…the girls went wild! Nope. Actually, we kept the manicures and bon-bons to a minimum.
Earlier this month, Payton got head to sunny, southern California for the Shepherd’s Conference with my dad. They attended the three day conference with about 2500 other men and got to hear from a variety of speakers. I was a bit jealous as he got to see our old mobile home and old apartment building from when I was little, plus he got to eat Tommy Burgers without me. I can’t believe it’s been almost 20 years since I’ve been there. Weird.
They both came back challenged and encouraged. Two of the messages that I listened to were worth every minute. John MacArthur’s opening session talked about true fellowship and how it’s being eroded by technology and your iPhone (I tweet, therefore I am, etc). Well, there was more than that, but hopefully it lured you in to listening to it! The other message I enjoyed was on Romans 1 by Albert Mohler. It was quite invigorating and fascinating, and I’ll probably listen to both of them again. I usually listen to Al Mohler’s 15 minute daily podcast, “The Briefing”. He really has a pulse on the culture and explains it from a Christian worldview perspective. Plus, 15 minutes of news is about all that I can handle. (Side note: MacArthur’s other session was also great–I listened to it yesterday).
I was so thankful that the guys got to spend all of that time in God’s Word and return with so much to think about. Plus my dad had a buddy, which make the trip way more fun than going by himself!
So what did we girls do? among other things…Burgers at Five Guys!
A few of us went to try out a vegetarian Indian restaurant for lunch. It was quite the stretch for all of us since nothing was labeled and the owner’s English didn’t give me a clue what all of the colors and flavors were called. At the buffet we tried some red stuff with cheese, something with chickpeas, and some delicious rice with spices. But we also encountered some pickly relish stuff that knocked our socks off–in a scary sense. I’m not sure the last time my mouth turned inside out like that, but my palate was quite expanded to say the least.
Although Jake might have found it scary to try all those odd foods, his stuffed animal enjoyed the warmth of the chapati as a makeshift blankie. What a sport!
Mom and I went to the dentist. She got a root canal and I got a check up. I was told I had a few small cavities and that my teeth were “sensitive” because I brush too hard. Really?! Yep. It’s possible to do something wacky to your teeth by being too aggressive against plaque. But, they didn’t have to do a cleaning because they were quite clean. Well, at least I got something right…kind of.
And the final big activity was a Ladies’ Fellowship at Amy’s house.We piled 20 of us into minimal square footage and enjoyed the company on a snowy night. Now, if you know me, you probably know my sentiments when it comes to ladies’ activities. But this one turned out much different since we played Pictaphone (sp?).We split into two groups and got out the papers. Once they got the hang of it, we were all doubled over with laughter and crying because of the hilarious drawings that were being produced (See below for how to play). The game would be no fun if everyone was a perfect artist. So to all you ladies whose animals looked like terrifying monsters or whose cars looked like spaceships, thank you for making pictaphone such a great game!
I left full of tea, food, fellowship, and a dose of the best medicine, laughter.
How to play Pictaphone: This is a rendition of the game Telephone. Instead of passing a phrase in someone’s ear, you use paper and pass sentences and pictures. It works best with 5-10 players. If you’re playing with 7 people, cut out 49 pieces of paper, placing them in 7 stacks of 7. Have each player number the papers 1-7. On the first piece of paper everyone writes a sentence. Some examples:
I need a haircut. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. No shirt, no shoes, no service. The old man ate a pie under a tree. Etc.
After everyone’s written a sentence, they pass the entire stack of papers to their left. Each person will now have a stack of 7 papers with a sentence on top. They then put that sentence on the bottom of the stack and draw an interpretation of the sentence. After 2 min, the entire stack in passed again, this time leaving everyone with a picture to interpret. They have to look what’s going on in the picture, place the picture paper to the back of the stack, and then write what they saw in the picture. It goes back and forth from picture to sentence until each persons ends up with their original sentence and a book full of pictures and sentences. You each read your book aloud and show the pictures. And then you usually laugh until your head hurts and your jaw can’t handle smiling anymore.
Pat Fox says
This was very enjoyable to read!