Junior High Youth Pastors are a very unique breed of human being.
They are energetic and completely entertaining at all times. Translation: They are just plain crazy, y'all! I guess they have
to be to keep the attention of young junior high kids. These people can
come up with some seriously wacky stunts. But sometimes I'm
guessing they regret their decisions. Case in point...
It was a beautifully sunny
January Sunday. As Army Guy and I waited patiently to pick up Louie from
children's church, Huey and Dewey entered the scene. They were just returning
from their youth group shenanigans with a tale to tell. Dewey was somewhat weepy
and Huey could barely contain a smirk of amusement. As Huey relayed the story,
Dewey started to full-on cry and I (the mother who is supposed to provide the
empathy and the wise advice) full-on laughed out loud. (And then I felt
super bad for laughing when my dear sweet son was in tears. Mother of the year
award right here people!)
So here's how youth group went
down on this lovely Sunday morning. Apparently there is a new game on the
market called "Bean Boozled". If you haven't heard of it, you are in
for a disgusting and hilarious treat. The genius people at the Jelly Belly Company
have come up with a way to market their mistakes. For instance... after an
attempt at making a pizza flavored jelly belly was a complete failure, resulting in a product that tasted more like vomit, they decided to save the recipe and rename the product, thus creating a
whole new line of intentionally disgusting flavors. They now market the gross
flavors to kids (because, seriously... who else will gleefully eat a
"vomit" bean?) Anyway, they've now come up with a game... a
sort of Jelly Bean Russian Roulette. Oh sure... all the jelly beans LOOK
tasty and delightful... but not all of them actually are! Sometimes you'll get
a nasty bean! Is it vanilla ice-cream or sour milk? Strawberry or vomit? Lime or grass clippings? You get the idea.
Anyway...the Jr. High youth
pastors decided to play Bean Boozled with the kids at church. Nobody
forced Dewey to play, he actually volunteered because he knows the winner
usually gets a cool prize. He was delighted to be selected for this fun game
of grossness.
About six kids played and each was
given five beans. Supposedly they all had three or four yummy beans and one not-so-yummy
flavor. They were then instructed to eat all five beans at once and I guess the
idea was to keep a straight face or guess the flavors or... oh heck, I really
don't know the point. You have to be twelve to get it. Anyway, as it
turns out, all five of Dewey's beans were the gross kind. He believes he got
"Vomit, Booger, Trash Can and two of the Sour Milk variety".
Dewey was NOT amused. Dewey barfed. All the other kids were delighted by the
barf! Pretty sure the youth pastors won't be playing Bean Boozled again.
Now, as a mom, how can I hear
this story and NOT LAUGH? HOW? And the funniest part of all was when
Dewey informed me that he did it for a prize and then THERE WAS NO PRIZE!
Drat! The child was completely Bean Boozled, up one side and down the
other. Poor Dewey. (Snicker snicker)
Ah to be in Jr. High again. (no
thanks) Though Dewey suffered initial embarrassment from the vomit, I do
believe he is now some sort of hero in the youth group. Props my son!
Mega PROPS!
And also, it turns out that sometimes it’s okay to flat out laugh
in your child’s face. Sometimes it lightens the situation and makes him laugh
too. (Phew)
