For Better or For Worse: So Very Thankful for the Laughter

On Thanksgiving Day, like most people, I am counting my blessings and am especially thinking about everything I have to be grateful for.  Of course, I am thankful for my husband, my 3 beautiful children, my family, everyone being in good health overall, having a roof over our heads and food on our table, and all the friends I have made online through blogging.  Another thing I am grateful for is having the ability to laugh, which my husband is in part largely responsible for.  Many times, I am so busy and under so much stress that I rarely stop to have fun anymore.  There are some rare moments when I do laugh uncontrollably and the release feels so good.  The other night, I experienced one of those moments . . .

The children have been behaving extra "special" lately.  This seems to happen every year before Christmas.  It's almost like they are trying to test whether Santa is really watching them or not.  My husband and I were talking about how each child is so predictable in how they react to our calling them, our asking them to do things, and so forth.  For example, our oldest will just say "What?" when we call him.  If he doesn't hear what we say, he just goes on with whatever he was doing without making any effort to find out what we wanted.  So, my husband yelled upstairs to our 3 children and mumbled some nonsense words.  He even repeated the words a few times.  We got a few whats  in response, but only our daughter actually came down to find out what we wanted.  It made my husband and I laugh to see how predictable their responses were.

Then I told my husband that I've always thought about just starting to count, like we do when we want our children to do something quickly.  Usually I tell the children that they have until I count to a certain number to complete the task or else they would receive a specific punishment.  My husband agreed that this would be extremely funny, so he started to count loudly.  Only our oldest panicked because he did not know what we wanted, did not know what number his father would be counting to, and did not know what the punishment would be.  Out of all 3 children, he was the only one who ran downstairs to find out what he was supposed to do to avoid a punishment.  I was laughing uncontrollably and had to hide behind my laptop to avoid letting my son know that it was a trick.

That was my long way of saying thank you to my husband for the good times and laughter.

Wishing all my readers a happy and safe Thanksgiving!

For Better or For Worse: Things My Husband Does at Work When He is Bored

My husband works in the IT field for an outstanding company.  In this field, sometimes things are hopping and sometimes they a little slow.  I suppose it's a good thing that a hundred people are not putting in tickets to request IT help for their computers all at once.  So what does my husband do at work when he is bored? Well, I actually asked him and his response was "I look through installed software on networked PC's to see what's not supposed to be there, go through cookies and temp files to see if we have any malware/inappropriate surfing going on.  I also have been cleaning out and reorganizing the Lab/Server room. Why?"  That was a good answer, but here are some other things I know he does . . .

1.  Thinks about how his life would be different if he was a millionaire.

2.  Shops for the latest in technology and electronics that usually fall into the things-we-could-never-afford category.  Then he excitedly sends me the links as if doing so will get him closer to owning those items.

3.  Logs into our 8 year old's home computer while our son is playing games on it to "mess with him" by moving his mouse pointer and giving the computer other commands that our son did not initiate.


What do you think your spouse does at work to pass his or her downtime?

For Better or For Worse: Jokes That Make Me Sigh

My poor husband was admitted to the hospital last night.  He has an infection on the side of his leg and it has gotten worse, even with being treated with antibiotics.  So, I am trying to patiently wait for tests and things to be done before I freak out.  If you are friends with me on Facebook, you can look for updates there.

I thought I would share a couple of the things my husband says to me when he is trying to be funny.  These are recurring jokes that he uses on me again and again.  He usually waits just long enough so that I am not expecting it before he uses each one again.

Me:  I have to draw my contest winners today.

Him:  How do you know what they look like?

Him:  I can't wait until tomorrow!

Me:  Why?  What's happening tomorrow?

Him:  I get better looking everyday.

For Better or For Worse: A 4 Year Old States the Obvious

Ever since I met my husband over 15 years ago, there have been some sore subjects for him.  The first is that he has more than his fair share of body hair.  The second is his having a pair of lengthy arms.  Of course, he has heard a few monkey, gorilla, and ape jokes.  A small number of them may have even come from me.  Since my husband is a huge Star Wars fan, one or two Chewbacca jokes may have been mixed in there with the gorilla jokes.

It has been awhile since I've picked on my husband about this topic.  His false sense of security was destroyed recently . . . but not by me.  One day, our 4.5 year old son walks up to my husband and states out of the blue, "You look like that big hairy guy from Star Wars."

For Better or For Worse: Where Do Monkeys Come From?

This summer, our children have been on a bit of a banana binge.  For some reason, they cannot seem to get enough bananas, whether they eat them plain, cut up in yogurt, or in an ice cream sundae.  They would barely be finished with one banana before they would ask for another.

In an attempt to teach our children moderation, my husband decided to let our children in on a little secret.  As our children listened intently, he told them where monkeys come from.  He did so by explaining to them that monkeys were really once little children who made the mistake of eating two bananas in one sitting.

I'm not sure our children believed my husband's story, but to this day, they have yet to ask for a second banana again.  Perhaps they think it's better to play it safe just in case?

For Better or For Worse: An "I Told You So" Moment

About a month ago, our whole family took a trip to the mall.  I remember that my husband had been on a job interview earlier that day.  The trip to the mall was typical and uneventful.  When we got back to the car, I noticed that he had left the GPS mounted to the dashboard.  I asked him if he was worried about someone breaking into the car to steal it.  He just dismissed me like I was being abnormally paranoid.

Then before we pulled out of our parking space inside the parking garage, we noticed a piece of paper stuck under our windshield wiper.  I figured it was an advertisement or a menu to a restaurant, but it was neither.  It was an unofficial ticket from mall security.  There was a big check mark next to the box labeled "Security Risk" and a note saying: "Do not leave GPS in plain view."

Silly Monkey Stories: Ask and You Shall Receive

Here is another little story from when the children all suffered from a stomach bug.  Our 4.5 year old daughter asked if she could use the computer.  Her Dad asked her if she was feeling sick still because she should be sitting on the sofa or laying in her bed resting.  To this our daughter responded by stating that sitting next to the computer made her feel better.

Well, if you've read any of the past stories involving my husband, then you already know what happened next.  He gave her what she wanted and sat her next to the computer (with it off, of course).  Our daughter did not find that to be funny at all, but my husband thought it was hilarious.

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If you have a Silly Monkey Story to share, sign Mr. Linky below with the link to your blog post (not the link to your main blog page). Please do not forget to visit the other participants and leave them comments to let them know you stopped by!

For Better or For Worse: Cross-Dressing

We decided this morning to take the whole family to see Kungfu Panda 2 this evening.  The movie was scheduled to start at 5:20pm.  Before we left, I needed to take a shower and eat a light dinner.  While I did that, my husband got the kids changed from shorts to long pants and gave them a light dinner to eat.  Everything was a little rushed because . . . well, we are always in a rush when it comes to leaving the house with the kids because they always take their time to do pretty much everything.

My husband had put the boys in the car while I put a hairclip in my daughter's hair to keep it out of her eyes.  Then we left for the theater as quickly as we could.  We were cutting it pretty close, so I hopped out of the car at the movie theater to go retrieve our electronic tickets from the machine while my husband parked the car.  There was no line, so I got the tickets and waited by the entrance for my husband and children.  When I saw them walking towards the door, something did not look right.  Then I thought, "Why does Makenzie's pants look so short on her?  Did she have a growth spurt?"  Then I noticed that Luke's pants were cut funny.  They were tapered at the ankles and they were a bit long on him.  At that point, it dawned on me that my husband let the twins out of the house wearing each other's jeans!

For Better or For Worse: The Early Bird Gets . . . To Be Tired

Since my husband has to be up the earliest out of everyone at least 5 or 6 days a week, he has inherited the job of waking everyone up in the morning.  He usually sets the alarm for himself, which I don't even hear anymore when it goes off, and wakes up whoever needs to be up that day after he is done showering and brushing teeth.

A couple of weeks ago, the morning went like any other.  All five of us needed to be up and out of the house early that day.  So we were all finishing up breakfast and doing whatever we needed to do to finish getting ready when my husband calls me from downstairs.  It turned he had just realized that he had gotten up a whole hour earlier than he had needed to.  He must have set the alarm for the wrong time.  As a result, everyone in the house missed out on a whole hour of sleep.  Being the one who needed to sleep the most, he was very upset with himself.  So we all had an extra hour of computer time and TV watching that morning.

Can you guess why he did not realize right away that it was not the right time to get up that morning?

Silly Monkey Stories: A New Kind of Utopia

Although our 4 year old twins have been potty trained for some time now, once in awhile we still have a potty-related story to share.  Every time our daughter has to use the potty before bedtime, she always takes her time, just to prolong the length of time she can stay awake.

One night, I heard her tell my husband that she thought the last poop was afraid to come out and that is why it was taking so long.  Then my husband told her that the poops want to come out because after they get flushed, they all go to Poopie Paradise.

I think she believed him.

Click here to learn how to participate in Silly Monkey Stories.

Click here to read all my Silly Monkey Stories!

If you have a Silly Monkey Story to share, sign Mr. Linky below with the link to your blog post (not the link to your main blog page). Please do not forget to visit the other participants and leave them comments to let them know you stopped by!

For Better or For Worse: The Easter Bunny Sighs and Shakes His Head

Since Easter is only a couple of weeks away, I asked my husband to get the box containing our Easter stash for the children's Easter baskets down from the closet shelf.  I had to check to see if the loot was even between the three.  I've learned my lessons from past years of uneven Easter baskets and holiday stockings.

After I took inventory of what I had and made a mental note of what I still needed to get, I noticed that the three packages of Jelly Belly jelly beans I had picked up a few weeks ago were missing from the stash.  I told my husband this and he started to look around the closet for the missing items.  Then he realized that any further search was futile.

It seems when I asked my husband to put the bag containing the candy into the box in the closet, he heard, "Take this candy to work and eat it."  Seriously, he did.  He didn't question it, even though he thought it was extremely strange.

I wonder how he explained eating Hello Kitty jelly beans at his desk to his co-workers?

For Better or For Worse: Self Portraits

Last night, I asked my husband to help me take some photos for two future articles I will be writing.  Perhaps it is my fault for not relinquishing my Nikon digital SLR camera to him more often.  Either he was really excited to have free reign with the camera or he was in a very silly mood . . . or both.

I think what I found on the SD card speaks for itself . . .

For Better or For Worse: What Doesn't Kill You Makes You Stronger

Since we've been married, my husband and I have gotten through some difficult situations together.  The past two days have been one of the toughest we have had to face in awhile.  You see, in the middle of the night on Saturday, I woke up feeling very sick.  My husband also said he was not feeling very well, leading me to believe that we perhaps had food poisoning.  We did share a steak tip dinner the evening before.

By morning, we were sure we had food poisoning.  Here we were sick as dogs with three active children in our care.  Then our nearly 4 year old daughter became sick and after dinner that evening our 7 year old son became sick.  So it turned out not to be food poisoning at all, but rather a severe stomach flu.  We were kidding ourselves when we thought nothing could be more difficult than having two sick adults with three active children.  We found out it was much more difficult to have two sick adults, two sick children, and one active preschooler, who could not understand why nobody could play with him.

After our oldest threw up his dinner on the upstairs landing, every time my husband or myself tried to get near it to clean it up, we would both start to feel ourselves getting sick.  Looking back now, it was almost funny, but it definitely was not at the time.  After several attempts and an hour and a half later, my husband managed to clean it up in stages, even after it made him sick once.  Then, all day today, when everyone seemed to be feeling a little better except for me, he took care of the kids all day even though he wasn't 100% better himself, just so I could rest in bed.  My hero!!

For Better or For Worse: My Grand Ideas

I often have ideas of things to do that may be productive or just fun. I, of course, think these are all good ideas, no matter how grand they are. I just realized the other day that, when I have these grand ideas, my husband must be rolling his eyes when I'm looking the other way. You see, he tends to end up doing most of the work. This is true when I say, "Hey! We should totally go through all the toys and rearrange the living room to create more play space" or when I say, "Hey! Wouldn't it be fun if we built gingerbread houses with the kids this year?"

After helping the children with their gingerbread houses, my husband still managed to reassemble this tree (that I broke) and decorate it beautifully. Didn't he do an exceptional job? One might say he is a gingerbread artist . . .

For Better or For Worse: Car Games

It is rare that my husband and I actually find ourselves alone in the car together. This morning was one of those rare times. I had it in my head to finish as much of our Christmas shopping as we could before Halloween because, after that, the traffic around here nearly triples because we live in such a highly populated retail area.

The reason why I am writing this is to warn other adults out there about something. If you ever find yourself alone in the car with my husband and there are no children around, the game "Punch Buggy" apparently changes to "Pinch Booby Buggy"!

For Better or For Worse: The Big Four-O!

My husband's birthday is today! He is a little traumatized because he is now officially 40. I can totally relate because he is only three years older than me. We both are starting to feel not-quite-as-young as we use to.

Still I could not resist poking a little fun at him by making this Jib Jab video . . .

Personalize funny videos and birthday eCards at JibJab!

The children also made this video as a tribute to their Baba, who is a superhero in their eyes . . .

Happy Birthday to The Love of My Life!