A Bride, Veterans, and Some Winners

Because I seriously doubt any of you anxiously await comments to this blog like we do (especially back posts), I thought I'd share one that I received tonight on a post I did back in October. Do any of you remember "Here Comes the Bride" entry? We heard from the happy couple tonight!!

We are back from our honeymoon and are settling back into our regular routine. We finally had a chance to view your blog spot and absolutely loved the pictures you took. Thank you so much for sharing your pumpkin stand with us on our special day! Your website gave us a tease of what to expect from our photographer, Eastbrook Studios, as we anxiously await our final photos. I hope you don't mind we borrowed a few of them for our wedding website. I have to admit at first I thought it was a strange idea and thought our photographers were a little crazy for suggesting it, but we were definitely pleasantly surprised once we arrived. (Great idea Cece & Sarah!) We are sorry we didn't get to make it back to the pumpkin stand for a pumpkin. We live in Virginia and had to return home after our honeymoon. Everyone's comments are much appreciated and we were blessed to have Galloping Grace Youth Ranch open their hearts to us! May God bless you all! - Mr. & Mrs. Joe Caputowww.nadineandjoseph.com

Fun! We are so happy for them. I started snooping around their wedding website. I'm a sucker for a couple in love. I also love when people are pregnant. If I'm lucky, Nadine will be about due with her first child next October, and they'll decide to make a stop at the pumpkin for another photography session. Oooh, better yet, the baby will be already born, and I'll be able to get a few shots of the little cutie. Am I scaring anyone yet? I'll stop.

While I'm on the subject of Joe and Nadine, I'd love to thank Joe for his service to our country! We appreciate the huge sacrifices you and your family make serving our great nation! I wanted to kick myself for forgetting to do a Veteran's Day post. Happy late Veteran's Day to all you military people out there. Thank you, thank you, thank you!!!

Finally, finally I'd like to announce the Word of the Day winners. Go ahead, start clapping. I deserve your ridicule and sarcasm on this one. This might be the last month I announce any winners. I cannot handle the pressure! I had Max draw out of his hat again. Sorry, I wasn't in the mood for pictures. You're going to have to take our word on the results.

First place is....TJ!!! You go, girl! Looks like that dictionary you bought for the contest brought you luck! I will send a $25 Amazon ecard to you email address! It's funny--you actually won two times, but the official rules state that a person can only win one prize a month.

Second place is...Renee! Auntie Nee, you did it--you really did it! Congratulations to you for pulling off an amazing victory. It looks like your faithful commenting made the difference. Thanks for all you do for the ranch and for us.

Third place is...Lisa at Laughing Orca Ranch. Yea, Lisa! I'm so happy you were one of the winners. You always leave the best comments! Thanks for taking an interest in our ranch and blog and for stopping by all the time. You're a pleasure! Email me at maxandmichelle@aol.com so that I'll have your email address.

The words that I did manage to use this month were:

• slugabed
• bivouac
• quondam
• plaudits (TWICE!)
• euphonious
• legerdemain
• beneficence
• fop
• balloon fiesta (I was tired.)
• propound
• volte-face
• officious

I got such a kick out of you readers making up your own word of the day when I failed to provide one. (I failed to provide one quite often last month!)

• Hugeyah gave me grateful and Beth.
• Trish suggested indeed.
• Pam thought bloke and get along were winners.
• Jessica also liked Beth.
• Lisa at Laughing Orca agreed. She took it a step further and said, "Beth Rocks."
• Beth was one fantastic word. Nee wrote it eight times as her word of choice and Andrea also thought Beth was word worthy. Regina was correct on her comment. I was the one that said "Beth" was the word of the day. I don't know what's wrong with me sometimes. I take back all the credit I gave to Hugeyah, Jessica, Lisa, Nee and Andrea for putting Beth. :)

There you have it, folks.

The end.

Not So Wise

Sadly, Galloping Grace has become the Golden Gate Bridge to owls. Max and Brooke found yet another dead owl floating in the water trough. Why our ranch? We're not sure. Do any of you readers have any knowledge on this matter? Should we create some type of perch for our feathery friends? Brooke let me know that their eyes feel "gross" when they're dead. "They're all gushy, Mom." I tell ya, we're always learning something new.

Tomorrow we expect to serve at least 16 children at the ranch. I'm hoping the weather is warm enough for all the children to enjoy themselves. Oh, who am I kidding? I hope the weather is warm enough for me to enjoy myself. If mama aint happy, aint nobody happy!

Perhaps I'll announce the Word of the Day winners tomorrow. If only I kept track of who guessed every day and put that name on a slip of paper or even made a list! NOPE. Not me. I have to go back and read every single post and comments to find the word and correct guessers. Brutal. Trish, would you start keeping track of this stuff? (I'm joking. Calm down, everyone. I know she does enough for us.) Dan, would you like to take on this project? Dena? Anyone?? Another question--should I even continue the Word of the Day contest? Give me some feedback on the matter. If the idea of looking for an overly obvious word has gotten old, by all means, tell me!

Max has been working at the pumpkin patch soon to be tree stand. I'm wondering if I'll ever be able to make the switch in names? Do you think you'd understand if I mentioned the pumpkin patch but mean tree stand?

I have a little funny story to share. Kaley, Trish's daughter, coined a term for the pumpkin stand that we all used, but I never shared with you blog readers. Confused that the adults went back and forth calling our pumpkin joint the pumpkin stand half the time and the other half pumpkin patch, Kaley innocently began to refer to it as called the statch. Brilliant in its simplicity! We loved it.

I'm ending this babble. As always, thanks for taking the time to read.

If you'd like to say a prayer for a very special couple, their names are RJ and Reba. RJ has cancer throughout his abdomen. He had surgery last week, but the doctors were unable to remove the numerous spots. Please pray for strength for Reba and ease of pain for RJ. Thank you so much!

Word Of The Day Winner--August

Well, the correct guesses have been thrown in a hat once again.

I must have the smartest readers in all of Blogville! I cannot believe you could so easily find words like pusillanimous and panoply hidden in my stellar text. Please tell me, how could you tell they weren't from my vocabulary? I'm going to have to try a lot harder this next month if I'm going to get any by you.

The first place winner for the month of August is...Lisa, your faithful commenting paid off once again. I have another secret to confess. Do any of you remember when Dan won for the second month in a row and I still hadn't given him the first prize? Well, I'm kind of (exactly) in the same situation with Lisa. I do have it--I do! I will try and deliver her gift certificate to Portrait Innovations to her in the morning when I drop my Grant off for his first day of preschool. (Sob, sob!) Lisa, thanks for playing along. You had the second most correct guesses behind the second place winner. Who is that you ask? Read on. The kids had to do the name drawing in the dark. In fact, they had already gotten in bed when I made them come outside to pick the winners. I'm a great mom that way. It's all about priorities! Claire drew... I have to admit I was so happy to see hugeyah's name. I have been wondering who you are since the first day you commented. Who is hugeyah? Would you please send me an email to maxandmichelle@aol.com so that I will know where to send your prize? You can choose between a $15 gift card to Cold Stone Creamery or $15 Amazon ecard. Claire's first question was, "It it a boy or a girl?" If only I knew! All I do know is that hugeyah guessed the most times-pretty cool! Thanks, hugeyah.

The final winner for the month of August is....drum roll please...

Trish, you finally won! It's funny--Trish has let my kids know how disappointed she was that they haven't picked her name. Now maybe Garrett has earned himself an extra helping of dessert the next time they have us over for dinner. (Which is often--she's an excellent hostess.) Trish's prize is a $10 gift card to The Gap. I hope she doesn't spend it all at once.

Now it's time to admit an ooops we had while drawing names. One entry went flying out of the hat and Hank grabbed it. You should have seen me dashing for his mouth before he swallowed it. I try to keep things fair. This is a clean contest and all entries should be accounted for when the children are drawing. Hank didn't see it that way. All he was thinking was, "Do I even think this tastes good? Why is she trying to get it from me? It must be worth something. I better keep trying to swallow it." Score one for the human--I got the soggy name out but decided not to put it back in the hat. Dena, we apologize for the error. I would love to buy you a dessert at the next girls night. Mud pie? A cookie? You pick, I pay.

Something interesting I noticed this month. Dan was one of the winners in the last two contests held, yet didn't enter even one correct vocab guess in August. Should this tell me that Dan was worried I might throw yet another Starbucks gift card his way, or was he trying to give the rest of you a chance to win? Inquiring minds want to know.

Here is the list of words for the month of August:

• lachrymose
• malediction
• schadenfreude
• pusillanimous
• malingering
• sapient
• repletion
• puerile
• forlorn
• extol
• panoply
• gustatory
• comity
• melange
• spoony
• tutelage
• disparate
• aestival
• renascent

My favorite of the group? It definitely has to be schadenfreude. It will forever remind me of The Olympics and my cruel thoughts aimed at innocent individuals from other countries. I'm not proud, just honest here.

Thanks to all of you for playing along. Now go out and use these words in your next conversation--show the world how educational blogging can be!

Word Of The Day Winner and Wrap-Up

Here they are--all the names pulled from correct guesses in my little vocabulary game. I also put an extra name in for everyone that bothered guessing even one time. (I just love when people bother to comment!) Folks, we have a winner for the month of May. Have any of you noticed anyone in the comments being less than sweet to me on several occasions? Maybe someone who gives me a lot of grief, always finds something sassy to say, etc.? Well, she's the winner. So much for karma coming back to bite her! Regina, you're it! Congratulations, oh harsh one. Please let me know if you'd like a $35 Visa gift card or an Amazon E-card. (Keep in mind that you know me--if you want your prize anytime soon, you'll go with the Amazon. Who knows when I'll drag myself to the mall!!)

Because I have multiple children crawling all over the place, and because one such offspring spotted Brooke walking to the backyard to do the drawing, Claire felt privy to also pick a name. Therefore, we have a second place winner. (And I must admit I couldn't stand only one person winning.) The winner of a regifted Starbucks card for $5 is... Dan the Man! Dan, go have a cup of coffee on me. (That's all you can get with $5 at Starbucks.) Betty won't mind having to share with you--she's super sweet and understanding.

Most of you know I have more than two children. That means we also have a third place winner.The winner of the second regifted $5 Starbucks gift card is...Dena!! Congratulations, Dena! I am so happy one of the people with the most entries/word guess comments pulled it off! Those near daily guesses were almost worth it, huh? (Lisa, the other biggest commentor, bring the kids by so I can babysit. You deserve something for all that humoring you did!)

Yes, I have four children. Lucky for me, Grant was too preoccupied with Hank jumping on him and biting his toes to realize he wasn't getting his God given right to pull a name. That means I get to keep my third Starbucks card for myself. (Gifts from teachers for helping out in classrooms.) But please don't be surprised if it's still around, and makes it in the pot, for the June drawing. (I've been known to hoard gift cards.)

I would like to thank all of you for playing. I really loved when the Word of the Day was used in your comments! Good times!

Starting the Word of the Day contest was an afflatus for my daily posting. I forced myself to learn new words and clumsily obtruded them to all of you. Although my daily use of a new vocabulary word was never done in a sub rosa manner, I feel that knowing I had sympathetic readers out there waiting to see the word, no matter how obvious or forced, had a salubrious effect on me. I appreciate how you played along. You could have caviled my efforts, but you didn't. You showed great lenity and I am forever grateful. I do apologize if the repetition of blatant choices cloyed your senses. Luckily for me, there were no tirades or ribald comments to deter my efforts. My friends, though you may not be boulevardiers, you are not pugnacious by any means. I hope it's safe to posit that at least a few of you had a confluence of feelings about how fun trying new words can be. This post, subfusc and silly as it is, is my paean to all of you. (Please do not consider it a portent for future posts.) Thank you, sweet friends. Now feel free to participate in a little roistering--you deserve it after reading this!!

Word Of The Day

Nope. It wasn't obvious at all. Surprisingly, some of you managed to pick it out. The word was cavil.
cavil \KAV-uhl\, intransitive verb:
1. To raise trivial or frivolous objections; to find fault without good reason.
2. To raise trivial objections to.
3. A trivial or frivolous objection.

It's tough having such intelligent readers. Good job, guessers! I don't think there's any way you'll pick out tonight's word. Nope.

Word Of The Day

My kind readers, greetings from my desk--my filthy stinkin' desk. Please, no drop-ins this week. I would not let you in. My fragile nerves could not handle it. Your eyes could not handle it.

Last night's word was lenity.
lenity \LEN-uh-tee\, noun:
The state or quality of being lenient; mildness; gentleness of treatment; leniency.

I sure appreciate all the sweet comments you guys left. Thanks for the love! :) Thanks for the lenity.

Word Of The Day

Saturday's word of the day was obviously confluence. (It's going to take a mighty long time for my vocabulary to come along!)
confluence \KON-floo-uhn(t)s\, noun:
1. A flowing or coming together; junction.2. The place where two rivers, streams, etc. meet.3. A flocking or assemblage of a multitude in one place; a large collection or assemblage.

Lisa, Dena, and Trish--you're one step closer to winning that gift card. Thanks for playing along.

Word Of The Day

Of course the word was roister--there's no tricking you, my smart readers!
Roister:
roister \ROY-stur\, intransitive verb:
1. To engage in boisterous merrymaking; to revel; to carouse.
2. To bluster; to swagger.

I know it was a bit of a stretch--they all will be. I must admit I'm liking roister. It's one of those words I want to say over and over. It might actually stick with me, and I'll probably always think of Poncho drunk and falling down.

Word Of The Day

Yesterday's word was sub rosa.
Sub rosa:
confidentially; secretly; privately.

[Origin: 1920–25; lit., under the rose, from the ancient use of the rose at meetings as a symbol of the sworn confidence of the participants]

Congratulations to Erin, Dena, and Dan. Your names will be entered into the contest I'm still in the process of making up. Thanks for playing along. Agog is my word. I picked up that little jewel and made it my own by reading Sam's blog. See--wasting time on the Internet is educational!

Post will be up shortly. May I recommend a game of Snood while you wait? (As if you're waiting. Hee hee!)