Wonderfully Ordinary: My Personal Memoir

 In the Fall of 2003, My mom decided to plan a girls trip for Laura, myself and mom. Laura had received her LPGA tour card in October of that year, and I was set to graduate with my bachelors degree from Eastern Illinois University. If you're going to visit NYC Christmas is the time to go. The city is lit up, beautifully decorated and minus the heat, it doesn't smell too bad. These are the important details, people. No one wants to visit NYC in August...hot garbage!!! I don't recall they day, it was later in the month, but before Christmas. We went to Indianapolis the night before and stayed in a hotel to be prepared to catch our flight early the next morning. And wouldn't you know it, we slept in. I've never jumped out of bed and gotten ready to fast in my life. You know we were hightailing it, when you see a picture of Gigi wearing her glasses and NO makeup. It was a crazy busy morning. And you won't remember this but in 2003, just two years removed from the 9...

    “Time passes and we may be apart. But cousins always stay close at heart.” Like most kids in America, so many of my childhood memories are centered around time spent with my cousins.v And compared to most of my friends I had a lot of cousins. My Grandma and Grandpa Myerscough lived in Charleston when I was first born but moved to Robinson, Illinois shortly after.  And every so often...at least Easter and Christmas, I can remember them loading us up and taking them to Robinson for a few days. And by "us" I mean David Lee, Rob, Jeremy, Paul, myself, Tara and Laura. At that time I think Matt and Tiffany were a bit too young...Melissa wasn't even born yet.  They had a little three bedroom ranch, and it also had a rec room off the back of the house. No clue where we all slept, but we did. At Easter I can remember Easter Egg Hunts. They had a wooden post fence with good spots for plastic eggs. Grandpa had an electric moped (motorized bicycle) that the boys would always...

Proverbs 22:6 Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it. On August 27, 1978 I was baptized at Immanuel Lutheran Church in Charleston, Illinois. The same church where Leah and Kiersten were later baptized. I think it’s safe to say that I come from a long line of Lutherans. And in our faith, you have children baptized as infants.  The holy water cleanses them of their sin, names them children of God and they become a member of the church. I still have my baptismal gown. My mother tells me that her father, my grandfather Leslie Schaumburg bought it for me. It was later worn by my sister Laura, my brother Matt, and all three of my daughters. My Aunts and Uncles have reminded me often that I was Grandpa’s favorite. But I was also the first. I think they tried to make trips down to Charleston pretty regularly to see me. I love that he bought the gown for me…and I sincerely hope that maybe some day my grandchildren will wear it as well. Lucky ...

Do not trust your memory; it is a net full of holes; the most beautiful prizes slip through it.  -Georges Duhamel When Leah was a baby I decided to start my first blog. The Schultz family escapades is a labor of love for my kids. They have every year of their childhood documented...printed in a hard back book, with stories and pictures of their lives. For a while, I've thought about my own childhood...what can I tell my kids about my life prior to them, prior to their dad? The older I get the harder it is to recall the memories of my youth.  So now, as we prepare for expatriate assignment in Spain, and I'm on sabbatical from work for a year, it seemed like the perfect time to sit down and try to recall the people, places and things from my own childhood. Let's start at the beginning.  I was born on Saturday, June 3rd, 1978 in Charleston, Illinois...actually the hospital, Sarah Bush Lincoln was out in the middle of nowhere between Mattoon and Charleston, so my birth certif...