April Fool's!

I love April Fool's Day. I think it's so fun to pull off a good prank. 

I duped both my district leader and my zone leader when I was a missionary. For my district leader, I patched up my eye and my companion and I told him I'd been bitten by a spider. We made up a big ol' elaborate story about swelling and puss and blood and stinging pain. He and his companion both fell for it--hook, line, and sinker. 

Our mission had just switched over how we received money (from cold, hard cash to a type of ATM card) and we didn't have our monthly stipend yet. So when the Elders asked why I hadn't gone to a doctor, my companion and I responded in sing-song, whiney-girl unison, "Non abbiamo dei soldi!!" (We don't have any money.) 

I'd never before nor have I since seen two men pull out their wallets and hand over money so quickly. Bless their hearts. We asked them if they wanted to see my gruesome eye, and of course they did. Removing the patch revealed a little sign which read, "Scherzo d'Aprile!" (The best translation we could come up with for 'April Fool's.)  HA HA HA!

For my zone leader, I called him in the morning and told him my companion was gone. I used a whimpery little voice and carried on and on about her suitcase being gone and I didn't know where she went, how she must have left sometime in the night. When he started to panic and was ready to hang up and call our Mission President, I politely interrupted him and asked what day it was. It took him a little while to catch my drift, then he promptly hung up on me. BWA HA HA!

On another ill-fated April 1st, I soaped up a boyfriend's car windows. It took quite a bit of effort to find his car in all those BYU parking lots, and he was none too happy with me when he was knee-high in suds at the car wash trying to rinse it off. Of course I still thought it was funny. (For the record, dish soap works best--full concentrate.) 

This year, a friend's status update on facebook tipped me off. She said something to the effect of how she was quitting facebook. I fell for it . . . at first. Then I tried to think of something I could do, and voila! An idea was born. 

I changed my status to say, "Sarah Weiland Arnett is preggers," and clicked 'submit.' I initially planned on leaving it for a short time, then telling everyone the truth. In a few short moments, there were many congratulatory comments. It was early in the day, so most people didn't realize yet that it was April 1st.  

My younger brother, however, was one who did. He called me immediately. He didn't want to ruin my joke, but he wanted me to know he wasn't buying it. He also gave me the GENIUS idea to continually delete the naysayers comments and only leave the gullible ones. And he convinced me to leave it up all day long. Tee hee hee. 

By the end of the day, only the comments in red remained.

“Congrats!!!!” DG—8:49 a.m.
“Incintina! Yeah!” JS—8:49 a.m.
"WAHOOOOOO" KT—8:53 a.m.
"No you're not!" KS—8:54 a.m.
"If this is April Fools...nice one! If not, CONGRATS!!" AH—9:02 a.m.
"Congrats!” AY—9:10 a.m.
"Is this a 4/1 joke? I'll kick your butt." KT (again)—9:14 a.m.
"April Fools!!!!!!" SA—9:19 a.m.
"I am with Sheyna...is this an April Fools? I hate April Fools!! If it's real...congrats...otherwise you did catch my eye:)" AN—9:24 a.m.
"Sarah, wasn't it you and Bro. McQuade who tried to fool us in thinking our mission calls had been changed, while in the MTC?! ha, ha. That was a good one." SA (again)—9:25 a.m.
“yah... is this an April Fools Joke? Congrats.. I think?!" LM—9:26 a.m.
"Congratulations! No wonder you had an outburst the other day with the kids!" RP—9:28 a.m.
"April 1st hmmmmmm" DN—9:55 a.m.
"Nope, not falling for it!" KS (again)—9:56 a.m.
"Whaaaat?? This better be a joke because we've done this preggo thing together every time and I'm so not up for it right now. LOL. I'll be watching for the update." AR—10:34 a.m.
"Hmmmmmm??? Yeah, so am I!!!" LL—10:41 a.m.
"YAY!!!!!" KG—11:10 a.m.
"Post a pic of the pos.test....=)" HM—11:18 a.m.
"Congratulations... that is great!" CS—11:41 a.m.
"Congrats Sarah!!!" MH—11:47 a.m.
"Maybe I said Congrats too soon! I didn't read all the comments first." MH (again)—11:49 a.m.
"Hey, I did this one...no fair...LOL" TR—12:15 p.m.
"Auguri!!!" DA—12:32 p.m.
"WhoooHoooooo Sarah. That's so awesome! (singing...) “I'm so excited, I just can't deny it....’ “ BM—12:55 p.m
"Wait a minute... is this an April Fool's joke?" CS (again)—12:58 p.m.
"WOW! That is so exciting?!! (Is that better?) heeeeheeee" LL (again)—1:09 p.m.
"Yay! Congrats! (So glad I'm not as of a week ago!)" JW—1:38 p.m.
"Congrats!! That is really exciting, how far along are you? I hope that it is going well for you." JM—1:59 p.m.
"This is SO an April fool's joke--you totally stole my idea!! Buon pesce d'aprile, furbettina Sarah! :)" JT—5:39 p.m.
"AWESOME!! Congratulations! Hope you aren't feeling too sick yet! (How's that?)" LL (third time)—7:01 p.m.
"Congrats Sarah! How many children do you have? Many blessings to you!" HH—7:18 p.m.

One very offended friend called, and it took me a second or two to realize what I'd done. When I told her it was a joke, she was no longer mad--thank goodness. 

My sister-in-law also called for clarification, though she admitted that she too had been upset. When she was complaining to a friend of hers that we hadn't told her first, her friend reminded her that it was, in fact, April Fool's Day. My sister-in-law quickly referred to my then 10-long list of congratulations, and said, "These people all believe her, so it must be true!" BWA HA HA!

When Aubrey came home from school, the first thing she said to me was, "Mom, you're not PREGGERS!" What?!? Do they have facebook in elementary school? As it turned out, she had seen a friend of mine at the school who asked her if her mom was really pregnant. Duped AGAIN!

Maybe next year I really will be pregnant on April Fool's day and I can pull the same prank, only it will be legit! Do you think I can pull it off?

(By the way, my favorite comment was the one about 'no wonder I had an outburst' with the kids . . . oops, no pregnancy to blame for being a mean mom! HA!)

What jokes are your favorite for April Fool's?