I…Am…Iron…Man…

It was a week of changes for us as it seemed time and again we closed one chapter and opened a new one all week long. We put away the snow shovels and bucket of salt and opened up the house all week as the temps soared to near-record highs this week. Matt completed his winter wrestling with his sports banquet and announced that he would be doing spring wrestling (freestyle – something I never tried). Luke put an end to his winter sports with his final dual wrestling meet, the season-ending city tourney and the sports banquet only to have us sign him up for baseball the following day and he actually had his first all-star baseball practice this week. Abby is now doing track every day and is enjoying several different events – not sure which one(s) she will end up doing but she is trying a bunch of them. We changed time last Sunday when we “spring ahead.??? We have struggled all week with it as well. I know my body takes a while to adjust to this change. I do much better with the “fall behind??? portion of the year. The geese are migrating back north, the trees have buds and several flowers / bushes are in full bloom already. Mom & Sandy’s yard looks very pretty. Mom got her initial results back and in her own words, “It wasn’t the best of news but it is what it is…???
Last Sunday, Matt brought home four certificates and loads of kudos for his efforts this past wrestling season at their year-end awards banquet. Matt earned his first varsity letter and two special awards – the Iron Man Award for not missing even a single practice or any event with the team (The Iron Hammer now??) and the he also brought home the Most Improved Underclassman award!! He really could’ve / should’ve probably earned the overall Most Improved, but that went to a senior who honestly wasn’t as improved as Matt. Heck, Matt had to share JV duties last year with other teammates and this year he went to semi-state – are you kidding me? It’s pretty damn hard to get much more improvement than that! I thought he could’ve won the Most Valuable as well – it was his match where he injured his shoulder and fought through it and eventually won that match that his entire team rallied around him and actually won that meet and it turned around their season as a whole as they got better and better from that point forward. But I’m not the coach and I’m likely a little biased. It gives him something to shoot for next year too. We were so proud of his accomplishments this year and know that he is destined for even bigger things next year.

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Monday night was the final dual meet of the elementary wrestling season. Abby’s best friend Megan came in to watch Luke and hang with Bu. Matt’s team lost again and Luke’s team won again. Luke himself went 1-1 on the night in his two matches. In the first one, he totally psyched himself out. He came over to me in tears with complaints of his tummy hurting. He was going up against a boy that had previously beaten him and had actually hurt Alex in their last match-up. It was simply nerves and although he pleaded with me to take him home, I made him stick with it (he apparently had already cleared it with his coach that he could go home) and go out and try his best. He gets so nervous before his matches and I totally get it. I know how he feels and have been through it myself. To his credit, he did go out but his head wasn’t in it and it wasn’t long before he found himself on his back. He did fight and survive the 1st period. However the 2nd period was more of the same and although he didn’t quit, he still got pinned and scored no points during the match. His opponent is pretty strong and has been in the sport a couple years. I told him not to get upset and that he would get better each year he comes back. Sure enough, in the 2nd match he came out like a banshee (I told him to think about how mad Abby makes him and to pretend it was Abby he was wrestling and go out and let all of his anger out during the match. He took control, got a takedown, rolled him and stuck him all in the 1st period!! He was so excited! It was his 2nd win of the season. The boy was a poor sport and called him names, tried to start stuff up in the stands with verbal threats and threw a water bottle at Luke. To his credit, Luke simply gave the bottle back to him and walked away. Meanwhile, Abby had track and tap dance practice. The girls had a cute picture of an early form of what their outfits will look like. Ann had a rough day, having to let a tenured employee go. We both needed a drink so we took the kids to El Reparo to relax and celebrate Luke’s big win. We had a couple of Petron margaritas and a nice dinner.

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Abby had track and jazz practice on Tuesday night. Matt had weight lifting and he and Luke had wrestling practice. Matt says he is going to do freestyle wrestling this spring. Mom got her results back today and it’s not good news. It is stage 4 as it has moved to other organs and she will have to do chemo or else they gave her 3 months. With chemo they hope to get it in to remission for about a year or so before treatments will need to be repeated. Who knows; maybe someone will find a cure for this evil disease this year… Our love and prayers are with you, Mother. Such a good person as you should not have to go through something like this. I know that I nearly lost you back when I as about 12 years old and thankfully it wasn’t your time then as I still needed you then. I still need you and hope that we find our way through this as well somehow. I know you are strong-willed; we just wish you lived closer to us… It was so nice today. The highs hit the 70s today! It is still March in Indiana, right?? Amazing…
Abby was back to track practice on Wednesday night with her new spikes. She came home with half a shoe missing cleats. We’ll need to get her new ones and I’ll put the cleats in this time. Luke had his first all-star team baseball practice that evening and it was a gorgeous night with – get this – the temps in the low 80s! Who would’ve guessed we be out this early…and sweating!? It was actually hot out there! It was popcorn / American Idol night. I talked to Mom who sounded so good and up beat. How is it that something so horrible and ugly is happening to such a dear, sweet lady that is so loved? I just don’t get it. The kids were in the paper tonight again for wrestling. Matt received a very nice personal message from our local state senator.

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On Thursday, Abby came to the junior high after track practice to meet up with us at the elementary wrestling’s season-ending city tournament. Luke’s first matchup was against his best friend Alex. Luke was up for the challenge with lots of confidence. He came right out of the gait going strong and ended up with a take down and had Alex on his back with a side headlock. Although from my vantage point he looked like he was pinned, the referee didn’t call it and although it was close, the referee stopped the action when Alex complained of not being able to breathe. This really freaked Luke out. He was never as aggressive the rest of the match, almost appearing to not want to hurt Alex again. Afterwards, he would admit that he was scared to hurt him and it really hurt his performance the rest of the match. To his credit though, he battled the entire time. The match went back and forth and Luke got Alex on his back again in the 3rd period but couldn’t hold it and time expired with Alex up by a few points. It was a great match and both boys showed good heart and sportsmanship. Luke matched up next against his “nemesis??? – the kid that had twice beaten him this year. The last time was earlier this week during the “belly ache incident.??? This time, riding a wave of confidence, Luke was a different wrestler. He came right at him, took him down, turned him and stuck him in the 1st round to capture 3rd place in the tourney! Way to go Duke!! In a really special moment shared by the two brothers, Matt picked up Luke and triumphantly brought him over to where the family was sitting in the stands. That was the highlight of the elementary wrestling season for us in that moment. Alex ended up losing the championship match to a 5th grader, despite Luke cheering him on. We grabbed a couple Little Caesars pizzas and headed home. It was nearly 10 by the time the kids got in the shower that night.

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Abby had a sweaty track practice on Friday afternoon as it hit 80 degrees and I think everyone wore shorts to work/school today. Matt is now weightlifting for football and wrestling in order to try and build up some strength this off-season. Elementary wrestling had their year-end awards banquet that evening. Luke received his medal for 3rd place in the tourney last night. In lieu of having pizzas with 300 others, we took Lucas out to Chili’s (his choice) for a couple of Sam Adams Seasonal brews and a very good dinner. It was a nice, relaxing way to cap a crazy week and to top it off, Purdue had an upset victory in the NCAA men’s basketball tourney to advance to the next round! We dropped Luke off at Alex’s house where he spent the night.

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We enjoyed a fun Saturday. We picked up Luke and piled in the truck with our lawn equipment tools to get them serviced for the upcoming season. We then went over to the armory and signed the kids up for summer ball – Luke for league and all-star baseball and Abby for fast- and slow-pitch softball. It was more expensive this year for the kids to play ball – likely a way to recoup some of the loss last year with all the tornado damage…or maybe some new equipment – that would be nice. It was probably the warmest St Patty’s Day that I’ve ever known. It was actually hot. We talked about turning on the A/C! Ann went to Lowe’s and picked out a new dishwasher and ended up with that and a stove to boot! I took the kids to Hibbett’s and got Abby a new bat and Luke some batting gloves. We stopped and ate at BK. We were going to go to the batting cages at the YMCA but they don’t open for another month! So I brought the kids home and we played some backyard ball where I pitched batting practice. Matt also pitched some BP as well when the old man’s arm got tired. LOL We did that for a couple hours and then Matt practiced his driving by getting behind the wheel of our old Chevy pickup and going out to the Buchanan’s farm about a half hour out in the country. He did a great job, driving the whole way there and back again. It was stressful for me – but exhilarating at the same time. He is actually a good little driver and just needs experience which will then lead to confidence. He is ready for driver’s ed…and with the grades that just came out this week – he can actually take driver’s ed now!! In fact his report card was the best in over a year and all the kids had very good grades this time. Poor Bu got gypped again with missing straight A’s by 4 tenths of a percent – WTF! The grade Nazis need to get over themselves and cut the gal a break – this is the 2nd time this year she’s missed straight A’s by less than 1 percent of a point. Ann made some really good pasta for dinner that night. I don’t think there were any leftovers from that meal! We slept in on Sunday morning. It was another lovely day in the 80s (three straight now). The kids played outside for a lot of the day and that was relaxing for Ann as we took a couple naps during the NASCAR race at Bristol where Jr accidentally wrecked Gordon and put him out of the race, finishing like 35th or something like that. The house is completely open now and has been most of the week. This is just amazing weather we are experiencing. I talked to Mom and she is such a great example. To talk to her you wouldn’t even know that her body is slowly giving out inside. She is a little nervous about starting chemo tomorrow, as we all are just because there are so many unknowns at this point. We are hopeful that the two scans taken at the end of last week are a little more promising. We will find out on Tuesday. She goes for three straight days of treatments and then a day of special shots to boost her immune system and then has several weeks off. She will lose all her hair. She reminded me that last week marked the 8-year mark for Dad B’s cancer being in remission! He has done really great!! We can only pray that Mom could be so lucky. I still can’t talk to her without tearing up. It doesn’t help when she begins talking about her will and tombstones and coffins. God! Let’s hope we have a long time before we have to talk about that again. Ann made some great cinnamon muffins that didn’t last long and then some homemade chicken cordon bleu that everyone loved. Good job today, babe. Luke ended up spending the night over at Oakley’s house and Abby wondered how she would find a ride to her track practice tomorrow when she and her brothers enjoy the first day of Spring Break. Late tonight, Purdue lost a heartbreaker to Kansas in a game where they lead the whole way until the last minute and said goodbye to one of the all-time Boiler greats – #4, Robbie Hummel. Hummel had a great game, playing all but 2 minutes when he came out due to a cut on his arm. He did everything for the Boilers and ended his career on a good note with 26 points and 9 rebounds. What a bummer – March Madness if over for me now as the Boilers lost to a great Kansas team by 3 points at the very end.

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Next is our video section which includes three new family videos and several from around the internet:

Next, we have our Waybac pictures and we start off with some old black & white ones – first Great Grandma & Grandpa Morgan with who I assume is Grandma Connie and Aunt Norma, circa 1930; then Great Grandma Morgan in 1952 with perhaps a sister (?); next is an undated and unnamed photo (possibly Peggy from 1960-ish??? – Mom, need your help on this one!); then another good one of Great Grandma & Grandpa from about the mid-sixties or so; then Mom’s school picture in approximately 1966 (was I close Mom?); and then we also have a couple more pictures from Mom & Dad Scheu’s wedding in April of ’68 (only a few more of these pictures left!).

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The next section begins at what I believe is Christmas of 1974 at our house in the living room in Lafayette with Grandma & Grandpa on the couch and then me with my new ring in front of the tree; then a great picture of what I think is 1975 with our neighbor Dave (a senior in high school here?), myself with my cool necklace and Grandmaw Brown on our living room couch (right before Mom got it re-upholstered); then me out in front of our little yellow home on Shortridge right before one of my Jeff Basketball Camp practices in June of ’76 (I won the Charlie Hustle Award that year!); and finally Mom w/ her daddy at Christmas of ’76. I remember that “device??? – I think it might’ve been a clock??

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We wrap up this section with a another batch from Mom & Dad B’s honeymoon cruise in ’78 – this time we see Mom & Dad meeting the captain (doesn’t Mom look impressed?); and look at that piano – was that on the ship, Mom…or in that big hotel in the other picture? …And last but not least is a very sweet picture of Katie at age 3 in December of 1981.

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Our final section is a fun one – we have another installment of our new segment of The Shit that Luke Says. We have two quotes this week. The first one came early in the week. On our way to school on Tuesday, Matt had some pretty loud and funky gas. On one particularly lewd one, Luke exclaimed loud enough for the car next to us to hear, “Matt!! Your fart smells like raw cheddar cheese!??? We laughed ourselves to tears on that one. The other was on Saturday afternoon. He had been playing up his victory for all it was worth, asking for something and if told no, he would say something like well I got 3rd place, can’t I do it because I won my match? And on one particular time he was asking for a soda or something while playing baseball in the backyard and he was told no and he said, “But I finally beat my nightmare – shouldn’t I get something for beating my nightmare???? (I think he meant nemesis?) 😉

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

3 comments to I…Am…Iron…Man…

  • Mom

    Great wrestling Luke and good banquet for you..congrats for beating your whatever it was!!! Never give up and keep moving forward!! Congrats Matt for your awards banquet and all that you received. You deserved everyone of them and more!! You hustled and worked and we are soooo very proud of you. Of course our girl keeps us very proud when she does so very well in school. Keep going Abby and don’t let them beat you down. You’ve got it inside of you so go show em what you can do!!!!I think you did great!!!! the videos were great, thanks Tom…on the Waybac, Your grandma is sitting next to Great Grandma Morgan in the lighter top and Aunt Norma is more in front of Great Grandpa Morgan in the darker top. The next is Great Grandma Morgan and her mother. Then, that little girl is Juanita Tyrie who was Aunt Marilous first husbands daughter from his first marriage. Aunt probably

  • Mom

    Let me finish this properly okay..don’t know what happened but I had to shut down completely. Aunt Marilou raised this little girl as her own and loved her very much but when she and George got a divorce, the little girl went with George and I believe eventually got pregnant and moved on in her life. Aunt Marilou didn’t have much contact with her and their was nothing that she could do about it not being her natural child…but she met Uncle Kenny and had Tammie and the rest was a wonderful story for her. You are right about the picture of me, it is my Junior year in high school and it would have been ’66. Looks like a Lukie pose to me of you in your Jeff basketball clothes!! The clock was a gift for dad that a friend made from old watches, etc that I managed to get away from daddy’s “hiding spots” along with some pieces that he added to. Don’t know whatever happened to that?! That piano was gorgeous and was at the Fountainblue hotel in the lobby. The Captains ball was very formal and very impressive and we thoughly enjoyed every minute of it!! Our captain was such a nice man, the crew were Norwegan and very polite and proper (expect for a few of the waiters…one of which we had that dad and I really liked!!! I can truly say that I have done everything in my life that I would ever want to do and am filled to the brim with love and kisses and strength from everyone!!! Love you always and thanks….Mom XXXOOO’s

  • I have to agree on the Lukey poses…in fact I see more and more of me in him as each day passes. I’ll have to have several long talks with this boy as he grows. :0) Thanks for all the input on this week’s Waybac – that really makes these photos come alive for me!! Thank you for all the kind words and we love you, Mom!!