Annoyed

****WARNING!!! Somewhat bitchy blog post ahead. Stop reading now if you don't want to be subjected to it!*** :)

Normally I'm a pretty positive person with an easy-going nature, but sometimes I just get annoyed. And it's been happening a lot here lately. I wasn't going to bring it up and subject all of you to these minor annoyances, but hey, I haven't had much to write about lately....so what the heck?

For instance...I get annoyed when people spell common words wrong. Yes, everyone makes a mistake here and there, and I know that spelling does not come as easily for everyone as it does for me. But I truly believe there are a few words out there that are worth taking the time to make sure you know how to spell them. I hate that it just seems to be "no big deal" anymore when people use you're/your wrong. Or their/they're/there. I can maybe see where you'd be confused by their/there. But if you just think about it for a minute, you should never mess up "they're" or "you're". They are contractions...meaning you've dropped the "a" of "are" and replaced it with an apostrophe. Very clear to see. They're= They are. You're = You are.

Along those same lines, I find it both interesting and annoying that I see so many really bad spelling errors. Doesn't anyone use a dictionary anymore?? Or even spell-check???? If I don't know how to spell something, or even think it might be wrong, I look it up. Here are a couple of good ones I've seen lately:

Fessents - I received a postcard in the mail from a local realtor about a nice sized piece of property out near our house. It had a picture of the property, as well as a description. I had to read it three times to get what this realtor was trying to say when he wrote, "Lots of open space and wildlife, including deers and fessents." I'm not kidding. I read it THREE times. Finally, I tried to read it based on just phonetics, and I got it. PHEASANTS. Ok, dude...umm, do you really think I'm going to use YOU to draw up papers that will bind me for the next 20-30 years??? Who knows what kind of errors you will make?? Do you not know anyone who could proofread your work? Didn't the person who printed the postcards see the error? FESSENTS, people. O. M. G.!!! I'm just saying. I'm not even touching the fact that he said "deers". I think we all see the problem there, don't we?

Incents - Scout and I were taking our morning walk in town last week and we walked past a new tattoo parlor. I always look at all the store fronts when we're walking downtown, because I like to see what appeals to and repulses someone just walking down the street...what makes me want to walk into a store, and what makes me want to keep walking faster. I do this so that one day when I have a nice storefront office, possibly in London, I will know how to make a potential customer want to come in and check out my services.

Anyway, I was checking it out, and I noticed that it also sells halloween costumes and freaky posters and scary video games, because it has a large handwritten sign in the door that reads "No one under 18 aloud." Yeah. Whatever. THAT was bad enough. But there was more!

As Scout and I were walking by, and I was doing my normal thing, looking in all the store windows, we came up on the tattoo-parlor/halloween/scary video game store. I saw another handwritten sign in the window that read simply, "Incents". Hmmmm...incents? I took a brief moment to wonder what they meant. Not incentives...no, that wouldn't be right. Incents. Didn't make sense to me. Then I looked to the right, where there was another handwritten sign that read, "We have incents burners!" Ah, ok. INCENSE!! Holy crackamoly...how do you expect to sell things when you don't even know what you're selling? How do you convey to the people you're trying to sell to when they can't understand by reading your sign? I mean, how do you even ORDER your stock? Seriously, now...I don't understand. It took much restraint on my part not to walk in and (politely, of course) urge them to change their sign to spell it correctly.

Am I seeming anal enough to you yet? No?
Good, because I have a couple more..

Irregardless - My friend Danniel and I hear this all the time, and it drives us CRAZY! (We are both intolerant of such things!) Irregardless is NOT a word. The word is REGARDLESS. It can be used as an adjective (having or showing no regard), and adverb (without concern or advice), or an idiom (in spite of). If "IR" is added to the beginning of the word, it changes the meaning of "regardless" to mean the opposite...like responsible and irresponsible.

Supposebly - This one is just wrong. No one is "supposeb" to do anything. They are "supposeD" to do things. The letters D and B are not interchangeable. There is no reason why usage of this word shouldn't be corrected by the time the offender hits 5th grade. It's kind of like a child saying "pasketti" instead of "spaghetti", and then continuing to say it at the age of 30. Not so cute then, is it?

As if those few things weren't bad enough, I also had to drive behind a man on the INTERSTATE today who was going 30 MPH!!! And we were in the far left lane....the PASSING lane!! Why, oh why???

And Scout decided that he needed to break through his underground fence and run head first into the pond today for a little swimming. All this AFTER he just got a bath and groomed on Wednesday. He was in BIG trouble when he got back, let me tell you! Of course, then he thought I was going to let him into the house so he could lay his wet butt all over the floor. Grrrrr....

So there you have it, folks. I'm no longer annoyed, now that I got that off my chest! My next post will be a lot lighter, I promise!! I'm off to have a brownie (that my husband made!). Have a good night y'all!!

Don't get excited...

This entire week has been unbelievable, but a day like today leaves me telling myself not to get too excited. It was almost 70 degrees today! It was sunny and breezy and beautiful. I want to believe that spring has indeed SPRUNG!

But alas, I live in Ohio...and anyone who has grown up around these parts knows that this most likely is a tease. That's right...a tease. Because as much as we want to believe that the snow and ice and cold weather are over, we know that Mother Nature loves to mess with our heads. Just as the daffodils and tulips start poking through the soil and we actually start thinking, "YES!!! It's really happening!! Spring is here!!"...it's at that precise moment that we will get snow. Many times we have had snow at Easter, and even toward the end of April.

So no, I am not getting too excited. But darn, it's hard not to!! I mean, look at what we did today after we all got home...Barry and Noah got to work filling muskrat holes along our dam.

We flew kites, and the kids were so excited at how high they got!

And here's what we did the other day...

Check out Kendall's little goalie dance...those are some mad skills! :)

So what do you think? Has spring sprung?

Punishment

I've been getting into a lot of trouble lately.

For some reason, everything I do is wrong in Noah's eyes. Today, he asked for milk and I was washing up some pots and pans in the kitchen, so I told him just a minute. He asked two more times before I was finished, and each time I told him to "please be patient, I'm almost finished". When I finally came into the great room with his milk, he told me that I was in big trouble because I wasn't "wistening". And even more importantly, I was going to receive a punishment. A punishment!!!

I was almost giddy with anticipation. I had high hopes of being sent to my room for the rest of the day! "Bring it on!", I thought. I planned how I would lay in bed and read for an hour or two...napping on and off. HEAVEN!!

But alas, no. Turns out that Noah's idea of a punishment is for me to make him a snack and clean up his dishes afterward...and then he gave me a hug and told me he knew I could do better next time. Hmmmmmm....

I'm either doing something very right, or something very wrong.

A long day...

Well, it's official. Kendall has been "blessed" with a combination of my huge teeth and big mouth, but Barry's small jaw. There is no way all of her big teeth will fit! This is going to make orthodontia a definite fixture in our house, I'm afraid. But it's ok...most of us have lived through it, right?

We have an excellent pediatric dentist. The kids LOVE going to see Dr. Jojo. Noah tells me about once a week that he "finks he needs to go get his teef tickled by Dr. Jojo". And this is important, because that is exactly why this week started out better than it could have.

About 4 months ago, we noticed that one Kendall's bicuspids was coming in really high in her gumline, right over the top of her baby tooth. Dr. Jojo said not to worry just yet, it was loose and would probably fall out before there was a problem. Well let me tell you, that little sucker would not come out! Kendall worked it and worked it...sometimes until it was so sore she couldn't touch it for days afterward! But alas, it would not break free on the back side. When we went in for her cleaning in January, Dr. Jojo told her she had two weeks to get it out, or Dr. Jojo was going to have to "help" her. The problem was that the new tooth was coming in right in front of the baby tooth, and food was getting stuck up between the two teeth...thus making a "plaque trap". No amount of brushing was helping...and we certainly didn't want a cavity on the back of her brand new tooth! So, we finally made an appointment for Tuesday to have Dr. Jojo "help". Kendall was a little nervous, but we talked about how good it would be to finally have it out. She would be able to eat apples again, and she wouldn't have to be stressed out about getting all the food out from behind that tooth. So, armed with one tablet of valium for kids and a little bit of "silly gas", Kendall got her tooth out. And she did great...better than I would have. Dr. Jojo put Kendall's tooth in this cute little box, and assured her that the Tooth Fairy would still come, even if the dentist had to help. (A little boy in Kendall's class told her that was cheating, and the tooth fairy wouldn't come for teeth that you didn't get out yourself!!)
Afterward, I took her to lunch at her favorite place, First Watch. She ate everything on her plate! I was relieved to see how well she was doing, and she assured me she was ready to go back to school. I dropped her off, went home, and about 45 minutes later, the school called. Kendall was in pain...and in tears. So I jumped in my car and went to get her. I think the pain meds wore off and she was just emotionally tired from the whole ordeal and then from trying so hard not to cry at school. We came home, I gave her some motrin and a popsicle, and we laid down for a nap. She slept for 3 hours!!! (Not me, I had to go to work!) And when she woke up, she was absolutely fine. And boy, was I was relieved!!!

And guess what we found out? The Tooth Fairy DOES come even if the dentist helps you get your tooth out! And she even leaves a little extra...especially when you are very brave about it!! :)