Thursday, August 24, 2006

Good Intensions

Since Robin is in class three nights a week now and it’s my responsibility to take care of the children, I decided being cooped up in the house would probably be a bad idea. I decided to walk down to the avenue with them to pick up some Rita’s Italian Ice Water. On our way I called up my 14 year old sister-in-law to see if she wanted to go with us since her house is on the way. (I’m going to use a different name to hide the identity of my silly sister-in-law). I called and said “Hey Sarah” She asked who this was which through me for a loop, I thought I got her sister Mimi instead so I said “hi Mimi”. Sarah again said “who is this?” So I said “Sarah this is Frank the Plumber, I hear that you have a leak over there” I heard the phone hang up and wondered what the hell happened. I called back 4 times and got busy signals. Finally, on the fifth try I got through, but know one was talking to me, all I could hear is my sister-in-law in the background crying and freaking out. Someone gets on the phone and says “who is this?” and I say that it’s her brother-in-law.

Apparently my sister-in-law who just happens to be the sweetest thing was home alone and got freaked out by my phone call. She tried to call the police but couldn’t get through because I didn’t hang up on my end, so she ran over to the neighbors. Since I was already on my way I stopped by her house to calm her down and assure her that Frank the Plumber wasn’t coming over.

All was settled within minutes.

When my in-laws came home I asked them to please invest in Caller ID.

What did I learn? When calling over to my in-laws I should identify myself first and not assume that my calling there for the past 10 years would make my voice a bit more identifiable than Frank the Plumber. Second and lastly, never ever again invite Sarah for some Rita’s.

Oh, one more thing, I should probably hang signs at their house to warn all the plumbers in town that they will be arrested on site.

8 comments:

Kim Ayres said...

I see the photos have vanished. Is that another good intention that went wrong?

BStrong said...

I guess you can say that. I had technical difficulties that weren't very technical and not very difficult:)

I'm beginning to think that my last two posts one of which is no longer is a hint that I need to work on my communication skills.

Michelle said...

I don't mean to laugh at your SIL, because it obviously had her totally freaked out, but that was a funny story! I hope she can laugh about it later :) I wonder why she didn't recognize your voice though?

BStrong said...

Michelle - It's ok to laugh. I've been doing it all day. I think she's watching to many horror flicks.

Jessica said...

How funny! The really funny thing is my parents had a friend named Frank who was a plumber and when I was little I used to call him Frank the plumber!

BStrong said...

Jessica - It is very important to locate your old plumber to warn him about my in-laws house:)

Michelle said...

I wanted to answer your question to me on my post w/the videos of Kayla singing/signing...you asked if I thought the ST videos helped with her speech. Hope you don't mind if I just answer you here :)

I would like to think they have helped, but of course can't be positive since we can't go back and do it with no videos :) I also think she wasn't really ready to start saying many words until after she turned 2. I think the videos did help visually by seeing a sign for something and saying the word too. Then she eventually started to speak the word when she signed it and after a while she dropped the sign.

We also got her a series called "Your Baby Can Read" and no I didn't get them to actually teach her to read at this age, I wanted something more to help with speech and language. I think these videos helped her too...she enjoys watching them and watches intently. They will say a word like "nose" then follow with "so-and-so is touching their nose, can you touch your nose?" or "arms up!" "can you put your arms up?" They also have songs throughout like Twinkle Twinkle, Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes (another favorite) she really has fun trying to copy what they are doing and saying. Here is the link to those vidoes: http://www.infantlearning.com/

Another site she really enjoys that has helped with identifying letters is: http://www.starfall.com

She will sit with us and go through the whole alphabet and started making the sounds for them...I think that really helped her with speech sounds.

Sorry for the long comment!

Anonymous said...

Wow, you should have placed a laughter warning at the beginning of this one.