I can’t believe February is already gone. Heck, we even had an extra day since this is a Leap Year. After another quick deep freeze, the temperatures have steadily become more moderate as of late. And that, in turn, has led us to move outdoors more often. We enjoyed sitting on the patio with the Solo stove keeping us warm as we played cards or enjoyed stogies and cocktails. I have been able to get out and play more and more disc golf and enjoyed getting some new discs as my game continues to evolve. We’ve had some challenges at work, but it seems to be solidifying our new management staff and as well as direct-care staff into more of a team. Ann went out with her friends a little more – going shopping, scrapbooking or just going out to eat. We only got to see Matty & Taylor a couple times this past month, but they seem to be doing very good. Abby & Seth are a lot of fun and we’ve enjoyed having them over as much as possible and bringing with them that darling little feral dog of theirs! Tillys just graduated from her first training class. Delilah and Tilley run for hours when they’re together. Add into the mix Luke, Sam and their new little addition and it gets very busy! Lola is usually better off just going to bed early. It’s fun to watch the young couples live, learn and love as they grow into young adults. They have so much going on all the time that it’s hard to keep up with them sometimes, but Ann & I still love it just the same. I’ll be honest, not a lot has changed since we last touched base as we spent most of our time at home during this cold month…but the weather is about to break now that DST has begun. Mom & Sandy are doing well. Maryann is getting around a lot better after a doctor’s visit and a little physical therapy. Sandy continues to work hard at her diet & exercise and sees Luke at the Y quite a bit. Dad & Lynn are still up in Jersey and waiting their turn to get into their retirement community, down in Florida. We are hoping to run into them during Week 19. Dad is doing OK but his body is still giving him some trouble. Rob & Sharon will be at Week 19. They’re currently holed up at their home, doing improvements and planning their next trek up north. I hope it’s close so we can see them regularly! The last time we talked to Dad & Barb, they were still hanging in there. But Barb is dealing with some of the same stuff that I did and Dad B continues to battle. Aging is for the birds! Hello again, friends; and welcome back to the Scheu Family Blog.
Luke & Sam spent most of the month working and staying at our house with little Remi. Yes, they got a dog…rather Samantha got a new dog. That makes Luke her the stepfather, I think! She is so cute and is a real lover. That dog loves hanging out with Delilah. DJ likes playing with her but could do without her biting when she gets excited. She is starting to fit in well with the other three dogs and find her niche in the pooch hierarchy. Luke spoke with our friend Allen, who has been on the Columbus fire dept for about 25 years. He has him thinking about looking at other departments around the area but also wants to do some heavy machinery work with his buddy Oakley. He did some upgrades to his pickup truck and built himself a nice little workshop in his room during his down time, where he houses his tool collection when it’s not in his truck. He has also kept busy with the S&D business, painting a house and picking up odd jobs for Bryan. We’ve enjoyed having the three of them hang out with us on the weekends. Sam is working at CRH now and pursuing a degree in nursing. One night, she got stuck at work when we received like six inches of snow within a couple hours. So, Luke & I drove over, cleared her car off and brought her back to the house. It was quite the experience and allowed me to share stories of Dad B & I taking treacherous drives in the snow when we were living up north in LaPorte in the 80s. It was one of those cool father moments…
We’ve really enjoyed Abby & Seth this past month. We’ve been over to their house a couple times and have enjoyed having Ms. Tilley back at the house. The kids don’t spend the night here anymore but there might have been a few times that Luke & Samantha drove them home. We had a few three-day weekends with them, including playing disc golf and pickleball with them. I wrote to the city’s Parks Dept and asked when the pickleball nets will be up in the parks but have never received a response. So, we have been playing at the YMCA. It is super windy out there but at least we get to play together! Seth is looking forward to graduation this spring and has been putting out resumes and has even started interviews. Abby is still making the daily drive up to Greenwood for work at Sly Fox and helped teach dance for the Pirateers. We made it to a couple games to watch the girls, including Senior Night where we also got to see the Drakes and enjoyed catching up with them for a while. Although she loves the job and her coworkers at Sly Fox, she wants to make more $$ and so she’s been looking at alternate employment options as well. We have so much fun with those two. Besides pickleball, we spent the month with them eating, playing euchre and other card games and enjoying fires out on the back porch. The house is coming along nicely, as evidenced by them finally getting blinds up in the bathroom and bedroom! They tell us they want to join us for vacation again this year but haven’t gotten their tickets yet. Luke & Sam, on the other hand, have already procured their golden tickets so we’ll have at least a couple kids with us this year. Here are a bunch of random pictures from our recent adventures.
Matty & Taylor continue to do their thing, up in Carmel. Matty is still liking the insurance job and coaching the Z-West wrestling squad. We made it up to see the final tourney of the year. Although we didn’t make it to any regular-season meets, we did enjoy watching it on the big screen via the YouTube app and the Z-West live stream. It was good to catch up afterwards over a nice meal and a couple of drinks at Moontown Brewery. I even picked up a couple golf discs while we were there! They both made it down for Family Dinner this past month. Outside of that, they’ve had their noses to the grindstone and just stayed focused on work and their three kitties in their new apartment, which we have not seen yet. They took a trip out to Seattle, which was really cool. We hope to see more of them in the coming months.
Ann & I have enjoyed living in this next phase of life. We’ve had fun spending time with friends and family, getting out doing what we like to do and spending time at home with each other with the kids and dogs. We spent Super Bowl night with our friends at the Sunken Boat Bar again this year. What a great place to watch a game! We ended up taking a break from Card Night for a bit – not on purpose; everyone just had other stuff going on and football doesn’t start back up until the end of March when the UFL opens its season. The UFL is a new league of professional football with the merger of the USFL and the XFL. It should be fun to watch! Ann did some scrapbooking and went out to eat a few times with that friend group. She also enjoyed junking with Amy and found a new Xmas tree she’s had her eye on. She wants to start collecting vintage ornaments to put on it. As for me, I spent most of my extra time playing disc golf, drinking good whiskeys and smoking cigars around the Solo Stove on the back porch with the dogs. I played disc golf with Dennis most afternoons, once we got out of work. We like to play the AirPark mostly but try to get over to Donner once a week. We had some more drama at work as we wound up getting a few challenging residents that like to fight and break stuff. After getting the desktop computer replaced, I worked on finding a replacement for my laptop. I found a nice HP device but spent the next several weeks waiting for it to clear customs in MO. I have enjoyed the mail call recently, getting some new bourbon, cigars, music, golf discs and Hot Wheels. What a life! We have a ton of social media pictures to share this month.
Next up is our Waybac section, which features pictures from our first digital camera in 2002 – including Mathew’s sixth birthday party in March at our old house, downtown; a couple pix of Abby’s third birthday party at our new house in Ryle in September, and several from one of Matt’s soccer games at Washington Field (which is now the site of a jail!) in October.
And finally, we wrap up with our video segment, which features three new home movies from this month as well as several from around the internet.
And that does it for this edition 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. We miss ya, Mom.
Later, Scheu