Category: reflections

things you learn from games


We’ve had a couple game nights this week. On Tuesday night we played Balderdash with our community group and Thursday night we played Loaded Questions with my family. I always love learning new things about people through games – they’re almost as telling as Myspace surveys. But as Amy pointed out, it’s a good thing our community group already knew each other fairly well, otherwise we might have all been worried about saying the wrong thing in front of someone or making someone uncomfortable.
Here are some of the things I learned this week…

  • “bathetic” doesn’t mean “the process for washing your prosthetic” or “proper rules for a Roman bath” it means, “pretending to care”
    • “bufagin” doesn’t mean “what you do after a bird craps on your car.” it’s actually a substance found in toad’s milk
  • my sister Kara makes a duck sound when she scratches her throat
  • Wild Women of Wongo is a film about a village of beautiful women, with ugly men, who meet a village of beautiful men, with ugly women on the other side of a tropical island one fateful day
  • my parents would rather be in their own home than most anywhere else in the world
  • when thinking of where someone would place a statue of them, most of my family thinks of local parks – as in Dallas or Mesquite – my sister Kara and I think big – as in Central Park, New York City.
  • my brother-in-law Tim prefers to think on the pot while I prefer to think in the shower
  • the men in my family would like to be able to control the minds of our spouses, while Kara would prefer to control the mind of “the one who pees on the carpet”
  • our house would be named, “Queen Sheeba’s Pad” – for Presley, not for Laurie
  • when playing Balderdash, men tend to take longer to answer the question but their answers are usually short and to the point. women however don’t think about it as long but will explain their answers within the answer. i.e. “It is still illegal in Oklahoma to destroy… landscaping, because they provide tornado protection.” or “It is still illegal in Oklahoma to destroy… the soles of shoes, but they can be recycled.”
  • the Treadaways always find ways to take their games “once tip fur there”

What games do you and your family play? Found any good two person games?

Christmas lights and more

Well two major tasks have been completed today.
Laurie finished painting the living room while I hung the Christmas lights outside.

The dining room looks great. Laurie really did a great job.
Putting the lights up was a little bit of a different experience. I always remember rushing to want to put them up every year. I had fun climbing the tree in the front yard to wrap them in the best way possible. As I look back I think it looked pretty random and trashy but either no one noticed or didn’t care to tell me. 🙂
So far we’re not doing much with outdoor lights this year. Just some basic white C7 lights around the eves.

But I’ve run into a problem with our “bell tower.” I’m hoping maybe you can help.
As you can see in the picture above, as well as below, there’s a somewhat random string of lights that hang down on the sides of the “bell tower” above the front porch.

I think it looks a little tacky but I can’t figure out what to do with them.
Should I hook them to the brick along side the tower somehow? Should I tape them down? Should I just unscrew the bulbs so it doesn’t look as bad at night?
Any and all suggestions will be taken. Just let me know. I think it looks tacky and would love some suggestions and/or help.
Thanks in advance.
Now its time to find some dinner and come back to set up the tree and interior decorations.
Sadly, Orange Friday will be coming to a close before too long. 🙁

Thanksgiving day and beyond

Ok… so where was I?
Oh yes. We left for Laurie’s parents around noon yesterday and arrived around 1 for a great Thanksgiving meal with contributions from everyone.
Great turkey, stuffing, sweet potato pie, potato casserole, fruit salad, rolls and more.
I think Laurie had fun giving her mom a hard time because the two of us, her brother and her cousin ended up at the “kids table” while Jake and Brooklyn some how made it to the “adult table.” I guess things never change ;-).
After dinner I ended up wrestling with Jake and Brooklyn for a while as Jake tried to find his sock that “somehow” went missing.

As the Cowboys game kicked off we were brought into the living room to help judge an art contest for one of the local high schools.
The theme for the contest was, something to the effect of, “I can change the world by…”
Made for some interesting conversation and discussion.
We had to say our goodbyes around 5 so we could head to my parents house where we watched the rest of the Cowboys game and enjoyed some leftovers while playing Loaded Questions.
Afterwards we tried to get a good family photo but as you can see below, we didn’t have much luck staying focused on the task.
Laurie and I got home around 11 last night and had another great morning of sleeping in.
It’s a little after 1 and I’m still in my PJ’s and Laurie just started painting in the dining room again.
Guess I better get dressed and start pulling down those Christmas decorations and putting up the outside lights.
Should be a full afternoon and evening.

Almost done – well not quite


Pre-painting

Well it’s been a fun few days around here.
Tuesday afternoon I got a new job offer – more on that later.
Tuesday night we had a game night for our community group at Amy and Gaylan’s. We had a great time hanging out and celebrating Gaylan’s birthday. We’re planning our Christmas party back over there in a couple weeks.
Wednesday Laurie and I headed back to work and then went to Aaron and Keri’s for the Lehmann Thanksgiving festivities. Always fun to see all the Lehmann’s and enjoy their great food and fellowship.
We got home Wednesday night around 8:30 and Laurie went right to work painting the dining room. I tell you what, when she gets her mind set on something there’s not much that can stop her. She had briefly started painting on Tuesday night before our community group but we really went to town Wednesday night. Unfortunately we ran out of painter’s tape so we avoided some spots near the ceiling and window trim.
We ran out of paint in our first can around midnight so Laurie started cleaning up and getting prepped to make her infamous potato casserole for our Thanksgiving meal.


Almost done
Originally uploaded by Jonathan D. Blundell.


It was then that she realized she needed more sour cream and hash browns. Doh!
I headed out in the cold to Wal-Mart in Lancaster, who were luckily still open.
Grabbed the food, some more painter’s paint as well as Christmas lights.
We’ve got plenty of miniature Christmas lights, but I wanted something different so I bought several strings of larger white lights for outside the house.
We enjoyed sleeping in Thursday morning and Laurie got up around 10 to make some great cinnamon/orange rolls and to finish the potato casserole.
We left for her parents around noon after the casserole finished cooking and I got OrangeNoiseRadio set up for Orange Friday.

More on Thanksgiving fun coming…

The Easy Way Out

Friday night, Laurie and I went with Brian and Heather to hear Rob Bell speak on his “The God’s Aren’t Angry Tour.” We weren’t entirely sure what to expect. I think Brian and I had a basic idea, he would talk – without PowerPoint, or visual aids and would be fairly good at it. I think Laurie and Heather may have had an even lesser idea of what they were going to. Heather tried to explain it to someone as a “not a conference.”
In the end I walked away curious, contemplating and amazed. Bell spoke for nearly two hours without notes, a chalk board, white board or any other visual aids other than a replica of an alter on the stage.
He dressed in plain clothes – black jeans, a black shirt, white belt and tennis shoes. And he walked onto the stage, applauded the audience and went right into his message. There was no, “Thank you Dallas.” No, “I’m so glad you’re here.” Just the message he plained to give.
Continue reading The Easy Way Out