SPT August 18

Self-Portrait Challenges for the month of August have to do with the (2008, I'm a year behind) Olympics, and the Olympic motto of "citius, altuis, fortius" (faster, higher, stronger.) Specifically, with how that motto can be applied to our personal ability to "uphold the ideals of the Olympic motto", as per Lelly of Lelly's Musings.

She says, "while i'm far from an Olympic athlete, i like to think that i exhibit some of the same skill and determination that they do. so this month, for spt, i will challenge myself to uphold the ideals of the Olympic motto:

citius, altius, fortius
[faster, higher, stronger]

These three words encourage the athlete to give his or her best during competition, and to view this effort as a victory in itself. Each week, think about the Olympic motto, and how it can apply to our every day lives. citius. altius. fortius. are we giving our best? can we find victories in the efforts we make every day?"


Last week, I know I thrilled you with my fantastical water-skiing ability ..... So, this week, I'm taking it down a notch. Instead of wowing and amazing you with my Olympic level athletic conquests, I'm going a little more local ...... being a little more humble .... not bragging so much about my wondrous feats .... instead, staying low key and under the radar ....

Small group game night.

Blaine and I recently bullied and intimidated our way into, basically inviting ourselves and just showing up to the point it would have been awkward for the other members to say no were invited to join a small group from our church. The purpose of small groups is to allow smaller groups (duh) to get better acquainted on a weekly or every-other-weekly basis. The church we attend has several thousand members, so this is a nice way to become better friends with a few people.

We joined a different small group last year but had problems working out childcare arrangements. Once we heard this particular small group was a family group and welcomed children, we were all over that. Even better, once every three months or so they have a family game night, and our most recent one took place this past Saturday evening.

We played a card game called 7-11, which is played with Skip-bo cards. It was a great evening of fun, snacks, door prizes, and most of all, time for the five families that attended to simply enjoy spending time together.

Since its not exactly Olympic-level activity, I thought I would spice it up with another well-known and (at least in my case) fondly-remembered athletic tradition .... the reading of the ABC Sports Intro. Who *doesn't* remember this from the Saturday afternoons of their youth???


::spoken in my best deep, official sports-y commentator voice::

::ahem::

"Spanning the globe to bring you the constant variety of sports... the thrill of victory... and the agony of defeat... the human drama of athletic competition... This is "Small Group 7-11 Night!"


The constant variety of sports:



The thrill of victory (Kellen, in the "lucky" glasses the kids took turns wearing all evening):



The agony of defeat (the four people who tied for "biggest loser", having a play off, which I won. So does that make me the biggest loser winner? Or the biggest loser loser? Because Kellen lost the biggest loser round which he claims makes him the biggest loser losingest winner. Or something like that.)




Whatever. I don't care what you call me. All that matters is I won a 7-11 gift card, which made me pretty darn happy.



I don't think the glasses helped her too much, but she had fun being an "athlete" like me, which is all that matters in the end.


Hey, hush up. This is *TOO* a game, and its going to count towards my spt, so there.