we put the "special" in special music

This weekend turned out to be a lot of work for SA. We had already been scheduled to be in charge of Sabbath school, but we also changed plans to include a pretty involved Saturday night activity.

We as a group had been dreaming of the day when we could showcase our musical skill. Last semester in a SA brainstorming session, someone came up with the idea of playing recorders for our next Sabbath school.

So, we did! We all memorized Joyful, Joyful We Adore Thee. It sounded absolutely awful because we had really cheap recorders from the elem. school that can't be tuned. Oww . . .

Us at church with Carson, who was not happy about his two molars coming in

We ate lunch at the Trumpers' house after church (these aren't them). When we were leaving, the neighbor's calves were all by the fence, EXCEPT FOR THE ONE IN THE ROAD. I stopped to talk to them and to take a picture.

These are (some of) our illustrious SA officers:
back: Helen, Laura, Tyler, Seth
front: Chelsea & Jenny

They were judging the teams' presentations of their uniforms and flag. This event is kind of like Pisgah's Goofy Olympics (of which I am very proud to have helped plan before as well). Each team of 8 competed in various crazy games. You'll see . . .

One of my favorite teams' themes: STAFF
L to R: Cassie as Luane, Ruben as Steve, Jacquelyne as Bekki Wade, Josh as Michael P., Shelby as Becky, Pascale as Michael S., and Levi as Aaron

This team was formed by Josh Ley and included his parents, Raphan and Michele. So, Cirque du So Ley seemed appropriate for them. Two other staff, Randy and Shelly, participated with this team as well. Some of our other competing teams were the Global Gym Purple Cobras, Team Tights (the guys' shirts said "Men in Tights"), and Procrastinators (formed about 5 min. before start time)

One of the most interesting challenges was teams answering Trivial Pursuit questions. Each team lined up and the front person had to answer a multiple-choice question with no help. If they got it wrong, their team's representative at the mat got another book or books. If the person holding books touched the mat or dropped their books, that team was out.

Contestants were closely monitored so that no touch of the mat would go unnoticed. The books they had to hold were Bible notebook-style textbooks. After 5 notebooks, we traded them in for a dictionary that actually weighed less than its "equivalent."

Renee gets an extra boost of . . . something . . . from the rest of her team, the Blue Crew. Each team had a dry-erase board and marker to write their answers down.

Later in the competition, Raphan and Kyle don't look so relaxed anymore.

Another enjoyable activity (for those who set it up) was the food challenge. Teams had a paper bag for each member of their team with a food item that had to be eaten relay-race-style. Christen enjoyed her raw half onion. Other foods we included were: half a sleeve of saltine crackers, prunes, peas baby food, a marshmallow thing, a whole dill pickle, a green apple slushie from Sonic, and pickled cactus!

The biggest event was our obstacle course. The first team member had to waddle with a basketball between their knees down to the second basketball court. From there, team member #2 shot a lay-up, free-throw, and 3-pointer before moving on. Person #3 had to scale our rock wall and ring the bell at the top, which signaled 4 & 5 to start the blindfolded drive through a course. The football was delivered to person #6 who threw it through a hanging hula hoop. When that was completed, 7 and 8, tied three-legged-style traversed the zig-zag balance beam to the finish line.

Team Tights prevailed to become the 2009 Survivor champions!