Broken, Beat and Scarred…but we Die Hard

With the cold temperatures this week, it felt more like winter than autumn. In fact, winter officially arrived in Greensburg this week as the straw bails were installed on the sledding hill in the park! The kids are talking more about the holidays and the party plans are already starting to mount. This week it seemed like the days lasted longer…probably due to the lack of sunshine – I think I have seasonal affective disorder… As normal, we had plenty of things happening this week. On Monday, Bu returned to jazz dance at Dixon Dance Studio. I think she enjoys this one a little more than the tap dance class because it’s only a duo with one of her best friends, Baili. Ann had a long day due to upgrading to a new health management system called AllScripts. I picked up the kids at Mom & Sandy’s and hung for a while to catch up with them and Aunt Linda, who was there visiting. We enjoyed some “Gigi snacks??? – which is always a treat for me…not quite Gigi’s Gourmet, but good enough! The boys ate up the leftover homemade sliders that Ann had made on Sunday. I’m not sure what she put in them, but they were delectable! I’m not much of an avocado fan, but the green sauce she made for them was the bomb. Lukey was funny when he talked about his tummy hurting and then went on to describe his “nervous poops.??? LOL! Lucas also came home with a new centerpiece for Thanksgiving. We now have three turkeys to set on our table – one from each kiddo. The Purdue men’s basketball team opened the season ranked at #14 and looked good…too bad the Hummel isn’t there to join the other seniors for their final year. I assume he will go ahead and graduate to the NBA after the year? Matt & I tried to watch MNF, but we turned it off midway through the first quarter when Mike Vick went off against the Redskins. I loved watching Washington get their butts whipped. Vick was absolutely incredible and unstoppable, throwing for over 300 yards and 4 TD’s and then running for 80 yards and scoring another two with his feet in a blowout 59-28. On Tuesday, Lukey had basketball practice. Bu came with me, as usual. She wasn’t able to walk the track with me as much since she had homework to do up in the lounge. I knocked off a little early since she completed her math and then we played ping pong, which she had been bugging me about for a couple weeks now. We hurried back home afterwards to where Ann and Matt had been cooking a surprise dinner for Mom. It was Gma’s 72nd birthday and we had Gigi, Dee, Jamie and Gracie over. Ann & Matt made spaghetti & meatballs, garlic bread and 7-layer salad. Deanna made cheesecakes – 1 regular and 1 pumpkin pie…which was my favorite! It was a nice rendition of the birthday song…not! It wasn’t quite as bad as mine, but was just as much fun.

Wednesday was a nice quiet evening. We came home and took it easy, had some popcorn and fell asleep on the couch getting caught up on our DVR’ed programs. We also watched Purdue’s 2nd game of the year, which they won easily as the 9th ranked team in the nation. It was good to see some of the scrubs getting some action, including the local boys, Bubba Day (from Harrison) and Dru Anthrop (from Mom’s alma mater, Central Catholic). On Thursday, we headed out to the elementary school after work to attend Abby’s Family Fun Night. This one was a pretty cool, unlike a few in the past. We started in the science lab and did some brain teasers, broken down by individual families. We did fairly well, but didn’t get a couple of the problems. Next, we went to the gym for the musical portion of the evening and to have snacks. Instead of the kids taking their usual place on the stage however, they were circled in the center of the room. In front of each chair sat a unique African percussion instrument. Abby finally loosened up and began to have some fun once she got in to it. She played a few different instruments, keeping a good rhythm. Afterwards, Luke got in to the action and got a chance to play one of the big drums, which he thought was pretty cool. We came home and had pizza and looked at the kids’ midterm grades. Abby again led the pack with all A’s – except one B+ in math; followed by Lukey with all A’s & B’s…and bringing up the rear again was Matt. He dug himself in a bit of a hole the first half of this grading period, it seems. We were disappointed to learn that he allowed himself to fall back in to old, bad habits of not turning in all his assignments. We’ve had to take a few proactive measures at home to help get him back in shape so he can continue with sports. Academics must come first and if that means no extracurricular activities, then so be it. He’s got time to bring the grades up, but he’s got a lot of work to do…

We woke up Friday to a bitterly cold morning. We had to let the cars warm up for almost 20 minutes due to the ice on the windshields. I swear it must’ve been a full moon that day…the kids were off the chain at work. It felt more like a Monday than a Friday. Ann went scrapbooking at Mrs. B’s that afternoon and late in to the evening. I called and made an appointment with Acra’s to get the Pacifica in for an oil change and see if they can figure out why it’s burning oil. It’s not real bad at this point, but we’re hoping to nip it in the bud. Matt & I ended up running over to see Ann and put a quart of oil in the car to get us by. Abby and Gracie enjoyed staying the night with Gma & Gigi. They had big plans to go out to eat, catch a movie and bake some cookies. Ann and I are hoping for frosted sugar cookies!! Matt was a pound over weight after practice ended, so eat very lightly – just a small ball of spaghetti and an apple. He even hopped on the treadmill for about an hour. He was a little nervous about his first wrestling meet the next morning and went to bed early. Luke loved it because he got to stay up later (his game is at noon tomorrow) and he got to sleep in the playroom. Morning came early on Saturday – too early, in fact and we ended up getting a late start. We didn’t even have time to let the car warm up and had to dig the ice scraper out of the garage real quick (the first time this year) and run him over to the high school to catch the bus by a quarter to six. I came back home and got my stuff together and picked up a few supplies at Wally World (where I was fortunate enough to open a fresh case of Hot Wheels and get my hands on my 3rd Trea$ure Hunt of the year!!) before making the long trek down to Charlestown High School for a JV 6-team tourney. Thick fog permeated the air, which made for slower travel. Thankfully it began burning off and lifting as the sun rose during my journey. It was a pretty easy route – 70 miles straight down Hwy 3. Google Maps said it would be about an hour and 45 minutes, but I made it in a little less than 70 minutes – even with the fog. Thankfully, there was zero traffic – I think I saw maybe 15 or 20 cars the entire ride. I did see some interesting sites including a car on a pole about 30 feet in the air! 😛 Ann didn’t make the trip because Luke had a basketball game at the YMCA at noon. We gave text updates to each other. Matt ended up weighing in .3 – yes, that’s three tenths – of a pound over. This fact, coupled with two other boys in his weight class, caused him to bump up to the 215 class, essentially giving up about 25 lbs to the other wrestlers. We had talked about this occurrence last night and about the opportunity to get more mat time if he were to bump up. He was a little apprehensive about giving up that much weight, and with good reason – as evidenced by the results of that choice at last year’s year-end tourney when he went heavyweight and incurred his only two losses of his career. When he was lined up with the other boys in his class, he looked like Sprout in the Valley of the Giants, a boy among men. But the kid has the heart of a champion and can be fierce when he’s on his game. Unfortunately he got psyched out in his first match and came out flat in the early match, which was against Floyd Central. He was overwhelmed by his opponent’s strength and leverage. At his own weight, Matt likely has an advantage in that department, but not against kids this size. He was methodically taken down, turned and pinned at the end of the first period. Both the coach and I talked to him and encouraged him to get angry – to get an attitude – and to use his speed to his advantage…not to rely on brute strength alone. His 2nd match was against Perry Meridian. He was again the smaller man in this match as well. However, after an initial feeling out period, Matt stuffed the guy’s shot and used a move he called the “Bulldog??? to slam him on his back and cover him up for a pin. Usually when Matt gets someone on their back, he’s very good at finishing his opponent. That was the case in this match as Matthew finished him at the 46 second mark of the first period. He was very excited and really needed that for a confidence boost. His third match was against New Albany. This guy was huge. Matt was in the right frame of mind and didn’t appear intimidated as he came right out at him at the whistle. He again used his “Bulldog??? move and quickly had the giant on his back and pinned 15 seconds in to the match!!! He was pretty pumped up at that point. As the grapplers completed this third round, the announcement came across that they were cancelling the fifth round (they had guaranteed only four matches) and the next one would be the last. Because several teams didn’t field complete rosters (ours included), Matt’s final match came rather quickly since some weight classes had no other round robin matches available. Matt underestimated his final opponent – a guy he should’ve beaten – and ended up getting out pointed, 8-1. He was pretty upset with himself for not taking it to this kid and knew what he had done. Overall, not a bad day for bumping up to the next class, but I could tell he was disappointed to start the year off with a .500 record after last year’s undefeated regular season. Still, this is only his second season and is still learning. I think he’s gonna be just fine this year. I would be interested to know if the kids he faced today were his age or upperclassmen…

Meanwhile, Lukey was playing basketball back at the Y. Only six teammates showed up for his game, so he got plenty of minutes on the court! Ann said he was a very good teammate and did as the coach had been asking, making good passes and really concentrating more on being a good dribbler. His two coaches didn’t show for the game either, so that made it tough on the kids as well. Lukey went (approximately) 0-7 from the field in the shots he did take but was a good sport and made us proud. He had a couple assists, a couple rebounds and a few steals. My thanks to Abby for the video clips… When I got home, the kids were playing Wii with Annie. Lukey went for a walk with me and Ann went to pick up Matt when he finally got home. As she went to pick Matt up at the high school, she also dropped Abby off at a birthday party for her twin friends. While they were gone, Luke and I started carrying in Christmas boxes from the garage. We ended up setting up the tree but waited until Sunday to put on the lights & ornaments. We saw where the Boilers played good enough to win but ultimately chocked up another one in the loss column and are now officially ineligible for bowl play. Ann made a big pot of chili that was the perfect seasonal dinner tonight. Although it had warmed up to the lower sixties when I came out of the wrestling meet, it was in the lower forties by the time we started working out in the garage. Ann’s chili was just the thing to warm us up on a cold night…that and our bed warmers. We had planned to watch Charlie Brown Thanksgiving, but due to behavioral issues with Luke & Bu, we had to watch it the following night and we sent the kids to bed so Ann & I caught up on our DVR viewing. Matt was pooped and went to bed early. On Sunday, he was pretty sore and didn’t have much of an energy level. We did our weekly chores and decorated the Christmas tree. I’ll have pictures and video next week. The Cowboys won big today. Jeff’s car blew up, but at least Johnson won and Hamlin didn’t…5 championships in a row is a very special accomplishment. the Colts & Patriots game was epic as always, but the Colts couldn’t stop the run and Peyton’s receivers were too inexperienced and it was glaringly obvious at the end of the game when the receiver misread the defense and didn’t cut off his route, causing an interception and ending Indy’s day. The attitudes of these younger kiddos have to change!! I actually lost track of how many times each one was sent to time out or simply back their room today. I don’t know if it’s the excitement of the season, lack of sleep or what…but something has to give – they’re driving Ann & I crazy. The funniest thing today was Abby’s temper tantrum when she was just spouting off and then told us, out of the blue, she didn’t spill any of her chili (still not sure why she even told us that)…anyhow, it came out sounding, “I didn’t spill my jelly!??? We got the biggest kick out of that all afternoon and had to tease her about incessantly because she deserved it for making us have to deal with the pouting, screaming and stomping. We broke a couple of our ornaments again this year. It seems each year one of our precious family heirlooms bites the dust. This year, Abby accidentally dropped an old ornament and destroyed it. She was so upset that we couldn’t even talk with her. She ended up being sent to her room. She has had a short fuse lately…I guess our family meeting last month needs to be reinforced. We’re going to try early bedtimes for 2 weeks to see if it helps at all. Its official – every single light in our tree is now malfunctioning. It is a trend Ann pointed out – we’ve seen with our GE products – every light on our tree won’t light…our washer has sporadic issues with draining…the dryer cracked on the top and the handle broke off…oh and – our microwave is done. We’ve tried unplugging it to reset the board, but it’s not working again. That hindered us making food all day long today. We’ll have to run to Lowe’s this week and see if we can find something Ann likes…but you can bet your ass it won’t be a GE product.

Here are this week’s videos:

Here is a special gift for Grandma Owens…Happy Thanksgiving!!:

Next, let’s flip over to the Waybac machine. Leading off, we have three from Dean’s slide collection, circa 1956: Graduation Day with Dad O and a friend (MaryAnn, who is this?); another picture from the Indy 500 and a really cool picture of a man and a boy with what appears to be an old Edsel out at a lake (MaryAnn, do you recognize this location?); then one Aunt Shar sent to me of her and Dan at Halloween in Kokomo in 1981; a Brown Family Reunion in about ’85 in Rossville, out at Kenny & Marilou’s house; three crops of a cool older picture of a Thanksgiving lunch in LaPorte with Grandmaw & Grandpaw Brown, Dad B and Rob & I (I love the look I’m giving Rob – typical of that era!!); then Rob & I in the living room with Christmas presents (Rob loved footie jammies…I wonder if Sharon bought him any for Christmas THIS year??).

Next we have several from a Bryan Family Christmas, this time in 1987 (I think) at Vird & Belinda’s home in Indy: Sharon & Dan on the couch, the kids in front of the tree, Rob (cool shirt, buddy!) w/ Aunt Sharon, Mom & Vird on the floor with Robby and with Nathan; Grandmaw Brown in our kitchen a few days later; Rob & Dad B at Easter in ’88 (I wonder if that fit inside his basket??); and then several from the 1988 Bryan Family Christmas, this time at Dan & Sharon’s in Kokomo: Vird, Belinda and a very young Dena Marie, Dan/Sharon/Nathan/Katie, Mom, Dad & Rob and then the three siblings.

Now we fast forward to 1989 for a slew of photos: Dad & Rob out front making a snowman on Rockwood St., Rob & Dad showing off their catch of the day during the Wisconsin vacation at White Birch Village (and no, I didn’t cut Dad’s head off…that’s the whole, original scan and then several pictures of Christmas Day with Grandpaw, Mom, Dad, Rob & I (taken by Christine, I think); also included is a picture of Mom & her gals…likely from later than ’89, but it was in with this batch of Christmas pictures – I’d say circa ’94(?); and Bryan Christmas picture of Mom, Dad & Rob in their first home in Rossville.

We have a bunch from 1997 Christmas morning in our first Greensburg home with Matt and one of his all-time favorite toys from his early years; Matt with Grandma & Grandpa B in March of ’98 (Ann & I LOVE the one of him with Grandma where he’s covering his mouth (such a happy child!).

Closing this section is Christmas morning in 2000 in the Main St home with Grandma & Grandpa B; a day or two later with Mike, Laura & Pace; Bu’s birthday in our living room in 2002 with Ab, Grace & myself; a then the last few from Aunt Shar – Thanksgiving in 2005: Rob solo and then with Mom & Dad in their 2nd Rossville home and Jaicie playing soccer in September of this year.

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