The Scheu family enjoyed a slower pace around the house this week as Ms. Ann continued to recover from her double knee surgery. She has made great strides in her recovery. She is doing exercises daily and is getting up and around better this week. As time goes on, new aches and pains have begun to show their head and we think she may have strained a muscle in her leg – just for good measure. Matt had a good week of student teaching up at Union Elementary in Zionsville and tired to spend as much time as he could with Ms. Taylor at U Indy. Abby is wrapping up her Winter (“J???) Term and is gearing up to begin her spring semester at Franklin. Luke ended his basketball season and now will turn his attention to baseball while still attending football workouts. My diet and exercise remained on hiatus this week as I continued to stay with Ann and help her through these trying times. As her doctor put it and I keep reminding her – it’s a marathon, not a sprint. It was a big week for Ms. Ann as she not only made progress in her recovery but she also survived another trip around the sun this week. Hello again and welcome to the latest entry of the Scheu Family Blog.
We had a bitterly cold start to the week on Monday, which was MLK Day. Luke had the day off from school. I took off another week to help care for Ann as she continued to rehabilitate her knees. It was a quiet day around the house but she’s obviously getting better. Dr. Guse said not to focus so much on the pain as much as the flexibility. She was still in great pain, but she can do more with her legs that last week. Ann’s scrapbooking friend Dinah brought us dinner that was delicious – her chicken tetrazzini and homemade mashed potatoes really hit the spot! Ann ate at the dinner table for the first time, which was a big step! Later, Amy came over to visit and brought us another round of food (thx Ames!). We watched a couple movies on the big screen and kept warm on the couches, enjoying a lazy day and night. Here are pictures of Luke’s basketball game last week at Lawrenceburg.
Luke enjoyed a two-hour delay for school on Tuesday morning. After a fast day, he attended basketball and then stayed late for the girls’ basketball game with his buddies. Ann & went to Columbus that day. I ran past work and Ann had physical therapy. My generator test failed big time as I accidentally severed all power to the entire building and had to call our contracted vendor for service (if it isn’t one thing, it’s another!). Ann’s PT really whipped her butt that day – she was wiped-out afterward. We ate Dinah’s meal for lunch at the kitchen table again and then Ann took a well-deserved nap in her chair. I finalized details that evening with Jerry to get Abby’s car repaired and back to her.
It rained all day on Wednesday, causing the whole area to have flood warnings. Luke had basketball after school again. He was proud to show me he had brought his math grade up since we worked on it last week and now has a B+ in the class (good job, little buddy!). I worked from home all day. Although Ann sore was sore, she did her daily exercises and is getting up and down from the bed much better. She is also doing well at getting up and down from the dining room table where she taught me how to make popcorn on the stove in the pot with oil that night! We enjoyed big bowls of Fireworks popcorn for dinner, thanks to her excellent instruction. She is 50/50 on getting up from the commode so we are getting her a riser. She still needs help getting up from her recliner. She still has the pain and swelling and is tired because she isn’t sleeping well at night. She did take a few laps around the house today. It really cooled off that night and we bundled up and fell asleep watching shows on the big screen with the dogs under a pile of blankets. Here is Luke’s basketball game from last week vs. Hauser – their final home game of the year.
As advertised, Thursday was much colder that morning. I worked from home all morning. Luke got up on his own and caught his ride for school, which I think was the first time that ever happened! He had basketball practice after school. Ann was doing pretty good but she is trying to ween herself off the pain meds. In doing so, she is now feeling some new aches in her bones today. I ran to Columbus to get her more meds to combat this new pain. I stopped by work and grabbed my mail – which was about 6??? high! CVS said the Rx would take them an hour so I ran a couple errands, including running a check over to Mr. Abrell. He took several great pictures of Luke and the rest of the team at last week’s final home game. I think it took about a week or so for the pictures to come back during football season. I hope to share those with in the next week or two, here on the blog. Once I got back to the drug store, I still waited an additional half hour before they had her meds ready. When I got back, I installed her new commode riser, which has made her life a whole lot easier…she’s just sad that it isn’t heated like her new toilet seat!
Luke & I were up early on a bone-chilling Friday morning to run him into football practice before school. He stayed after school for basketball practice – quite possibly the last one of his freshman year. Ann slept in while I worked from home that morning again. She had PT around noon, so we made the journey back to Columbus again. The Barney-mobile had been wreaking strongly of gasoline the last week or so. I called Jerry and he told me to bring it next week. However, for whatever reason, it did just fine that day – no smells at all. While she was working hard in therapy, I ran into work for a while. We came home and Annie took a nap while I finished watching the Stargate SG-1 series again. In lieu of watching it yet again, I began Stargate Atlantis. Later, we binge-watched the first half of the new season of Grace & Frankie till we fell asleep. I was exhausted from the long week and turned-in early. I ended up sleeping eleven hours that night! Here are random pictures from our recent adventures.
Luke & I up were up early on Saturday for his year-end EIAC basketball tourney in Rushville. This is the one that had been postponed twice last week due to the weather. Ann stayed in bed until Amy came over to spend the morning with her. I followed the bus over early and I’m glad I did! About half there, we learned the game had been pushed up to 9! We were obviously late getting to the gym and barely had enough time to warm up before we were tipping off with most of the parents still on their way to the game. We faced East Central in this opening round of the tourney. Luke started at power forward again and played about 2/3 of the game. We were hopeful that maybe the coaching philosophy would be different in a tournament situation…but it wasn’t, unfortunately. After getting down early in the first quarter, the boys kept the game close through the second. After the half, they pulled to within two points but then the substitutions began again and by the time the third quarter ended, EC was starting to pull away. In the end, they lost 31-45, finishing the season at 4-7 and mercifully putting this season to rest. Luke’s stats: 0-1 shooting (do you even count it as a shot if he throws the ball like a baseball the length of the court at the buzzer??). He turned the ball over twice and forced a couple turnovers as well. He had nine rebounds and a steal as well as three fouls. After following the bus back to the school, Luke, Shiv and I went out to eat. We tried to go to El Rep but they were closed so we went to Chili’s for lunch. We brought takeout home to Ms. Ann and as the boys played PS4, I wrote out bills. Later, I ran the boys to the YMCA where they played basketball for another couple hours. Ann & I binge-watched the rest of season five of Grace & Frankie and then watched the rest of season 1 of Jack Ryan. As Ann went to bed, I put on a movie called Law Abiding Citizen – which was excellent. We have lots of social media pictures to share this week.
Sunday was Ann’s 49th birthday! We slept for a little while before getting up to do our weekly household chores. We had a light dusting overnight and Luke went out and shoveled a good path for Gma & Gigi to walk safely on. At noon, Mom & Sandy, Amy, Dee, Jamie & Grace, and Matt, Abby & Garrett joined Luke & I to spend time with the birthday girl on her special day. Mom, Sandy & Dee brought a huge meal of homemade beef manhattans, noodles and green beans along with a big salad and tons of toppings! After lunch we sang the worst birthday song in the history of the tune. After Ann blew out her candles, we ate cupcakes (49 of them!) and ice cream. Her chocolate ones were good, but the caramel were to die for! Next, she opened presents and cards as we visited and watched the Boilers upset #6 Spartans at Mackey! After Jamie and the gals left, Megan came over and we played euchre with Abby & Meg vs. Matt & I. The girls had us down big time but we came storming back to remain 10-9. The kids all headed back to school afterward and Ann napped while I watched the Pro Bowl and Luke played Fortnight online. Amy came back over that night with yet more food! We ate well again that night with all the food in our fridge right now. We relaxed and watched a cool movie called Sicario: Day of the Soldado. Dad & Barb called Ms. Ann to wish her a happy birthday. After Ann fell asleep later, I put on a new Rush special called ‘The Rise of Kings.’ It was a great way to wind down the week, here at the Scheu abode, before we start it all over again tomorrow….
Next up is our Waybac section which continues to include photos from our vacation to Disney World in June 2004. We lead off with our safari in Animal Kingdom then we meet up with Keith & Rosie in the Contemporary; Bu & I riding the TriceraTop Spin in Animal Kingdom; catching the Beauty & the Beast show in MGM Studios; Bu posing with characters and a couple Toy Story landmarks in MGM (now called Hollywood Studios); Bu & I in Epcot at the Japan Pavilion and the American Adventure; then more pix from Animal Kingdom where the kids made masks and we watched a really colorfully cool parade.
Next up is our video section, which includes two new home movies this week and several from around the internet.
And that does it for this week’s entry into 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