Troha Family: October 2009

Well last weekend (the first weekend of October) we went back to Many, LA. Jeff and (his) Dad left Friday morning with the moving truck. His parents wanted to move the rest of their furniture down to the house in Many. So us girls stayed behind until Avery got done with school at 1:00. I LOVE how she is done early on Fridays!! We got on the road at 3:30....Mom (Jeff's), me, Avery, Kendall & Jake. We made one stop along the way to eat....Johnny's Pizza of course. So yummy but yet so easy for the everyone to eat in the car. We made it to Many in 4 1/2 hours!!! That's great time with the kids AND the dog! While we were there we had a great time and I thought we would share. Let me clarify one thing. I am using the word redneck in a joking manner. I'm not saying this to poke fun at anyone. I just thought that was fitting for the activities described below. Besides, I can say that since I have some in my family...takes one to know one I guess. LOL

So to answer the title above....

1. You shoot your own gun for fun.

Jeff brought our 9 mm down for me to do some target practice with. I haven't shot the gun in months so it was definitely time. We always bring Jake out with us so that it won't spook him if he ever has to hear it in the house. Of course, it is our prayer that he never will. For the first time, he wasn't scared of the cows and started chasing a few of them. It's amazing to see how much bigger he's gotten since the last time we went to Many in June!! Back to the shooting ~ I must say that I am quite the shot. I definitely can hit the target. I can also cock it (if that's what you call it on a handgun) or is it load it?? Whatever you call it when you slide the chamber back to load in the bullet from the cassette. That takes quite a bit of strength as I'm learning. But yes, between Jeff and I, we shot 100 bullets in less than 15 minutes. So fun though!

2. You race your suped-up lawn mower

So, Jeff's wonderful & precious cousin Brandy, along with her husband Rodney, told us that Robilene (a small town close to Many) was having a parade on Saturday and asked us to come with the girls. Her sister-in-law has a house right there on the parade route. Small-town festival parade? Absolutely!! The weather was so perfect. It was sunny with a breeze. Thank goodness Brandy & Rodney's family had extra plastic bags for candy for our girls! Then Brandy told us how they were going to have lawn mower races later, and that some of them even supe (however you spell that!!) theirs up so much so that one man can pop a wheelie in his!! This was the first time that I had heard of this sport. How funny is that?!? Yes, I did get a picture of the man popping his wheelie (he looked like Santa Claus)!! HI-larious! It was so much fun, and the girls filled up their bags with candy and beads. So now we don't have to buy candy to hand out for Halloween! We didn't stick around for the actual races though I'm sure they were a treat to watch.

3. You eat what was killed earlier that day.

Ok, so I am definitely a meat-eater. However, I don't partake in killing the meat that I eat. While we were out on Saturday, my nephew Jeb called us and invited us out. See this was the opening weekend of squirrel-hunting season. So they were all getting together and eating Squirrel Gumbo and wanted to invite us out. Yes, that's right, squirrel gumbo. Yes it's a rodent, but at least it's a rodent that eats nuts and not trash! Yes, I was born and raised in Louisiana but I don't think that I have ever had squirrel before. I'm pretty sure that I remember my mom making some turtle soup when I was young but I don't know if it had real turtle meat in it or not. We had company over that night and she didn't tell them what was in it until they had eaten it. I only remember this after one of their sons found me on facebook and reminded me. LOL So back to the gumbo. They were going to have a bonfire and a hayride for the kids also so we decided we would go out there for the girls. I did have a bite of the gumbo but with a bite of chicken and not squirrel...at least I don't think so. It was some good, spicy gumbo. We did the hayride and the girls loved it. Then they called all the kids inside for some fried snowflakes. I thought it might have been coconut or something since I had never heard of these before. No, they were folding up flour tortillas and cutting them like you do snowflakes. There was the biggest iron skillet with grease on the stove that I had ever seen. Seriously, the diameter had to have been 2 ft! They were frying them and then covering them in powedered sugar and cinnamon. Cute idea until one lady asked the man what they had fried in that grease earlier and he replied, "Do you really want to know??" as he was laughing hysterically. No one else was really paying attention to the conversation, because they were making snowflakes of the tortillas. What they failed to hear him say was rattlesnake. So they not only shot, killed and ate squirrel but also RATTLESNAKE?!? Needless to say, no my girls didn't have any of those. But it did make me laugh that's for sure.

We made the drive back home with Dad in a torrential down pour for almost the entire drive. We didn't stop once and got home in about 4 hours. Dad drove while I read one of the best mysteries I've read in a long time: Prisoner of Birth by Jeffrey Archer. I highly recommend it to anyone!!

We had a great time in Many though. It was nice to spend the weekend with Jeff since he will be working nights the entire month of October. He's doing his rotation of trauma. He will be done though in less than 2 months now! His official last day of class is December 4 and his graduation date is December 11. To say that we are excited is quite and understatement. Even better is that he was offered a job at the hospital he has been working at. That was what he wanted. So we are just praying that this is what the Lord wants for us. We also are praying that we follow Him in case He wants us somewhere else. So we'll just have to see.