REMINDER!!!!

Hey everyone we are down to the last week before Christmas, so for those of you who need to mail a gift to someone PLEASE do so in the next two days!!! For this to work and not have anyone left out, everyone needs to get to the post office ASAP!!

List of those that need to mail gifts:

Russ mail to GARY
Aine mail to Rachael (danny's)

Deonna mail to AINE
James mail to RUSS

Rachel(me) mail to ERIN

Erin mail to PJ
Gary mail to DANNY

Please follow through! Love ya'll!

New Addition To The Family!

Deonna and Rene Guignard got married Tuesday November 18, 2008.

They were married by a Notary Public on Pensacola beach in Florida. They were married barefoot on the white sandy beach at 3 pm.

We are so happy for them, and are excited to have Rene as part of the family.

You Might Want to Send Russ Sympathy Cards

Another funny - this time on me... the kids and I were laughing SO HARD, and Russ just had a little chuckle every now and then. I asked him why he wasn't laughing, and he said, "I LIVED through it." Then the laughter came.

Really, Russ is such a sweetie. Not many men could live with someone as challenged as I am. I think the part he laughed the most about was the memory of my "wheat cake" that I fed Dad S.... I really love him for enduring that...

So anyway, here's the link: My Love Affair with the Burn Gods

Love ya'll. Hope it gives you a good laugh on this Monday Morning! :)

Our Home

Hey everyone...I know this is a little bit later than planned but I'm going to post the pictures of our house. They are mostly before we moved in and I will post more as we get rooms done. The house is 3 bedroom 2 bath and it's 1800 sq feet, just to give you all an idea. Just ignore any messes that you may see in the backgrounds....it's still a work in progress! I love you guys!

This is our living room....on the far right where you see the glass is the front door, and the far left is the master bedroom...the one next to it is our dining room and the new light that we hung...



This was the kitchen before...ugly huh?........... and this is the kitchen in progress, but you get the idea...



The master bathtub....and shower, and you can see into the master closet. You can get to the master closet from the small hallway or from the master bathroom...it's a huge walk-in.



This is the master bedroom...dad's hanging our new ceiling fan...that's a huge built in entertainment center in the corner of our room.



This is my mantle with my Thanksgiving decorations....I don't have a ton, but oh well! I forgot to take a picture of my Halloween stuff. There was a lot more than there is now...I still love it.



This is going to be our "Photo wall" it's the wall in the dining room...I started hanging stuff tonight because I got bored!



Ok, so I'm sorry about the photo overload but I'm just trying to give all of you who haven't seen my house an idea of what it looks like... I hope you enjoy and like I said I will add more once the house is cleaned up a bit :) and once the kitchen is finished...it's going to have a cherry border in it too, if you can picture it. I love all of you guys and I miss you all! Enjoy my pictures!

~PJ & Doug

Adoption - Finally!

I emailed everyone I have email addys for, but just in case, I thought I'd let you know that the adoption went through! I'm so excited... Russ thinks I'm nuts but the burden off my shoulders is amazing. :)

We're having a party - I put some details on my blog:

Welcome to the Party!

love ya!

Hello from the Navy Schulmires!

I have been lazy lately and haven't posted to our blog but thought I would post on the family blog and let you know how we all are. Gary is still working very hard at Arlington doing ceremonies. Wintertime is sort of a slow period for funerals (don't people die in the winter??) so it has been nice to have him home sooner. He they have switched to their winter blue uniforms so as soon as he lets me sneek a picture, I will post it.

Cadence is doing great as well. It is hard to believe that she will be 3 months old next week! She is growing like a weed and has slowly been outgrowing her newborn clothes (YAY for shopping!). She had her baby blessing at church this last Sunday and looked absolutely adorable in her dress Grandma Sandy made. She was also such a good girl! I was nervous that she would cry since her cries are really loud for such a little girl! She is now smiling and laughing and talking all the time. I love those little gummy grins. She is also slowly working on grabbing things. I would give it a couple more days!

I am doing great too. Still just enjoying being a mom and slowly becoming accustomed to military life. It's still a work in progress but everyday it gets better and better.

Anyway, we love everyone!!

UPDATE!!!

Hey everyone, we are now homeowners!!!!!! WOOHOO...everything at closing went well and now we are just waiting for funding to come through but it will come through on Tuesday because Monday is a holiday. I am going over today to the house to do some more cleaning and I am going to take pictures to post on here, I will do before and after pictures, so once I get them I will post them. Thanks for all of your prayers for us during this crazy time. We love all of you!!!

YAY.....WE OWN A HOME!!!!!!!

PJ & DOUG

Our first home

Hey everyone...I just wanted to let you all know that Doug and I are finally going to close on our house today at 3 p.m. After months and months of searching for one and then when we finally found the one a few more months dealing with problems. Then we were supposed to close on the day that Hurricane Ike hit and since then it has been pushed back week after week. I was beginning to think it was never going to happen, but it has! WooHoo!!!!!! In case you can't tell I'm very excited. Once we get it cleaned up a bit and the inside painted and everything I will post pictures for you guys out of state! Love you guys.

PJ & Doug

What is everyone wearing for Halloween?

We have no idea what to do this year. The kids haven't been on my case, so I haven't really thought about it.

I know Halloween was a big deal to ya'll. Just wondering if you have anything in the works.

:)

A really funny story about Russ

I participate once a week with a group that writes stories about their lives. The compiler is using them in a book (I'll finally be published!) called "Slice of Life Sunday".

I went searching in my journal for a story from my twenties to share because I couldn't think of any I hadn't already shared on the blog - at least none that were positive, and I didn't want to write doom and gloom. I ran across this entry about Russ in court and laughed. I thought maybe ya'll might like to read a little anecdote about him:

Vindication is Sweet

If not, that's cool. Just thought I'd share. I should write some more about some of the adventures I've had with him and cops...

Christmas Already?!

Ok, this is just a thought I am throwing out there. Since we have an ever expanding family there have already been a few conversations about Christmas and how to approach it. Here is my idea, I have ran it by a couple of people and they all seemed to like it. Here is the idea: Everyone gives to mom and dad (aka Jim and Sandy), and in turn they give to everyone. Then their kids and their spouses draw names and you are responsible for the name you are given. No cheating and giving a gift to everyone because that will make those that stuck to the name exchange feel bad. Then only if you want to or have the means to, you can do whatever you want for nieces and nephews. Sound ok? Let me know. I did the name draw already so tell me if it is ok, if you would rather not participate just let me know. Thanks!

Name - Person they are buying for

Russ - Gary
Aine - Rachael (Danny's) :)
Deonna - Aine
Josh - James
Rachel - Erin
James - Russ
Gary - Danny
Erin - PJ
Doug - Josh
PJ - Rachel
Danny - Doug
Rachael - Deonna

I hope this works, I know it would make it a little lighter on all our pocket books this Christmas, so let me know if it will work for you! By the way it was a totally random draw we picked names from a bowl! :)

Remembering Ike

Rachel and I were talking just the other day that it seems Ike got all this hype before slamming into us and now there is not much mentioned about it. So much is going on here now, lives have been lost, destruction has occurred and cities lost. However, it has brought people to revisit basic human emotions. It is truly bringing out the best in people, seeing the community reach out and help each other, neighbors actually taking time to meet and help each other. Many people outside of this area however don't get a full grasp of what has happened down here and the extent of the devastation. I was just relaxing after working outside today and felt like I wanted to do something to share w/people a little bit about what has happened down here. Nothing big or good, but just to give a taste of what is going on here now. I hope you enjoy.
Make sure your sound is on.
-Josh

FYI

Just letting everyone know, if you scroll down a bit on the right side of the blog is a list of other family blogs. All you have to do is click on one of the names and it will take you right to it. Just thought I would make it a bit easier for everyone.

New Family Blog!!

Hey guys! Venus has a blog we set up to show off her drawings as she makes them... she has two posted so far!

Creations By Venus

She'd LOVE it if you stopped by to tell her what you think.....

The Template

I like this template you're using - what website are you visiting now? For templates, I mean...

Birthday Snapshots

Thought Mom and Dad would like to see some pics of Orion opening his gifts from them. (Please note these are taken PRE-birthday haircut! lol!!) Redbeard was going to round him up to call yesterday, but we were canning plums (yes, I know - it was Sunday, but we were desperate and asked the Lord to bless it anyway) and just flat forgot. Hopefully tonight as we start on the next bucket of plums (and we still have to pick the apple tree) we'll get that done. ;)

There are more pics and 2 small videos on our family blog (NOT the homeschool blog). I put them there so my family could see as well. Love ya.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!

I JUST WANTED TO SAY HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO RUSS AND RION!!! I HOPE YOU GUYS HAVE A GREAT DAY!!! LOVE YOU GUYS! ~ PJ

Our new Home

Hey Everyone....I'm sure you all know by now but just wanted to post it because we are excited....WE GOT A HOUSE!!!!!! Right now our close date is scheduled for September 19th as long as nothing changes. Here is a link where you can pull it up to see pictures of it if you would like. http://search.har.com/engine/dispSearch.cfm?mlnum=9301386&backButton=Y

Once we get moved in and we have a computer at home again (we are living with Dougs parents right now) I will post some more pictures. Love you guys! PJ & Doug

It's a ........

BOY! Coming Soon...
Baby Schulmire! ~Danny

So many new things....

So, no one has told us who the "Hollister" chick is in the dinner pics. Or how to distinguish Rachel from Rachael. I did spell it right, correct? We haven't even been gone 5 yrs., and look how the family landscape has changed... it really makes a diff.

Yikes.


So seminary starts tomorrow - I told babyface and she says, "Are you serious?"

"Uh, yeah."

"Crap. I don't even know where I'm going."

"That makes two of us." :P

We're in for a new adventure! Here's some pics of her on her Shakespeare Festival Trip that she got home from this weekend. There's more of her on her facebook account, if you're on that.


Sigh. I am NOT old enough for her to be going to seminary. Alas, Redbeard insists I'm living in denial. He's such a pessimist. NOT! lol!

The Reception

For those of you that were not here, Danny asked me to make a slide show for their reception tonight so here it is for you to see too!

Danny's Wedding and Honeymoon

Some of the engagement photo's!
The Wedding Day: On the way to the JP!We are married!! YEA!

Waiting FOREVER at Olive Garden for the family dinner. This is Rachael's parents, brother and sisterEating Dinner with the entire clan! That's a lot of people!
The Honeymoon~ we stayed home most of the week and Saturday headed to Galveston and played at the beach!

Better Late Then Never!

We finally got our pictures back of the boys playing in the Texas Blue Bonnets! While we were there a famous photographer asked if he could take pictures of the boys running through them to use in text books and post cards. We said yes and signed a release, and he said he would send us the pictures. I think mine hold up just fine next to a professional, what do you think?

My Pics.....

David Fraziers...