FOOLING AROUND

Today I thought it only fitting that I tell all of you an April Fool’s Day story which just so happens to be about Jared. Hope you enjoy it.

Once upon a time, when my mom was pregnant with Jared, she and Dad decided to play a little April Fool’s joke on my grandad, (my Mom’s dad, by the way). So they called him up and acted all excited as they told him that Jared had been born. Grandad was really excited about this, (obviously), and Mom and Dad felt pretty good about having been able to pull of their prank.
Well, long story short, a few hours later they started feeling a little guilty and decided to call him back and tell him they had just been kidding; that Jared hadn’t been born yet. So they did; but then they felt even worse because he got really upset about it. He told them that he had called my aunt and uncle in Korea, (my Uncle David was in the army and was stationed in Korea at the time), and told them that Jared had been born.
At that time, they rarely ever called my aunt and uncle because the over-seas phone bills were just sky high, so they didn’t call unless it was really important. My parents felt terrible because my grandad had spent a lot of money to call my aunt and uncle and tell them Jared had been born when he really hadn’t. After apologizing profusely they still felt rotten because my grandad was still upset.
Well, a little while later my grandad called back and guess what he said? April Fools! He told them he hadn’t really called my aunt and uncle, and although it was a huge relief to Mom and Dad, it came as quite a shock. Grandad wasn’t really the ‘jokester’ type. He wasn’t real big on the whole pulling pranks thing. Anyway, it’s really funny how all of that happened because Jared was actually born a few hours later, narrowly missing being an April Fool’s baby. But can you imagine my parents having to call Grandad back and tell him that Jared had been born for real this time? If I were him, I probably wouldn’t have believed them. :)

Good memories. I could tell you stories about Jared, like the time he got tricked by one of my other brothers, (I won’t name any names. See if you can guess which brother it was), into drinking kerosene because they told him it was kool-aid. (Yeah, that one wasn’t pretty.) Or the time he got run over by a truck. (That one wasn’t pretty either.) Or even the time he choked on a cherry from the game hi-ho-cherrio. (No wait, that was Danielle. Never mind.) He’s always been the adventurous brother, and after fifteen years of living with him I think I’m qualified to tell you that not only does he possess an incredible amount of talent as far as singing goes, but he loves The Lord and he lives out his testimony. Not just on the stage in front of a crowd, but behind the scenes as well. Every day with Jared is an adventure in itself.

Anyway, back to April Fools. From henceforth, I am declaring it a holiday. And a holiday deserves a little bit of ceremony, don’t you think? So I am going to conduct a drawing right here on the Allen family blog for one of our CDs. In fact, it will be for my favorite Allen Family CD, ‘Songs of Yesterday’. And no, this is not an April Fool’s joke. So, here’s how this is going to work; if you want a chance at winning the Allen Family CD, ‘Songs of Yesterday’, post a comment with your first and last name and I will conduct a drawing to see who gets the prize. This drawing will be closed to further entries by April 10th. If you don’t like the Allen Family’s music and don’t care to win a CD -I can’t imagine why you would even be on our website- but you can ignore this entire section about winning a CD. Thank you.

Enjoy your April Fool’s Day, and don’t forget to tell Jared happy birthday. God bless!

~Abby