No Texting Zone

When you send someone an electronic correspondence, it behooves you to check carefully to make sure the correct recipient is in the address bar. Dear hubby, due to neglecting this tidbit of texting etiquette, has now become the official poster child of the cause.

Evidently, he sent me a sweet, romantic text saying, "Have I told you lately I'm madly in love with you?" (Yes, I am aware that I have the BEST guy ever.)

In fact, had I gotten that text I would've immediately replied with something equally nauseatingly sweet and romantic.

However, that text was inadvertently sent to his last phone recipient, who also happened to be his very male, very retired-military boss.

When this little mishap was relayed to me this evening, I hooted and giggled and then laughed some more.

This event turned out just fine for us, but should serve as a cautionary tale to emailers and texters alike: be careful to check BEFORE you hit "send". A jealous spouse or a terse boss who doesn't find humor in situations like that could've very well been on the other end of that text.

So text and email with care. And don't worry about getting an errant text from dear hubby; he's probably just going to call people on the phone and speak to them personally for a while...

Slumber Party is an Oxymoron

Image via WikipediaSo, what began as a "lazy, relaxing evening," quickly turned into a sociology experiment run amok. I planned on me and my kids having a do-it-yourself dinner, then playing board games for the evening.
Ha! And I say "Ha!" again!
Dear son invited three (3) other 14 year old boys over. Dear older daughter invited one friend over. And dear younger daughter invited one friend over. I should also mention that we are watching my brother's dog, too. So there was a total of: four boys, four girls, two dogs, a cat and me.
I'll give you three guesses as to what dinner was like. The boys plowed through the pizzas like it was their job. I've never actually seen two slices of pizza eaten in three bites- until tonight.
The girls giggled and carried on, while primly sitting at the table and eating their miniature pizza slices with a pinky in the air. However, they found the candy bars- and hid them from the boys, even feigning ignorance when questioned by said boys.
Then there were cell phones. Wow. I was in invisible parental heaven. While I sat quietly in my room, I eves-dropped on the boys calling girls from their class and asking them, "So, if you HAD to like one of us, which of us would it be?" And I listened to the girls giggling madly as they texted back and forth with a particularly "cute" boy from their class.
If I ever asked them point-blank about these things, I would likely get no more response than a hair toss and a shoulder shrug. But in their ego-centric world, where they can't believe that anything happens unless they witness it, I was a fly on the wall, soaking in every word.
I was pleasantly surprised at how appreciative and polite all of the kids were. Typically, kids have a bad reputation of being snarky, disrespectful and generally feeling like the world should cater to their every whim. However, these kids thanked me for the pizza, in between snarfing it down in large gulps. They made sure the dogs didn't eat extra food lying around. And, they were respectful of my (very generous) curfew times.
Yes, it was very loud. Yes, I felt considerably old and quite out-numbered. But, over all it was a very nice experience. And my kids had a blast.
And the best part? I'll bet we can all go to bed early tomorrow night. :)

Related articles

• Tips for surviving a slumber party (parentcentral.ca)
• Ensuring domestic tranquillity during sleepovers (seattletimes.nwsource.com)
• Junk Food Makes Kids Stupid (friendseat.com)