Thursday, January 28, 2010

Vocabulary Lesson

In the third grade I had the much coveted Miss Theal. She was the sweetsy, loving, pretty teacher with a sing-songy voice that everyone hoped for. Each student in her class room felt as if they had won the lottery, everyone that is except me. I was not her biggest fan. Not because of her personality, mind you, but because of her favorite subject, VOCABULARY!!! I despised the weekly busy work of looking up and writing out dictionary definitions, writing each word five times each, and creating our own sentences with our new words. Why couldn't she simply introduce new words and tell us what they meant?

Well, you will be happy to know that I did survive Miss Theal's third grade class, but barely. And I am ashamed to admit that while homeschooling my son during his third grade year we followed much the same format for our vocabulary lessons (but I did take mercy upon him and leave out the creating new sentences). But I have chosen to be much kinder to you my loyal readers.

I could have never guessed that moving to "The Valley" would require vocabulary lessons, boy was I wrong. There have been times over the past 8 years I have wished desperately for a interpreter. In addition to the completely new words that I had never heard before there were also words that I thought I knew the definitions to, but was mistaken. So if you are headed for the wilds of the Eastern Oregon Mountains you may find the following vocabulary lesson helpful. (Don't worry, there will not be a test on Friday. It's really okay, Miss Theal will never know.)

Nouns

Rig- any vehicle that could or ever has transported a dead animal. This is not limited to pick up trucks or SUVs. A Honda Accord with the gold package is quite capable of hauling a deer that has been quartered.

Pop- a bubbly, sugar filled drink usually served from cans. Known in other parts of the country as soda.

Jockey Box- a bread box sized compartment on the passenger side interior of most "rigs", know in civilized societies as a glove compartment.
(I once asked my husband if he had ever actually put "jockeys" in his Jockey box. He simply rolled his eyes as I pulled a pair of gloves out of mine.)

Crick-(rhymes with stick) A small, quickly moving body of water, similar to a river. A common location for fishin' ( for definition of fishin' see verbs below)

Verbs

Hookie Bobbin'- although not yet an Olympic sport, this ageless past time requires great skill from the "Bobber". One attempts to stay on his feet, holding onto a car bumper while being pulled over the snow and ice. (No skis required)

Huntin' and Fishin'- The correct pronunciation for the commonly mispronounced words hunting and fishing.

Bagged- Not the act of placing ones groceries into a plastic or paper bag. The act of killing an animal one has been huntin'.

Muddin'- The act of driving in circles off road in an attempt to get ones car as covered with mud as possible. Bonus points are added for getting the "rig" stuck in the mud.
Well, I think that is enough new vocabulary for one week. After all, no one learns a whole new language in a week. Enjoy!

Rick's Cheesey Rice Casserole
All of this "red neck" talk has me craving some Cheese Whiz. We learned this recipe from a dear friend in of all places LA. Don't worry he was a Texas transplant.

2 cups cooked rice
1/2 cup celery
1/2 cup chopped onion
1 Jar Cheez Whiz
1 pkg  frozen chopped broccoli (thawed)
1 can cream of chicken
1 stick of butter

Saute veggies in butter, stir in rice, and set aside. In sauce pan on low heat warm up soup and Cheez Whiz. Combine all ingredients in buttered baking dish and bake at 350' for 30 min.

4 comments:

  1. I have lived in several places and it depends on what part of the country you live--some people call it POP, others SODA (and if you are from Minnesota it is SO-DAH, and then some call all form of sweet catbonated drinks COKE regardless of whether they want a Coke, Dr Pepper or Sprite.

    I want to let you know that I have a BIG give-a-way starting on Sunday and it will be really fun. I am calling it SPREADING THE LOVE--cuz I love my FOLLOWERS. There are lots of gifts, from really cool vendors. Each week there will be SEVERAL winners--that is right it will be going on all month long. So you can come back each week and leave me a comment, to put your name in.

    You don't have to have a blog--you can e-mail me to enter your name.

    Followers get their name in once and if you have my button on your side bar your name will go in 5 more times.

    If you can double check your READER to see if you are getting my posts I would really appreciate it--for some reason Google has picked on me since the start of my blog and I always end up having them not post every few weeks.

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    Cheri

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  2. Sunshine,
    Growing up in rural Oregon, I already learned all your vocabulary words, but this was too funny regardless. Your posts just get better and better! I really look forward to reading these!
    I'll bet your city friends have trouble believing you aren't stretching the truth a bit!
    Hope you are feeling better and better each day...

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  3. That was so funny. Very cute stuff.

    Katie

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  4. Good thing I got a lesson since we are heading your way this summer!! No wonder I NEVER know what you are talking about!

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