The annual spouse hunt.

Last Friday and Saturday we went to Fairfax for the annual Capital Area Singles Conference. Someone affectionately called it the Capital Area Spouse Hunt, which is more appropriate if you're single. There were unmarried people there from age 16 to 48. We had some incredible meals, heard some really good music, and fantastic preaching by Dr. Jeff Redlin of Front Range Baptist Church in Ft. Collins, Colorado. And we played games. Oh, the games.

On the first night, the main thrust is to get people meeting each other. After all, if you're going to get married, you've gotta meet people, right?

So we started off with the penny game. Everyone gets a bag of 7 pennies coming in the door. Then for about five minutes, you go around meeting folks you don't know and you have to play one of three games with everybody you meet: rock, paper, scissors; thumb wrestling; or flip-a-coin. Whoever wins gets a penny. Whoever loses has to give a penny. At the end, you've met a lot of people, have a really sore thumb, and the winner has the most pennies.

Then we played "Have you ever . . . " Everyone stands up and the MC says something like, "If you've ever (name a thing, like bungee jumping), sit down." He keeps going until you're left with one person who has absolutely no life, and that person wins.

Then came "Do you have . . . " For this game, the people are divided in half and each side chooses a captain. The MC asks for a random thing, and the first team to get it up to the podium wins. Of course Ben was a captain for his team (which was not mine) and totally broke the ice, not to mention his sock. When the MC called for a sock with a hole in it, Ben made one. Except he never does anything halfway, and shredded it. But I got him back when the MC called for the most expensive receipt and I produced it— $452 for my new glasses. Ah, good times.

Saturday was more of the same with great preaching, an awesome brunch, more preaching, and then game time.

This time, we started with the number game. Boy, was I glad I homeschooled my kids! They actually understand place value! Everybody on the team gets two cards, each with a number from 1-10 on it, so there are a few of each number. Then the MC calls out a ridiculously huge number (like 24, 563, 910) and the first team to make that number wins. Sounds easy, right? Try it with 30 people on each team, lots of screaming, MC repeating the number over and over. Our girls were awesome at it.

Then was the dolly/plunger race. Ride an AWANA dolly and propel yourself with a plunger. Again, not nearly as easy as you think.

And finally, The Cat in the Hat. You know, the old story by Dr. Seuss. Everybody sits in a circle and gets a name: Mother, Sally, or Fish. Then one person is chosen to be in the center of the circle and one chair is taken away (so there's always one too few).

Then the MC starts reading the story. When he says your name (Mother, Sally, or Fish), you get up and find another chair. The person in the middle is also trying to get a chair, so someone is left standing. That person costs his team a point, and the story continues.  (It's hard to get a photo of the action. I have a couple of movies, but blogger doesn't like them.)

Try it with a big group sometime. Our kids play this at the Wilds with 700 teens at one time. It's amazing fun! Ben was sore the next day from all the sprinting and smashing into people. Good time. We're looking forward to next year.

It has now taken me three days to write this post. And I'm officially exhausted. Good night.

Be thankful ~

Karen