The Facebook Famine

It appears that once Mandy started using Facebook too that the posts to our blog have discontinued now for almost an year. I'm ready to change it because there are things to share with family, loved ones, and friends where it's in our control and we're not getting inappropriate advertising... Do you know who was searching for you? Yes, the Mafia, of course! ;-) Now there have been benefits to facebook too like all the family we've connected with there including extended family, and I encourage all Schulzkes to join in the Alle und Jeder Schulzke group out there. I'm determined to continue our family history work!
Here are some updates about our family of late and a few pictures too...

I (Quintus) continue my work as a product manager at IBM. While economic times are tough, fortunately the storage business has been strong enough to weather some of it, but I recognize it hasn't been strong enough to bless all my colleagues in the same way and my heart goes out to those who have been sent away this past year looking for other opportunities. I pray you'll find a good place to work!
I have to come up with an award for Mandy like teacher of the year, or teacher of the decade, even century! She manages to get so much done (even though she feels otherwise), and especially for the benefit of our children. I love her soooooo much! Furthermore she serves faithfully in other areas and has done a very nice job of adding a few touches to make our home feel more like home. Her love of reading isn't suffering any either.
Tristian has played a year straight of football (only sparing the hottest months of June to September). Tackle football's his favorite by far, but we decided to let him take a break to try baseball right now, and he loves that too. I'll need to snap a picture of him in uniform. He has the look of a ball player and his skills are coming along. He had his first game on Wednesday which they won. That's his first organized game ever played... just before his 11th birthday. I can hardly believe it considering how much I played when I was young. Tristian just took a test to figure out where he stands in school... his friends are in 5th grade and he took the 6th grade test. We'll get the results soon, not to give him a big head, but to know what areas of his education need work.
Ammon is still the favorite child for entertaining when there's a group of children around that wants to play. He's never short on ideas of what to do, creating games to play, and telling stories as they go. Reading isn't everything, it's the only thing according to Ammon it seems. He loves to do it still and rattles off facts all the time about everything. He's even stumped his parents a few times with the facts he knows.
Miranda is a lovely girl. She enjoys dressing up and making herself pretty and she is a pretty girl. She's starting to discover sports now with soccer. I'm not sure she understands the competition part of it yet, but she has a good time. She's on a good team this year, and it will help her to be practicing harder and more. She does enjoy helping when others are also busy doing along with her. When she's alone she's not as motivated, but she also loves to be a help to her sister, Leah. It's nice to see her communicating with Leah about how they can help each other.
Leah remains the cute girl with golden curls and blue eyes and a fun and kind personality. However, don't attempt too often to do something for her. She really likes her independence. Her speech is making progress and she tries to speak in sentences now. It's still a struggle for her to pronounce everything correctly, but her ability to do so and her vocabulary is starting to multiply. She can still bring a smile to anyone's face.
Overall the family is very happy and very blessed! Well, that' s my perspective on it and it keeps me happy.
We'll see if I quite get to a year before writing here again. We send our love to all our family and friends!