We Are Now a Four Cell Phone Family

And this is kinda freakin' out Tom and me.

We always looked at those television ads for family calling plans and scoffed at the people who had all those cell phones. One more time, "never say never."

I have a cell phone which I rarely turn on but we've had it for years since the days when Hannah and Rose were altar servers. We wouldn't know exactly when to pick them up from serving weddings or funerals and ... what the heck, we traveled enough to think it was a good idea to have a cell phone for emergencies. Right? So that was the family cell phone with minutes bought only as we needed them.

Then Tom got one because he was out of the office enough traveling with his father's illness, visiting his mother often after his dad's death, press checks, meetings, etc. Face it, when you're a three-person office, you have to be able to get in touch with the main guy sometimes. So there you go.

Hannah began driving about month and a half ago. 'Nuff said there. Now if we could only get her to remember to always leave it on and turn the ringer back on. But that is par for the course.

And Rose? Why does she have a cell phone?

We bought a phone for Hannah but for some reason the system kept saying that they didn't have any phone numbers to give out. After two days of that Tom got exasperated and went out and got a different phone that had proprietary phone numbers and was able to start right away.

So then we had that extra phone but it had only been about $20. We meant to return it but kept forgetting. And then this weekend, Rose spent most of the day with friends at the movies and the mall. She refused my phone saying that friends would have cell phones. Except that she wrote the number down illegibly. And a different friend's father called who needed to get in touch with his child whose phone battery had run down. And Hannah had dropped them off but we had never been to this mall ... and got lost on the way there. And so on and so forth.

Rose, who was the only person in the entire family who really cared if she had a cell phone ... is now thrilled. Enough time had gone by that phone numbers were plentiful and Tom gave her that little phone. Now all we have to do is call her on it to make her happiness complete.

And we are one of those families where everyone is connected ... as long as Hannah and I each remember to turn ours on.

The only consolation is that we still only have one television. Using the roof antenna for reception. In the back room of the house. Which is only on when someone is watching something.

We're not going to talk about the two VCRs and DVD player. The three computers. The three iPods and a Shuffle. The scanner. The wireless connection. Or the four cell phones.