At last, I'm a blogger!

That has a certain naughty ring to it, "I'm a blogger." Anyway, I'm going to try my hand at entertaining you with my life experiences. I've been through quite a lot, getting married the first time very young (18), living for 14 years with an abusive man and our 3 children. Finally, I got out and later on found a great hubby, who has 4 children.
I used to write for a couple of newspapers, and I didn't like working for a newspaper, but I LOVE to write, so here I go. I will publish here my previously written articles/stories, and I think this blog is just what the dr. ordered to get me writing new stuff.

I don’t know when it all started, but somewhere, sometime, I became a stickler about spelling and pronunciation. Maybe the spelling thing began at the county spelling bee in Lathrop, Mo. It was yours truly (a sixth grader), against two eighth graders, left to spell our hearts out to determine the champion. This is where I became petrified. Of what, beating eighth graders, or winning?
They gave me my word—lingerie. I quickly thought of a way to misspell it to relieve the pressure and get the heck off that stage. I spelled slowly, l-o-n-g-e-r-i-e, knowing full well the real spelling. (I think I finally ‘fessed up to my mom, but if I didn’t, the cat’s out of the bag now, 24 years later.)
I left that stage and went back to sit with Mom. Everyone was so proud. (How much more so would they have been had I spelled it right?) My two oldest kids have been in spelling bees, and I’ve told them to never do what I did; they would regret it later, as I do. They are excellent spellers, but don’t care as much about participating in the bees as I would like them to.
I really don’t know how I became so worried about how people pronounce things, but when someone spells something wrong, or says something wrong, I get my bloomers in a bunch. When I got married the first time, I started having to spell my name to everyone, or tell them how to pronounce it correctly. It was Boller. A simple name, pronounced bowler. It became automatic for me to just say and spell it all at once, with barely a breath between. People said baller, boiler, beller, just to name a few.
My maiden name, Taylor, sure looked good at those times. No one needed to ask any questions about that one. (Well, almost no one.) For a year and a half, I had my maiden name back, and there was no spelling T-a-y-l-o-r to everyone who needed to know my name. But soon enough, I remarried, and I’m now back to spelling, and pronouncing, my name to everyone. I asked my husband, “Can’t we just use my name?” He said no. (He did say I could keep using my maiden name though.) The second ‘t’ is silent, (say Tee-junz) but my kids have come up with a pronunciation that is quite amusing. Hello, my name is Tracy Tightjeans.
I get bugged when people mix up words, as in. “I’m getting a prescription (subscription) to a magazine.” Or using words that sound alike in the wrong way, such as, “There (their) dog got it’s (its) nails polished and a hair bow to.” (too) “There (they’re) nice people.” “Your (you’re) not going to wear that, are you?” These are some of my pet peeves. I feel so much better having gotten them off my chest. Just call me Tracy Tightjeans.