Sum Ting Wong!

Yes, indeed! Certainly there is something wrong. I have tried several times to load the video mentioned in the previous post, and each time it uploads but an error occurs, so I am giving up on that one.
The first week of school has gone well. Tomorrow all the little Kindergarten and Pre-School age kids will begin, which means that if they all ride the bus, I will have seven little ones getting on for their first bus ride to school.
Other than that, not much to post.
Not sure yet what our Labor Day weekend plans are.
Dennis is thinking it might include baling some hay. I prefer a trip to the Lake of the Ozarks...LOL! Monday will be his 60th birthday! Woo Hooooo!
That's it for this evening!

Because You Asked!!!

Here it is! Most of you who read our blog have seen this at some point, however, Brandon is a new reader, so Brandon....this picture is for you! Also, at the risk of boring you all to tears and having you never look at our blog again, I'm going to add a video clip of a race between Tyler and Dennis in Memphis on Dennis' 58th birthday. The picture isn't really great...sometimes blurry, but the announcer is entertaining. Speaking of Dennis, and birthdays...he will be having another one on September 3.
School is back in session, and I've been transporting a bus full of students since Wednesday. Things have gone quite well, so far. The Kindergarten classes will start next week, so we'll have about six new passengers then. This week is Watermelon Festival in Montrose, and several (actually five) of the Watermelon Princess candidates ride my bus. Last year's Princess was April Burgess, and this year Miranda Rulon was crowned Princess. Both girls ride my bus.
Wyatt is on his way over to visit while his Mommy does some errands in town.
Dennis is on his way back from Green Bay, Wisconsin. He and some buddies went to Lambeau Field for a Packers game. I'm sure they've had a great time, and just spoke with him on the phone. He says he will be home around 4 PM this afternoon.
Guess that's it for today, except to say that we have 2.5 inches of rain since yesterday...so far!
Well....obviously, the video clip didn't make it. It downloaded, but some sort of error occurred, and I don't have time to fix it now. If I can figure it out, I will add it later.

Another Family Reunion!

This time it was the Miller Reunion.
It was a good time, and well attended. What fun to visit with some of the cousins that we'd not seen in way too many years! And it's always fun to see the faithful ones who are there every year too! When we counted heads to see how many were present, we had 69, but there were several late arrivals and we never did count again. I'm thinking that there may have been around eighty.

Autumn Is Just Around the Corner!

Yes, as hard as it is to realize, summer is nearly over and fall colors are already appearing just a little here and there in the landscape! The tree that provides afternoon shade for our house is yellowing and has lots of leaves falling already! That's why I decided to change the look of our blog to the autumn leaves. However, I still plan to enjoy the last remaining days of summer!
Last evening, we enjoyed a very fine meal at the Nauvoo Hotel with about 55 other "Schulte" family members. Not all of the names present were Schultes, but everyone there was of the Schulte family, and we had a really nice time. Dennis enjoyed visiting with cousins he'd not seen in quite a while, which was really fun for him. Zach and Wyatt came here to spend the night with us afterward, so on our way through Keokuk, we stopped in to hear some "blues music" at the Rollin' On the River Festival. We caught them between sets, so had to wait about 20 minutes for the next group to set up, and since it was so late we stayed only long enough to hear two songs, but it was enough to let the boys hear how "blues" music sounds. We learned that Zach doesn't like to hear cymbals. He says, "I hate the sound of cymbals, it sounds like scratching a chalkboard". Seems a funny thing to say, especially from him. He enjoys most forms of music, but now we know....NO cymbals!
Here are some of the pictures from our reunion.

Better Later Than Not At All!

When I typed that title, I was actually thinking that it's better to post news late than not at all, but in this case, it might also be a fitting description of our news. To make a fairly short story even shorter, earlier this week we received a phone call from Brandon saying that he and his family were in town, and would like to come out and visit a little. Wow! What a nice surprise! We did get together on Tuesday afternoon. Dennis and I had not seen Brandon in maybe 16 years! Brandon was a very close friend of Travis' when they were teens, and Brandon spent considerable time at our house back then. We got to meet Brandon's wife, Shellie, and their eight month old twin daughters, Annie and Izzie! Wouldn't you have thought that I would have had my camera out and taking pictures? I guess just the excitement of company addled my brains. Thankfully, Brandon and Shellie had a camera and allowed me to take a couple pictures with it! So, here are the pictures. The four adults are Gail and Travis with Brandon and Shellie. The other one really needs no explanation, except to say that Izzie is on the left, in front of her Daddy, and Annie is at right, in front of her Mommy. The girls are adorable!

Skies Seem to Be Clouding Up This Afternoon!

So, it's unlikely that we'll get to observe the best night of the meteor showers here. It might clear off again, but according to the weather channel, we have a chance of thunderstorms late tonight. We'd planned on watching meteor showers, away from the bat!
Last night, around 1:30 AM, I went out on our east side deck to watch for the meteor showers, and a bat kept swooping right in front of my face. Over and over he just kept flying at me, so close I felt his wings touch my face! Well...that was enough to send me back to bed! I like bats, but this thing just would not leave me alone, so I started thinking: "I wonder if this bat might be rabid" Then I started getting nervous about his swooping at me, so I gave up and went in. We had planned to go farther out tonight, and sit in the back of the truck to watch, but I don't think we'll see anything since the clouds are rolling in.
Not much else has been going on around here worth telling. Dennis raced again last night at Memphis, and won. Bobbie, Mom and I went to the Dutchman Store Thursday and I bought some peaches. They're delicious! I've put a lot of them in the freezer, and still have a few to eat fresh.
Since there's not much to write, and I have no new pictures to put on here, I'm going to put in a list of some "Amazingly Simple Home Remedies". Thanks to Heidi for sharing them with me! I hope you enjoy them as much as I did.

Amazingly Simple Home Remedies

1. If you are choking on an ice cube, don't panic. Simply pour a cup of boiling water down your throat and presto, the blockage will be almost instantly removed.

2. Clumsy? Avoid cutting yourself while slicing vegetables by getting someone else to hold them while you chop away.

3. You can avoid arguments with the Mrs. about lifting the toilet seat just by using the sink.

4. For high blood pressure sufferers: Simply cut yourself and bleed for a few minutes, thus reducing the pressure in your veins. Remember to use an egg timer.

5. A mouse trap placed on top of your alarm clock will prevent you from rolling over and going back to sleep after you hit the snooze button.

6. If you have a bad cough, take a large dose of laxatives. Then you will be afraid to cough.

7. Have a bad toothache? Smash your thumb with a hammer and you will forget all about the tooth ache.

8. Sometimes, we just need to remember what the rules of life really are: In life, you only need two tools - WD-40 and Duct Tape. If it doesn't move but should, use the WD-40. If it should not move and does, use the duct tape.

9. Remember: Everyone seems normal until you get to know them.

10. Never pass up an opportunity to go to the bathroom.

For Lack of Anything More Interesting....

It's been a while since my last post, but not much going on worth posting. Monday we (Mom, Bobbie and me) went to Milan to see Valerie and Shane's new home. It's a really, really nice place! Very nice house, nice big yard, perfect location...almost rural, and just minutes from her work and some nice shopping and eating places. We've decided that we'll be doing our shopping trips to Milan instead of Coralville from now on.
Dennis raced at Memphis for the first time this season. It was the Ed Sheckler Memorial event, and Dennis won his feature. I didn't go, but "borrowed" a picture from this website. www.heartlandmotorsports.com
The picture is Dennis with Ed's widow, Chris. He's planning to be there again this weekend, and if he goes, I might go this time.
That's about all there is to tell for this post. School resumes August 22, and I wouldn't mind putting that off for another month!

What A Wednesday!

Here it is...finally! We returned from Wisconsin this afternoon, and had not been home long when we learned that Mom, Dad, and Bobbie were in the process of freezing corn. We could hardly believe that they started without us!

We had planned to do it tomorrow, but since they were working on that, we went over to help in what ever way we could. Dad had picked 50 dozen ears, and they'd already done most of the work. We got in only on the last 20 dozen. We just got home and Mom was still cooking when we left. We're planning to go at it again tomorrow.
Anyway, that's the very latest. We left Saturday morning for a few days at Camp Forest Springs in northern Wisconsin. We had a wonderful time. The main reason for going was to celebrate the retirement of Karla, who has served there as missionary staff for 45 years! It was a really nice celebration, somewhat emotional at times, but lots of fun and laughter as well. Since we were there for Karla's retirement "party", we stayed to visit for a few days. While there we enjoyed catching up with friends we'd not seen in a long time. We also enjoyed many of the activities at camp as guests. Dennis played tennis, volleyball, and stayed busy with lots of strenuous activities, while I mainly stayed near the waterfront, floating on a tube or swimming.
Here are just a few more pictures:

Putting a Gazebo on the Deck!

I am so excited! We now have a little "gazebo" installed on our deck! The deck is on the west side of the house, and it's too hot to enjoy it during the day, and the mosquitoes eat us up in the evening. Now we have shade and mosquito net sides for evening enjoyment!
I'd been looking for one since we came home from Don and Ada's in Colorado. Finally found one, and it came today via truck. Here you see Dennis working at tightening up all the nuts and bolts. It went together quite easily. I am sure we'll enjoy our deck much more than ever with this little addition!
Dennis still has to secure it to the deck so the wind won't blow it away. We're hoping that there will be no wind tonight, because he'll have to get some lag screws tomorrow at the Farm and Home store.
That's about the only news I have today.

Midnight Ride to Branson!

We received a call from the bunch in Branson. The car broke down, and they needed us to bring the van down to take them home, and pull their car back.

HERE'S THE UPDATE......with Pictures.

Well...we made the trip down in just under six hours. We unloaded the van and slept in it so we wouldn't disturb anyone at 2:30 AM. We were so thankful to have made it without problems. We were blessed beyond measure! Mom was the first to wake up, and we surprised her....and I DO have a photo of that surprise, however, because I am a very kind and considerate daughter, I have decided NOT to post it here. However, I will keep it in my files....just in case. We then loaded up the Oldsmobile, but unfortunately, I was so busy pushing it up onto the trailer that I didn't even get a picture. It went on much easier than I expected! We enjoyed a very fine breakfast, courtesy of the Ramada Inn, and at about 10, we were on the road for home. Just about 10 miles west of Lebanon, we had some tire trouble, but were able to pull off of the interstate to fix it. Dennis was unloading the jack, while Tyler got ready to pull the bad tire off. As soon as Dennis lifted the trailer, Tyler put the spare in place, and within an incredibly short time, it was done! Any NASCAR teams looking for a tire man might want to look at these guys!