I Come By It Honestly...

If you know me, then you know of my embarrassing story on being "half-asked". But bear with me anyway - because this leads to an equally embarrassing story - involving my mom. My dad always used the term half-a**ed when I was growing up - and for much of my life (we're talking like till I was 29) - I thought the word he was saying was half-asked. Leave it to my naive brain to come up with that. Although technically, they both mean the same thing - so I guess I shouldn't feel too bad about it.

So until I was almost 30 I used the term in many settings - at church meetings, to describe certain people, and sometimes even to my husband. Who, thank goodness, one day called me on it. He mentioned to me he was surprised that while I didn't usually swear - I sure used that particular cuss word on a regular basis.
"Half-asked isn't a swear word," I said.
"Yes it is," he said.
This argument went on for a while until finally DH said, "Nicole, where did you first hear the word?" I told him from my dad. DH just smiled - my dad is known for his swearing. He said, call your dad and ask him.

So, like a dummy I did. I asked him if half-asked was really half-a**ed - and he had the nerve to laugh. "What do you think?" my dad asked. Oh man did I feel like an idiot. Immediately, all of the times I had used that word came flooding back to me. I knew I had used it in church meetings I was presiding over (which was probably why I was only in that calling for 6 months hehe). Luckily, I learned the meaning of the word before I was called as primary president. Can you imagine those poor kids? Mom, Sister H said if we are half-a**ed about things in life, we won't be able to make it back to heaven.

Needless to say, I was embarrassed - and it really took a while for me to not use that term. Imagine my surprise when I caught my mom in one of my word traps. I thought I was the only fool to do such a thing - but it turns out I come by it honestly.

I have a cousin who has a newborn baby in the hospital with heart issues. A couple of days before she had him - she ended up in the hospital with kidney stones. They gave her pain pills and she seemed to be fine. She had the baby and for the last month as sat by his bedside with no troubles from the stones. Until last week. She had another kidney stone attack - and I guess it was bad. She was in a lot of pain - but she has seemed to pass it and is doing better now.

Jen - has a blog where she posts stuff about the baby - and other people post encouraging comments to her and her husband. I frequent this site - and during her time of the kidney stone attack most people focused on prayer and how tough they were and how this was taking them through the refiner's fire etc. There are a lot of people who read the blog - and many who post.

In between my aunt's post of "Prayer Changes Everything" and my other aunt's post "I Believe in Prayer" is my mom's post. In it, she says some nice, inspirational stuff. But the main thing that stuck out to me was this - "Wow! May I say, you do have STONES! You know, the good kind" Her meaning was that Jen was tough, she could handle anything, she was amazing. It was pretty funny - and I figured she had no idea what it really meant.

A few hours later I get a phone call from my DH at work. He was laughing so hard he ccould hardly contain himself. I asked him what is so funny - and he said, "Did you see your mom's post". I told him yes - and he continued to laugh. He could hardly speak. He said, you expect a comment like that from one of your brother's, or Jen's brother - not your mom. He thought it was even more hilarious when I told him I didn't think she knew what it meant.

At first I wasn't going to say anything to her - I knew she'd be mortified. Besides, my cousin has a pretty good sense of humor - and I knew she wouldn't be offended. But, then I remembered my struggles with "half-asked" and decided I'd better pass on the knowledge. My dad answered the phone - and I asked him if he knew what "you've got stones" meant. Of course, he used the more vulgar term to define it - but confirmed that yes he knew what that meant. I told him about mom's post - and he started laughing. He told her what it meant - and she decided that we had our minds in the gutter.

Finally, she realized that we were telling the truth and she indeed was mortified. But, at least now she knows the truth behind the stones - and I know that I come by my naivety of vulgar slang honestly.