DECEMBER 2001/JANUARY 2002 So last Xmas, she stuffed them into a cereal box and wrapped them up real pretty with Christmas wrapping paper, then sent them to me for my Christmas gift.  Well.....since January 1st is her Birthday, I decided to send them back to her.  I sent the box with the bowls on December 31.  Well, 2 weeks later, Mom reported that my box had not arrived.  Silently, I had hoped the postal service had lost them forever.  Mom died laughing when they were finally delivered 2 weeks and 1 day later.   Black Bowls Saga by Joan Cook  I have to tell you this story.  My mom and I have this running joke about a certain 4 BLACK BOWLS.   A long long long time ago, my Mom received these black plastic bowls free with each gas fill up back in the 60s.  When I was in high school, I use to come home from school and eat ice cream and chocolate syrup galore in those bowls.  After eating half of it, I would stir up the remaining ice cream and chocolate syrup.  Boy do they make a lot of noise in scraping the bowl clean.  It drove my mom nuts.  Well, she found those BLACK BOWLS while we were packing up her house last summer and she thrust those bowls in my face and said, “HERE ARE YOUR BOWLS!”  I didn’t want those things   FEBRUARY 2002 Then in February, my husband, Rod was in Seattle for business trip and he had dinner with my mom and my sister and her husband.  Well, Mom sent a box of stuff home with him (I warned him to check the box before he brought it home, but NO!  He said, “He was not going to be in the middle of this.”  Some husband!).  And sure enough, those BLACK BOWLS were packed in that box along with the rest of the stuff she sent.  Well, Valentine Day rolled around and I bought some chocolates for Mom. Mom is a chocoholic, like I am.   I also bought some RED hearts stickers to stick onto those BLACK BOWLS and sent them in the same box as her chocolate.  I decided that I should give her a hard time for sending those BLACK BOWLS back with my husband   I paid extra to have her drive to the Post Office just to sign for that box to be delivered!   When the postal service guy arrived with my box, she had just arrived home, so she did not have to go to the post office to pick them up.  DARN!  I just received a box in the mail for valentines from her and I had fully expected to see those BLACK BOWLS again.  Surprise!  No BLACK BOWLS! When my aunt here in Canon City passed away the last week of February, my Mom and sister flew out from WA and stayed with us in our house.  I asked her if she brought those BLACK BOWLS, she shook her head no.  The evening after I delivered them to the airport for their flight home, I found those BLACK BOWLS covered with green St Patrick stickers all over them underneath MY pillows.    MARCH 2002 When my husband, Rod came home the following day after my Mom and sister left, he had informed me that he was scheduled to fly to Seattle the following week on a business trip. So we got busy planning on how to deliver those BLACK BOWLS back to her. We decided to leave a trail of them from her front porch down her driveway. I stuck Easter egg stickers all over the bowls (after pealing off all the St Patrick's day stickers she had stuck on), found a cute Easter card saying that the Easter Bunny had worked his tail off to deliver this card to her (a cotton ball inside the card representing his cotton tail), filled the bowls with chocolate Easter eggs and an adorable Easter bunny ears headband. Mom was on her computer when Rod left the BLACK BOWLS and all the goodies at her house.  I contacted her by Instant Message, asking her if she had seen those BLACK BOWLS around her place.  After she told me that I had them, I corrected her and told her to check her front door.  She came back online with "YOU STINKER" and thought I had conned my sister into playing this joke back on her.  My sister was gone during this time.  After my sister arrived home, boy did my mom give my sister a bad time.  Then they figured it out together, that my husband was in town and that HE was the one who had delivered the BLACK BOWLS.  I was on the floor laughing sooo hard.  See the following Instant Message conversation: J: Have you seen those %&$@$ Black bowls around your place? Mom: NO! I haven't seen those bowls where would I see them? Mom: I had them for you for St. Patrick's Day!!! J: Go look outside your front door and see if the easter bunny left them there. Mom: How did you do that?  Did you send them to your sister and have her bring them over???? Mom:  YOU STINKER. J: No, The Easter bunny took them over. J: Did you find all four of them? Mom: NO, JUST TWO of them. J: Well, the Easter bunny is good at hiding eggs as well. Mom: Just wait I'll get to the bottom of this. J: The bottom tail is in the card. J: :-) Mom: I got the white bunny ears. J: What did you do?  Rip the ears off the poor Easter bunny? Mom: OH you mean the white cottontail in the card. J: yep! Mom: Of course, I had to see what all is there. Mom: Boy, aren't you having fun?  How many nights did you lay awake to think this up.  You had to do it thru your sister. J: Only one night. Mom: MERCY what a child I did have.  Bet your daddy is laughing his head off in heaven. J: He is not the only one having a good laugh. Mom: OH YEAH, your husband, sister and her husband too, ehh? J: Sure! Mom: Did you send the candy too----or did they get it here.  Boy you couldn't even wait till Easter. J: Project Manager here. Mom: HA HA HA HA HA Mom: That's enough for tonight.  Good bye J: Good night.  Hoooppy Easter! Then my sister came home and Mom found out that my sister and her huband were not involved, here is the following Instant Message chat session: Mom: HELLO!!!!!!!! Mom: Is your husband in Seattle? J: no Mom: Is he in the Seattle Area? J: Why do you ask? Mom: Where is your husband now? J: In his hotel Mom: Where? J: Double Tree Mom: in what city? Mom: Bellevue? or Renton? J: I don't know Mom: in what State then? J: Heh heh Mom: When is he going to come to see us? J: State of confusion Mom: So you are all by yourself again. J: Yep J: So do the ears fit? Mom: Haven't tried them on. Beside we are hurt that he didn't say hi. We talked to him last week. J: This was more fun!  (My sister took over Mom's chat window with me, starting here) Mom: This is your sister!   Mom called me and chewed me out. J: HA HA  I was on the floor laughing Mom (Sister): Just wait, we will get our turn. J: But nothing will beat this one! Mom (Sister): We have a plan too. Mom (Sister): Just wait. J: I'm hopping! Mom (Sister): This isn't the end of it by along shot. J: I figured that.  But this was a lot of fun! Mom (Sister): When did your husband get here? J: I don't remember what time. J: So what did Mom say to you? Mom (Sister): She said I was in on it and started chewing me out about knowing something. Mom (Sister): And she was stern with my husband on the phone. J: You stood there dumbfounded, eh? J: HO HO J: Did she find all 4 bowls? J: At least Mom gets chocolate when I return the bowls back! Mom (Sister): She told me to look around when I came over here, so I found them on the way to the front door. Mom (Sister): When did your husband fly out here? J: Today Mom (Sister): Where is he working? J: Why? Mom (Sister): Well it is getting my bed time, so I will let you go. Sleep tight laughing in your dreams. J: That I will definitely do!  It was worth it! Mom (Sister): Just let your devil horns hold your halo up. J: Got it from my mom! Mom (Sister): Good night. Bye J: good night Mom signed off at 10:29:10 PM. My mom and my sister decided it was time to put together a plan to deliver those BLACK BOWLS back to me.  My mom contacted my good friend from church, Tanya, by email asking  her to help to deliver those BLACK BOWLS back to me.  Naturally, she agreed whole heartly and my mom sent the black bowls directly to her home.  I had received an email from Tanya on Good Friday saying that the story about the BLACK BOWLS was funny and that I was mean and ornery!  And then the very next sentence she asked if we were planning to attend church on Easter morning.  I thought it was odd that she would ask me if we were planning to be there Sunday.  Plus I had not received my annual chocolate Easter bunnies from my mom yet.  I was starting to think about her email message and added 2 plus 2 together.   We forecasted that I would receive a box from Tanya on Easter morning at church.    Sure enough!  My husband found the box at church with our names on it.  What was in the box?  You guessed it!  BLACK BOWLS along with chocolate Easter bunnies with broken ears.  Mom broke the ears in retaliation of Rod not stopping in for a visit.  We ran into Tanya outside on the church parking lot and I quizzed her about her knowledge about the box.  She denied everything!  After I opened the box, she broke out into a big GRIN.  :-)  Can you believe it?  My mother caused my friend, Tanya to LIE to me while standing on CHURCH PROPERTY!!!  When I accused my mom of this awful sin she had caused my friend, she died laughing on the phone.