nexstore neighbor?

While growing up, when I heard a word that was used often, I would say the word, and I didnt usually know what it meant or how to spell it (I was awful in English class), but I would sure use it when it sounded like it fit in a sentence. In my (ughhmemmmgmmmm) early twenty's, this is what people teased me about. They would say "oh, look, Hillary's using Big Words again" or they would repeat the word in question and say it loudly with a sarcastic questionable tone. Eventually I just gave up and started talking like a redneck and nobody bothered me about my vocabulary since.  Unfortunately, our youngest might go down the same road. All my life, I knew what Obvious meant and I used it often. My ex husband, very knowledgeable in spelling in vocab and one of my toughest critics back then, would usually correct me if i was using the wrong word or help me spell things, and we would get into a ton of fights and my response to almost everything, was, "obviously". I never understood why that would make him laugh, I thought he was just laughing at me to get more of a rise out of me. But as it turns out, I was saying the word wrong. I was saying it: oDviously, with a D. How was I supposed to know. I never heard it any differently. I laugh at myself inside every time I say it now, thinking, your so dumb. I call this the Nell syndrome, like in the movie Nell where she has a mangled speech because that's all she knew.

As I talk with my girls, I find that sometimes they say things with "big words" in their sentences that they probably just leared in school or something, and I get a little smile on my face. They sometimes, say things that may not be just right, and they are told how to say them. But what about the words that you dont hear? When you read a note from you child as they are younger, they have great "Sound Spelling", meaning they want to write the word West but they sound it out in their cute little heads and write the word Wheahst. I love those notes!

Autumn had a book report that she was doing on Monday and she was telling me about the book. She was going on saying about how this mean lady was this kids next door neighbor and how she always yelled.  So I said, well write that character down and talk about her. As I was watching her write the words on the paper, that I would normally spell check and correct after she was done (yes I have gotten a little better at English now), she wrote down the lady's name and who she was in relation to the main character, and this is exactly what she wrote: "she was her meen next store neaghbor". I stopped her and asked Autumn if the the character lived in a store. She looked at me puzzled and said no.  I said well then why did you write down next store neighbor. she looked at it and smiled and said ohhh. she erased it and wrote the sentence back down which now read "she was her meen nestore neaghbor". I immediately got the word obvious stuck in my head and chuckled under my breath. And then I asked her again, knowing she had a little bit of Nell Syndrom going on, and I said "I think you spelled Next Door Neighbor wrong. She looked at the word then looked at me with confusion in her eyes and her forehead all wrinkled. So I spoke the words a little bit clearer for her and she said "ohhh" again and erased the words and rewrote it again. This time she wrote: "she was her meen next noor neaghbor". I just laughed so hard and just took her pencil and just rewrote it for her. She looked at the word, sounded it out over and over again and laughed at herself and said "oh I thought it was nextsore neighbor".

On another note: Autumn turned another year older yesterday and we had a little party with family and friends at our house for cake and ice cream. It was so good to see everyone and to have a nice little get together.  Autumn got spoiled with Zhu Zhu pet stuff and beauty stuff! I made her cake (again) and this year should have been more elaborate than last years cake but things happened and we settled for a basic glazed chocolate cake. She picked eveything our for her cake and we made it fun for her. Thanks everyone for coming last night, I know that she appreciated it so much due to the fact that she wont be able to have a party with her class friends this year because of a schedule conflict with her mothers visitation.  So Thank You!

Well we are gonna be off to purchase pumpkins tonight! I don't know when we will be carving them, but we will keep you posted.