annual team conference

All last week - Jan. 30 - Feb. 3 was our organization's team conference.

While Monday through Thursday consisted of sitting in meetings/sessions from 8:00 a.m. - 3:00 p.m., it actually was pretty good.

I shouldn't be surprised since we have great leadership and are part of a great mission, but when you hear Mon. - Thurs., 8 - 3, what would you think?

sore bum?

lots of nap time?

extra caffeine?

droopy eyes?

migraines?

(I did get some of those - for real)

prayer for a volcano to erupt?

Ya, me too.

But really - it was quite good.

The Sunday prior was family day out at El Refugio (the camp that is part of Youth World).

It too, was a good time.

We started off the morning having church together.

Then we had our team picture taken (seen above.... that picture includes all hired support staff, children and Casa G. guys.... the actual team of "missionaries" is a lot smaller).

We ate lunch and then had free time.

I was asked to prepare something for the young kids to do, which I did, but none of them showed up. They were having too much fun playing together. That's better anyway.

But since the kids didn't come (was going to do a nature scavenger hunt and then make a craft with what they found), I had free time too!

So, I went zip-lining!

This is Katie and I gearing up to go.

We're pretty excited.

And all ready to go.

Eric, Maddy, Cade and Lucy were all there watching.

No one else wanted to go - Eric and Maddy have already done it, and Cade and Lucy were not quite prepared to face that fear!

But I'd been wanting to do this for a long, long time now.

What is that thing dangling from that cable?

Is it a bird?

Is it a plane?

NO! IT'S....

just me.

While that was super duper fun

(like high school, but funner),

the best part of my day actually came earlier.

Like back to the church service time....

actually just after the service.

You see, I had been planning something for quite a while now.

I knew that this Sunday was the day when all of the team and all the Casa G. boys were together.

Probably the only day each year when everyone (bearing the sick and infirmed, of course) would be together

- would be together, that is, to play a nasty trick on!!!

Wa-aa-aa-aa!

(insert evil laugh)

I have this wig, you see.

It is quite drastically different than my real hair.

So I donned my wig and pretended it was a new hair-do.

A hair-do that went a little extreme based on lack of communication ability in a foreign language....

We picked up some of the Casa G. guys to drive out to the camp with us.

I had Eric go in the house first and tell them that I got a haircut, it was really different and I didn't like it - and was sensitive about it.... so they should be gentle with me.

They all came out of the house and tried to hide their surprise.

Some of them didn't even say anything to me about it and some of them complimented me.

When we got to El Refugio, everyone there was pretty surprised as well.

There were lots of comments, questions and compliments.

At the end of the church service, we had announcements.

I had to give an announcement about the kids' activity.

After that, I said I had another announcement.

I ripped the wig off and started laughing.

The place went crazy - especially the Casa G. guys.

They went nuts! It was hilarious!

They all ran at Eric and started hitting him and bugging him - they were so completely surprised and mad that we had pulled one over on them!

It was, quite simply, FABULOUS!

I had to get a picture with the guys.

I wanted to pull it off longer but I forgot that we had pictures right after.

It was a blessing, however, as I was going crazy - it's itchy!

Of course, after everyone saw that it was a wig, they all wanted to try it on.

There were many pictures taken.

The guys, in particular, loved trying it on.

Scary how pretty some of them were!

All of them, except for one, tried it on and hammed it up.

On the way home I asked them which they preferred (probably not the most fair question to ask!... it could be taken wrongly no matter what answer they give!)

I got very little input.

So, how about you?

short and dark

or

long and light?