It was another fast week for the Scheu family. Ann celebrated another trip around the sun. All the talk this week was about the upcoming big game on Sunday. Abby geared up for another competition weekend. And the weather turned on us again.
We woke up to some light snow on Monday morning. It was also a little icy which kept things interesting on the way in to work. I had a good checkup at the dentist. Luke, Drew & I went to the junior high after work for wrestling signups. I talked with Coach Cochran for quite awhile as he gets the team ready for Sectionals this weekend. Mom & Sandy had us all over for dinner to celebrate Ann’s birthday. We ate, sang to Ann and had a delicious brownie with ice cream and hot chocolate sauce – Gawd it was good! Bryan picked up Drew and I got back on the treadmill afterwards. Ann took Abby to jazz class, where they are having some drama as they start getting ready for upcoming competitions. And Matt sent me some great photos of him being on campus at Purdue. Apparently he and Colten were up in West Lafayette to visit a girl. He got some cool pix of Ross-Aide Stadium and Mackey Arena, including the basketball team working out – thanks buddy!
We were up early on Tuesday to run Bu in to school for her Student Council meeting. It was Ann’s official birthday. She turned 40-something again this year. It would’ve been Granny’s birthday as well. Abby went to El Reparo with her buddies after school and then went on to the Pirateers practice. Luke had baseball practice for pitchers with Bryan. We got Chinese takeout for dinner (& fortune cookies in lieu of a more traditional cake!). Matt joined us via cell phone to sing to Ann. She opened her presents and we learned about the Greensburg A.D., Bill Edwards succumbing this morning to pancreatic cancer. The Sons of Liberty miniseries wrapped up on the History Channel. Although it wasn’t exactly accurate, I thought it was entertaining.
Ann & Shawna had their first After-Prom meeting on Wednesday night. They are again in charge of this annual party. They have a tough job topping last year’s success! Even though she was busy, she still managed to find time to make a big pot of her delicious chicken corn chowder on Soup Night for the Homework Club. Britney made it but Abby took a thermos of it for Kirsten. The Purdue/IU game was on that night and the Boilers beat the bad guys at Mackey. Matt wants me to throw together a wrestling compilation video for him. I need to find out what his intentions are with it…could be exciting?! :0)
Abby had Pirateers practice after school on Thursday. She went to tap practice later that evening. She hurt her foot and hobbled around the house. I’m not sure how it will affect her performance at the big competition this weekend. Hopefully she will be OK. Luke’s baseball practice was cancelled and I got back on the treadmill again. I’ve been smoke-free for 7 months or so now but I’m really struggling with my weight. Even though I’m meeting my exercise goals, I’m nowhere near where I need to be with my diet. Surely to God this is going to get better, right? Ugh.
It was a long morning on Friday. After I ran the kids to school and was on my way to work, I received a text from Luke and a call from Ann. Seems the snack treat that he was supposed to take to school the past few days was finally due this morning. Well guess what – he forgot again. So I turned around, went back home and delivered the chocolate bars to the elementary school. He really owes me one for this! He missed basketball practice that night as he decided he was finished with ball and wants to spend more time with his friends – well that and do wrestling and baseball of course…Megan came over to spend time with Abby that evening. We ended up going out to eat at Buffalo Wings & Rings. They were absolutely packed at 6 pm – which is great to see. I can remember not too long ago we could’ve walked in and had the place to ourselves at that time. When we got home, Megan and Luke went with Alex to spend the night at Christy & Terry’s house. Bu went to her room and nursed her foot while Ann & I watched our DVR’ed shows and fell asleep on the couches (damn, we’re old and lame…). Abby made the newspaper for Honor Roll…way to go, Bu! My buddy Craig’s obit was finally published. And we have a batch of social media pictures to share: Abby and friends after school before Pirateers practice; Aunt Sharon and little Reece; one of the greats at Mattel; Avon toys I had as a child; a really cool Calvin & Hobbes panel; the Super Bowl 49 logo; some vintage pics of Rosie & Keith from the 80’s and 90’s; Gracie; Tammy’s lovely daughter; some Lafayette landmarks – The Frozen Custard and old Jeff; Congrats to DeMarco Murray who was named the offensive player of the year and of course named to the Pro Bowl with several teammates; Ernie Banks’ funeral and an oldie of John Lennon from the Cavern days.
We were up at the butt-crack of dawn on Saturday. Abby had to be at the high school by 530 for the trip to Terre Haute for the Pirateers’ 3rd of 4 competitions. I believe they have four chances to qualify for Regionals. There was a threat of heavy snowfall, so we weren’t real sure how the day was going to play out, but as it turned out it was mostly rain with intermittent snow and sleet. Abby’s foot was really sore still. Although I’m not surprised that she toughed it out, I was very proud that she acted like the consummate professional she is always is on game day. She performed both routines with all she had and could barely walk afterwards. She iced it the rest of the weekend and we’ll see how she does on Monday morning. The girls have a little turmoil within the team right now and it showed today as they weren’t quite as sharp as last time, had some technical errors and did not place. What would dance be without the drama? After the end of the first dance, some woman sent her daughter to tell me that I couldn’t tape my own child’s performance. Although it is officially against the rules, it is a very commonplace activity, so I didn’t think too much about it. Then during the 2nd dance, this woman kept shouting out stuff like, “You can’t tape in here,??? “I guess you don’t care if you get disqualified,??? and some other crap. How, exactly, it affected her or her child is unclear. Why she singled me out, I’m not sure. And why she felt it was her responsibility to police the crowd, I’ll never know. But it created drama and one of the parents freaked out the kids and upset them. It was never my intention to upset the girls and I never would have imagined this would’ve been an issue but I’ll never put them in that situation again. These parents are insane at these events and will obviously do anything to gain some sort of perceived advantage. Either way I apologized to Abby for putting her through the drama and told her I wouldn’t be taping the 4th dance. I hope I can eventually get a copy of that performance as I have a copy of every dance she’s ever been involved in to this point… We left the event and took Bu to dinner at Ruby Tuesday’s. There was a bad accident on the way back on I-74 that nearly collected the Pirateers’ bus. It happened within feet of the bus and the vehicle flipped a few times. We’re not sure if there was a fatality. We picked up Luke at Alex’s house and came home to relax for the night.
On Sunday we finally got to sleep in. It was Rosie’s birthday and I got to talk to Robby for a little while to get caught up on the Florida scene. Ann took Abby & Kirsten to volleyball though Bu didn’t play because of her injured foot, so Luke & I stayed home. While the girls were gone we did our weekly household chores, paid bills, did our taxes and geared up for Super Bowl XLIX as the Seattle Seahawks faced the New England Patriots out in Scottsdale, AZ. All people are talking about is Deflate-gate – the Pats got caught cheating again as they deflated their balls so they could grip the ball easier against the Colts. There is a big stink about it, but I don’t think it would’ve meant a victory for Indy. Vegas changed their odds and made the game an official “You Pick ‘Em??? game – the first Super Bowl in history without a favorite…which meant it was gonna be a good one! Ann made a bunch of yummy munchies for us and we stayed home instead of going out. The halftime show was surprisingly entertaining with Katy Perry. And of course, we loved all the commercials – some of the better ones: Snickers (Brady Bunch) and Kick Start (Come Alive) were probably the best but we also enjoyed Budweiser (horses with puppy), Avocados from Mexico (draft day), Comcast (dog cop), Dodge Challenger (old folks), Kia (Pierce Brosnan), Sprint (screaming goat), T-Mobile (Sarah Silverman), NFL (Super Bowl Rally), Mophie (God’s cell phone), Loctite (fat people), Bud Light (Pac-Man), Wix (NFL greats), Victoria’s Secret (ladies), Mercedes (Tortoise & the Hare), NASCAR (NBCSN) and of course all the hubbub from the Nationwide one (dead kids). I must’ve missed the one for Game of War (Kate Upton) – but I was really looking forward to that one! Too bad the Patriots won, but at least it was an exciting game so I’m happy. It went right down to the last few seconds of the game, thanks to a crazy catch by Kearse…and then the Seahawks lost it on the goal line – the Pats didn’t win it – by not going with Lynch to run it less than one yard…too bad…and the weather turned colder and colder as the day progressed. The winter storm we were supposed to get was nothing more than rain but as it got colder we began worrying about everything freezing – but at least we didn’t get anything like LaPorte got – 19 inches of snow and counting by the time I went to bed…
Next up is our Waybac section which still features several pieces from my scrapbook collection. We lead off this week with Mom O, circa ’43; Mom & Dad Scheu with Billy, Vicky & Jackie in Turkey Run (I think) in early ’68; Billy at Columbian Park pool in the summer of ’68; me in ’69; a reading certificate in ’76; our 3rd grade class in the new Oakland school with Ms. Brickler in ’77; Boy Scout stuff in ’80 & ’81; Dad B’s card from Bernacchi’s in the early ‘80s; Riley awards in ’80; Mr. Panos artwork in ’81; newspaper articles in ’82, ’83 and ’84; yearbook pictures in ’85; newspaper articles in ’85; Rosie in yearbook in ’85; more articles in ’85 & ’86; yearbook pictures in ’86; Mike & Laura’s wedding announcement in ’87; State title winners in newspaper in ’87; Ann pictures in our college yearbook in ’89; Ann and Stacy with friends in ’90; Ann and the Tri Delts in ’91; Mike & Erin wedding invitations in ’93; Tom & Liz wedding announcement in ’93 and my Father’s Day card in ’02.
Next up is our video section which includes a new family movie (including clips of the infamous dance) and several from around the internet.
That does it for this week’s entry for the Scheu Family Blog. Thanks for keeping up with us this time out and we’ll catch up with you again next time. Until then, have a good one. We miss ya, Mom.
Later, Scheu