Spellbound

I'm a spelling freak.

The mere mention of the weekly spelling test in school would elicit groans from most of the class, but I actually looked forward to it. It was another chance to prove my mastery over those combinations of letters that form our language. It was what led me to be a proof-reader at the local paper years ago. My father's favorite subject was spelling, so I've concluded that it must be genetic.

DH's family members are no slouches, either. His mom was a teacher and his younger brother was a participant in the National Spelling Bee in D.C. It's no surprise to me that our boys are great spellers. They're just carrying the torch.

E. recently placed 2nd in his middle school spelling bee. From what I can gather, it was a rather tense word battle that went on between him and the winner for a good 15 minutes after the others had been disqualified. The word that tripped him up? Decaffeinated.

The irony here is that just about every food and beverage item in our house is "decaffeinated".