Another week has sped past us already. It was nutty as usual but somehow felt normal…not sure if that is a good or bad thing. On Monday, all the kids returned to school. I got a haircut that I finally like. I swear I’m getting old – I actually think I look better with shorter hair…aaahhhh!!! Ann took Abby to open house at the junior high and then on to dance class. Luke was the odd man out, having to miss soccer practice due to no transportation. I left work and drove straight to Shelbyville where Matt played the Golden Bears in a JV football game. The Pirates only dressed 14 players, meaning everyone played and they were all exhausted by game’s end. Matt himself played every single play – even all special teams! On offense, he played center and long snapper. He had never even practiced long snapping. Unfortunately that showed during the second punt play when he snapped the ball way over the punter’s head! Other than that, he played in possibly his best game as an offensive lineman. He was aggressive, hustled and made several great blocks – even downfield. He didn’t back down to the dirty Shelbyville players and induced a few penalties – but only a fraction that could’ve been called on them. He was the victim of several blocks in the back, holds and clips – very dirty team. More than one play ended with them shoving Matt after whistle. We had down and were dominating them on both sides of the ball – until midway through the 4th quarter. All that playing time finally caught up with us late in the game when they came from way down and defeated us 26-22. We did not score in the 2nd half and only ran two different plays the entire 2nd half – pitiful. Matt had 5 tackles on defense playing DT mostly. However he also played my old positions – defensive end and outside linebacker. He had never even practiced at DE nor OLB – however there he was, thrust in to a position where he didn’t even understand his responsibility. He did just fine rushing the QB and maintaining outside contain. However, he still needs to work on his pass defense. He dropped back in to coverage a couple times and looked like a fish out of water – as he should, since he has never had any practice at it. He was pretty frustrated when we got him home. But he was also sore and very tired. He didn’t last long and before you knew it, we had to wake him up off the couch and send him to bed…
We had a little drama on Tuesday with the kids getting in to some arguments. We also had a little soccer drama as the Soccer Club tried to move Luke to a new team. They didn’t even notify us but rather had the coach email us to say Luke had been moved. Well, as you might imagine, that didn’t fly with us and we fired off our own email of disapproval and basic refusal to change teams due to the best interest of our child. This issue has still not played itself out and the league has gotten itself in to a mess now as several children have quit the other team and fired their coach. Now they are down to 6 kids and we have 10, so 2 have to move to even up the teams. They have now backed off of us and are asking for volunteers. Ann and I assumed they wanted to move Luke due to his high skill level. I got home on Tuesday night long enough to put my stuff down and talk to Ann briefly. I hadn’t even gotten my name badge off and work was calling me about the fire alarm going off. So back to work I went and worked on the dry sprinkler system for several hours, finally making it back home about 1:30 in the morning. Abby had soccer and dance class that evening and we finally got some rain, which helped to cool it down for a few hours. I grabbed a couple hours of sleep and headed back in to work for an early morning corporate training. Ann took the kids to get their hair cut with Jami in Columbus. Meanwhile, I came home and mowed Mom & Sandy’s house. It was blazing hot out – in the upper 90’s and the humidity was kicking my ass. I couldn’t get the darn weed eater started still. JT checked it out and said it was going to be a major repair. Since I want to replace it this spring, I gave up & gave it to JT to scrap. Mom and Sandy let me use their old electric one. Now I know why I like the gas models. That cord is a pain in the butt. Wouldn’t you know it; I had enough line on the spool to do about a quarter of their yard before I ran out. I need to get more line this week and get over there and finish that job. I came home, grabbed a snack and promptly fell asleep on the couch. I woke up at some point and went to bed and fell back asleep before Ann and the kids even got home. Ann took the day off on Thursday as she stayed home and cooked all day for the football team. She teamed up with the Logsdon’s to prepare food for the boys’ Thursday night meal at the high school cafeteria. She cooked so much baked spaghetti and garlic bread! She had 7 pans!! And these pans were huge, man. The boys plowed through the first few pans and then stalled out. It was so thick and filling. Even with two plate-fuls, they barely made a dent. We ended up taking home 1 and half trays, Mom took half a tray and the Logsdon’s took a full tray home. Abby was all excited as Emily from the station took her to get feathers in her hair. She went to soccer practice that night.
We travelled to North Vernon on Friday night to watch Matt and the Pirates’ varsity football team battle Jennings County. Greensburg looked pretty good starting out and took the early lead through the first quarter. However, just like the JV team, they did not make the appropriate halftime adjustments on either side of the ball were dominated in the second half and lost big 29-9 to a very good Jennings County team that had a hoss for a running back (who now has over 500 yards rushing through the first two games of the season!). Matt saw no action, unfortunately. He was pretty upset afterwards. Luke played ball with all the other little guys out behind the bleachers the entire time and was really hot and dirty after the game. Abby stayed back with Grandma and attended her first dance – the Greensburg Jr. High Fall Formal. She says she went stag with her girlfriends. Grandma and Gigi took her and picked her up. She looked cute and was real excited.
We were up early on Saturday to get Ann’s car tire fixed, which kept going flat. Matt went to football practice. Abby had another soccer game – this time we travelled to Batesville. Abby was the team captain, calling the flip before the game. Batesville came out all guns blazing and had a goal in the first minute. The girls came out flat and never recovered. They were slow I comparison – not hustling and unmotivated, kind of lazy and just plain unsure of what to do in nearly every phase of the game. They almost looked confused. Abby took her team’s only 3 shots on goal – all unsuccessful. The girls looked like they weren’t even trying most of the time. They have a long way to go. The gals got blown away, 8-0. There were some bright spots in their efforts, but it seemed that for every good play they made, there were 2 bad ones that followed…
We came home and took naps. Ann got up and went scrapbooking. Luke & Abby went with me to the annual Ryle Edition Block Party. There was a great turnout this year – nearly 100 people, I’d say. Rusty Bladen again performed for us, playing all his favorites, including my personal fave – Smoke Like a Train. It was a lovely evening, full of stars, cooler weather (but still perfect for shorts, t-shirts and bare feet), coolers of cold beer, good live, acoustic music, kids playing ball, riding bikes and running around; even a bouncy house for the little ones. It was picture perfect and everyone had a great time. On Sunday we took it easy, doing our weekly chores around the house and watching movies. Seems I forgot that the NASCAR races were earlier in the weekend and there were no NFL games on TV either, allowing for nap time! Ann and Bu went shopping for most of the afternoon and early evening. The boys got Pizza King delivered and the kids played outside for a little while before coming in to get cleaned up, homework done and off to bed. It was another great week and we look forward to kicking off next week with more football, soccer, volleyball and drama club…
Here are this week’s videos, including 6 new family ones and several from around the net…
Now let’s take a look at the Waybac section. Leading off, we have a classic of Ann in her Dixon Dance class picture. This is a previously unpublished picture that MaryAnn recently discovered from about 1978. What a cutie! Next up we have several of Aunt Dorothy and Uncle Timmie’s visit to LaPorte and then on to the Studebaker museum in the summer of ’89.
Speaking of formals, next up we have a classic fraternity picture that recently popped up on Facebook from 1990’s Phi Delta Theta spring formal. It is great to see all the comments and memories from that evening. Next are several pictures from the Bryan family Christmas in 1992, up in LaPorte. We also have pictures of Matt’s 2nd birthday party in ’98; Matt’s chocolaty face in May of ’99; and finally more from Abby’s first Christmas in ’99.
Here are some pictures of our vacation in May of 2000 at the Sand Pebble and over at Bob & Jackie’s house; then Matt playing soccer in September later that year; Matt’s 5th birthday party in March of 2001; and finally our traditional spreading of reindeer dust in the front lawn on Christmas Eve of 2006.
Well that wraps up another edition of the Scheu Family Blog. Thanks as always for keeping up with us this week and we’ll catch up with you next time out. Until then, have a good one.
Later, Scheu
Great pictures of Matt’s and Abby’s games. Great video also of both and the one that Luke was in….The party at the addition looked like it was fun. Good music, I enjoyed all of his songs. The Texas video was interesting wasn’t it??!! Boy, sure was a long time ago. Seeing the boys eat reminded me of your team and how they ate…wow..they did have appetites…you all did. Tell Abby I liked her feathers that is the cool thing now. Heard they were having trouble keeping up with the demand for them. Dad wanted to know if Abby wants us to save some that Henry the egrete looses when he is here eating? He’s bad!!! Take care and have a good week and we love you all….Talk to you on weekend. XXXOOO’s