we're gonna have a little laugh here

At my husband. Well, actually we're not laughing AT him we're laughing WITH him. Normally I wouldn't post anything at the expense of my husband, but this one is just too funny!

And besides he gave me permission.
(Now you may have read this over on my mom's blog, but go ahead and laugh again and then leave a comment, cuz I dig em.)

As you know the boys and I hopped a train North last Monday to spend the week with my parents. The two and a half hour train ride was fantastic, I was able to enjoy all the scenery with my eyes closed while the boys chatted up the very friendly older lady that had the privilege of being seated next to us. And chat they did. About everything. About half way through the 2.5 hour trip she excused herself to go buy some coffee and came back with hot cocoa's for both the boys. I think she was hoping it would keep their mouths busy for the rest of the ride! But I digress......

Dave had to work Monday and Tuesday so we planned that he would make the drive to my parents house on Wednesday, we would all be there to celebrate Christmas with my family on New Years Day and then would drive back home together, thus saving another unsuspecting Amtrak customer from my children's perennial chatter.

Well, Wednesday rolls around and my mom, my sister and I have places to go and things to do, so I called Dave to let him know that the front door will be unlocked when he get there and we all head out to do our thing. Two hours later I get a call from him on my cell, and he says "let me talk to your mom please." So I hand the phone over to my mom and within seconds she is laughing so hard that she about brings up a lung. And this is how that story goes:

See this house?

It's my mom and dad's.

They live in one of those cookie cutter neighborhoods where every third house looks alike from the outside. Dave can honestly tell you that isn't necessarily true about the inside though.

You see Dave pulled up to this house that Wednesday afternoon:

He walked up to the front door, turned the door knob and walked in. He says his first thought was "wow, why are all these dirty diapers laying around on the floor? Usually Evy keeps a much cleaner house." Then up the stairs he went to place his grocery sack of beer, homemade pickles, and smoked salmon in the fridge. After doing so, he looked around and though to himself "wow, they have made some changes around here." Dave then proceeded to make himself comfortable at the table and read the paper for about 15 minutes before duty called. When he walked into the hall bathroom he was shocked at the filth and again thought to himself "Evy usually keeps her house much cleaner than this" and suddenly an odd feeling ran through his body. He walked back down the hall and opened the door of the Master bedroom where he was greeted with an unmade bed and a big screen TV mounted on the wall............"hmmmm, the only TV Evy and Stan have has always been in the basement, and besides Evy makes the beds EVERY day." So down the stairs he went to confirm his suspicion. He opened the door to the guest room that we usually sleep in and sure enough, it was not as he remembered. Instead of containing a beautifully made bed, the room was lined with junk and shotgun targets. At that moment Dave knew that twenty minutes earlier he had entered the wrong house! He slipped his shoes back on and beat feet out of there, hopping in his car and heading out of the neighborhood before someone else realized he didn't belong in that house. He decided to head down to the nearby town where my dad's office is to confirm that my parents had not actually moved in the year since he had been to visit. During the short drive to my dad's office Dave remembered that he had put his bag of stuff in the refrigerator at the house that was not my parents! It was then that we received the phone call from him desperately wanting to talk to my mom. He wanted to know if she knew the neighbors and how they would take it when he went back to retrieve his beer, pickles and salmon and had to tell them why it was in their fridge!

Once it was determined what house Dave had mistaken as my parents, my mom said that she did not actually know the neighbors but would go over with him later to introduce herself and explain what had happened.

About an hour later we get another phone call from Dave saying that it would not be necessary to go over, that he had already gone over and gotten his stuff from the neighbors fridge. I said, "oh were they home?". To which he replied, "No. I knocked on the door, opened it and hollered HELLO. When no one answered I ran up the stairs, got my stuff and ran back out of the house."

The neighbors are none the wiser..............

Dave is though.

He now knows that my parents live in the fifth house on the right, not the third!

Parent's on the left, neighbor's on the right