Sips n Strokes

Jackie and I have been in desperate need for an escape from the drama and craziness that's been going on lately. Luckily, one of Jackie's coworkers suggested getting a group together to go to Sips n Strokes. So they picked out a painting that everyone liked (a cute little holiday elf), and we signed up.

I was really looking forward to going. I'd been telling Jackie for a while that I wanted to find an artistic outlet. (I still think I'm going to start drawing again. I used to love it so much!)

When we stopped for dinner before our class, I told Jackie that I was really nervous. What if my painting looked awful? What if the kids there painted better than I did?

I decided that if it was a monumental disaster, I would say I was just channeling Picasso or Pollock.

Ready to paint!

We got to the place and waited in line to pay. I was looking at the artwork on the wall, and they have an entire section of nothing but naked women. I asked Jackie why we didn't sign up for one of those classes...

Anyway, we got our canvasses and our pallets and walked into the studio, where you get your paint. They already have it labeled so you know how much to get. One pump of red, two pumps of green, and so on.

We got our aprons and found our seats. We also had our drinks with us: Zaxby's sweet tea!

Wendy LoVoy, the founder of Sips n Strokes, ended up being our teacher! She told us that she'd seen a bunch of folks jack up their paintings, but they never let anyone go home with an ugly one. That made me feel better!

We started by outlining our elf in yellow paint; then we made a granny apple green for his hat, mixed up his face color ("a dot of red, a scoop of yellow, and a whole lotta white!"), and painted in his clothes. We also added dots and spots to his hat and the background.

A work in progress

The hardest part was the darn holly leaf on his hat, but it turned out OK. We practiced painting the leaves on the table. (You can see my practice leaf on the table in the picture below.)

Throughout the class, we all held up our paintings so Wendy could check them out. She sent her assistant around to help the folks that needed it. She told us that we were the best elf painters she thought she'd ever had!

The finished product!!!

When it was all said and done, I felt so proud of myself. It was so cool to watch my blank, white canvas transform into a unique, one-of-a-kind piece of art. Wendy was such a wonderful teacher! She explained every step and had a great sense of humor. She was so much fun!

I had a great time painting and spending time with Jackie's coworkers. We totally plan to go back! It's a great opportunity for couples to spend time together and try something new!

Some Friday Funnies...

So I just got done with a mad dash round of cleaning before Jackie gets home from St. Louis.

I don't know about all of y'all, but I need a break from all of the craziness that is going on. I'm sure each of us has someone somewhere somehow causing drama in your life. So please take this second to forget about all of that and just enjoy some pictures:

I can see the family resemblance.

Amen!

So very true! Can't wait to watch this movie!!!

Nothing says Christmas like "the soft glow of electric sex in the window."

Never thought about it that way...but I guess it's right!

I hope you have a great weekend and a fantastic holiday!

An Effect of Textbook Writing: Less Blog Writing

I feel like I need to attend a BBA meeting. (You know, Bad Bloggers Anonymous.) "Hi, my name is Bruce, and I have a problem..."

The reason that I've been MIA lately is that I've just been swamped with work, work, life, work, life, and... general craziness. I have so many great ideas and stories to share with y'all, and maybe next week I'll be able to get around to blogging them.

Here's the cover of the 1st edition.

I'm currently working on wrapping up a textbook I'm coauthoring with Dr. Jennings Bryant and Dr. Susan Thompson. We're currently working on the 2nd edition of their book, Fundamentals of Media Effects. A couple of months ago, they brought me onto the project to help them write the last few chapters. I've also helped with editing some stuff and coming up with photo ideas.

It's been a great learning experience for me, not only about the textbook writing process, but I've also learned a great deal from the chapters that I've written. I guess it's true when they say the best way to learn something is to have to teach it to someone else.

One interesting tidbit of information is that Dr. Thompson actually taught my undergraduate media effects class using the original version of this book. Then in graduate school, I had the distinct pleasure of a year of close learning with Dr. Bryant. I wrote my Dexter paper for him. (It's the one that I presented in Las Vegas earlier this year.)

I'm still a little awed by the fact that not only will I be published, but that my name will be on the cover of a book! With Dr. Bryant and Dr. Thompson! (pinching myself)

The Lord opened up this opportunity for me, and I am so truly, deeply grateful for it.

And in case I don't get to blog again before Turkey Day, I hope you have a wonderful Thanksgiving spent with those that you love and love you unconditionally in return.

Here's something to remember this holiday season:

4 Random Things: Falcon Fever, Kettle Korn, Cats, & Yard Sales!

As usual, it seems like forever and a day since I last blogged with y'all. I hope each of you are doing well. I'm hanging in there ("like a hair in a biscuit," a friend of mine used to say... a gross mental image, but an apt simile).

I figure I'd better have a good excuse for my bad blogging behavior, so I'll give ya a little recap of the past couple of weeks...

(L-R) Coleman, RJ, & Daniel prepping for the show!

As part of my job at the University of Montevallo, which unveiled its new logo the other week, I am the faculty sponsor/advisor for the weekly online sports show, Falcon Fever. We've shot 3 shows so far, and the students are doing great! We've started shooting live-to-tape, which means we don't go back and edit it when we're done, we simply load it to Montevallo's YouTube channel when we're done.

From there, I then Facebook and tweet out the links for the new shows.

And we're on!

You can friend us on Facebook here.

And you can follow our tweets here.

Here's the direct link to our newest show.

Please check it out and tell us what you think! We'll even use some of your comments on the show!!!

In addition to Falcon Fever, I'm also kind of an unofficial secondary adviser for Montevallo's chapter of the National Broadcasting Society.

Notice RJ's bunny ears on Daniel.

This past Wednesday, we had new member induction. Finally, UM NBS president Daniel Vest was inducted into his own club!

A lot of the NBS group are the ones who help with Falcon Fever and also stream Montevallo sports on UStream. They're a hard-working bunch of aspiring broadcast professionals, and I'm honored to play a part in their growth and development.

Here's Montevallo's chapter of the National Broadcasting Society!

Also, Jackie and I went with my family to Duluth, Georgia, for the Duluth Fall Festival. It is by far our busiest show. We pop non-stop all weekend!!! Saturday was a long day for us because she and I woke up at 3AM to drive over to the show. (Mom, Dad, and Zach went over the night before to set up.) When we got there, we thought the show ended at 5PM. Well, when that blessed hour finally arrived, Dad informed us that the show was actually open until 6. Ugh... another hour. So we tough it out. When the second blessed hour finally rolled around, Dad tells us that the show was actually open until 7! They had instituted new hours...and Dad decided to keep that little bit of trivia under wraps. Although, their website said 6, so I said the last hour was bogus...but it was all too real.

This was the only picture I got while we were in Duluth.

As much as it seems like I'm complaining about the long hours, I actually love doing this show. The staff and organizers are wonderful to us, and they treat us like life-long friends. We look forward to going back each and every year because they make it such a wonderful experience for us. (They also have kept us in the same spot ever since we've started, so we like that, too!)

Switching gears, it's been a tough couple of weeks for me and Jackie, but our two ever-growing kittens keep us smiling (most of the time, except for when they declare war against the drapes). The other morning after a fitful night of tossing and turning, I woke up to this precious sight:

Garfield snoozing on the bed.

 Garfield and Odie just melt my heart. I love them so much! Even though they drive me a little crazy sometimes, I love them to death!

Finally got them to pose long enough for a good picture!

I've also been super-busy with other teaching duties... like grading papers. Because it can get rather tedious, I've decided to let Garfield grade some papers. Here he is helping me out:

"Put the X on this one, Dad!"

As great as it is to let the cat grade my papers, I have found yet another grading tool that I would like to acquire:

Saw this on Pinterest. LOVE IT!

I totally wish I could use a stamp like that... and I'm beginning to think that I really need one! I'm continually shocked by some of the answers I get back on tests and quizzes. (Also, I've had some of the most bizarre reasons for missing class, but that's a blog for a different day and time!)

Switching gears again, yesterday I decided that I needed to do a little retail therapy with my mom and Jackie at the ginormous Waterford yard sale. Jackie went to find thingamabobs and doodads for her various craft projects. I picked up a couple of items, but the most interesting is this old offering plate:

Obviously old. I wonder how many hands it's been passed through??? [Runs to get hand sanitizer]

Label on the bottom of the plate.

I don't know what church it came from, but I thought it was a unique item. How many people do you know that own an offering plate??? The asking price was $2, but I asked the guy if he'd take a buck. He checked with his boss wife, and she gave him the OK. Sadly, this was the last thing I bought, and the first thing I haggled over. Haggling doesn't come naturally to me, but I want to get better at it!



Mom got some really neat glassware and an old watercolor painting. Jackie got an antique peanut butter jar and a bunch of stuff for her crafts that she'll be selling this weekend at Homestead Hollow's Fall Festival in Springville. Come by and see us at her booth: Jackie's Rejuvenated Junk! We should be set up right beside Mom and Dad's Kettle Korn booth!

OK, that's it for now! I hope to post again soon... same blog time, same blog channel!

Man, what I'd give for a DeLorean...

As I sit here fighting back sniffles, I can't help but think of how awesome it would be to have a DeLorean. Not just any DeLorean, but the time machine type from Back to the Future.

Right now, I wish that I could activate the time circuits, fire up the flux capacitor, and floor it to 88 mph and travel back to Sunday evening when I stopped by my mom and dad's house.

I went searching for some old books under my old bed. Apparently, there was some pretty potent dust under there. I'm talking dust that hadn't been disturbed for the better part of 5 or 6 years.

After pulling the books out, I started sniffling...then I started sneezing. And my sinuses are still awful.

I would love to hope in my time machine and tell my past self to forget about the books!

Also, I've had a hankering to watch BTTF lately, but it doesn't look like I'll have the time to do that anytime soon.

If only I had a time machine...

It's Good to be Back at Montevallo!

As many of you know, I am teaching at the University of Montevallo this year in the Department of Communication.

We've gotten the first two weeks of class under our belt, and it has been awesome! It feels so good to be back in the classroom, especially classrooms as familiar as these.

Returning to UM has been such a great experience for me. Even though it's a bunch of work, it is all totally worth it. I still pinch myself sometimes because it doesn't seem real that I'm teaching in my old department.

I am so incredibly blessed to be working with the original four professors that were there when I was there. Dr. Cofield and Dr. Hoerner have been so helpful, both with getting settled in and up to speed on what's going on. It's been great to be able to joke around with Dr. Scott and Pat again. And I love being able to go sit in Dr. Thompson's office and chat about any and everything (just like old times). They've all been so welcoming and wonderful to me.

(L-R) Dr. Hoerner, me, Dr. Thompson, & Dr. Scott on my graduation day. No one could find Cofield!

Of course, they've told me to call them by their first names now that we're colleagues (and it's still weird to me to think of them as colleagues and not my professors). But changing what you've called someone by for the better part of a decade is no easy task! A lot of times I'll say, "Hey Dr. Cof... Jay."

In addition to teaching Intro to Mass Comm, TV Studio Production, & the Foundations of Oral Communication, I'm also the faculty adviser for Falcon Fever, UM's weekly online sports show. I'm really excited about some changes that we're making, and as soon as we start filming (which is next week!), I'll be posting links to it on all my various social media. So keep your eyes peeled for that! We'd love for you to watch!

While I'm bouncing along the red brick roads as I drive to the coveted white-lined faculty parking spots beside our building, I thank God for blessing me with this opportunity...and for all the other opportunities He is revealing to me. I know I owe this all to Him.

This is going to be one of the most exciting, crazy, hectic, stressful, amazing years of my entire life...and I'm going to love every minute of it!

It was the Best of Summers, It was the Worst of Summers

Wow. It's hard to believe it's been a month and a half since I last talked to y'all. But this has been one heck of a summer.

As you know, we spent the first half of our summer frantically renovating and moving. I am SO glad that's over.

One of the best parts of the summer was celebrating my one-year anniversary with my wonderful, outstanding, beautiful wife. We returned to Joe's Italian (YUM!) for our anniversary dinner. (Those of you who attended last summer's wedding of the year will remember that Joe's catered our reception.) Joe's is also where we went on our first date and the day we got engaged. Needless to say, it will be a keystone in our love story for ever and ever.

Remember this...?

The Wedding Party (Eat your heart out, Will and Kate!)

And this?

The coolest groom's cake ever!

At the Lucky Snapper in Destin on our honeymoon!!!

 And here we are one year later:

About to head to Joe's!

She's so stinkin' cute!

I forget where we were going this time...

I can't believe our first year of marriage has flown by so quickly!! Seems like it was just yesterday that I was fighting back tears as I saw her walking down the aisle. There are no words to describe how much I love Jackie. But I want her to know that my love for her is never ending and unconditional. God has brought us together, and for that, I am eternally thankful to Him for blessing me with such a wonderful wife.

Sadly, the day after our anniversary, tragedy struck our family. Jackie's Uncle David died in a car crash on his way to work. That week was a whirlwind of emotions, but what I learned is that you should always always always make every effort to see your extended family every time you can. Although I had only known David for a relatively short part of my life, it didn't take long to see what a kind and loving man he was. He will truly be missed.

Shortly after David's wreck, we learned that he had written his own eulogy and posted it on his blog years ago. It was touching and also very funny. Hearing David's words read aloud at his memorial service was a wonderful and calming experience for me. Words can't really describe it. I told Jackie that it made me want to write my own. While we both agreed that it may seem a bit morbid, we fully realize that we are never guaranteed tomorrow. She said she might write her own, too.

This summer also included a trip to North Carolina to pick Mom up from a visit with her sister and niece. It was good to see them, even if it was for less than 24 hours.

Here's a picture I snapped on the way as I flew past South of the Border:

South of the Border (on the NC/SC line)

There's also been a lot of other family stuff going on that I won't get into on here, but needless to say, I am ready to put most of this summer behind me!

I want to focus the rest of this blog on some of the good things that did happen this summer.

Jackie and I became parents of two rambunctious kittens, named Garfield and Odie (formerly known as Tiger and Tony [aka Woofy]).

They only look innocent when they're sleeping. (L-Odie, R-Garfield)

Jackie's mom fostered Garfield and Odie, and their two brothers after the momma cat abandoned them. After she took good care of them for a couple of weeks, we finally brought them down to our place. They've been so much fun, but they are SO mischievous!

Garfield's "Why did you wake me up?" face.

Odie snuggled up for a nap!

Garfield has already used 2 of his 9 lives in the span of a week: first he was stung on the nose by a wasp, which caused his face to swell up, and then he jumped up on the super-hot oven door when Jackie opened it the other night.

Garfield likes to help me study. It would help if he could read...

Hello!

I also learned a new skill this summer: cutting Jackie's hair. Luckily (for both of us), it turned out looking great!

Adios, long locks! Hola, new do!

In other random summer news, my parents and I took a quick trip to the greater Orlando area for my Uncle Laurin's retirement from the Air Force. (He's my mom's little brother.) After David's death, I knew I wasn't going to pass up the chance to go on this trip. We hadn't seen Laurin's family in about 5 years, so it was great to catch up! My mom and I both cried like babies during the slideshow when pictures of my grandparents came up. (I miss Popeye and Gran Peg so much. I sure can't wait to see them in Heaven some day!)

One of Uncle Laurin's former commanders officiated the ceremony and gave a really interesting account of my uncle's career. I never knew what all he did until that day, and all I can say is that I am so proud of him and his many years of service to our country!!!

Me, Mom, Uncle Laurin, and Dad

This past weekend, Mom celebrated her 29th Birthday (for the 30th time). We took her out to eat at Texas Roadhouse (yum), and we got her a cute little cake from Publix.

This was the picture of the day:

Boomer had his eye on the prize!

And last, but certainly not least, I've been busy preparing to teach this fall at the University of Montevallo!!! I've accepted a one-year temporary position teaching Mass Comm and COMS classes. I'm really excited! Our first day of class is Monday. I'm really looking forward to a great year (and hopefully many, many more)!

Hello Montevallo! Hello beautiful campus! Hello red brick roads! Hello front end alignment for my car!

That's about it for now. This summer has been super busy, super fun, super emotional, super sad, super crazy, super exhausting, and super educational. It has taught me a lot about myself, my emotions, and who I am as a man. I'm grateful for the lessons that this summer has taught me, but I am glad to see it go.

I'm vowing to have less drama and more happiness in my life. And these last two pictures make me very happy, so please enjoy them:

In the words of Liz Lemon: "I want to go to there."

Dear Summer 2011, I'm glad to see the sun setting on you!