April Fools

My voice is slowly improving. I still sound scratchy and a little horse. Thanks for all of you who have asked about it.

So April fools.... I hated to make the entire day a loss. I actually had some plans that needed to be carried out, regardless of my voice.

I thought I would share the only major prank I pulled this year. –which would not have been possible without the help of many, many people.


Mike and I belong to a young married couples Sunday school class at our church. The teachers, Jackson and Becky, are wonderful, fun, interesting, kind, loving people. Becky is especially outgoing and very much an extrovert. My computer had “live wire” as a synonym to extrovert, so I’m thinking that is, in fact, the right word to use to describe her. Well, I’ve kind of gotten to know her better over the last year, and I really like her. I’d like to think we are friends. Her birthday happens to be on…

April 1st

It explains a lot. Sort of like you might expect my birthday to be on April 1st…
After finding out her birthday was coming up, I told Becky, “We need to throw you a party!!!” She told me she was going to be out of the state and wouldn’t be here. I was really wanting a party so I just said that we’d throw her one regardless, even if she couldn’t make it. It’s the thought that counts anyway right?

The next week and one day before her birthday were spend harassing her.

I tell her we are going to have the party at her house.
I ask for a house key. She refuses.
I keep asking for her daughter’s phone number so I can get a house key from her.
I tell her how much fun we are going to have at the party and ask if she is sure she can’t make it.
I go through her purse looking for her cell phone to find her daughter’s phone number… I get caught… Kelsey and Kerry are not good lookout people.
I try to get the alarm code for the security system.
I send out an email to our whole Sunday school class inviting them to Becky’s party at her house.
I then send out an email to everyone but Jackson and Becky telling them that it is a joke and not to show up for the party. –Several replied to Jackson telling him they were coming. (they were getting in on the joke)

My plan now was to convince Becky that we actually had her birthday party at her home while she was away – on Wednesday night.

I still need Sarah’s (Becky’s daughter) number.

Turns out, all you have to do is call the church to get any phone number you want. They gave me Sarah’s number.

I contact her and arrange to get the key.

I wanted to make it look VERY convincing. For that to work I needed the most important party leftover…

TRASH.

I needed plates, cups, napkins and plastic ware that appeared used.

A friend and I bought a cake, streamers, a banner, all the above mentioned stuff, balloons and gift wrap.

We decorated the cake –complete with a birthday message for Becky.
I arranged for a party at AWANA (Wed. night church) for my grade school girls to each most of the cake, dirty the plates and pack them up for me to deliver.

Thursday morning –the day Becky and Jackson were slated to get back I packed up my car full of fellow pranksters and paraphernalia and headed out to the country.

Here is what we did at the house:
-Taped up streamers
-Blew up balloons
-Popped a few
-Put 3 huge empty wine bottles (that a friend got from her mother-in-laws) on the kitchen counter
-Set out half-empty two-liters, opened bags of chips
-Lots of cups with their friend’s names written on them
-Hung up a banner
-Put the cake in the fridge
-Filled up the trash can full of our party trash
-Strategically left a man’s coat on the barstool
-Toilet papered her fichus tree with streamers
-Admired the humming birds outside the kitchen window
-Wadded up wrapping paper and stuck it around
-Taped a half-sheet of poster board to a tree by the road. The sign read: BECKY’s PARTY ---->

Then we left.

I called a guy in our class and asked him if he’d call Jackson and tell him that he left his coat at the house ON WEDNESDAY night at the party and would Jackson mind bringing it to church on Sunday.

He did. Ended up having to leave a message. Perfect.

Nothing left to do but wait.

So we waited.

And waited.

Anyone who has every pulled a prank knows that the best part is finding out the reaction.

The best way to retaliate over a prank is to not respond. To act like it never happened. That will drive the prankster CRAZY!!!

About 9:00 that night we got a response. Jackson emailed the whole Sunday school class. His email read:

Well....I obviously should be checking my email more often. Becky and Ijust got back from Chicago and it looks like you guys had the partywithout us. I hope there were plenty of designated drivers! Oh, by the way, we saw the wrapping paper but couldn't find the gifts? Ihope one of them is a carpet shampooer. We certainly need it now. Hope everyone had fun!

That’s all he said. I couldn’t tell what he was thinking. If he was actually upset about it all.

Finally the next day Becky called asking where her presents were. I kept playing along and told her that someone might have carried it off… that a couple of people (I used names) had a bit too much to drink and we had to take Chris's keys away. She just laughed.

Still couldn’t tell if she was hiding something.

After it all came out, they weren’t mad. We fooled them for a little while, but they figured it out before very long. I think they thought it was funny and weren’t too concerned about the whole “breaking and entering” thing in fact...

they still haven’t even asked for their house key back.