Unlike last week when it was frigidly cold (-10 degrees and can you believe -50 wind chill??), this week saw a warming trend. Each day we inched closer and closer to that freezing mark until we finally got over it…only to be rained-on for the rest of the week. We continue to cough and hack with sore throats and runny noses. Matt worked and coached this week but did meet us in Shelbyville with Taylor for dinner and a bag of goodies that they left at the house over Christmas. Abby worked in Greenwood and spent the weekend up in Franklin with friends. We did see her for a little while this week, but not much. Luke spent time with friends while Sam was in Mexico with family. We did see him a little more, but not as much as we thought we would. Ann & I took the week off from work (for the most part; I mean, we’re always on-call). I took the week off from diet and exercise, including not playing any golf. That should be plenty of rest for my shoulder, elbow and ankle. We got to see Mom & Sandy a couple times and spoke with Robby & Dad B, who is doing better and still recovering from his procedure in the hospital a couple weeks ago. We put 2022 in the rearview mirror (thank goodness) but not before we had one more batch of bad luck. This damn year couldn’t end soon enough for us, man. We gladly welcomed in 2023 with the hopes that it will be healthier, happier and more prosperous than this previous year… Hello and Happy New Year from the Scheu fam…welcome to the latest edition of the blog.
It was snowing again when we woke up on Monday morning. It was the first day of our week-long vacation. Abby took the day off with us as well. We all enjoyed sleeping in that morning. Ann & I eventually got up as we have trouble sleeping much past 7 anymore. Still, we did manage to stay in bed past 8 at least. It continued to snow on and off all day but we really didn’t get a whole more, considering they were calling for about two inches. We may have gotten a quarter inch more. It was still cold, but not crazy cold like it had been. Still, it was well below freezing and kept us indoors all day. Delilah enjoyed playing in the backyard snow, but Lola was good with going in and doing her business…and then she was ready to come back inside. We didn’t do a whole lot that day. We cleaned-up the house a little, I did a couple loads of laundry and washed dishes…and Ann cooked a nice dinner of roast/potatoes/carrots. Other than that, we watched Christmas movies all day, including A Christmas Story Christmas (that’s the new one), It’s a Wonderful Life, Scrooged, The Family Stone, The Wizard of Oz, and WW84. Luke & Samantha left that afternoon and had a wild evening. Apparently, Luke was driving on his way to Columbus when he came upon quickly on a car going about 20 mph under the speed limit. When he tried to go around the car, they swerved into the other lane, as to block him. He eventually got around them, but I guess he followed them into town and actually came into the BP station after them. He then grabbed Luke by the throat and threatened him. Luke shoved him off and began to defend himself when the guy backed away and left. Luke went to the police station and made a report. He’s considering pressing charges and we told him we would support whatever choice he made. What the hell is wrong with people these days? This is the day after Christmas, for goodness’ sake!! They went on to Columbus to get their Chinese food then came home for a while to vent and work through his thoughts and get our take on the whole drama. They went back to her house for the night. Abs didn’t leave her room much, opting to do a lot of sleeping with Delilah. We watched the Colts get destroyed on MNF. I felt sort of bad, taking the Chargers defense on purpose because they were playing Indy. It worked out for me, as they earned 17 points for me and that allowed me to win fantasy football this week by 16 points. At least I won’t finish last this year (after winning the league last year)… Here are pictures from Christmas Eve last weekend.
We enjoyed sleeping in again on Tuesday morning – well, Ann & I did anyhow. Abby went into work and Luke worked that day as well. It was his first day without Ms. Samantha, as she was on a cruise with her family. He worked with Coach Harris, laying flooring at the new house. That evening, he worked out at the YMCA with Brayden, who is home from school for the holidays. Ann & I enjoyed a relaxing day at home. I cleaned-up the house a little then paid bills for a couple hours. We watched a few Christmas movies while napping. We went to Walmart to do our weekly shopping for supplies. It’s never good when we have separate carts… We got everything put away and went over to Mom & Sandy’s house for Deanna’s 50th birthday party. We sang to her, enjoyed some ice cream & cake, watched her open her gifts then grabbed a big stash of Christmas leftovers and made our way back home. Ann made us Fireworks popcorn for dinner and we watched another Christmas movie (The Polar Express) We turned off the movies and put on Jack Ryan…and promptly fell asleep. Abby was helping a friend in crisis that evening. She had an accident in the hallway with her drink, which woke me up…and by the time I helped her get things cleaned up, Luke had returned with Brayden & Oakley. They were all fired up and talked with Ann for quite a while as I went on to bed. The boys went out to see their buddy Brody, who was back from the army. Luke got back a little after Taco Bell closed at 4 am…ah, to be young again… Here are pictures from Christmas Day last weekend.
I slept pretty good with my new c-pap supplies that I installed yesterday. Ann said it was the best night she’d had in a long while as well. We watched more Christmas movies that day like National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation, Spirited (mixed reviews – I liked it…Ann not so much) & the classic from ’64 – Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer. We got cleaned-up and drove over to see Jami in Columbus for haircuts, stopping for lunch afterward – next door at Great Wall. When we got back, I did some filing stuff I’d put off for a while then spent an hour or two transferring all my golf gear into my new bag I got for Christmas (a very nice Squatch). Luke got up and went to work with Coach. When he got back, he ate, showered and passed out in his room. We didn’t see him the whole night! Abby got up that morning for work (suck to be you, Bu!) work at the Fox. Afterward, she wound up staying with her friends in Franklin. I ate up the last of Gigi’s sausage balls and ate the last turkey sandwich of the year. After Annie went to bed, I stayed up to finish editing the pictures and videos for this week’s blog – and there’s a big ol’ batch of them. I finished up watching all the Star Wars stuff from this year on Disney + and then started watching their new series called Willow, forcing myself to go to bed some time around 230 or so… Here are random pictures from our recent adventures.
Well, so much for the sun… After enjoying a day of bright sunshine yesterday (and melting all our snow in the process), we were back to more overcast skies on Thursday. I slept well again and awoke ready to go around 8, when it started to get light. I watched a couple movies and did some stuff on the computer before moving to the bedroom to clean out my dresser drawer. Now that’s something I’ve been meaning to do for many years. After I finished, we watched a few shows, including a show on AMC+ called Dark Winds. I cut up my last log of deer sausage and a brick of cheddar cheese, grabbed the bag of peanut butter fudge and headed out to the Bewley Bar B&B for Poker Night. Despite Bryan & Shawn still being down in Treasure Island, we managed to achieve a quorum with Rick, Scott, Mark (the Commish) and myself. We watched the Cowboys win, enjoyed some good bourbon, ate well and gave all our money to Mark that evening. ???? We have lots of social media pictures to share this week.
We enjoyed sleeping in again on Friday morning. I was again the first one up. Although I didn’t set out to, I wound up working a half day, catching up year-end finance stuff and doing time & attendance for my employees. Ann began cleaning out the hallway closet, purging old coats, jackets and the like. We found my old Jeff Gordon jacket. It was an expensive Christmas gift, back in the mid-nineties. I forgot how heavy it was. It has a matching hat and neither have been worn (more than just trying them on a couple times). Luke wound up taking pictures of it and posted it online to sell for $500. I doubt it will sell and I’m honestly not needing to get rid of it, so if it just sets in the closet – that’s fine with me (maybe not Ann!). When I finished working, I cleaned-out the bottom section and now all that’s left is the top. Ann wants me to relocate all the DVDs & VHS tapes to another location. I don’t mind storing them in the garage, but I’ll need a couple nice, sealing totes and some place to put them! We settled down for a few hours, finishing up binge-watching the rest of Dark Winds and then watched the newest episode of Yellowstone 1923. Luke played some video games and worked out at the Y. Abby got off work early due to month-end stuff and came home. She got her oil changed at Drew’s Tree City Lube and then retreated to her room (to clean?). We made plans that evening to meet Matt & Taylor to give them a bag of stuff. We decided to take them to dinner at Pudder’s in Shelbyville. With Samantha still in Mexico with her fam, Luke ended up joining us that evening. We thought Abby might join us as well but she decided to got Franklin to spend the New Years weekend with Carly. We had a nice visit with Matt & Taylor, enjoying good food and a couple good beers while catching up with them. The boys were…well…boys. I swear they’re still 11 and 3 at times. We eventually said our goodbyes and headed home in the rain. The redesigned downtown square looks great. I know they had it closed off for about a year…and it was worth it! When we got home, Luke noticed that the Wi-Fi was having issues. I wound up working on it for several hours, eventually finding that we were having an electrical issue in the family room. The power went up and down a few times before dropping out completely. I think we may have lost a breaker, so we might have to see if Danny can change that out for us. I was able to borrow power from the living room to get us going temporarily. The breaker in question is the same one that gave us trouble in the summer. We just hope that Danny can diagnose and correct the issue. After Ann went to bed, I watched the last Purdue game from Thursday night. Between the temps in the 50s and the rain that came and went the entire day, all the rest of the snow melted away that day. Now it’s just brown and sad outside. Here are pictures of new additions to my Hot Wheels collection.
We enjoyed sleeping in again on Saturday morning. It was New Year’s Eve but we didn’t feel much like celebrating. Maybe it was the fact that we sort of wished we were in Florida with our friends, maybe it was the fact that we need repairs in the house (dishwasher and electric issues) and maybe it was the fact that we’ve been fighting off some sort of illness for a couple weeks now. The weather started off a little blah as well. We slowly got up and cleaned up the house a bit. Danny came over and worked in the breaker box. He wound up replacing the breaker and it seems to be working for now. I guess we’ll see. I still need to move all the power back out there but didn’t feel like fooling with it that afternoon. Instead, I ran errands while Annie napped, nursing her aching head and dealing with medicine head. We politely told the Drakes that we’d have to take a rain check and I went out to get something for us to eat that night while watching college football and ringing in the new year. I went to CVS to pickup supplies to use up our flex card. It was a use-it-or-lose-it type of thing, so she got a bunch of OTC meds that we use on a regular basis. I ran out to Walmart to get some stuff that I could make and then got gas/slushes out at Tree City Travel (Amoco and Sonic). After putting everything away, we watched the Fiesta Bowl. At halftime, I “cooked??? munchies for us to hang out and watch the college football playoff games. I spoke to Robby and Dad, who are both in Florida at Rob & Sharon’s house. Dad sounded much better than the last time I spoke to him. Robby said they had a good time in Tennessee but were glad to be home. Rob had quite the spread that night for their festivities. As for us, I had frozen stuff: White Castle sliders, Cheddar Bay biscuits from Red Lobster, TGI Fridays jalapeno poppers & cheese sticks as well as two new flavors of Lays – Lemon (they were weird but better the more you ate) and bacon-wrapped jalapeno popper flavor – that one was actually pretty good. I washed it down with the growler of Six-Foot Strawberry Blonde Quaff-On beer that I picked up last Thursday when I took the guys from work out to lunch at Big Woods. It wasn’t anything fancy, but we enjoyed it (well I did…I think Annie was just happy not to have to cook). Michigan & TCU went back and forth in the 2nd half, including the record-setting 3rd quarter, which featured the highest number of points ever for a playoff game (44). The Wolverines had their chances, but in the end – after 96 points (2ND of all-time in a playoff game) – the Horned Frogs advance to the national championship. Abby stayed up in Franklin and opted to ring in 2023 with Carly at her old haunt – Bojak’s. Luke ran some donation coats and other clothing out to the Good Will then lifted weights at the YMCA with Oak & Ethan. They went to Columbus to have an early dinner at Panda Garden. After showering, he picked up Ethan and they came back to raid the fridge for their NYE party. Ann and I settled in with the dogs to watch the second college playoff game. The second big game of the day was the Peach Bowl, which was just as entertaining as the early game with OSU & Georgia going back and forth. It came down to a last second field goal attempt, but the Big 10 will not be represented in the finals as the Buckeye’s kick sailed wide right with 3 seconds left. So, it will Bulldogs defending their title against TCU next week. We flipped between the end of the game, the coverage at Time’s Square with Ryan Seacrest (it was awful) and the coverage of the “music note??? drop in Nashville. We really enjoyed that coverage and will probably not even watch any of the Dick Clark show any longer… We stayed up for a couple hours, watching the Nashville coverage before calling it a year…
2023 started off cold, damp and gloomy. After being up late, Ann & I enjoyed sleeping in the latest we have all vacation. Although it was Sunday, it certainly felt like a Saturday. I guess it essentially is for us since we have Monday off as well. I made some corned beef hash with my eggs for good luck in the coming year. When Annie got up, she said her migraine had finally begun to subside. We finished binge-watching Friend of the Family on Peacock. Luke came home from spending the night with his buddies, ate lunch, watched a little football with me and quickly retreated to his bedroom. Ann made us our traditional NYD meal – a Bryan family recipe called Rebel Dogs. It contains cabbage for good luck. She doubled up with a salad that had cabbage in it as well – we’ll take as much good luck as we can get!! I put on RedZone after tiring of watching the Colts get destroyed again. I finished up this week’s blog entry while Ann read and the dogs slept. After lunch, we put away the leftovers and as I was doing dishes, I noticed that we had a Gigi in our backyard! Delilah went out to play with Olive and Sandy. Ann joined them for a bit before everyone came inside. Ann even convinced Maryann to come in and play some euchre. Ann & I should’ve won both games, seeing as to how we were in the lead and in the barn both times…only to wind up losing 11-9 and 12-9. So, Gma & Gigi are officially undefeated in 2023! ???? Abby came home as we were chilling and watching football. We enjoyed listening to all her stories from the weekend, including getting busted in the nose by Carly while playing darts at the bar. Later, we had a find-your-own dinner and checked our fantasy football teams before switching over to Paramount and watching the mid-season finale of Yellowstone and then flipped over to Paramount+ for the next episode of 1923 (the Yellowstone spin-off). It was a relaxing way to wind down the long weekend and a great way to wrap up another fast week, here at the Scheu abode.
Next up is our Waybac section which continues to feature digital pix from Dee-Dee’s camera in 2008. We lead off with more pictures at the Indy Children’s Museum in Jan as well as a couple pix of NYC – both in January; then we move to March for a picture from Easter as well as Texas Stadium; in July we see a bunch of new pictures from the 4th of July as well as a couple of Grace’s birthday; in August, we have lots of pix from summer vacation fun (I think all of these are from King’s Island?); and in December we see more pictures from Christmas Eve.
We wrap up with our video segment again this week, which includes a pair of new home movies this week as well as several from around the internet.
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 and stay safe out there. Have a prosperous 2023! We miss ya, Mom.
Later, Scheu