2007 Soccer Media Guide Places 2nd Nationally

The 2007 University of Memphis soccer media guide that I designed placed second nationally in the 2007-08 CoSIDA Men’s Soccer Publications Contest. Among 38 Division I entries, the guide finished behind Indiana.

The Tiger publication finished first in District 4, which is comprised of DI schools in Michigan, Ohio, Kentucky, Tennessee and Alabama.

UNLV came in third followed by Wake Forest, Connecticut and Saint Louis. UNLV’s publication was selected for the best cover.

This is the second consecutive year the soccer guide has been honored. The 2006 edition was named Best in the Nation in the multi-sport category.

Toad in the Yard

I was mowing the lawn tonight and found a big toad in the backyard. I don't know if it's all the same one, but this is the second time this week we have seen a toad in our yard. We also saw one twice last year. Noah is scared of the toad, but Shelby loves to play with them. She spent a good 20 minutes in the backyard playing with it and only stopped because we made her come in.

Camping at Trace State Park

We took the kids on their first camping trip on Friday. We were going to leave on Saturday, but I got off work early and decided I couldn't wait. So I loaded the van and we left as soon as Tammy and the kids got home.

We went to Trace State Park in Mississippi near Tupelo about an hour and a half drive from home. It was rated as one of the top 50 state parks in the U.S. and one of the top 25 fishing state parks. We arrived about 7:30 p.m. and were able to set up camp.

Shelby told us all some scary stories in the tent. She had to use the flashlight shining up on her face to tell the story. It ended up being a recap of the movie version of Little Red Riding Hood. Noah decided he needed to tell some scary stories too.

Surprisingly, after the scary stories, the kids went right to sleep. Noah was the first one to go, crashing as soon as he laid down. Shelby took a little longer because she had trouble adjusting to the wildlife noise. It was loud until midnight from all the frogs and bugs in the area.

Once the bugs quieted down around midnight and the kids were asleep, Tammy and I were just about to fall asleep ourselves. But we became wide awake when we heard a woman in the camp site near us scream for somebody to call 911 she was getting beat up by her boyfriend. That began a domestic dispute between the two yelling and screaming at each other. It sounded to me like the lady was crazy and drunk. This went on for a while, and then we heard windows being broken. The woman was bashing the guy's truck windows in.

I finally called 911 since we were getting worried about the situation and was told two deputies were already on their way. Another camper had already called as well. It wasn't too much longer until the cops came and arrested both of them, and then a tow truck came and hauled away their vehicle, which made a lot of noise. Amazingly, the kids never woke up during it.

In the morning, I talked with one of the other campers in the area and he had gone over there to find out what's going on after also calling 911. He said the woman was crazy and had slashed the interior of the truck with a long pair of scissors and was threatening to kill the guy in his sleep. Her boyfriend had said he never touched her, she had just gone crazy all of a sudden and threw the keys to the truck into the bushes. When the cops came, they already knew the lady because they had arrested here several times before.

Needless to say it was after 1 a.m. before Tammy and I were able to go to sleep. Of course, the kids woke up about 5:30 a.m., and they had slept great.

After giving the kids something to eat, we tried to go fishing in the lake. Shelby and I were getting pumped up to try cooking one of the fish if we caught a big one. We were unsuccessful though. The lake had a lot of moss and vegetation growing near the shore, and although there were probably a lot of fish in them, we couldn't keep our lines from getting caught in the growth. There were a lot of boats in the water that maybe were having more luck than we were.

After our failed attempt at fishing, we went to go on a hike. At the entrance, there was a sign showing some of the wild life in the area that I stopped to look at. However, I didn't notice that I was standing in a fire ant hill. The picture above shows my footsteps and all those specks are little ants that started swarming all over the place. I started to feel something biting my leg and looked down and both of my feet were entirely covered in ants. They bit pretty hard too. Noah got a few on his leg as well and started crying from being bit. He's now terrified of ants.

Tammy decided she wasn't going to go on the hike now, even though she wasn't the one suffering from the ant bites. Noah still wanted to go, so Shelby, Noah and I went on about a mile hike through the forest along the lake. The kids really enjoy hiking and looking for animals.

When we got back from our hike, Tammy was in the van reading her book. We all called her a wimp, and then we came home.

2008 Memphis Football Media Guide Cover

I’ve just completed the covers for the 2008 football media guide. We are still working on the inside of the 206 page guide and plan to have it sent to the printer before we head to Idaho the beginning of July. Last year’s guide placed fourth nationally in the College Sports Information Directors Association (CoSIDA) football publications contest. Out of 42 Division I entries, it placed behind Notre Dame, UCLA and Florida State. It also placed first in its district, which is comprised of DI schools in Michigan, Ohio, Kentucky, Tennessee and Alabama.

Dinner with the Missionaries

The four missionaries in our ward came over for dinner today. The kids always get hyperactive when they visit, but the Elders are very good at keeping them entertained. We cooked hotdogs and brauts on the grill and while they were getting ready Shelby and Noah played softball in the backyard with the missionaries.

We’re able to have them over every once in a while, usually a lot more frequently in the summer when work is a little slower for me. It brings back a lot of memories from my mission since we usually had about four Elders in a ward and would all go to member’s houses together for dinner. There’s a signup sheet that goes around Relief Society on Sunday, so the missionaries get fed pretty regularly.

After dinner, one of the companionships taught us two of the principles from the first discussion as if we were investigators. This is the second time they have done this as their spiritual message, and both times have been neat to hear the way they are now delivered.

When I was on my mission the discussions were memorized, and they were pretty straightforward and guided. Now they have six main topics that allow them to move the discussion in whatever way they feel directed. There is a lot more room to individualize the message toward whoever is being taught.

Shelby's 911 Call

Shelby continues to throw curveballs at us and never ceases to find ways to cause trouble.

Tamara leaves a little before seven in the morning to get to her work by 7:30 a.m. When I got out of the shower today at around 7:15, somebody was at the door knocking. I hurried into the bedroom to put some clothes on and was surprised that Shelby wasn’t running to the door like she normally does when someone is there, especially since if anybody is knocking that early, it’s usually one of her friends wanting to walk with her to school.

Shelby and Noah were in our TV room watching cartoons, and I headed that way to look out the window to see who was there. As I was heading toward the room, I heard Noah start yelling, “Hi Policeman! Hi!” Three cops were at the door on the verge of busting it down.

When I opened the door, the cops asked me if anybody had called 911. They said they had received a hang up call from our address. I invited them in and called Shelby who was hiding under a blanked in the TV room. She didn’t run to the door because she knew what she had done and thought the cops were there to take her to jail.

After apologizing to the policemen, I was able to have a talk with Shelby about the importance of 911 and only calling for emergencies. Hopefully, she learned her lesson and doesn’t do it again.

Tamara and I were talking tonight about whether we remember ever doing anything like that when we were growing up. Tammy said she never did, but I remember doing it when I was in elementary school. It was me and probably Corianne that made a prank call to 911 and told them our house was on fire before hanging up. They immediately called back the number, and my mom told them there was no fire. When asked why I did it, I remember saying because I wanted to practice so I would know what to do if there was a real emergency. I don’t remember getting into much trouble after making that comment.

I guess I still need to teach Shelby how to talk your way out of trouble.

Fishing

We took the kids fishing for the first time to the Southaven Rodeo at Jim Saucier Park. They had just stocked up the small lake with fish and children 4-12 could fish for free from 8 a.m. to noon. We got there about 8:30 and it was already packed. Everybody's lines kept getting tangled with each other. The people next to us had caught a bunch of large catfish.

Noah was happy to get his Spiderman fishing rod.


Shelby was the first one to catch a fish. Brandon was helping Noah get his line untangled from somebody else's line, when all of a sudden we see Shelby reeling in a fish. She never even said she had one on the line. She caught the largemouth bass with a cricket.

After having enough with the large crowd at the Southaven Rodeo, we went to another lake at a park in town. Shelby caught the first fish at this lake as well, hooking a Bluegill with some power bait.



Noah caught his first fish, a small bluegill.