Shayne's New Phone

Poor kid!  He bought himself a brand new cell phone a week ago yesterday.  He was so thrilled!  He finally had a texting phone (which according to him he needed.  I'd tend to agree with him since he texted 7200 texts last month!). 


Let me first say that the phone he originally wanted would have cost him $600.  Of course Paul and I put our foot down and said "absolutely not!" and went into this lecture about not needing a phone period.  That he's only 14 and does not need to spend that kind of money on a phone.  What if he lost it or broke it.  Then he'd be out $600!  We went on to say that it's a priviledge and not a right...you know the one.  Anyways, of course after about 3 seconds of that conversation all Shayne heard was "blah, blah, blah, blah, blah!"  But we got the point across and he settled on the LG Xenon.  Not a bad phone if I do say so myself; it's the one I have and I quite like it. 


Well, he happily enjoyed his phone untill...he did a load of his laundry and forgot it in his sweatshirt pocket.  After about 15 minutes, he realized what he had done and ran down to the washer to get it out.  He was freaking out!  Swearing and all (which he apologized for later).  He gave it to me as if I could save his precious phone.  We got out my trusty blow dryer and did what we could.  Annie, his girlfriend suggested wrapping it in foil and putting it in the oven on a very low heat for awhile.  Then the guy at the store where we bought it said to stick it in a glass full of rice with a couple of chunks of salt.  I guess it's suppose to draw out any moisture?  I thought it was a little strange but Shayne was willing to try anything.  He figured he had nothing to lose.  So we did both.


Today the phone is working.  Don't know how but it works.  The only thing that he has to do is plug earphones into it to talk on it.  If the ear phones aren't plugged in, we hear nothing.  The texting works fine!  Phew!


The lesson in all of this?  Aside from not washing your phone of course.  The more you have, the more you stand to lose.  And of course, mom and dad are ALWAYS right! =)  I also told him that this was God's way of showing him that expensive things like a $600 phone is not needed.  That we should not put so much importance of having "stuff" that really isn't important in the big picture.  I think Shayne needed a little reminder to be grateful for everything he has even though it may not be the best or newest thing out there.  I think teens in general (with a few exceptions) need to be reminded of what the important things in life are.  And that material belongings are not one of them.  I think we all need that reminder every now and then.