Thanks to You, It will be Done

What a great week we enjoyed at the Scheu household! Where as last Sunday was warm but rainy, Monday kept the rain but lost the heat. The temps continued to drop through the day and it was, well…overcast, wet and blah. If it’s going to be this cold, it might as well snow. Matt had wrestling practice and he did confirm that he is indeed wrestling varsity this season until someone beats him out for the 220 spot – meaning were travelling up to Lafayette this weekend! Abby had a follow up appointment with Dr. Guse and her cast came off! She now has a brace she can take on and off and she smells much better…ha! Ha! She looks like she is going bowling with that thing on. I took Luke out to basketball practice at the Y only to find out the coach had called home and left a message that practice was cancelled. No bother – Luke and I went ahead and practiced anyhow. We ran some drills, played Around the World (Luke won 1 and I won 2), HORSE and Knockout. In fact, we practiced longer by ourselves than he normally does. I really should’ve stretched beforehand…I pulled something – a groin muscle or gooch or something – but it was sore for a few days this week. I’m so old… That evening, I got the new Grace Potter Christmas EP, which is very good – but I hope they do a full record next year if they can find time in their busy touring schedule! I created a new Jib Jab movie with the Owens family grandchildren for Grandma and Gigi’s Thanxmas party – and as it turned out, it was a hit. We watched it a few times and laughed so hard. Luke and Abby wrote a nice poem and took a fun picture- all on Luke’s school laptop – yes, that’s right; the 2nd graders now have laptops at GES! What a difference from when I was going to school. Luke also drew us a nice picture about a spider that catches fish with her web. And we found Jackie’s now website through Facebook – Jax for Texas State Senator – go Jack!! But leading off this round of pictures, we go back to last Sunday when we got in to the holiday spirit and decorated the house for Christmas, including our tree which now has a full set of pre-lit lights that no longer work at all. It was supposed to take the cussing out of Christmas! In fact, I ended up going to Wal-Mart for more lights this year. I also picked up a new tree for Abby, who broke hers last year. She got a purple tree! Matt was blessed with the “honor??? of putting up the ugly orange bulb this year – one of our family traditions. We didn’t put up nearly as many ornaments this year as in the past. So we focused on putting up our favorites – which still filled the tree. We also put the tree in a new location – the corner by the TV. We love it in front of the window, but it takes up so much room and the kids can’t keep the loveseat off the wall. With the walls newly painted in the living room, there’s no chance we put it over there for the kids to tear up. The tree is still very pretty but we do need a new star…it keeps leaning to the right.

Thunderstorms woke us up on Tuesday morning. It rained on and off most of the day. Matt had wrestling practice and Abby had a very long day. She went in early for Academic Team practice, had a full day of school and then had jazz dance practice late at night, 13 hours later. I spliced Mom & Sandy’s phone cord back together after Sandy got a new entertainment center and somehow cut the cord in like 20 places! Abby received a very nice award for making the honor roll, including her first letter for her jacket! Way to go Bu! Sandy had some cute pictures on her camera that she let me steal, including Gracie’s yellow belt ceremony in karate and their visit out to Keith & Rosie’s house a few weeks back. Matt made the paper for his success in last weekend’s tournament!

Wednesday still saw no sunshine, but it did warm up a little. Matt had wrestling practice and was two pounds under, so he could eat a little Thanksgiving lunch with us. Keith, Rosie & Megan came in from Buffalo that evening. We met up with everybody over at Mom & Gigi’s house that night and we enjoyed Pizza King pizzas and caught up with everyone. On Thursday morning, Ann was up early to go shopping with Sandy as they’ve done for twenty or so years now – except now that the Kmart is gone; they go to Rural King and Target. As Abby slept in, the boys and I went out and played football and walked in the early morning fog. We came back and watched the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade until lunch time. Ann made the green bean casserole and rolls as she does each year. Mom had been up since around midnight cooking this year. It was amazing as always – turkey, ham, “noonles & tadies,??? home made mac & cheese, sweet potatoes, pumpkin pie, pecan pie (my fave!), cherry pie, chocolate pie and much more – including a chocolate fountain so Luke could have his “ham cakes.??? Jamie even made dumplings – man I was stuffed!! I didn’t wait long to have a cold turkey sandwich during the Cowboys game! Speaking of which, the games were great this year, with the Cowboys pulling out a touch one on the last play of the game! Can you say division leader?? 😉 Matt had wresting practice that night. He wanted to work out at the Y in the morning, but it was closed of course. He was a pound over even after a good lunch. Jamie & I beat Ann & Sandy at euchre, Luke had fun spending a couple hours building Legos with Uncle Keith, we took our annual Owens grandkid Thanxmas photo and then everybody got together for a great Owens family picture. I think they turned out pretty good! It was good to talk to Rob, Mom & Dad B and Dad & Barb S as well.

We were all up early the next day. It was Black Friday, meaning Ann and Amy were heading out early for their annual all-day shopping excursion and this year was no exception. They were gone for about 16 hours or so. We dropped Matt off at the high school to catch the bus with his teammates as they were headed up to West Lafayette. Keith and Rosie went on up to Indy to visit with their good friends before heading home. I got the two little ones up and showered and we made our way up to see Matthew participate in the annual 2-day wrestling tourney at Harrison High School called the War on the Wabash. I got Matt a cool t-shirt as we bought our tickets and I’m glad I did as they quickly sold out. Luke and Bu did well for a few hours but eventually got bored and that meant it was harder to keep them from fighting incessantly. Matt did very well the first day, wresting until well after dark. He started off against Angola where he got a forfeit (1-0) then Harrison where he pinned his larger opponent in the 1st period (2-0) and then Fairhaven where he got another forfeit (3-0); Goshen where he eventually got pinned in the 3rd period by a very large and tough dude ranked in the top 25 in the state…and bloodied the larger boy’s nose for his trouble (3-1)! He ended his day against Columbus North where he got the fastest pin of the tourney, clocking in at 11 seconds!! He ended the day 4-1. Afterwards, we followed the buses over to the Hampton Inn, back in Lafayette. We got checked in, met up with Matt and headed for dinner at Dad Scheu’s tavern – Tom’s Parkside Deli. We had fun catching up with Dad and getting re-acclimated to the environment. I forgot how cool that old place was and how damn good the food is! Wow!! We started off with some fried green tomatoes, pickles and onion rings (even Luke was eating them – but he eventually started pulling the veggie out, giving it to Dad and eating the crispies! God, that homemade beer batter makes all the difference! Matt had the chicken sandwich and Bu stuck with the grilled cheese. Luke had my old standby, the double cheeseburger which he also shared with Matt and I (hands down the best burger I’ve had!). However, I had to go with what I knew – the house specialty…it was Friday night after all! I have to admit, Dad and his crew lived up to their slogan – coldest beer in town and best catfish around! Luke was enthralled with the raw catfish and really, really tried hard to bring a raw catfish home for Ann! LOL We had fun chatting with Dad, Luke liked getting the jukebox rocking and the kids were thrilled to play a few games of Ms. Pac-Man at his old, sit-down arcade game. However, Matt had a firm 9 pm curfew so we had to cut it short and head back to the Hampton. We dropped off Matt who made it back with 30 seconds to spare; meanwhile, the kids and I went to the pool where the kids had fun jumping in while I relaxed in the hot tub before finally calling it a night.

After a couple hours of sleep back at home, Ann made her way up to join us for the 2nd day of the tourney. We were awakened back at the hotel by her phone call, asking where we were. As it turned out, my phone alarm did not go off until I unlocked the damned thing – I’ll have to figure that out. As it was, we had to hurry up and pack everything up, jump in the shower and speed back across the river to the tourney. We were too late to catch Matthew’s first match of the day. Apparently, Matt went for a throw against the larger opponent and slipped, landing on his back where the guy stuck him, brining his tourney record to 4-2. Dad & Barb came in shortly after we did and stayed for the rest of the tourney also. It was cool to have them there! Matt really enjoyed it as well, though he admitted he wished he had better outcomes for them. The Pirates were shut out in the first matchup, which was against South Bend Riley (an old rival of mine, back in high school). The coaches ripped the team for lack of efforts except for Matt and his heavyweight teammate, Dillon, who is a senior. Because of those efforts, Matt was named a team captain and went out with Dillon the rest of the tourney for the captains’ meetings. Up next, the Pirates faced Lake Central where Matt faced Glenn “Big Dog??? Robinson (of Purdue basketball fame)’s son who is ranked in the top 5 in the state! Matt was obviously outmatched, but he gave it a go and actually had the man-child on his back at one point but couldn’t hold him and he ended getting pinned in the 1st period (4-3). Then it was on to face Prairie Heights where Matt was pinned in the 1st period by yet another gargantuan ranked in the top 25 in the state (4-4) and then ended with Hammond Gavit where he matched up against yet another veteran senior. It was as close match that Matt got screwed out of 3 points in the 1st period when the boy was hurt on a throw by Matt. Matt should’ve had an escape and takedown, but instead was given none and it honestly changed the complexion of the whole match. Much to his credit, Matthew was a good sport about it all – Matt nearly broke the kid’s shoulder but he was eventually able to continue but we fear that he felt sorry for the kid and it totally broke all of his momentum…and eventually got pinned late in the 3rd period on a terrible call – even Grandma Scheu was shouting at the refs, “Bologna!??? Matt had a shoulder up but still got called for a pin. He ended up 4-5 over the tourney. Matt had a lot of fun the 1st day but said the 2nd day was a little long and admitted he was gassed by 2nd period of his last match. Matt was obviously disappointed in his record for the weekend and I know he hates to lose – but honestly, this was the best experience he could have gained. Here he was, this little 15 year old boy going up against all these 18 year old senior men…pretty cool. It was AWESOME that he got to be captain and we are all so proud of his efforts that he showed this whole weekend, even with the odds stacked against him. In fact the only gripes I have about the weekend are with the referees – there has to be consistency (for example, a takedown can either occur outside the circle or it can’t – you can’t have it both ways – one time of which hurt Matt) and what is the deal with the 1 second pins?! What the hell ever happened to a three second count? That was ridiculous – wait until you see a couple of the pins on Matt and then look at the two that he got – it’s funny how one team has to hold a pin down longer than another. Overall, the 2011 War on the Wabash was an experience that we’ll never forget. Matt rode home with the boys and stopped at Golden Corral. I dumped the kids on Ann and drove home alone, enjoying a couple quiet hours. We had a quick supper and everyone fell asleep early that night – none faster than Matt who, I swear to God, walked in the door, dropped his bags on the floor, flopped on the couch and was asleep within 2 minutes…and didn’t get up until the next morning! I heard that Purdue won the Old Oaken Bucket, but I haven’t seen confirmation of that yet. We slept in on a rainy Sunday morning and lounged around the house all day, doing our weekly chores, watching football and Abby did her Science Fair project – basketball – in the rain. …her poor little brother didn’t stand a chance… The Colts almost pulled one off, losing by a touchdown in a game that went right down to the last minute.

Next up, we have several videos again this week, including four family ones from this week, including clips from the adventures described above:

Next up is our Waybac feature; again with some absolute gems this week! Leading off this week, we have my Grandmaw Brown’s elementary school graduation certificate. Looks like she graduated from Vine Elementary in Fountain County – just west of Tippecanoe (most likely near Attica, Mom?); next is a great find that just came to us yesterday. When Dad & Barb came to visit, they brought with them this old envelope with undeveloped film and some old papers. It seems that one of Aunt June’s uncles ran a photography studio and he was hired back on April 20, 1968 to shoot the wedding of Sandy Brown and Tom Scheumann. Anyhow, they were cleaning out some old storage areas and came across this envelope that had Dad’s name on it and they gave it to him. He in turn gave it to me. I was amazed at how vivid the colors were! Here these old negatives have sat dormant in an envelope in a box for almost 45 years and then I scanned them last night and was blow away at the colors and sharpness of the professional photography. I have no idea where the wedding was at but I do think I see the K of C in a couple of the later pictures. Mom, what church was this? There are about 65 total images from this new find – including the ones from today which show the envelope, the order form, a couple of cool old papers that showed orders for Granny, Aunt Judy, Aunt Sue, Aunt Mary Kaerner, Aunt June (then still a McKenzie) as well as Mom & Dad’s; the first few photos include a great one of Grandmaw, Grandpaw and Mom (sorry for the reverse negative – I will try to correct that in the future), Mom, Dad and the priest (OK Mom, do you remember THAT guy’s name?) and a lovely picture of Mom on her first wedding day – love your hair!! I wish Ann would wear hers like that! Then we have several from my baptism at St. Mary’s in Lafayette in December of ’68, including Granny, Grandpaw and the priest, Mom and I before the big shindig, Granny holding me in the church with Billy looking on; Mom walking out of the church with Grandpaw & Grandmaw Brown, Granny and Vicki; a great one of Granny holding me with Billy, Jackie and Vicki (most of her anyhow) nearby; and finally Granny Scheu, Grandpaw Brown and I during the big moment.

Next up we have a couple more from Vird and Belinda’s wedding. Mom, you never did give me a definite answer on a year for this event – ’72? That’s followed by one from my “good old days??? – my ninth birthday in October of ’77. I see a couple of my favorite childhood games – Breaking Point and Little Professor, along with “My eyes??? as Mom put on the back of the picture. Next up are some great ones of Mom with her buddies (I recognize Linda Workman) from work at the welfare office in November of ’77. Apparently they were having a wine party and comparing their asses. Some of the captions on the flipside of the pictures include, “Gail at party (from ‘behind’)???, “Linda & Sandy at wine party after a “few??? tastes???, “Linda, Gail & Cindy from work at wine party??? and “Linda & Gail.??? That is followed by my favorite picture from this week from 1977 out at Aunt Norma & Uncle Ralph’s house. Mom’s quote on the back reads, “My grandma Morgan & her four great-grandchildren – Wendy, Steven, Brent & Tommy.??? I hope that someone else took pictures when Mom did and got a better one without the flash in the mirror!

Next up we have several more from Mom & Dad B’s honeymoon cruise in ’78 – Mom, in that one, it looks like there is someone standing out on that rock! I assume that one is from inside your cabin? Next are a few from Rob’s baby book (Robby, you’ll have to get that from me sometime!), including the hospital in Hollywood where he was born in ’79 and our home at the end of the cul-de-sac in Temple City. This is also likely ’79 or ’80 as the fence is up and the house has been landscaped and cleaned up. It was a mess when we moved in, back in ’78. Our last photo this week is a sweet one of little Robby in front of our Christmas tree on Rockwood St in December of ’84 when he was five years old.

And that puts a wrap on this week’s entry. Thanks for keeping up with us again this week and we’ll catch up with you next time. Until then, have a good one.
Later, Scheu