It was another bitterly cold week in south-central Indiana. Luke didn’t believe me back in January when I told him that February is always the coldest month of the year. This week was a little quieter than last, thankfully. Abby continued to hobble around on her foot and complain about it. Luke and I had a good fitness week. Ann caught some kind of bug and Matt got in a bit of a fix. Hello; hope you had a good Valentine’s Day. Welcome to the latest installment of the Scheu Family Blog. Let’s get to it…
Monday was probably the warmest day of the week and it never even got out of mid-twenties. Luke had his first wrestling practice with his “team.??? His coach is Matt’s good buddy Joel’s older brother – Josh…did you follow all that? :0) He really seemed to enjoy it and was all excited when I picked him up after walking on the treadmill. Abby had jazz class at Dixon that night. She did not dance but only watched and listened due to her swollen foot.
Tuesday was colder because of the strong northerly breeze. Luke went to pitching practice with Drew. They got to workout with a pitching coach, which was really cool. He really enjoyed that and learned a lot. This year will be different for our boys since the rules change a little at this level. This year they will have to deal with things like leading off bases, stealing bases, pick-offs, balks – so there’s a lot to learn at this age. We stayed late at baseball in Bryan’s Randall building and missed wrestling practice at the junior high. Meanwhile I got back on the treadmill and Abby had Pirateers practice. Again, she did not participate due to her foot. That night her big toe looked like a sausage and her foot was all purple and swollen…yet still she won’t use those darn crutches to stay off of it and let it rest. She is doing a decent job of icing it, though. Ann had Shawna over for dinner and a cocktail under the guise of an After-Prom planning meeting. And I heard the awful news that Jon Stewart has decided to retire, essentially ending the Daily Show. I will truly miss that show more than any other (except maybe the Simpsons). In my adult life, I have watched that show more than any other. It was bad enough with the Colbert Report ending but the Daily Show will be a tough one – where will I get my news now?
Soup Night returned Wednesday night but the Homework Club consisted of only Bu & Brit again – those two also had Ping Pong club after school. Per request, Ann made chicken tortilla soup that really rocked. There wasn’t much leftover. Ann & Shawna had their big After-Prom meeting at the high school. And I received a special package at work. I had forgotten all about requesting a Hot Wheels classroom track set for work, called Speedometry. I had requested it back in the fall of last year and was thrilled when I figured out what was setting in our mailroom. I asked the teachers if they wanted to use it (it even has lesson plans and everything). If not, I know of a certain 5th grader that would love it if it came home to him! :0) We have several social media pictures to share this week: Abby and her new sweater; Abby and the Pirateers clinic; Kimmy with friends; Lindsey & Jack; Nathan; the Smith grandkids at Grandma’s house; Gracie; Pat & gal-pal on vacation; Monkey Island at Columbian Park; AC/DC on the Grammy’s; Abby & the Pirateers; Aunt Brenda with Uncle Steve, Wendy and family; 2/3 of Barney’s grandkids; Luke; Bryan’s new Jimmy Johns opened this week in Shelbyville; Jon Stewart’s big announcement was all over the internet; Calvin & Hobbes panels; Hot Wheels; a great picture about a life slogan to live by; Arni’s turned 50; Keith & Rosie celebrated another anniversary; Matt’s friend Dillen is now doing some semi-pro wrestling here locally under the name Dynamite Dillen; Jimmy Page has a new box set coming out; Barn & Steph; Jack & Lynz; more Smith grandkids; and Allen & daughter.
Luke had a dental appointment on Thursday morning. He had a pair of cavities that he’ll get filled soon. We had snow showers on and off all day as the temps continued to drop. It got down to 5 that night. The wind was really strong – and cold. Luke missed baseball practice that night in order to attend the year-end party for basketball. Luke really learned a lot this year and we thanked the coaches. The team ended up 34-7, I think Trevor said. What a great year they had! Afterwards we headed back to the junior high for wrestling practice while I hopped on the treadmill. Abby had Pirateers practice and then tap class at Dixon Dance. Her foot continued to swell and remained discolored so she only attended and did not participate. She is icing it continually and taking an anti-inflammatory while wearing her special “boot.??? Hopefully all of this will start to help it heal.
Abby went to the doctor for her foot on Friday. They still don’t know what’s wrong with it and now she is supposed to perform this weekend and then tell doc how the foot responded. If it gets worse, she will have an MRI. I missed Matt when he came to Columbus to get his hair cut and to get his stitches removed. I grabbed takeout from Arni’s and brought it to Ann’s work for an impromptu Valentine’s lunch date. Kama came over to spend the night with Abby and Grayson spent the night with Luke so it was a full house. Meanwhile Ann went to late-night scrapbooking at Mrs. B’s which meant I had all the kiddos at the house. But they are good kids, so it was a piece of cake. The boys played ball, shot bb guns and watched movies while building a fort in the family room, where they ended up sleeping. Luke missed wrestling practice that night. I got on the treadmill again and then took Bu & Kama to Walmart to do some shopping and then we grabbed takeout from Subway. Ann ended up coming home since she felt like crap and went to bed early. Matt called and said he was in a little trouble. Seems he had just walked in to his neighbor’s dorm room when an RA entered and busted someone for having an open beer. Not only had Matt just got there, but he had not been drinking nor was he drinking and yet somehow he got in trouble for a decision someone else made. The school is trying to fine him and force him to attend an alcohol class. That seems a little excessive for a person who was innocent of any wrongdoing. I have worked with troubled and at-risk youth for over two decades and I can tell you that if Matt says he was innocent, he really was innocent. So he is appealing it and I think Shitty Ann may make a guest appearance soon as well. And as if the night couldn’t get any more stressful, there was some behind-the-scenes Pirateers drama. There were whispers all week that some of the girls did not want to perform this weekend. It sounded a little like they were hoping that the doctor would rule Abby out for the weekend. When that didn’t happen the focus was turned towards the weather. There was a threat of some snow with extreme temperatures. The wind chill could’ve got as low as -20 in some areas. Well apparently this was enough and around 11 pm we received notification that the Pirateers would not be competing in this weekend’s meet in Westfield…which I believe essentially ends their chances of making it to Regional competitions. To be honest, the girls haven’t been consistent enough to go very far in Regionals anyhow. Still, some of the girls want to compete and elevate their team to a sports status. This year won’t help their cause but should help them to know what mistakes they can’t make next year. This was a rough rookie year for their coach – tumultuous even… to the point where we wonder if she’ll even want to come back for more of this next year. In fact, some girls are even questioning whether they will want to try out next year, which is a real shame. It did snow a little, but no accumulation and it was a blustery evening…but c’mon, this is Indiana in February – of course it’s cold… Finally, it was Keith & Rosie’s 22nd wedding anniversary. Congrats guys!!
Saturday was Valentine’s Day…or as Bu still calls it, Daddy-Daughter Day! Since Abby’s Pirateers competition was cancelled, we got to sleep in and focused on keeping warm as we huddled under blankets and watched TV that morning. The boys wanted to go to the YMCA to play basketball. The girls wanted to take Molly to Pet Smart in Columbus. Ann wanted to molt on the couch. I wanted to clean up the house. So we compromised…I took the kids to the Y where we played and exercised for about an hour or so. We were a little sweaty, so we went shopping at Walmart to cool down. Next we went to lunch at El Chile Poblano (man, I love their 48 oz margarita specials on Saturday afternoons!). Abby had to drive after lunch. We went to the new SpongeBob Square Pants movie to relax and had a good time. Meanwhile Ann enjoyed staying home and taking a long, quiet nap on the couch with the dogs. We came home and guess what…the snow and wind didn’t amount to much and by the time we got out of the movies it had died down and was a sunny afternoon. That night, we were supposed to go to a Valentine’s Day party but Ann continued to feel awful so we stayed in. Kama ended up going home to get ready for Comic Con in Indy tomorrow. We kept Grayson one more night, ordered delivery from Pizza Hut, and enjoyed Big Hero 6 and then NASCAR in HD on the big screen!
We got to sleep in again on Sunday (man, we could get used to this!). We worked on cleaning up the house. We took Grayson home and stopped in to see Mom & Gigi. Dee, Jamie & Grace were there as well and it was good to see them. Abby had a volleyball game in Enochsburg that afternoon while Luke went to baseball practice at Bryan’s Randall building. Because she didn’t dance yesterday, Abby decided to play in order to test her foot. Admittedly she didn’t move around much and Ann said she was obviously having trouble moving on the floor. The team won against one of the other St. Mary teams. Meanwhile, I continued doing our weekly household chores attended another baseball parent’s meeting. Ann made some awesome salmon patties but Abby came home and went to bed and missed it – not that she would’ve eaten them anyhow. She has now gone 14 months with her vegetarian diet. She was again recognized by the Straight A Program and received a pair of free Reds tickets. We’ll have to figure out which one she wants to go to this year. Way to go, Bu! And we enjoyed taking it easy and watching some boob-tube: the Boilers won again, as did the Wildcats (local boy McIntosh had a good game) and the SNL 40th Anniversary show made us laugh.
Next up is our Waybac section, which continues to feature pieces of my childhood scrapbook. We lead off with some photos of Uncle John & Aunt June’s wedding in March of ’69 with some classic stills of John & June, Uncle Chuck and Granny & Grandpa Pug – among others; then Grandpa Pug’s obituary in April ’69; Uncle Hank in the newspaper in mid-seventies; Ann’s kindergarten picture in September ’75; a great picture from my old Oakland Elementary yearbook which features a collage of the old school in ’77 – shortly before its demise; more artwork from Mr. Panos in early ’81; my Riley Elementary “R??? for football, basketball and track in ’81; more track ribbons from ’82-ish; my freshman yearbook picture from Boston Jr High in September ’83; my Duneland Conference championship award from 1983 – we went undefeated in football that year!); several from our Rockwood house in late ’83 – me with my 100,000 score in Missile Command which earned me my Federation of Laser Blasters patch (I had mom sew it on one of my hats)…I wonder where that thing is now…then a couple more of my room, my best buddy Mark and little Robby; my Midwest Talent Search Project ID in ’83; our yearbook picture of the wrestling team in late ’84; newspaper articles: football in November ’85; wrestling in January ’86; football in August ’86; football in October ’86; football program in October ’86; football in November ’86; Ann & Stacy with their FC Tri Delt sisters in October ’89; and a special note in a bday card from Grandpaw Brown in October ’91.
Next up is our video section, which features one new family video and a few from around the internet this week.
Well that does it for this week’s chapter of 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