We’ve had another busy week here at the Scheu abode. During my walks this week, I noticed a few things – like the first flock of geese migrating south, a ton of baby crickets everywhere, the first few wooly-worms crossing the streets and sidewalks, the corn & beans in the fields are done growing and are now starting to dry out and the cicadas are all but gone suddenly with lots of their discarded shells on the ground. Matt stayed up at school all week. Abby had a busy week of soccer, lots of dancing, worked a couple times and was involved in her school activities. Luke was back to his two-sport life. Ann continued to rehab her knees. I was able to walk each day after work. We had torrential downpours, flash-flooding and a heat wave. Hello again and welcome back to the Scheu Family Blog.
We had the day off from work/school on Monday for Labor Day. Abby had soccer practice in the morning and then went out with friends for lunch. Afterwards she worked 2nd shift at BWR and didn’t get home until pretty late. Luke & I did our weekly household chores. We closed up the house due to the heat & humidity returning to our area. We spent the day relaxing in the A/C – watching NASCAR, movies, & college football on the couches, enjoying leftovers and taking a nap to cap off a nice 4-day weekend to unofficially end our summer. Here are some random pictures from this week.
It was back to work / school on Tuesday. Abby was in early for Student Council. She left school early to drive to Columbus for a doctor appointment…only to have it cancelled once she got to Ann’s work. Luke had football practice and was very tired, sore and whiney…we wonder if he got dehydrated. It was really nasty outside that afternoon. He came home, fell asleep early and was out all night. Gma stayed with him till we got home that night because, “He’s still my baby.??? …oh boy does he have her snookered… Meanwhile, Ann & I left work and drove to Abby’s soccer game in Seymour after I walked 2 ½ miles. She played the entire JV game, which they lost 0-5 on very hot/humid afternoon. She (and the team, honestly) looked tired out there. After the sun went down, the varsity took the field and it was MUCH cooler. That sun was so hot. Unfortunately, she played only about 10 minutes of varsity but looked 100% different, hustling and making good plays for her team. They still lost 1-4, sadly. Man, what an awesome field they have – it is quite possibly the best soccer field I’ve ever seen – they have nice artificial turf, very bright lights, great bleacher seating, tall fences to keep balls in and a private parking lot. However the turf did make for some unusual bounces of the ball with weird English on it…as well as cause unnecessary injuries to knees and ankles.
Wednesday saw more of that hot/humid weather. I had a good workout of about 3 miles after work. Abby had another doctor appointment. She had lots of tests run on her and has many more coming up for the poor child to see if we can figure out this whole headache thing, which continued to plague her the entire week again. I give her credit for being a trooper and trying to carry on with her normal routine. Luke had football practice and Abby had soccer practice. Later, Ann & Bu went to the college fair at the high school and then on to jazz class at Dixon Studios.
On Thursday, Abby went in early for Pirateers practice. We endured more of that hot, nasty, humid and unstable air – which eventually blew in some nasty storms. I was able to walk a couple miles again after work and before I left for Luke’s football game at Indian Creek in Trafalgar. Due to the impending storms, Abby’s soccer game at Brookville was cancelled, so she was finally able to attend her tap class for the first time this year. Ann drove separately since I continue to tape both the 7th and 8th grade games and upload them to Hudl for the kids and staff. It rained pretty hard on the way to the game. It rained pretty hard during the game. But it rained even harder on our way home. Bryan couldn’t make it and Ann sat on the visitor’s side while I was in and eventually on top of the press box to tape. We watched the 7th grade boys work hard for 13 minutes in both halves…only to let the Braves score TD’s inside of a minute left in both halves. The young Pirates lost a game that was much closer than the score showed – 0-14. This loss evens their record at 3-3 on the year. The team missed Shack, who is out for the season with a broken arm (riding dirt bikes with Drew). The defense was vulnerable against sweeps and pass plays – areas he would usually anchor for us. The coaches and players will need to have someone step up next game which is against a fast North Decatur team. Luke was a little off that night as was most of the team. For most of them, I think this was the first time playing in a hard rain like this, with such a slippery and sloppy field. Ann sat with Megan, who came out to support Luke, and then she went home after the 7th graders finished. I stuck around to tape the 8th graders when the skies really opened up. I was on top of the press box for most of the night – it was cooler up there but rainier. Luke’s stats: On offense he played fullback and halfback. He rushed 3 times for 16 yards with 1 fumble on a bad handoff. He had decent blocking. It looked better on tape than it did live. Defensively had played outside linebacker, recording 5 tackles, 2 hurries, 1 tipped ball, a fumble recovery (his own) and should’ve had a “Strip 6??? but the refs blew the whistle way to quick to stop the play. On special teams, his opening kickoff went 40 yards but it was his only kick. Luke & Drew stayed with me and sat out in the rain during the 8th grade game. Afterwards, with the rain really coming down, we crammed ourselves, all their nasty gear and all our other stuff in to Betty White. The drive home was crazy. We were cramped, the lights were dim, the windshield wouldn’t defrost, it was pouring, I took a country route home that I didn’t know, the boys were absolutely soaked on my cloth seats – not that you can hurt that truck – but we made the best of it. We grabbed food at McDonald’s and allowed the storm to pass…but man that ride was something the boys and I will talk about for years to come. We laughed so much. The seats are still wet as I write this today! When we finally got to town, a flash flood warning went off and we were placed on a Code Orange travel advisory (only absolutely necessary travel). I-74 was closed with stranded motorists in flooded areas! The water on Main St was up to the bottom of the truck door by 5/3 bank where we saw a man get out of his stalled car and wade over to Speedway. There were several other high spots, which caused us to take over an hour and a half to get back to town. The truck started to stall a couple times but managed to somehow keep going and we got Drew home where Bryan & I were going to watch the NFL’s first game of the year. Unfortunately it was raining so hard, the satellite couldn’t pick up the signal! So Luke & I came home. By that time, he had already stripped down to his underwear for the ride home. When we finally made it home – we got everything off, threw it all in the washer and got cleaned up ourselves. By morning, we had everything dry again – what a night! I was pretty wired after the long drive and I stayed up late and uploaded the game video to Hudl. As I was doing in it, I received notification that the fire alarm was going off at work, so I called the Charge Nurse. The fire and police departments showed up but everything was safe. My right-hand man, Philip, was able to go in and get everything back in working order. I owe him lunch next week! With all the rain we got, our roof leaked and we think it must’ve shorted out the system. I stayed up while he was there, working on the system. We finally got it all online about 2 am and I turned in for a couple hours.
Friday morning came way too soon. After school, Luke had football practice and Abby went to soccer. I walked 3 miles after a long day at work. Annie got her 3rd and final shot in knee. Abby had more tests run on her that afternoon. We all met up at home and went out for dinner and a margarita at ElRep. Abby invited Kirk as well. We saw Megan’s parents, Julie & John, who were there to celebrate their other daughter’s (Mallory) 21st birthday. We sent her a shot of Patron, snakebite-style and enjoyed a nice dinner. Afterwards, Bu went out on a date with Kirk while we came home and fell asleep early, worn out from the short but intense week. We ordered Luke’s school pictures this week, which I thought turned out pretty good as usual.
Abby was up early on Saturday for breakfast with coworkers before going to meetings and then working 1st shift. Neither Luke nor Bu had practice that day. Ann went scrapbooking with Shawna. Luke & I worked outside for several hours, doing our weekly vehicle PM, planting flowers for Ann, and mowing/trimming the yards. It was Toxiway Day, which is held twice a year. It allows home owners to properly dispose of stuff that the trash guys won’t pick up at the curb. So we loaded up the Betty White with a couple dozen old paint cans, 4 old PCs, our old bedroom TV, as well as Luke’s go-kart and my treadmill – both of which have bad motors – and headed to the fairgrounds. We actually tried to scrap both the go-kart & treadmill, but as luck would have it we got there 30 seconds after noon and the woman said they were closed. Rather than taking it home, we just went on to the fairgrounds. The volunteers were very nice and were working hard. We ran a couple errands and grabbed takeout so we could come home and watch the end of the Purdue game. That game got ugly and the Boilers need to figure it out quick before conference play starts in a couple weeks. We got home just before it started storming again. It came down hard for a couple hours. Later, Abby & Ann went out with Mary & her mom Kristie to a drive in movie theater for a double feature of horror movies – at least that’s what they said they were doing…instead they went out for dinner and went shopping – typical girls! Luke & I rearranged the family room a little and I think it looks a lot better out there (though it obviously needs remodeled). We grabbed takeout and watched college football & a couple movies on the big screen. After the big storm rolled through earlier, it really cooled off and we got to open up the house again. Hopefully we can keep it open for a while and get a break from all this heat.
We finally got to sleep in on Sunday morning. It was the 15th anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks. There were several specials on TV that morning and they still make me cry every time I watch them. Those images are still so gut-wrenching to me. We did our weekly household chores and watched NFL all day. Abby went in to work and got home in the late afternoon. Luke had basketball practice at the Junior High that evening. And Ann FINALLY got her nap in! :0) That night, Abby had Mary over and they had a couple guy friends over for a while. Ann ordered pizza for the kids but then they didn’t eat much of it, so I know what we’re having for dinner the next couple nights… We have lots of new social media pictures to share: Bu and friends; Smith cousins; more Bu & Pirateers; Bu & friends; Scheu cousins; Momma Drake; Chris’ boys; the Heatherson’s; Slicers off to a good start; congrats to Heidi; Baker looking good in TX; misc pix; congrats to Tom and his crew for winning the NHRA Nationals up in Indy; Megan & Kimmy’s boys went back to school this week – at least someone still appreciates a long summer!; Calvin & Hobbes Sunday panel; recent tweets; and a throwback of Aunt June & Uncle John, circa ’65.
Next up is our Waybac segment which features our next six photo albums of our young family. There are some great photos in these albums and today’s pictures are a good cross section of what I’m talking about – including some good ones of Mom. We lead off in Indy at the Brickyard 400 in August ’97; then Christmas in Greensburg in December ’98; Spring Break in Treasure Island & Orlando, FL in May ’99 at the Sand Pebble and Walt Disney World; then Matt’s 4th birthday party in Greensburg in March ’00; another party in Greensburg in July ’00; Abby’s 1st birthday in Greensburg in September ’00; Halloween festivities in Greensburg at the YMCA in October ’00; Christmas fun on Main St. in Greensburg in December ’00.
Finally, we have our video section which features five new home movies this week as well as several from around the internet.
And that does it for this week’s installment of the Scheu Family Blog. Thanks for keeping up with us this time out and we’ll catch up with you again next time. Until then, have a good one. We miss ya Mom.
Later, Scheu