Well…it’s been another interesting week for us. You know us; never a dull moment! We started off the week with much cooler temperatures. We were glad to see the humidity take a nose dive, but we’re not quite ready to let go of the hot summer temps just yet. I know I’d like to get in the pool at least one more time over Labor Day weekend. Matt went to football practice after school. Abby went to jazz dance class and then on to soccer. Luke had soccer as well also. I am not coaching this year (at least not yet!), which allows me to get in my daily exercise out at practice, so I walked during practice – still trying to lose the 10 pounds I gained over vacation! That night, I had a message on Facebook from an old high school buddy, Tom Korell (TK). He had written to let me know that I had been voted in to the (LaPorte) Slicer High School football Hall of Fame!! I couldn’t believe it and in fact I still have not been able to confirm it yet; but apparently the induction ceremony isn’t until next May. I’m not sure where to check for confirmation but I did update all my info on the LaPorte alumni page so the school will be able to get a hold of me if they need to. Wow; what a cool honor… I don’t suppose I’ll be getting a call from Franklin College anytime soon though…unless it’s the injury Hall of Fame! LOL! Speaking of injuries – on Tuesday, we received a call from the high school stating that Matt had been injured at school. Apparently he had been leaning against a wall that held a bunch of (oddly enough) all the pictures of the athletes in the Hall of Fame. He sliced a big chunk out of his right palm, getting it relay deep. He made it through the school day and football practice but was in significant pain when he got home. Ann ran him out to the urgent care center where he received 4 stitches to seal it back up…making him officially the first to get both a broken bone and stitches in the family!
On Wednesday, we were back at it in full force as Matt returned to football (wrapping up his wrist and jumping right in). Luke & Bu were back out at the soccer fields for practices as well. Matt was pissed when he got home. Because of the injury, he was unable to grip the ball and ended up losing his starting position at center. On Thursday, Abby went to tap dance practice with Aunt Dee. Matt had his first freshman football game at Shelbyville. Mom & Gigi attended the game and brought Luke, which allowed Ann & I to work a full day at our jobs and then drive straight over from Columbus. Although Matt had lost his starting center position because he couldn’t grip the ball; it certainly didn’t slow him down any. He played every single play with the exception of about half a dozen in the entire game! He started at tight end on offense, defensive tackle on the other side of the ball as well as playing all the special teams: kickoff, kickoff return, extra point, punt and punt return teams! Considering he only had one hand and a paw, I thought he did quite well. The game started off fast as the Pirates ran the ball back for a touchdown on the opening kickoff! They kept the lead through most of the first half before giving it up early in the 3rd quarter. Midway through the fourth quarter, the Pirates took the lead and never looked back. Along the way, Matt made a couple tackles and had an assist. He had a forced fumble and very nearly recovered another one. He had a pancake, drew two holding penalties, had one false start and was flagged for being off sides once. He was pretty keyed up at one point and coach had to pull him out to calm him down for one play before reinserting him right back in to the game. He was so excited afterwards. It was a close game that came right down to the very end. The defense stopped them on 4th and short and the offense took a couple kneel downs to end it for good. I was so proud of Matt for playing hurt and not making excuses. He could have, as did five of his teammates – some for realistic injuries and a couple with questionable reasons. I can’t say enough of how proud I was of him out there. I could tell his paw was sore during the game, but he didn’t ask to come out and continued to play hard right to the very end. The game ended with the Pirates on top, 30-28. Matt’s freshman team is 1-0.
After work on Friday, I picked up the two little ones from Mom & Sandy’s house, came home to let the dogs out, grabbed drive through and headed over to the varsity football home opener, where Matt was dressed and on the sidelines for his first home varsity game. What a thrill it must’ve been for a freshman kid to be on the sidelines in front of his classmates. The house wasn’t nearly as packed as I figured it would be though, as there were plenty of vacant seats. There were plenty of kids running around and I could only keep my two sitting with me for so long before their friends were insistent on them joining them. Ann wasn’t able to join us that night due to a previous engagement with her scrapbooking buddies over at Mrs. B’s. She hadn’t been scrapbooking in a long time, so I was glad to see her get out with her friends and cut loose (those wild scrapbooking moms are something to see on Friday nights! LOL)…or at least get away for a few hours. She was supposed to come let the Maytag man in that afternoon…of course he was supposed to call her so she could come let him in; but he never called and she was not a happy camper. ??? We are still not getting any water or ice out of our fridge. So now he’s supposed to come next Friday, so we’ll see. That’s the same day as I have my eye appointment. I’ve been having issues with my left eye aching. It is really red and has been since before vacation. I have been applying steroids to help with swelling and pressure but a steady dose of ibuprofen has been my real best friend. Although Matt did not get in to the game, it was neat to see him dressed with all the upperclassmen. It was an exciting first half that saw the pirates head to the locker room up by 5. They eventually won by a couple touchdowns…and no; none of the freshmen got into the game so I didn’t feel bad for leaving the game at halftime. The Pirates won this game as well, 33-21…and I heard that Harrison beat Jeff by 2 points, up in Lafayette! Matt’s varsity team is 1-1.
We were up early again on Saturday, as Matt had football practice and Luke & Abby both had soccer games. Luke was up first, as we were in even earlier due to him having pictures before the game. They played the green tam again for the second week in a row. The team consisted of one of his buddies, Luke Hellmich. It was also the team with the big bully that kept kicking and tripping our kids. The parents were getting pretty upset with the child and the father/grandfather of the child became a little defensive. I thought we were going to have a throw down on the sidelines! It was the last and most blatant foul against Luke that drew the most ire when he tripped Luke and pushed him to the ground after the whistle had blown and there was a stoppage of play. Luke was cool about it, as was Dad. Mom on the other hand was not so. Luke confronted him by asking him why he was kicking and tripping him; but was nice about it. I was very proud of the way he handled himself. As for the team, they took the lead early and it was never close. It was my first time seeing Lukey play this year and he did not disappoint. As I had imagined, he did indeed dominate the play on the field – both offensively and defensively. He started and forward, moved to defense for the 2nd quarter, started on the bench but came in within a couple minutes due to an injury and played forward again before finishing up on defense again. He took about 4 or 5 shots during the game, but did a great job of sharing the ball and passing. In fact, the coach has done a fantastic job with our kids. They all kick hard and pass the ball better than I remember Matt or Abby’s teams ever being able to – their skill level is above previous programs…I think Greensburg has a bright future when it comes to soccer. It was at the end of the third quarter when Luke scored his first goal of the year! Luke’s team is 2-0.
Abby was up next. Ann had to go get Matt before the game started as football practice ended early and he couldn’t find a ride home. It turns out only six guys from the freshman squad made it to the practice that morning. Matt showered and eventually rode his bike over to the soccer fields to join us at Bu’s game. Abby started at forward. She also played midfield in the second half. I don’t believe she played on defense this game. The entire team came out flat – a bad thing to do against any Batesville team, but especially this one…and they came out firing on all cylinders. They scored two quick ones with this one gal that played like a high school boy! She had tremendous ball control and speed to burn as she was able to dribble through our defense twice from midfield and take the shot on goal. By halftime, we were down by four goals, where it remained until midway through the 2nd half when we finally got on the board. Abby had a couple shots on goal, but nothing went in. She played well, but the girls are very young and have a lot to learn. Abby is getting better with her ball control, which has been the biggest thing for her to learn this year. She also kicked the ball harder (less like a sissy-girl!). ;-P The team could’ve used another practice, I think; as she hadn’t had soccer since Tuesday night. They ended the game with a 2nd goal, but still lost 5-2. Abby’s team is off to a tough start with a 0-2 record.
Because of the dry weather (officially the driest August on record, I believe!), the grass isn’t growing so I had the week off for mowing duties! I talked to Rob and it looks like he and Sharon will be down next weekend to visit! The kids are so excited to see them… The time off from yard work gave me a chance to get in to the next box of pictures from Mom. It took me several hours to get through them all. In the end, I probably culled 3 to 4K pictures. The next step is do dedicate a lot of time to scanning them all in to the computer! It will be worth it, as there are several priceless moments in this batch. The vast majority of them are from latter years – when we started having kids. There are several of Matt & Bu when they were just little squirts. Still; lots of really good moments…and there are enough older pictures in there to keep my interest in the Waybac feature. I am running out pictures from Ann’s side of the family though; so I may need to go over and scrounge around MaryAnn & Deanna’s basements to find some more nuggets. It was fun to watch Dallas on TV on Saturday night; although they obviously forgot to show up. They looked old and tired…and got smoked. At least the Reds have been playing good as of late and have a 4 game lead in the NL central race. Jamie took Dee & Grace to see them at Great American Ballpark on Saturday, where they lost a heartbreaker 3-2. On Sunday, Ann caught the cooking bug, as she served three homemade meals today! For breakfast, we had biscuits & gravy; for lunch we had spaghetti with homemade meatballs (and Abby helped) and for dinner, we had Panini’s…yum!! The NASCAR big boys had the weekend off but the Nationwide race was very entertaining as they were back up in Montreal for an awesome road course race (I love road course races). It was easily my favorite race of the year so far – even though Gordon didn’t even enter the race. I also enjoyed watching Team USA basketball slaughter Slovenia in the FIBA World Championships overseas in Istanbul (I think) on Sunday afternoon. Coach K really has the squad playing well (2-0 so far). Matt had (Blake W) his friend from school/football/Ryle Edition neighborhood over for the better part of the day to play Xbox. Luke went out and played with his friends in the neighborhood as well for several hours today and Abby went with Ann to Columbus to go shopping (shock & awe!). We received a flier this week that said we were going to have a block party the first week of October and plan to have our old friend Rusty Bladen play! How cool is that?? Oh; and when Rob & Sharon are here, we plan to go up to the square during Fall Festival that weekend to catch the Little River Band! Here are four videos from this week’s events, a couple Zeppelin videos that surfaced on the net this week as well as a Floyd-related one:
Hoping Foundation benefit performance from Hoping Foundation on Vimeo.
In lieu of an “official??? Waybac section, I came across some old pictures on a computer at work when I was looking for something else on another gal’s computer that had been fired this week. They caught me way off guard and I chuckled out loud a couple times when I saw them again for the first time in seven years. Enjoy – Luke’s birth pictures from the hospital (the gals you may not recognize are Ann’s co-workers) in September of 2003:
Well that does it for this edition of the Scheu Family Blog. Thanks for keeping up with us this week and we’ll catch you up next time. Until then, have a good one.
Later, Scheu