Tuesday, April 01, 2008

APRIL FOOL'S DAY GIVEAWAY...
NO JOKE...REALLY!
.
Okay, so I was quite the prankster back in the day. I once froze a girl's underwear at youth retreat. She was not pleased with me to say the least. Short sheeting beds the summer I worked as a maid at a Christian conference center was an employee perk in my estimation. One year I sent out an email announcing that I was pregnant to scores and scores of family and friends. Considering the fact that I was so often pregnant, it was a VERY believable April Fool's Day joke. The prank the kids remember best is when I convinced them one year that it was NOT April Fool's Day and thus spared myself of annoying stunts and jokes all day long, that is until their Dad came home and told them the truth. Believe me, being a homeschool mom of SEVEN can make this day TORTURE! They were pretty unhappy with me but it was SO worth it!
.
That said, today's giveaway is NOT a prank...promise! I had originally planned on giving away another book today, but decided to change the prize. In honor of today, I'll be giving away an April Fool's Day themed prize.
.
I'll make to order a beaded bracelet with the word "LAUGH" as part of the design...you get to choose the color and size.
.
How to enter? Leave me a comment telling me either the best April Fool's Day prank you ever pulled on someone or tell me about one pulled on you. The kids and I will choose our favorite and that comment poster (or someone they love) will soon be sporting a bracelet that reminds them and those around them that life is better when filled with laughter!
.
And since no one has been able to pull a fast one over on me yet today, I'm feeling extra generous. I'll hold a second drawing for those who post about this drawing at YOUR blog or other web page. Just leave me a comment telling me that you've linked back to this blog and I'll enter your name in the drawing. You do NOT have to leave a April Fool's Day story to qualify for this drawing. The winner of that one will also receive a custom-designed "LAUGH" bracelet as a thank-you for spreading the fun!
.
In order to have time for plenty of fun tales to be posted, I'll let this drawing run til next Tuesday at noon.
.
So let the storytelling (and snorting) begin!

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hmmm... the best prank I can think of is that phony we're expecting announcement you sent out years ago. I think you still had a wee one under a year at the time and I totally believed it. I called my husband right away to tell him you were pregnant AGAIN before I even got to the end of it.

I don't play April's fool pranks... I don't know why that is. Maybe I'll think one up and think it up quick!

Shauna said...

I'm not big on April Fool's Day and don't remember any particular pranks of my own, although I played some silly pranks through the year on a good friend in high school (I knew her locker combination, and she never knew what she was going to find when she opened the door). One of my former high school classmates called her parents from her dorm her freshman year in college and told them she was pregnant. She apparently gave quite a performance, with fake tears and everything. Needless to say, they did not think that was a funny April Fool's Day prank AT ALL, especially since one of her good friends had a baby our senior year in HS!

Probably my favorite prank is one that was featured once on The Office--putting someone's cell phone in the ceiling and replacing the ceiling tile. Some coworkers did that to a manager where I used to work, and it took him several hours to find it. He could hear it but had no idea where the ring was coming from.

Anonymous said...

I got nuthin. I'll do the link instead.

Elysa said...

Thanks, Shauna and Kelly.

BTW, Kelly...just a bit ago son "D" said to me..."do you remember that April Fool's joke when you sent out an email telling everyone you were pregnant?"

Aah...the memories my children will have of their years with me. ;)

Flea said...

My dad was huge on pranks in general, but especially April Fool's Day. I was traumatized and have blocked most of them from my memory. :D

Just today my 14, nearly 15 year old daughter came home from school (this is my children's first year in public school after being homeschooled their entire lives) and told me that someone kissed her today. I pushed for names and reasons, which she gave begrudgingly. I'm ready to be calling someone's mom when she yells, "April Fool!"

Karen Deborah said...

Elyssa, my best April Fools story is you. Your, "we're pregnant again" nearly gave me a heart attack, you already had a LITTLE baby (which one can't remember) nad I thought, ok she has LOST it, she already has at least 2 in diapers and she is happy about this! so uh can't think of anything else. I'll post about ya though.

Sugga Mama said...

Hey, I love April Fools Day! It's kinda my holiday since my birthday is the next day.

At our house we play pranks on each other daily, but we try to step it up on April Fools day.

I stayed up Monday night and slipped in Elijah's room and painted his toe nails with red paint and sprayed green hair paint in his hair. Dakota new I'd try to get him so he stayed up all night long. Last year Dakota slept in gloves and socks.

I posted about our day on my blog and posted pictures of Elijah's feet and hair.

I think my favorite April Fools Prank was two years ago. We always have cake and ice cream because of my birthday. My brother and his girlfriend came over. She has a big sweet tooth and loves cake and ice cream. I fixed everyone a bowl of cake and ice cream except in Amber's bowl I put a scoop of mash potatoes instead of ice cream and put chocolate syrup all over em. We all sat down to eat and she got a big spoonful of mash potatoes and put em in her mouth. Imagine her surprise! She knew right away and said "Ya'll are so mean!"
It was so funny!

Elysa said...

Here's a story (and entry) from my FIAR "Bracelet Babe" friend Ang---

"One year, when I was in grad school, Easter fell on April Fool's Day. Well, I was 500 miles from home and my car was acting up, so during all of Holy Week, I had debated back and forth about whether or not to go home for Resurrection Sunday. My parents were well-aware of my dilemma, too, which made for a perfect April Fool's opportunity.

You see, my dad's a pastor, and Easter Sunday is the biggest day of the year for a pastor. So, bright and early that morning, I called my tender-hearted dad and began to pour out my woes:

"Dad, I don't know what I'm going to do. I wanted to show up in church this morning and surprise you, so I started driving last night and I'm halfway there, but a little while ago the car started making some terrible noises and I just barely made it to a gas station. I hate to tell you this, but, they say the engine's blown."

After a few gasps of horror, my dad asked me where I was, at which point I proceeded to make up the name of a town and keep the story going. I remember him finally saying, "Well, honey, I don't know how I'm going to help you. I'm supposed to be preaching my Easter sermon in just a few hours." By this point, he was positively groaning with dismay. So, at last, I broke it to him: "APRIL FOOL'S!" And, I'll never forget his response: "ANG! I'm gonna' come down there and kick your butt!!!"

It was my crowning glory in a long line of April Fool pranks. Even now, over a decade later, I can still get him, too...hehehe. Like this morning, I called him up at 8:15 AM and in dramatic tones asked if he was ready for the huge ice storm that was coming their way. "Oh, yeah, Dad, haven't you seen the weather report? It's supposed to hit around 6 PM and drop at least 2 inches of ice on you. Then, they say it's gonna' snow tonight and you'll have about 4 inches of snow on top of 2 inches of ice tomorrow morning!" And he fell for it!!

LOL!!!!! He is SOOOOOOO gullible!!! I love it!

~ Angela"

Elysa said...

My Book-Twin Barbara R. and her family are at the beginning of a great adventure...going on staff for Wycliffe Bible Translators. I'm so excited for them. As a result, they're getting RID of stuff and so she doesn't need a LAUGH bracelet, but she wanted to join in on the fun anyway. Here's her April Fool's Day offering:

:) :D :) :D :) :D

Back when I was teaching in a Christian School in the NW, my class and I pulled an April Fool’s joke on the next-door class. I had all my second graders get VERY quiet, and then I went next-store to the third grade classroom, threw open the door, and, to their quietly working class I announced, “Are you coming to the school assembly? We’re all waiting for you at the gym!” The teacher and all the students were at first just startled by the abrupt intrusion, but then the shame of not even KNOWING about this assembly set in. It was about that time I wished them a Happy April Fool’s Day and left them in peace to laugh and feel relieved!

:D :) :D :) :D :)

Thanks for the story, Barbara! You might be the quite one in our relationship, but beyond the "obvious" we're such kindred spirits. :)

Elysa said...

Here's my friend Audra O's post, via email:


One day, in junior high, I set all the watches in one of my classes to go off every two minutes. This was the time of musical alarms, so one minute you'd have the General Lee tune (from Dukes of Hazard) in one corner of the room, and two minutes later the theme from Star Wars from another -- interspersed with random bells and whistles. It interrupted the entire lesson.

In high school, I reprised this idea, but took it a step further -- we had old-fashioned built-in metal lockers in my school, and I got lots of people to bring in wind-up alarm clocks, and we set them for random times and put them in lockers all along the top corridor. It was very loud!

Probably the best prank -- we completely flipped our geometry teacher's room, down to and including the stuff on the walls. I got her husband to call her and keep her on the phone for as long as possible during our class. The office was on the other end of the corridor, and the only place she could take the call. When she got back after about 7 miuntes, we had completely rearranged the room -- everything was opposite to where it had been when she left.

Have to say, your "we're having another baby" email is what I think of when I think of good April Fool's Day pranks! Simple, believable...but so not true!

Audra x

Rhonda Jeanne said...

Check out my husband's April fool's joke at http://wyattroberts.blogspot.com/2008/04/pz-myers-converts-to-christianity.html#comments

shannon said...

ok, i'm not much of a prankster, so i'll tell you the only april fools joke i ever got away with. you really had to be there, but i'll try to recreate it as best i can. i used to work part-time at night at chick-fil-a and i worked with a bunch of crazy teenagers. well there was this one that would always take my food while on my break and hide it so that it would take my whole break to find it. so april fools day i was on my way in when i saw his car in the parking lot. now i still say this was a God-thing because i couldn't have come up with it on my own. now he was real picky about his car as most teens are so i got a piece of paper and wrote on it with a marker that i was sorry i hit his car but i couldn't leave my info because i didn't have insurance, but i was so sorry! i stuck it under his wiper and went to work as usual. later when we closed, everybody walked out together. it was me, him, his brother, and our manager. his car was first, so we waved goodbye and me and the manager kept going. i told the manager to go slow that i had played a joke on him and i discreetly looked behind. he was reading the note with his brother looking on and he looked real worried. that's when he hollered at us to come back. he was freaking out about this time and started running all around his car looking at it. all this while me and the manager are pretending to read this note, looking surprised and keeping our cool! he starts at the back bumper, then goes around the side inspecting every part, then to the front bumper where i had a sign that said "april fools!" we all fell out laughing so hard and we all joked about that for a long time after! hey, if you can't mess with teenagers, who can you mess with!