Cold Comfort for Change

It’s been a strange week for us…one of changes. Monday was a downer as I headed back to work after our two week vacation. Ann was still nursing her heel so she took an extra day to stay home with the kiddos for their last day of vacation. I was amazed at how bad the water damage to our facility actually was – pictures don’t do it justice. It is a mess. I am very thankful for my guys who came in and were able to handle things and allow me time away. I guess the other staff that were there at the time also really stepped up and helped out as well, for which I am also grateful. I received my first quote from the restoration company but noted a few items that were either missing or with which I disagreed. They wanted to shampoo that old carpeting in the offices instead of replacing it. That really doesn’t fly with me and I told that to the insurance adjuster who also visited us. I called my old friend Dennis and his new company to come in and give us a quote as well. That evening, Abby had Matthew help her out with her science fair stuff and vice versa. They are both again doing variations on the earthquake scenario with a shake board. Matt & I watched yet another bowl game (is it bad that I can’t remember which one? Maybe it was the Sugar Bowl…).

On Tuesday, both the kids and Ann went back to their normal routines as well. Luke swore he had another week off…boy was he disappointed. Ann toughed it out at work but sure was sore by the time we got home. Abby made dinner, which consisted of our regular Tuesday menu of popcorn. Her mother has taught her well. There was yet another bowl game on that night that I fell asleep watching it on the couch at halftime. We were all pretty worn out that night and none of the kids gave us any flack about heading to bed that night.
On Wednesday, the semester grades came out and we were very happy with the outcomes. This was Luke’s first report card and he got 2 A’s and 2 B’s, including an A+ in Spelling. He was excited to receive a dollar for each A. Abby was disappointed that even though she aced her final exam in math with a perfect score, she still received a B+. To compound the disappointment, she had been led to believe from her teacher that with a perfect score on the math test, she would earn an A-. Either way, we are very proud of her accomplishments! She wasn’t as thrilled with the $1 per A as her little brother, knowing she lost out on a 20-spot by a percentage point. Then we get to Matthew….oh Matthew – how he does it, we don’t know… As you may remember, he had pulled his old trick by forgetting to turn in some important assignments early in the grading period, putting him way behind and also in jeopardy of being ineligible for wrestling because it was so bad. He kicked it in and really did great in both Science and English and pulled out C’s in both those classes somehow. I’m not sure how to polish a turd, but I’ll have to ask my oldest son. He also had 3 A’s and 2 B’s, for a GPA just under 3 for the semester. …not his best work, but it could’ve been a whole lot worse. I just hope to God he FINALLY learned his lesson. I guess time will tell. Ann went to her follow-up doctor’s appointment and drove for the first time since her surgery. Everything looked great and she was grateful to get a new dressing and boot on her foot since they were so blood-stained. The doctor was happy with her progress and she’ll have another f/u appt in two weeks. Dennis came in to the facility and took me out to lunch to talk shop. He surveyed the damage and will submit a bid through his new company. Matt was paranoid that evening because he was close on weight and had a meet the next day. I finally convinced him to eat some pasta that evening and to just eat some fruit in the morning. Purdue beat Penn St that evening on TV to bring their ranking up to 10th in the nation!! Matt brought home his wrestling pictures that night; man has he grown… Also I pulled off a great picture of my cousin Katie and her daughter Reese from her Facebook page.

On Thursday, the weather changed as the temps took a nose dive and the snow returned. Lukey was excited about the forecast, which called for 2-3 inches by Saturday morning, meaning he could possibly ride his new sled! We also started a little different morning routine as Jamie began taking Gracie to school, making it much easier on Deanna & MaryAnn who have to come all the way across town to drop her off early in the morning before going all the way back to work at the schools on the other side of town. I headed in to work early as my new corporate boss was meeting me at the facility around 8:30 and I wanted time to make sure the place was looking nice for him. I had no sooner gotten to work than I had several people come up to me and say they had been overhead paging me for some time now. About that time, JT came up and told me that I had left my cell phone at home. I hadn’t done that in years, but didn’t think too much of it; but he said that was only part of it…that Ann had been trying to get a hold of me for a half hour, since Matt locked the keys in her car after starting it! Thankfully, Matt had his house key so they weren’t stranded outside but they did have to wait for me to come all the way back to Greensburg to unlock it. The little kids were on time for the bus (miraculously!) and Gma came and got Matt. By the time I got home, my cell was buzzing and it was work saying that Anthony (my corporate guy) was there and looking for me. He was really nice about it and although we started a little late, it was a good day. Dennis also came in and the three of us went out for lunch, looked at the water damage and made sure that we had all appropriate documentation in my EOC books. On the way home, the roads were really sloppy and the car was jumping each time it hit some snow or ice so I had to go pretty slow. Abby went to tap class and Lukey and I ran errands.
On Friday, it snowed off and on most of the day and became really cold with some nasty wind chills. While I was meeting with Dennis & Anthony again, we were informed that the Joint Commission would be coming in a month earlier than we believed, moving up our time table to prepare to that of an emergency status. The guys tell me that we shouldn’t have any problems, but I’m a little overwhelmed with all that we need to get accomplished in such a short time. It’s gonna be a really busy week and a half, man. Luke started feeling bad, complaining about his throat and actually fell asleep at Grandma & Gigi’s house after school for a couple hours – very unusual for him. When he came home, he pretty much napped and lounged on the couch the whole evening. We have all been sharing that bug. I went through a Z pack last week, as has Matt for the same thing. Ann started all of this and Abby has had a couple dramatic moments with tears due to not feeling well…but little Lukey seems to be sick when it’s convenient and he’s such a story teller that it’s hard to tell when he’s being honest. However the tears were a dead give away that he was having issues one way or another. I know my throat has been pretty soar lately but I just attributed that to nasal drainage and snoaring – which probably has to do more with all the weight I’ve gained over the past 6 weeks than anything else…ah, I love the holidays but they don’t like my waistline very well!
We were up very early on Saturday morning to get Matt out to the high school. There was a couple inches of snow on the ground so I shoveled us out real quick. I had forgotten that I “gorked??? my elbow – as Ann called it – but it reminded me quickly while I was shoveling. It is still pretty sore at times but I think it is getting better. If it is still hurting after Ann gets back on her feet, I might get it looked at. Matt attended the varsity wrestling invitational in Centerville. He wasn’t sure he would even have any matches, since it was a varsity meet. The plan was for him to go there and get more information before I travelled an hour and half in the 2 inches of snow we had received overnight. So I waited and texted and called but never received any other information. Finally I head something about 10:30 – that he had just finished wrestling that is! I was so upset that I’d missed his match and was angry with myself for not going on ahead up to the meet. Although it wasn’t actually a varsity match per say, it was an exhibition at a varsity match, which was equally as good for him. He won his match by pinning his opponent in the first period! He had no idea that he even had a match until after the regular meet had ended. He wouldn’t know if he had any others either until after the other matches either, so I went ahead and took the plunge and headed north and west to Centerville, which is near Richmond on the Ohio border. The roads were awful. There was not only snow and ice but slush and lots and lots of wet roads that saw me use up most of a gallon of wiper fluid on the trip up. I got there around noon and congratulated him. He did not have a match in the second round. I had missed the first two rounds, but there were three more chances for him to have a match. As it turned out, of course, he did not have any other matches the rest of the day. I spoke with one of the coaches’ daughters who is the manager (it is actually Terry & Christy’s daughter, Heather – Christy is the mother of Luke’s best friend, Alex, and the kids’ former sitter). Sure enough, they had taped his match and she said she would likely be able to get a copy for me…so we’ll see… Anyhow, his victory came at 189 lbs – he made weight easily this time. It was against Union City. The varsity team went 2-3 on the day, I believe, and demolished the host team. In fact, their coach told the players that they may not be invited back as they were only asked to come to help pad their player’s records. Little did they know that the they’d be destroyed by the Pirates! OMG, you should see the van! Matt’s comment when I picked him up that night: “What in the world happened, Dad???? LOL

As soon as I learned that Matt wouldn’t be having any other action on the day, I headed home since Lukey wanted to go sledding with his new sled/boogie board. It was a much smoother ride home and I cut my time in half, getting home in just over an hour. I hadn’t been up to that part of the state in many, many years – since I was borrowing my fraternity brother, Chad Close’s 3-speed car each weekend to go pick up or visit the gal I was dating at the time – which lasted about a year or so before the travelling got to be too much. While I was gone, Ann took Abby to the high school for her first basketball practice, which she loved. She said a bunch of her friends are also playing, so she felt right at home. Lukey was a little whiney early in the day and Ann contemplated taking him to the doctor’s office due to his somatic complaints of his head feeling bad, “My head is burbling??? and having overall body aches the previous night. That day, however, he had napped a little and was feeling a lot better (with the help of his friend ibuprofen). Abby & I woke him from his nap and we headed down to the park to hit the snow hill. The snow wasn’t quite enough to cover the ground completely – but it was good enough for us. Luke was funny by covering up his face when going down the hill. I asked him why he was doing it and he replied he didn’t have a ski mask. …and when I asked him what that had to do with the price of beans in China and he said he didn’t want to get snow blown up in his face. …hmm, makes sense I guess… The new sled was tough at first – we had forgotten to remove a piece of Styrofoam taped to the bottom as well as a sticker on the base. Once they were removed, it was good to go. The hill was actually pretty fast and the kids flirted with going all the way in to the stream. It became a goal eventually. The snow pack wasn’t very thick as I said and at the bottom of the hill, the acorns had gathered which made a strange noise when the kids rode over them and really hurt if you wipe out on top of them! The kids had several trips down the hill and we stayed out for about an hour or so, culminating with both kids reaching the stream. Abby got the furthest, reaching a small island in the middle, near the “rapids.??? 😉 But it was Luke that actually got wet. He got soaked in fact. He was never in any danger, but did get really wet, meaning (as I had warned) it was time to leave. They were both so excited to reach the water…reminded me of Mike & I over at Lilly Lake when we lived across from each other on Kenwood St., up in LaPorte. We came home and put Luke in the shower right away and Abby made hot chocolate.
Later, I picked up Matt and surprised him by not going home, but showing up at Wally World to help me do the family shopping. It was…um…interesting to say the least. We made several phone calls home to clarify items on the list and ended up having to purchase a pen (well, we opened a pen and used it first before paying for it) to mark off all the things on our list – which was three pages long! We finished up after about an hour or so and brought home all the booty…and Ann had the nerve to ask why there were five bags of chips…so I told her that if I was doing the shopping, I would get some of the stuff I wanted and less of those damn frozen veggies. I said at least this way, all the food would be eaten! LOL We were shocked to catch the end of the Saints game and saw them go down at the hands of the Seahawks who were the first team to get in the NFL playoffs with a losing record…which set the table for what we saw happen next as the Colts fought and scratched and actually had the lead with a minute to play, only to see it slip away in a series of mishaps that lead to them pulling a one and done, ending their season at the hands of the Jets on the last play of the game. However, as Tony Dungie pointed out afterwards, the Colts wouldn’t have been in that position if they had converted their final third down on their last possession. On top of that, the kick off team let them down again, allowing a 50 yard return. Next, not only could the defense not make a big play nor stop the Jets, but to top it off, Coach Caldwell of the Colts called a time out which allowed New York to basically run anything they wanted since they had a time out left – which turned out to be a 20-yard play that gave their kicker a chip shot and seal the Colts’ fate. So, each part of the team lost that game – offense, special teams, defense and coaching staff – all made mistakes that attributed to the loss – in the last minute of the game. Luke, Abby & I all fell asleep on the couches eventually that night.

We finally got to sleep in on Sunday. The kids and I cleaned up the house all morning and then I took them out for ice cream after lunch and naps for all their help that day. We chilled out all day, watching football and napping. We were happy to watch a new Simpsons, Family Guy and Cleveland Show on Fox. Here is this week’s video, along with a few other fun ones as well, including several new video that surfaced from the Black Country Communion tour that opened at the end of last year (including a cover of one of my favorite Zep songs…I hope they come around here – I would love to take Matt to go see them), a couple of newly unearthed early Def Lep videos with Pete & Steve on guitar (the best era of the band IMHO) and a new take on a classic topic – that of the 3 Wolf 1 Moon t-shirt…if you haven’t read the reviews on Amazon, you owe it to yourself to go to their website and search for it; you won’t regret it…it’s become a cult classic. Of course, as always, if you are viewing this blog via the feed on Facebook, you won’t see this next section. To view the blog in its intended environment, go to our home page at www.scheumann.us and click on the blog link:

Time to take a look at our Waybac pictures for the week… Leading off, we have a couple from Dad O’s slide collection in the 1950’s: the high school marching band on the then high school football field and two crops of a great old picture of Ann’s Grandma & Grandpa Owens in front of their home – unfortunately the scan I made of it is backwards; next we move on to a couple of great finds by Ann on Facebook. She’s recently took the plunge in to the world of Facebook and has reconnected with all her old friends…one the best parts of this is seeing all the old pictures that people post and here we have two crops each of a couple of old newspaper clippings from the Greensburg Daily News: the first is from 1978 and features Ann, Deanna and their cousins among others from their church in their new choir attire and then a large group shot of the junior high band from 1984 that features Ann and several of her friends; we close this section with an old picture of Keith all dressed up and ready for prom in approximately 1984.

Next up, with have Robby at his first communion in LaPorte in 1989…Mom, is that Father Vrabley – is that correct(?)…in that picture in the St. Pete’s church…I remember he liked to talk about eating Twinkies – Lord I hope that wasn’t an analogy! …LOL…no that’s bad of me; I take that back because he was really nice to all of us kids; Then later in the summer, we have some great pictures from the Wisconsin vacation with Aunt Dorothy, Uncle Timmie, Trudi & Homey, Uncle Kenny & his sister as well as Aunt Marilou; looks like the fish were hitting but I love the look on Robby’s face – I think one of them touched his hand! 😉 Looks like it was Grandpa’s & Trudi’s birthdays, so Mom, what month would this put these pictures in? It is possible I have two years’ worth of pictures in this batch, but it’s hard to tell…

Next we move to the nineties and start off with a few of Mom & Dad B with Rob down in Alabama during a camping trip…I wonder if they could sleep in that tent nowadays – I doubt I could do it for long; then we have several of Matt from 1997 around the Fourth of July while we were living on Main St, including him with his mower, in the city parade with Gma & Gigi, playing with his Legos, wanting to get out the front door and just hanging out with his shirt off in the living room; then we have a couple of nice family photos – Aunt Dorothy & Uncle Timmie’s 50th Anniversary photo in November of ’97 and Brett & Tammie with Austin and Leela in a Christmas picture of the same year; then on to May of ’98 for the Sand Pebble crew shot; The Smith family shot in October of ’98 at Mom & Dad B’s new house on the hill in Rossville, on the back porch – looks to be shortly after Nathan earned a spot on the force; then a couple of the old house from earlier in the year – Dad taking a nap in an unusual location and a front view of the dream house; then Rob’s high school graduation party and cake – all at the new house, I believe.

Next we move on to the Disney vacation in May of ’99 including meeting Mickey; the plane ride down; breakfast with Pooh and Pals; and Matt with his Peter pan hat while we were waiting in line to ride the next attraction; and then Matt & I on a ride in the summer of 2000 at Holiday World – I believe we were with Grandma & Gigi (who had scored tickets for us) on this misadventure – and I believe we eventually got rained out. There were heavy downpours and the parking lot was flooded. Matt hated thunderstorms at the time and was freaking out so we made a run for it, getting soaked. Mom and the others stayed back with Abby, trying to keep dry in the stores that were now packed with all the people trying to take refuge. Matt got so upset by the storm that he threw up just outside the van. We were so wet; soaked to the bone. I wore only my underwear all the way back home (about three hours away). Mom O ended up changing her clothes in the van. We were laughing so hard when she left a bare butt print on the passenger window in the back! It is still there as I refuse to wash the inside of that window!! 😉 Man, that was a great time… Wrapping it up, we end with Bu’s fourth birthday party at our new house on Russell Dr in September of 2003 – look at that old RCA TV of Grandpaw Brown’s! She was so sweet when she was little…

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