Swinging from the Trees

A couple of weekends ago my office had an away-from-the-office team building event. I'm all for doing anything that does not involve sitting at my desk so I signed up. 20 other like-minded co-workers attended as well (out of 140) not knowing exactly what we were in for.

After we signed up we were given a list of activities to choose from at the camp/recreation area where it was being held. The three that sounded the most fun and won out were the low ropes course, the high ropes course, and paintball.  Clearly the most fun of all of the activities!

We started the day with the low ropes course which involved a series of ropes puzzles, like 12 people untangling 6 ropes with out letting go of their end, picking a tire attached to 4 ropes that were attached to trees with pulleys and setting it on the ground around a 4'x4' and then removing it with only 2 people looking at the tire, and balancing all 12 group members on a log suspended a foot off the ground while we sang a song (a very swift version of Row Row Row Your Boat was our choice).

Blindfolded selfies are great until you smack heads because, well, you're blindfolded.  

That afternoon we did a personality color test.  I learned that I am overwhelmingly RED, which means I am primarily driven by Humanistic Feeling, approach things from a relational standpoint, and I am people-driven.  Basically I like working with people, communicating, coaching, I'm optimistic, and apparently like to talk (shocker, I know).

It was funny listening to the personality descriptions and looking around the room to see who was what color, the majority were scarily accurate.  I had no idea how accurate mine was until I was headed back on Saturday morning and started worrying because I only had 6 waters in my cooler that I had with me. I spent a good bit of my drive trying to decide which store would be the quickest stop at 7:30AM so that I could buy another case of waters so I would have enough for everyone. Lucky for me I remembered that I had a case in my trunk already, leftover from another work event, and then I just laughed at myself.  Did anyone ask me to bring waters?  No.  Was anyone expecting me to bring waters?  No. But my wanting-to-make-sure-everyone-had-everything-they-would-possibly-need-plus-a-few-things-they-didn't-even-think-about RED personality did.  Go figure!

Water cooler in hand we set out early in the AM for a few rounds of paintball.  I had never played paintball so I asked Eric what to wear, he said long sleeves and pants, so I raided his camo closet and came up with the perfect outfit.

Can you still see me?!?

However, I was the only one who went all out and showed up in camo....I'm glad I didn't go buy face paint.  But my camo served me well and I was told that I was extremely difficult to spot, save for my game-issued black face mask. The only drawback to my get-up was it was one of the hottest humid days we'd had in a while and 5 minutes in I was sweating bullets (along with everyone else).

Paintball champs!

We played several games and following Eric's advice myself and another girl made it our goal to "take the hill" each game, leaving our teammates free to advance across the field.  It was hilarious!  Oh and everyone says paintballs hurt, and I am here to echo that sentiment.  I took home a couple of battle wounds, one that was triple the size of the paintball that hit me.  I considered a badge of honor.

After we were done shooting each other, we headed over to the high ropes course, i.e., rock wall, giant tree swing, and zip lines! In my 32 years I have never zip lined (unless you count the miniature one in my grandparents yard that I had to pick my feet up to be off the ground), so I was pretty pumped about it.

Walking across the bridge...hanging on to the rope for dear life!

They had it set up so the zip line was the reward for climbing a vertical pole and walking across a horizontal pole - all in a harness, don't worry - to get to the platform for the zip line. Normally I am freaked out about falling off of things that are high in the air (falling off of a bridge or the side of a building scares the mess out of me), but having a harness on made me oddly calm about the whole thing....thank goodness!

About to go!

Zip lining was an absolute blast! The line was really long and took a while to get to the other end, so it was a really fun ride!  The giant swing was interesting too.  Your harness was hooked to a rope and then you held another rope that people of the ground pulled, hoisting you to the side and higher in the air.  When you were high enough you let go of the rope and you swung back and forth between the trees.  It was crazy!

Getting ready to dismount! 

Our afternoon bonding included watching the Auburn football game because in the state of Alabama you can't get people to do much of anything if watching either Alabama or Auburn play on tv isn't and option.  I headed home after the Auburn game, but I know the Alabama game was watched that evening.

The consensus the following week at work was that the team building event was a smashing success.  Several folks who did not sign up this time around commented that they'd go to the next one and I am almost positive everyone who attended the first will attend the second.

Football Season 2017 Update

So I was just bee-bopping along so nicely with posts and then life happened and I looked up and it was October...October folks, as is 12 weeks until Christmas.  I honestly couldn't tell you what happened to September.  Well I guess I can, it's called football season, and fishing trips, and work, and....well you get the point. 

I have lots of fun posts to share....soon, very soon, but I figured a brief football season update was in order for today. So here goes.....

Football season is now in full swing and we're in the second half of our season already.  We're now 5-1 (2-1 in the region).  Last Friday went back to Brewton (where we were Labor Day weekend) to play the team on the other side of Murder Creek, T.R. Miller.  This was a huge game, despite the fact that it was not a region game.  Why?

THS has played T.R. Miller 6 times, and up until last Friday had lost every contest, one of which cost the 1984 THS team a trip to the State Championship....and you better believe those who were not that team have not forgotten; in fact some of them have sons on the team now. 

T.R. Miller was no slouch in the 80s, nor are they now. They're a perennial powerhouse and hold the distinction of the "Winning-est High School Program in Alabama History" which is a big deal in Alabama....one of those teams that can help you assess how good your team is when you play them.....and guess what happened on Friday night?!?

.....WE WON! 

I thought the Handley game a few weeks ago was the best game I'd been to in recent memory, but the game Friday night was hands down the most fun high school football game I've been to.The game itself was absolutely insane....we were down 29-7 halfway through the third quarter and it seemed like every time they got the ball they ran a couple of plays and then scored a long TD. I remember thinking at halftime I hope they run the clock the second half....it was THAT bad. 

But something sparked in our kids out of no where and we scored, and then we kicked 3....yes I said 3 onside kicks in a row and recovered all three, scoring 3 touchdowns in the process to go up 33-27.  After a little back and forth and a little help from some zebras, we found ourselves on defending our endzone from 10 yards away with 9 seconds on the clock.  T.R. Miller tried to throw a pass in the endzone to score but one of our kids came around and batted down the pass as time expired.....

.....and then it was pandemonium!  We had a huge crowd that made the 2.5 hour drive (we had more people there than they did and that's saying something considering we live in a town of 6,000) including a sizable student section that rode a spirit bus to the game, so when time expired our stands erupted and the entire student section and several adults (a couple from the '84 team) stormed the field.

Post-game Alma Mater bliss!  

I've said it before but there's something different about this season.  The excitement that's brewing around this team is unlike what I've seen in the nearly 10 years I've been to games here, and it's so much fun!  Left on our schedule are 4 big region games, 2 of whom are against local rival teams that we have a lot of history with, so I hope that excitement just continues to build throughout the rest of the season! 

Tonight's game is one of those local rivals, and they are a very dangerous team.  They have some athletes who basically play backyard football - which is the opposite of what we play - so we have to be ready!  Hopefully we'll take care of business!  Go Tigers!!!

A Blustery Weekend Recap

via

Thanks to a crazy little storm named Irma, who decided to reek havoc on Florida and a few other southeastern states for the past week, we had an impromptu 3-day weekend.  To be honest, we weren't expecting it at all since Irma was supposed to hit Florida's east coast, meaning we'd get a little wind and rain from the western edge (the best side to be on in these storms), but Friday night/Saturday morning Irma decided to track a little more west that anticipated, which put us directly in her path.

Thankfully she had weakened to a tropical storm by the time she made her way up this way, but they still cancelled schools and closed businesses as a precaution.  We had crazy wind and rain all day, and a few places around town lost power for several hours.  We fared pretty well; there were several times I was afraid the tree in our front yard was going to snap and fall over, but we ended up with just a few small branches in the yard.

In fact, the most tragic casualty at our house was my phone that I dropped in my coffee cup that morning....don't drink and scroll facebook before you're fully caffeinated friends! I am happy to report that after spending the day in a bag of rice it is back up and running like new, albeit with a slight french vanilla scent.

We are certainly counting our blessings and praying for all of those who did take a direct hit from Irma and Harvey a couple of weeks ago.  I am sure I am not alone in saying that I am ready for hurricane season to be o-v-e-r!

Irma was far from our thoughts on Friday night though as we hit the road on Friday to take on the defending state champions at their place. We beat them last year at home, so we knew they'd be out for revenge this time around.

Gotta love those Friday Night Lights!

When I asked Eric about the game he said that if we were ahead or close at halftime, we had a shot at winning, so I hoped it would be a good ball game.  It ended up being a GREAT ball game!  It was a close first half, but we scored right before the half to go up 14-7.

I guess Eric knows what he was talking about because we pulled through with a 21-13 win!  It was one of the most fun games I've been to in a long time, and coming away with the win made it that much sweeter! This team is shaping up to be a really fun group to watch, and I feel like there's an excitement on Fridays around town like we haven't had for a few years.  I sure hope it continues!

Hoping for many more nights that end like this!

Labor Day Weekend

What in the redneck?!?  Yes this really happened last week...

Don't you just love when someone hypes up a game and then disappears and never tells you what happened?  Yeah me, too, says the girl who neglected to update her blog last week. So here goes:  THS did in fact win game #1 of the season in a nail-biter that never should have been a nail-biter in the first place.  We also traveled down south this past Friday and came away with another big W to start our season out right!

Raising their helmets to the Alma Mater

This week is going to be a HUGE test for us.  We're playing the defending state champs who are #1 in 4A (THS earned itself a #9 ranking in the state's top 10 list last week), who we actually beat last year at our place.  We know they are going to be out for blood this year, so we have to come ready to play!

The view from one of the campsites...not ours unfortunately.

After our big Friday night trip and win, we kept the fun going this weekend, loaded up the camper, and headed up to the lake for some Labor Day fun! We ended up going to the same campground we went to on our maiden voyage (since it's a quick drive from the house), but we felt like seasoned vets this time around.

These seasoned campers knew exactly what to do with their afternoons.

We stayed in a different part of the campground this trip that had more modern amenities...aka sewage hookups on site...but I am not so sure that poop pumps make it that much better (says the girl who doesn't have to empty the poop pump).  It was nice but it felt a lot more crowded this time, as we had campers and cars as far as the eye could see.  Lucky for us there was plenty of football on tv this weekend so our attention was drawn to the outdoor tv area our friends set up, but we all agreed that we need to move closer to the water next go-around (i.e. the waterfront campsite pictured above).

These two have decided to give up city life to become full time glampers....clearly they have it all figured out. 

The good news is that is was still very relaxing, and all of our teams won (cough...Tennessee...cough), so we're calling the weekend a success.  And no we did not haul both the boat and the camper up in one trip, but we did test run this set-up through town and I'm pleased to report we did not take out anyone/anything with our caravan.  The looks and phone calls we received on our trip through town were quite comical though!

We finished up our weekend helping the Vols pull through their ridiculous excuse for a football game on Labor Day.  Of all the games to go in to over time, it had to be the Monday night game.  I am just glad the GA Tech coach decided to go for 2 during the second OT (although that would not have been my call), so I could go to bed.

Can you tell who went camping and who stayed home and rested this weekend?!?  

Happy 4 Day Week!