Thirteen Times…and it’s been Lucky for Me

Well it’s official; we’re old. Our baby is a teenager now. Abby got a job. Matt is halfway done with college. Man, where did the time go? This week, Matt prepped for his final exam while working; Abby worked hard as the Pirateers captain and signed on for soccer; and Luke started football and played his final league baseball game. Ann had another surgery and continued to be in recovery mode again this week. And I worked through the back pain to get out and exercise each day this week. Hello again and welcome back to this week’s installment of the Scheu Family Blog.
Monday was the first official day of summer. Not only was it the summer solstice but we had a Strawberry Moon as well. Abby was up early and out the door that morning for Pirateers. Megan was here when we left but apparently left at some point since she was gone by the time we got home. She would return later that evening and spend the night. Matt went up to school to begin his final full week of classes this summer. Luke enjoyed the day off, playing basketball in the driveway. Ann worked her last day this week and didn’t get out until late. I walked after work for about an hour but had to stop frequently to stretch out my aching back. Abby went out with guy friends. And we were saddened to hear that the 27 Club struck again as Anton Yelchin (best known for his role of Chekov in the new Star Trek franchise) passed away.
Ann & I were off on Tuesday but up very early to head to Columbus for yet another knee surgery for Ann. It went very well and we were back before noon. Abby had Pirateers again that morning. Abby took Megan home & went out with her friends. Abby lost my gas card (turns out, it has been missing two days) so I cancelled it…and then she found it, of course, an hour later. Ann had her cryo cuff delivered by Jim Sorgi! For those who don’t know who Jim is, he was Peyton Manning’s back up for about a decade and won the Super Bowl vs. the Bears. He was nice enough to give Luke a pep talk about football, told us his football story then showed us his Super Bowl ring that he had out in the truck. He was very accommodating and even took time to pose for a picture with Luke – how cool is that? Too bad Matt was at work and missed it all! Later, Luke had his first football practice with Drew at the Jr high field while Bryan & I got to sit on the sidelines in the shade and watch for once!  Luke had the fastest 40 of the night and we had about 15 kids at practice. It was late when we got done out there so Luke & I grabbed dinner at Wendy’s and brought some home for Ann.

I took the day off to be with Ann on Wednesday, as she continued to recover from her knee surgery. She slept most of the day and said her knee felt pretty good for the most part. Matt had school and Luke & Abby were in the paper again. Bu was in for dance and Luke made the A/B honor roll. Abby went out with Cody and I to get the oil changed in Tonya and then buy soccer supplies for her to start practices tomorrow! It stormed that night as Abs had Mary & Regan over to spend the night.
Ann was off Thursday but was getting around a little better so I went back to work. Abby had a busy day as she again had Pirateers practice early, went to a job interview at BWR in the early afternoon. She apparently impressed the interviewer as they offered her the job and she accepted! We are very proud of her. :0) Later, she prepared to attend her first soccer practice…but it got cancelled due to the threat of severe weather. Matt worked again at the old folks home. Luke had to miss football again due to baseball. It was his final regular season game of the year. The boys faced the Reds in a makeup game from last week. Luke struggled at the plate, going 0-2 with a flyout & a strikeout. However he pitched a pair of scoreless innings. He walked two, struck out 5 and made a great tag at the plate to end the game in a thrilling way! He was the winning pitcher as the boys started out slowly and only scored 3 runs but the pitching held up and we won again, 3-0. That wrapped up the league championship and the boys enjoyed a trophy presentation after the game. The boys were so excited. We went out to Chili’s for dinner with Abby & Baker and were the last ones to leave the restaurant.

Ann & I were both off on Friday. It was Luke’s 13th birthday. He was excited to get his new iPhone early that morning. Ann made him his birthday meal of frozen chicken wings & toquitos…really man?? We have GOT to work on that choice buddy…. Ann did make him a homemade ice cream cake that was out of this world! Matt studied for his final exam for a few hours before the kids and I gave Ann some peace and quiet and headed out for the day. First we went up to Whiteland to one of our favorite spots – Rascal’s Fun Zone where we rode go-karts for 5 or 6 hours. We also got in a round of putt-putt golf and played in the arcade. Next we went out to eat at Buffalo Wild Wings (B-Dubs) where I took & successfully won their Blazin’ Challenge – eat 12 of their hottest wings in 6 minutes…took me 4 ½. :0) Then we wrapped up the day by going to see a movie – the new Independence Day in IMAX 3D – it was awesome!!

We slept in on Saturday morning as we were all pretty sore and exhausted from all the sun yesterday. Luke & I finally got out to do yard work about noon. It was pretty hot by the time we got out in the sun. We mowed & trimmed the lawn and trimmed all the trees. The only thing we didn’t get done was trimming the bushes but I think Matt is going to try and get it done for us next week. Bu went out for the day with Britney & Cody for a “day adventure” & picnic. Matt had the day off from work and used it wisely to finish up studying for his finals most of the day. We are very proud of him. Ann slept most of day, catching up on sleep and resting that poor knee of hers. I came back inside, showered and flopped on the couch the rest of the day to rest my weary body. I had a little bruising and many sore muscles from the karts yesterday.
We slept in again on Sunday morning. We eventually got up and did our weekly household chores. Mary brought over Luke’s cake, which had a baseball theme this year. We had Luke’s family party. This year, Matt couldn’t attend. Memaw & Gigi came, as did Phyllis & Dick. Dee & Jamie surprised everyone by being the first ones here today! ;0) We sang to the birthday boy, enjoyed cake & ice cream and he opened his presents. We watched the Reds win on Pete Rose Day as old #14 was FINALLY retired and Pete was inducted into the Reds Hall of Fame…now if we can just get him in to Cooperstown… My favorite player, Jay Bruce, was the hero of the game, blasting a solo homerun. Bu went out with Britney & their guy friends for the day and late in to the night, Luke moved the cars out of the driveway and played basketball out front and later had Alex over. After that, he had Drew over to spend the night. Meanwhile Ann & I chilled in the A/C and watched local boy, Smoke Stewart, win his 1st NASCAR race in a few years in dramatic fashion with a last lap / last turn pass. …Well Ann slept but she with me in spirit! I love road courses and wish they would add a couple more to the schedule next year…And tonight started Ann’s favorite week of TV – Shark Week! We have a ton of social media pictures to share this week: Abby and friends; Charlie Cool; Katie & family; an oldie of Megan & her gpa; an oldie of Uncle John; Uncle Timmie; Uncle Steve & fam; Chris & Trish celebrated their anniversary this week; Phyllis & Dick; a couple of our favorite families – the Drakes & the Messers; Lynz & Jack; Aunt Sharon & Angie; my old friend Mark and his family, the Kosiors; some Jim Sorgi pictures; the cool new HW set: Beatles Yellow Submarine; LeBron brought a title to Cleveland; Anton Yelchin joined the 27 Club; Page, Plant and the Zep crew won the big court case involving Stairway to Heaven chords; one of my favorite shows aired their series finale this week – Person of Interest; Pete Rose had his number retired and went in to the Reds Hall of Fame this weekend; and Tony Stewart finally won a race this week and got one step closer to making the Chase in his farewell season.

Next up is our Waybac segment, which includes the last few photos from our early photo albums from the nineties. We have enough to maybe get through July, but we’ll be scanning the next six photo albums by the end of the month. We also have more pix from goodies culled during Mom & Dee’s moves this past spring. We lead off this week with Ann’s 1st grade picture in ’76; then Gigi’s new toy at the station in ’93; on to Columbus in January ’97 for Matt prepping to go play in the snow and lounging around the house; then playing inside & out at our townhouse in late February ’97 in Columbus; next we head up to Lafayette to Dad & Barb’s cabin in June ’97; next we head to the zoo in Indy I believe in September ’97; then on to the old Main Street Market on Lincoln St to see the Ricky Rudd Tide NASCAR car in July ’98; then up to New York and then in to Canada to see Niagara Falls in July ’98; then we see Dee with newborn Gracie in July ’00; then a bunch of the Owens grandkids from ’02 to ’04; Gracie, Kaden & Bu in April ’04; Gracie, circa ’05 and Matt’s baseball picture in 2005.

For our Shit that Luke Says, we were travelling in the car on Friday, somewhere up in Greenwood when Luke was talking about his phone and how much larger it is than his previous phone and he blurts out, “It’s hard to evaporate to a bigger phone.” LOL! Not really sure what he was going for with that, but we sure gave him hell about it!
And we wrap up this entry with our video section, which includes one new home movie and several vids from around the internet this week.

And that does it for this week’s episode 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