Just a couple of days after I wrote my latest installment in the bathroom flooding fallout, we were eating a nice, peaceful breakfast when Ali calmly observed,
“Huh. Look at the ceiling – there’s new water up there.”
I jerked my head up, praying to God that she was wrong.
But she was not.
There was a new streak of wetness on a previously unaffected part of the kitchen ceiling. That looked somewhat like a snail leaving a slime trail.
And a few feet away, our old friend Decapitated Duck had been sliced through again in a very insult-to-injury sort of manner.
The kids had just experienced their second (second!) bath in their new bathroom the night before. And apparently the new bathroom was having so much fun that it wanted to share it’s glee with the kitchen.
I took a moment to do some deep breathing exercises, then texted our contractor.
He immediately got in touch with the plumber and told him to fix it ASAP.
Which meant that the plumber decided to show up exactly 32 minutes after I had finally given up and laid Noah down for nap.
And of course, he woke Noah up with banging, sawing, clinking, and a brand new hole in my hallway wall.
I revisited deep breathing, then sprung my confused kid from his bed.
Finally, the Plumber left. And I texted Chris the update. He must have accurately read extraordinarily high levels of desperation betwixt my sentence fragments, because he resorted to emoticonic humor in the attempt to keep me from running away.
And somehow the stress of the day plus his inspiringly-cheesy graphic communication made me want to respond completely in emoticon – and song lyric.
So I texted back (translation included for your reading ease):
He figured it out almost immediately. So I texted him another one.
…which took a wee bit longer.
I found a deep sort of solace in this mental amusement, so for the next few days, I kept his text stream full of songs.
(He completely objected to my use of a chicken leg as a wing in this one, but sadly, there is no Emoji for chicken wing, and I wanted a chicken wing.)
It took him much longer than I expected to solve this one,
and he never could get this one, but we’ll get back to that.
I begged for one of my very own, and, as begging nearly always gets me what I want, I received this text from him:
And it drove me to the brink of insanity.
I studied. I worked. I admitted that I was much better at giving than receiving. I asked for hints. Or clues. Or nudges. Or anything. I even tried bribery.
I wrote it all out on a post it note, trying to understand it.
Chris added the circles and Xes to try to help.
I admitted even more fully my complete inability to translate like he could.
I googled the words I knew were right, thanks to his circles.
And finally, Google led me to one of my favorite songs by one of my favorite bands.
<Insert Kicking of Oneself>
A few days later, he tried me again:
But that one looked vaguely familiar…and then I realized why: it was his version of my last song that he never solved.
In my opinion, mine was much more straightforward. But did he get it? No.
This practice was so consuming that it nearly made our house woes fade into history (I bet you totally forgot about them, didn’t you? I would have too if it weren’t for Decapitated Duck sneering at my breakfast every morning,) so I highly recommend that you adopt this practice with your own spouse, kid, friend, random stranger, or favorite blogger as soon as possible.
(And if you have an iPhone but can’t find your Emoji keyboard, go to Settings –> General –> Keyboard –> Keyboards –> Add New Keyboard –> Emoji.)
(Then when you go to type, you’ll have a cool little globe show up on the bottom left of your regular keyboard.)
Okay. So you people need to practice. Here’s one for you to decode, and bonus points if you can figure it out before reading anyone else’s comments:
May the Emoji be ever in your favor.
wow, all I can say is WOW! :)
I’m impressed by your game and how it seems to be something you both “get”. Funny how easy it seems once the answer is already provided, but left to my own devices I fear the riddle would never be solved. I just don’t think in emoticon I guess. I’m sorry you continue to have more damage from water leakage. (I just love Chris’s text back to you though!) We are back in our house again after being away for a full month of repairs after our flooding damage. Now it seems that neither of our reinstalled toilets can flush properly (one doesn’t fill so the other tries to compensate by overfilling and overflowing onto the floor. Of course this happens while we have house guests who have come to help with my son when I go to the hospital to deliver the baby. But at least getting it fixed will most likely not require new holes in the wall! I hope your new part comes in quickly, can be installed when it is not nap time, and that you can lose your housebound status soon!
When’s the big day?? Thanks to my ridiculously overflowing email inbox, I’m behind on my blog reading. I hope everything goes fantastically!!
LOVE IT!!!
I won’t give it away so clearly!
But I love the ones you chose for “and I think it’s a sin, yeah!”
Guess I’ll get to check out those blue skies of Alabama soon enough! :)
FUN game! Can’t wait to try it!
I think I know it but don’t want to give it away either but it is also a title of one of my favorite chick flicks. Very cute game. I like puzzle games like this too. Glad it was able to let your mind get off the house repair problems. I also have to admit I got Chris sweet child of mine before I got yours. Loved the losing my religion one.
LOVE this!
Too bad Android and iPhone emoji don’t get along…
I have an android and I downloaded the emoji keyboard after I downloaded the “handcent” app, At first it was frustrating cause I was getting double alerts and all that stuff, but I figured out how to turn off my original alerts and now everything comes through handcent and I get to use emoji :)
LOVE!
I got the song right away from the doughnut and the cake. But I don’t understand the girl with the horns on her head?
It’s hands massaging her head – I think he was going for the girl being carried….by the head??
(Chris wrote that last one for me.)
Ouch! Pretty sure that was my brain breaking…I don’t seem to have whatever sort of neurons it takes to figure that stuff out. It all made sense after I read some of the other comments, though.
Sweet Home Alabama!!! Ha! Ha! Awesome!
The songs my hubby and I listen to lately are decidedly on the kid friendly side. I have to say that it would be amusing to try to emoji Old MacDonald or Crazy Stew’s Snorechestra…
Very sympathetic about your plumbing problems. At least the fix was relatively simple & didn’t require gutting your kitchen or something!
Just commented…shouldn’t spoil it! Don’t ruin it for others! This is TOO fun! Totally could be a new app game! Hurry and copyright it! Make millions!!!
Oh you’re right – an app where you have to guess the song? Like Draw Something – only with songs! I love it!
Lol thats awesome. Also completely impressed by a relationship that can turn a disaster into a fun game that keeps you connected…you &Chris are an inspirational couple!
Thanks so much! We’re not always that way – I promise.
Oh. My. Lanta. Even I am beginning to wonder if your bathroom escapades will ever end. So sorry!
Give me a word search or word scramble or a math problem and I can show you that brain muscle. But add music and those wires don’t connect. I could never play name that tune, not becuz I don’t like music, but becuz I don’t remember song titles. Give me numbers over notes.
Cool! And great, now I have to up my text allowance. ; p
And this is awesome.! Again you have made my day……maybe this will help us get through our own plumbing problems…..like frozen house pipes. We were patting ourselves on the back for picking that week to go to Florida and beat the cold but unknown to us crisis was forming back on the home front. I will see if I can now text my way to distraction for a while :) with my new toy! Thanks Rachel.
Oh no!! That sounds terrible. At least you didn’t find out until you got back, though – you got to enjoy Florida!