bunco!

you guys, i went to an army ladies' BUNCO party last night. and i WON. if i could make a t-shirt, it would say, "i went to a bunco party last night with a bunch of army women & all i got was this lousy vase." i mean, will you look at that tissue paper? ug-ly.

but i'm confident i can whip it into a pretty autumnal decoration in no time. the host actually had one, too, and it looked nice with a candle nestled in some stones alongside other fall decorations.

anyway, i just have to say that my bunco playing goes way back...like, to the 4th grade. when i was ~10 years old, the only birthday party to have was a bunco party. they were all the rage. we were pre-pubescent girls and we acted like old ladies. so it had been about 15 years since i tried my hand at it (literally) and i figured i'd give it a go, especially as our army days are numbered.

i came home brimming with stories to tell andy...mostly about some of the hilarious/awkward women i played with, including the colonel's crazy wife and 5 pregnant women. out of 12 women total, 5 were pregnant! craziness! but this is what happens when soldiers come home. and so the younger, un-pregnant gals took it upon themselves to drink the wine...naturally.

things i have learned from our time with the army {more to come on this later, too}: 

there is no place/institution like the army that gathers

such an interesting, diverse brood of people

it can be good, bad, and odd all at the same time.

now i give you one of my birthday parties circa 1988, 

long before wine & bunco were involved:

observations:

+  i was a cute kid {and a huge ham for the cam in this shot}.

+ my brothers were cute too.

+ that is most definitely a kool-aid mustache i'm sporting.

+ i think my brother also has the remnant of one?

+ i like both of my brothers' outfits, which is weird/awesome. 

they could pull those off today, 20-odd years later.

+ i love my chubby little hand on my brother's leg.