Hi all,

Sorry it's been awhile since my last post, so here is a short update.  On October 30th, our Kaylin turned 5 years old !.  As it ended up, her birthday party was held right on her Birthday day (does that sound right?) Any way, Sarah & Matt hosted a kids party from 12 noon till 2pm and then the relative party was after that.  Boy, the sound level was really high with 6 little full of energy kids in the house.  It all went really well and everyone seemed to have a good time.  Kaylin was the star and she was so happy ! She wanted a rainbow theme, so her cake, invitations, clothes were all rainbows.  Even the food Sarah prepared was multi-colored.  She received lots of nice presents...a loom to make hot pads, craft bag with lots of different craft items to make, stamping kit, 4 cute tops, a pretty holiday dress, new black shoes, My Little Pony scooter, a cute pink outfit with leggings, clothes for her babydoll Lily and more things, but I just can't remember it all.  She was very happy and excited to start making a hot pad.  Her Auntie Kate (Matt's sister) helped her get it started and helped her take it off the loom.  She made one before we left and she gave it to me!  Her first hotpad...I was so proud of her.  Here is a picture of Kaylin that Sarah took when Happy Birthday was being sung to her.

Last weekend on Sat. we had Kaylin & Shane overnight. We had lots of fun with those two little cuties!  Kaylin helped me transplant a potted plant and Shane helped Papa put up the solar light on the corner of the garage. We also hung out playing on the driveway as John was still finishing up installing the plow on my  ATV. The kids played a little croquet and drew some pictures with chalk and played on the lawnmower.

I had some cardboard boxes to cut up and Shane was trying to talk me into putting it in the trunk of the car to bring home with them when we took them back on Sunday. He said he really, really, really needs to have all that cardboard to drive on with his bike and his trains. I told him that we’ll have to ask his mom and dad first before we do that. As it was we “forgot” to put it in the trunk and when we got to Sarah & Matt’s I told her  what he wanted to do. She gladly said..”thanks for not bringing it here”…Ha,ha.  We had pizza for supper and we used Kaylin's hotpad she made for us.  She was so happy to see that we actually were using it.  We had a great time with them and can't wait to see them again !!

We had to bring the kids back home early Sunday morning (around 8 AM) because Kaylin has Sunday school then. So we hung out at their house until Kaylin & Matt got back home, because she wanted us to wait for her. They got back around 10AM. We left then and they had to get ready to go get their Christmas pictures taken.

I’ve been asked by my South Dakota cousins to help with the Wulf Family Reunion get organized for next year.  It's been decided that it will be held on August 18th & 19th. So far I've sent out the initial email to get a feel of how many people would be interested in coming. It’s going to be held near Rapid City, SD at the Palmer Gulch Lodge.  So far there are 22 people coming. Hopefully more decide to come. We always have a great time there.

John and I are going to be hosting the Winters side Thanksgiving this year. I am starting to get the food list set up and start to plan things the for the holiday.

This coming Saturday is BOWLING again...Yeah !  I've been doing so,so with my scores...I think the highest I've gotten was a 83 and my lowest was a 42 but it's really a fun night out with everyone.  And I get to see Sean too YEAH !!! He's always a fun time....

Hope everyone has a nice week.

Good Bye Uncle Marvin.....

Our dear Uncle Marvin passed away last week early Monday morning.  He died of a brain anurizum.  This has been a very trying year for my Uncle Marvin.  At the beginning of the year in February, his second oldest son Randy Wulf unexpectantly died of a brain anurizum.  Randy was only 55 years old.  Then Jeff Wulf, Uncle Marvins oldest son who has been fighting cancer for a few years now, lost his battle on Sept 19th.  He was just 56 years old.  I just can't imagine loosing a child so early in their lives.  Now three weeks later, my dear Uncle Marvin passed away also from a brain anurizum on October 10th.  He was 80 years old.  He was doing so good with his rehab and was working on the weight machine and getting stronger.  He was joking about some lady coming on to him while at rehab, until Aunt Loretta came by and introduced herself as Uncle Marvins wife.  The lady backed off then.  It was so cute to see them tell the story and the love they have for each other.  I feel so bad about losing our patriarc of the Wulf family, and he will be missed and remembered for a very, very long time.  I know he was so looking forward to going to our next family reunion next year in South Dakota.  He loved his family so much and it will be a huge void in our lives with him gone.  I have to remember that he is a better place now, with his Mom, Dad, his sisters Linda & Norma,Jeff & Randy.  Everyone has their views/beliefs as to what happens after death,  but I certainly hope there is a hereafter and we will see each other again.   Aunt Loretta is holding up as much as she can, she looks so lost though.  Here are a few group pictures after we had lunch at the church. These pictures are from my cousin Karl's camera.

Aunt Loretta and Raydean, Rosalind,Karl, Kurt, Rhonda
 & Roxanne (our South Dakota cousins)

Aunt Loretta and Denise, Debbie, John, Dawn,
Stephainie, Brandon,Tracee & Dwight

Me, Denise, Dawn & Dwight

Aunt Loretta and all of us. Our 2 Mom's were sisters

My brother Duane and me

Our cousins from South Dakota came for the funeral and afterward my sister Dawn & husband Jim invited us all over to their house for supper.  We had Marty's pizza, salad & cookies. 

At Dawn & Jim's

We had so much fun catching up with each other's lives.  I brought some photo albums along to look at earlier family reunions and we found a picture from years ago of me being lifted up by Roxanne, Rosalind, my Grandpa Wulf and my Uncle Lester. We decided to re-enact that picture again. Stepahine took the picture and then put it side by side with the older picture.





  

I really didn't want the evening to end, we were having so much fun, but our cousins needed to get up early (they were shooting for 4AM to be on the road) to drive straight through to Rapid City.

So we said our goodbye's and now are looking forward to our next family reunion that going to be in August of next year.

Have a nice week......



Hi All,

Last weekend John & I went up north to attend our annual ATV event called the “John Ames ride for Big Brother/Big Sisters”. John Ames was one of the founding persons of our ATV group. He died in a snowmobile accident 5 years ago and we wanted to set up a memorial in his honor. We gather sponsor donations to be put towards fishing equipment and lunches for about 25 kids from the Northwood’s Big Brother/Big Sister program that we host every February. We started out meeting at the Fireman’s park in the Town of Lynn near the Willow Flowage and then got our registration tent set up. It was a frosty morning (33 degrees), but it would soon be a beautiful day in the high 60’s and sunny. I was wearing my winter coat to start out with, Burrrrrr ! Once all of the ATV riders got there and signed in, we took off on the Little Rice trail around 9:30AM. What a beautiful day !! The fall colors were just fantastic and with the sun shining, it made the forest just glow with color.

A picture of John's ATV seat-There's frost on it !!! and some pretty colored leaves

A trail rest stop

Part of the trail made of logs

The registration tent

Here is a Link to the view of the Willow Flowage and the trail system:
http://www.co.oneida.wi.gov/docview.asp?docid=4629&locid=135

We rode over to the northern tip of the Willow Flowage and stopped at the Willow Wood Lodge. We got there around 11:15AM and decided to eat lunch there. Very good food and log cabin atmosphere. I had a BLT sandwich and John had a cheeseburger. Just so happens there was a motorcycle poker run going on the same day, so as we were sitting eating our lunch, about 50 motorcycles pulled in and the place got real crowed. I’m glad we got there first, because we would have been waiting a LONG time for our lunch ! We left there around 12:30PM and headed to our next sponsors. The next ones were..... Buck Snort, Reel-‘em-Inn, Boyles, Hillside Bar & Indian Point Lodge. By the time we got to Reel-‘em-Inn I had a hard time drinking any more soda.  We needed to purchase something from them for being our sponsors. You can only drink so much soda…Ha,ha….The community in this area is so fun and we hope to be more involved in their events as they happen. At every sponsor we stopped at we each received a lottery ticket. Then at 4PM we all came back to the registration tent and put our tickets into the pot for prize drawings. John and I each received a free sandwich & drink from Willow Wood Lodge. Through registration and donations, we raised $625 and I’m sure it was enough to cover the BBBS kids. Here is a group picture of us.

There were more money contributors that didn’t ride also. Beverly Ames (John’s wife) & kids were not able to come because their dog collapsed in the woods that morning and they had to take it to the vet to be put down. “Iris” was a older and very huge Newfoundland breed of dog and she was having health problems up to this point anyway. Beverly had already been thinking as to when it would be the right time to put her down. That is such a hard decision…..So I don’t have a picture of the Ames group.

While we were up north, Sarah, Matt & kids & Sean were staying at our house in Wales. Matt’s sister Kate and family were moving up from Urbana IL to Mazomanie(west of Madison) last weekend. Sarah & Matt wanted to stay at the house because it would be closer for them for helping with the move. Sean watched Kaylin & Shane during the day on Sat. Matt ended up getting tickets to the Brewers game from a client for Sunday afternoon’s game, he & his Dad went there and Sarah, Kaylin, Shane, Audra & Sean stayed at the house until we got home around 1PM. We had a nice visit with them all. Here's a picture of Shane when he fell asleep while I was reading a story to him and Kaylin.

Oh yeah, we got new kitchen countertops last Thursday and boy does that make a difference !! We love the look and now we have to paint the kitchen. The backsplash is just a little lower than the old one was. The kitchen needs a new coat of paint anyway….So that’s our next project…it’s a never ending list to work off of….ha,ha…..

Have a nice day,

Birthday weekend and bowling…

Hi all,
Friday night:
John and I were going to go to Waukesha's Downtown Friday Night for my birthday, but it was raining and cold, so we decided to go out to eat for a fish fry instead.We decided on The Fox and Hounds restaurant in Hubertus, by Holy Hill.  We got there and boy was it crowded!  I'm glad I made reservations.  We got seated and the waitress took our drink & food order right away.  By the time she got back with our drinks, another waitress came with our food.  This all happened within a 5 min period.  Unbelieveable!  I don't think I can remember getting served so quick at any restaurant.  The fish was fantastic. I had all you can eat shrimp and fish ($10) and John had all you can eat fish only ($9).  We had a great time.
Saturday:
My 1st bowling league game started this Sat night at 6:30pm. I, Sean & C.J. came early to practice a few times and for me to figure out what weight and size of ball to use. Ends up I use a size 8 medium ball. Our 4th member Jackie came later right before the meeting started. Seemed like a semi-family reunion on my side, 2 of my sisters and 1 of my brothers have joined the league with their spouses and some of my nieces and nephews too.

I /we had a great time.  Our 4 member team name is The Super Strikes.  Sean thought that name up.  I think it's a great name ! 
My sister Denise and Brother-in-law Tom were the photographers and offered lots of clapping, suggestions and support, Thanks !!!

Jackie Schmidt~~One of my team members

Me

Jim & Dawn (My sister & Bro~in~Law)

A group picture with Denna, Dwight, Rusty & Tracee

My brother Dwight

Jim, Sean, Me, C.J. & Dawn

Steph, Denna & Rusty (My Bro~in~Law)

Elizabeth & Denna

My Sister Denna

Me

Sean & Dawn High 5'en

Sean not so happy

Sean not so happy~again

Elizabeth, Tracee, Denna & Rusty

Tracee~my Sister~in`Law (Dwight's wife) & Dawn

My scores weren’t the greatest, the highest score I got for 3 games was a 82. Hopefully next month I do better.

Sunday:
The kids and grandkids came over to celebrate my birthday. John made his great tasting meatloaf. Kaylin helped him with it. We had cupcakes and parfaits for dessert.

Audra is crawling and pulling herself up by furniture

It’s not going to be long before she’s walking I think. Kaylin and Shane were walking very early too.
Sarah & Sean gave me a Mom's day out to do what I want to do.  We decided to go shopping at Johnson Creek Outlet mall, then go to lunch and then go see the movie "The Help".  We are going on Sunday the 25th...I can't wait !!!!

Sean left around 5PM to go back to Chris & Holly’s house to get his clothes and head back to Neenah. Chris is leaving next Monday to go back to California to complete his golf training certificate. He will be living with his parents in Huntington Beach until next spring.

Some sad news....My cousin Jeff Wulf passed away last Monday (Sept 19th) losing his battle with cancer.  He was only 57.  The worst part of this (if it can be any worse) is that his younger brother Randy passed away earlier this year in February of  a brain anurizum.  He was only 55 years old.  Two brothers in the same year.  Unbelievable....They were my mom's brother's (Uncle Marvin) son's.  So sad...

Have a great rest of the week.

9~1~1

Hi All,
This is a little late, but I just had to get this off my chest.  I can't believe it's been 10 years that this horrible attack happened.  We must be vigil and not let them think that we are letting down our guard.  I am scared for my kids & Grandchildren that something will happen to them in their life here on earth. 
Everyone remembers where they were that day.  I had just started my work day at 7AM and about 20 min. later one of my co-workers came in and as he was walking past my desk, he asked me if I heard that a plane hit one of the towers in New York.  I didn't really think more about it, thinking that it was an accident and hoped everyone was ok.  Then John called me after the 2nd plane hit the other tower and told me that something was really weird about this.  Then there was alot of chatter going on in the office that terrorists were attacking the US.  Someone rolled out a TV to watch and the announcers were saying that all airplanes were to land and the airports were closed down. I was so scared not knowing what was going on.  I just wanted to see my family.....Then the Pentagon was hit and the crash in Pennsyvania.  That did it....I started crying and just stood and watched the TV as the 2 towers fell.  How horrible !!!! And all the innocent lives lost !!!!!! 
I can not think that "it won't happen here in little Wales, WI" , so I will always be aware of my surroundings and if there is something out of wack, someone's going to know about it.
Everyone kiss and hug your family members often and tell them that you love them, because it might be the last time you get to say it.
Now on another note......
Looking forward to my birthday this Friday.  We are thinking about going downtown Waukesha for Freeman Friday night.  And...for a treat....GELATO !!!!!
Saturday is BOWLING night.  I joined a league with my son Sean, his 2 friends Jackie Schmidt and C.J. (a friend from Neenah).  All three of them are experienced bowlers, so hopefully I'll get some pointers from them.  I have NEVER bowled, so this should be very interesting.  Denise...get that camera ready, ha,ha....I might have to ask you to send me a few pic's for my blog....
Anyway....I really can't wait to bowl, something new to learn.  Hey I might have beginners luck and show them all up, or knock someone out with the bowling ball...who knows ?????? I think it's going to be fun....
Love to you all....

Downtown Waukesha Friday Night

Hi All,
We just discovered a new date night outing.  I'm sure it's been going on forever, but better late than never.  My co-worker Julie Raymond suggested to me to go downtown Waukesha on Friday night.  It's an event thats called Freeman Friday Night Live and every Friday night rain or shine from June through the end of September they have 8 outdoor Stages with live bands set up through out the downtown area.  Main Street and part of Broadway is closed to car traffic and it felt like a big block party. We had a great time.  We ate at the Rochester Cafe on Broadway (great food) and then strolled along the streets listening to the music.  Stopped at the Divino Gelato Cafe (I love Gelato !!!). It was a great summer night.  Lots of people were there from the Senior crowd ( lots of dancing at the rock stage !!) to the little ones just learning how to walk (great dancing too..ha,ha).  You should check it out !!! Here is the link:   http://www.gmtoday.com/promotions/2007/fridaynightlive/index_2011.asp
Have a great weekend.

A Wonderful Time Up North With The Kids

Last Wednesday, John, I, Bailey, Matt, Sarah, Kaylin, Shane & Audra went up north for a nice long weekend. Matt, Sarah & Kids left around 2:30PM and got up there around 6PM. They opened up the cabin and settled in and had supper. We got up there later around 10PM. The kids were still up as they were saying “Daddy said we could stay up”. They helped us unpack and we got settled in too. Everyone then slowly started falling asleep, so we all went to bed.
Thurs.:
I got up at my normal 5AM and the kids soon followed. Papa made pancakes for the kids and then went to the barn to attach the ladder to the pontoon boat. It is to be in the 80’s today so we are going swimming. John finished with that and then had to run into town to get gas for both the lawnmower and boat. Then we got packed up and took the boat down to the launch and took off for the swimming area. It is a beautiful day. Audra fell asleep with the rocking of the boat.

The ladder works so much nicer than having to try and pull yourself up out of the water. Kaylin tried jumping off of the boat into the water and then Shane wanted to try it. He said he wouldn’t jump unless Kaylin held his hand. So she did and it was so cute ! After that they had a lot of fun jumping into the water.  We took alot of pictures on Matt & Sarah's camera. She may be putting them on her blog for you to see.

We stayed out on the water for about 3 hours and then came back in. Sarah, I and Audra walked back home, while Matt, John, Kaylin & Shane stayed down at the pier and fished. Shane caught 5 fish and Kaylin caught 1 fish. They got back about a hour later because the mosquitoes were getting real bad. We got supper ready (Taco’s) and then kids took baths/showers.  They went to bed real easy.
Friday:
The weatherman said rain likely in the AM so I was watching the storm coming from Ashland. John had a ATV meeting at 8AM, so he got up and got ready to go. Phil picked him up at 7:45AM and headed over to the Lake of The Torches casino to meet with Tom Maulson who is the President of the Lac Du Flambeau Band of Lake Superior Chippewa Indians. They want to get a ATV trail system going in Vilas county on the reservation and wanted to meet with our club. I wanted to get the lawn mowed before it rained, so as soon as John left, I hurried up and got dressed and ran out to get the mower started. I could see just to the north really black clouds and I wanted to get at least some of the lawn mowed before it rained. Sarah & Matt hurried and got the padded chairs into the barn so they wouldn’t get wet and as they were doing that, it is starting to lightening & thunder. I’m running back and forth trying my hardest to get as much of the lawn mowed as I can. It was kind of comical in a way I guess. Soon the rain started coming down in sheets and I just pushed the mower into the side garage door and took off for the house. It did come down hard and later found out that there was a tornado touchdown more East of us by the MI border. John got home around 10AM.  Matt & Sarah asked us to watch the kids for them while they went on a day date. They went to town and just had some quite time by themselves. Here is a picture of Audra surrounded by Shane's cars he let her play with in her play seat.

John also was giving the kids ATV rides around the back yard:

They got home around 3PM and then Audra needed to be fed. We decided to go out for a fish fry at Norwood Pines restaurant. So we made reservations for 5 PM. We got there, got seated and played “I Spy With My Little Eyes” game until our meals came. Kaylin & Shane had grilled cheese sandwiches while us adults had fish. It was really good and Matt & Sarah treated us to our meals. THANK YOU !!!! After we got home the kids wanted to play downstairs in a fort. So….I went downstairs and made a fort for them with the ironing board and plastic shelving unit. A couple of blankets thrown over them and Voila !! A fort for 2 little cuties to play in. Shane & Kaylin were so excited they were running around the house yelling “It’s a happy day, it’s a happy day”. They said that they were going to sleep in it for the night, but as it got closer to going to bed, they both decided to sleep in their beds instead.

Saturday:
Today, John and I went on a ATV ride. We went to the Oneida County trail system over by Rhinelander. We left the house around 9AM and got there around 10AM. We had to stop for gas first in Rhinelander. The trail head is a little south of Rhinelander off of Hwy 17. We got unloaded and took off. We went on a few trails that were on the map, but got lost a few times. We stopped at the Clover Club for lunch. It was a beautiful day, nice ride and we put on 61 miles. Unfortunately, there wasn’t a lot of water to go through, a lot of dust in most places but in the lower parts of the hills there was enough to get the 4 wheelers a little dirty.

John and I got back to the cabin around 6:30PM. Matt & Sarah made supper (grilled tenderloin steak, turkey dogs, hamburgers & 2 different kinds of cucumber salads). While John and I were gone, they went to Torpy park for a while and then went downtown to the Popcorn store to buy some more seasoning and popcorn. They got chocolate, caramel & cheese flavored popcorn. So after supper, we had popcorn for dessert. It was really good !!!!

Sunday:
Well, here we go again, packing up to go home. Everyone had a great time and it just seems to go too fast up here. We ate lunch together and Matt and Sarah helped get the cabin ready to leave. They left around 12:30PM and John & I left around 2PM. We got home around 6PM with an uneventful ride back. The house is still standing, that’s good….ha,ha.

Have a good rest of the week.