Spelling Lessons

We have an old chair that we have been using as a desk chair. One day last week I noticed some letters written in pen on the back of the chair…hmmmm, very interesting.

It reminded me of a funny story my mom told about my brother when he was little and learning to write his name. His name is Terry.

Mom came in and noticed that someone had written Terry on her dresser with a permanent marker (which, my entire life, she called a magic marker). She asked the obvious question “ Who wrote on my dresser?” Of course all the “not me’s“ began to shout but she already knew who it was and had an idea of how to get a confession from a very young boy.

“Who wrote t-A-r-r-y on mommy’s dresser” she asked.

My brother immediately stepped forward to correct this horrible wrong “that does not say T-a-r-r-y, it says T-E-R-R-Y!” and then the look of shock. He had just confessed to the crime. Too funny.

I think I know the culprit in my little crime here…our markings say
R-Y-L-I-E.

Today while Tori and I were out having a little shopping date she asked me about a story I had told her about my mom. When I was a teen my mom would hide my bra and then sing Boo-laa-boo-laa ( a song that you sing to find things the louder you sing the closer you are…softer means you are getting farther away)to help me find it. Sometimes it was before school, sometimes it was while I was getting ready for a date, sometimes it was, well, whenever she wanted to really. Sounds mean right? But remember, I knew how to play too, paybacks were part of the fun.

So, Tori says “Didn’t Lala used to hide your bra and make you look for it?"

I said “Yep, that’s what you call funny, F-U-N-N-Y”!

She said “that’s what you call funny, D-U-M-B, see that,that was like kids spell love T-I-M-E.” (I had been talking about that phrase a lot around here, because I was preparing a talk for sacrament meeting about strengthening families...)

She was right. That was exactly the point, it was about L-O-V-E and T-I-M-E. It is one of my fondest memories.

The funny part is that my mom was a horrible speller. She would have laughed out loud to hear that she was helping anyone with their spelling lessons.

Thanks mom. You left quite a legacy. I- L-O-V-E- Y-O-U