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!)
Thursday, November 12, 2009
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)
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...
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.
A roaring campfire for the pack
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?
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.
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.
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