Only in Missourah!

Well this June marks 15 years since we packed up our belongings and moved to Missouri...pronounced Missourah by most those who live down here. All we knew about Missouri at the time is that the capital city was Jefferson City (yeah for 4th grade state capital tests!) and that this state had an Arch.  But after six months of looking for a job after graduation and a 2 inch stack of rejection letters, we were more than thrilled when Mike was offered a job as a criminalist at the Missouri State Highway Patrol Crime Lab, so off we went! Always thinking we'd return to our beloved state of Michigan...

Well here we are 15 years later, still here, and other than missing family immensely, happy to call this home.  Tonight Sarah reminded me of a story from our first few weeks of living here.  I was on my way to my temp job (with Missouri State Parks) and they asked this question on the radio, "Name 7 body parts that have only 3 letters." One person called in and said "jaw" to which the next caller called in to respond (totally serious I might add), "jaw is not a correct answer, because jaw is spelled j-a-w-l, it has 4 letters." Which left me wondering where in world have I moved to...a bunch of rednecks or hillbillies or something must live here.

Well tonight, I noticed Sarah wrote down this word (on her list of 'boredom buster' ideas for the summer): "drawl" - and I couldn't help but laugh when I saw it.  Later when I saw her, I asked her how to spell straw, to which she said, "s-t-r-a-w-l" - and draw? "d-r-a-w-l".  Well since I refuse to let my daughter be a complete redneck, I had to explain to her that while people in Missouri say, "you want to drawl?" - and so that's how it sounds to write it, that they really should say, "do you want to draw? - see, no 'l' on the end.  So after mini lesson in proper English, we tested out "jaw" - Sarah, how do you think you spell jaw? She answered:  'j-a-w' - and how do you think people in Missouri spell it? 'j-a-w-l' she responded with her big grin.  :)  That's my girl! :) And dear sweet state of Missouri, and wonderful people whom we've met here - we love ya'll no matter how ya'll talk! ;)