Something with a ring to it.

Yep. It's time for the biannual phone shopping blitz. I feel like I'm in Vegas. Either I'm going to win big or my losses will set me back for a couple of years. The kids are wild with excitement, especially our oldest, because we're buying a third phone. He thinks it will be his, no matter how many times we explain it's a "general backup phone" for whoever needs it. He KNOWS he's the only one who will need it for at least a year. He sees it as his ticket to freedom.

He's almost eleven, and we have never been willing to leave him home alone. We used the "no home phone" as our excuse. Now it seems, our time for excuses is up. We're going to have to trust him a little more and let him grow up a little bit.

Last spring, when we had to have three kids at three different places we realized the time had come. One of us had to leave our phone with him at mathletics so the other one could call him from the car with sleeping toddlers and let him know where to find us afterwards. We found we didn't like having a parent sacrifice his/her phone when we were kid coordinating and on the move. The time for the third line has come.

Yet what kind of phone? The possibilities are endless. We think we have settled on a kid phone. It's made out of recycled materials, inexpensive to replace if it gets broken or lost, and does NOT have internet access or IM or a full sized keyboard for texting. We can wait on the data plans for another two years at least.

The adult phones are a much harder decision, and a much larger gamble. Those are the ones where we feel like we're playing cards at a casino. Do we stay in the game? Do we hold? Do we call? Are we going to bust? Guess we'll find out soon.