M-E-M-O-R-I-E-S

I grew up in a family of spellers and vocabulary words and lots of competition. My older sister Kristen participated in the school spelling bee in 3rd grade, and did not last long due to the judge that misheard her. Two years later, my 4th grade year, I won my school spelling bee. I was pretty proud of myself, as my sister and I studied hard throughout the years, competing against each other, neck in neck with wins. But, of course, she HAD to beat me, but not just a win, she had to win the regional spelling bee (which is very hard because they ask random words from the dictionary) and continue on to nationals in Washington D.C.! That is the family I come from. My last year of eligibility to participate in the spelling bee, I tied for second place in regionals, missing nationals by two words! (My brother Elliot also made it all the way to nationals, and made it farther than my sister, and my youngest sister has been studying year round and we are expecting her to go to nationals this coming summer!) Well that covers the spelling side of my family, but what about the vocabulary? My mom is a very avid learner of new words, and would post them on a huge white board in our kitchen, with the word, definition, and the word used in a sentence, and would try to use that word as much as she could during the week to integrate it into her vocabulary, as well as all of her kid's vocabulary! She would put them in silly little rhymes and sayings, some of which are:

"It's not salubrious to be lugubrious!"
"Do your chores with alacrity and we'll all have a halcyon day!"
And my personal favorite, "you insipid lipid!"

Why this random post you might ask? I took a test today, 90 multiple choice, 3 short answer, and 2 essay. Towards the end of the test, the answer choices started to get a bit ridiculous, and one of the answer choices was "insipid lipid," which of course sparked my memory, and I told my mom about it as soon as I got out, and we reminisced for a bit. I have a great family. :)

Have an auspicious day!