 | Life is good. Heaven will be better. God’s blessings on you in the New Year. Sincerely, Ron, Sandy, Paul, Mark, John, and Joy Schultz Picture: Ron, Sandy, John, Paul, Mark, Joy |
| Ron and Sandy Schultz Christmas 2008 A.D. |
| RU D | Are you ready? Not for the celebration of Christ’s Nativity but for his return? Those who watch such signs think that day is near. But even as we know not the day or the hour, we do need to know Jesus as Savior. |
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Christmas 2008 is different for the Schultz family. Last year for the first time ever all the Ron Schultzes went to southern Illinois and joined the rest of the Vandermarks for Christmas. But this year brings all of the Vandermarks to the Detroit area. Judy, Mom, Donna, Carole and Chris and baby were all here for a Liponoga reunion on Dec 20th. Mom and Jude are still here and with Cindy and John will eat hearty at the Schultz house on Christmas. A look at 2008 takes us back to New Year’s Day; Sandy and Ron joined Bill at Traverse City to celebrate a year of blessing. Then hurried home so Sandy could do jury duty. At the end of February, Ron and Sandy again ventured north to TC. While there we made a winter trip to the UP to visit Paradise and Tahquamenon Falls. With the tannin colored water falling over the icy edge, it looked like a frothy root beer float below. Though the boys wanted to “feast in Paradise” all that will be remembered is we couldn’t get whitefish in Paradise, the town closest to well known Whitefish Point. Sadly on April 29th, Ron’s red car was stolen while he had an appt for an eye exam. On coming out of the office he couldn’t see the car. He didn’t see it for 62 days, when he got a call it was in an impound lot. The lot man was surprised Ron considered it salvageable! Through his summer work and $1100 in expenses, he’s driving his red ’94 Century again. Ron designed and built a 40 minute off timer for the humidifier. We push the button at the start of a meal and have it quiet while we eat. Ron also made laundry room improvements including painting, shelving and rerunning indoor clotheslines. But his big triumph of the year was getting the city to cut down dead ash trees as first requested in 2004 and a new (little) tree planted. How long does carpet last? Well, this year we finally removed that which was here when we got here. A lovely green variegated sculptured carpet now adorns the first floor and stairway. Along the way we removed some wallpaper and changed some window coverings then painted a few walls. Ron keeps busy with various craft projects: kitchen peninsula, pot lid holder above stove, iron storage rack, carpet spec, replace doorknobs, concrete patches, doorbell system expansion, redesign and rewire of telephone patch panel and adding outlets. Since moving in 21 years ago, he has added over 50 outlets, tripling the number when we moved in. He also gets out of the house on Tuesday mornings and works with other retirees at Guardian. May 29th , Ron attended the retirement party of his last city boss, Dilip Patel. Parkinson’s had not seemed to progress quickly in Ron but recently it seems to be taking a real toll. Different meds work but not as much as Ron might like. Pray. Sandy continues to coach Guardian’s Bible Quiz Team, to work with the local Thrivent chapter leadership, and to sing joyfully in the Guardian choir. Gardening, once one of Sandy’s joys, has become a pain in the knees. Pulling weeds while bending from the waist is no fun. Originally told to have her gall bladder out in 1976, Sandy finally had the thing removed in May. She was amused by a student doctor’s comment that her surgery was very interesting for the students because of the many gall stones they found, enough for a necklace. Son John loves IKEA. You know that huge store from some Scandinavian country. Well, one day on a lark Ron and Sandy visited the store in Canton. Ron found it idea provoking and more interesting than other furniture stores. Sandy was amazed at the license plates from all over the US of people coming there to shop. Paul and Joy took their father up to TC around Independence Day to visit Uncle Bill. Bill and Ron watched the Blue Angel air show, which is tradition at the TC Cherry Festival. Later in the week they moved on to Hubbard Lake to take in the Kauer family reunion. Mom Vandermark visited with us July 20th to Aug 27th while she recovered from a June fall. Physically she is mostly fine, but short term memory loss makes life difficult for her and Judy. Ron rode to the LLL Men’s Retreat at RKD this year with Al Renard and his brother Walt. Brother Bill brought him home so both could attend Michael Swafford Jr’s first birthday party; later they attended the memorial service for Rev. Ted Daniels at Outer Drive Faith. Rev. Daniels had at one time been at Epiphany. Joy is a senior now at Hillsdale. So, Mom just had to do one last fall color trip to Marquette with her darling daughter. We dropped Ronald off at his brother’s in TC, where he did some wiring work; Bill and Ron also spent a day at the Mustache Hunting Club looking over their property and visiting relatives. Joy and I visited Kitch-iti-kipi (the Big Spring) at Palms Book State Park on the way. Then once in Marquette we met up with Mom V. and Judy, who were on vacation. The weather was gorgeous and colors not quite peak but very lovely. Saw most of the usual sites. Judy and Sandy agree that this getting old does not necessarily make it easier to hike to favorite places. A very long day had Sandy driving from Marquette to Tahquamenon to TC(for Ron) to Hillsdale(to drop off Joy) to Detroit. Our bed felt really good. At Halloween, 578 trick or treaters showed up at our door. Mark helped Dad distribute treats as Sandy had gone to Hillsdale for Joy’s SAI concert (that’s a women’s music fraternity). With the fall plunge in the stock market, our boys looked at their various investments and started wondering what might produce a more sure increase in value over time. Well, they decided trees will always be a needed and a wanted commodity, so they decided to plant some. You know, up at that hunting property that their uncle and father own. Mom Sandy went along to haul the tree seedlings and tools and food and water and beer. Boys traveled separately. As Sandy drove into the Mustache - by herself - in the dark at 7pm - she wondered what the heck was she thinking when she said yes to such nonsense. Decided right then that one night at the Mustache was going to be enough. Well, boys got there at 10pm, then all enjoyed pinochle, snacks and beverages. Next morning after a hearty breakfast, boys found the spot their dad had suggested would be good and over the daylight hours planted about 200 seedlings. After cleaning up, packing up and having ‘all you can eat fish’ at Millie’s with Aunt Karen in Hubbard Lake, both vehicles made safe trips home. Hunters tell us the trees are doing fine. All the Schultzes traveled to Kankakee, IL for the wedding of cousin Carole to Chris Bray. Joy performed the duties of Maid of Honor. Near Thanksgiving they welcomed the birth of daughter Olivia. Grandma Donna, who expects to retire from the State of Illinois in early 2009, loves that little baby. Has fun shopping for clothes for her. Donna had a knee joint replaced this year and will have the other done when she retires.v Sandy’s brother John got a red Saturn SUV. Yes, he just about killed that old Ford 150. Sister Cindy passed on her Toyota to sister Judy after buying herself a new blue (but not ‘go blue’ blue) Nissan Versa; though compact she likes its roomy back seat. Ron’s brother Bill wore his mustache till the end of deer rifle season as he had a successful hunt (although the definition of successful has changed!). Early in 2008 he turned in his white Escalade for a lovely burgundy Escalade with a two year lease, which he figures should last him until the Lord comes again. Family deaths over the last couple of years include Ron’s uncle Erwin Golder on 1/20/07; his uncle Wilmer Ruby died on Pearl Harbor Day in 2007, which was exactly 66 years after his first date with his future wife Vicky. Ron’s cousin Mildred Liske’s daughter Carol died 3/29/08. Sandy’s aunt Helen lost her husband Tom this last November. On a more joyful note, Alexis and Chuck Ruby have a new grandson. Sam William Ruby born November 21st to Corrie and Rob Ruby. Now we didn’t do a letter last year but some important things happened in 2007. Like three graduations. Paul graduated from Ave Maria School of Law and passed the bar exam in Michigan and New Jersey. (He passed the New York bar this year.) He works for Stark Reagan in Troy. Mark Daniel graduated from University of Michigan – Dearborn with a degree in business. He is employed by Daimler Financial in Farmington Hills. John William graduated from University of Michigan – Ann Arbor with a double major in Classics and some Computer Science thing. He is now gainfully employed by the UM Health Services in their programming department. |
| Life is good. Heaven will be better. God’s blessings on you in the New Year. Sincerely, Ron, Sandy, Paul, Mark, John, and Joy Schultz Picture: Ron, Sandy, John, Paul, Mark, Joy |
