OK, my question is fairly long and involved, but any help would be great.

In January of this year my wife and I switched from Helio to Verizon Wireless on a 2 year deal. My wife got a Voyager and I went with the LD Dare and neither of us opted for insurance because we both were always careful with phones. Well of course, 5 months later, my 7 year old niece jumped into the deep end of the local pool and I had to dive in after her. She was ok, but the Dare was done. So I called Verizon wireless and explained to them the situation, but without insurance they said my only option was a one time, 1 year contract price on any phone I wanted. After reviewing my options I decided to go with the Blackberry Storm because it was $50 cheaper than the dare and it had more features. And of course, I opted for insurance this time just in case. Well after 4 months with the Storm, I absolutely hate it. I have to do at least one battery pull a day because of freezes or other glitches. And, even after I adjusted to it, I am still not a fan of the sure press screen. So now I am stuck with a phone I don’t like, but there a lot of great looking phones coming out this holiday season and I would like to upgrade. My cancellation fee is $135, but I would like to stay with Verizon and maybe go with the Omnia 2 or one of the new google phones they have coming out. But, I don’t want to pay the crazy $500 price on a smart phone without a new contract. Is there any way around this? Can I cancel and then turn around and do a new line on my wife’s plan (it is in her name since Texas teachers get a nice discount) or will they block that and make me do a new separate account? We could both cancel and go to another service provider, but that would be two $135 cancel fees, plus the start up costs for both of us to get new phones.
I am looking for the cheapest way out of this mess, so any help would be appreciated. Thanks!