Bunco Night

Saturday night was the First Semi-Annual Troyer Family Bunco party at my house. With four tables going and about 25 people in attendance counting preschoolers, infants, and drop-ins, it was a merry time indeed. The winners, just as the players, were an excellent mix of generations. My great-niece Tavin (who was at the head table forever) and her mother Dawn tied for most wins, but Dawn had the most Buncos, so they both won a prize. Sadly, the loser prize went to the oldest female player, Tavin’s great-grandmother. She’s not as old as that sounds though, and I’m sure she doesn’t want me to mention her here so I won’t.

As we were hard at Bunco, Simon and Cody (age 5 and 4 I think) were playing with cars on the floor. Loud chortles of laughter and squeals of enjoyment accompanied their play. As I thought, "I don’t remember my kids being so loud at that age," I suddenly recalled a time when my oldest was in first grade. We had some guests whose boys were teenagers. As we sat at the table visiting, our little boys were playing in their usual delightfully exuberant manner, dashing through the dining room occasionally, and I remember our guest saying, "I don’t think my boys were ever so noisy at that age." I was a bit taken aback and perhaps somewhat offended. I did not remark upon the children’s noise at my house Saturday night, other than to comment how wonderful was the sound of their laughter, and why do grown-ups not laugh so loudly or easily as children do?

Those cute little boys were even able to sit on some laps and enjoy throwing the dice for awhile. "Am I winning?" was Simon’s question after each throw. Of course they also lost a car under the stove. I provided a broom to retrieve it. (Wow, what a lot of dust bunnies came out from under there! I must train my boys to do a better job of sweeping the kitchen!) And probably their favorite part of the night was after Bunco when they got to play Mario on Nintendo 64.

Some people – teenage girls – declined Bunco, preferring to hold babies. Here is Venisa with Jean’s little one, Sean. Then there’s the best sister-in-law in the world who insisted on giving up her spot in order to clean up the kitchen after the snack break. Doug, I don’t know what you did to deserve her.

Poor Will missed out on most of the fun, out on a call which I can’t tell you about because I didn’t see it in the paper yet and that’s the rule I go by. I will tell you that it had to do with equines. Will won’t admit that he loves Bunco, he tried to tell the family that he dislikes everything about it, including the dice, the noise people make when they’re winning, the noise they make when they’re losing, etc. etc. He's such a kidder. Fortunately he arrived home in time toat least partake of snacks and fellowship, sitting around on our new couches after the games were over.

I had a wonderful time and I believe it was shared by everyone here. Thanks for coming, family. To the Canadian, Californian, Hoosier ("Indianaian" just can't be right!) and Alabamian family, wish you could have been here!

I'm so Proud

Last weekend, I declined the opportunity to go with my husband to the annual banquet of a certain elite team that he belongs to, graciously allowing him and his boss to go enjoy it together. I always feel that I really should attend these events, just in case he should finally be recognized for his many superior talents and abilities and receive some prestigious award. They usually notify the wife that her presence would be desired if such an honor is planned, and I received no notification. So I was bitterly disappointed when he came home and I learned I had missed out on his acceptance of a special, unique award. Apparently on a recent mission with this team, in the absence of the designated negotiator he took on the role (for which is he fully trained and qualified) and performed it in such a memorable and successful manner that they just couldn’t let it go unrecognized. So as a fitting tribute to his eloquence, they presented him with "Mr. Sarcastic –The Little Bear with the BIG Attitude!" This cute little sun-glasses-wearing stuffed animal utters 12 different inspiring comments, such as "You’re not worthless, you make a great bad example." It came equipped with a light sensor so it can be free to talk without waiting for its hand to be squeezed, a feature which Nick quickly activated. When I came downstairs the next morning in my ancient robe, the bear was on the coffee table and I was a bit startled when it said scornfully, "Oh brother, who dressed you this morning?" Obviously very smart as well as sarcastic!

The Unattainable "After"

"So when are you going to post a picture of new furniture?" is the question people are asking. I'm feeling a lot of pressure for the perfect "after" picture. Somehow in my mind, instead of just being "old furniture" to "new furniture", it's truly a "before" and "after" picture. The "after" picture can't be taken until everything is just right. At first I was just waiting for an opportunity to take a picture when we were all here, there were no obvious food spills or rips on anyone's clothing, and everyone's hair was semi-presentable. Then I realized everyone needs haircuts, some of us should lose a few pounds, we need new throw pillows and perhaps new valances, and certainly some more house plants. I managed to get two lovely new plants, one real, one fake. I'm sure there is a deep statement about the meaning of life, or the lack of it, in this attitude but I'm not going there. "After" is just an unattainable state in my life. One of these days I will be able to face life as it truly is at the same time that everyone is home, and the "after" picture will happen, imperfect though it will be.

But there is hope. I have been praying for a miracle, or several miracles in the life of my dearly beloved oldest son. Today I saw a glimmer. He came home to do his laundry. I left for awhile, and when I came back, he was gone. I assumed that his laundry would, as usual, still be in the washer or possibly in the dryer. It wasn't in the washer. It wasn't in the dryer. It wasn't even lying in a pile on the couch. Yes, for the first time ever, he actually completed the wash/dry/put-away cycle all within a few hours! Things are starting to happen!

Happy Birthday Will!

Yesterday was Will's birthday. We started celebrating a week ago when John and Betsy were here for dinner. I served angel food cake for dessert and Will commented that it looked like his birthday cake. So we sang "Happy Birthday" to him and had an early birthday celebration. He has often remarked that our children's birthdays seem to rate a week-long celebration, and I've detected an underlying hint of envy that his birthday is not quite such a big deal as theirs. After the recent gift oversight on my birthday, I felt it important to set an example to our children of the proper way a parent should be treated on the auspicious occasion of their birthday.

So when Will came down to breakfast, this was awaiting him. Notice, three presents before 7:00 AM. (Don't worry, I allowed him to eat more than this.)


When Nick went to his office to volunteer after school, we brought him this. (Sister-in-law Carol was already there with a more relaxing toy for him also.)

I cooked a fabulous dinner of his favorite foods - rib steak, rice pilaf, cauliflower with cheese sauce, shrimp salad, and of course, angel food cake and ice cream for dessert. And two more presents of course. I even refrained from inviting any extra guests to share it because I know that he truly loves only his immediate family.

Then we spent the evening watching one of his DVD gifts with him. He was very appreciative of the special treatment he received, although he seems to suspect I was trying to show him up. Not at all, I'm not that kind of person. I was just showing my love.

And I would have been able to post this earlier but the computer wasn't working. My expertise is limited to turning it off, waiting awhile, and trying again. That didn't work. Will spent some time on it with no success. When Nick got home from church, Will told him it appeared our hard drive was fried and we needed to replace it. Ever confident, Nick says, "Let me take a look at it." He soon re-appeared and announced, "I fixed the computer so I think you owe me $20." Will wants to know how he fixed it. Nick doesn't want to share his secret of success. Will insists. Nick had to admit that he replaced the stick of RAM that he removed last night to see if it would fit one of his computers. Yikes. So the next day, (I'm revising this on Thursday) our school tech person who Nick assists was in the office after school and I asked Nick if her told her what he did to our computer. His version was interesting. "I borrowed a stick of RAM to see if it would fit in one of my computers and then my mom was rushing me cause she wanted me to come down for my dad's birthday dinner so I forgot to put it back. Can you believe my dad spent an hour and a half trying to figure out what was wrong with the computer and he never even checked the hardware?" She said, "Well, Nick, we know there are a lot of people like that out there, so we need to make sure that we always replace any hardware that we might remove from their computers!" I guess there's "them" and there's "us".

Prayer Wars

I observed an interesting example of brotherly love last night. John and Betsy came for dinner, and Will requested John to ask the blessing on our meal. John and Betsy obviously are in the habit of joining hands during that particular prayer (unlike our family). When they reached out, we all obligingly joined our hands. Nick even grabbed Eric's hand as it was on the table. I saw the glare Eric shot his way just before the prayer began, so just this once, I kept my eyes open and observed them. During the entire prayer, their hands and fingers were busy squeezing and pinching, obviously intent on seeing who could inflict the most pain on the other person. But I was very happy to see that at least their heads were bowed and their eyes were closed.

The Holidays are Over

Here we are already, enjoying one last day off as the holiday season ends and we go back to the routine of life. One fun outing we took during this break was a visit to Hope's house. The water was pretty high and Micah offered to take the kids on a boat ride. That's not something we normally do in the middle of winter so it was especially fun. Most of the pictures I took of the little boys were a little blurry, perhaps because a lot of motion is involved with wrestling and nerf guns! The kids are so cute and the house remodel is beautiful.

New Year's Eve was our traditional get-together with the Trowers. In the morning, Will had to verbalize his annoyance about the one day of the year that you are forced to stay up until midnight whether you want to or not. At his age, he prefers to be in bed before that. But Andy was pretty smart, he got him to talking about ham radio antennas around midnight and Will perked right up.

Here is a picture of a non-traditional New Year's Eve - 1999, when everyone was hyped about Y2K so Will was on the job. I let the boys have their own little party with Tyler and Jeremiah, and this photo shows them ringing in the new year with sparkling cider - Tyler, Craig, Jeremiah, and Eric.

Then yesterday was our final big family gathering as visits from the brother from the Yukon and the brother from Indiana overlapped for one day. I must share this picture showing the mirth that ensued after a "whoopee cushion" found its way under the cushion on Carol's chair. You can see that John and Galen obviously enjoyed it. Whoopee cushions are not a normal part of our usual dignified Troyer family gatherings (unless Mark is in the area). But when Jewel's family is around, you never know what might happen!


HAPPY NEW YEAR!