Word Play

Hello again!  Yes - I still exist... I'm just slack. :D  I shall have to better than this if I want to keep any readers. :)

I love playing with words.  Even made up words (or should I say especially made up words? :P)  I love finding out the Greek and Latin roots of words and finding out what words belong to the same families and I like fiddling with prefixes and suffixes to figure out how to change a root word to different parts of speech.  For example:

Ambulo is Latin for "I walk"  From that word, we get the English words ambulance, amble, ambulatory, somnambulism, ambulation, etc.  
If you take another word (say, love) you can change it to:
 
A noun - love                                                                                                                                              A verb - loves                                                                                                                                           An adjective - loving                                                                                                                                   An adverb - lovingly                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     You get the gist.  We had a funny conversation tonight about a word that we kept changing.  I recorded it for you. :)                                                                                                                                                                   

Jess:  Joy keeps saying “uniformitarianiamistic.”  I tried to tell her that the word would be “uniformitarianistic” but she just grinned and said “uniformitarianiamisticly”

Mum: * laughs* An adverb! 

Elise: *intrigued by word * uniformitarianiamistic! Uniformitarianiamistic! Uniformitarianiamistic!

*We all stand around trying to say it more than three times in a row without getting tongue-tied*

Jess: You know, we are wasting time just standing here trying to prononunce something that isn’t even a word.

Me: Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious!

*Jess walks away *

Elise: Uniformitarianiamisticly! Uniformitarianiamisticly! Uniformitarianiamisticly!

Me:  What’s not?  Un…

Elise: Un-uniformitarianiamisticly.

Me: *grinning*  Anti-un- uniformitarianiamisticly.

Elise: But that’s the same as uniformitarianiamisticly!

(And in case you were wondering, that makes a high record of thirteen syllables!) :D

And in case you were wondering even more, the longest English word (according to the Oxford Dictionary) is... * drum roll!*

Pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis

Yep – that’s it.  Coming in at 45 letters and 18 syllables, it is the longest English word. :D

 

A Cup of Tea?

People can't know me for very long without being asked the inevitable question: "Do you like tea?"  My friends all know that if I am at their house for any long period of time (long as in, say, 2-3 hours)  I am very likely to ask, "Excuse me, but may I make myself a cup of tea?"  There are times when I feel quite British.  :D

I like almost any kind of tea (except Earl Gray - ugh!) and I drink it straight black.  or, in the morings, green. :)

When I wake up in the mornings, I always make myself a pot-for-one of green tea.  Green tea has amazing remedial qualities and detoxifies the entire body down to every organ.  I believe it is especially good for the liver. I drink it particularly, however, for my migraines.  I used to get up to 3-4 migraines a week, but since I have been drinking green tea, that has reduces to about half a dozen time a year.  A pleasant alternative if you ask me!  :D 

I think my favourite tea, though would have to be chai tea.  This iss the one that I drink in the evenings with Dad just before I go to bed.  Because if its spicy warm twang, it makes you feel kind of warm and fuzzy. :)  It is the best stuff ever!  :D





Sorry I haven't been around much, everyone... life has been calling and even if it is the school holidays, I am far from having nothing to do!  I started my four-week background in midwifery course yesterday - and finished the week's module today. But that's ok, I have other studies I need to catch up on as well.

I have nearly finished reading Milly Molly Mandy to Rosie.  She has been really enjoying it and I found a treasure of a blog on which the lovely lady posted the lap-book pieces for MMM to be printed out and put together.  I was so excited and Rosie and I have been doing that together.  I have to keep reminding myself that she is only three and that is is ok if she wants to colour all the houses on the map yellow, and it is ok if MMM's dress, socks, shoes - indeed her entire body - are coloured the same pink.  It is going to be a lovely memento for Rosie when she gets older.  I am trying to find a lap book for Winnie the Pooh as well, but am having trouble finding one... you'd think it would be easy, but it's not.

Anyway, I hope everyone is having lovely holidays and are resting up for the year ahead - I need to go and pour myself another cup of tea!  :D

God bless you all. :)

Wisdom Teeth and Glasses

I went to the dentist on Monday.  I was not thrilled about it, to say the least, and was actually really dreading the visit and I have been ever since the orthodontist informed me that all four of my wisdom teeth had to come out.  Dr. M looked in my mouth and confirmed what Dr H had already said.  He was pretty sure I had already had a slight infection in my bottom-left gum and the bottom right tooth is in a crooked position.  Wisdom teeth are funny as in that if a bottom wisdom tooth is removed, it top "partner" will keep growing until it hits something, e.g. the gum.  Ouch!  Because I not only have room for any of my teeth, but the odd "pairs" are the one really causing problems, they all have to come out.

Dr M gave me two options.  I could 1) Have the two left ones removed under local antiseptic, wait two weeks and then go back to have the two right ones removed.  Or 2) Go to the city (about an hour and a half away) and have them all removed in one go under general antiseptic. 

I just looked at the dentist and said, "You know, I don't think I would come back after the first lot."

That was probably not what he wanted to hear, but it was decided that I would go under general antiseptic and have it over and done with.

Ironically, the surgery is booked in for the day precisely three years after I had my braces put on.  I'm not sure whether that is comforting or not.

Last Friday, Jess, Joy, Grace and I all went to the optometrist.  I am terrible at the first part of my appointments as I have to have a test for glaucoma (I seem to have several elements of glaucoma development).  The test consists of resting your chin on a little curved shelf with your forehead also against a rest board all attached to a big machine.  You have to focus on a light target in the machine while the sister takes measurements of your eye and then "squirts" three puffs of air into each eye.  I jump a mile every time and keep the sister very amused - every time.  All of us, save Grace, needed new prescriptions, so we had quite a bit of fun trying on and examining different styles of frames.  Today we got the call that our glasses were ready and we were able to pick them up this afternoon.  They look quite nice.  :D