He’s Riding on a Razor’s Edge

We’ve put another week in our rearview mirror already. The days and weeks are just flying by for us. Things continue to be very busy for both Ann and I at work and the kids are keeping busy with their school studies and extracurricular activities. We have received several of our Christmas gifts through the mail and FedEx already as Ann got started earlier this year. She was so proud to already have her and Amy’s “Hideous Head Gear??? ready for Black Friday, although I don’t know how well she’ll be able to get around that day…judging by the way she’s gotten around the house this week, she’ll need a Rascal to get through. She has a pronounced limp as she needs surgery again – this time on the other foot – for the same issue she had a year or so ago. I have been on her butt to get it done this year since she’s in so much pain and besides, we’ve already met our stop loss for insurance this year. Last Sunday, we turned our clocks back an hour in observance of Daylight Savings Time. I can’t remember if this is now the “old??? time we used to be on, but I know I’ve had a much easier time getting to bed and getting up in the mornings…as have the kids. Ann…well she can pretty much sleep all the time if we allow her. LOL! Last Sunday was a rough weekend for my sports teams as Gordon was wrecked (purposely on a caution lap!?) and got in to a fight. It officially ended his run at his fifth championship (dropping him to 5th in the standings). The wild thing was that his pit crew swapped with the #48 crew during the race…and then later on they made it a permanent change for the rest of the silly season. The Cowboys were absolutely embarrassed on Sunday Night Football during a nationally broadcasted game – this time by the Packers. It is blatantly obvious that the players have stopped playing at this point…except for Dez Bryant (their one bright spot this season)…and it’s time for Wade to go and get Jason the chance he should’ve gotten four years ago…and then the Colts lost a tough one 26-24 and Austin Collie was knocked out – like something out of a UFC fight – he got all stiff and stuff…but thankfully it was merely a concussion so he’ll be back in a game or two…but how ‘bout that Jacob Tamme?? Give Payton Manning Joe Blow and he’ll be an All-Pro by year’s end! On Monday, Matt went back to wrestling practice and Abby went to jazz dance practice. The weather was really nice – as it was all week, really. It got warmer and warmer as each day progressed. However, it is an adjustment to drive to and from work with the headlights on – the sun comes up on my way in and it sets on my home. That night, Jerry Jones made it official when he finally let his buddy Wade Phillips go and did; indeed, promote Jason Garrett to Head Coach in Dallas. Let’s see now if he can get the players to actually play again, as least for pride’s sake. Luke had basketball practice that night. Abby and I walked the track upstairs during practice. Luke’s team actually worked on the pick and roll play for most of the time! Matt had wrestling practice of course and then Ann attended his parents meeting afterward. Ann made cheesy popcorn for dinner that night! We were enjoying it on the couch when we heard a blood curdling scream from the bathroom where Luke was showering. We hurried back to find Luke clutching his finger with blood in the shower and down his arm. Luke was unintelligible when we were trying to figure out what happened, because he was so upset. We finally figured out it was his finger that was bleeding. I put pressure on the wound to get it to stop bleeding. Once he got calmed down and dried off, we could see that the tip of his finger had been shredded. So we bandaged it and tried to piece together the sequence of events that led up to his injury. He is such a trickster and has been known to tell a whopper or two, so it was a bit unclear what happened. Initially, he first said he wanted to see how sharp Ann’s razor was and then he said he wanted to see how many hairs were in her razor before finally admitting that he was shaving his arms because “(he doesn’t) like the way the little hairs feel.??? …I hope he’s just practicing to be a swimmer and not something else… No, but seriously, he is so curious of the world around him…and so smart…too smart for his own good, in fact – if we can keep him alive through his teens, it’ll be a miracle!

On Wednesday, the weather was just lovely! We hit the low seventies and just missed a record high temp. Besides Matt wrestling, the other big thing was the city street department scraping up the road out in our neighborhood. We had dust everywhere. I thought the van, truck and house was dirty beforehand…ha! They are filthy now. What a mess. It was tight getting out of the subdivision, as heavy machinery and big trucks were lined up everywhere. They had it all finished by the time we got home that night. The kids were amazed and had to go ride bikes on it just to say they had…on Thursday, Annie “worked??? late as she and the doctors took their office staff out for a very nice dinner up in Indy at Barcelona Tapas, a unique dining experience where you get small portions of several different entrees. Afterwards, they all went out for dessert and drinks at the Cheesecake Factory. So I picked up the kids at Mom & Sandy’s. Abby had just returned from tap dance practice and Matt was picked up by Mom. Dee cut Lukey’s hair and after some convincing with a decent back rub, she also cut mine! 🙂 All three of us boys sorely needed haircuts. Luke wanted to get a picture of us with our new ‘dos and his new favorite little buddy, Lucky Dog, which he had received as a gift from the YMCA on Tuesday. I thought he had taken three nice pictures…but I should’ve known…Luke and I also talked about what was special about today – it was Veteran’s Day – and what it meant. It was a pretty cool talk.

On Friday, we had to hurry out of the subdivision as they road crews began working shortly after seven on shutting it down for the day to put down new blacktop. The elementary kids got all dressed up for Crazy Day (a fund raiser for Riley Hospital). Luke spiked his hair and wore his Colts jersey backwards. Abby had her hair done half curly and half straightened and a mix of several outfits. Gracie also had mis-matched clothing and they all decided to have hats and New Years 2010 glasses to complete the ensemble. Eventually, the poor dogs got pulled in to the photo shoot. 😉 That evening, Ann had plans to scrapbooking but had trouble getting back in to get her gear from the house. She had to park in the back lot and come in through the backyard and only get a few basic materials. They didn’t end up finishing up until after five that evening. I picked up the kids at Mom & Gigi’s again. I heard a rumor that there may be some changes at the station, but Sandy wouldn’t substantiate anything for me. I visited with the girls and waited there for Matt to finish up before I took the kids out to eat at Mancino’s. It was really smelly outside, but was fine inside and they were packed! It was good to see them enjoying success. We were lucky to find a table and no one left hungry that night. We went home and the kids had to go check out the new street. We played several games on the Wii (especially Mario Kart) and then watched How to Train your Dragon before falling asleep on the couch (well, apparently I was the only one who fell asleep on the couch, but still…).

On Saturday, we were up early to get Lukey in to basketball picture day and then to play his second game of the season. They played Luke Hellmich’s team, although we didn’t see Phyllis & Dick. Ann did sit with Jamie though…and Gma was also in attendance. Luke was excited to guard his namesake for half a quarter. He got the start for the second straight game. He only took three shots the entire game and didn’t get any of them to tickle the twine unfortunately. He did have three steals, two assists (he at least passed the ball to his teammates…which was not the norm this game) and five rebounds. He again outhustled everyone on the court game. Again, although they don’t officially keep score, this was a close game about halfway through the second quarter…at which point, the black Honda team started to pull away from the blue BJ Trucking team. It wasn’t pretty in the 2nd half as they pulled away and won approximately 38-14, or thereabouts. Luke was a little disappointed to not make any baskets, but we encouraged him to work that much harder in practice on Tuesday and to work on his dribbling on Mr. Green’s basketball court, across the street. That afternoon, it was absolutely gorgeous so we played outside for a while, throwing and kicking the football before finishing up with our seasonal chores (winterizing the lawnmower, blower, weed eater and gas tanks), storing the bikes and Power Wheels away in the shed and cleaned up the garage so we could get to our Christmas stuff next weekend. It was a beautiful day that made it difficult to put away our summer stuff today. We cleaned off the pool cover with the leaf blower and mowed a couple parts of the lawn to run out the rest of the fuel in the tanks. Eventually, it began to cloud up and then rained the rest of the day and all night long. Once it became overcast, we came in and played for several hours on the Xbox 360, Wii, PlayStation 2 and Game Cube until well after dark. The Boilers looked much better today against Michigan in the wind and rain (and maybe a snow flake or two?). They eventually lost, but the defense looked much better…especially Ryan Kerrigan who had a couple sacks and ran amuck the entire afternoon, tying a couple of team records along the way. Like I said, they lost an ugly game that could’ve been won; but it was a step in the right direction. Ann played on the computer for several hours and finally opened up a Facebook account. She got a kick out of reconnecting with her old friends.

Saturday night was fun for Bu, as she went out with her friend Megan to her father’s second wedding and reception, here in town. Ann went and picked her up a few hours later. She had a blast and looked so grown up. On Sunday, we all gladly slept in and bummed around the house. It was much colder outside and the kids continued to play video games much of the day after completing their weekly chores. I enjoyed watching the Colts beat a tough Cincy team. I flipped over to the NASCAR race to see if Harvick could win in Phoenix. Although he didn’t get the win, he and Johnson both pulled closer to the cocky #11 team. I will be glad to see anyone besides them win the title this year; I can’t stand those pricks. He is nearly as bad as the #18 driver. When I knew Gordon wasn’t going to pull off a miracle win, I turned it off until the final 20 laps to see if anyone ran out of gas. It is cool that all there drivers are so close to each other in the points, including the closest 2nd place ever…should be a hell of a race to end the season next weekend. The highlight of the week, sports-wise, was the “new??? Cowboy team on in the evening. They played the Giants and looked much, much better. The defense wasn’t perfect, but did make some of the little plays like coming up to make an open field tackle on 3rd down to force a punt – I saw that on several occasions. It was bizarre when the lights went out during the 3rd quarter. Dez Bryant is such a spark on the team…and the Brady James tackle on 4th down was huge! The Cowboys won by two touchdowns in a wild game that has them going in the correct path finally. Now let’s see if Jason can build off this victory and put together a few wins…I suppose it’d be too much to ask that they go undefeated the rest of the season and make the playoffs with a 9-7 record, right? 😛

To wrap up the new stuff, here is this week’s video, along with several other new ones from Jason Bonham’s tour…and a couple of other fun things thrown in:
(Note: If you are reading this via the feed on Facebook, you won’t be able to see the videos, nor will the page be properly formatted)

We’ve got a bunch of pictures in the Waybac feature, so let’s get right to it…leading off, we have three more slides from Grandpa Owens’ collection: a marching band on a football field; a man sitting near a waterfall and a man on a pier on a lake. I have no idea of who is in these pictures; perhaps Maryann can shed some light??

Next we fast forward and bypass the sixties and seventies completely and go all the way to the end of the eighties: two from Robby playing Pop Warner football in approximately ’87…Rob, where did you guys play your games up there in LP?; Rob opening birthday presents in October of ’87 in our living room in his Mickey karate suit; and then a bunch of Christmas Day in ’87 in LaPorte on Rockwood St.…I must’ve stayed in Franklin or come later or maybe I’m still sleeping (???) because I don’t see myself in any of these pictures – I do see Mom, Dad, Rob (love those Chuck Norris jammies, buddy!!), Grandmaw & Grandpaw…and Peanut. Dad & Rob look thrilled at lunch! 😛

Next up, we have a whole section dedicated to 1989 – the Wisconsin vacation with Mom, Dad, Rob, Aunt Dorothy & Uncle Timmie…and Grandpaw, I think; also we have three of Rob’s birthday party with Mom, Dad & Grandpaw:

Now we move in to the mid nineties: Ally in her dining room in Westport, circa ’94 and several from our Rehearsal Dinner in September of ’95 at McCammit’s Steak House in Greensburg (now defunct and actually a Mexican restaurant) – attending was: Ann & I, Mom, Dad & Rob, Mom & Sandy, Dee & Chad, Keith & Rosie, Paul & Jennie, Mike & Laura and Stacy & Danny. That was a fun night…

We have several from 1997: starting in Three Springs – Mom on a ropes course in May, Rob & Mom in July and Rob & his graduation class in December. Then in Rossville for the Bryan Christmas – a very young Matthew (how cute is he with that Mickey doll – love Mom’s face too!), Ann & I, Mom, Dad & Rob, Sharon, Dan & Katie, Vird, Belinda & Deena Marie.

…and a few from ’98: Matt at his birthday party in our living room in the Main St house in March with Brayton & Ann; in April around Easter with Matt, Grandma, Grandpa and Rob in April in the same home and then with our young, happy family in December…

Finally, we have a bunch from the start of the new century: Abby at her birthday party in September of 2000, Abby at her next birthday party in 2001 with Mike & Laura and Gigi’s hand from the same party; Bu at the pumpkin patch by herself and with her bubby on a pony and Matt’s blue teeth – all in October of ’01; Matt, Bu & I at the Barnum & Bailey Circus a month later in November; Matt at pre school at the YMCA in late November o 2001 with his buddies, writing his name on the board and then swimming; Christmas Eve at the Baptist Church in ’01 with Matt & I up with Gigi, who was broadcasting the service over WTRE and then Christmas morning on Main St. in 2001 with Grandma & Grandpa Bryan, G-ma Owens & Gigi and Ann & I with a very happy Matthew…I can’t believe the grandparents would ruin such a nice picture – how immature!! 😛 I love it.

Well that does it for this edition of the Scheu Family Blog. Thanks as always for keeping up with us this time out and we’ll catch you up next time. Until then, have a good one.
Later, Scheu