The weather really turned on us this week. The temps were regularly below normal and we saw our first hard frost on the windows in the morning…Black Betty even had a low tire pressure warning one morning. We had to turn the heat back on, use our bed warmer and wear several layers at Luke’s football game. Matt had another rough week of teaching at Zionsville West middle school. He struggled with some car issues but also went to a couple sporting events with me this week. Abby had a long week of college classes at FC but is feeling much better now. She enjoyed spending some time with Ann a few days this week. Luke had a cold week of football practices after school. He played in his first Sectional championship this week, which was very exciting. Ann continues to make tremendous progress with her knees rehab. She is walking up and down stairs and sat higher than she has in many years at the varsity football game this week. She enjoyed spending time with friends and kids this week. I did as well, seeing my guy friends and seeing all the kids – which makes any week complete. I fell short of my exercise goal, getting in only 12 ½ miles of walking during the cold snap we endured. I managed to lose about eight pounds but my compliance with the keto diet was about 50/50 this week. Molly had another good week with only one accident. She joined us out front to “help??? rake leaves and did great. Overall, it was a really good week that went super-fast. We had a lot of fun and made some lasting memories this week. Hello again and welcome to the latest edition of the Scheu Family Blog.
We had a chilly start to the week on Monday in the upper 30s – our butt warmers were on in the Pacifica that morning! It was a busy day for Ann & I. It was a day of putting out fires and dealing with people and their issues…so it was another typical Monday. The day went fast then I walked a 5K on a nice evening. It sprinkled on and off and was getting dark by the time I finished my walk. I noticed the headlights came on during our commute home. That night, I scanned a new batch of miscellaneous pictures – including a couple school-age photo albums from Ann and then a big batch that included our wedding, reception and honeymoon pictures. I watched the Cowboys win on MNF and Ann made cheesy popcorn for dinner. Ann promptly fell asleep after eating and slept in her chair the whole night. Luke went to Oak’s house after school and football. They studied for their big Chemistry test then he came back and hung out with us before turning in for the night. Here are pictures of Luke’s varsity football game last week.
Tuesday was a cold, rainy Election Day. Ann & I were up early to vote before work at the Knights of St. John Hall. We both had better days that again went very fast. I walked three miles after work. We stopped at Walmart on the way home to get kielbasa and a ton of green beans for the team dinner this week. It was dark by the time we got home and all the bad drivers were on the road. Luke had a good day at school and then went on to a cold football practice. He said they focused on the offensive scheme, where they worked on a new scheme. It has trips, but they have a pair of tight ends and a snifferback, so he’s hoping to get some playing time. It could be interesting if they use it this Friday. He came home shortly after we did and we ran a drink out to Gigi, who was broadcasting live at the courthouse as the returns came in. We had to keep the streak alive! She was actually surprised since she knew how busy Lucas is these days. Marsh ended up winning the mayor’s race over the incumbent Manus that evening. There was one other race and then two other unopposed offices up for election. Matt had another rough day of teaching special ed at the middle school. He had lots of stories to tell Ann that evening. He also held his first wresting practice. He said he had about 40 kids come out for the team! Good luck, Coach!! He said it was a nice change of pace to work with kids that didn’t have special needs. And we were thrilled to hear that Ms. Taylor was accepted into the U Indy grad school!!!
We had a cold start to our Wednesday in the mid-30s – brrr! Ann & I had good days at work. Justin, Vic, Michelle & I went to lunch at Chicago’s which made the day go fast. I walked a 5K after work then picked up Ann early so she could have a girls’ night out with her friends. They had planned to go out of town, but instead ended up at BWR. Luke had school then a gruelingly cold football practice where they focused on the defense. Hopefully they can figure out a way to prevent the Tigers from scoring six TDs on them again… The Pirates are playing the best football they have all year, so let’s hope that trend continues. They need to win the turnover battle as well if they want to win the Sectional championship. It’s so awesome that they are still playing in November…but with it comes some challenges. Besides the colder weather, there is the lack of daylight due to the time change. Since the practice field doesn’t have lights, they’ve been out on the game field. That means they’ve been tearing it up. We’ll have to see what kind of condition it’s in come Friday night… Luke went over to Gma’s house for dinner and to spend time with her & Gigi. Afterward, he ran around town with his buddies until late. That left me with a nice, quiet evening alone with just the dogs. Here are random pictures of our recent adventures.
We endured another cold, wet start to our Thursday…and it just got colder as the day went on. It was another fast day for Ann & I. I was only able to get in about two miles of walking on a day so cold that it could’ve snowed – right at 30 degrees! I really should’ve walked at the mall, but I didn’t have enough time as we left early so Ann could finish up her green beans that she started cooking in a couple crock pots for the team dinner. Luke had a fast day of school and then went to a cold football practice before meeting us out at the Lowe’s house where Shawn had prepared nearly 40 lbs. of smoked meatloaf! It was amazing and I even got to bring some home for a weekend snack. ???? There was a nice spread of cheesy potatoes, Ann’s green beans, mashed potatoes, a tub of rolls, dirt pudding, fruit, cookies…man it was nice! The boys enjoyed pigging-out and then did some team-building stuff with Kristy, outside by the bonfire. It was a neat evening. The adults enjoyed a smooth Apple Pie cocktail during the event, which helped keep us warm outdoors. I dropped Ann off at home, ran to the store and then drove back out to the Lowe’s Farm for Poker Night. Bryan & Rick joined Alan, Shawn & I for a boys’ night out. Bob couldn’t make it due to a volleyball event. It was a typical night of tasty food, good spirits and cards while we watched a close football game. Rick was the big wiener that night…glad we could donate to his Maui fund! LOL
It was a frigid Friday morning, down in the teens with frost on the car windshields. Luke was up and out the door early to go have breakfast with his teammates before school. He had a good day of classes then ran around with his teammates before having to be back at the high school. The game was pushed back a half hour, so they had a little extra time to burn. Ann & I had fast days at work. Justin, Vic & I went to Big JT’s for lunch. It’s a new smokehouse on the east side of town that was nothing special but had outstanding food. Justin got the brisket; Vic had the pulled pork nachos and I had the Mother Clucker – a spicy chicken breast. We got back just in time for me to pick up Ann and head home after her office closed in the early afternoon. We ran a couple errands and then came home where Ann got in a good nap and I worked from home, getting things ready for inventory next week. Before we knew it, it was time to get ready for the big football game. It took us about a half hour to get suited up. I believe Ann had six layers on her upper body! I wasn’t far behind with four myself! I should’ve gotten a picture because we were quite the site! We had coats and hats, gloves and scarves, blankets and boots – it was awesome! We had quite the crowd, all huddled together with Ann & I – Matt, Abby & Garrett, Mom & Sandy, Shawn, Ally & Becky, Aaron & Kristie, Bob & Pam as well as JD & Anita. The game, unfortunately, was less than awesome. We started out great, stopping them on the opening drive then putting together a strong drive of our own that bogged down at the 20 and then missed the field goal. We then gave up a long touchdown pass and the wheels completely came off the wagon. You could see the energy get sapped from the players as well as the discouraging body language of the coaches. Later in the half, we were down 14 and had a tough choice – either punt on a 4th and long or try and go for it with a little over a minute left. We went for it and did not make it. That gave the Tigers a short field, which they converted into another score to go up by three touchdowns before the break…and we truly never recovered. Besides our pass defense, our inability to have a passing game was equally huge. These are easily the biggest reasons we lost. They regularly stacked the box with 7 and 8 defenders, making our running game futile. Unfortunately, Luke played only special teams for whatever reason – starting on the kickoff return, punt return, punt and FG/PAT team. It wasn’t much field time and he was a little disappointed afterwards. The final score was 14-35. We packed up and went to the car, trying to warm-up before heading over to Wings & Rings. No one could feel their toes by the time we left. We took all the kids as well as Garrett and Aaron Black (who both rode down with Abby from school) out for dinner. Matt & I tried the Sam Adams Winter Ale with our wings and it were pretty good. After dinner, we said our good-byes to all the kids – Matt went back to Greenwood, Abby & the boys headed back to Franklin and Luke went out to spend the night at Oakley’s house. Ann & I came home and Ann told me to go on to bed. She said that since I was falling asleep at dinner, I was going to fall asleep and said she didn’t want to hear me snoring to Ancient Aliens. I insisted that I was fine…just before I fell asleep at the first commercial break! ???? Sorry, babe… We have lots of social media pictures to share this week.
Ann was up early on Saturday morning as Amy & Baili picked her up and headed to Columbus. They met Abby at Ann’s office and then the girls set off on a day of early Christmas shopping. Luke came home from Oak’s with Brayden and they went out and bagged the leaves out front with me. They raked up our leaves in Mr. Green’s yard as well. Most of the leaves are off of the trees. Although we got like a dozen bags’ worth, we will have to rake again next weekend. Luke & Brayden ran around all day then he went out to stay the night with Brody at Lake Santee. After the boys left, I checked fluids in the cars and then got cleaned-up. I called Matt and woke him up before heading up to his apartment. We took his new car to get an oil change. They told us it would be about an hour, so we walked next door to Buffalo Wild Wings for a beer and wings while we waited. We watched the end of the Purdue football game, which they won! We were hoping that was a good omen for that night’s game. We picked up Matt’s car and headed up to West Lafayette. Matt had surprised me last night with tickets to the Purdue basketball game vs. Texas. The #23 Boilermakers won their season opener earlier this week vs. Green Bay (coached by former Boiler and Painter’s teammate, Linc Darner). Matt’s car had some issues during the drive. He said it has been getting worse. I believe it to be a transmission issue. He thinks that it should be paid for as part of a recall, so he’s trying to get it in the shop to get repaired. He’s still waiting on his official license plate as well. The car did great on the interstate; it was just the stop and go part of driving that it had issues. We got into town early and were going to stop by Mom’s grave, but there was heavy road construction in front of the St. Boniface graveyard and the entrance was impossible to get to. We went on to the westside and got a primo parking space, right next to Mackey Arena since we were a couple hours early. We waited with some other kids for a just a few minutes before they opened the doors early for us. We enjoyed walking around and looking at all the cool stuff they have on display in the hallway while enjoying a couple Boiler Gold ales. We eventually went in to find our seats and realized that he had been sold two separate tickets – one was a reserved seat in the student section and one was a general admission ticket…and there were no adjoining seats left. So, we sat in a section that didn’t have anyone in it to watch warm-ups, hoping that no one would show up. For about an hour, we thought we would be fine…however, everyone started filing in during the last 15 minutes before tip-off and the arena completely filled-up and looked to be sold-out. We had to move seats like five times before we finally found a couple where the folks didn’t show up, thankfully. We were relieved to make it to halftime, figuring we were probably in the clear! We enjoyed some Arni’s pizzas and copious amounts of Boiler Golds. As for the game itself, it was closely contested and went right down to the last few seconds. In the end, the Boilers missed too many easy buckets, turned the ball over too many times and the Longhorns held on to win. We had a good talk on the ride back. We said good-byes then I headed on home and Matt went to Taylor’s for the night. I came home and resumed my position on the couch – sleeping with the dogs until the middle of the night… We Here are pictures of the recent additions to my Hot Wheels collection.
With Luke being out of the house again that night, the dogs struggled overnight. After letting the girls out late in the middle of the night when I came to bed, Ann ended up having to let them out again a couple hours later. When she came to bed, she let the dogs join us in hopes of them settling down. But a couple hours later, Molly started nipping at my hands and I got up and let them out again. I cleaned-up a couple accidents and just decided to stay up and get to work early on the blog. I watched some MMA and NASCAR before Ann got up and we got to our weekly household chores. I made some eggs & bacon and watched a classic episode of Star Trek on MeTV, which has become the norm. I spoke to Rob and it looks like he & Sharon will be joining us for Thanksgiving weekend this year! But that won’t be the biggest surprise guest for the holiday… We watched the new episodes of Magnum PI, Blue Bloods & SVU before flipping over to watch some football. There were some fantastic finishes to the games today, including the Colts – who lost another heartbreaker after Captain Clutch missed another extra point. And there was a fun one in Green Bay in the snow and cold. Meanwhile, Luke was gone all day. He went to Martinsville (Spec Ops) but it was closed-down so they went to their other facility in Edinburgh as he and Brody played air soft all day. He said he had a great time. He came in and talked with Ann & I while we watched the Cowboys on SNF. It was a great way to wind down the weekend and wrap-up another great week.
Next up is our first look at our newest batch of Waybac photos. These came from a couple of random photo albums, some loose stuff we had laying around as well as our wedding album and reception / honeymoon album. We lead off this week with a few from Ann’s summer church camp in Lake Forrest Ranch in Georgia, circa 1985; next we see Dee at the Owens home on Main St, circa 1985 also; then we have my lovely bride on her wedding day and several from our reception later that night in September 1995; next we have some great pictures of the kids at Christy’s house in 2002; that’s followed by a Christmas party photo of my co-workers and I in December 2004 and then Abby’s school picture in September 2011.
And finally, we have our video segment, which features one new home movie this week as well as several from around the internet.
And that does it for this week’s episode 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