An Unplugged Start To The Week + A New iPhone

Good morning and happy Thursday my friends. I woke up at 4:15a and there wasn’t going to be any more sleeping so I’m writing this from under a blanket on the couch with my windows open for the cool morning air. The birds chirping, the sun is rising and I’m on my second cup of coffee.

This is my first post of the week because I have been living in the stone ages over here. When I left my house Monday morning the wifi was working, when I got home at lunch it was out. I did some troubleshooting with AT&T and it was clear that it was an issue for a service technician. They couldn’t get someone here until Wednesday afternoon so I have been very unplugged. I live in the middle of Charlotte but for whatever reason, my neighborhood is a complete dead zone for cell service. I have to use wifi for everything when I am at home – including calls – so I wasn’t even able to use my phone as a hot spot to get online. There are definitely much worse things that can happen in a week but I have felt unproductive with work.

I do have to say that I was super pleased with the customer service that I received from AT&T ranging from the initial call to the service visit to an unexpected account management visit. As the technician was finishing up repairing my fiber line (something had happened on the pole outside – likely due to the winds we’ve had lately), another AT&T car pulled up and the most lovely woman, Angela, did an account overview/check-up that resulted in me switching my mobile service from Verizon to AT&T – and a new purple iPhone 14 Pro Max. Finn insisted that I HAD to choose the purple since it’s my favorite color. 🙂

I have been with Verizon for as long as I’ve had a mobile phone but was open to switching – especially given the service issues I have in my neighborhood. I’ve also been wanting to upgrade my iPhone as my 11 Pro Max was over three years old. I shoot almost all of my content and videos with my iPhone and was to the point where I needed a camera upgrade.

Was I planning to get a new iPhone yesterday? Sure wasn’t. But Angela made it all so easy that I felt like it was a divine blessing. We ended up spending over two hours together and she made the process of switching and getting a new phone so easy. We also bonded over being single moms to boys (her son is 20 months old), health and fitness (she runs and wants to get into yoga) and juicing. It was SO NICE to do all of this in my home while Finn was hanging out and playing and not be sitting in a store for hours on end. Also, my bill is less than it was with Verizon AND includes the new phone installments, a program where I can upgrade to the iPhone 15 when it comes out and insurance. I was able to trade-in my paid off iPhone 11 Pro Max for a $700 credit and they credited my account another $200 as a bonus for switching or bundling or something. I don’t even know.

That was a lot of words about internet and phones but I feel like it’s a good thing to share when a company knocks customer service out of the park!

And here are a few photos of what life has looked like since I checked in last Saturday.

We shot Finn’s five year photos with Deanna on Sunday evening at Morning Glory Farm. It’s a working farm located outside of Charlotte but they do a lot of weddings and events. I actually realized once I got there that I’d been to a wedding there many years ago. It was such a pretty location for our photos. Deanna had booked the space to do mini sessions on Sunday and we were lucky to snag the last spot of the evening! The light was amazing.

And how handsome is my sweet boy? Can’t believe I’m going to have a five year old in a couple of weeks!

Here we are looking a little more casual in the carpool line at preschool. We were having a full on dance party to Baby Shark Trap Remix (listen to this song and just try not to dance when that beat drops – haha) and it was the absolute best start to a Monday ever. The amount of joy this little human brings into my life is just unbelievable.

Finn has had an awesome week at preschool. They had a petting zoo visit the school yesterday!

And I couldn’t resist snapping a picture of the daily recap when I picked him up. It makes my heart so happy that his days are filled with so much fun and play. They only have a few more weeks of school and we’ll be winding down the fours. It’s been a great year.

I was able to squeeze in a trail run between teaching yoga/training clients and preschool pickup yesterday. It was in the 60s, sunny and low humidity and I had a great run.

I haven’t been running outside as much the last few months and it just feels so good – especially when I can get on the trails/greenway. Trying to take advantage of this last bit of cooler spring weather before the summer heat and humidity kicks in and running gets very sweaty and very hard for a few months.

Alrighty, time to make some breakfast and get the kiddo out of bed and ready for school. On deck for me today is preschool drop off, training a client, teaching yoga, taking yoga, preschool pickup, video editing for the app and shooting video for a partnership. I’m also hoping to get my crew out for an evening walk.

I hope y’all have a beautiful day!

QUESTIONS

When’s the last time you had surprisingly great customer service? 

Do you do insurance on your phone? (this is my first time adding it in a long time – thought I would for the first year or so and then drop it)

Do you have any current running goals?