The Face of Frustration

...and other miscellaneous pictures.

There's not a whole lot to blog about really. My family is well for the most part, though two-thirds of the children sound like they're about to cough up a lung most of the time. They must've got those dippy Smith genes that have issues with a lingering cough after a sickness. We just can't seem to let it go. Otherwise, things are great around here.

Yesterday we loaded up and went to town because I've been itching to get to the thrift store. The kids have been growing like weeds lately and were in need of some new clothes, particularly dress clothes for Joe. I think suits are out for him for a while. He seems to have developed my ape arms and even when you find a jacket that is drooping off his shoulders, the sleeves are still too short. Oh well. We'll go for more a more "business casual" look for him. Ha! Anyway, it had been ages since we've been to the thrift store and we found sooooooo many great deals. We ended up walking out with two pairs of slacks for Joe, a suit jacket for Sam, three boys' dress shirts, a t-shirt for each of them, three polo/casual shirts for them, a skirt for Katie, and a skirt, two blouses and two under-type shirts for me. Wa-Hoo! It was great fun to walk out of the store with a huge bag bulging with lots of great things that we were in need of (mostly) for a little bit of nothing.

Today we loaded up and headed the other direction out to Moriarty to hit a couple of thrift stores. We didn't find any clothes, but I'm happy with what we got yesterday so it's all good. We did find a brand new Apples to Apples game (the one we played at the Family Thing in Colorado, Mom) -- the cards are still wrapped in plastic. The kids picked up a couple of books and we spent a grand total of $1.80. That's the way to shop. ;-)

Now we're home and I'm lacking the motivation to do anything truly productive, so I'm blogging. I found some pictures I hadn't put up yet, so we'll go with 'em.

These were taken the day that Camp ended. When we made it home that evening all of the guys took turns with the bb gun. Here's Brother Oscar giving it his best shot... which, unfortunately was not very good... Ha!

I love the timing of this picture. The bb had ricocheted off the wood rail (they had small chunks of wood sitting on top of the rail to aim at) and hit Brother Oscar in the head! Ha!



Brother Dustin got extremely lucky--twice, even. He's not a very kind winner, however (don't you just hate people like that?! Ha!), and enjoyed rubbing it in to Brother Oscar...




Joe taking his turn. I think he hit the target twice and Sam hit it once. Everybody but poor Brother Oscar. ;-)


Later that night, however, our guest of honor received the royal treatment from the soda fountain. :-) Brother Dustin can mix a mean soda. James and I never touch the fountain when he's here; we just place our orders along with everybody else and he scurries on out there to start filling them. Of course, he doesn't wear the uniform for just us... only when there are special visitors apparently. Ha!



Okay, and here we have the pictures that inspired the title of this post. I only picked that title because it sounds kind of catchy. :-) I think I mentioned the game of Pictionary that we very nearly lost to the Hays while they were here. James was NOT into the game at all (that means even less than usual, if it's possible) and acted like his brain was on standby through its entirety. I remember having to draw the phrase "a bone to pick" and being ready to KILL him because I had drawn a bone AND a perfect little ice pick, chipping away at ice cubes in a glass. He had guessed the words "bone" and "pick" and I had written them down along with blanks in the appropriate places: "__ bone ___ pick." AND HE COULDN'T GUESS IT!!! He kept guessing things like, "The... bone... did pick???" And stupid stuff like that. How can you have "__ bone ___ pick" and NOT think of A BONE TO PICK??? I'm feeling a little frustrated all over again now that I'm talking about it. I may have to walk out to James' office and discuss the episode with him all over again. Ha! ANYWAY, the Hays seemed to enjoy the marital friction going on and Brother Dustin was quick to whip out his camera and document it... No wait... Nevermind! Ha! Now that I look at the pictures I'm seeing that the marital friction must've started way before Pictionary because we're playing I Buy here instead! Ha! Must've been a long, long night, that's all I can say. ;-)






I can't recall exactly what was going on here, but apparently Brother Dustin was dealing with his own frustrations that night. It's no wonder really. I mean, he was so EDGY the whole time they were here this time!!! ;-)




You can see here how excited James was about the games. In fact, sometime during the course of the game he disappeared. We figured he had excused himself to the restroom, but when he hadn't returned in quite some time we went in search and found him snoring in the other room! Ha! We woke him up and drug him back to the table to complete the game. :-)



Here he is, not looking just a whole lot better. :-) This was taken a day or two later. I still had not completed the laundry and he was all out of jeans, thus his farmer attire.



Okay, these were taken last week at Naomi's birthday party. I'll skip the usual pictures of gift opening and pin the tail on the donkey and just post the new game. This time we all took turns throwing paper plates for off whipped cream at Brother Chris. :-) Here he is, prepared for the worst.




The boys got a little out of hand, coming after Brother Chris when it wasn't their turn. When that would happen, they would find their own faces being rubbed in the blobs of whipped cream in the grass. You can see here that Sam is creaming Brother Chris yet again while Joe is getting his just dues...



Sam's reward was getting a kiss from a very creamy Brother Chris. :-)


This is what he looked like after my turn. :-) Made me very happy.



Let's see... other miscellaneous things... The other day James came home with with some new toys for the kids. "New" actually meaning from the Salvation Army or something like that. Joe got a microscope (which he thinks is SO cool), Katie got a new journal, and Sam got some of those little Wiki-Stick things.



And finally, Katie has been wondering what to make for the children's Mission table at Regional Convention. I suggest she try to make a tiny little Church flag that a tiny little creature could hold. Thought they might sell better if they were Churchy, you know. ;-) Anyway, here's what she came up with. Aren't they great?! Ha! I love 'em!


She said she couldn't get the snake to hold a Church flag, it kept falling over. I said it was just as well. ;-)

And that's it from around here! We're looking forward to a great Sunday tomorrow and heading into our prayer and fasting week with prayer meetings every night in order to prepare for our Revival the week following! Wa-Hoo!!! We've got the Booth family from Alabama coming out to minister and I'm just soooooo excited. I can't even remember the last time I was in a whole week-long revival. Usually if you get an evangelist out here you only have them for two or three nights, then send them to the next Church so they can have some revival services, too. Looking forward to wonderful things from the Lord. :-)