Bell Flight Fourteen You now can Land

Bell Flight Fourteen You now can Land

The kids enjoyed their Spring Break this week. We were boring this year, staying home and taking it easy. Ann continued to recuperate her ailing right arm. On Monday, Ann called me in obvious pain and we left early so she could go rest. I went over to pick up the kids at Brandy’s house early and ended up staying about a half hour to play kickball with them at her house. That night, the weather was beautiful so the kids and I went for a long bike ride after work. We played outside until dark…as we did for much of the week. Matt made the paper one more time for wrestling in that night’s paper. Ann proudly displayed her signature-riddled cast as she passed out on the couch.

On Tuesday, Ann stayed home to rest and after work, the kids and I went out to buy a new bike for Dad. I ended up getting the same kind of bike Matt had, which he didn’t appreciate much. He started teasing me saying we were the BFF BC…the Best Friends Forever Bicycle Club…smart ass…We ended up riding bikes again until it was too dark to stay out. We enjoyed popcorn and American Idol; especially Crystal Bowersox! Sandy let me go through her pictures and I found a few that I didn’t have, including a couple of her with their friend Susan (Matt’s 5th grade teacher) and a couple more from Matt’s last home wrestling meet.

On Wednesday, Grandma and Gigi left town to visit Keith, Rosie and Megan (who was celebrating a birthday!). Dee ended up in Cincy for the week, as Gracie went to New Hampshire to be with her Daddy. That left Matt to step up to be the dog watcher for the remainder of the week; which he willingly did. After we got home and rode around the neighborhood for a few hours. Matt & I then rode back to Maryann & Sandy’s house to get the dogs out one more time. It was a pretty good ride and Matt was ready to do it again the next night. Unfortunately, the weather started to deteriorate, turning colder and wetter on Thursday, so we had a nice quite night off from everything!! YES!!
On Friday, I was getting ready to leave work (on time for once!), when the fire alarm went off…ugh…I ran downstairs to the panel only to find that a child had ripped off a smoke detector out of the ceiling. I ended up staying another three hours until the issue was resolved. When I got home, the kids were just settling down. Luke, Abby and I ended up watching The Princess and the Frog on our new laptop while lying on our bellies on our master bed. The kids fell asleep during it, but I thought it was really good and loved the jazz music soundtrack. It was also Megan’s birthday. Gigi took several great pictures of the birthday girl. She’s so cute and looks so mature…well most of the pictures anyhow! 😛

On Saturday, we worked around the house and ran errands all day. The kids helped me to put in a new dryer vent through the wall to the outside of the house. The old one looked awful and it looks really nice now. The kids and I dug out all their baseball / softball equipment from the back of the garage and tried on everything to see what all the Easter Bunny needed to bring this year. Our friends Phyllis & Dick came over to wish Matt an early happy birthday. I believe they have been to every single one of Matt’s birthdays with us! They had to go out of town tomorrow for his official birthday, so it was very sweet of them to come over and spend time with us. We then played a game of tee ball out in the front lawn until Ann came out and said it was time to get ready. That’s right; we actually went out on a date! We put Matt in charge of the little kids and headed out for a night on the town with our old friends. My best friend Paul and his wife Dayla, Wes and his wife, Wayne and his wife as well as our good friend Pat all met up over in Columbus at an old haunt – Fourth Street Bar. They have great greasy food, good service for our drinks and even a live band. Of course the guys were all glued to the TV to take in the NCAA tourney games and absolutely loved all the upsets – especially Kansas! We had a great time and vowed to do it more often…

On Sunday our baby turned fourteen. I still can’t believe it myself. He looks so much older recently; even Ann has noticed it. He has grown recently and has dropped weight at the same time, looking more mature…not quite acting like it consistently, but better. 🙂 Grandma, Gigi, Dee, Jamie, Grace, Natalie, Brayton, McKenzie and Brody all came over to celebrate with us. Ann got a great cake from her best friend Amy’s mom (who has done most of our cakes through the years). The kids played outside until it was time for cake, ice cream and presents. Matt’ favorite presents included his netbook, Call of Duty 2 X-box game, his paintball gun and accessories and of course lots of cash!! That night we were all excited to watch the Purdue game and were ecstatic that they took the game in to OT and then actually won the darn thing to advance to the Sweet Sixteen!! Granted, they’re about to run in to a buzz saw by playing Duke this Friday night during the last game of the opening round; but we’re just thrilled that they’ve made it this far. They really should’ve lost both of the games this week, but to their credit – they made the right plays when they needed to…oh if only Hummel were healthy…

We have plenty of classic photos for this week’s Waybac feature. Leading off, is an old picture of Maryann from the early 40s. I’m glad I got to this one when I did; as the original is in real bad shape…I did the best I could with it; next is Maryann in August of ’61 by some kind of candy stand; Mom in her Easter best in 1962; Grandpaw in March of ’63 working one of his famous crossword puzzles at his dining room table; my last picture of Brenda & Steve’s wedding in December of 1967, pictures with Aunt Norma & Uncle Ralph; Mom & Dad Scheu at their wedding reception in the K of C’s; and Mom and I in December of ’68.

Next up is Ann around 1974 on the beach (cute bum, babe!); Ann & Dee approximately 1 year later in their backyard near the high school; Grandmaw, Grandpaw & Lou Atha in August of ’76; Ann & Dee during the blizzard of ’77; Nathan on March 8, 1978; Mom, Dad B and I outside the courthouse in Lafayette on June 9, 1978; and Aunt Norma, a friend and me with the photo bomb at Mom Dad B’s wedding reception at the 40 & 8.

Then we have Grandpaw and Great Grandpa Morgan in January of 1980 at Grandpaw’s home; an interesting picture from April of 1980 of our young family with Dad B’s friend (Steve Heier?) in California (this was a beautiful house with a pretty daughter named Christy, I think); a cute one of Nathan with Pooh watching over him in our living room on Kenwood St in LaPorte in August of ’80; Gigi in the eighties working for WTRE – love that big-ass tape recorder Sandy!; Ann with her stuffed animal collection – circa ’83; Dad B in his new garage at our Rockwood St home in LaPorte; Rob with his new puppy Peanuts in the summer of ’83; Rob & I at our birthday party in October of 1985; Maryann & Sandy at the beach in 1985; and Maryann with one of Ann’s (?) good friends…

Finally, we have beautiful young Ms. Dee in ’91; Ann in ’93 with Gigi at a motel in LaPorte for Keith & Rosie’s wedding; speaking of the devils, here they are in ’93; and finally Rob in May of ’96.

Well that’s it for this episode of the Scheu Family Blog. Thanks for hanging out with us for a little while. We’ll catch up with you next time. Until then, have a good one.
Later, Scheu