As anticipated, things picked up exponentially this week at the ol’ Scheu abode. Matt had a short week with Taylor at U Indy then came home for a long weekend. It was great spending time with him. Abby equally enjoyed a short week at Franklin before coming home for the long weekend. She and Garrett still spent time together during the break. It was great having her back in the house (even if her baby brother fought with her a few times). Luke had his first basketball game of the year and only went to school two days this week as well. He helped out a lot around the house – cleaning inside and out. We had a great time spending the Thanksgiving holiday with family at Mom & Sandy’s house for much of the weekend. Ann and the kids went their separate ways on Black Friday while Luke & I decided to sit it out and shop from the comforts of home and avoid the nuts this year. The worst horror story of the day was Ann & Amy stuck in the Outlet Mall parking lot for two hours! I only got in eight miles (a little over half) of my workout goal this week and my diet got put on hold a few days as well. I’m scared to get back on the scales at work on Monday! I’ll have to set an aggressive dietary plan to meet my weight goal by next Saturday for family pictures. The weather was generally warmer this week but we managed to put the Christmas tree up and now we are ready for some snow! Hello again and welcome to the latest installment of the Scheu Family Blog.
We enjoyed a warmer but rainy start to the week. It ended up raining all day. Thankfully, Ann & I had fast days at work. I walked about three miles outdoors for the first time in a couple weeks. Jerry met us at the house after work and got the darn wrench out of Barney’s engine compartment (how cool is a house call in this day and age??). Luke had school then drove the Hot Rod Lincoln with Gma home to get some stuff then back to the Fieldhouse to shoot around for a couple hours. That evening, he opened his high school basketball career as the frosh Pirates hosted a perennially-good Connersville team. It was an inauspicious start, in his first time ever playing on the big court. It is quite the adjustment this year as four of their starters did not return to this team (three moved up to JV and one decided not to play), so this team has a lot to learn about itself. This group of boys haven’t played together much and the coach is new to his position as well, which could spell the makings of a long season. They are a group of good boys, so they’ll figure it out eventually. The game was really close until midway through the 4th quarter and the boys ended up losing 22-27. Coach had some interesting combos of kids on the floor. I’m not sure why he didn’t play the boys left from last years’ A team for the majority of the game, but I understand he needs to figure out what he’s got on this squad and how they fit together. Luke got the start at power forward but played only about a third of the game, which really isn’t good for him. He needs to play several minutes straight to get into the flow of the game before he starts doing his thing. In addition, they had him out on the perimeter instead of running around, setting picks and banging down low – which is his game. Luke’s stats: 1 point on 0-1 field goal shooting and 1-2 from the charity stripe. That’s not that unusual, but what is more telling is that he only had 1 rebound, 1 forced turnover and 1 block. He also had only 2 fouls. Hopefully he will keep working and get more playing time so those numbers will go up. Here are pictures from Mom O’s birthday party last week.
Tuesday saw another rainy start to the day. We ran Black Betty into Jerry’s again. It was another fast day at work for us. I walked five miles on a cold afternoon. Luke had his final day of school for the week then went to basketball practice. He stayed afterward to watch the boys’ varsity basketball game. Matt & Abby also saw their last days of school before the long weekend and both came home that afternoon. Megan came over for a little while to visit with Abby & Ann. Later, we went to ElRep for dinner then came home and played euchre. The boys won 10-9. Afterward, the kids & I played Wii Mario Kart and called it a night.
It was a cold Wednesday morning and there was thick frost on the vehicles. Matt took Luke to basketball practice then they went to Gma & Gigi’s house that afternoon and didn’t leave until late that night. Ann & I left after a half day at work then I worked from home on my laptop. I changed out a turn signal and back-up bulb in Black Betty, but there’s a grounding issue that Jerry will have to tackle next week. By the time I finished doing my employees’ annual evals, it was dark and I had missed my window of opportunity to get out and walk on a cool but sunny day. Keith & Rosie drove in from NY that night. Abby & Mary joined Ann & I for cheeseburgers and tater tots for dinner. Bu & I watched a couple of taped Simpsons episodes then she went over to Mom & Sandy’s house. I finally had a chance to see #23 Purdue play #16 Virginia Tech in the championship game of the Charleston Classic from this past weekend. Unfortunately, the new team didn’t have enough down the stretch and lost their first game of the year and are now 4-1. Ann picked up her new glasses and now has to adjust to the progressive lenses. The kids and I wanted to play cards again that night, but Ann fell asleep. SO, we watched more Simpsons and called it a night. Here are random pictures from our recent adventures.
Ann was up early for her annual shopping trip with Sandy on Thanksgiving Day. This year was the first year that “Adult Abby??? joined them, in what is sure to be a new annual tradition as a threesome now. As is tradition, they shopped Rural King & Walmart for Bingo prizes then stopped over to go taste Mom’s dressing and stayed to visit. Meanwhile, the boys and I slowly got up and watched the coldest Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade on record. When the girls got back, they cooked a few dishes in the kitchen and then we headed over for our traditional lunch at Mom & Sandy’s house. It was a big crowd this year: Mom & Sandy; Keith, Rosie & Megan; Ann, the kids & I; Dee, Jamie & Grace; Cindy & JD; and “Grandpa??? Joe. The only thing better than the turnout was the huge meal this year: turkey, ham, sweet potatoes, noodles, tadies, dressing, homemade mac & cheese, dumplings, deviled eggs, Jamie’s baked bean, Rosie’s corn casserole, Ann’s green bean casserole, brussels sprouts casserole & rolls as well as pecan pie, pumpkin pie & some sort of red cake. Amazing! We watched the Bears beat the Lions then came home. Luke & I played football in the front yard then came in to watch the Cowboys beat the Redskins. Abby went to New Castle for another meal with Garrett. Luke & Ann went to Mom & Sandy’s to visit with Keith & Rosie, eat leftovers and play Cards Against Humanity. Matt went shopping with his buddies in Cincinnati. Luke stayed the night at Gma & Gigi’s and played Fortnight with Grace & Megan all night. I stayed home and napped while watching the Saints beat the Falcons and Ann brought home leftovers. Abby came home and we watched A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving.
We had an early start to Black Friday. Abby was the first one up. She went out shopping with Kuyhlia. Ann was next as she and Amy made their annual trek to the stores in their matching sweaters, bags & hideous headgear. Luke went to basketball practice while Matt slept in. I got up and did a few things around the house then picked up Luke. We worked outside, raking-up the back and front yards. Next, Luke drove Matt & I to Mom & Sandy’s where we raked her front yard then ate leftovers for lunch before coming home to winterize the yard tools and take the battery out of the truck for the winter. We got cleaned-up and watched Purdue get Coach Painter’s 300th win vs. Robert Morris. Abby came back and then the kids & I all took naps. When we got up, we headed back over to Mom & Sandy’s house where we wound up at Tarouya for dinner. We came back to their place and played games afterwards. Matt & I played Sandy & Jamie in euchre. We were on the verge of winning 2-1 when the bad guys came from behind and beat us 10-9 in the rubber match. Keith ordered Pizza King pizza and we had a few bottles of wine before calling it a night. We said our good-byes as Keith & Rosie will be heading back to Buffalo in the morning. Ann was home when we got back but she didn’t last long. We woke her up when we walked-in and then she went to bed to rest her aching knees. The kids & I stayed up late that night and Garrett spent the night with us. We have lots of social media pictures to share this week.
We enjoyed sleeping in before getting up to put up the Xmas tree and decorations on Saturday. Abby got the privilege of putting on the ugly orange bulb this year! It was much easier this year with the new storage tubs, ornament boxes and tree bag. We were pleased that all the LED lights still worked from last year, so that was a good investment. We got everything up and running and settled in to watch our first Christmas movie of the season (Die Hard) and take naps after Garrett went home. Later, Luke went to the high school basketball game and then stayed the night at Connor’s house. Meanwhile, Ann ordered pizzas and we played euchre. It was boys vs. girls again and this time, Matt & I swept the girls, two games to none. Afterward, we watched a couple movies and called it a night.
Matt was up early and in to work at Aspen Place, early on Sunday morning. He must’ve woken the dogs up because they got me up early to go outside. I couldn’t go back to sleep so I decided to stay up and let the others sleep in on a foggy morning. When the girls eventually got up, we did our weekly household chores. Luke returned from Connor’s house just as the girls left to go shopping. When they returned, they made potato soup for an early dinner. When Matt got off work, we all sat down for a nice family dinner and Brittany joined us. It was nice to have everyone together for a few meals this weekend, like we used to have as the kids were growing up. It’s little things like this that we didn’t realize we would miss as much as we do these days. Abby got Tonya all loaded up and we said goodbye to her before it got dark. Matt & I watched some NFL RedZone and the first half of the Colts game before he got Bebe all loaded up and we said goodbye to him as well. Luke worked on his Drivers Ed online class that evening and Ann & I watched the Colts win with a last second field goal by Vinatieri. We wound down the day by catching up on some DVR’d shows: Will & Grace, Seal Team and mid-season finale of The Walking Dead (what an episode…and the Whisperers are a cool twist!) as we waited for a storm to roll in overnight. We were supposed to see some moisture, wind and hail…as well as a possibility of snow by the time we wake up… It was the perfect way to wrap up the week before we really crank it up next week…
Next up is our Waybac section which continues to feature pictures from photo album #16 with shots of our young family in 2003: Matt at wrestling practice in February, Ann’s baby shower with her girls from work in June; Matt & Abby riding Baili & Rob’s horses after the Fair Parade at WTRE; and Matt’s basketball game at the YMCA in December.
And we end today’s entry with our video segment which features one new home movie this week as well as several from around the internet.
And that does it for this 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