Bones and Narble, a call from Orson Scott Card, and a home refinance falling through

That sums up my April Fools Day, how about you? Every year Jason and I go to great lengths planning our April Fools Day joke on each other. We don’t breath a word about the day, hoping the other will forget, and without fail we pull some prank on each other every year. At first I was good about getting him, now he always knows and doesn’t trust a thing I tell him on that day. This year was no exception.

As many of you know I have sent in some of my writing to Orson Scott Card, and I’ve been waiting to hear back from him. Well I had this great idea to tell Jason that Scott actually called me because he loved my book so much and wanted to write a cover letter to TOR telling them what he thought. Maybe it was too far-fetched, or maybe Jason just doesn’t believe in my writing enough, but he saw straight through me. I thought it would work because I tested it on Sabine first.

She was ecstatic! She was so happy and so pleased for me I felt terribly guilty and quickly pulled the “April Fools” on her. Good thing we were on the phone or she might have hit me. But I was thrilled! I thought: if Sabine fell for it than Jason has to. No.

I call him up, “Guess who I just got off the phone with?”
“Who,” I can tell he’s busy and doesn’t really care.
“Orson Scott Card.”
“Right,” he says, “And he loved your book so much that he wants to publish it himself, no wait, he wants to put his name on it, no wait, I know, he just wanted to tell you that he doesn’t have time to read it, but he has time to call and play April Fools jokes.”
“Ha ha,” I tell him and pretend that I didn’t spend the last week concocting this April fools joke. “What’s your joke, that you got a huge contract for your business and that you can quiet your other jobs.”
“No, that would be lame,” he laughs. I hang up, feeling a little happy that Sabine was kind enough to allow me to fool her.

That morning I had explained April Fools to my daughter and we had fun saying things like, “I just bought you a hundred barbies. April fools! Oh no, your hair is turning blue, April fools.” By the afternoon I thought they had forgotten because we hadn’t said any dumb jokes for several hours. Well I had to run into Barnes and Nobel to grab a book, and as I did my four year old wanted to know the name of the store. I told her, “Barnes and Nobel.” “Bones and Narble?” She said bewildered. “That’s a really weird name.” I agreed and started walking in. Very solemnly she walks up to me and says, “Mom, I really wish your name was Bones and Narble.” I stared at her, surprised by her sincerity and said. “That would be fun, huh?” She grins at me, showing her dimple and says, “April Fools.” She totally got me, the little stinker!

Well, not even ten min after, I get a call from my husband. “I just sent you an email about our refi.” (We are refinancing to get out of an ARM) Since I’m driving I’m half listening and ask him what it’s about. “The deadline for our paperwork has expired and they’re not sure we can go through with it.”
“Yeah right. April Fools.” I wasn’t going to get caught.
“No I’m serious.” And he was. He was so serious! “I tried calling but no one was there.”
I rush home and check the email he sent me, and sure enough, the guy doing our loan sent an email saying he needed to speak with Jason.

My husband dragged it on all day. That night he comforted me, telling me things would probably be fine, it would just take a little longer, and that he would call the guy first thing in the morning. Then right as he was going to bed he softly says, “April Fools”

It took me about half an hour to accept that the whole thing was a joke. I was furious… Now I can’t stop laughing. It was hands down the best joke he has done. Apparently he had taken an old email from the man, forwarded it to himself and changed the message in the email. So it was official looking and everything. That’s what I get for marrying a smart man—I guess.

So what about you, did you get any good pranks done on you, or did you accomplish anything noteworthy? I would love to hear.

Oh, and leaving a bag of groceries in my shopping cart, and totally forgetting about them was not an April Fools joke. I really did that, and didn't even realize it for two days. Surprisingly, Maceys still had the groceries for me. Thank you Maceys!