The Latest With My Galaxy S5

Each month I team with U. S. Cellular and tell you a little more about my smart phone…this is one of those posts.

Kelli was home last weekend helping me get ready for Kalissa’s bridal shower.  While we were working I was asking her about our summer schedule.  We have a few places that we’re heading out to for trunk shows and teaching events plus we are hosting the retreat with Bonnie Hunter here as well.  I was asking about dates and when everything was.  Kelli is the secretary of our duo.  She takes care of most of that stuff.  I am a person who just worries about the couple days in front of me…Kelli, she worries about them all.

As we were talking we started laughing about a trip we made home from Cedar Rapids last year.  It was a crazy one that’s for sure.  If it wasn’t for Kelli’s cell phone she’d have likely have lost it!  The weather was bad and storming….really storming.  Tornadoes were being sited and we just kept driving.  Kelli of course wanted me to pull over but the info we were getting from her cell phone and the radio in the truck lead me to believe that storm was south of us..so I kept driving.

What made the storm even scarier was getting a call from Karl in the middle of it.  He didn’t have a smart phone and he had just moved into an apartment and the cable wasn’t hooked up yet.  He had no access to weather information.

To make matters even worse, the same thing was happening with Craig…no cable, no smart phone.

Then Kayla was attending a college week long camp with graduate credits at UNI…again nowhere to get weather info.

So as I drove, Kelli fielded calls from her siblings on my phone.  She checked the weather on her phone.  We listened to the radio and I just drove.  The weather was awful…torrential rain and bad winds.

Finally we heard that a tornado had touch down briefly by Hawkeye.  That’s just where we were headed.  I knew Hubby would be out serving as a weather spotter so I had Kelli call him so he could advise if we should stop or keep going.  We kept going….

I was a trip I’ll never forget…nor will Kelli.  Trust me, Kelli was freaked out!!

Luckily today’s mobile devices can be loaded with apps that can help plan a trip, organize a busy calendar and keep you up to the minute on summer thunderstorms…something Kelli and I definitely need.

Google Calendar helps organize busy summer schedules in one convenient place. This app allows users to sync calendars across multiple devices, and push notifications will help ensure your family makes it to every practice, family party and appointment on time.

Don’t get caught off-guard by a summer shower or severe weather with the Yahoo Weather app. It offers detailed information on wind, precipitation, sunrise and sunset times and provides twice daily notifications to prepare you for changing conditions.

Both of those apps have become especially handy for me.

A new app that I discovered that I’m just checking out is this…For those looking to edit and share their favorite summer memories, Snapseed offers pro-level photo editing capabilities in an intuitive, user friendly interface that is great for perfecting photos taken on your phone. Snapseed also allows users to share their photos via email, Facebook and Twitter.

I’d love to be one of those people who could give up their smart phone…but I’m not.  It’s my luxury that has become a necessity.

You can be use when we’re out and about this summer we’ll be checking our phones…not just for personal info but for the weather information too.  Kelli talks about that ride through the storm often.  She also talks about how glad she was to her Samsung Galaxy S5 along to help her through it all…