In the past few months, I’ve been using wrong, random words in my sentences. I don’t realize I’ve used the wrong word until someone points it out. These words make my sentences absurd, and I’m highly amused by it. Bob is not amused by it. At all. (See note)

We had squirrels in our attic. They tirelessly darted back and forth all hours of the day and night. 

I complained to Bob, “Those squirrels are making so much money up there!”

“Money?” 

“What about money?”

“You just said the squirrels are up there making money.”

I erupted with laugher. Who knew? They’re not just making noise, they’re making money. It makes me smile just writing it.

Recently we had the grandkids up. We were in a hurry and I needed them to hop to it.

My sweet, three year old Annabelle, was dilly-dallying.  

“Come on, sweetheart. I need you to step it up. Jump up in your suitcase.”

She stopped and stood there. A blank look on her face. What in the world? She’s the epitome of obedience. “Annabelle?”

“You said suitcase, Nana.”

“When did I say ‘suitcase’?”

“You told me to get into my suitcase.”

Oh, my goodness, did that ever make me laugh! Poor Annabelle. So eager to do just as she’s told.

Using all these wrong words that don’t make a lick of sense reminded me of the “Mad Libs” books we used have as kids.

As I thought of them, I jumped on Amazon to see if they still sell them. Sure enough, they sell all kinds of them. I bought some. They would arrive the very next day!

This boggles my mind. How in the heck do they have “Mad Libs” books that handy? I find it mind boggling that I can go from having an inkling that I might want something to actually buying it in the space of two minutes. It’s dangerous. Because, turns out, I have a lot of inklings.

I was so excited to fill in those Mad Libs with the kids. 

“You guys are going to crack up! Just give me any noun, adjective, verb, or adverb, I’ll write them in and then read you the story you made.”

“What’s a noun?” Maisie asked.

“A person, place or thing.”

“But…that’s everything.”

“Pretty much, so just come up with something.”

She came up with “eyeball,” of all things. Plural noun? “Eyeballs.”

Adjective? “Funny.”

Verb? “Running.

Adverb? “Fast.”

Of course, the completed story was funny. But she used the same noun, plural noun, adjective and adverb for every story. But it made her laugh every time and that’s the point, so who cares?

Brooks knows the parts of speech. He got a little hung up on an adverb, so I started to explain what an adverb was.

He interrupted me, “Nana! I know what an adverb is. I’m just trying to think of a good one.”

He came up with “hastily.” Hastily? He’s seven!! Good heavens.

His carefully thought out words didn’t make the stories quite as comical as the “funny, fast running eyeballs” featured in Maisie’s stories, but they still made us laugh. “Quiet Nana hastily crawling.” 

I love being silly. The kids love silly. Mostly. It’s ingrained into us to try and make someone smile. Just think of the antics we’ll go through just to get a baby to smile. 

But the one who's the most amused? Me. By a mile.

One day I rushed into the room where Bob was working. 

“Babe! Oh my gosh!” 

“What? What’s wrong?”

“The water may have been contaminated… at CAMP LEJEUNE!!”

(For anyone who doesn’t get that bit of silliness, it’s a reference to a commercial that ran dozens of times a day, offering legal advice to any unfortunate soldier impacted by the bad water).

**Note**

Bob is not humorless. He’s just fearful my random words might be caused by my head injury. I don’t, I think there’s a logical explanation, I was probably thinking about how much money it would cost to get the squirrels out and probably thinking about packing the kids up and taking them home. But I did take quite a fall several months ago. I hit the curb so hard it knocked me out. A Good Samaritan stopped and called an ambulance. In the emergency room they determined I had a small brain bleed and a concussion. I ended up staying three nights. But I am getting better, the double vision is gone, the headaches aren’t as severe (most days)…but the fogginess, blurred division and dizziness persist. What I miss most is being able to walk outside. I can’t wait for those first warmish days in the spring. And we had the best autumn I can ever remember… such great walking weather!  Anyway, I’m thankful I am getting better, a little slower than I’d like, but I know it could’ve much worse. At least I haven’t lost my sense of humor and I’m thinking the medicinal effect of laughter should kick in any day now.