Hi everyone! It looks like we might be in for a wild weather day today; I could hear the wind rushing through the trees and playing with the garage door this morning, and it sounded pretty fierce. Batten down the hatches and stay safe!
I have a better picture of Darwin now that I am putting into the “About Me and the Purpose of This Site” page. Here it is:
The center of the door knob he is standing under is 34 1/2 ” from the floor, and he is about 4″ shorter than it, so from the floor to the top of his head is about 30 1/2″. In our family, that is a big dog!
- Lie v. Lay
Many, many thanks to my friend Toni from Lousiana, who provided a great explanation of the difference between lie v. lay. Here is her post:
Lie vs. lay
Lie means that the actor (subject) is doing something to himself or herself. It’s what grammarians call a complete verb. When accompanied by subjects, complete verbs tell the whole story.
• Lay, on the other hand, means that the subject is acting on something or someone else; therefore, it requires a complement to make sense. Thus lay always takes a direct object. Lie never does.
Lay has a direct object……”to set something down”
Lie has no direct object…..”to place oneself down or to stay in a horizontal position”
Example:
Lay down the beach blanket so that we can all lie on it.
So, to further cement the difference in all of our minds, I offer the following:
I laid the dog beds down on the floor. Here are pictures of my three dogs lying down, one on the floor and two on dog beds:
Mandy lying on the floor:
Darwin lying (well really for him I would say curled up) in the dog bed that it is too small for him but is his favorite:
Tyra lying on one of the several dog beds that she chooses to use:
So, to end this grammatical lesson and to refer back to the sentence that gave rise to the question, Mandy, in her alter-ego of Bad Dog, stole the handkerchief from the bedroom, laid it on the floor and then proceeded to lie down on it in order to pretend that she hadn’t done anything. (See the post of Friday, March 4).
- The Marshmallow House
Kayla came home on Monday with a house she had made from toothpicks and marshmallows. I thought it was really cute, but a defect in the construction materials had her pretty disgusted with it. The following is a photographic portrait of why she didn’t like her house:
I think it’s really fun to watch it collapse over and over, but she wasn’t as amused. I still told her she had done a good job, but she is not sure. Mark didn’t think watching the house collapse was nearly as funny as I did.
- Cam Newton
We decided to get Kayla established with a doctor here in our home town (really, after four years, it probably was time!), and so she had her first appointment yesterday with him – we were discussing her seasonal allergies and what she could take. He was trying to make conversation with her, so he asked her what she watched on TV. She told him that she liked to watch I, Carly and football. He kind of smiled and said that if she liked football, then she is in high cotton down here. I asked her to tell him who her favorite quarterback was, thinking pro football and expecting that she would say “Peyton Manning” because she always asks in a pro game if Peyton Manning is the quarterback. She answered, without hesitation, “Cam Newton.” I started to laugh, and said, “No, sweetheart, I mean your favorite pro quarterback.” Again, without missing a blink, she answered, “Cam Newton.” It’s not the first time I have been outsmarted by my own daughter!
Have a good day everyone!
Nancy
Tales from the Mom-Side 
