What a busy week it’s been for the Scheu family. If you don’t like the Indiana weather; just wait 20 minutes! We’ve seen temps from the 30’s to the upper 80’s; we’ve had beautiful sunny days and we’ve had severe thunderstorms. On Monday, we hit the ground running. I left early to pick up Luke and go to Matt’s track meet, hosting Rushville. As it would turn out; this would be his last meet. He was disappointed in himself as he again failed to neither match nor surpass his personal bests in shot put or discus. He was ready for track to be over about two weeks ago when baseball season began. I remember the drain that concurrent sports have on you as a student athlete. Matt has expressed his intent to forego track next year as well. Mom related a story to me about how I had to give up track; but it was due to the damage it was doing to my knees. After getting my right knee drained for the fourth time, the doctor gave me an ultimatum. Something had to go – track or wrestling…and I chose to stay with wrestling. As she does each week, Grandma took Abby over to her dance classes at Dixon Dance studio. She only has one more week left until her year-end dance revue, which will debut two new dances, in which she is involved. Luke and I had to leave the meet early and rush over to the ball diamonds for Luke’s first game. They easily defeated the Indians but Lukey went 0-3 that night and couldn’t get any balls, defensively, at pitcher. He was bummed and wanted to quit; but obviously we encouraged him to hang in there and keep practicing, which he thankfully bought…Ann picked up Abby, grabbed take out and met Luke & I at Matt’s baseball game. Matt went 2-2 with a couple singles; one of which he tried to stretch to a double but was called out (even though he swears he was safe). He did not get any balls hit to him in the outfield. Unfortunately, his team lost that night, 8-3.
Tuesday was crazy. At work, we had another round of corporate visitors, facilitating a mock Joint Commission survey. This kept us on edge all day and the next. That evening, I picked up Lukey and went to vote in the local primary. It amazes me that the ladies that volunteer each year know my name. Luke enjoyed learning how to vote with me and had a million questions. We left there and picked up the other kids at Mom & Sandy’s house. Abby had softball practice that I helped facilitate. She has developed a really bad habit of half-swinging at balls. I made a deal with her to go out for ice cream if she would swing correctly and make solid contact – which she finally did! The girls are getting better but still have a long way to go. Ann took Matt to baseball practice at the Men’s softball fields; however after practicing for about an hour, a team representative from Franklin Co. showed up and told us that we had a game…now! So all the boys rode over to the ball diamonds – many of them still in their shorts (which they paid for each time they had to slide into a base during the game). I tell you; they looked like the Bad News Bears out there. Bu & I met up with Luke and Ann. As has become a time-honored tradition, we grabbed Gigi a Polar Pop and took it to her at the courthouse, where she was busy covering the election outcomes. She was thrilled to see us again this year. I think this might have been the first year for us to deliver her soda without Matt! Ann and Luke went on home and made popcorn for American Idol. Abby & I went out for ice cream at Dairy Point which was surprisingly very busy. We ate our cones while we watched Matt for a while. He struck out twice, unfortunately. He played 3rd base, center field and left field. He had a chance at one ball, but it was absolutely smashed and soared way over his head. I brought Abby back a little later, during the game so she could eat and get to bed and headed back out to the ball diamonds, where Matt’s Yankees got beaten pretty badly by one of the visiting teams from South Dearborn – after hanging close for most of the game. Matt & I didn’t get home until late, which made it tough for him to get up the next day…
Wednesday was fabulous as we ‘enjoyed’ the second day (and my 5th in 8 days) of corporate mock survey at work. These folks are a team dedicated to going around to our facilities and prepping them for Joint Commission surveys. Needless to say, I have an enormously long list of things to work on before we are due for our next round of regulatory compliance inspections. That night, Ann took Abby & Matt over to Brookville for yet another ball game for Matt (yes; that makes it back-to-back-to-back games for him!). He played several positions that night, including 1st base, outfield and even helped coach at first base. He went 0-3 for the game but the team won. He was pretty down on himself, despite hitting the ball hard in his first at-bat. I wasn’t able to attend, due to helping coach at Luke’s game at virtually the same time. So Luke and I came home after work/school and mowed before heading back out to the ball diamonds. The Mets were fired up and we came right out of the gait, scoring 10 runs in the first two innings with only 1 out between both innings (there is a 5-run mercy rule per inning in this league – until the last…which would burn us this night). Luke did much better, going 2-3 with an RBI single and a double that saw a teammate thrown out at the plate due to watching the play instead of running at full speed. We led the entire game until the last inning. They hit 3 homeruns in the last inning and scored 9 runs. We also saw the wheels come off the train in the last game. That probably has something to do with our age, experience and maturity level and should improve as the season progresses. Luke made a nice play on one ball that got him his first assist of the year (he was VERY excited afterwards)! He earned ice cream for hitting it to the grass, so we hit Wendy’s for a couple frostys and then on to McDonald’s for Hot Wheels Happy Meals! ??? We were thrilled to watch the Reds come from behind in extra innings to pull their record up to the .500 mark, move in to 2nd place in the NL Central (over Grandpaw’s Cubbies) and to within 4 games of those evil Cardinals. Go Redlegs!! The elementary kids brought home spring pictures. I hate that they do it this way; they don’t give you the opportunity to say yes or no to taking the pictures; they just do it, send home the results and then you can say yes or no….well we find it so hard to not get them; which is probably what they’re banking on. But I’m not sure why they do spring pictures when they already do fall pictures!
On Thursday, JT brought my weed eater back in to work after having it at home for service over the past week. Ann dropped me off with Luke and went to go pick up the Pacifica. As it turned out, the part was only $200 instead of $700 and the brake job was covered under warranty; so it was nice to get some “good??? news. Luke and I proceeded to load up the truck as soon as we got home and headed over to Mom & Sandy’s house to mow and trim (it needed it really bad). The trimmer ran better than it had in nearly a year – thanks Jim! We finished up there only to come home and cut and trim the front yard before it got dark. By the time Friday rolled around, we were ready for the weekend. Abby had a practice game out at the ball diamonds and Luke had a game right after her. During Bu’s practice, Matt was supposed to have a practice at the batting cages but his coach cancelled it due to the threat of sever thunderstorms. Ann took Matt & the Dukester out there anyhow since we have a buttload of tokens left over from our last visit. He played pitcher again, though he again seemed lost at times and would eventually be moved to left centerfield by game’s end. He did have one assist but had several other chances. He also slumped badly at-bat, going 0-3. Ann & I think he was tired from going to the batting cages. Coach’s pitching didn’t help things much either… We had a big lead that went away in the final inning and we lost again in dramatic fashion. Thankfully, Ann made popcorn and Matt & I watched Doctor Who episodes until we fell asleep in the play room.
Even though it is now just a silent movie, this was a great gem that surfaced this week. Quite a find of previously unseen Zeppelin lip-syncing to You Shook Me in Germany during ’69:
We had big plans for Saturday. But as the severe weather from overnight moved out, it left in its wake winter-like conditions that made being outside nearly unbearable. Abby had a softball game in the morning and it was so cold that it felt more like a football game. Many people had blankets and winter coats. I wished I had more than my sweatshirt and hood! The temperature was in the forties and there were sustained winds of 25 mph with gusts up to 40 mph! Abby played very, very well in her debut game – going 2 for 2 with a double that I somehow didn’t get on video. Defensively, she played 1st base, 2nd base and catcher, catching balls thrown to her and even a pop up! The girls played great the entire game…until the last inning (sound like a pattern for this week?). They were down by 1 run going in to the last inning. They had to questionable calls in that final inning – both at 2nd base. One was when we should’ve had an out that wasn’t called – could’ve gone either way, but was probably the right call. The other was when we had gal make it to 2nd but was called out – that one was even closer and was probably the wrong call. Those two calls cost us 2 runs. Heart-breaking-ly, we lost by 1… After the game, Ann took Bu out to Dixon Dance for a three hour class and her second-to-last class of the year. She returned with her dance pictures – which were great!! I took the boys out for ice cream from their successes from this week (both having doubles – well Matt almost had a double). I still owe Bu another cone this coming week for her great work both offensively and defensively. Ann & I both crashed on the couch after lunch. We went over to Columbus to get haircuts for all the boys. Luke’s hair looked so good that I asked for her to do mine like his and before I knew it my hair was shorter than it’s been since junior high! We took Ann out for Mother’s Day but forgot to make reservations. Johnny Corino’s was an hour wait; Red Lobster 45, so we headed over to Riviera Maya where we knew we could walk right in. It wasn’t exactly what I would call a proper Mom’s Day meal; but we were hungry and it did the job. On Sunday, we gave Ann her flowers the kids had done on their own but decided not to go to Hatton’s nursery for her annual flowers for out front due to it being way too cold to work outside – at least during the morning and the first part of the afternoon. By the time it finally warmed up, we were totally out of the mood. I still need to try and get the grass cut behind the fence, but again it was too darn cold today. That grass is supposed to be cut by our neighbor, but I guess he changed his mind this year. I may have to weed eat it first and then cut it. I was so pissed at myself when only Ann received her flowers this week. When I double-checked why Mom, Maryann & Sandy hadn’t received theirs, I found that I had the wrong date on the other three and won’t be delivered until NEXT Friday…God, what an idiot. So, I had to call everyone and eat some humble pie this morning. For dinner, Mom and Sandy came over after spending the afternoon with Deanna, Grace & Jamie…and meeting Jamie’s mom. Ann made spaghetti and garlic bread, her 7-layer salad and a very good fruit pizza dessert. Ann gave Maryann and Gigi a couple of Vera Bradley items from last week’s trip – Mom a purse and Sandy a netbook shoulder bag. They were thrilled! The kids played outside for several hours, especially towards the end of the day. Luke rode his 4-wheeler and played with Molly for the longest time; Matt & Luke played Nerf guns around the yard and Luke & Abby played wiffleball in the front yard until bedtime. Here are a couple video clips from this week. I had to break it in to two videos due to it being too big for YouTube:
Let’s take a look at our Waybac feature for this week. Leading off, we have Keith in ’67 with the world’s largest lollipop; Keith’s school picture in September of about ’74; the Morgan family reunion at the Newtown Church on November 11, 1974; my 1st Communion party in our living room in Lafayette with Mom; and Ann in her school picture from September of about 1978.
Next we have Grandpaw Brown with his mustache in March of ’79; Grandpaw “Roberta??? Brown, Robby & Grandmaw Brown during one of their visits in the summer of ’83 in our dining room in LaPorte during a euchre game; a couple pictures of our birthday party with Rob, Nathan and I in our LaPorte living room in October of about ’84; and Grandma Owens, Ethel and Martha in Ann’s dining room in approximately ’85 (maybe Keith’s grad party?).
The last few are Ann with Grandma Owens and Stacy in her house in August of ’91; Keith & Rosie’s kitty, Molly way back in about ’93; Rob & I on a great evening in Columbus in September of 1995 (before the 2nd keg arrived); Matt & I in Mom & Dad’s basement in Rossville over Thanksgiving of ’96; Mom O & Matt in her dining room here in Greensburg in December of 1996 (Matt loved that little electronic display of her’s); and Dad B with Mr Shaffer & Mr. Ray at Three Springs in AL in about ’97.
Well that’s it for this edition of the Scheu Family Blog. Thanks for keeping up with us and we’ll catch up with you next time. Until then, have a good one.
Later, Scheu