1992
GREETINGS FRIENDS,
Merry Christmas & Happy New Year. In 1992 the Scheid family kept busy, grew, and aged. Bobette kept busy, the kids grew, and I aged. Joseph didn’t grow however, and he’s worried. Because he didn’t grow, Joseph is convinced that he’s shrinking and has been drinking huge amounts of milk to reverse the trend. The incredible shrinking shrimp.
After spending the family’s vacation money going to Minnesota, Mexico, and hiking in the Sierras, Derrick has been a happy, cheerful, perky and typically lazy teenager. He’s so happy and smiles so much that Bobette wants to smack him up-side his head. He’s especially happy when he teases Nicole, Joseph, and Michael all at the same time. He can get them to scream, cry, and whine in chorus. It drives Bobette crazy. Derrick also drives the car; in and out of the garage. He enjoys trying to run over the kids then slamming the brakes the last minute. That Derrick! What a kidder! He is doing very well in school with straight A’s and testing 99% in the ACT prep tests. The trouble is, he thinks he knows more than his parents. OK, so it could be true, but he better quit acting like it.
Michael is living proof that persistence, personality, good looks, luck, and a sense of humor are far better attributes than brains, talent, and muscle. Half way through sixth grade, he has yet to be beaten up or flunk a class. Also, he has discovered girls. After asking mom how to ask a girl to the dance, Michael was psyched. The ed. The e Michael was psyched. The date was set and all the details were finalized except one - forgot to buy the tickets. Oh well! plenty more dances, plenty more girls. He didn’t know how to dance anyway. Michael still has his route and since anyway. Michael still has his route and is trying to see just how bad the service can get before the customers kill him. Papers delivered late, in the bushes, under the car, or in the street doesn’t phase his customers because he always smiles when he collects and somehow wins them over.
G. I. Joseph, now known by his basketball team as macho man and renamed by the neighbor as macho mouse because of his incredible shrinking size, believes he is winning the war against the world. He loves to fight. and every morning you can tell he’s had a majoroves to fight. He even likes to sleep fight. Every morning he is beneath a pile of covers pulled out on all four corners with bare legs and arms sticking out the sides. His favorite pastime is avoiding “Hooked on Phonics”. His second favorite pastime is playing any sport. Last winter we bundled him up in warm clothes, put skis on him, and watched him shoot straight down the slopes falling, tumbling, and bouncing all the way. It was better than fighting.
Nicole, (relentless) at four discovered the difference between girls and boys. Boys stink and girls don’t. She no longer wants to sleep in the same room with Joseph because he stinks. She wants to sleep in mommy’s bed even if old stinky daddy is there. She loves to watch the same movie over and overer and over again, jump on the bed, ask questions, talk at the top of her voice, and her very favorite; argue. She absolutely loves to argue, and she will argue with anyone, anytime. She has yet to meet her match. Even GI Joseph the fearsome macho mouse has no counter to Nicole’s top of the lungs scream. Nicole wants to be just like mommy from the feet up. First she wanted to have big feet, then long legs. Next she just wanted to be big. Then she wanted two bumps, then a big tummy. Finally she just wants to be fat. Since all Nicole ate last year was four pieces of cheese, half a sandwich, 14 tons of pure processed white sugar, and two pieces of fruit, it seems unlikely she will ever grow up, much less get fat.
Bobette is enjoying the refreshing honesty of the little ones and recently joined weight watchers. She is beginning to look like the young woman I married again. She was so busy this year with Cub Scouts, the kids school, and talking on the phone that she just didn’t have time to clean the house or do the laundry. I get to do those things now. The kids are sapping the life out of Bobette, but she is maintaining her youthful appearance and her bumps. Mom is the most overused word in the house. The kids sometimes say Mom 400 times per minute in the same sentence.
I got lucky and managed to fleet up to Air Station CO. This is the best job I’ve ever had. I have a great bunch of people working for me, a really neat mission, and I feel that I can contribute something special to the unit. Its amazing though, homelife is still the hardest part of my life. Remember us in your prayers, and may Jesus bless your 1993.
THE SCHEIDS,
