The Miscommunication Files

Just a collection of random funny communication stuff from us. :)

Stephanie: "I wonder if the refugees are still in Ramadan?"
Stephen: "The refugees are stealing our mutton?!"

Stephanie: "We should make up our own language."
Stephen: "We should make a brown fish-man?!"

Stephen: "I'm beckoning you from the kitchen so you will stop eating the gingerbread muffins."
Stephanie: "Mm mmhmm mmmm mmm hmmm mmm!"
Stephen: "Okay, you can have one more."
Stephanie: "That's not what I said, actually. I said, 'I'm almost done with this one!' I'm impressed though--you were pretty close!"

Stephanie: "I'm hungry."
Stephen: "I love you too."

Stephen: "Where do you want to eat tonight?"
Stephanie (sheepishly): "McDonald's. Or Wendy's. I want a hamburger."
Stephen: "We can do Wendy's; I'm up for Wendy's."
Stephanie (muttering): "Of course you're up for Wendy's; you're always up for Wendy's [over McDonald's]."
Stephen: "What's wrong with Wendy's?! Their hamburgers are better for us."
Stephanie (mimicking): "'Their hamburgers are better for us.' Health nut!"
Stephen: "They are!"
Stephanie: "Health nut!"
Stephen (staring at me): "You're right. I'm a health nut for eating at Wendy's."
Stephanie (dies laughing).

Stephen (in the shower): "Baaaa.... Baaaa..... Baaaa...."

Stephen is dyslexic and has trouble saying the word "album." I've tried to change this many times. Today I thought I would give him a creative way to remember the pronunciation.
Stephen: "Which ablum are you looking at?"
Stephanie: "Well, it's the Walk in the Woods aaaallll-bum. Like Al's bum.
Stephen: "Well, you can post your pictures to Al's bum all you want, but I'm going to post mine to an ablum."

In the line for the movie theater.
Stephen: "If they let me bring my coffee in, we shall delebrate and cance."
(No comment from me.)
Stephen (laughing at himself): "I said 'delebrate and cance;' I meant 'celebrate and dance.'"
Me (matter-of-factly): "Oh. I thought you said 'celebrate silently.'"

September Marathon Travel

Stephen and I just got back from a long, busy weekend with family.

On Thursday, we traveled to eastern Washington to visit my grandparents and my sister, who is currently living with them. After a 6-hour drive, we arrived at their house about 10:30 and spent an hour and a half chatting with them until we all hit the hay.

On Friday we traveled 2-1/2 hours up to Coeur d'Alene to spend a day at Silverwood Theme Park, part 1 of our anniversary. We started with a nice, easy ride--the log ride, which is a slow, gentle float down a man-made stream, followed by one hill and drop before the end of the ride. After that, we decided we were ready for a more adventurous ride and went straight to the Timber Terror, a roller coaster that had me screaming for all 2700 rattling feet of it. We were rather shaken after getting off it, but Stephen enjoyed it enough that he went on another (albeit nicer!) roller coaster. I think my limit is about 1 roller coaster ride per visit.

Stephen also went on the Panic Plunge, a ride I refused to go on with him. It lifts you up 140 feet into the air and then just lets you go. In spite of knowing just how it worked and that he would come to a gentle stop at the end, Stephen left the ride with muscle soreness from tensing up so much as he braced for impact with the ground!

We went on Thunder Canyon and got our shorts and shoes soaked in 79-degree, partly cloudy weather, but it was a fun ride nonetheless. It's actually my favorite ride there, and I would have multiple times if 1) it had been warmer and 2) I had worn quicker-drying clothing than denim! Silly me.

We also did bumper cars, and a ferris wheel with a twist that scared me WAY more than I had expected! This particular ferris wheel balances at a 45-degree angle from the ground, so unlike normal ferris wheels, there is NOTHING between you and the ground--or, in this case, a man-made lake used for bumper boats. The ride was very smooth and gentle, and would have been truly enjoyable if I'd only been able to stop thinking of myself plummeting into the lake below. I clung to Stephen for dear life on the down-turn and just prayed to the Lord that we wouldn't get stuck at the top when the ride came to an end.

After all the rides, we each got GIANT "single scoop" ice cream cones that were delicious, but impossible to finish. We ended up throwing half our ice cream away but eating the waffle cones. :) After ice cream we took our time walking toward the exit, stopping in several of the fun shops along the way, including one to get Stephen some coffee and me some tea. We also walked by "Old Tyme Muggs," a place to get old-fashioned dress-up photos taken, and couldn't resist the temptation. Silverwood's theme is the Old West, so we dressed up saloon-style. I have to say, that was by far my favorite part of the entire day. I adore playing dress-up. Finally, we stopped in a gift shop and I bought myself a very pretty necklace that I will probably wear a lot.

We arrived back at my grandparents' house at 10:00, hardly earlier than the day before, which was sad. Again we all talked for about an hour and a half until Grandma and Grandpa retired to bed, and then spent another 2 hours talking with my sister. :) It was a good thing for all of us, I think.

Saturday we took it easy and spent most of the day with the grandparents and my sister. At 7:00 My old youth group friend Beth was getting married to the love of her life. It was nice, simple wedding. The wedding was outdoors, and the reception was indoors at the church Beth attends now. They served dessert and we all ate way too much sugar. There was dancing, which was an intriguing thing to watch, because half the crowd there was from the Nazarene church that Beth and I grew up in, and Nazarenes don't dance. It's no longer forbidden in the Nazarene manual, and much of the younger crowd has taken it up, but it's strongly discouraged among my grandparents' generation, and just not done in my parents' generation. I wondered very much how the traditional Nazarenes were feeling as they watched the non-Nazarenes and non-traditional Nazarenes dance. Stephen and I joined briefly but found we were very rusty!! It's been a long time since we danced, and we mutually decided we really need to pick it up again. :S

After the wedding and reception we got some "real" food from the local burger joint, which is still, in my opinion, the best burger place ever. :) The evening was spent in our usual way--talking, joking, telling stories. We normally play games at least once while we're home, but all 3 nights we were there, we were just too tired! It's a shame--we'll have to do that next time we're in town.

Sunday we went to my old church that I still love. It looked so empty! It was rather alarming until I realized that it was Labor Day weekend, and a lot of families were probably on vacation somewhere. After church was our usual Sunday dinner eating out--my family has done that for as long as I can remember! Usually it's Shari's, or IHOP, or some restaurant like that, but we had just eaten at IHOP the day before and went for fast food instead. Sadly, Stephen and I had to leave shortly after lunch to drive 6 hours across the state to his parents' home. That hadn't been in the original plan, but Stephen's brother and sister-in-law were home, and we never get to see them, so we decided to make it work. The drive there and the drive back brought our travel time up to 1500 miles in 5 days!

We took it really easy with Stephen's family. The most exciting things we did were to walk down to a creek together and go to a farmer's market. :) It was good to see Tim and Mary and everyone again, though. We learned that Stephen's dad's parents will be in town next month, the weekend right after our anniversary, so we will be doing more marathon traveling at the beginning of October. And then it's time to figure out the holidays... Oh boy. I'm starting to understand why years go faster as you get older.

Our final leg of the trip was 3 hours long, and we unfortunately had to drive straight to a meeting with some people from our church about a service we have begun for Saturday nights. Thanks to a miscommunication, we were an hour late, but we still got to eat some food and throw in our thoughts about possible plans for the service. Then we at last drove home to quietness, our kitty, and our own bed. Oh how nice!

I am too tired to write anything more, and looking much too forward to that nice bed... So I bid you good night! Perhaps I'll wrap this up better later.