Who was Fitted with Collar and Chain…Who was Given a Pat on the Back

Another week has sped past us already. The weather has been typical for Indiana, getting as cold as the upper 20’s and as warm as the upper 70’s. On Monday, Lukey was still feeling pretty bad. I took Lukey to walk-ins where Dr. Fangman gave him some medicine for a sinus infection and a puffer for his labored breathing. I dropped him off at Ann’s work afterwards and he and Mom went home for the rest of the day to take it easy. We uploaded a picture to the LegoClub.com since he had been bugging me to do it since the summer. Matt went to his first varsity football practice. He was awfully tired when he got back home! Ann had potato soup ready when I got home (I could get used to her staying home!). I repaired yet another bike tire (this time, Ann bought me a new one that has some kind of leak-guard inside it, so we’ll see). Ann took Abby to jazz dance practice before heading off to play bunko with her friends for the night. It finally rained a little bit that evening as well. The Monday Night Football game was so boring we actually turned it off. I noticed that Gigi had uploaded a little ditty to the WTRE webpage over the weekend that paid tribute to Matt’s undefeated and conference championship football team. Oh; and I think I forgot to formally congratulate Gigi on the purchase of the radio station!! I guess it has been in the works now behind the scenes for a few months. I held off on saying anything until the FCC okayed it. It was about a week or two ago that we received the official notification that she and her team had purchased the radio station from Keith, so she’s been very excited!! There has been rumor of moving the station over to FM and possibly even changing formats. My vote is for classic hard rock!! Unfortunately, Matt’s final scheduled game (which was to be a combo JV/freshman game) was cancelled due to North Decatur not having enough kids to even field a team.

Lukey retuned to school on Tuesday and brought home a bunch of homework. The kids played outside for quite a while in the front yard with their friends which allowed me to go for a long bike ride myself. It was a bit nipply out there that evening and we would eventually have our first front warning during that overnight. Matt was again absolutely exhausted and went to bed very early that night. I followed suit and went on to bed after falling asleep on the couch a couple times myself, but not before checking out a local band I’ve been hearing lots of things about over the past couple years, but never had a chance to check ‘em out on the net. I heard an interview with the boys this afternoon on my favorite radio station, Y-106, just a couple blocks away from my work in Columbus and tonight, I have to say I became a fan of 650north. They are out of Osgood, IN; just a few miles away from here. I was very, very impressed. It won’t take long for these boys to land a major recording contract. …and get this; their lead singer is named Matt Schueman! I had to have my labs drawn at Ann’s office on Wednesday morning. It was a nice, quiet evening. All the kids were in bead early that night – including Matt was falling asleep on the playroom couch after supper. Ann signed up Lukey for basketball at the YMCA. He’ll really enjoy that, I’m sure. Let’s just hope he stays away from the fire alarm pull stations!! Abby also decided she was going to play intramural girls’ basketball at the elementary school. I’m not sure when that starts, but she’s been getting the basketball out at night and practicing her dribbling out in the front all week. I was overjoyed when Ann texted me today at work and told me that she had scored tickets to the Colts vs. Cowboys game on December 5!!! We are going to go with Dan & George and their wives. I am so excited! I wonder if Dallas will even have a winning record by the time that game rolls around. That evening, we uploaded a new Scheu family video for Halloween:

This was the first Thursday in a long time that we didn’t have a football game to prepare for that evening. It was kind of weird, to be honest. Instead, the boys and I just hung out around the house. It was very cold; dipping down in to the low 30’s that night. Ann took Abby on to tap dance class. Luke decided he needed to take pictures of the dogs and their long fur. He had so much fun he started taking self-portraits and then eventually had me take pictures of him – what a ham!

Friday couldn’t get here fast enough. It was a long week at work and I wrapped up my work week by getting out a couple hours early – only to go to my bi-annual doctor appointment. I already knew that my labs weren’t as perfect as they had been the previous 2 years. So we discussed my workouts and he said that bike riding was only about half as good as walking. If I wanted to continue riding bikes, it needed to be for an hour at a time. Well, I barely can find time to do half an hour, so it looks like it’s back to walking for me. I plan to take the weekend off and get started on Monday. That evening, Abby went to stay the night with her friend Megan who lives in a new house with her mom Julie (Ann’s friend) and her older sister and cheerleader, Mallory (Matt’s friend). Luke went to stay the night with his best friend Alex at their classmate’s house. His name is Jeremy, but Lukey can’t pronounce it correctly and calls him, lovingly, Germie! 🙂 It was an overnight sleeping bag party, so we dug out the old sleeping bag and Luke just thought it was the coolest thing ever. So did we – since we were now headed to Batesville for Matt’s first sectional game without any kids! We met up with Paul (who now lives in Batesville with his wife Dayla and their two boys, Cayden & Conner). His boys were very good for the most part. They are both so cute. It was great to see Paul; we hadn’t seen them since early in the summer at our Memorial Day party, I think. Matt and the Pirates looked like they did last week. Their game plan was predictable and uninspired. They boys didn’t execute well either and turned the ball over were flagged numerous times – much the crowd’s chagrin (and they let the referee hear it as well). Even the though Greensburg eventually began to move the ball with the pass, it was too late and really wasn’t as close as the 25-20 score sounds. Matt again saw no action as the Bulldogs put an end to his season for good. He’ll turn in his pads on Monday afternoon before heading over to wrestling practice to start up his next sport. We are very proud of Matt’s accomplishments this year in fall sports and that he was only one of six freshmen to dress for the sectional game. After the game, I ran Ann out to Chili’s for dinner and a drink with her BFF Amy. She looks fantastic, having dropped several pounds recently. It was good to see the Texas Rangers defeat the Yankees and head to their ever World Series to represent the American League.

The next morning, we were up fairly early as Ann headed over to Columbus with her mom for an exciting visit to the sewing store. I did a few winterizing projects around the house early in the day before hitting the couch for some serious flopping and slacking. I was appalled at the Boilermakers’ showing at the Big House in Columbus, OH. I ended up turning the game off at halftime when they were down 42-0. I couldn’t watch it any longer. Apparently, Ohio St. brought in the back-ups for the second half…and still Purdue was shut out by the Buckeyes, 49-0. …Sounds like it was a boring 2nd half; glad I changed the channel… Rob & Sharon were supposed to go to the Alabama vs. Tennessee game, which should’ve been a good one! I kept looking for it on TV, but never found it. It was a quiet afternoon before the kids starting coming back. Lukey was first, joined by Alex – who ended up staying with us that night. We went and picked up Abby and headed off to our good friend Pat’s annual fall bash. With the threat of rain showers and a burn ban, things weren’t looking good for a while. However, it only rained a total of about 20 seconds and never gave us any other problems. The weather was very warm that night – much warmer than last year. Ann brought chocolate brownies and cheesy potatoes. Pat again had a pork roast, horse shoes, cornhole, a bonfire, four-wheelers and a hayride. The kids had a blast again. Not only was Paul there with his family, but we also saw our friends Gino, Wes, Justin, Rodney and Wayne (and their families) – among others – to make up a crowd that was much more intimate than last year’s. We brought Alex along with us since his family was at volleyball sectionals with his sister, so it worked out good. Matt and I dominated play in the cornhole arena and did fairly well at horseshoes. Wayne and I eventually paired up in the final match of the evening and overthrew Paul & Pat, who had been undefeated up to that point. We had one serious issue that night, as a girl we didn’t know put Wes’ four-wheeler through a barb-wired fence. It could’ve been a lot worse than what it ended up being. She only suffered a few cuts, but that was enough for us to park the four wheelers for the night. I took Luke & Alex out several times, as well as Bu. I also let her drive a couple laps eventually. Matt took the little ones out for a ride as well and did really well on the one with a clutch! Gino had to get out and show us how it was done, popping some really good wheelies! We were disappointed that his wife and our good friend Tina didn’t make it this year. It was sad to think that it had already been year for not only Paul losing his father but we also lost our comrade, Ryan about this time last year as well. Alex and Lukey had a sleeping bag party in the playroom and were out nearly instantaneously – in fact we all were. Thanks for another great party, Pat!!

Ann and the boys were up early to shower and head to church with Christy on Sunday morning. When Luke retuned later, around lunchtime, he went back to bed and didn’t get up until almost suppertime because he was so foul. He was up for only a couple hours and was back in bed due to continued grumpiness. Abby & I did chores around the house most of the day as Matt played Xbox and Ann took a well-deserved nap – hopefully it will help her with headaches she had all week. Ann did a lot of cooking this week – not that she doesn’t normally; but this week we had a menu – which was kind of cool. She even made us her cheesy corn dip today as a bonus for football games and racing (thanks honey!). It was good to see the # 24 car doing well at one of my favorite tracks – Martinsville…until that a-hole Kurt Busch (can’t stand either one of them on the race track) put Jeff in the wall. I wanted retaliation so badly, but ever the consummate professional – Gordon kept a level head during the race and pulled out a top-20 finish somehow, to his credit. The Colts had the week off and the Cowboys play tomorrow night. I was intrigued to hear that the Giants were heading to the World Series. Even though I am definitely a National League guy normally, I have to pull for the Rangers. The best game of the weekend was on Sunday night as Favre went back to Green Bay. It was fun to watch. Matt & I had a couple talks about tackling since it seemed everyone else was…about how to properly hit someone. Here is a video for this week:

Here are a bunch of other videos from this week off the net:

Now let’s take a look at a bunch of Waybac pictures:

Leading off this week, we have several from the fifties and sixties, including Great-grandma Brown in an undated photo I am guessing is from early in the prior decade, a picture Dad O took at the Indy 500 track from the mid-fifties through the decade, 2 school pictures of Dad B from Oakland Elementary (my old stomping grounds as well) in the latter part of the decade, Grandpaw B in his police uniform in March of ’54 and another in a nice photo from 1959; Dad B yet again in fall of ’61 at Sunnyside (?) in his 8th grade school photo, a great picture of the Morgan family on Christmas Day at Norma & Ralph’s home in ’64; and finally a nice picture of Great grandma & Great grandpa Morgan, also in ’64.

Next up, we have A couple crops of our young family in an undated photo in what I think is likely early ’78 in our living room on Shortridge St in Lafayette; three pictures in Grandmaw & Grandpaw Brown’s house on Elmwood Ave during Christmas in 1980 (our first Christmas back in Lafayette) – including pics of Aunt Lou Atha on the “davenport???, Dad B with Grandmaw & Schnappsie and then Schnapps showing off his new candy cane in the dining room; a picture in December of ’82 with us doing the Bryan Christmas at Sharon & Dan’s house in Kokomo – pictured are Dad B, Uncle Dan, Rob in a fantastic frog vest (that is sweet, buddy!), Katie, Aunt Belinda and yours truly; Rob is pictured in his baseball uniform in left field from an undated pic in what I think is about ’87 perhaps (Rob, maybe you have a better idea??); a picture of Steve Page & Uncle Ralph Spoor at a Morgan family reunion in that little church on the outskirts of Lafayette where we held them for years from what I estimate to be the late eighties and three pictures of a vacation in Wisconsin, also likely from the late 80’s that has Dad B driving a boat, Uncle Kenny on to the docks looking cool and Dad B & Uncle Kenny staggering off the boat after returning from a day at sea where they supposedly caught more than just a buzz. 🙂

Next up we have four pictures from June of ’89 in what looks to be out at Norma & Ralph’s house and includes Mom, Dad & Rob, our cousins Brent & Emily, Aunt Norma, Aunt Lou, Uncle Ralph, our cousins Karen & Cathy and her son (his name escapes me at the moment) and Grandpaw Brown; Rob back at the Rockwood St pad in late June of ’89 also; a couple pictures of Abby’s room on Main St and Matt in his cool racing-themed bedroom also – ball from October of ’99 and also a cute one of Tammy and her kiddos at Mom & Dad’s house up on the hill while trick-or-treating in ’99.

In our final segment, we have nine pictures from December in 2000, including several from Christmas Day morning at our Main St home with Abby and her grandparents (and gigis); the Brown Christmas at Tammie & Brett’s house including her with her kids and the Timm’s (Kathy, Missy & Trudi); an awesome Biddinger family picture with Mo & Poppy and Gigi and her siblings from about 2003 (?); and finally Natalie & McKenzie with newborn Lukey in our current home in September of ’04.

That’s it for this edition of the Scheu Family Blog. Thanks as always for keeping up with us this time and we’ll catch up with you next time. Until then, have a good one.
Later, Scheu