My friend wrote a blog post, for April Fools day- http://frieddillpickles.blogspot.com/2009/04/my-april-fools-day-14-years-ago.html
And Bill and I were talking this morning about another friend... who's husband does some crazy things for April Fools.
When Bill got home this morning, he was reading blogs, and went looking for something from our friends, saying it's well past time in Germany that they could have posted something! He was just sure that D had tried to pull something over on the family. (not that they haven't been onto him for years!) He's done it enough the kids used to refuse to even eat breakfast in the morning, because he has been known to put some scary things in the cereal boxes, or to switch out salt in the sugar bowl, or add things to the milk carton, etc... http://thetravelingdeckers.blogspot.com/2009/04/april-fools-day.html
As for us... April Fools went by without much fanfare at all. Although the other day I thought, too bad it isn't April fools today! I would have gotten Amanda!
Sh really wanted to go drive her dad's truck (it is standard and she wanted to get some more practice on it). She was going to just go drive around the neighborhood! I told her NO! and asked if she was going to be paying for the gas to just drive in circles?!?! She said it never mattered before when I used to go driving with her (around in circles in the neighborhood), when she was learning to drive. I reminded her she knows how to drive and has her license now!!! She said, it would be like learning, as she needs practice on the stick shift.
A little while later, I needed something from the grocery store to make dinner, so I asked if she wanted to go. She jumped at the chance!
Dad was getting ready to take Hannah to soft ball practice, and he was waiting for her to get back with the truck. I said, he should drive the van over, and switch it out and take the truck and see how long it took her to call because the truck had been stolen! If it had been April first I might have pushed him a bit harder to do it! ;-} Of course if she had called the police first or something, I'm sure no one would have been happy wit us (me)!!!
I love you Amanda!
On to MY April fools message...
21 years ago today... Bill and I got engaged! April fools!!!!!
I had been dating/going with another guy 'R' for over 1 1/2 yrs. I met Bill just after I met the other guy. Bill and I became good friends. He was the one I called when I'd been in a car accident and I wanted to 'see' someone, but was too embarrassed with my black eye to have anyone else see me! 'R' was a bit of a long distance relationship, as he attended school that year a couple of hours south. If 'R' wasn't around and available for the weekend, I'd hang with Bill.
Bill was the GOOD Guy!!! Everyone's friend! He usually had anywhere from one to 5 or more girls hanging around with him. (Not a bad life some might say...), however, He was always the one we'd go to when we weren't dating jerks, or when they hurt us and broke our hearts, etc!!!
We called Bill to ask if he had plans for Labor Day weekend - We were going on a Young Adult activity and driving up to Niagara Falls and 'Doing some Church stuff". The Young Adults from Church were cadets and it was an 'official field trip' and they could only make the arrangements for the Cadets, and could only drive the cadets up in the military vehicle/van, etc... So we of course wanted to go, and we called and invited Bill to come with us! We drove, 5 girls and Bill 10 hours in a small Hyundai to get to Niagara. (Wow! We're about to come full circle with our oldest heading off to Niagara to go to school in the fall!)
We had a fun weekend, and several months later he told us (after he asked to attend institute class with us and he walked right up and talked to the Missionaries, and asked to be baptised!) that the Trip to Niagara, and to see some "church stuff" had changed his life! He had felt the spirit when he was in The Sacred Grove. Done his own research and study... and felt the truthfulness of the Gospel. He didn't tell any of us, because he wanted to make his own decision, not have it be because we had helped influence him at all!
In Feb. when he got baptised his parents had gotten mad, and his dad told him not to come home... (He got over it obviously!!!) But in March, when it was time for Spring Break, it seemed, he had no place to go (and you can't really stay in the barracks during Break, it is closed down). I asked my bosses (I was a Nanny and lived about 40 minutes drive away), if Bill could stay at their home. He had been around and my bosses liked him, (they weren't as fond of my boyfriend 'R') so they said yes.
Starting in Jan, things had gotten sort of rough between 'R' and I (he was dealing with a lot of personal family issues, and wasn't dealing well...). Not that Bill and I weren't close before that, but over spring break he finally called home... he asked if he was welcome, and his dad said of course! So we drove down to Virginia over a weekend.
Back in those days... we were all (our group of friends) very skilled at sarcasm! We used to keep imaginary score in the air, "that's One point for me!!!" "Burned you!" Things like that. It was all innocent fun... While we were home over that Spring Break weekend, Bill's dad commented several times how we (Bill and I), were like an old married couple!
When we were packed up and ready to go, they put me in the car, and then Bill and his dad said their goodbye's... When Bill got in the car, he was sort of laughing and I asked what his dad had said? Bill told me his dad had said, "Well, if I can't come to the wedding, can I at least come to the party afterward?" We laughed and laughed... because WE - Bill and I - WEREN'T a COUPLE!!! We did take it that his dad had accepted him joining the Church. So we were pretty happy about that.
After, all the time we'd spent together, we had gotten really close. As Bill was getting toward the end of his Junior ('Cow') year at West Point, the cadets were beginning to make some choices about their lives, and their futures. Such as what type of job in the Army they might like to do. Where they might like to be stationed at for their first assignment. What kind of car they will want to buy (cadets can not have a car for the first three years they are at West Point, so toward the end of Cow year, all the banks come and vie for them to take out a pre-approved amount loan, so they can buy a car for their Firsty (senior) year. with no payments until they graduate and are commissioned into the Army, and are getting a paycheck. ), etc...
Anyway, we had many, many long conversations, where we would be talking about Bill's future and we'd end up talking about 'us' and 'we' as we went through the conversations, and then we'd stop ourselves and laugh... We WEREN'T a COUPLE!!!!!
After a while of this (well I guess not too long, since this all started in March sometime), we started talking and thinking about 'us' and a 'we' and a 'life together'. It felt comfortable, and we could really see a future of us together... BUT... WE WERE NOT a COUPLE!!!! I was still sort of waiting around for the other guy 'R' to pull himself back together... and we were never romantically involved. So I had a long talk with 'R' and told him I didn't think we had a future together... (this part sort of happened earlier in March). We didn't officially END it, but it was sort of understood.
I had not planned on a relationship or a lifetime with Bill. I loved him - as a Friend, but I wasn't really IN LOVE with him at that point... so I sort of had to jump into love! Weird! we talked about it... and decided to be in love. again I say Weird! I certainly hadn't planned or thought about getting engaged at that point... I wasn't sure I 'could' do it!!! I told Bill, he could ask me to marry him officially on April first, so I could say yes, but not really HAVE to mean it. (Horrible!!!!)
So... I'm FINALLY getting to the point of this whole post...
21 years ago today, My sweetheart, asked me to MARRY him, I said, yes. We looked at each other and said, APRIL FOOLS!!!!!!
However, as you can see - that really was it! I wouldn't let him tell anyone till I had a ring (again, dumb I know!)... He called my daddy on the 5th of April, to 'ask for my hand in marriage'. The only ones we let in on the 'secret', were my bosses (where I lived and nannied). (I was on the phone for hours late one night - and my boss who always went to bed NO later than 9 pm and did not accept phone calls, had an important business phone call and they couldn't' get through. Remember the days before call waiting and cell phones? Bill and I would talk every night, from 9-10:58 p.m at night when TAP's would start to play... and he'd have to RUN back from the basement payphones, to his room upstairs in the barracks by 11:00 p.m.). SO When my boss got onto me the next evening after work, and said, she could understand if I was talking to my 'boyfriend' (R), but why did I need to talk for hours at night to Bill??? Once we told them we were getting engaged, and had been looking for rings at the Jewelry stores in the mall... my boss told me we couldn't do that, and they sent us off to NYC to see their Jeweler friends!!!
I came home with a lovely ring... and the next day we walked in to Church... I had a ring, it was shiny and new and sparkly!!! People were excited for me and congratulated me... however, there were a few people who weren't sure WHO the ring was from, as I had been dating the other guy for a year and a half... There were also those who gave us a hard time and said, they KNEW it for a long time, and were just waiting for us to wake up and realize we WERE a COUPLE!!!
A very happy ending to a very complicated story... If you managed to stick with me through it all, thank you. Hope you weren't too bored!
Showing posts with label April Fools. Show all posts
Showing posts with label April Fools. Show all posts
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