So, I have a problem with swearing.

I really can’t help it, and most of the time, it doesn’t really make a difference that I swear. Neal and I don’t have kids (yet), there aren’t any little kids in my family, and so I’m not around kids very often. Adults just have to deal with my potty mouth.

But my mom is bugging me to stop swearing, and on the unfortunate occasion we are around kids and I swear, Neal yells at me. Twice this summer, I was reprimanded by Neal for being in a public place and swearing around little kids. Whatev.

So, I’m sort of trying to work on it. I mean, I’m not trying very hard, but I’m trying a little. I have favorite swear words that I use, and the f-word tends to be one of my faves, much to my mother’s dismay. My brother swears a lot, too. Tad and I can have a totally valid convo full of swear words.

So, last night we had to go to this function with Neal’s coworkers. There were a couple of little kids, plus Neal’s co-workers, from which I think it’d be best to hide my dirty mouth.

At one point while talking to Neal’s boss, I said “heck.” Not hell, but heck. I was actually pretty proud of myself for that.

On the way home, Neal had some comments.

“I heard you. You caught yourself and almost said hell.”

“No, I didn’t!” I protested. “Seriously, Neal, I said heck fair and square. I was not going to say hell.”

He chuckled.

“OK, well I’m just saying, it sounded like you sort of caught yourself.”

“OK,” I said, “But I didn’t say hell, I said heck and you should be proud of me for that!”

I folded my arms and stuck my lip out. I couldn’t believe I was getting it trouble when I didn’t even swear.

Neal smiled and patted my leg.

“Well hunny, I did notice you didn’t drop the f-bomb once,” he said. “Way to go!”

**SMILE**

Maybe there is still hope I can clean up my act before we have kids….