Just Trying to Help a Friend

As many of you know, my BFF Vern and I have been involved in a bit of prank war that has lasted well over ten years. Vern had the last go when she gift wrapped everything in my fridge while I was out of town. Today I decided to provide some improvements to her car. While she was at church. (I think you can be a good person, even if you play a prank on someone while they are preoccupied at church, dontcha think?)


Of course, being the good friend that I am, I started out by doing some service. Her back window was awfully dirty. (BB#2 took some of these pitchers, so they are a tad blurry.)
Once her window was all clean, it looked a little plain. I figured I would jazz it up with some decals.
When it was all done, I thought it looked pretty good. Definitely an improvement.

Each decal was selected carefully to reflect Casa de Vern. (For those of you who know Vern, she has two kids, but I figured that she probably has extra kids just hanging around. And I'm sure there's been a rooster in the yard at least once - maybe.) I'm particularly fond of how Cory is so proud that "My wife is HOT!"

Despite the fact that I was done working on her car by 1:00 this afternoon, she didn't notice until after 5:00. It leaves me a little concerned that her teenage driver wasn't checking her rear view mirror very well.

I can't take too much credit for this. I really just copied the prank that Dodi, Martha and the other Parkview ladies pulled on Tracy. But it was SOOO clever, I just knew it was perfect for Vern.

I did make Vern promise to leave the decals on for at least a little while.

Old Friend

I saw one of my best friends from high school today. She lives in Maryland, and I haven't seen her for TEN years. (Geography has not been kind to us!)

Shanna is one of my oldest friends. We became friends when her family moved to New York - well over twenty-five years now. She holds my high school secrets, and her parents were like my own.

Shanna and I both worked at Wegmans and were both exchange students (I went to Norway, she went to Sweden.) She was there for my first, and second, loves - and I returned the favor. We took art classes together in high school, and skipped those same art class together. We were bunk mates at Youth Conference and on Temple Trips.

Shanna was a year behind me in school, but the day I graduated from High School - she was there to cheer me on:

I was Shanna's bride's maid in April 1994:

Less than two weeks later, at the same temple, we switched places. (OK, I realize now that, despite the popularity of floral dresses in the 1990s, I should have opted for a solid color, like Shanna did.)

She visited me while I was at BYU. Even after we were both married I was able to visit her a couple times in Maryland. This picture was taken in August 1997, Shanna was pregnant with her second child. She now has three girls, I have three boys.

So today we sat in a park at talked. We chatted about our parents and siblings, our kids, our communities, our travels. We talked about what was hard, what was funny and what worried us for the future. We didn't talk too much about old times, but why would we? We just picked up right where we were. What an amazing gift. Love that girl!

So it Continues

My BFF and I have a long and tangled history of practical jokes. Unfortunately, I didn't think of that when, on our way out of town, we gave her our keys - (so the car could be driven to a pick up location before we got home.)

I got this text before we even got to the airport: "You realize you just gave me ALL of your keys. This should be fun."

But, hey, I was on my way to the Caribbean - so I promptly forgot all about it until we got home last night.

Here's a copy of Vern's blog post:

Dear Ganelle:
I sure hope you had fun on your cruise. Now when people ask you where you got your tan you can say, “I’ve been in the Caribbean!” instead of, “You know that little booth with the cancer beds off of Main Street?” While you’ve been gone you missed a few things like THREE FREAKIN’ SNOW STORMS. I imagine that’s what Christmas feels like in Hell; at first you’re all, “How nice, I think I’ll just take it easy, have some hot chocolate and read a book.” But then on day seven you’re like, “Where’s that ice pick?! I swear I heard someone smile!” Then again, I felt bad because I thought if it was Christmas then you and your whole family were missing it! And with three young boys, how would you possibly be able to stand missing Christmas, even if it was in Hell?

SO.

I have good news and bad news.

Good news: Your house is still standing.

Bad news: It’s FREEZING in there!! Did you completely turn off the heat while you were gone? What if your pipes froze?!Good news: We didn’t see any flooding, so I think you’re good.

Bad news: Your Diet Coke looked really lonely sitting in your fridge all by itself.
Good news: As your friend and a woman who had been fasting since 7am, I jumped in to help.

More good news: When I take pictures with my head tilted back it smooths out my double chin. Bonus!
Bad news: You left a puzzle undone.

Good news: That Cory is such a helper!

Bad news: After being cooped up in a frigid house with closed blinds for a solid week your plants were looking forlorn.
Good news: Forlorn is Drew’s specialty! Here he is giving them a little TLC.

Bad news: Your candlesticks had no candles on them. What do you think they are there for anyway?
Good news: Riiiight. Now I remember.


Bad news: The other 33 cans that we hid around your house are not as easy to find.
Good news: THIRTY-SIX FREE CANS OF DIET COKE!

Bad news: Holy crap, it’s Christmas and we didn’t bring any presents!
Good news: You had some stuff in your fridge. Situation UNDER CONTROL.

Bad news: We got on a roll.


Good news: When you get back if someone complains that you weren’t answering your phone you could be like, “Sorry, I had to unwrap it first.” And then you’ll realize that it’s just easier to say you were going to the bathroom.

Bad news: You’re no longer on vacation.

More bad news: This also means that nobody will be delivering you croissants and orange juice to your room just because you picked up the phone and told them to.To reiterate: Gopher no longer works for you.

Good news: Look at all the pretty colors!

Yours Truly,Vern

p.s. I told Facebook you were expecting and having a girl. Everyone’s really excited for you!

The kids have had a great time unwrapping all the oranges this morning. And they are enjoying hunting for diet Coke (BTW: thanks for those!) You actually held yourself in great restrait! And as for the baby, well, I know I've added a few pounds lately, but really? I don't need everyone checking out my waistline thankyouverymuch!

Trolls!

Do you remember those trolls dolls? Hair like Heatmeiser, naked, squishy faces?

Well, Saturday night I was out for an annual Girls Night with these ladies. (We have all moved to various far and away places, yet we still manage to meet up at least once a year.)

After a relaxing, laughter-filled dinner discussing things like; which Hollywood celebrities we would most want to hang out with, and, how when your college boyfriend picks a Erasure song as "your song" it might just clue you in to his true sexual orientation, we decided to catch a movie.

As we are driving down the highway - at night- all of a sudden this car pulls in front of us COVERED in trolls. They were attached to the front and rear bumpers, to the rear-view mirrors, to the roof of the car and the top of the trunk. (This is a picture that BB#1 found online.)

Laura, our driver, started swerving like a drunk and we all started screaming. We were able to avoid a collision, but that bizarre car kinda freaked us all out. Since it was dark we couldn't tell exactly what was on the car at first- but we saw lots of hair and little bits of faces. SCARY!

What kind of person would attached hundreds of trolls to their car??? We were anxious to pull up next to the car to peek at the driver. We didn't see the long-haried guy in the picture, but rather a middle-age, bald man. Seriously! Not exactly the kind of man I'd leave my kids with! Yikes!

So It Continues

A couple months ago I found the blog of one of my old boyfriends (aka: the Missionary). I had a ton of fun learning about him and his family, until I noticed a site monitor had been added. I called my friend Vern worried that he might know that I had been on his blog. (Not that it really mattered, but I would feel kinda stupid.) After talking to some technical people, I became comfortable that I was in the clear. However, my curiosity had been satiated, and I didn't want to get caught lurking, so I haven't been back since. All's well and good.

Until Tuesday. I got an email from the Missionary. Apparently, he had seen that I had visited his blog and was wondering how I was doing. So BUSTED! So I again called my friend Vern and took her feedback in composing a response. It was all very light, very friendly, and Diamond knew all about it. Then I got his reply:

Well, I haven't quite adopted the enthusiasm of blogging as much as my wife has, but I’ve managed to catch up with a few friends. So, your husband sounds pretty important and successful. Is that why you chose him over me? I was pretty devastated when it didn’t work out between us. My wife is great and everything, but to speak candidly she’s only second best.

Your kids look cuter than mine, too. I know that my wife paints a pretty happy picture on our family blog, but it’s pretty much a façade. On my darkest days I get out old pictures of you and I in college and imagine what might have been, but I know that’s not very healthy. I had a little bit of counseling which helped for a while, and then I saw your picture in the BYU alumni magazine and saw that you hadn’t changed a bit and it brought back old feelings. At least I don’t put that picture under my pillow anymore.

Even though I don’t contribute much to the family blog, I have a secret blog that no one else knows about that’s dedicated to you. I guess it’s okay to tell you about it since you’re the only who will know! The web address is: http://www.iloveganelle.blogspot.com/

If you left a comment it would absolutely make my day!!!

Still Love you,
The Missionary

See, and I thought the practical joke war had faded... Hmmm. What shall I do next???

Prank Wars

I was going to write all about my practical joke war with my friend Kristy, but she beat me to it. So here's an excerpt of her entry:

But I have to say, my crowning accomplishment came when I submitted an outdated picture along with a cheesy update to her college alumni magazine without her knowledge, AND THEY PUBLISHED IT!! We’re still not sure how many ex-boyfriends witnessed this section in the magazine, but I’m confident it’s enough to satiate me my entire life. To retaliate, she secretly made a copy of my house key, then used it when we were on vacation to change our answering machine message, replace every photo in my home with her picture (as well as hiding a total of 140 copies throughout the house), and put our home up for sale. She got two phone calls from interested buyers. Not bad.

I was finding photos of her for months. A year afterward I got out our Pack ‘N Play for a friend who was visiting with her baby and found another copy, and I was pretty sure that was the last one. Until today. I was cleaning out my crawl space when I found what has to be the final picture, discovered inside a box that held a Christmas Tree Stand that we no longer use.

It’s been FOUR YEARS. I cannot believe she braved the dark and creepy crawl space! Then again, we’ve never been much for understanding boundaries. Perhaps that’s another reason we get along so well.

Not bad, if I say so myself!!!

If you'd like to read about more of our jokes, or see the picture Kristy found, click here,