores.  There is even a fair number of teens that just hang out because it is too cold to do much else.  This is obviously not my cup of tea.

As we spend about 15 minutes driving around, looking for a parking spot in the same vicinity of the mall, we opt to park in the fist spot available that felt like we parked one county over.  We finally get into the mall.  All I can think is, "oh joy, mayhem.  Just what I was missing in my life, to be stuffed into a building with really clueless people."

I decided to put my best foot forward and deal with my internal misery.  This is what my daughter wanted to do, so I am there just for her.  As we walk around the mall, we come across a kiosk for cell phone covers.  My daughter has been begging for a new and cooler cell phone for about a month.  Buying one is just out of the question.  Cell phones are not status symbols, they are for making calls in the case of an emergency, or so I thought.  I get to hear, over and over again, how her friends have really cool cell phones and hers is so..... plain.  Thinking that they have a cool skin or cover for her phone should stave off the nagging about a new phone.  We look around and there is no covers for her style of phone.  If she had an iPhone, there were plenty of choices, but alas, she doesn't.  She looks sad and continues to plea for a new phone.

"No go, kiddo" is all I can tell her.  Money is too tight.  "Be happy with the fact you have a cell phone"....  Apparently, that is not the thing to tell a pre-pre-teen in this day and age.  I can see the sadness in her face.  It breaks my heart that I cannot give her everything, but I never got half the stuff she has now back when I was a kid.  Suddenly, I am sounding like my mother with telling her one of those "back in the day when I was your age" stories.  I can see her attention fading fast, so I have a brilliant idea......

Lets decorate your phone!  Lets get some really cool gem stickers to add some "bling" to this thing.  Make it your one-of-a-kind original.  Suddenly, she snaps too and agrees.  We go on the search for really cool stickers.  12 stores later, both our patience is wearing thin.  I call my best friend for advice in finding really cool stickers.  She tells me of a place that is not in the mall and we go there.  Needless to say, we found what sparked my daughter's interest and $6.00 later and a trip back home, she is off being creative.  Next thing I see is one really tricked-out phone and a happy kid.

Sometimes, all it takes is a bit of creativity to make something old, new again.

So glad it worked, because her choice of phone would have set me back about $80.00 and a 2 year contract that costs more than what we already pay.  Gotta love Kajeet.com.  150 minutes and unlimited text for $20.00 a month is a far cry to what Sprint has for phone plans.  Crisis averted and I am pretty happy about it.