In a Vocabulary Rut

I go through phases sometimes when I notice that I use a particular word over an over again. Sometimes these phases last an hour or two, but sometimes they can last weeks.

Lately, a few of my frequently-used words are "beautiful" and "gorgeous." It is a beautiful, sunny day outside. It's gorgeous. The last piece of carrot cake I made for Family Council on Sunday isn't very beautiful, but when more of the cake sat on the platter instead of in my tummy, I would pass by the kitchen counter and think that it was just gorgeous. My over-use of these words probably stems from me telling Alyssa that she is beautiful and gorgeous every day. I usually say she looks beautiful, but when it's something specific I'll say, "That headband is gorgeous." I want to say these things frequently, though. I want her to grow up confident. (Yes, I tell her that's she's smart, funny, talented, etc., too.) See, I am not photogenic at all. I really don't like to have pictures taken of me, and I especially didn't like to be in photos when I was in high school. I thought I was funny looking, and it certainly didn't help that all of my friends were beautiful and gorgeous and always looked great in the pictures that I developed. Jamie says that a guy once told her that "every girl should look like Carrie Lewis," and I believe her (although I doubt he was completely sane when he said it - maybe it was early in the morning, before zero hour) but if she would have told me this during high school, I would think she was playing a trick on me. Anyway, I used to think I wasn't pretty, but I've come to terms with that now. When Brian and I were dating, he would say that I was pretty, and that I "sparkled" and that made me feel special. But what really did it was going to church with Alyssa and having people tell me that she looked exactly like me, a "rubber stamp." Well, I think that she's beautiful, so how can I not be? Well, it makes sense to me.

A short-lived vocabulary rut happened on Monday. I took the kids to go see "Enchanted" at the Compass Room theater (free, for us students) while Brian was studying. I was a little afraid to go by myself with three children, so I spent the drive to McMenamins telling them how good they needed to be, otherwise we would go home. We made it there a few minutes early, and we sat down, and the kids were being awesome. Yes, awesome. I haven't used that word in ages, but for some reason, I couldn't stop using it for that five minutes. "Okay, you guys, you are being awesome. You're doing an awesome job. I need you to be good for the whole movie, and that would be awesome. Just stay in your seats, sit still, and we'll have an awesome time..." I swear, the guy sitting behind us kept looking at me like I had no education whatsoever. We enjoyed the movie though. The kids were very well behaved, and it was awesome.