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!

Migrant Camp 2011

As promised, I'm finally writing about our Migrant Camp mission trip from Memorial Day week. This was the 42nd (or 546th) year that our church has sent a group to Baldwin County to minister to the Hispanic population.

Traditionally, we have gone into, well, migrant camps to have our backyard Bible study-style sessions. For the past couple of years, we've been able to send groups into some of the local trailer parks that have a large Hispanic population. However, this year we didn't have as many people going, so we planned to go into our main three camps, Nolte, Childress, and Littles.

Two weeks before we went down, I was texting with one of the kids that's been in Littles for years, and he told me that the camp was shut down last summer after we left.

With very little time, we were able to find a new trailer park in Foley that was largely Hispanic. There were about 80 trailers, so the first thing we did when we arrived was split up to go knock on doors. Many knocks went unanswered, but we met a lot of people and ended up with a large group of kids and youth. A few of the moms also came and spent time with us.

Each night we played games, did arts and crafts, and told Bible stories. We had a great time!!! The Lord also set up a divine appointment for us to meet a pastor from a local Hispanic church on our first night in the trailer park. Pastor Raul brought his praise team Thursday night, and we had a wonderful bilingual worship experience!

Friday we made each person that we'd met a health kit, which is a cloth bag that has a towel, toothbrush, toothpaste, soap, and comb. The kids also get a toy. We also get a lot of other things donated, like lotion, jewelry, mouthwash, hairbands & bows, tissues, hats, gloves, etc. We put these items in the health kits according to who we are making each bag for.

During the week, we made a piñata for each camp. Nolte made a peacock. Childress made the red bird from Angry Birds. For the Thompson trailer park, we made a huge piece of Dubble Bubble gum.

On the last night, we lined all the kids up, and they all got to take a swing at the piñata. Ours was made out of poster board (and packing tape)... so they hit it over and over and over.

It never broke.

My brother had to rip it open and dump out the candy for them. The kids went wild!

Before we left, we passed out the health kits and walked all the kids home. It was so hard to say goodbye. The relationships we formed with the kids in the span of just 5 nights is unbelievable. I can't wait to go back next year. Even though Littles is gone and I will miss the people there, I love our new trailer park.

Also, I have to give props to every single person that went this year. It was a wonderful experience to spend a week living with so many great members of my church family. God also built some great friendships with some people that I didn't know too well before we went on the trip. Overall, this was easily one of my favorite years at Migrant Camp.

Here's the video that I made for our share time service that we had at church Sunday night. I hope you enjoy it.