Eric and Laura's Web Pages

1997 - 2001 Happenings!
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October 2001

This month we have mainly just been busy! Eric is immersed in graduate school - maybe a little more than he'd like to be, and Laura has had plenty going on at work. We have taken some time for fun though. Lee had everyone over for a bonfire recently. A bunch of Times folks had a Halloween party. And we participated in the Humane Society "Walk for Paws" again this year. Gator really enjoyed himself. We would have enjoyed ourselves a little more if the walk wasn't less than 8 hours after we got home from the Halloween party.

We are looking forward to an upcoming visit from Fritz and Suzie and their close friends Tim and Cherie. And of course the annual Birthday Bash for Lee and Eric. This year's will have a Monty Python theme.

September 2001

We all know what happened in September. Our personal feelings are probably very similar to yours and we are thankful that no one we know was directly affected, although I know we all have been affected in other ways. It is good to see the way our country has come together.

We had just a few days before celebrated the September birthdays of Laura's niece and nephew at Chuck E Cheese. Chuck E Cheese is a scary place. A drive-in vasectomy clinic could do well next door. The kids seemed to have a good time though. Daniel turned 5 and Baylee turned 3.

August 2001

The drive home from vacation was L O N G! Maybe Melbourne's a little far for a driving trip. Eric went on another whitewater rafting trip - this time with his department at work. Laura skipped that one, probably to work on the neighborhood website update. Eric started graduate school...and managed to get his first paper locked in the college bookstore after closing...the night it was due. These things only happen to Eric. But the professor didn't hold it against him, so that's good. One of Eric's co-workers is also in the same class, so that 2-hour drive each way to MTSU isn't as bad traveling together as it would be driving alone.

July 2001

We found out in May or June that a gas (as in petroleum) pipeline has been proposed to go right behind our neighborhood. The more we read about the pipeline company, the more we thought this was a really bad idea. We (Laura, mostly) got involved in opposing the pipeline. We both attended a couple of informational meetings and Laura participated in a real live protest (with hippies and everything!) Laura built a neighborhood website with information about the pipeline, as well as other neighborhood issues. Realistically our impact on this process is close to zero, but at least we said something.

July 21-22, we attended the Sells family reunion in Trenton, GA. Believe it or not, we had a pretty good time. We met a bunch of relatives I had never even heard of, visited the old family farm and graveyard, and did "family reunion things". Bonus: no screaming children.

The last weekend in July we left for our annual Florida vacation. This year we drove down to Melbourne to visit with our friends Fritz & Suzie (formerly of Huntsville). We stayed at the Radisson on beach - the same one we stayed out when we went down for the STS-93 Shuttle Launch in 1999. It's a very nice hotel and it's nice being right on the beach. When it's not raining. It rained a LOT during our vacation, so it was not all we dreamed of and more. We had maybe two nice days. We did enjoy visiting with our friends though. Laura got to hang out with Suzie some. Fritz was available a little more. Fritz and Eric visited the Kennedy Space Center on one of the yucky days while Suzie and Laura hit the mall.

June 2001

Obviously the whole summer flew past, as I am writing this update in late October! One of the highlights from June was whitewater rafting trip on the Ocoee with our friends Tim & Angela. It was a long day trip but a lot of fun. Eric also attended the NPPA (National Press Photographers' Association) Convention in Memphis. The Convention was at the Peabody Hotel so he saw the famous ducks, took in some blues on Beale Street, and ate a lot of ribs.

May 2001

May was much of the same. Eric plans on visiting his friend Beth (from New York) in Florida for her birthday party and baby shower. Laura can't take the time of work then, so Eric will have to have double the fun. He may visit some other friends on the way down and/or the way back.		Laura is looking forward to June, when she is taking a drawing class through the Huntsville Museum of Art's "Museum Academy". She hasn't done much since college, but managed a passable sketch of Gator this past weekend.

April 2001

April flew by so fast, I'm not sure I remember it! At the end of March/beginning of April Eric went to the beach for spring break for WORK! We thought he was one lucky dog, but it rained the whole time he was there. Read about the Redneck Mecca! (link is most likely NEVER coming) Eric also flew out to Denver to visit his friend Stacey and her baby Jack. It was a good visit, and we hope Jack's health continues to improve.

Mainly we've done some gardening and visited with friends locally. We made a quick stop in at Panoply, a local arts festival, where we purchased a print for our hall bathroom from a Florida artist Will Luck.

Laura has started playing basketball once a week with another woman from work and a bunch of guys. It's kind of an"organized" pick-up league and she's having a lot of fun. No major injuries yet.

The most exciting news of the month is that Eric is OFFICIALLY accepted for graduate school!

Mar 2001

Friday night (3/16) we went to a Barenaked Ladies concert. They're a Canadian band and they really put on a good show with some improvisations and joking around in addition to their music. We went with Lee & Kelly and we all had a good time.

Spring is also coming! Laura's dianthus have buds and should be blooming soon. Some of Eric's flowers are also blooming. (We have two huge rocks in our front yard, and we each have our own garden around a rock. The rest of the yard pretty much belongs to Eric, although Laura is considering planting a garden outside our bedroom window in the back yard.

Eric is famous now! Well, not really. But the late NASCAR driver, Dale Earnhardt IS (was?) famous. A memorial was held at the Huntsville Speedway and the Huntsville Times sent Eric to shoot it. One of his shots just ran in Time magazine and another in a special Sports Illustrated issue.

Laura has not yet started her third web development class (DHTML), but hopes to very soon. There are still a couple of things she wants to do in javascript to cement her skills. Also, on the web front, Laura works as a volunteer updating the Hospice Family Care website.

Eric is working on his application for graduate school. He hopes to start this fall. It will be very time-consuming and require driving up to Middle Tennessee State University in Murphreesburo once a week. They have a Masters program in Mass Communications. It's a good program and is actually designed for WORKING professionals. It will be tough to balance everything, but having a Masters could create other opportunities for Eric, including teaching at the college level.

Feb 2001

We joined a gym. We both started doing some weight-lifting and Laura started attending yoga classes once a week. Eric will continue his normal routine of running, swimming, and occasional biking. He is considering participating in a half-Ironman triathlon later in the year. Well, actually someone else thought it was a good idea. While Eric can do all the individual parts of the triathlon for the requisite distances, doing them all back to back the same day is a little daunting.

In mid February Laura went up to Sewanee to participate in an advisory board as one of the representatives of her sorority (GTU). The goal of these meetings was mainly to discuss the need for sorority facilities. Last winter Laura and many other of her GTU alumnae participated heavily in rush with the hope of keeping the sorority alive. The last two GTU members will graduate this spring, so it was good (and surprising) to be included in the discussion. Obviously no one knows how things will turn out, and we still hope to revive the sorority as we felt it was different from most. In near term, we're happy to get a sorority closet! Overall it would be nice for women's groups on campus to have the same opportunities as men's groups on campus do.

Jan 2001

We got the New Year off to a good start socializing with friends. And we drove home in the snow. We have actually had quite a bit of snow this winter. We haven't had a lot at one time, but have had several occasions where the snow "stuck" and people forgot how to drive.

We have both been busy with work and January was otherwise uneventful for us. Eric did send off a number of photos from 2000 for entry in some contests. He had a good year and took some great photos. He really enjoyed some of the stories he worked on as well. (You can see his Selma photos at his Woof Photography web site.)

Dec 2000

December was crazy as Decembers always are. Laura finished her Javascript class less than a week before Christmas. The final project was to create a working calculator with javascript. Pretty tough! That's two classes down, and four more to go before she earns a Certificate in Web Programming.

Our friends Fritz & Suzie made it up from Orlando to visit their folks for Christmas. It was good to see them and have the opportunity to get together with so many of our friends.

Jan 2000

We started out 2000 with a New Year's Party (not New Year's Eve, New Year's), due to Eric working on New Year's Eve for the Millenium/Almost-Millenium depending on your point of view. We had a number of wonderful friends over, but not as many as we had hoped. Apparently the evening before was quite festive at other venues!

1999

We sold the Eric's old house and bought a new house! We had a bit of a break before closing, so we went to the beach! Check out Eric's Woof Photography site for the pictures of the STS-93 shuttle launch we took while we were there.


The New House (except we have no trees)

1998

Eric & Laura Get Hitched: May 16, 1998

Photos by Sam Buchanan.
Laura takes the blame for the poor scanning quality.

The Wedding Announcement The marriage of Laura Christine Lockhart and Eric John Schultz took place May 16 at 2 p.m. at Grace Lutheran Church in Huntsville, with Pastor Richard Lessmann officiating.
The bride is the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Harold D. Lockhart of Arab and the late Ann S. Lockhart, and the groom is the son of Mr. and Mrs. David Schultz of Huntsville. Given in marriage by her father, the bride wore an A-line gown of white silk with a square neckline. The hem and train were embellished with beaded daisy appliques. Suzanne Neumann was matron of honor. Bridesmaids were Cheryl Rowe and Carrie Lockhart. Best man was Fritz Neumann. Groomsmen were Kurt Lessman and Kurt Schultz. A reception was held at the church. A rehearsal party was given by the groom's parents at Noodles Bistro. After a wedding trip to Mexico, the couple will reside in Huntsville.

The Engagement Announcement...

Mr. and Mrs. Harold D. Lockhart of Arab announce the engagement of his daughter, Laura Christine Lockhart, to Eric John Schultz, son of Mr. and Mrs. David Schultz of Huntsville. Miss Lockhart is also the daughter of the late Ann S. Lockhart.

Miss Lockhart is a 1985 graduate of Grissom High School. She graduated from the University of the South in 1989 with a bachelor's degree in political science and economics. She is employed by Nichols Research as a subcontract administrator.

Mr. Schultz is a 1984 graduate of Grissom High School. He graduated from the University of Florida in 1988 with a bachelor's degree in journalism. He is employed by The Huntsville Times as a photojournalist.

The wedding will be May 16 at Grace Lutheran Church in Huntsville.

1997

Eric Proposes...

Wednesday, September 17, 1997 We left that evening after work for a long weekend at the beach. Eric's a photojournalist and this time of year, Eric gets very busy at work - shooting high school football in town, and often travelling out of town to shoot SEC college football. All this in addition to "regular" news. This was to be an opportunity for us to spend some time together before things got too busy. That evening we got as far as Montgomery before stopping at a hotel for the night. We didn't expect to put too many miles behind us, but wanted to get a jump start on our trip so we could spend more time at the beach.

Thursday, September 18, 1997 Since we started our trip Wednesday evening, we slept in a little (but not too late). We drove the rest of the way to Orange Beach, Alabama (on the beautiful Redneck Riviera), and arrived at the condo we had rented in the early afternoon. We had plenty of time to walk along the beach, and spend some time relaxing by the pool. After a while Eric got up and went to our room (actually a bedroom, a bathroom, and a living/dining/kitchen area.) It seemed like a long time for a simple trip to the bathroom, but eventually he reappeared. He was showered and dressed in a nice shirt and shorts and asked me to come with him, but not to ask any questions. I was wearing a bikini (and was kind of sweaty from sitting in the sun), so we went back to the room so I could throw on some sandals and a coverup. We got in the car, and still I had no idea. (Ok, I did have an idea, but that idea ran right back out of my brain as not being in the realm of possibilities.) I remembered that he had mentioned when we arrived that he wanted me to see Alabama Point, where the Perido River empties into the Gulf of Mexico. So I thought maybe he had packed the cooler we brought with a picnic dinner or had some other romantic plans in mind. (Boy, did he!)

Sure enough, he took me to Alabama Point. The sun was beginning to set, and we kicked off our shoes and walked out to the Point to watch the sunset over the water. Eric was standing behind me with his arms around me. It was beautiful (both the sunset and the moment). Then he started "writing" on my back with his finger. He writes "I love you" that way frequently, but I could tell, that's not what he was writing. But I couldn't figure out what he WAS writing, even the second and third time (although I did catch that there were two "R"s). The next thing I knew, he had pulled out a ring and held in front me and whispered in my ear "will you marry me?". Of course, I said yes. He put the ring on my finger (and I held on tight because it was too big-even on my index finger). We sat on the rocks and watched the rest of the sunset.

Then a burning boat came into view. Really. This boat came cruising in with all this black smoke billowing out behind it. I'm not sure what kind of omen that was, but we thought it was pretty funny. It was such an absurd follow-up to a perfect marriage proposal.

It was getting darker, and we walked back to the car, put our shoes back on, and went back to the condo. I got to take MY shower and when I got out and put something on, Eric had pulled a chilled bottle of champagne out of the refrigerator. I was just amazed. He had the whole thing planned before we left. He had the ring; he had brought the champagne with him in his luggage; and I had NO IDEA. We turned on some music and took the champagne out on the deck. We drank champagne, looked at the beach view in one direction and passing cars in the other direction, and of course kissed and giggled and said plenty of sappy things to one another.

Somewhere in there, we got on the phone and called our parents and our best friends to tell them the good news! As it turned out, my parents already knew since he told them beforehand (I guess you would say he formally "asked for my hand"). I can't believe they didn't tell me! But I'm glad they didn't. It was such a sweet surprise. Even after 2 1/2 years together, he really knew how to blow me away. (Still does).

Friday & Saturday, September 19 & 20, 1997 The rest of the weekend we spent doing more walking on the beach and relaxing by the pool. And being silly and giddy and happy! We didn't actually go IN the water because of the jellyfish though. I had never seen so many jellyfish in my life - dozens of them on every wave. They were as big as dinner plates. Several kids were catching them in nets and piling them on the hot sand to die. One of the kids had been stung by one, and this was their revenge. Ok, so the jellyfish part wasn't too romantic, but the rest of the weekend was wonderful.

Sunday, September 21, 1997 We had to get up and drive home. It actually wasn't a bad trip, but it was longer coming back than it was going, since we didn't break up the trip this time. And of course, we had to call the rest of the world and tell them the news as soon as we got home.

And that was the end of the easy part, for me anyway. Eric told me later that he had been thinking about proposing since May!!! He just wanted to be 100% sure he was sure. And he wanted to find "the ring". So I imagine the proposal part wasn't the easy part for him.