Thursday, November 12, 2009

Steven Spielberg, James Cameron, Quentin Tarantino, Sam Knopf, George Lucas, ....

Sam came home one day telling us he wanted to enter the 2009-2010 Reflections Contest. This is a yearly competition among Springfield Public Schools that Tim and I knew about, but never in our wildest dreams did we think one of our kids would want to do it.
Kids can enter in one of several mediums: photography, visual arts, dance choreography, film production, musical composition or written composition. Sam already had it all planned out in his head... he would do a Stop-Action Film. He learned how to do this in a summer class last year. He knew exactly what he wanted to use- rocks!
Here is his finished product that he will be entering into the contest. Using a tripod, he took over 150 still photos to complete the film. The theme for this year's contest is "Beauty is..."
(Oh, by the way, when he wins an Academy Award one day, let's hope he remembers all us little people!)

Tuesday, November 10, 2009

Alec plays football for Jarrett Middle School

Alec played safety, cornerback, slot receiver and wide receiver on the 7th grade football team. It was an exciting season. He liked to brag "I set some bone-jarring hits down on the field." He's very competitive in sports! Go Jarrett Trojans!!!

After a gruelling practice...


Jezreel & Alec - best friends...


Alec is number 36...


Coach tells Alec a play before sending him in...


After a tough loss...


One of Alec's highlights... (turn up sound)

Saturday, November 7, 2009

Big Cedar Resort

We love going to Big Cedar Resort. It is a beautiful place in Ridgedale, Missouri that has wonderful rustic lodging. We have been blessed to be able to stay there several times. This time we stayed in Falls Lodge in a gorgeous suite overlooking the resort and Tablerock Lake. The boys love everything about Big Cedar - the guest rooms, the pools, the restaurants, the arcade and canoeing.

Checking into the lodge...


The view from our balcony...


Sam sits by the fire...


Alec paddles the canoe...

Sunday, November 1, 2009

HALLOWEEN



We had a wonderful and frightful Halloween. Sam dressed up as Albert Einstein. His best friend, Sam B., went as a banana. Alec jumped into the trick-or-treating groove using his old mask from last year. He has graduated to carrying a pillowcase for the candy which means he's nearing the end of his trick-or-treating career.

But the winner of the day was our dachshund, Hazel. She dressed up as a hot dog, complete with mustard and relish. We took her to Missouri State University's homecoming festivities during the day (Tim and I are alumni), and I can't tell you how many people went ga-ga for her. So many strangers took her picture. Even the fraternity guys drinking their cheap Natural Light beer made over her. Tim and I were like proud parents. We loved making the joke that she's actually a bratwurst since she's German.

All in all, a really fun Halloween!

What a wiener!


Applying the mustache...with a banana looking on.


Albert Einstein






Tuesday, October 20, 2009

Cub Scouts Camping Trip at Hootentown

Sam is a Webelo = "We'll Be Loyal Scouts"
The webelos wear tan scout shirts with plaid neckerchiefs.


Sam carries his gear to the campsite.

Sam and Sam B. skip rocks in the James River.

Best Friends - Sam & Sam


A roaring campfire for the pack

It's a cold night in the tent with Dad.

Sam slept very well in his mummy bag.
Breakfast with Pack 11

Sam and Tim on the James River.

Sam, the Cub Scout


Thursday, October 8, 2009

"Toilet Shirt" vs Super-Mom

Tim decided to take a "sick day"/"mental health day"/"spend time with your wife day." He does this sometimes because, upon retirement, he will only get paid for a certain number of unused sick days, so he works the system just right. We'll leave that topic for another time.
Since Tim was home in the morning, I was completely thrown off my game. I usually pride myself on my multi-tasking skills.... run through multiplication tables with Sam, bleach Alec's football pants before the game, check the PTA schedule for the day, be sure both kids have lunch money, check to see if they've done their morning chores before school (or there's hell to pay after school), make breakfast for Sam (I'm lucky to get a granola bar in Alec's hand before he leaves to catch the bus), etc. etc. etc. (I am truly amazed by all you women that can accomplish this with more than TWO kids!) Because Tim was home, I took the opportunity to sleep in a little. I let Tim take Sam to school.
Within 10 minutes of being dropped off, Sam was calling me. He got to school and wondered why everyone was dressed "like they were going to church." Then his best friend, Sam Books, said to him "You're wearing THAT for picture day?!" Sam panicked and called home to tell me that he needed picture money and a nicer shirt. (He was wearing a Notre Dame t-shirt.)
I immediately sprang into action. Tim said he's never seen me react so fast. Dads/Men just don't understand what us Super-Moms have to go through to protect and rescue our children, all while going about our normal lives in our secret-identity alter-egos!!! I grabbed a shirt from Sam's closet, ironed the collar and sleeves perfectly with the little creases, grabbed the order form and money from the counter and sent Tim up to school. He left the shirt and money with the secretary. Crisis AVERTED - for about 30 minutes.
His teacher, Mrs. Popp, called and said, "Sam didn't really want me to call you. He's very embarrassed, but..... he dropped his picture shirt in the toilet when he was changing clothes." At first I couldn't help but laugh. But then I thought about how horrified Sam probably was. Mrs. Popp said, "He wasn't going to tell me about it, but Sam B. came and told me what happened as Sam was shoving the shirt in his backpack. I walked over to Sam and he wouldn't look at me. He had tears in his eyes. I asked him if he wanted me to call his mom to bring a different shirt. He said No." After she told me all this, my heart was absolutely breaking!!! I have got to figure out a way to let my kids go through their own painful traumas without my own feelings and memories coming into the mix. But see... as I'm juggling Super-Mom and her vulnerable alter-ego, I'm not sure that's going to be possible.
We told Mrs. Popp we'd be right up with another shirt. I didn't have another picture-ish shirt for Sam in the "clean" pile of the laundryroom. So I grabbed one of Alec's shirts, ironed the collar and sleeves, and Tim and I drove up to school. Mrs. Popp met us in the office. She handed me a plastic bag with the "toilet shirt" in it. (This is how we refer to the shirt from now on.) I fought off the urge to explain why my child was not even prepared for picture day in the first place. Did I really need to go into how my husband took a sick day to spend time with me? How my alter ego was thrown for a loop with the extra sleep that morning, so I was late changing into my Super-Mom outfit?
Sam came to the office. As he was playing the "no problem" card, I did what any Super-Mom would do... I grabbed him in arms and told him everything was going to be okay. I started rambling about the time I was in 2nd grade and I put stickers all over my shirt on picture day and thought that was the greatest idea I had ever had in my whole life until the picture person told me it wasn't a good idea and made me take them all off in front of my whole class and I was humiliated, but just to show him, I kept one sticker on that he missed and today I have a picture with my one sticker on the belly of my shirt. Sam interrupted me halfway through my ramble and said, "Mom, I'm missing PE."
So I handed him the shirt. We waited there as he put it on in the office bathroom. It was a little big since it's Alec's shirt. But at this point, Super-Mom was just trying to get through picture day in the most painless way possible.
When Sam got home after school, he seemed fine.... and I looked like I needed to see a therapist. He said after the shirt fell in the toilet, he still tried to make it work. He actually put it on, but it was way too wet. Also he was afraid people would think he smelled like a toilet all day. Poor kid!!!
So when you get Sam's school picture this year in your Christmas card, please keep in mind that TIM TOOK OFF WORK THAT DAY!

Thursday, August 6, 2009

Just doing our teeny, tiny part....

I have always been a passionate person -- a go-getter, an activator. I see a problem and I fix it. If I can't fix it, I get someone else to fix it. If someone else can't fix it, I worry about it. (That's where it becomes a problem!) So when Tim, the science teacher, began coming home with bits of information about "greening" up our lives, vital information he was teaching his students, I SLOOOOWLY took action. And when I say "slowly," I mean little bits at a time. If you had asked me 10 years ago if I thought I would be recycling my trash, growing my own produce, making my own laundry detergent and fabric softener and body wash, and buying enviro-friendly organic groceries, I'd say you are NUTS! But look at me now...
Our family has been recycling for years. I mean REALLY recycling - every bit of paper, plastic, glass and metal that we come across goes to the recycling center. We take it there ourselves because the recycling center does not pick up in our area of town. This has never been a big deal. I think it was difficult to get used to in the beginning. But now it is just a fact of life. The kids don't know any other way than to rinse their juice bottles or applesauce cups and toss them in the recycling tub.
In fact, here is a picture of our "family" kitchen trash can that we fill about once per day:



And here is a picture of our recycling bins, always packed to the gills:




Just this summer, Tim began growing veggies in the back yard - cucumbers, bell peppers jalapeno peppers, and tomatoes.

But what really impresses me is his WATERING SYSTEM. Things like this usually don't interest me, but this is truly amazing. He is using the water run-off from the air conditioner (this water can amount to gallons per day!!!) and syphoning it to his vegetable garden. He rigged a system that works like this: the water fills a tub; once the tub fills to a certain point a magnetic mechanism is activated and a plug opens (a plug like the inside of your toilet tank); the water runs out a hole in the bottom of the tub and into a network of pipes that run through the garden; the pipes have holes that allow the water to run out into the ground around the vegetable plants. It works wonderfully, and I told him he should market the whole mechanism somehow.
Here are some pictures:
Yummy pepper

Water run-off from air conditioner filling tub

Network of tubes that disperse water throughout garden


So that's our latest venture to help out Mother Earth. We don't do these things to show off to the world that we are so amazingly conservative. Most of our friends and family don't even know we do these things. We just want to do our tiny part and, most of all, teach our boys that taking care of the planet does not begin and end with the garbage man.











Dry Gulch USA

Every summer Alec and Sam go to Camp Dry Gulch, USA.



This is a christian-based camp for kids located in Adair, Oklahoma - almost 3 hours from our front door. Tim and I call it Six Flags Camp because it is so posh with air-conditioned cabins, water slides, go-karts, train rides, etc. The only thing missing is the ferris wheel! (Seriously, I've never seen a summer camp like this place!!!) But they also ride horses, swim in the lake, build campfires and attend chapel everyday.
What I love about this camp is the CHAPEL experience for the kids. Everyday, the Dry Gulch Staff make going to chapel like you are attending the Superbowl. They have a jumbotron screen and they put on amazing shows. They make learning about Jesus like watching a laser light show. The boys always come home so filled with love for Christ and excited to tell us all the Bible stories they learned.
This year they came home talking about the promises God made to different people in the Bible. They also talked about "temptations." I asked Sam if he knew what a "temptation" was. He said, "Yeah. It's like when you want to do something, but you shouldn't do it, but you really want to do it, but you shouldn't do it.... but you really want to do it." I think he's got it.

Check out some pictures from Camp:


Alec, Connor (good friend from Dallas) and Sam






The Welcome Center



Alec and Sam by their cabin.

Friday, July 17, 2009

The Rumor Mill

Tim and I definitely know better than to bring up political issues, or religious ones, in public places or mixed company. (Okay, I know a little better than Tim.) But, in any case, we know where our relatives and friends all stand on political issues so we are totally fine agreeing to disagree. Thank goodness I'm learning something as I get older!!!

I did, however, feel compelled to set the record straight when Alec recently came home from a mini-vacation worried that President Obama may not be a true citizen of the United States, thus making it impossible to be president. This is the guy Alec's parents voted for. This is the guy who's inauguration Alec's classroom watched on television as a proud moment in Black-Amercan history. This is the guy who's praises we've sung for many months, and now he may not qualify to be president??? Huh? The claim is that Obama is not a natural-born citizen -- either because he was actually born in Kenya -- or because Hawaii was not yet our 50th state at the time Obama was born there. Alec was concerned that "they" even won't show his birth certificate. I'm not sure who "they" is, but "they" sound intelligent and confident that they know what they're doing. Alec was told these things by people he sees as smart, loving, fair, giving and fun.

On a whole different subject -- I love SNOPES. They are the greatest website that you can turn to to give finite answers on internet controversies. Remember all those super-dramatic forwarded pictures of the shark jumping out of the ocean to eat a guy climbing up a helicopter rope. Or how about the picture of a vulture sitting right behind a starving child in Africa seemingly waiting for the kid to die. So profound! Or just crap!!! Snopes is a website that takes all the too-amazing-to-be-true forwards running rampant throughout the world wide web and gives the actual truth behind it. Snopes will even tell you where the forward originated and how it became the "truth" today. I would love to work there because I love to shed light on things and discover how myths actually come about. I guess it's the detective side of me.

So you can see where this is going........After listening very carefully to what Alec had to say about the president, someone that just a few weeks ago, he looked up to as a role model of a man in the public eye, a loving husband in the public eye, an endearing father in the public eye, the leader of the most powerful nation on the planet........ I just quietly turned to my laptop and "snopesed" the internet claim. I did not even know what Snopes would have uncovered in this issue. Perhaps it was all true. But I don't need Snopes to tell me something that my commonsense gut already knew. I knew the guy would not have even come close to the primaries without top officials seeing citizenship documentation. I mean... c'mon people, wise up! Have our nation's top conservatives truly sunk to the level of Amy Hallsey, an aspiring cheerleader in my 10th grade class who didn't quite make the cut at Pep Squad tryouts? Having been spurned and feeling the attention surrounding her at all times slowly fading away, she cooked up a story about a Pep Squad member so heinous and socially destructive,.... Well, let's just say if the girl could have simply pulled out a birth certificate proving citizenship to erase her hellish problems, she would've done it with the speed of today's teen texting addicts. Instead, she hung her head in shame for THREE solid years and after graduation? Who knows . . . Bag lady? Meth muncher? We may never know!

So I give you Snopes' version of the events at hand.......
And remember, Albert Einstein said "Whoever undertakes to set himself up as a judge of Truth and Knowledge is shipwrecked by the laughter of the gods."
I hear laughter.

Saturday, June 20, 2009

BRAGGING RIGHTS!



Alec and Sam are completely different when it comes to schoolwork. Sam appears to put forth very little effort and always seems to pull out an A. School just comes easy to him. When he comes home with homework he does it immediately. He barely even waits to have a snack first. Sam knows that when his homework is out of the way, he can play all day without being interrupted by it later.


Alec, on the other hand, struggles and procrastinates. This is no big secret. He outwardly laughs that he drives his parents crazy with his work habits. He's the kind of kid that, if left alone, will decide that bedtime is the time to drag out the textbooks. Sometimes he even waits until the morning and crams it all in around brushing his teeth and meticulously sculpting his hair. So when he entered Middle School last September, I was terrified his grades would really suffer. Middle School is, after all, much harder than Elementary. But . . . au contraire . . . .

Alec earned straight A's all year long. Because of this he was awarded "Outstanding Student" in English, Science, Social Studies and Math. And each year the faculty presents a trophy to one student who they feel will go on to do amazing things in each particular field of study. Guess who was chosen for SCIENCE??? Yep, Alec! Tim could not have been prouder since he has taught Science for the last 13 years. On top of all that, Alec's fellow classmates voted him most likely to become a millionaire. I'm not sure what that's about but I sure hope they're right!

Alec get his Science Award:


Congratulations Alec! We're so proud of you!!!

Friday, June 19, 2009

Camping and Boating

We had so much fun on our first camping trip of the year with the Summers. Aside from the thunderstorm in the middle of the night, the weather was perfect. Tim and I are very sore from tubing (from just trying to hold on). Alec is sunburned from standing on the face of a cliff for 45 minutes trying to build up the nerve to jump into the water. Sam has bruises and scratches all over his legs from walking (and falling) through the woods. And we're ready to do it all over again!!!

Niki and Nikki



Shawn, our chauffeur



Sam and Tim




Tim drives with Alec, Emmy, Sam and Brody in front




Here is a video of Tim on the tube:



Alec and Emmy try to work up the nerve to jump (they did finally jump):

Wednesday, May 27, 2009

Sam's $1200 Bike Wreck

Updated Video (new tooth):
If you hang around our family long enough
you soon realize that Sam is the one that continually pushes the envelope. He is an extremely active kid with a pain tolerance that has always amazed us. By age two, he had received stitches 3 times - eyebrow, chin, side of head. So when it had been seven years without a trip to urgent care I knew we were on borrowed time.
Don't get me wrong, the kid has had some really bad injuries during those seven years, but nothing we couldn't take care of with some Peroxide, gauze, Neosporin, lots of Band-aids and a few prayers.

Last Tuesday, May 19th, Sam wrecked his bike into a parked car, slamming his mouth into the back fin. He was halfway around the neighborhood block and nobody saw it happen. A nice lady heard his screams and ran outside to find him a complete bloody mess. She walked Sam to our house, in through the front door and out the back door to find Tim working in the backyard. (I was at work.) Sam had so much blood coming from his mouth that Tim thought he would have to go to the Emergency Room. After rinsing out his mouth, Tim saw that his front tooth was broken in half and the gums above it were very bruised.

The crazy part happened when (no...it hasn't even gotten crazy yet) Alec, casually riding his bike around the block, comes around the corner and finds Sam's abandoned bike lying in the middle of the road with his retainer tossed to the side and blood everywhere. Alec immediately thought Sam had been kidnapped or murdered or both! (We've really got to start monitering how much violence Alec watches on tv.) Tim said Alec came running into the house holding Sam's retainer and screaming his name. I'm not sure who was traumatized more -- Sam or Alec!



The next morning, our dentist - Dr. Graf - said after the lips and gums heal, he can use the missing part of the tooth to try to put it back together seamlessly. Yep, we actually found the half-tooth laying in the street.
And here's the other crazy part --
Sam's tooth will cost $270 to fix.
The college girl's car with the scratch on the fin will cost...
...wait for it...
...wait for it...
$937!!!
The best part of this whole story is Sam's attitude toward his broken tooth. We thought he was going to be so embarrassed to go to school and face his classmates with a broken tooth. (He doesn't get it fixed for two weeks.) But actually, Sam could care less about his tooth. He doesn't look forward to the pain of getting it fixed, but when I asked him if he was embarrassed by it, he said, "No. Who cares?!"
That's Sam for ya. He acts before he thinks, talks before he thinks, jumps before he thinks.....
and doesn't care a bit what you think about that.
I think I love that about him!

Monday, May 11, 2009

My Wonderful Mother's Day

One great thing about being the only girl in the house is the over-the-top pampering I receive anytime Mother's Day rolls around. It's as if the three men get together and realize the last 364 days of burping, wrestling, farting - armpit and otherwise, adjusting of whatever needs adjusting, jokes and riddles containing all things related to poop, and non-stop action movies really must have taken a toll on poor mom..... I love my boys so much, even with the crude sounds and smells that come along with them!






And then there's always the really awkward video where they rehearsed once and then said, "Yeah, we're good. Let's just do it."

Sunday, May 10, 2009

Tornado Hits Springfield

On Friday, May 8th, a tornado went through Springfield. It was an EFzero but seemed to pack a wallop anyway. We had no damage (just all our patio furniture tossed around the yard) but our neighbors weren't so lucky. Tim was at school ducking & covering with his students. Alec was at his school ducking & covering - which he said was very boring and uncomfortable. Sam got to go to school an hour late when it was all over, and that made him very happy. No injuries in Springfield and we thank God for keeping us safe!

A huge pine tree topples over roots and all.


A big tree loses some limbs.


Across the street, our neighbor's tree breaks in half.

Thursday, April 9, 2009

Hi Friends and Family

I've started this blog to keep family and friends updated on the crazy lives of the Knopf boys - Tim, Alec & Sam - along with mom, Niki - ME! Check back anytime for updated pictures, stories, events, etc. If you would like to make comments and stay updated, join our blog. If you don't want to join you can comment "anonymously."