Man, this week flew by! Matt & Abby hated it because it was ISTEP week. There’s just something about standardized testing that kids seem to hate… They both had earlier bedtimes, but Ann cooked breakfast every morning (I could get used to both of those!). The kids even fought less this week and we celebrated at the end of the week by going out to Big Boy. OK, I know it doesn’t seem glamorous, but that’s what the kids wanted. J Luke was the leader at preschool this week, meaning he could have visitors in class and got to do several tasks in the classroom. It is most likely the last time one of our children will be “the leader??? at preschool…yes, we’ve reached a milestone here people!! J Unfortunately, neither of us could attend with him on Monday, but Ann took off Wednesday and made it into a full-blown Mommy-Lukey day! They had a good time spending the day together. The highlight of the day for Luke was building Lego houses. He is a member of the Lego club and so he had Ann to take pictures of him with the finished products, in order to submit them for inclusion in the magazine! J The letter of the week at school was ‘S,’ so, they took strawberries for snack, learned how to skip and did scarf dancing in gym.
Matt continued with wrestling practice each night and had two meets this week. His ankle continues to get stronger and stronger. He has begun wearing his boot less and has stopped taking his pain medicine. He goes back to the doctor this Friday and we’re hopeful that he’ll be able to return to sports after vacation. Abby continued with two days each of dance class and Girls on the Run through the week, plus picked up an extra dance practice on Saturday as well. She and Ann had fun cleaning out her closet and drawers, in preparation of spring fashion. Matt, on the other hand, didn’t enjoy it quite as much. However, Matt did enjoy the nice warm-up we had this week. We started off at 12° on Monday, but made it all the way up to 78° on Saturday. On Saturday, I was up early with Matt; as I was going to pick up an extra shift and drop off Matt at the high school. He was there to catch a school bus for the regional science fair being held at Ivy Tech in Bloomington. Just as we were getting ready to leave, I got a call from work that I wasn’t needed. It worked out great, as it gave Luke and I a chance to travel across the state to be with Matthew. He did great, as he won two awards. The 1st one was for 1st place in the Earth Sciences category. The 2nd was a special award from the US Dept. of Commerce. He received the 2009 National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration’s ‘Taking the Pulse of the Planet Award.’ It was administered by a representative of the US Navy! All told, he received two certificates and a ribbon and two medals, bringing the total for this project to 3, 2 and 2, respectively. We are very proud of his work on this project, as well as his presentation abilities with the judges. He admitted to being nervous early Saturday morning and had a huge sigh of relief when he returned home late that afternoon.
Late Saturday afternoon, we took advantage of the warm weather by cleaning up the backyard, clearing it of all the debris that had accumulated through the winter, pumped all the water off the top of the pool cover, and just enjoyed the sights and smells of the outdoors for a change. Even though it was quite breezy, the new privacy fence knocks down all the wind, so I was able to sit down by it and test out the wireless network connection. It worked great! We then began setting up Matt’s first 13th (my God, we’re going to have a teenager in the house…man, I’m old…) birthday present: a new iPod Touch! He was very excited (still hasn’t put the thing down!) and so we had to get it all set up and synced with his PC, get his music & pictures moved over and get him set up on the wireless network also (is there anything this thing won’t do?). I kept asking him today if he had figured out how to get the NASCAR race on that thing yet. J The weather was screwy again today. It remained warmer but overcast and severe storms blew through. We had the city sirens go off four times in a 15 minute span, as we initially had severe thunderstorm warnings and a tornado watch. It quickly became a tornado warning, so we packed up and abruptly went over to the radio station, just in case something came of it. It rained and blew pretty hard, but nothing too drastic. So Sandy and I did a little broadcast and then we called it a day. Of course it means that I’ll have to get that darn pump out again this week sometime and get all that water off the pool cover again…
Earlier in the week, we received outstanding news from Mom & Dad, as Rob was cleared of all legal issues and has nothing hanging over his head for the first time in nearly a decade. I got to talk to him a little bit before he headed back down south. We tried to get him stop by, but understandably he was anxious to get home and get on with the rest of his life. Hopefully we’ll run in to him in a couple months and finally get a chance to meet the girl in his life, Sharon. We received a really cool email from him later in the week that I think helped him to put closure on that chapter in his life. I think he might actually be ready to grow up (hell, it took me 27 years myself…)
But enough of the current stuff, let’s take a look back with the Waybac Machine. First up, we have a couple of mid-seventies pictures. The first is of Mom & I at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway museum with the Borg-Warner Trophy. The second is in our basement on Shortridge St. for my birthday. Also pictured are my neighbor Jerry Campbell and my very good friend Mark Crum. I would put these in approximately ’75.
Here is a rare picture of Grandpa Owens, seen here with Lulua in their front yard at their early home in the Lee edition. Ann places this picture in about ’76 and swears that’s how the dog’s name is spelled…J
Here is a picture of Grandpa Scheu and I in a motel room in OH. We had just gotten back from enjoying Kings Island. I would say this is circa ’78.
Next up are a group of three pictures from our Kenwood St home era (’80-’82). The first is of Rob in our living room. The second is Mom & I after raking all those darn leaves. It was cool having a small woods in our side yard…except when the leaves came down. I remember we used to be able to burn those babies right there at the end of our driveway. The third is of Mom, Rob & I in said driveway; except that there was another enemy we were fighting that day. This was our first snow since before we moved out to Cali. We got hammered that winter…
Next up we have a couple pix from the late eighties. The first is of Rob with my good friend Danny Heatherson, in front of our Rockwood St. home in the summer of ’87. The second is of Ann’s high school graduation in ’88.
The next two are from Christmas ’89 or ’90 at our home in LaPorte. Included with us is Grandpaw Brown.
Also in 1990, here is a fun picture at one of our ??? formals. Pictured with me are my fraternity brothers Mike Wynn and my good friend Paul Drake.
Here are great pictures of the lovely Owens girls in 1991; first is Deanna in her senior pictures and the second one is of Ann on Spring Break in FLA.
Here I am with Grandma Scheu at my college graduation in ’91, back up in my room at the Phi Delt house.
Here is a nice pic of Ms. Ann at her friend Stacy’s wedding in 1993.
Here are Grandpaw & Grandmaw Bryan in their 1st home in Rossville in ’95.
Here’s a fun one with Keith & Rosie at Christmas, 1999, at our home on Main St. I’m pretty sure Keith just ripped one here…
Next up are a couple pix of Abby in 2000. The first is her 1st trip to Florida (at the Sand Pebble) and the 2nd one is in our dining room on Main St.
Here is Lukey in 2004 in our living room on Russell.
Here is Matt at the fair in 2004 on the Ferris wheel.
In tribute to our return to Florida and the Mouse’s house, we end this entry with a barrage of photos of our last trip to that magical land, 5 years ago in 2004.
That’s it for this week; I better get to bed, as we lost an hour today with the time change for Daylight Savings Time. Thanks as always for reading and have a good one. We’ll catch you up next time… Later, Scheu