We are still in recovery mode from our seven week trip to FOCUS New Staff Training. As I sift through the laundry, pull the weeds in our yard, restock the house with food and try to get our kids into something that looks like a schedule, I thought it would be fun to remember just how joy-filled NST was.
NST is full of traditions, many of which are humorous. I carried my camera around as much as I could to catch them, but alas, you can't document them all.
To begin, there is a tradition of a men's colleges asking a women's college to be their "sister college." This means that they eat a meal together once a week, attend the etiquette dinner together and often do other fun activities throughout the summer.
Some men find this to be a great opportunity to have some fun.
This particular college decided that nothing says "will you be our sister college" like 80's attire and pizza rolls with candles in them. Seriously, look how ecstatic those women are.
Then there was the college who dressed up like Bl. Mother Theresa to ask the College of Bl. Mother Theresa to be their sister college. Fortunately it worked.
On a final brother/sister college note, here is a duo that decided to wear top hats and feathers to the etiquette dinner. Aren't they cute?
We also have some interesting ways of teaching staff policies. You see policies can be pretty boring, but playing FOCUS Policy Jeopardy with an option to answer a question or do a physical challenge makes them fun. Eight FOCUS regions combined to make four team of two regions each and often went head to head to try to nab the points.
Here you see the cereal eating competition outside the auditorium. Notice the laptop in Kevin's hands. He was skyping...
with everyone inside the auditorium. Logistical problem solved. Other physical challenges included arm wrestling, running the length of the quad, an egg toss and asking people to try and keep Mountain Dew and an Alka-Selzter in their mouth for as long as possible.
This one isn't as funny, but more so cute. For Father's Day we were a bit limited with our ability to spoil Dad, so we hung streamers around the dorm lounge and blew up some balloons.
Speaking of balloons...
these were NOT our Father's Day balloons. It was a dream of one of our newlywed wives (there were three newlywed couples... they got married, when on their honeymoon and then came straight to NST) to have a room filled with balloons. Naturally her new husband made the dream come true on her first birthday as a wife. My kids took full advantage of the fun.
Speaking of balloons again...
here are the kids playing with balloon animals at the annual talent show. One of the talents was balloon animal making. Mary Clare has a fishing pole with a man on the line, because the missionaries are "fishes of men"... ha ha, he he, ho ho.
In my opinion, the star of the show was our little comedian who got on stage to tell her state jokes. We were so proud of her for taking the stage and laughing her way through each punch line. While the jokes were funny, what made it even better was her excitement.
So there you have it. The result of putting 220 post college 20-somethings in a dorm together for six weeks... craziness ensues.
