The End of Summer

The teachers came back to school this week. We have 12 new teachers out of a teaching staff of 37. So there is much excitement and a bit of chaos. Tomorrow I will be distributing my literary masterpiece that I improve on each year and share with new teachers, a two page missive entitled, "Attendance for Dummies (an X through Dummies) Teachers". I have already given them my one-page essay called "Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Purchasing a School Lunch" (but were afraid to ask). I do my best to train new staff members in the areas where I am highly qualified and extremely knowledgable.

Last weekend was so beautiful. We got to see hot air balloons floating by our house first thing Friday, Saturday and Sunday because of the Art and Air Festival. I took this picture from our deck. Three of them were about to land in a field along the road as I headed to church Sunday morning.

Will decided it would be a good weekend to clean the garage so he could put the Bronco in there, the better to work on it through the coming winter. So I got to help. We didn't have any fights that got loud enough for the neighbors to hear. The loudest shriek was when I opened the garbage lid to toss something in and saw something brown and furry which made an unpleasant noise. Then I realized it was just Mr. Sarcastic Bear. Sometimes Will shows no discretion when it comes to tossing things. I thought it was such a meaningful award, but apparently he doesn't treasure it enough. It's been in the garage since sweet two-year-old Brenden was here and we had to protect his innocent ears. I rescued it and continue to hold it in reserve for just the right re-gifting moment.

Brent

I want to tell you about a very special young man whom I hope you will all keep in your prayers during the coming year. He is in the US Army and was recently deployed to Iraq.

I first met Brent when his parents came over for dinner soon after they started attending our church, probably about 1989. I think he was about two years old. They hadn’t been at our house very long before he threw up on my lovely brown plaid couch. He seemed to feel better, but before long, he threw up again on his mother’s lap. I loaned her my favorite sweatpants (teal colored) since she was/is way skinnier than me and nothing else would fit. We had dinner, but when he threw up a third time, they decided it would be okay to eat and run! (I think we’ve since concluded that it was his dad’s fault for feeding him too many hot dogs for lunch!)

Our families became very good friends over the years in spite of that inauspicious beginning, and Brent grew up to be a wonderful role model to younger kids. We camped with them many times, and Brent always treated our Nick with such kindness and respect, almost as an equal instead of as a little kid five years younger. Brent was always great at entertaining the younger kids without acting like it was an imposition. Nick has always admired and looked up to him so much. It was after going to Brent’s graduation from the Search and Rescue Academy about four years ago that Nick set his heart on doing the same thing as soon as he was old enough, and he met that goal this summer.

I love this picture I took of Brent with his sister and other admirers when our families were camping at the Metolius River with a group of friends last July, just before Brent left for boot camp. He then was sent to German for a year. One day in April I was working as usual in the office at school when a young man walked in who looked strangely familiar. Brent, looking so grown up, was home on a “surprise” visit to his family and wanted to take his sister out to lunch. When he brought her back we chatted for a bit. At the time he was expecting to leave for Iraq soon, and before he left he gave me a hug and told me he would be in church Sunday in uniform. I was glad it was time for me to leave for lunch because I couldn’t keep the tears from coming. The next Sunday was Easter, and our church was holding Easter services at the Linn County Fairgrounds. The last time I was there was for Tyler’s funeral, and I knew if I went there Sunday and saw Brent in uniform, soon to head for Iraq, I would need more Kleenexes than I could carry in my medium size purse. So we went to Jody and Kevin’s church on Easter morning. I wish I would have had the fortitude to go, because I missed hearing Brent’s parents sharing before the congregation about trusting God in uncertain times.

Brent was busy with friends and family while he was home, but Nick hadn’t had a chance to see him, so he took the time to come by the school and take his sister and Nick out to lunch another day. Nick loved it, and I hope Brent knows how much that meant to him.

So now we have the opportunity to trust God in uncertain times. I know that God loves Brent and has great things planned for him, and that through these experiences he can grow to a depth of spiritual maturity that can only come through difficult times. His mother told me she is praying for his health and safety, that he will have wisdom, and that God will use him to impact others around him. He e-mailed his mom that he can feel the prayers of people and feels a sense of peace and calmness. So join your prayers with ours and if you want to write him a note to let him know he’s in your thoughts and prayers, here’s his address. We all love you and are so proud of you, Brent!

PFC Brent Riley
Task Force 1-26 Infantry
APO AE 09390

A Strangely Silent Weekend

After shopping Friday, Nick and I were going to meet Will for dinner at Applebees. We were nearly there when Will called and said there was a change in plans. A man had been hiking and broke his leg on a trail above 8000 feet and there was a Search and Rescue mission to go up and move him to a place where a helicopter could pick him up. We met Will in the parking lot, he took Nick home to get his gear, and I went grocery shopping. Will decided he could perhaps be useful on this operation, (he loves going up to the mountains) so he headed on up to the trailhead as well. Will returned home about 5:30 p.m. the next day. Nick got back about two hours later. He had two nasty blisters on each foot. We got to looking at his boots, which we bought in June, and they are getting a bit small. We had to buy a size bigger when we bought his school shoes the day before. I suppose we are a few short years away from having another Oddball Shoes customer. Hopefully they sell enormous hiking boots.

Nick had previously signed up to help today with the River Wild boat races, a Search and Rescue fundraiser event that has been going on this weekend. I had to have him at the Sheriff's Office at 7:30 this morning. Will left about 6:30 am for Sisters for meetings about forest fires and possible evacuation plans. Eric and I had brunch together at Denny's after church, but other than that I was on my own again until about 4:00.

I remember when being home alone was a rare treat, one that I always knew about well in advance and made many plans to take maximum advantage of. Now it's becoming very common place. I don't have any trouble entertaining myself when I'm home alone - there's always something to clean, weed, or wash, as well as scrapbooking and books to read. I'm trying to get Eric's life scrapbooked by the time he graduates in June. I started three years ago, and I just finished his fourth year of life. I've been sidetracked by three other scrapbooks in the meantime, so now I have to focus on Eric and make a little faster progress. It's hard to scrapbook when the weather is nice though.

I knew Nick would be calling this afternoon when he needed to be picked up, but I forgot to take my cell phone outside when I was on the breezy front porch with the laptop. I heard a neighbor's phone ring and so I came in and got the phone. There were three missed calls from Nick on it. Yikes, I'm afraid we're going to get a bad reputation down there. It's not like were just some anonymous dumb parents who never answer the phone when their kid calls, we are very well-known-to-them dumb parents. Must improve on that.

So Nick came home this afternoon and was of course very hungry. He said he's eaten jail sack lunches for the past two days! I let him heat up my leftovers from Dennys. Oh, the sweet signs that a teenager is back in the house. Dirty socks next to the couch and gravy spilled on the bottom cabinets and the floor. How did he do that? I made him clean it up before he sat down to eat, but I'm am minding those telltale signs of teenage inhabitation less and less as time goes by!

Being home alone with no one making messes or needing meals cooked is enjoyable, but it's more fun having the family around, even if they are a lot of trouble sometimes!

Shopping with Nick

Nick and I did a little shopping Friday afternoon. I wanted to bring one of his many female friends to guide him in a positive direction of clothing choices, but he vetoed the idea. The t-shirts today have absolutely no class. The attitudes expressed and the many references to passing gas leave me shaking my head. Nick immediately fell in love with a shirt that had a picture of Homer Simpson wearing nothing but his tidy whities with his big belly showing and the slogan "Ladies Man". It was my turn to veto, in spite of his pleas to loosen up and quit being so uptight. I thought I would enlist some support for my opinion among his peers, so I called a 14 year old friend who has a good sense of style and asked her opinion of this shirt. Perhaps I guided her response a little. "If you saw a boy wearing this shirt, wouldn't you think he was stupid?" She laughed and said, "Well, kind of, but it's also kind of funny. I'll ask my brother what he thinks." I didn't care what her brother thinks, he of course agreed with Nick! So she bitterly disappointed me. But I still didn't buy the shirt.

Have you ever seen a pretty sheep?

I was out working in my yard earlier enjoying this lovely evening when I heard someone yelling, "Hello, Mrs. M!" I looked up to see one of my former office aides, now in high school, coming down the street, holding a baby bunny and a leading an elegant looking sheep on a leash. I mistakenly referred to it as a goat and she corrected me, but I can't remember what kind of fancy sheep it is. Brittany, Jeremy and some kids visiting them came outside to check it out and so did Nck.

As most of you know, I have a some sort of genetic problem and am more comfortable with pictures of animals than actual contact with animals. But I actually admired and touched this sheep because it had such a beautiful coat of wool, not like an ordinary sheep at all. I told her it was just fine if her sheep eats my grass. But I was soon rudely reminded of one reason I am repelled by animals when the kids started laughing because the sheep was dropping a pile of little "coffee beans" on my grass. Eeuww.

So I was complaining about it to Will when he came home telling him I was going to let it dry and have Nick pick it up tomorrow. He looked at me incredulously. "Are you from around here?" He had two pieces of advice for me. 1. Don't ever tell anyone you saw a pretty sheep. 2. You are not going to make Nick get down on his hands and knees tomorrow to gather up the sheep's "coffee beans". Water it into the grass and it will disintegrate on it's own. Eeuww.

Motherhood and Matrimony

Once again I am enjoying the blessings of motherhood and matrimony. Nick had a great week at camp but was very happy to be home. He came downstairs and told me their toilet was dirty so he cleaned it. Wow. A little later he heard me screaming and came running down the stairs to help me, still buttoning his pants. He was a bit surprised to find all the commotion had been caused by my efforts to kill an enormous spider that didn't want to die. It was just he and I Saturday night, and he suggested we hang out and watch a movie. So we went to the nice new Carmike theater in Corvallis. We shared a container of buttery popcorn, and I helpfully opened up a couple of napkins and put them on his lap so his pants wouldn't get greasy. I told him I was setting the standard for future girlfriends. If he takes a girl to the movies, he'll know she's the one if she makes sure he has napkins protecting his clothes. He said, "No, Mom, if I'm at the movies with napkins spread all over me, I'll know I'm with my mom." He enjoyed the movie more than I did. I don't know why I went to see Pirates of the Caribeean. There are way to many slimy ugly creatures that I can't bear to look at.

Sunday morning I let him drive to church even though we didn't have any extra minutes to spare. He tries to be careful not to speed and tends to slow down occasionally. When I'm running late, I find it a bit frustrating to be going less than the speed limit. By the time we turned onto Geary just before getting to church and were creeping down the road at 22 mph in the 25 mph speed zone, I couldn't control myself any more. I told him just this once I wanted him to go five minutes over the speed limit. He thought that was quite funny. "Are you sure you want me to go five minutes over the speed limit?" Yes just this once. Get me to church! "Five minutes, huh?" Oh you know what I mean! I must learn to curb my impatience.

The Troyer family that was available came over Sunday night for a sub sandwich picnic on our deck with blackberry cobbler for dessert. A lovely evening. Will got home in time to host this event. Good thing because he had to run Nick to town for a Search and Rescue callout about 8:00 pm. Nick got to take a fast hike up Iron Mountain to help bring down an older lady who had fallen and injured her ankle. I woke up at 1:30 am to my cell phone ringing the "restricted call" ring (a very nasty jarring sound). I thought it was Will's phone because I don't usually have my phone in the bedroom. We had quite an argument as I kept telling him to answer his phone and he kept saying his phone wasn't ringing. So by the time we figured it out, I missed the call and thought it was very odd because I assumed Nick would use his cell phone and call Will's cell when he returned. Soon I heard the faint ring of the house phone and leaped up again. Poor Nick said he had been trying to call for a half hour and calls were not going through to either my phone or Will's, and we didn't hear the house phone (the ringer was turned off in our room). Nick was so tired he fell onto the couch and slept there until 2:30 this afternoon. In addition to his busy night, I guess he had a bit of sleep to catch up on from camp.

Overheard, Nick to Will while watching Sci Fi: "Does cauterize mean removing your man parts?"

A Camping Widow

Since Will has been gone camping since Wednesday and it's also church high school camp, I have been living quite the wild single life. Wednesday I stayed out past 11 PM after going out to dinner, a movie, then dessert and coffee with three girlfriends. Thursday night was even more outrageous, as I ventured into the long blackberry bush lined driveway at my cousin Gwen and Dale's place with Doug and Anisa. I was the smart one, wearing long pants while Doug and Anisa were scoffed at by Dale for wearing "high pants". We were treated to homemade ice cream with blackberries after our exertions through the thorny vines (and quite a few laughs during our fight through the jungle) before heading back home with our buckets of blackberries. Tonight I went to Galen's after I got off work to see Dawn and Kevin and their lovely children. They soon headed to the Scandinavian Festival so I went out to dinner with Galen and Carol. I got home while it was still daylight and worked in the yard like an ordinary wife and mother for a bit.

When I pulled into my driveway, Michael (Shorty) from next door came running over and my heart stopped for a moment because I actually felt like I was seeing Tyler and for a second it seemed like maybe it had all been a bad dream. Wow. His family hadn't seen my Tyler scrapbook yet so I sent it home with him. Brittany brought it back around 10:00 and we had a nice gabfest. She just left a few minutes ago. I am so fortunate to live next to my brother's daughter and her family. So it chalks up for another late night for this wild temporarily single woman. Tomorrow night I'll be a mother again so I will have to quit having so much fun and return to my sedate matronly life!

Eric is 18

Happy birthday to Eric, who has the good fortune to have a birthdate of 8-8-88 and is now 18. The day after he was born and the doctor came to check in on this 9 pound, 13 ounce baby with the fat cheeks and upturned nose, the doctor told me that a boy born in the summer should not go to kindergarten when he is five, he won't be ready til he is six. What he didn't mention is that he will turn 18 before his senior year begins and you will be stuck with a year of having a "child" in your home who considers himself an adult. We have tried to prepare for this but no doubt we will all need much prayer as we spend this year preparing for his independence.

Here he is with his fellow Funkle Ted band members and other friends. I only had three candles so he figured each one could represent six years.


Eric is very smart, creative and talented and we expect great things in his future. We encourage him to take to heart the theme verse he learned and repeated many times on Wednesday nights in Caravans: "Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not unto your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him and he will direct your paths." (Prov3:5-6) We love you Eric.

Another Troyer Campout at South Beach

(Or as Will says, a McAnulty campout that the Troyers come to)

(Revised 8/10/06)
Our annual summer weekend at South Beach was so quiet this year. Dawn, we missed you and your family! Especially your family! Your children tend to really liven things up! It was fun having Brenden and Tamarick and Jenna for the day, but they weren't there long enough!

They were there long enough for Nick and Duane to get rich. It was sunny in the morning, but by afternoon the clouds were hiding the sun, the fog had rolled in and a chill wind was blowing. Galen drove the Suburban to the beach with the little boys, the big boys (Nick and Duane), and the adult boys, Kenny, my neice Melissa's husband and Will. It was quite cold on the beach, and Kenny told the boys he would give them $60 if they got completely wet. Of course they ran to the ocean and dived right in! Totally worth freezing!

Here's Nick bringing coffee to his Uncle Doug and his favorite cousin Kenny!

Molly brought her puppy Marley. It's nice my boys finally get to enjoy a dog without me having any of the inconvenience. Eric even got up at 6 a.m. to take him for a needed walk!

Anisa wins the Good Deed Award for the weekend. A little girl walked by crying for her mom so Anisa leaped up, took her hand and helped the sad but talkative little girl named Emma reunite with her family. "I'm only six. I'm the youngest in my family. They're all packed up and they'll probably leave without me. We have to go see some sharks. I don't like sharks. I don't want to see sharks...." Her older brother returned to the restroom where he was supposed to have waited for her and they all lived happily ever after. It reminded us of a church campout at Honeyman when Eric was about 3. He and his friend Heidi got on their trikes and kept going. We didn't notice they were lost until a nice gentleman returned them to us. After that we wrote our campsite number on our children's hands.

A nice policeman prowled by Saturday afternoon and Will asked if he could help him. He was trying to track down the source of an illegal smoke smell and seemed to think it was coming from our camp site. A member of our group had brought wood from some sort of evergreen tree and apparently it emits a smell similar to that certain illegal substance. No charges were filed.

Once again the weekend was over too quickly. Nick had to leave early to go to camp. Will really missed his help with hooking up. When we got there Friday, Will lounged around with a can of soda telling anyone who would listen how much he loves that kid while Nick unhooked and set up the trailer, "It's a good thing you weren't born first or we probably would have had about 14 kids." Now I need to follow through and get people over here for a barbecue before the summer is over so everyone can see the flag memorial here at the Tangent park.

Back to Work

My one month summer break is over. Sadly, I had to go back to work last week on Thursday. Very sadly. My desk was gone because the ancient carpet was expected to be replaced in July. It wasn't replaced until Monday, July 31. So I had to find something else to do.

There were lots of waist high weeds growing among the miniature roses in the front flower bed at school, and lots more weeds in the two courtyards. I mercilessly cut back the spindly rose bushes and filled two of the Albany-Lebanon Sanitation yard debris carts with weeds over the two days. I was exhausted at the end of each day. I even came home and took a nap. Friday I was wiped out even though I took a two-hour plus lunch break to deal with an auto body shop, a car rental shop, an insurance agency, and another car repair shop because the Durango kept dying on the way to get the rental car. Perhaps the stress of dealing with people who are supposed to help you but don't really care about helping you is somewhat exhausting as well. Don't even get me started about insurance companies. Fortunately, the Durango was just a $35 repair and we got it back that day.

I had to rent a pickup because that's all that was available. It was quite handy, because Michael next door shared his leftover bark dust with us but it didn't quite cover our flower bed that borders his yard. Will was just thrilled that he had a pickup to go get a load of bark dust. He also took a trip to Home Depot with it and brought home some wood to fix a certain damaged shed door.

Before I took the pickup back yesterday, I put gas in it, wanting it to be half tank just like when I received it so that Enterprise wouldn't charge me $3.80 a gallon. I thought we hadn't driven it very much and asked for $5.00 worth. I immediately realized that was dumb, that's less than two gallons. So I asked for another $5.00 worth. When I started the vehicle, the gas gauge had barely moved. I felt too stupid to ask for another $5.00, so I went across the street to the Shell station because I saw that Eric's friend Molly was working. I told her what was going on and asked for another $5.00 worth. When I turned the car on, it was still less than half a tank. I couldn't believe it. What kind of terrible mileage does this little pickup get? Okay, another $5.00 for a total of $20. This time, the needle went up to 3/4 of a tank. How irritating.

I got my car back today and enjoyed my drive home very much. I'm very happy that I don't have to pay the $1900 repair bill. It's really wonderful when you close your trunk and it doesn't pop right back up. The secretary at the auto body shop seemed pretty concerned that the insurance company might send the check directly to me and emphasized several times that I need to bring it to them as soon as I get it. Do I look like someone who would take the money and run? If only I would have received it on Friday afternoon after my horrible, no good, very bad day.....