Sometimes the Past Can Come Back to Bite You...

During the last month, our Family Home Evenings have centered on family heritage.  For those of you who may not be LDS, in the LDS Church, we set aside each Monday night as Family Home Evening.  It is a night during which we avoid scheduling anything else, and spend time as a family learning more about the gospel and strengthening our family in general.

Each week we've spent time telling stories about different generations (one week it's me and Ang, the next it's our parents, the next it's their parents, and so on).  Well, during the night we were telling about me and Ang, Ang planted a BAD seed.  She has told one story that the kids just love, and they make her continue to retell it.

The story goes something like this...It happened when she was about 10 years old, she had a friend staying over for a slumber party.  While they were watching a movie, they heard the back door open and close, and someone ran downstairs.  They didn't know who it was, but with all her siblings, she figured it had been one of them...and she was right.  When she and her friend got down to their bedroom, they heard a ticking noise which freaked them out.  They were sure there was a bomb in the room.  Upon further investigation, however, they realized it was only an old fashioned clock which ticked very loudly that her brothers had apparently planted in the room.  So, they needed to get revenge.  They went to Ang's mother, Vivian, who helped them come up with some schemes to get even.  Some of these things involved short-sheeting her brothers beds, sprinkling powdered sugar on their sheets, and, yes, you guessed it, saran wrapping the toilet.

Well, with all the telling and retelling of this story, the schemes Ang and her friend were doing have become tattooed on our kids brains.  Finally, the other morning, the boys were acting very odd.  Sneaking up and down the stairs, giggling, etc...  What I found out later (as I went to work before they completed their work) was that they booby trapped the stairs, their bedrooms, and everything else they could think of (as that is how Ang and her friend had protected themselves after getting even with her brothers).  Then, they'd put sugar in our beds (though they didn't know what powdered sugar was, so they just took the regular stuff), and of course, they saran wrapped the toilet (see above picture).

I think after this experience, we'll stick to telling them about nice, boring experiences we've had.