Every August my parents host the whole Schmitz family at their house in Westphalia. The timing usually coincides with the return of my aunt and uncle from Michigan and mom and dad wanted a way for everyone to get together when they were back home. Since then, August has usually become the time that this event happens, regardless of who can make it. This year the date was August 5th.
The day is usually passed by visiting, eating, playing Pitch, watching the Harvest Tournament, and playing made up games. One year, some invented a game where the object was to toss a piece of pea-rock on the concrete and who ever landed the rock closest to the crack in the concrete wins. Easily entertained we Schmitzes are.
To give you an idea of how many people are actually in my family, if my whole extended family on the Schmitz side were to attend (all descendants of Nick and Sally), we would approximately double the entire population of Westphalia Metro area. But then again, the population boom would only be temporary. Like my dad always says about Westphalia: "The population always stays the same. Every time a woman gets pregnant, a guy leaves town."
Come to think of it, all the Schmitzes should move back to Westphalia. It would be Blazing Saddles all over again. Earling better watch out, because if that ever happens, we may take over as the 5th most populated town in Shelby County. To put it in terms that most of you should understand, if everyone in my family would attend this event, the Harlan Tribune and News Advertiser would have to create a special section dedicated solely to The Westphalia News and would have to file worker's comp on Lorenne Kaufmann for the immense writers cramp she would have from only writing the attendees of the get-together.
My grandparents have 11 children, 40-something grandchildren, over 100 great-grandchildren, and 1 great, great-grandchild:
Anna Rae Gallinger - The First Great, Great-Grandchild of my Schmitz Grandparents
So to summarize how the day went, here is a run down of the fun had by all:
Eating Playing Pitch More eating Sneaking away to watch the Harvest Tournament Getting yelled at for missing pictures because you were at the Harvest Tournament More eating Playing closest rock to the crack More pitch Lots of sweating (it's always hot) More eating Sweating while playing pitch Having Grandma for a partner playing pitch and having her yell at you for playing your cards wrong Eating Pitch And more sweating because you ate too much (a.k.a. the meat sweats)
Here are some pictures from the day (thanks to Lynn Schmitz for the photos):
In closing, I'll leave you with the Simpsons reinactment of my grandparents calling the kids in for supper (Telemundo version) Sorry, I couldn't find an English copy, but you get the gist. And yes, while I do have an uncle Cletus, I do not have a cousin Q-Bert (unfortunately).
So I was watching TV the other day and my old pal Homer J. Simpson happened to mention that they have the internet on computers now, so I thought, what the heck, I might as well check it out.
Come to find out that not only can I save a ton of money on my car insurance on Geico.com, waste hours watching clips from The Office & the Wassup Milk kids on youtube.com, jam out to PBJ Time, and prevent myself from having bad luck for the rest of my life by forwaring a chain-email to 246 of my closest friends, but I would also be able to share all things Schmitz with family and friends that might want to know what we've been up to lately.
The Greatest Show on TV
Wassup!
It's Peanut Butter Jelly Time!
Well, I've decided to join the rest of the blogging society. I just hope that I can find a way to stick to keeping this up and actually keeping information current, unlike my current exercise regimen and fantasy baseball team (it's amazing that I might still finish 4th when I haven't checked it in over 3 months). Also considering that I am too lazy to ever email anyone and am not real big on using my cellular phone device to keep in touch, this might be a half-way good idea.
Why I hate cell phones
So, instead of posting only completely random stuff, I might as well let you know that Amber, Eli, & I have been doing great lately. Amber is enjoying staying home with Eli (even though he wears her out lately). Eli is "army" crawling and getting into everything. His favorite toys are cords, strings, spoons, spatulas, playstation controllers, and anything that is extremely dangerous for a nearly 8 month old. If only he knew that Mattel had to recall all of his toys, he might actually play with them. We are probably unfit parents. He is getting more teeth and hasn't been sleeping well lately at all, but I guess that goes with the territory.
I have been working quite a bit lately. I just got back from Cincinnati last week and am trying to get back into the routine of being home. We're all doing great though.
So that's it for About Schmitz Volume I. Stay tuned for periodic updates. Hopefully I can keep this blog updated a little better than the Westphalia Boars CYO Basketball site that I haven't touched in over 9 years (link not available thanks to Yahoo! who removed the page due to inactivity).
I will leave you with a video we just took tonight of Eli and his first bath....ever. He was starting to smell a little rank after 8 months. Actually, this was his first bath in the tub. He's starting to want to stand up all the time in the sink and we thought it might be time that he move up to the tub so we can have an even more difficult time getting him to sit still. Thank God for the little blue chair that we have that helps keep him upright (thanks Karen!). The chair also works great to censor what he really wouldn't want everyone seeing. I'm sure he'll thank us when he's 14 and mom and dad make him watch videos of when he was a baby. Enjoy!
