A legitimate misunderstanding

The kids were doing a Harry Potter quiz in the morning and Ally had asked Anna what merpeople were. Anna explained it was mermaids and mermen. 

So later, they were looking for something to watch and The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives popped up. 
Ally said, “Oh, wow! A show about women who are married to men who think they’re mermaids… that sounds interesting.”

Everyone laughed so hard that they could hardly explain to her that it wasn’t the secret lives of mermen wives. 

Later, Ally was defending herself, and she kept telling me I had to look at the picture of the show to understand why she had that misconception. 

Kate finally pulled up the picture, and I can see totally see it. 

For two days, every time I saw that picture, I'd start laughing out loud. 

I mean they don’t NOT look like they’d be married to men who think they’re mermaids.

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This reminds me of the last time something Ally said made me laugh this hard. She does have a tendency to use similar words in place of each other.

We were on our work trip to Kentucky with the Appalachia Service Project. Our first day, we were hanging J-channels on a mobile home. When we got back to the center where we were staying, the other team asked Ally what we did on our work site. Ally, probably thinking that "J-channels" is a two word phrase and the first word is a letter, replied, "We hung G-strings on the mobile home."

Shaking my head

Luke wanted to change from taking a fitness class next year to taking guitar instead. Dave and I thought this was a great idea. Luke loves music. But, the drop-deadline had passed, so he had to talk to the guidance counselor. It was the end of the school day, so Anna went along with him before they got Ally and went home. 

According to Anna, Luke told the guidance counselor that taking guitar instead of physical fitness made sense, because, Luke reasoned, "I don't have to be fit if I can serenade people."

He's reasonably fit, anyway. He got a trophy for soccer.

Luke helps Ally with Spanish

Ally: I got a 96 on my Spanish final.

Luke: That’s because of me, Ally… because I helped you study.

Ally: What did you get?

Luke: An 81.

Me: You got an 81, but you’re claiming Ally owes her 96 to you?

Luke: Yes! I helped her study for two hours!

Me: I know. I get that, but I think it’s a stretch to claim that you, who got an 81, get credit for her 96.

Luke: We should split the grade. She got a 96. I got an 81. It seems like we each should get an 88.5.

Me: Yeah, that was some good fast math there. Too bad you wouldn’t be as fast at saying it in Spanish.

Redeal

In 2020/2021, Dave and I played a lot of cards with Tim and Jenny. There was nothing else to do.. At one point, after hours of cards and a few rounds of Old Fashioneds, a couple of us were sure another one of us was cheating. Tim clapped his hands twice and threw them in the air, declaring, “I’m out!” Another one of us yelled, “Redeal!” And, because of the Old Fashioneds and probably also because of a year of lock down, we thought it was hilarious, and we turned the gesture into a sign to demand a “redeal.” Any time one of us didn’t like the cards we got, we’d clap twice, throw our hands in the air, and shout “redeal!”

I’d kind of forgotten about it. It’s been a couple years since we last used the gesture.

Then last weekend the girls and I were playing cards with my parents. My dad dealt a hand. Things had been getting goofy. Opa had been getting sassy. And Ally clapped her hands together and threw them up in the air. She expected everyone to know that she was demanding a redeal. After all, she, as a ten and eleven-year-old had witnessed the adults in her life make the gesture a dozen times.

My parents looked a bit perplexed and I figured out what happened and burst out laughing. Ally explained to my parents that meant redeal. My dad, who’s played more cards than anyone else I know, raised an eyebrow. So I explained the situation.

My dad told Ally that it was just a local thing, a very local thing… like within 100 feet radius local thing.